Chapter 122: 121, Another War Miracle Drug: Cinchona Bark, Kolkata Yunnan
Fang Wen held a uniquely shaped cross pendant in his hand.
It had been sealed in a lime wall for 1000 years. Who would have thought that what the lime wall concealed was not the cross decorated with the golden flower crown behind it.
But it.
Two centimeters long, 1.5 centimeters wide, the perfect size for a pendant.
Its material was yellowish, semi-transparent, simple in shape yet very smooth, with a soft sheen.
Not stone, a bit light.
Fang Wen suspected it was made of some kind of resin, similar to amber.
At the center of the cross’s intersection, there was a groove containing some black powdery substance wrapped inside.
Perhaps this was the remaining part of the true Holy Blood Cross, and only preservation through resin could allow it to endure a thousand years without decay.
Although buried underground for 1000 years, the substance it carried remained very potent, even stronger than the continuously enshrined Four-faced Buddha golden statue.
Fang Wen felt that absorbing the energy from this cross might cause a qualitative change in his abilities.
Moreover, this thing had another advantage: it could be worn directly as an ornament, without needing to carry a shrine up and down the airplane like with the Four-faced Buddha golden statue every day.
He put the necklace back against his chest, feeling the tiny amount of energy being absorbed by him, and Fang Wen felt refreshed in his heart.
He summarized this European trip again.
The journey was arduous, the encounters complex, time tight, expenses huge.
4.8 million francs, equivalent to 180,000 US dollars, to purchase the F.220.
100,000 marks, equivalent to 23,800 US dollars, to buy German military equipment production materials.
1,000 British pounds in London to purchase penicillin original strains and the initial manufacturing process.
Nearly 100,000 US dollars in various medical experimental equipment and books.
50,000 US dollars in various expenses advanced for the Lake Van treasure hunt.
Plus personal consumption in Britain, France, and Germany.
Total expenditure of nearly 400,000 US dollars.
If not for his father-in-law’s interest-bearing certificate national debt worth far more than 300,000 US dollars, this trip might not have had enough funds.
Funds spent completely clean.
But this European trip did not lose money.
The 300,000 US dollars bonds from profit sharing on the Lake Van trip covered most of the expenses.
The treasure from the last three canvas bags was not auctioned but taken by Fang Wen himself to offset various expenses.
Plus the mysterious cross that could absorb energy to enhance his abilities.
And the connections and relationships obtained.
This European trip was a huge profit.
After finishing the tally in his mind, Fang Wen felt exhilarated and hummed a tune as he flew over the Iranian Plateau.
The Shrike aircraft returned along the original route.
Stopped overnight in Tehran. Indiana was still in Europe and hadn’t returned. Another military attaché from the US Embassy received Fang Wen.
After resting one night, the airplane was fully refueled and made a stopover at the Bam ancient city ruins, flying toward Karachi.
After repairs for one hour in Karachi, flying to Delhi was already afternoon.
The final leg of the flight was 1,300 kilometers; no need to fly there overnight.
Subsequently, Fang Wen spent another night in Delhi and refueled at night to avoid inconvenience finding people the next day.
Early the next morning, the Shrike took off and after flying more than four hours, finally arrived at Kolkata Airport.
Inside the airport, Kuang Mingzhu brought a group of people to welcome him. She looked quite spirited.
Fang Wen came down from the airplane and asked with concern, “Are you doing okay here?”
Kuang Mingzhu smiled, “Mister, I should be the one asking you that. You’ve gone back and forth 20,000 kilometers; are you okay?”
The two smiled at each other, understanding without words.
But the people nearby didn’t understand this moment of romance and crowded over.
“Miss, son-in-law, is there luggage on the airplane to take down?”
Kuang Mingzhu quickly introduced, “These are all my family members who came from Thailand to help. My brother also came.”
Fang Wen nodded, “Kuang Anming knows French; it’s good he came to serve as translator. Where is he?”
“He went out playing with friends yesterday, and since coming back he’s had diarrhea. He’s lying in the room after taking some cinchona bark.”
“Cinchona bark?”
“A divine medicine for treating malaria, very effective. My family bought it from Indonesia.”
Kuang Mingzhu’s words reminded Fang Wen of another name for this medicine: quinine.
Also a very scarce drug in World War II, it could treat malaria caused by various poor sanitary conditions and was remarkably effective against malaria parasites.
In wartime with harsh conditions, malaria outbreaks were common, making this an essential medicine.
Fang Wen immediately asked, “Is there a lot of cinchona bark in Indonesia?”
“Mister probably doesn’t know much about cinchona bark. My family deals in this product. Listen to me.” Kuang Mingzhu held her husband’s arm, ignoring the people behind waiting to move luggage, and the two strolled and chatted along the runway.
