Chapter 3: Planning To Trade Airplanes With The Sichuan Army
“I heard it’s a salary issue! Fourth Young Master!”
“The foreman and the factory director quarreled with those workers over salary and benefits issues!”
“Then the conflict between both sides escalated, and a fight broke out!”
“But it’s already over. Quite a few workers were injured, especially many child laborers who got hurt!”
After catching his breath, Butler Liu Xing immediately responded.
“Alright! Go prepare my father’s car, and bring his bodyguards with you. I’ll go to the match factory myself to take a look!”
Hearing this, Zhou Wenhua immediately frowned, especially when he heard that there were actually child laborers in his father’s match factory. He felt even more complicated emotions.
So he immediately issued instructions.
“Yes! Fourth Young Master!”
Butler Liu Xing nodded in agreement.
And immediately went to carry out the other’s instructions.
Because starting yesterday, Zhou Wenhua’s father Zhou Jiawei had already instructed him to temporarily handle all the factories and companies.
If he encountered something he couldn’t handle, then report it to him, and he would have Zhou Weiguo’s father Zhou Jixian come assist in handling it.
So Butler Liu Xing was also very reassured and followed Zhou Wenhua’s command to act.
Anyway, for him, the fights that happened in the factory were not just once or twice; he was already used to it.
So he didn’t treat it as a big deal.
Therefore, Butler Liu Xing had no intention of reporting it to Zhou Wenhua’s father Zhou Jiawei.
Watching Butler Liu Xing prepare the car and bodyguards according to his instructions,
Zhou Wenhua also started changing clothes, preparing to go to the match factory.
But while changing clothes, a flash of inspiration struck him in his mind.
He suddenly thought of an idea.
That was to recruit a batch of Sichuan Army elites to form his own security team, to protect himself and his family’s safety when the Battle of Shanghai broke out in the future.
As for how to recruit Sichuan Army troops to form the security team,
He planned to find Sichuan Army elites from Sichuan Region King Commander Liu Xiang, Yang Sen’s Sichuan Army troops, and other Sichuan Army generals.
As for how to trade and exchange talent with these Sichuan Army commanders.
He also had plans for that.
For example, for Commander Liu Xiang, he planned to send relatively modern foreigner airplanes and fuel from this period to make contact and exchange with the other party.
Because he knew that Commander Liu Xiang had his own air force, though it was far from comparable to the Chairman’s National Revolutionary Army Air Force.
Of course, aside from the Northeastern Army’s air force, because the Northeastern Army’s pilots included the renowned Gao Zhi-Hang and other outstanding pilots.
But compared to many small local troops, it was still better; at least they had their own air force.
Moreover, in the Luzhou Battle that decided the final pattern of the Sichuan central hegemony, Commander Liu Xiang had deployed four branches of troops, one of which was the air force.
In 1928, Liu Xiang sent people to order 4 airplanes from France for 200,000 silver dollars. The next year they were shipped to Hanoi in Vietnam. Liu Xiang then sent people to assemble and test fly them.
In the following years, Liu Xiang continuously bought more than 20 airplanes from France, Britain, and the United States, training dozens of pilots for the Sichuan Army, thus barely forming the first Sichuan Army air force unit in history.
That is, Commander Liu Xiang’s famously renowned 21st Army Aviation Corps of the Sichuan Army.
And it was also due to a lack of aerial bombs that they “creatively” equipped the airplanes with “stone” bombs and cluster grenades made from “sweet potato” hand grenades for bombing.
Thinking of Commander Liu Xiang’s so-called air force, Zhou Wenhua couldn’t help but chuckle.
As for the remaining Sichuan Army commanders and generals, Zhou Wenhua planned to give them more practical weaponry, such as mortars and heavy machine guns—these heavy firepower weaponry—in exchange for a batch of elite Sichuan Army soldiers to serve as his security team to protect himself and his family.
After devising this plan,
Zhou Wenhua had already changed clothes and gone out, preparing to take the car to the match factory to check the situation after the fight and handle the aftermath.
In the early years of the Republic of China, with the development of capitalism, child laborers began to appear in large numbers in various factories in Shanghai and occupied a considerable proportion among factory workers.
According to historical records, not only in Shanghai, but also in places like Qingdao, Hong Kong Island, Tianjin, and other major cities, child laborers appeared, as common as those newsboys.
It was just that in this international metropolis of Shanghai, there were even more.
And the exploitation they suffered was even more severe and dark.
It didn’t take long.
Under the protection of his father’s bodyguards, Zhou Wenhua and Butler Liu Xing took the car and arrived at the match factory.
At this time, although the fight in the factory was over, many injured factory workers and child laborers hadn’t left the factory. Those with lighter injuries were still enduring their wounds while working in the factory.
Because they couldn’t lose their jobs.
Because they still needed to support their families and themselves.
As for those with slightly heavier injuries, they went outside to find doctors.
Even though they didn’t have much money for medical treatment, because their injuries were relatively serious, they still needed to find ways to get treated.
Faced with these dark and heartbreaking scenes,
Zhou Wenhua, who had just entered the factory and briefly understood the situation, was deeply moved.
So he immediately had Butler Liu Xing gather all the injured employees and distribute some money for them to go see doctors right away.
Especially those with heavier injuries; he also had the uninjured employees and factory workers quickly find them to come back and receive money to go to the hospital for treatment.
As for the factory director and foreman who started the fight, they were dismissed.
Paid three months’ salary and laid off.
He planned to comprehensively improve the operation policy of his father’s factories that he had taken over, as well as the treatment and welfare for the workers.
Especially the treatment and welfare for those child laborers, which must be comprehensively reformed.
If he weren’t worried that dismissing these child laborers would leave them unable to survive or force them to find even darker factories and workshops to work in,
Zhou Wenhua wouldn’t want these child laborers to work at all.
So to improve these child laborers’ lives, he planned to change the working hours and salary and benefits to handle the aftermath.
But his kind action immediately caused a sensation throughout the match factory. Whether it was the factory’s employees, management, or even Butler Liu Xing who came with him, they were all shocked and dumbfounded by Zhou Wenhua’s unexpected handling.
