Chapter 157: 156, Flight Path Changes, India’s History In China, Gold And Silver Conspiracy
The Boeing 247 took off again, heading to Delhi.
Along the way, however, no one was in the mood to appreciate the scenery of the land below anymore, and people occasionally went to the bathroom with a depressed expression.
Zhao Jiu even swore: “I won’t eat another meal here. Absolutely not.”
After more than four hours of dull flight, the airplane finally landed at Delhi Airport.
Because it was a transfer airport, there was no need to stay overnight here. Except for Fang Wen and Shao Sishen, no one else got off the plane.
They preferred to eat the food they brought on the airplane rather than risk trying anything else.
Fang Wen, on the other hand, talked with Shao Sishen outside the airplane.
“Shao Sishen, do you have any acquaintances here in Delhi?” Fang Wen asked with concern. Although he wouldn’t micromanage his subordinate’s work, he was still a bit worried since Shao Sishen was here alone.
“Don’t worry, General Manager. The British Indian Government generally agrees to our Taishan Airlines’ international flight path. It’s all benefits and no drawbacks for them. I’m here just to represent the company and make a statement to facilitate follow-up negotiations. By the way, General Manager, this is your first time flying from Delhi to Kabul, right? Be careful.” Shao Sishen replied.
Fang Wen nodded: “I’ll be careful. Once the Boeing Company people bring the passengers, I’ll take off. You take care.”
As the two talked, soon two groups of people arrived.
One group was there to pick up Shao Sishen to negotiate with the British Indian Government, and Shao Sishen got directly into the car and left.
The other group consisted of a Boeing Company salesperson from the United States and a local person.
The Boeing salesperson was able to come here thanks to Fang Wen. If not for Fang Wen piloting Boeing’s P-26 series fighter jet for the Asia-Europe long-distance flight, the newly established British Indian Air Force wouldn’t have placed an order.
It was just unknown whether this salesperson could collect the final payment.
Fang Wen shook hands with them with a smile. After some pleasantries, the other introduced the person beside him.
“Vandekar Chandra, employed by the British Indian Government’s Ministry of Finance. He is representing the British Indian Government to attend the global economic conference in London.”
Fang Wen smiled and responded in English: “Hello, it’s an honor that you are joining this Asia-Europe trip.”
“I’m very pleased too. This is my first time leaving this land, and there must be many interesting things on the journey.” Vandekar Chandra replied with hands pressed together and a bow.
His skin was relatively fair, and his behavior was very courteous. Fang Wen suspected he was probably a Brahmin or Kshatriya, but such things were not polite to ask.
After the handover was complete, Fang Wen opened the hatch, let Vandekar Chandra board the airplane, and then checked if the fuel tank and auxiliary fuel tank were fully fueled.
After completing the basic checks, Fang Wen boarded the airplane, communicated with the ground staff using hand signals, and piloted the airplane into the sky.
The airplane flew to high altitude. Flight attendant Cheng Dayou began his travel duties, brewing tea for the passengers and then explaining the next leg of the journey.
“The next landing point for this long-haul flight is Kabul.”
“Why fly to Kabul? Isn’t it Karachi? The Asia-Europe flight travelogue went through Karachi.” Gu Xingzuo asked in surprise.
Cheng Dayou, the flight attendant, didn’t know how to respond to this.
Fang Wen in the cockpit picked up the electrophonic microphone and explained: “From Karachi to Tehran is nearly 2000 kilometers, and this airplane needs a transfer stop to reach it. Last time I piloted the Shrike Hao and made a temporary stop at the ruins of an ancient city because the airplane was small. That’s definitely not possible now. Therefore, the flight path has been changed to Delhi to Kabul.”
Fang Wen’s explanation made the three passengers suddenly understand. They took out the map to see where Kabul was.
After looking, they found that from Delhi to Kabul and then transferring to Tehran was actually shorter than the Delhi—Karachi—Tehran route, so they said nothing more.
But changing the flight this time was not such a simple matter.
The actual situation was that the royal family in Kabul had very good relations with the British Commonwealth. They had borrowed troops from British India to ascend to the throne. Upon hearing about Taishan Airlines’ international flight, they proactively requested to change the flight path to go through their area.
They also promised that if agreed, they would immediately expand the existing airport and provide various preferential treatments.
Fang Wen had studied it for a long time before deciding to change this flight path.
After all, going through Kabul was much more convenient.
The flight path interlude passed in a flash, and everyone’s attention shifted to the journey on the new flight path.
This was an experience not in Fang Wen’s ‘Asia-Europe flight travelogue,’ and a new journey for everyone inside the airplane.
