Chapter 210: Aerial Pursuit, Silver Acquisition Bill
Two aircraft dived, the seaplane in front and the Hawk-2 behind, with the distance continuously closing.
The seaplane’s turning flexibility and burst speed were clearly inferior to the Hawk-2; it was only a matter of time before it was caught.
The Hawk-2’s machine gun was already aiming.
Suddenly, the seaplane controlled by Fang Wen executed a U-shaped ascent, and the monoplane wing’s buoyancy characteristics allowed the aircraft to quickly transition from dive to ascent.
Immediately, they separated vertically, instantly widening the distance between them significantly.
This move had been used by Fang Wen against Japanese aviators in the January 28th Incident air combat, and this time it was even more effective due to his improved abilities.
But soon after, the Hawk-2 fighter turned and chased again.
Li Tie Zhu loudly instructed, “General Manager, it’s coming again.”
Fang Wen smiled faintly, “This guy’s engine can’t support sustained high speed. One more tactical evasion, and his engine won’t hold up.”
With that, the seaplane suddenly raised its nose and completed a large angle climb.
This was a maneuver a biplane couldn’t do; the lift from the biplane wings would cause wing damage during a large angle climb.
But the Hawk-2 had another way to respond; it flew forward, making a predictive pursuit.
Meaning the Hawk-2’s pilot predicted that after the seaplane’s large angle climb, it would fly in the direction he anticipated.
But unfortunately, he didn’t know that the large angle climb was just an opening move, which could turn into a loop or cobra maneuver.
It could also be a climbing turn.
Loop and cobra maneuvers were of course impossible; even if they could be done, Fang Wen had to consider the four action team members who would nearly fall apart afterward.
Therefore, he merely used the large angle climb as a feint; the opponent went in the direction he wanted, but the seaplane flew in the opposite direction.
This flight took them right out of the Thailand border; if the opponent chased over, it would have to deal with the British Army.
Thus, this aerial chase ended, and that Hawk-2 fighter angrily returned to base and departed.
Only then did Fang Wen turn around and ask the four people in the cabin behind, “Are you all okay?”
Urp!
Li Tie Zhu wiped the foam from the corner of his mouth, “General Manager is fine. We’re all doing well.”
Young people always have to be strong.
Fang Wen chuckled inwardly, said nothing more, and piloted the aircraft continuing northeast.
This time without entering Thailand territory, there were no issues.
One hour later, the aircraft entered Chinese airspace, continued flying for a while, and found that river called the Lancang River.
This river extended all the way abroad, where that segment abroad was called the Mekong River.
The river water changed with the terrain, sometimes rapid, sometimes calm.
Flying upstream along the river channel led to Jinghong.
Jinghong was called Chili in ancient times, an official administrative area since the Yuan Dynasty.
The city wasn’t large, but it had great prestige.
The aircraft circled in the air for a while, drawing out a group of people who guided the landing position from the Lancang River riverside.
Fang Wen looked at their guided direction; the river surface was calm, with a raft passing by, and the width was sufficient—it was a good landing spot.
Then the aircraft descended, and as the fuselage continuously lowered, two water trails were pushed on the water surface.
Immediately after, the floats landed on the water, friction with the water surface drawing long white lines.
Many people came to the shoreline to watch the excitement.
After taxiing for a while, the aircraft steadied, Fang Wen turned direction, and headed toward the shore.
Pushed by the propeller, the aircraft slowly moved toward the shore, and when a few meters away, a coil of rope was thrown from the shore.
Through the rope, the aircraft docked at the shore, and Fang Wen and the four disembarked to negotiate with those welcoming them.
The other party introduced himself proactively, “I am the manager of Asia Tobacco Company. Taishan Airlines is our important partner, and the higher-ups specifically required us to entertain you well. I’ve been waiting a long time; you’ve finally arrived. Come, to the city, the banquet is already set.”
Fang Wen said, “You all go ahead, I’m heading back.”
“Don’t go. Jinghong rarely sees aircraft. The young master Zheng Hanlong beside me wants to chat with you.” The manager blocked him while introducing the youth beside him.
Wu Yingzong and the other four’s faces turned cold, about to act, but were stopped by Fang Wen’s voice.
“It’s not impossible, but the aircraft is on the river, afraid something might happen.”
“No problem, my Zheng family people will guard it for you; no one dares touch it.” The youth waved, and a group of local men carrying spears walked to the aircraft and stood guard.
Now, whether he wanted to go or not, he had to.
Then, Fang Wen and his group followed to Jinghong City.
In the best restaurant in the city, a table of fine dishes and wine was indeed laid out.
Zheng Hanlong, as host, toasted a cup and then proactively introduced the dishes.
