Chapter 265: 264, Flying Club Airplane Auction, Taishan Air Gunship Modification
The military competition began.
William and Wu Yingzong each led their own troops to the competition site.
The two sides faced each other across the river, with the atmosphere tense.
The first event was an orienteering and intelligence gathering competition.
The mercenaries went first, with their selected 10 action personnel entering the dense forest.
The dense forest not only had various natural environmental obstacles but also thirty hostile patrol teams.
After some evasion and pursuit, only half of the action team members completed the intelligence gathering and reached the finish line.
Next it was the turn of the Taishan action team, also 10 people facing a hostile 30-man patrol team.
In the end, 7 people smoothly completed the intelligence gathering mission and reached the finish line.
In the first round of the competition, the mercenaries actually lost.
This left them very unconvinced.
Subsequently, in the tactical shooting competition, both sides tied.
And in the final battlefield rescue and medical aid event, the Taishan action team skillfully used specialized medical emergency equipment for treatment and transferred the wounded soldiers, achieving better results.
After such a competition, the mercenaries were defeated and could only hang the title of loser on the outer wall of the camp.
This title successfully aroused their collective sense of honor, and to remove this shameful title, they repeatedly suggested to William to hold another competition.
This request played right into his hands; Fang Wen wanted the two troops to be in a good competitive state, thereby generating collective sense of honor and training effects.
Immediately, the two commanders negotiated and decided on competitions every three months, with the losing side hanging a shameful mark.
To win the competition, both the winning and losing sides were training, and William took the opportunity to integrate the mercenary group.
After a military competition filled with collective sense of honor, the mercenary group’s discipline and collective cooperation improved.
Fang Wen shifted his attention away from this aspect to others.
The third Taishan Flying Club event was held.
As the organizer’s leader, he had to make an appearance and connect with those South Asia and Southeast Asia powerful figures who were members.
At the same time, he was also presiding over the seaplane auction.
Immediately, he piloted a seaplane to central British Burma, the Mandalay Royal Palace.
The airplane flew for several hours, arrived at the destination, and landed at the club’s seaplane airport on the Irrawaddy River.
On the water surface, besides Fang Wen’s Cloud Crane Seaplane, there was another aircraft, also a Shuiyun Type 1 Seaplane.
That was the Raja of Sarawak’s ride, also the first local king overseas to own a Taishan-produced airplane.
Fang Wen got off the airplane, took a boat to shore, where Liu Yin Feng was waiting in a car at the shoreline.
He took the initiative to explain:
“General Manager Fang, many new members have arrived. Zhou Pomen is handling the reception and can’t get away, so only I came to pick you up.”
“No problem, let’s go.” Fang Wen got in the car. Old rules, he always drove himself and rarely handed control of the car or airplane to others.
The car headed to the royal palace, driving straight through the palace gate and parking in the parking area.
Afterward, Fang Wen familiarly arrived at the flying club’s management area.
There he listened to the report from Liu Yin Feng and Zhou Pomen.
This flying club recruitment had 32 new members.
Besides relaxing and entertaining in the royal palace, they came for the seaplane auction.
And the auction was happening tonight.
After inquiring about the auction preparations, Fang Wen rested and waited in the club.
Time passed quickly, and it was evening.
After eating dinner in their respective palace rooms, the flying club members came out one after another to head to the entertainment area in the center of the royal palace.
When all members had arrived at the entertainment area, Fang Wen came out holding a microphone.
“Everyone, I’m glad you have become members of the Taishan Flying Club. Tonight’s gathering will auction 10 Taishan seaplanes and provide corresponding service.”
After speaking, he looked around: “If anyone has any questions, you can raise them now.”
The new members were still thinking, but the Raja of Sarawak stood up first.
“General Manager Fang, I want to know, if we buy your seaplanes, what kind of service can you provide?”
“Very comprehensive service, including establishing seaplane routes, seaplane airports, and even training and operating personnel and pilots on your behalf.” Fang Wen replied.
After this opening, others also raised questions one after another.
Some local king pointed out that his territory was not large, and even if he bought an airplane and established a route, he would need to join with other local kings.
