Chapter 218: Military Rations Production, Airborne To Base Area
A day later, Xiangxi Airport replied, explaining the situation Fang Wen wanted to know.
A total of 400 tons of rice is needed.
As for the specific airdrop areas, no details were given, saying they would communicate specifically during the airdrop.
Fang Wen understood this; confidentiality for such matters must be done well, otherwise there would be great dangers.
With the exact airdrop quantity confirmed, Fang Wen prepared to set off.
He carried a handbag full of US dollars and walked into the airport accompanied by his wife.
This time returning, they flew Taishan One; only Taishan One’s 8-ton payload could achieve the airdrop of 400 tons of rice. Even this first generation heavy bomber would need 50 airdrops to complete the 400-ton airdrop target.
In front of Taishan One, Fang Wen waited.
After a while, Pan Jiafeng drove over, with several bulging backpacks in the car.
Pan Jiafeng got out of the car and explained:
“Master, here are the 7 sets of equipment you wanted. I’ll help you load them up.”
Fang Wen nodded and walked over to help carry them together.
These were all radio wave positioning launch devices. After Sun Debiao successfully used them for the first time in the Great Wall bombing, Fang Wen had Tsinghua University continue production. They were even more effective in the Harbin Zhongma Fort bombing operation.
He was bringing 7 sets to South Asia this time specifically for airdrop positioning. After all, there were several airdrop points, and some might be in urgent situations unsuitable for torch guidance.
The positioning devices were loaded into the cabin. Fang Wen bid farewell to everyone and piloted the airplane for takeoff.
This time the airplane was changed, with more than double the range, directly changed to Shanghai–Guangzhou—French Military Base.
After a flight, the airplane landed at the French military airport base.
The Airport Commander was still very enthusiastic, but this time his attention was entirely on Taishan One: “This is the prototype of the F.221BN5? This is my first time seeing it.”
“F.221BN5?” Fang Wen asked in surprise.
“Yes, our country’s Air Force recently procured 11 Falmang F.221BN5 night long-range bombers. A friend in the Air Force sent me a photo. Wait a moment.” After the Airport Commander finished speaking, he took out his wallet and pulled out a photograph.
That photograph was a group photo of people and an airplane; that airplane looked no different in shape from the f.220.
Fang Wen nodded and said: “This is the f.220 prototype. Back then your military didn’t value it, so I bought it back at scrap price and used it as a transport aircraft.”
“Scrap!” The Airport Commander patted Fang Wen on the shoulder and laughed heartily.
After he finished laughing, Fang Wen handed him a gift bag: “This is a gift for you. I hope our friendship can endure.”
Unlike the reserve of the East, the French officer directly opened the gift bag and was immediately attracted by the banknotes in the bag.
He replied.
“Our friendship is indestructible.”
This was good; the grain acquisition process would have much less trouble with French army help.
Early September 1934.
Right at the time of the rice harvest in French Vietnam, rice merchants from all sides mobilized together, making the main grain production areas around the Mekong River Delta very lively.
Different from previous years, this time the grain acquisition teams included another type of people.
A convoy of French army military vehicles, ten in total, drove grandly into the Mekong River Delta.
The convoy passed the grain acquisition teams and entered the first village.
French army soldiers got off the cars and lined up outside the military vehicles, while some Eastern faces also got out from the cockpits.
These Eastern faces were naturally Fang Wen and his group.
After getting out of the car, Fang Wen led the team into the village. At a higher spot, he had the seven action team members set up seats, then had the translator shout through the loudspeaker.
“People of this village listen up: French army military procurement of grain has begun. Everyone can sign up. 1 franc per two kilograms, generous terms, come sign up quickly if you want to sell.”
During grain acquisition season, everyone was very sensitive to grain prices.
Hearing that military procurement price was 20% higher than outside procurement prices, the news spread instantly.
People from the village rushed over, wanting to know more.
They still had worries, afraid of IOUs without cash payment; even if the price was attractive, they wouldn’t dare sell recklessly.
But once they knew it was all cash transactions, the situation changed immediately.
Many people hurriedly carried rice over to compete to sell.
Facing such a lively scene, Shopkeeper Liu stepped forward.
“Tell them, 1 franc per kilogram only for new rice; old rice not accepted.”
This was perfect; all the new rice originally headed to the rice mill or rice merchants was bought up by the military procurement.
The successful acquisition in the first village quickly spread the news throughout the Mekong River Delta; everyone looked forward to military procurement coming to their own village.
This made them lose interest even in the rice merchants’ acquisitions.