“This is beef tendon, usually tough to chew, only softened and delicious with our special braising spices. There’s also sour meat, pineapple rice, our Dai ethnic group special roast fish.”
Since they enthusiastically introduced it, it was hard to refuse; Fang Wen took the lead in picking up a dish to try.
The beef tendon really broke easily, with a glutinous texture, spices infused into the tendon—indeed good.
Sour meat, the Miao people near Xiangxi Airport also make sour meat, made with glutinous rice and fermented pork fat, then fried to eat.
But was the sour meat here the same?
Completely different; the sour meat here was similar to pickled vegetables, and no meat could not be soured.
Boiled beef tendon added with salt, chili pepper, wild Sichuan pepper, garlic cloves, ginger shreds, and other seasonings, sealed in a pottery jar to ferment.
This was called sour beef tendon.
There was also beef head, beef feet; after boiling, added with ingredients, they could also be made sour.
So peculiar; Fang Wen tried this food for the first time.
But if Kuang Mingzhu came, she would definitely have eaten it; Kuang Mingzhu said Thailand also had sour meat, probably similar to here.
After three rounds of wine and one bowl of rice, Zheng Hanlong stated his true intention.
“I see your aircraft is quite something, able to land on the river surface. Our Zheng family has money and power, yet is stuck in this small place. If we had an aircraft, we could go anywhere up and down the Lancang River.”
Fang Wen chuckled inwardly; in this world, having an aircraft wasn’t enough—the outside world was vast.
But this one seemed like a potential client; he smiled and asked, “Young Master Zheng, do you want to buy an aircraft?”
“Yes, but don’t quote first; I’ll make an offer, see if it works.”
Zheng Hanlong was actually quoting for Fang Wen; let him handle it.
Zheng Hanlong, with a slightly flushed face, said, “Some time ago, I went to Kunming City for fun and saw Chairman Long’s Yunnan aviation team. They newly bought five P-26 fighter jets—that thing is really good.”
Chairman Long bought five P-26s? Fang Wen was stunned.
Wasn’t it the National Government buying 10 P-26s?
How did it become the King of Yunnan buying them?
After inquiring, he finally understood.
The National Government did order 10, specially produced and ready for shipment.
But the National Government couldn’t pay, so in the end Chairman Long bought half, and the other half was shipped to British India.
So that’s how it was; Fang Wen felt he had changed part of history.
Without the Shrike Hao’s Asia-Europe flight, the performance of these aircraft wouldn’t spread.
But that was fine; even if the aircraft reached the National Government, Fang Wen thought they wouldn’t be of much use.
He raised his cup to drink with Zheng Hanlong, “So what price?”
“P-26 is forty-five thousand US dollars each; yours at most thirty thousand.”
“Forty-five thousand?” Fang Wen was stunned,
then realized, the US dollar had depreciated by 40%, so export products naturally rose 40%; the original under thirty thousand P-26 became forty-five thousand.
But his own aircraft was completely pieced together, yet the other party offered such a high quote.
He asked, “Are you sure?”
“Of course; I checked it, can carry four people, fly from Yangon here, and land on the river surface—no need to mention P-26, no aircraft in all Yunnan government can do that.”
So that’s it; they saw it from their own needs—in Xishuangbanna here, they really needed seaplanes, easy to land and takeoff, no airport required.
Fang Wen suddenly saw the light.
He discovered the huge market prospects in the aviation field.
In this era, land-based aircraft were the main competition battlefield for various aircraft manufacturing companies.
But land-based aircraft needed airports; even using particularly durable Goodyear tires for wild landings had limitations.
But seaplanes were different, able to land and takeoff on various calm water surfaces.
Yangtze River yes, Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Taihu Lake also; all major water systems could land.
The land of China didn’t lack water systems; plenty of places for aircraft to takeoff and land.
Also oceans, South Asia, Southeast Asia surrounded by oceans, all could become paradise for seaplanes.
But there were problems too.
The excitement in Fang Wen’s heart subsided accordingly.
Seaplanes, due to needing to balance buoyancy and stability on water surfaces, often had bulky fuselage designs and power systems, which limited their flight speed to some extent. Compared to other types of military aircraft, seaplanes were at a disadvantage in high-speed flight, making it difficult to quickly reach the battlefield or execute rapid strike missions.
Seaplanes also had shortcomings in weapon mounting and combat capability. Due to fuselage structure and takeoff-landing characteristics, seaplanes struggled to externally mount weapons on wings or design magazine wells inside the fuselage, limiting the types and quantity of weapons carried. Therefore, in combat missions, seaplanes’ strike and firepower support capabilities were relatively weaker than land-based aircraft.
These two reasons prevented seaplanes from becoming mainstream military fighters.