This leg of the journey had a new travel narrator.
That was the new passenger Vandekar Chandra.
He talked with Fang Wen in English, and Fang Wen relayed it.
In his description, the river below was called the Indus River, the birthplace of the entire Indian civilization.
The two sides of the river were fertile alluvial plains, the richest land here.
In the future, this place would be called Pakistan, but the name of that Indus River never changed.
Flying upstream along the Indus River, they passed a large ancient city.
It was called Lahore.
Hearing this, Bai Zeshan, who was reading a book, interjected.
“This should be a branch of the Mongol Yuan Empire, the capital of the Mughal Empire.”
“Is that so?” Gu Xingzuo and Dai Shimiao stood up and looked out the window.
Fang Wen couldn’t help but look below as well.
The entire city was one color, the color of the desert, full of exotic style.
Bai Zeshan hadn’t finished speaking: “I’ve read ancient books written by Tang Xuanzang. He passed through here on his way to fetch scriptures.”
Zhao Jiu didn’t believe it: “Why did Tang Sanzang come here? Did he take a wrong turn? He had Sun Wukong protecting him.”
Zhao Jiu thought Tang Seng shouldn’t get lost, since he had Sun the Monkey.
Fang Wen smiled and said: “Bai Zeshan, then tell us what Xuanzang wrote in the book?”
Bai Zeshan recalled and said: “《Great Tang Records on the Western Regions》 records: ‘Northwest of Uddiyana Kandura City, after traveling more than twenty li, one reaches Barudura City. This is the birthplace of the Vedic scholar Pol you ni xian. Pol you ni is an Indian scholar mentioned by Xuanzang, and Barudura City is where modern Lahore is located.'”
What he said was completely different from the Journey to the West storytelling Zhao Jiu had heard.
It did add some knowledge of unknown use.
The discussion on this matter ended there, but it greatly piqued Vandekar Chandra’s interest in Chinese culture.
Vandekar Chandra hadn’t expected that the lost Indian civilization could be found again in Chinese scriptures.
He talked with Bai Zeshan, who knew English, asking about ancient Indian events.
On this, Bai Zeshan didn’t know much, just about ancient Indian city-states and the customs and habits mentioned in the scriptures.
This already benefited Vandekar Chandra greatly.
Through this, his relationship with the other passengers on the airplane also improved a lot.
This person was very talkative; even if you ignored him, he could talk a lot.
Fang Wen had some free time piloting the airplane, so he simply let him be the morale booster and translated on the spot.
This person shared all about his own situation.
He was born in 1909 into an intellectual family in British India.
From childhood, he was exceptionally intelligent, with a strong interest in economics and mathematics. In his youth, he demonstrated outstanding mathematical ability and thus became a mathematics teacher.
Later, when British India opened civil service positions to local Indians, he passed the exam and entered the Ministry of Finance as a junior staff member.
He worked there until now. Because local Indian political parties were causing more and more trouble, the British Indian Government was gradually opening up functions to local employees, preparing to let Indians manage Indians.
In this situation, he got promoted and was sent to the United Kingdom to attend the world economic conference as a representative of the British Indian Government’s Ministry of Finance.
Hearing him speak up to here, Fang Wen became interested in the world economic conference.
“What is the world economic conference discussing?” he asked.
Vandekar Chandra replied: “Mainly discussing the impact of the economic crisis and how to respond. It may involve tariff issues among countries, as well as foreign exchange rate issues.”
“Foreign exchange rates?” Fang Wen suddenly became more interested.
He was continuously exchanging silver dollars for US Dollars, and if there were issues with the exchange rate, he needed to prepare in advance.
“Yes.” Vandekar Chandra enjoyed having someone listen to him talk about economic topics, and he became even more talkative. “The conference agenda will involve reducing tariffs among countries and lifting foreign exchange controls. But such things are not easy to get approval from all countries. I mean, the United States absolutely won’t agree. They have been controlling exchange rates and continuously increasing tariffs.”
Vandekar Chandra mentioning the United States made Fang Wen even more tense. If the United States made any moves in foreign exchange, would his own currency exchange be affected?
He raised his voice: “Dayou, brew some black tea for Mr. Vandekar. They like black tea.”
Flight attendant Cheng Dayou hurriedly brewed tea and brought it to Vandekar Chandra, who was leaning near the cockpit door.
Fang Wen then asked: “I have a question. Will the United States make any changes to the exchange rate?”
“Definitely, and they are already doing it.” Vandekar Chandra replied.