The rice merchants didn’t dare act recklessly and simply paused acquisitions, waiting for military procurement to end.
But unexpectedly, they only acquired 8000 bundles of grain and then stopped.
After a false alarm, the grain acquisition season in the Mekong River Delta returned to normal.
With 400 tons of rice in hand, Fang Wen began handling the packaging and airdrop of this batch of grain.
He discussed with Fang Shouxin, Shopkeeper Liu, and Sun Debiao.
Fang Wen started: “Let’s talk about how to handle this batch of grain.”
Sun Debiao responded first: “I don’t like this rice. Our Northeast rice is plump and fat; this rice is skinny and long, dry and bland to eat.”
He was purely complaining; having eaten Northeast rice for so long, he simply couldn’t get used to this rice.
Picking up a handful of rice, Fang Wen pondered.
Through this time’s understanding, he learned about the local rice; it turned out this rice was called Zhan Cheng Rice, which flowed into China during the Song Dynasty and gradually evolved into the southern double-cropping rice.
That is, the indica rice now.
Among rice, there is not only indica rice, but also japonica rice.
Northeast rice is japonica rice, so Sun Debiao couldn’t get used to this food.
But that was no big deal; Red Army soldiers probably wouldn’t be so picky.
But shipping all raw rice would still require them to process it; during marches, they wouldn’t have time to cook in large pots.
It seemed they would make it into fried rice.
Besides fried rice?
Fang Wen spoke: “I think we can’t just send raw rice; we need to consider the Red Army’s actual situation. They are often in mobile combat for long periods, with no time to boil water and cook. If we just send it like this, they still risk danger to get a meal. Better if we turn this rice into ready-to-eat food.”
Everyone followed Fang Wen’s line of thinking and began pondering.
Sun Debiao jumped in again: “I got it. Sticky bean buns, rice cakes, rice sheets, rice balls.”
Fang Wen shook his head: “Yours are only edible fresh out of the pot; they harden after a while.”
His words made Shopkeeper Liu and Fang Shouxin simultaneously think of something.
“Rice cake.”
Hearing both blurt it out at the same time, Fang Wen immediately remembered.
In these times, street peddlers often sold rice cakes.
Fang Wen had eaten them once or twice; there were many varieties.
Fried rice cake, rice flour cake, and so on.
These were all affordable foods that could be stored for a long time and stave off hunger.
With this idea, Fang Wen began production.
Taishan One loaded 400 tons of rice, divided into 50 trips, transporting the supplies to Xiangxi Airport.
Then, all airport staff stopped their work and began rice cake processing.
Making this thing was very simple; it was a necessary skill for many farm families. Even if one didn’t know, a little guidance made it clear.
Per Fang Wen’s requirements, the 400 tons of rice were made into two kinds of rice products.
Sweet fried rice cake and salty rice flour cake.
Fried rice cake required soaking Zhan Cheng Rice in water for 4 hours to fully absorb moisture, then steaming it and spreading it on large mats to cool.
The cooled cooked Zhan Cheng Rice was poured into a large pot and continuously stir-fried with a shovel for even heating.
During stir-frying, the rice grains’ color gradually changed from white to light yellow, then to deep yellow, while emitting a strong rice fragrance.
At this step, most was done.
Next, coat the fried rice lightly with syrup, then shape in wooden carved containers.
Once the syrup solidified, remove from the mold for sweet fried rice cake.
（Republic of China era fried rice cake wooden mold）
Sweet fried rice cake was simple; salty rice flour cake was even easier.
That thing wasn’t just the future snow rice cake.
Raw materials only 3 kinds: rice flour, salt, sugar.
Directly grind Zhan Cheng Rice into powder, then mix with salt and sugar in different proportions.
Then pour in boiling water, stir with a wooden spoon; once not hot, slowly knead by hand into raw rice dough.
Break the finished raw rice dough into small pieces, scatter on a plate, wrap with gauze.
Then steam in a steamer until fully cooked.
Take out the cooked rice dough, knead into cylinders, cut into half-finger-wide thick slices.
These irregular thick slices were rolled by workers with rolling pins into 5 mm thick, 7-8 cm diameter rice cake slices.
Then loaded into baskets to air dry.
After fully air-dried, the final step was expansion.
Without microwave or oven, they used oil frying for expansion, but for people short on oil in these times, it was even more delicious.
The first batch of food totaled 1000 kilograms production, then stopped.
What Fang Wen and the employees thought was good didn’t mean the Red Army would accept it; they needed their approval to continue.
Thus, Fang Wen had Shunzi tell his wife to take samples of both kinds to find Bai Yunfei.
