Chapter 180: 179, Japanese Air Force Bomber Development Secrets, German-japanese Transaction Robbery Plan
Fang Wen and Lin Shuiwang were sitting in the hotel’s first-floor lobby waiting, as if nothing had happened before.
Half an hour later, Indiana came back. He immediately came over upon seeing Fang Wen.
He reported on the tracking situation.
“The two went out to eat and didn’t contact anyone else. They’re right behind me.”
As he spoke, two Japanese men in suits walked into the hotel.
They walked and talked, in high spirits.
But instead of going upstairs, they sat on the sofa next to Fang Wen.
To avoid arousing suspicion, Indiana immediately left the area and went to another corner of the lobby.
After the two Japanese sat down, they saw Fang Wen and Lin Shuiwang’s appearances and stopped talking, quietly waiting instead.
Fang Wen couldn’t help but speculate: Could they still have something to do?
He exchanged glances secretly with Lin Shuiwang, then also stood up.
With no outsiders around, the two Japanese continued to communicate.
From afar, Indiana continued to report in a low voice: “They’re not professional intelligence officers, but they’ve received some anti-tracking training, though it’s very clumsy. It should be special training for this trip abroad.”
Fang Wen gave a guest room key to Indiana: “Your room is 604, Lin Shuiwang is 602, I’m 603.”
As Indiana took the key, something happened on the Japanese side.
The two Japanese stood up, full of smiles.
Facing them was a guest who had just entered the hotel.
Handshake, bow—the attitude showed the importance they placed on that person.
It should be the Junkers Company representative for this meeting.
The three exchanged pleasantries and went to the hotel’s coffee shop.
The seats in the coffee shop were spaced widely apart and visible to each other, making eavesdropping impossible. After Fang Wen and the others discovered this, they didn’t go in.
After a while, the man left, and the two Japanese went upstairs.
Thinking that the upcoming eavesdropping shouldn’t be known to Indiana, Fang Wen gave Indiana a mission.
“You go follow that person. Best to investigate his identity, and by the way, check on Junkers Company.”
“Okay.” Indiana nodded. This was exactly what he had come to Vienna to do. He went straight out and followed the target together with a man pretending to read a newspaper at the door.
At the same time, Fang Wen and Lin Shuiwang immediately entered the elevator and went to the 6th floor.
Upon exiting the elevator, they immediately entered room 604.
604 was diagonally below the Japanese-occupied 705, a good eavesdropping position.
Fang Wen opened another handbag, inside which was an eavesdropping radio.
Compared to future semiconductor devices, the eavesdropping radio composed of vacuum tubes, circuits, frequency tuners, and other equipment was much cruder.
But it was the first wireless eavesdropping device made in this era.
Fang Wen turned on the remote switch.
Because it was a fixed frequency, no frequency tuning was needed at all. Moments later, a faint sound came through.
It was the creaking of the bed frame being pressed, probably someone getting on the bed to rest.
After a while, a similar sound came again.
Fang Wen speculated that both Japanese were now lying on beds upstairs.
At this time, not yet bedtime, after eating and drinking coffee, the two couldn’t sleep and began chatting in Japanese.
As for Japanese, Lin Shuiwang had specifically studied it for the past six months. With his language talent, he now had no problem listening, speaking, and reading Japanese.
To prepare for the future War of Resistance, Fang Wen had also studied Japanese in his spare time, but not as proficiently as Lin Shuiwang—he didn’t speak fluently, but he could understand listening.
The two listened to the Japanese conversation.
“Noguchi-kun, the people from Junkers Company haven’t agreed yet. How long do we have to wait?”
“Iwashita-kun, China has a saying ‘haste makes waste.’ We can’t rush; there will always be an opportunity.”
“Noguchi-kun, you know more about airplanes. I want to ask you, why are we buying Ju52/3m and G.38, as well as k37 this time?”
“Iwashita-kun, Junkers’ Ju52/3m is a three-engine transport aircraft released just last year. Its functionality is very strong, with good range and payload. It can also be modified with landing gear to land on water or flat wilderness terrain. We buy it back under the name of passenger aircraft, modify it, and it can become a bomber. But the possibility is slim; the Nazi Party also values the Ju52/3m highly, so it’s probably impossible to buy.”
“So we have a second plan, to purchase their technology products from five years ago?”
“Although G.38 and k37 are five-year-old technology, they are much better than our existing aircraft. We lack bomber technology. G.38 is a civilian airliner, but it fully meets the requirements of a heavy strategic bomber. We just need to modify the interior into a bomber structure. k37 is a light bomber developed in ’27, and it’s technology we can master and mass produce.”
