Chapter 19: What’s In The Box, Airplane Sales Catalog
Move all the stuff into the room. Howard took the initiative and said, “I’ll keep watch outside.”
“Good.”
Fang Wen closed the door.
He felt a slight sigh in his heart.
He could feel that Howard truly treated him as a friend.
As someone who was somewhat introverted, he had come from thousands of miles away. Besides coming to Shanghai to make money, he probably also wanted to escape his original environment.
But here, besides Fang Wen, no one was willing to communicate with him outside of work.
He was always lonely.
It seemed that this action had made him more lively, but also more dependent on him.
Brushing away his thoughts, Fang Wen looked at the five wooden boxes.
The upcoming unboxing was much more stimulating than appraising treasures. Each box inside was definitely valuable stuff, just unknown how much it was worth.
He tore off the seal on the largest box. Without getting the key, he simply used a crowbar to pry open the lock.
Under the light, a warm luster reflected out.
They were pearls.
Some big, some small, some single, some in strings, as well as earrings, ornaments, accessories, and so on.
Whose stuff was this? It was like packing up all the pearls from their family and transporting them over.
Although the quantity was large, Fang Wen was a bit disappointed.
Times were different, and judgments of value were different. Perhaps pearls were very valuable in this era, but in the future, they were commonplace.
Therefore, this large box of treasures did not give him any sense of amazement.
Closing the box, Fang Wen walked to the second largest box.
This was a red-lacquered box surface with mandarin ducks and two large “double happiness” characters on it.
It should be the dowry of some young mistress. Probably at this moment, that young mistress was dying at home.
Fang Wen smiled slightly and unhesitatingly pried open the lock.
He had guessed right.
As soon as he opened the box, a strong scent of rouge and powder wafted out.
Inside were exquisite red wedding dresses, as well as small boxes one by one.
Inside these boxes were women’s gold, silver, jewelry, and pearls, all valuable items.
And at the very bottom, there was a stack of letters.
Fang Wen hesitated but did not take out the letters to read.
His intuition told him that these things were very important to the box’s owner, and the owner would probably come looking soon.
Anyway, he was after money. If the other party exchanged with silver dollars or other hard currency, he would be willing.
Then, he closed the box lid and moved to the third large box.
This time, the box contained hard goods.
Neatly stacked pistols, very new, with gun oil still on them.
He didn’t know which family had brought them, but it made sense. In a war-torn era, having a gun meant self-preservation ability.
Fang Wen took out an item from inside to inspect.
Inside were all Broomhandle Mausers, produced by Germany Mauser rifle factory, automatic pistols that could fire continuously. In close combat, continuous fire could bring huge firepower advantage, but accuracy was insufficient.
A total of ten, plus accessories, bullets, gun stocks, probably weighing twenty or thirty kilograms.
Fang Wen had specifically practiced shooting this year, and he knew how to use the Broomhandle Mauser. He immediately took one out and played with it in his hand.
Soon he discovered the clever use of the gun stock.
There was a catch on the gun stock. Fitting the Broomhandle Mauser grip into the catch, then shouldering the gun stock, turned it into a simple submachine gun.
This way, the accuracy during continuous fire would be higher.
Putting down the Broomhandle Mauser, Fang Wen was more interested in what was inside the last two small boxes.
Those two boxes were the ones he took after understanding Sun Debiao’s hint, and he didn’t know what good stuff was inside.
He placed the two small boxes on the table and pried them open one by one.
First, the one on the left.
Opening the box lid, inside were ten small wooden boxes, exquisitely crafted on the outside. Just looking at the wooden boxes showed that the items inside were valuable.
Opening one wooden box, inside lay a dried ginseng root, tied with a red thread.
Fang Wen, who didn’t understand this, just thought the roots were particularly dense and hard to judge.
Perhaps this was wild ginseng from the Northeast.
Ten wild ginseng roots, definitely not cheap.
What was in the other box?
Fang Wen put down the wooden box and opened the small box on the right.
Inside were small gold bars reflecting a golden sheen.
This stuff was absolute hard currency. According to Shanghai’s standard of 30 grams per gold bar, these ten gold bars weighed 300 grams.
Fang Wen was immediately delighted. These ten gold bars were enough to make up for the gains from going to the Northeast.
He got up and opened the door, letting Howard in.
He handed two gold bars to Howard.
“This is your reward.”
“Gold! My God!” Howard took the gold bars, unable to put them down.
Looking at Howard, Fang Wen voiced the idea he had been brewing for a long time: “I’m planning to establish a private airline company, specializing in business charter flights. Are you willing to work with me?”
“Private airline company? I only know how to repair machinery. If you’re starting a company, I can join.” Howard nodded.
Fang Wen, with a desire to confide, shared the concept he had prepared for a year. Since the listener was Howard, knowing the entire plan wouldn’t matter.
“My plan is this. First cash out these things, then purchase a civilian aircraft passenger aircraft or transport aircraft, equip it with an airport, and specialize in service for people with special needs. Didn’t you say last time you had a way to buy airplanes in the United States?”
Speaking of airplanes, Howard immediately became eloquent.
“It’s Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. I got the news that they have merged with Wright Aeronautical. Some existing model airplanes are being cleared out. If you want, you can buy cheap and good models in this inventory clearance activity. By the way, we have an unopened mail package from the United States that arrived before we set off. It should be their sales advertisement. I’ll go get it now.”
Howard left the room and returned after more than ten minutes.
He held a product propaganda brochure in his hand, surprisingly color-printed.
All were airplane products from Curtiss Company.
Including F7C fighter jet.
According to Howard, this airplane was a shore-based fighter jet developed by Curtiss for the US Navy to replace the previous FU-1 fighter jet. The F7C could perform air defense, air superiority, and other tasks. With its outstanding performance and advanced technology, it occupied an important position in the current naval aviation forces.
Besides the F7C, the Curtiss Hawk II was also eye-catching.
This fighter jet was the winning model in the US Army Aviation Corps fighter jet tender in 1930.
The Curtiss Hawk II was equipped with a powerful liquid-cooled engine, and adopted advanced landing gear and weapon system, making it competitive in the fighter jet market.
Fang Wen was inevitably surprised. He had heard Fei Yizhen say that some American businessmen were lobbying the National Government to have the newly formed Air Force troops purchase Hawk II fighter jets.
It seemed that Curtiss Company had very strong strength.
Fang Wen looked at the quotation for the Hawk 2 export sales model. The brochure quoted only 15,000 US dollars, plus shipping at most 20,000 US dollars.
He couldn’t help asking: “Can I buy military fighter jets too?”