From the perspective of a professional government finance staff member, he analyzed it, and Fang Wen listened very seriously.
This was a conversation ordinary people couldn’t access but was very important to Fang Wen.
From Vandekar Chandra’s mouth, Fang Wen learned that.
The Roosevelt Administration announced the suspension of gold export on March 10, 1933.
The reason for suspending gold export was that the United States was still in the Great Depression this year, with domestic economy severely declining and unemployment rate soaring.
To stabilize the domestic economy, the Roosevelt Administration decided to take a series of measures to stimulate the economy.
Suspending gold export was one of the key measures.
By restricting gold export, the government could control domestic gold reserves, thereby stabilizing the US Dollar exchange rate and reducing fluctuations in the financial market.
But a month later.
The Roosevelt Administration surprisingly announced the abandonment of the gold standard.
Fang Wen exclaimed: “Did the United States abandon the gold standard in April?”
“Yes.” Vandekar Chandra replied.
No one in this era understood the importance of the gold standard for currency stability better than Fang Wen.
Because in the future, he had experienced too much unrestricted currency issuance.
The gold standard system is a monetary system with gold as the standard currency, where the value of each unit of currency is equivalent to a certain weight of gold（, that is, the gold content of the currency）. Under the gold standard, exchange rates between countries are determined by the ratio of the gold content of their respective currencies—the gold parity.
Therefore, the value of gold standard currency is very stable, directly linked to the precious metal gold.
Similarly, China’s silver standard is relatively stable because the gold-silver ratio is stable.
If the Roosevelt Administration abandoned the gold standard system, it meant this government was preparing to print banknotes at full horsepower.
A large amount of banknotes entering society would mean the US Dollar would depreciate significantly in a short time.
Damn it!
Fang Wen cursed inwardly.
Because of the Great Wall Campaign and company development matters, his attention had been focused domestically, and he hadn’t expected changes in the abroad situation.
He had forgotten the economic stimulus plan of the Roosevelt Administration across the ocean.
The so-called government-led economic stimulus plan was nothing more than providing a large amount of currency for various foundation construction.
This move was first used by Roosevelt and had very good effects, and it was later used by governments of various countries as a panacea for responding to economic crises.
But this kind of economic stimulus behavior was not friendly to Fang Wen.
He held a large amount of US Dollars and had to spend them as quickly as possible.
At the same time, he needed to notify domestically to temporarily stop exchanging silver dollars for US Dollars.
At least wait until the US Dollar depreciation speed slows down before continuing.
Presumably, the silver standard silver dollar would remain very strong for a long time.
But why did China’s silver dollar system suddenly disappear in the future?
It became the Gold Yuan.
Fang Wen suddenly figured out the reason.
In the future, silver dollars were all collected and exchanged for US Dollars.
But the people didn’t benefit from it, because they exchanged silver dollars for Gold Yuan, and then it began a rapid depreciation process.
Wasn’t this just plundering the wealth of all the Chinese people!
Where did those exchanged US Dollars go? It goes without saying.
Fang Wen felt a chill. So that’s how those people played it!
The Boeing 247 flew over Lahore and then passed through another ancient city, Islamabad.
Subsequently, the terrain began to rise, entering the Afghan Plateau.
Compared to the Indus River plain, the altitude was at least 1000 meters higher.
The airplane did not ascend because of this, causing the flight altitude to drop to around 3000 meters.
The plateau terrain here was mostly mountainous and water-scarce, extremely barren.
Even the capital was the same.
Large areas of bungalows built on the mountains and in the valleys—that was Kabul City.
Fang Wen controlled the airplane to circle in the air and found the only airport located in the valley.
He turned on the radio device and communicated with the ground using the international aviation frequency.
“Calling ground control tower, Taishan Airlines flight 03 passenger aircraft requests landing.”
After calling three times in a row, radio waves came from below.
“Call received, landing approved.”
The airplane adjusted its direction and landed on the runway at Kabul Airport.
The runway here didn’t need construction at all; it was originally hard ground, just needing the stones on top swept away.
At the moment of landing, Fang Wen sensed the situation of the airport.
Perhaps there was no airport here before; it was specially built for him.
He also saw a cavalry team running parallel to the airplane on the side of the airport runway, with the cavalry team members drawing their sabers and raising them in salute.
It should not be hostility, but some kind of welcome ceremony.
After stopping the airplane, Fang Wen said: “Everyone, don’t get off the airplane yet. Let’s wait and see.”
After a while, a cavalryman came over, dismounted, and knocked on the cabin door.
Flight attendant Cheng Dayou said nervously: “General Manager, should I open the door?”