Mid-September 1934.
The fifth encirclement and suppression was far more intense than previous ones.
Each base area was quietly preparing.
Because of the grain airdrop action, Shu Zhitao, the sole single-line contact, waited at Shiwanping several li from Xiangxi Airport.
The current Shu Zhitao, that is, Bai Yunfei, was the boss of Bai Records Merchant Shop; his original identity was fully sealed, and his former troops thought he had died.
This was the special contact method from above for Taishan Airlines, still willing to aid the Red Army in such a crisis.
Now, except for him and a few executives, no one knew the codename ‘Mountain God’ mysterious supplies provider was Taishan Airlines.
A “knock knock” at the door snapped Bai Yunfei from his thoughts; he exchanged glances with the two employees inside the shop.
The two employees tacitly stood at positions hiding weapons.
Bai Yunfei went to open the door; seeing the visitor was Long Yumei, he quickly stepped aside: “Come in quickly.”
After Long Yumei entered, she directly removed the bundle on her back: “The grain we wanted, they got it. But they made some changes to the original plan; they used bought rice to make a batch of military rations on-site, brought for me to ask: raw rice airdrop, or add some military rations?”
“Military rations?” Bai Yunfei was very interested; when he was an instructor, he often thought if soldiers had military rations, it would be much more convenient in combat and transfers.
After Long Yumei took out the two kinds of ‘military rations’, he eagerly tried the first one.
Syrup-bound fried rice cake, with strong rice fragrance and sweet taste.
The other he liked even more, salty flavor, very refreshing for long marches.
“These are all made from rice?” he asked.
“Yes, made right at the airport, very simple. I asked Shunzi if it was hard; he directly took me to see the whole process.” Long Yumei replied.
Bai Yunfei nodded: “I need to send a telegram to report upward.”
After a bout of telegram communication, he returned.
“Above agreed. Whether rice or rice products, all fine. Can the airdrop begin?”
“They said no torch guidance method, too dangerous. Now changed to airdrop guides, needing prior airborne airdrop of airdrop guides. With airdrop guides, future airdrops will be much safer and more accurate.”
“What is an airdrop guide?” Bai Yunfei asked blankly.
“I don’t know either; it’s a secret even most at Taishan Airlines don’t know.” Long Yumei replied.
“Mm, since it’s a secret, no need to ask more. What exactly do they require?”
“They said maximum 7 airdrop points per time, each with one airdrop guide. We need to provide airborne locations, send people to receive, and reception password.”
Late at night, Shunzi’s Miao wife crossed mountains and ridges under moonlight back to the airport.
She told her husband the situation.
“These are the airborne locations, per your requirements; people will be sent nearby to receive your airdrop guides.”
In her words, Long Yumei handed a map to Shunzi.
Then Shunzi left home and gave the map to Fang Wen.
Looking at the map, exactly 7 areas, neither more nor less; Fang Wen exchanged with the seven action team members.
“Tonight, I’ll take you to airborne in these areas. Remember your password, don’t mix it up; wrong password, no use going.”
The seven action team members solemnly replied: “General Manager, rest assured; we’ll remember the password.”
“Good then. Go back and sleep well first; report to the hangar tomorrow.”
After Fang Wen finished instructing, the group left.
Next morning, the seven gathered in the hangar with equipment.
With nothing to do during the day, they drilled airborne in the hangar and repeatedly recited the password.
Until night fell.
Fang Wen and the 7 action team members ate dinner together.
Then boarded.
The airplane entered the runway in the night, gradually accelerating into the sky.
After entering the sky, Fang Wen took out the map to check each airborne point.
Mostly south of the Yangtze River, all remote and harsh areas, relying on local terrain to resist the encirclement.
They were indeed in dire straits, persisting under such dense encirclement.
Doing what ordinary people cannot; extraordinary people.
Fang Wen couldn’t help admiring.
He sorted the flight route and instructed the seven action team members behind.
“This is your second action, but not combat this time. Besides airdrop guidance, observe more, learn more. If we fight Japanese later, I hope you become the Chinese first airborne army that makes Japanese pale at the mention.”
Fang Wen’s words filled the seven with ambition; they all readily agreed.
Then, airborne began; one by one, action team members landed in different areas of Hubei, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang, Anhui.
After landing, they made bird calls per contact password, and contact personnel soon appeared.
After password verification, the seven action team members were taken by receivers to their respective secret residences.
After communicating with local Red Army troops, they all sent telegrams back to Xiangxi Airport, confirming official airdrop locations.
