Chapter 18: Homemade Aerial Incendiary Bomb, Dividing The Loot At The Airport
With a shout of “Open the door.”
Yue Jinping suddenly pulled open the hatch.
Strong winds rushed in, but failed to extinguish the windproof lighter in Howard’s hand.
He immediately lit the one-meter-long fuse.
In the instant the fuse burned rapidly, Howard, Sun Debiao, and Shopkeeper Liu used all their strength to push the oil barrel out of the airplane.
The oil barrel fell from 1000 meters altitude, taking about 15 seconds to land.
The convoy below unexpectedly stopped at that moment, and those Japanese soldiers jumped out of the vehicles, firing into the air with rifles and Nambu Type 11 light machine guns.
This kind of blind shooting naturally couldn’t hit the high-speed flying airplane, and even if it coincidentally hit, at this altitude, the bullets couldn’t cause any damage to the airplane.
They could only watch as the Rhine NYP-2 climbed and circled in the high air.
Why hadn’t the other side flown away yet?
Looking toward the Japanese Army in the air, they spotted a small light spot descending from the sky, rapidly enlarging as it smashed onto a car in the middle of the convoy.
A massive explosion and flames engulfed the entire convoy.
It actually succeeded!
Fang Wen himself couldn’t believe it—his first live ammunition drop had actually hit.
The explosion and flames from 100 liters of aviation gasoline were spectacular; three military vehicles were directly engulfed, followed by successive explosions.
That should have been the fuel tanks and ammunition boxes in the cars being detonated.
The terrifying destructive power caused heavy losses to the entire Japanese Army squad, naturally making it impossible for them to complete the flanking maneuver action.
Next, whether those people could escape was no longer something Fang Wen could manage; he piloted the airplane toward the southwest direction.
The sky had already brightened, and the airplane climbed to over four thousand meters altitude.
Flying toward Beiping with their backs to the rising sun.
After three hours of flight, the airplane landed at Nanyuan Aviation School Airport, refueled, and took off again.
Another five hours of range, and the airplane finally returned to Shanghai, landing on the runway at China Airlines Airport.
At the moment the airplane landed, this action team experienced a subtle change.
Shopkeeper Liu and Sun Debiao exchanged a glance.
Sun Debiao stayed in the airplane, while Shopkeeper Liu returned to the city.
Yue Jinping whispered in Fang Wen’s ear: “I’ll go find someone to help, to prevent them from cheating when dividing the money. It’ll probably take half an hour before they come.”
“Go ahead, there won’t be any trouble here.” Fang Wen responded softly.
After Yue Jinping got off the airplane, the three men in the airplane formed an intangible standoff.
Sun Debiao guarded that pile of cargo.
Fang Wen stood at the cockpit door watching him.
Howard sat at the boarding position, somehow holding a wrench in his hand.
Sun Debiao showed a bitter smile: “Commissioner Fang, I’m just working for others; my family members all depend on me to live, so I’m not my own master. I know you’re someone with incredible methods, and I have no intention of opposing you. No matter what happens next, I’ll just make sure the goods aren’t lost and absolutely won’t lay a hand on you.”
Fang Wen calmly replied: “I know. Everyone worked hard on this action. I only want the share we agreed on initially; I hope your owner and the others don’t break the promise.”
The airplane was now at China Airlines Airport, so Fang Wen wasn’t worried; there were garrison troops at the airport, and the other side couldn’t forcibly rob it.
Next, it depended on the negotiation between Yue Jinping’s side and the other party.
Whether he could get his full share was really hard to say.
Time passed slowly; although they hadn’t eaten for a long time and were hungry, the three still held out in the airplane.
Until dusk fell again, people from both sides arrived simultaneously.
Yue Jinping brought a team of gendarmerie.
The other side had several business firm owners.
The owners rushed over to the airplane and demanded to inspect the cargo.
But the Gendarmerie Captain brought by Yue Jinping stopped them, demanding that unless the reward was paid on site, no one could touch the goods.
Through their argument, Fang Wen learned the true chips of this transaction.
Fang Wen took 10%, the military took 50%, and those several business firm owners only got 40%.
It was precisely at this cost that they could rent the high-performance long-haul transport aircraft Rhine NYP-2 and obtain tacit approval from all parties.
But now that the goods were in hand, these owners were extremely reluctant and wanted to delay payment of the reward.
Of course that was impossible; no one could welch on the military’s account.
Immediately, all the cargo was unloaded from the airplane, and on-site division was carried out.
The gendarmerie, who didn’t understand the value of the cargo, simply took half the weight from each party’s goods.
And Fang Wen’s 10%.
Yue Jinping said softly to him: “You need to pick quickly, or once the gendarmerie team leaves, it won’t be easy to get your 10%.”
“You have a share in that 10% too.” Fang Wen replied.
“I don’t need it; it’s all yours.” Yue Jinping smiled, looking deeply at Fang Wen; the experiences along this journey were truly unforgettable.
“Then I’ll talk to them.” Fang Wen walked toward the several owners.
Those several, having lost most of their wealth, were filled with resentment in their hearts. Seeing Fang Wen approach, although this success was entirely thanks to him, they had no interest in entertaining him.
Fang Wen wasn’t displeased by this; instead, he smiled faintly: “What will you all use to pay me my 10% reward?”
“Pick a few of these boxes; count it as 100 kilograms, but you can’t open them.” One of them replied.
What he said made the others feel it was feasible—no matter which family’s were picked, they could make up for it among themselves later, and without opening the boxes, valuable items naturally wouldn’t be easy to find.
Immediately, the several tycoons agreed.
Fang Wen frowned slightly; picking like this, if he got calligraphy and painting or rare stones and such, it wouldn’t be easy to convert to money in this war-torn era.
But he had no room for choice alone.
He walked to the pile of cargo and looked it over thoughtfully.
Sun Debiao and Shopkeeper Liu watched from afar, exchanged a few low words, then Sun Debiao walked toward the airplane.
While selecting, Fang Wen caught sight of Sun Debiao in his peripheral vision; the other man was gently patting the airplane.
This seemingly casual action made Fang Wen think of something.
Earlier during the standoff inside the aircraft, Sun Debiao had stood firmly at that exact position he was patting, not moving.
It seemed like he was guarding all the cargo, yet also like he was only guarding the boxes beside him.
Right, those boxes had an antique style with carved images, a bit different from the other boxes.
Perhaps there were very valuable things inside.
Judging that Sun Debiao was giving him a hint, Fang Wen made his decision; he selected several boxes, half picked at random, the other half the ones Sun Debiao had especially guarded.
This action made one of the Northeast tycoons show a pained expression, but he couldn’t object and could only grit his teeth and agree to the payment of the reward.
Once the reward was obtained, the gendarmerie team drove away.
The tycoons also took the rest and got into cars.
Finally, five boxes were left in front of Fang Wen—three large and two small—not knowing what precious items were inside.
He had Howard drive the airport repair vehicle to load these boxes and take them to the dormitory, preparing to open them and see what treasures were really inside.