（Japanese Army Type 93 light bomber, prototype technology from Junkers K-37 light bomber）
The Japanese conversation continued, gradually turning to everyday topics.
Because there were only 2 hours of listening energy consumption time, Fang Wen turned off the wireless eavesdropping device.
From this, he roughly understood what Mitsubishi Company had sent people to negotiate with Junkers Company about.
The Japanese wanted to obtain German bomber technology.
With Japan’s current military industry strength, they fundamentally couldn’t build heavy strategic bombers, not even by the end of World War II.
Even light bomber technology was imperfect, so they came to Europe to procure related technology.
If this procurement could be successfully prevented, at least the Japanese Air Force’s strength development would be delayed for a while, which would be very beneficial to China.
After packing away the wireless eavesdropping radio, Fang Wen waited for Indiana’s investigation results.
More than two hours later, Indiana returned.
He explained what he had learned.
“Two years ago, Junkers Company had serious financial problems, nearly causing the parent company to go bankrupt. The company’s shareholders held a meeting to force Hugo Junkers out of the company.”
Fang Wen nodded. He knew Hugo Junkers was the company founder, and being jointly ousted from his own company by other shareholders showed how serious the problem was at the time.
As for why it happened, Fang Wen could guess: In this era, advancements in aircraft manufacturing technology required massive experiments and accumulated experience in design and manufacturing. A major aircraft company like Junkers must have invested too much in R&D, without sales keeping up.
Indiana’s account continued.
Hugo Junkers was not ousted. He owned most of Junkers Company’s numerous patents, which were applied to most of Junkers’ aircraft models and engines at the time.
If he left the company, revoking patent licenses would be enough to cause trouble.
Therefore, Junkers Company devised a plan to solve the problem by bundling and buying out Junkers’ engine patent collection and injecting it into a new company.
Thus, last year, Junkers Engine Patent Center Company was established.
The new company then licensed these patent technologies to many companies, most of which belonged to “Junkers Engine Company.”
However, what truly resolved this financial crisis was Hugo Junkers selling “Junkers Heat Technology Company” to Bosch Company.
Hearing this, Fang Wen couldn’t help but sigh.
Bosch Company, the world’s largest automotive technology supplier in the future, owed some of its merit to Junkers Heat Technology Company.
Meanwhile, Junkers Company seemed to have vanished from history.
He asked aloud: “So, now that Junkers Company is not doing well operationally, it’s very likely to sell technical data to the Japanese?”
Indiana replied: “If Hugo Junkers still controlled the company, probably not, but now it’s hard to say.”
Could Junkers Company be stirring up trouble again?
Fang Wen listened to Indiana’s explanation.
It turned out that after the Nazi Party gained control of the Weimar Congress this year, Little Mustache, who became Prime Minister, immediately implemented a large number of governing measures.
Among them, all long-range civilian aircraft model development plans in the German aviation industry were canceled.
Hugo Junkers, the number one figure in Weimar German aviation, was forced to transfer all his patents.
At the time, Hugo Junkers neither agreed nor refused, but was suspected by the Nazis of rejecting obedience to their plans.
Soon after, his shares were confiscated, and he was placed under house arrest.
Junkers Company, developer of the largest civil airliner, terminated a large number of projects, leaving only the Ju 52 heavy transport aircraft and Ju 89 strategic bomber projects. The rest all participated in bids for single-engine and twin-engine military projects hosted by the Reich Aviation Ministry.
Listening to Indiana’s explanation, Fang Wen gained more understanding of the whole matter.
The Japanese knew Junkers Company’s current situation.
They weren’t looking for Hugo Junkers, but the Nazis who took over Junkers Company, wanting to exchange conditions for Ju52/3m, G.38, and k37.
The Nazis clearly were unwilling to sell the Ju52/3m, but they had ideas about selling the G.38 and k37 technology from five years ago to the Japanese.
Now both sides should be in the haggling stage. It would be best for him to sabotage the deal at this stage.
So how to sabotage this deal?
Fang Wen pondered hard on this.
There were many methods.
Directly take out these two Japanese.
Or stir up relations between the two sides.
But those effects weren’t the best.
He suddenly realized that if he stopped it before the deal was completed, a new deal would resume soon.
It would be better to let the deal complete, then pull the rug out from under them and rob both sides’ goods.
This way, the aircraft technology and the Japanese transaction payment would both be in his hands, and both sides might suspect the other of secretly sabotaging.
After this idea came to mind, Fang Wen was tempted. This was the way of the war-torn era.
He immediately shared this idea with Lin Shuiwang and Indiana.
Lin Shuiwang fully agreed with the proposal.
Indiana hesitated slightly but also agreed.
Three days passed in a row. Over the three days, both sides held one meeting every day.