Speed insufficient, weapon system weak, far fewer places to shine in combat.
These weaknesses couldn’t be compensated by water takeoff and landing.
So, seaplanes in war were a huge pit; whoever invested would be unlucky.
Fang Wen laughed carefreely; if not feasible, just don’t do it—future aircraft so many, with money, what couldn’t be bought.
Right, money was king; seaplanes had no future in military but could be promoted in civilian use.
And this market surprisingly had few competitors; Taishan Airlines could use this to enter the aircraft manufacturing industry.
He smiled and talked business with Zheng Hanlong.
“Thirty thousand US dollars, you really want to buy?”
“Buy. But I don’t know how to fly, what to do?”
“Not knowing how to fly is no problem; come to Yangon, I’ll teach you. Once learned, fly it straight home.”
“Really? I’m pretty dumb.”
Fang Wen laughed, “How about I take you for a flight later.”
Zheng Hanlong’s eyes lit up; that’s just what he wanted.
Then, the two left the city, entered the riverside seaplane; he was in the pilot seat, Zheng Hanlong leaning on the pilot seat curiously watching.
As the engine started, the aircraft bobbed up and down.
“Feels like being on a boat.”
“Stand steady, taking off.” Fang Wen accelerated, the aircraft planed on the river surface, white waves trailing, red bird flying.
To Zheng Hanlong, aircraft takeoff seemed not difficult; he became even more interested.
“Done, I buy this aircraft; now take me to Yangon to learn flying.”
Fang Wen didn’t agree, but asked, “Don’t rush; I want to know where you got so many US dollars.”
“Someone exchanged US dollars for silver; my family exchanged a pile, holding it is useless, better exchange for an aircraft.”
Zheng Hanlong revealed the real reason, also making Fang Wen realize silver was about to surge in price.
In the face of the impending silver storm, selling the aircraft for thirty thousand US dollars was just small business.
Fang Wen didn’t immediately accept Zheng Hanlong’s cash transaction, but said to talk in two months.
He now immediately flew back to Yangon, starting to prepare to stockpile more silver.
At the same time, to build confidence, Fang Wen analyzed the matter.
After consulting professors from the economics department at Tsinghua University, he gained more understanding of the silver situation.
The entire world, with colonialism and international trade, had fully shifted to the gold standard.
More than a decade ago, British India still used silver currency, now switched to gold standard British Pound.
Now only China remained using silver as currency.
So, over these years, silver had been weak.
From Republic of China year 17 to 21 （1928—1932）, silver’s international price fell over 50%, large amounts of silver flowed into the Republic of China.
Meaning currently China had the world’s largest silver reserves.
With China’s vast silver reserves, would it benefit from this silver price surge?
Or would all the benefits go to bureaucrats, compradors, and wealthy merchants?
……
In June 1934, following the Gold Reserve Act, Roosevelt issued the Silver Purchase Act.
Fang Wen, long prepared for this, eagerly checked the act’s content.
1, Raise the value of silver as currency reserve to 1/3 of gold as currency reserve;
2, US Ministry of Finance decides timing and terms of purchasing silver in domestic and foreign markets based on whether it benefits US public interest;
3, Stop purchasing silver when silver price rises to 1.2929 US dollars per ounce or when silver value as currency reserve reaches 1/3 of gold value as currency reserve;
4. Current US domestic silver price not below 0.50 US dollars per ounce;
5, Sell silver when silver reserves value exceeds 1/3 of gold reserves;
6, Ministry of Finance can control silver-related imports, exports, and other transactions;
7, President declares silver nationalized acquisition;
8, 50% income tax on profits from other silver trading.
These 8 points made Fang Wen’s brain buzz.
Things were beyond Fang Wen’s expectations.
Americans actually changed the game rules; the entire US silver purchase market truly had only one buyer: US Ministry of Finance.
Just the eighth point—50% income tax on silver trading profits—blocked most foreign participants’ entry.
Couldn’t profit from trading in the US, but as US domestic silver producers selling abroad could evade this law.
Good for US domestic silver enterprises, also preventing foreign silver from flowing into the US and maliciously manipulating silver prices during the US Ministry of Finance’s silver purchases.
For the Gold Company Fang Wen established, what did it mean?
Meant the silver in those silver vaults could only be sold in markets outside the US.
Markets outside the US, except China had no demand; Shanghai silver price would surely rise, but absolutely not as much as in the US.
This didn’t fit Fang Wen’s vision.
Was it just going to fizzle out?
Impossible; Fang Wen recalled that saying, a thousand-mile embankment destroyed by an ant hole—they could control open silver trading, but not the underground ones.
Perhaps the Americans themselves had ways to cope.
Then Fang Wen contacted the US side via transoceanic telegram.