“Cinchona bark is a specialty product of Peru in South America, extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree. Later, Peru banned exports of this precious medicine, but the Dutch secretly smuggled out some seeds. They planted them in Indonesia with similar climate conditions and successfully grew large numbers of cinchona trees. Now the world’s two largest cinchona bark sales places are the Netherlands and Indonesia.”
Regarding the story of Indonesia surpassing Peru to become the world’s largest cinchona bark producer, Fang Wen saw another point.
After the War of Resistance officially broke out, Indonesia would inevitably become a target for the Japanese Army, which also fit their future Southeast Asia strategy.
They might even control cinchona bark exports from Indonesia ahead of time.
Therefore, stockpiling as much cinchona bark as early as possible would have a huge effect in the future War of Resistance.
He stopped and asked, “Can your family acquire a large amount of cinchona bark? I’m worried that if the war continues, our domestic medicine supply might have problems.”
Kuang Mingzhu immediately understood. “The Japanese navy is strong. If they control the sea routes near Indonesia, it will really be hard to buy cinchona bark. I’ll go back and talk to Father, have him discuss with the uncles, and buy as much as possible to transport back home.”
“That’s good. Buy as much as possible. In the future, not only countrymen will need it; I have uses for it too.” Fang Wen replied. Cinchona bark would be greatly useful domestically, and once World War II broke out and the Netherlands was controlled by Germany, the Allies would lose a stable supply source. Then, he could sell cinchona bark to Europe via the opened Asia-Europe route and exchange for large amounts of supplies.
The discussion about cinchona bark ended here. How much could be stockpiled was uncertain.
Fang Wen and Kuang Mingzhu returned, opened the airplane’s auxiliary fuel tank storage compartment, and took out the luggage.
Going there, there was a full big bag of things; returning, only clothing.
With so many people here, no need for them to help carry.
Fang Wen suddenly thought of the local security. “By the way, for guarding the airplane at night, hire local Kshatriya people.”
“Don’t worry, Mister. The airport now listens to me.” Kuang Mingzhu said proudly. She hadn’t come here early for nothing; everything was already arranged.
Not only airport matters, but also accommodation: she had rented a wealthy merchant’s two-story house nearby, cleaned inside and out, for temporary residence.
Fang Wen followed his wife back to the residence, seeing the clean and tidy room and the busy Kuang family employees, finally understanding why his wife was doing so well here with no issues.
He closed the door and hugged his wife.
But was pushed away.
“Mister, you smell. I can’t stand it.”
“No smell?” Fang Wen sniffed himself.
“It must be from spending too much time with Europeans and picking up their body odor. Go wash up. I prepared essential oil perfume.”
Four days later.
The cargo ship departing from Marseille Port in Southern France finally arrived in Kolkata.
The cargo ship sailed from the Bay of Bengal into the Hugli River and after traveling more than 100 kilometers on the river channel, arrived at Kolkata Port.
This inland waterway route went fairly well. The cargo ship only carried one F.220, and with nearly 10 tons of cargo weight, the draft was not deep.
Under the guidance of the port pilot, the cargo ship entered the only deep-water berth, also the British Army warship mooring point.
To ensure smooth unloading for the cargo ship, a sponsorship was specially provided to the British Navy here, and they readily gave up the berth.
Then, it was time to get the several-ton heavy F.220 off the ship.
This was a major project.
For this, 300 local laborers were hired.
They were carrying large amounts of thick wooden boards, building a ramp on one side of the ship hull. One layer wasn’t enough; at least three layers.
Once the ramp was built, Fang Wen boarded the ship and started the F.220 engine.
The heavy bomber turned direction on the deck, needing to constantly make small-angle adjustments to the wheels in the narrow space to position the fuselage.
This was delicate slow work. Even in mechanical perception state, Fang Wen couldn’t complete it in one go.
Little by little, the fuselage turned to one side, forward, straightened.
But could the wooden ramp below really bear the airplane’s weight?
No one could be sure.
To ensure safety, scaffolding was erected on both sides of the ramp for reinforcement, and wooden piles used for support below.
Only then did it begin.
Fang Wen entered mechanical perception state, merging as one with the massive F.220.
The airplane moved forward, exiting the area of the dismantled cargo ship railings. The front wheels hung in the air, the fuselage swaying down onto the ramp boards.
Creak, the wooden boards emitted pained sounds.
300 dark-skinned laborers pulled hard on the ropes tied to the fuselage, using pulley groups to reduce the airplane’s weight.
In this process, only Fang Wen could sense the best timing.
Ten seconds later, he braked to control the airplane continuing forward.
The airplane went downward, laborers on both sides shouting work chants loudly. Kuang Mingzhu and the Kuang family watched tensely, not daring to breathe.