Through wireless eavesdropping, Fang Wen knew the negotiations were steadily progressing.
On the fourth day, both sides confirmed and agreed to conduct it in a restaurant 200 meters outside the hotel.
Fang Wen learned of this through wireless eavesdropping from the Japanese side.
Now it was time to plan how to act.
The three discussed in room 604.
Lin Shuiwang spoke up: “How about I go tomorrow? After their transaction is complete, I’ll open fire. Give me a powerful submachine gun, and I’ll gun them all down.”
Fang Wen rejected: “We can’t show our faces. This matter will cause a big scene, and we must prevent it from being traced back to us.”
Indiana thought: “Find my friends. They know where to hire assassins.”
Fang Wen still shook his head. Intelligence circles would investigate both sides, leaving more handles. He had no backing from a country like the United States or United Kingdom and could easily be betrayed.
At this moment, a sharp whistle sound came from outside the room.
It was a fire alarm. Surely another house nearby had been burned by the Nazis.
Fang Wen suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
During this period, to rapidly expand the Nazi Party, Little Mustache allowed anyone to join the Nazis, making the members very mixed.
The deaths of those six Weimar officers weren’t because they paid to hire a Stormtrooper to assassinate Little Mustache?
He could similarly find a group from the Nazis to act, making the waters even muddier.
He voiced this idea, and Lin Shuiwang and Indiana agreed.
They also designed a follow-up contingency plan.
If the hired people failed or ran off with the goods, that would be the time for Fang Wen and the other two to act.
After deciding, the three immediately went downstairs and drove a rented car through the Vienna streets looking for opportunities.
Vienna at 9 PM midnight would have been very quiet at this time last year.
But now, the streets had many more hysterical carnivalers.
They were increasing in number, growing in momentum, and began confronting the police officers.
Fang Wen drove the car to this chaotic street block, parked under the police officers’ blockade, and observed that side with mechanical perception at the same time.
These people had very complex compositions: Nazi supporters, opportunists, gangs, all present.
Thus, their behaviors varied.
Some held high signs and shouted loudly.
Some in the back laughed and echoed.
And further back, in groups, with fierce eyes.
These small groups were the true combat power in the crowd, mostly local Vienna gangs and thugs.
They were the actors Fang Wen wanted to find.
The three got out of the car, circled around, passed through the police blockade, and entered an alley controlled by Nazi demonstrators.
“Put this on.” Fang Wen took out silk scarves and first tied one over his mouth and nose, completing the face covering.
Lin Shuiwang and Indiana did the same.
The three masked men walked in the alley, already holding pistols secretly for safety.
But the ways they held the guns differed.
Lin Shuiwang was the most obvious, openly holding a Broomhandle Mauser, dangling at his side.
Indiana’s right hand pressed at his waist, on the gun belt under his jacket was his favorite Colt 1911.
Fang Wen’s right hand gripped a Browning pistol, tucked in his sleeve.
The three’s unusual behavior occasionally drew attention.
Two strong men blocked the way.
They said viciously in German: “Who are you? This is our turf.”
Lin Shuiwang quietly translated for Fang Wen.
Hearing this, they were definitely gang members, with strong territorial awareness.
Fang Wen spoke: “I want to hire a group of people for a job. Very simple, but generous reward.”
After Lin Shuiwang translated, a voice came from behind the two strong men. The strong men stepped aside, and a man walked over.
He directly asked in English: “Spell it out.”
“Find a group of good hands to help me rob two items. Reward of 50,000 Reichsmarks or 10,000 US dollars. Prepay one-fifth deposit.”
This reward was not low, even higher than their carefully planned robberies. The gang leader was tempted.
“How to act, when to act? How to hand over the goods?”
This question was professional; notably, he didn’t ask what the items were. He was savvy.
Indiana replied: “Act tomorrow. We’ll provide support outside. Hand the goods directly to us, and the balance will be paid on the spot.”
The negotiation continued, mainly around various action details.
But the location of the action was not disclosed to these gang members in advance.
After finishing, Fang Wen handed the gang leader 10,000 Reichsmarks wrapped in a newspaper as deposit, and the three turned to leave.
Once out of the alley, Lin Shuiwang exhaled: “A bit scary. Even holding a gun, I was afraid. How is Indiana so bold?”
Indiana laughed: “I was scared too, but in that situation, you absolutely can’t show it. Focus your attention; if the other side dares to act rashly, shoot directly.”
The two looked at Fang Wen, who smiled slightly: “Of course I’m afraid.”
Yes, Taishan Airlines’ chairman, with industries in the United States—how could such a person not value his life.
Lin Shuiwang and Indiana were relieved.
This evening, they still had things to do: go to the airplane to retrieve equipment to prepare for tomorrow.