Fortunately, all was well, no problems occurred. The 10-ton heavy bomber steadily reached the flat ground.
This wasn’t over yet; there was still a distance from the port to Kolkata Airport.
The massive airplane wasn’t suitable for entering the city and had to go around outside the city to reach the airport.
Along this route, no manpower pulling was needed, but the ground had to be paved.
More than 300 laborers removed the wooden boards from the ramp and laid them in front of the airplane, avoiding the rocky ground outside Kolkata city.
Travel a stretch, pave a stretch, finally transporting the airplane to Kolkata Airport.
The British Army inside the airport had been waiting for this moment. Hell, the Kolkata cultural researcher who once received them at the airport, also came.
He warmly shook hands with Fang Wen: “I haven’t been transferred back to the United Kingdom yet, and you’re back. I didn’t expect you to buy such a big airplane. By the way, some of my British Army friends really want to take a group photo with it as a memento. Is that okay?”
“No problem.” Fang Wen agreed.
A row of British Army soldiers and Hell stood under the airplane. Compared to the airplane, they looked tiny.
After taking one photo, they invited Fang Wen and Kuang Mingzhu to join, and took another.
Then Hell asked for Fang Wen’s address in Shanghai, saying he’d have the developed photos sent over.
Ending the talk with Hell, Fang Wen handed over with Kuang Anming and the cargo escorts from Falmang, paying the remaining 80,000 US dollars balance.
With that done, it was time to pilot the airplane home.
Fang Wen said, “Pack the luggage. Let’s all go home together.”
Then, a large group of people with simple luggage entered the inside of the F.220.
They were shocked by the huge space inside the airplane. Even if not used as a transport aircraft, it could carry dozens of people.
Outside the airplane, Fang Wen was refueling the airplane with the airport fuel truck staff.
Such a massive airplane had an astonishing fuel capacity.
There were four fuel tanks, two on each wing and with the engines. Filling them completely required 4,000 liters.
The fuel truck couldn’t fill it in one go; two trips were needed to feed this beast.
Once refueled and the airplane checked, it was time to take off home. Fang Wen entered the cabin, secured the door, and walked into the cockpit.
The airplane engines roared, four engines rumbling, slowly entering the runway and accelerating for takeoff.
A strong wind kicked up on the ground, blowing up the watching British Army uniforms. To avoid the dust, they all retreated.
At this moment, the F.220 began accelerating and lifted into the air.
Right, there was also the Shrike. Since the F.220 was being flown back, it had to be left temporarily at the airport under British Navy custody.
Fang Wen planned to hire a bold, skilled pilot from Shanghai upon return to fly it back.
As for having Pan Jiafeng fly it, Fang Wen still wasn’t at ease.
Pan Jiafeng temporarily lacked experience and hadn’t flown the Shrike; too dangerous. Even if the Shrike crashed, he wouldn’t want Pan Jiafeng harmed.
The F.220 returned home via the Kolkata—Kunming—Shanghai route.
Kunming to Shanghai was over 1,900 kilometers, crossing Southwest, Central South, and East China—an unprecedented domestic long-haul flight path.
More than four hours later, the airplane reached Kunming airspace. Fang Wen called the ground.
“Ground, if you hear, please respond. Taishan Airlines transport aircraft requests landing.”
The landing request this time went through Taishan Airlines shareholders’ connections, and Kunming agreed.
Fang Wen was still a bit worried, after all, this was Yunnan King Long Yun’s territory—who knew if he’d act on impulse.
But landing elsewhere wasn’t possible; Kolkata to Guangzhou was 2,500 kilometers, exceeding the maximum range.
At this time, the radio device received the ground signal: “Landing approved. Runway cleared.”
Fang Wen controlled the F.220 to adjust the fuselage, landing on the Kunming Airport runway. After steadying, he instructed those behind: “Kuang Anming, do you know how to refuel?”
“Brother-in-law, I’ve seen it; I know.” Kuang Anming replied.
“Take the fuel tank key. When opening the door later, be careful not to let people in. Go out alone to refuel, come back after, and don’t chat with airport people.” Fang Wen instructed.
“Got it, brother-in-law.”
Kuang Anming came to the cockpit, took the fuel tank key, opened the boarding gate as Fang Wen said, pulled out the ladder and lowered it, then went down alone to refuel.
Things progressed quite smoothly, seemingly without issues. Fang Wen breathed a sigh of relief.
But then, a military vehicle drove over and stopped at the runway edge.
A military officer got out of the military vehicle, holding a camera.
He walked toward Kuang Anming and talked with him.
After a while, Kuang Anming shouted through the boarding gate: “Sister, tell brother-in-law that Provincial Government Long Yun wants to invite us to a dinner. He also said if we don’t go, could his adjutant take a photo.”