Some Southeast Asia Chinese family also felt that independent operation was too troublesome and wanted to know if Taishan Airlines could participate in operation and management.
Facing these questions, Fang Wen responded with a smile.
Times were different now; he increasingly understood that one more friend meant one more share of strength. Taishan Group needed more support.
Even if the Japanese would occupy Southeast Asia in the future and cause some losses, he could not refuse the friendships brought by current business activities for that reason.
He smiled and promised that if they wanted joint operations after purchasing airplanes, that was no problem; Taishan Airlines would establish South Asia and Southeast Asia operation branch companies, specifically responsible for the joint operation of seaplane routes.
Such a promise greatly increased the interest of the flying club members.
The first batch of ten Shuiyun Type 1 Seaplanes was quickly auctioned off.
After completing the auction, Fang Wen socialized with these new flying club members, chatting about all sorts of topics from all over.
From Europe and America to Asia, all kinds of hot topics were discussed.
Among them, the most discussed was Germany’s rising-style garrison in the Rhineland demilitarized zone.
The King of Afghanistan spoke up: “According to the news I got, the Germans’ action will not face any sanctions. The Britain and France that could originally sanction Germany only held a meeting in London, proposing: ‘Both sides establish contact to prepare the technical conditions for taking war measures against that kind of unprovoked aggression.'”
“What does that mean?” a local king asked puzzledly; his question was translated into English by the translator.
“It means they are worried Germany will start World War II and have decided to make some technical preparations, like the Maginot Line, which the French started building a few years ago.” Fang Wen explained.
The King of Afghanistan, who had studied in France, analyzed: “The Maginot Line is very powerful. I think once completed, Germany will have no chance to invade France.”
Seeing everyone skeptical, he described the Maginot Line in detail.
It was a permanent fortification line built with reinforced concrete.
Inside the defensive line were various cannons, trenches, fortresses, kitchens, power stations, hospitals, factories, and more.
The internal passages were interconnected, and some large fortifications even had tram channels.
Many local kings agreed with this, feeling France had created a powerful defensive measure.
Fang Wen smiled without speaking, but inwardly he rejected this view.
Seeing this, the King of Afghanistan couldn’t help asking: “General Manager Fang, do you think the Germans can breach the Maginot Line?”
Under the gaze of many eyes, Fang Wen replied: “If Germany wants to invade France, they will come up with many ways. The least likely thing they would do is a direct assault on the Maginot Line; bypassing it would do. Just like the Mongol armies in the European wars—frontal combat is meaningless if not necessary.”
Fang Wen was speaking of Eastern strategic thinking, which the King of Afghanistan did not understand, nor did the local kings seem to get it.
He did not continue the discussion on this topic.
Subsequently, the topic turned to Japan.
Regarding the February 26 Incident, everyone had varied opinions.
Some even analyzed it as a struggle between the royalist faction and the militarist faction.
As someone who had personally experienced the event, Fang Wen had a different judgment.
The Imperial Way Faction’s performance was too immature; they actually used assassination of cabinet ministers to force everyone to comply. This behavior broke all the rules, and they were doomed to fail.
Fang Wen did not voice this analysis. Not wanting to participate in the discussion, he stood up, left the room, and strolled in the royal palace.
At this time, a person in charge from a Southeast Asia Chinese family surprisingly followed him out.
“General Manager Fang, I heard you’re recruiting elite pilots?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“We overseas can hear about domestic matters too. My youngest son studied flying in the United States with decent skills. Can he join?”
Fang Wen stopped and told the truth: “The elite pilots I’m recruiting have high requirements; they have to fly military aircraft and will fight Japanese in the air in the future. It’s very dangerous.”
That family head replied: “I know. This is something my child asked me to inquire about on his behalf. He said even if I don’t ask, he would come sign up himself. I’ve thought it through: rather than him sneaking off, better for me to sign him up. If selected and he comes back alive, best; if something happens, I hope he can shoot down a few Japanese airplanes.”
Fang Wen was quite surprised: “You could lock him up somehow. My elite aviation team really involves death.”
“Can’t control him. Times have changed.” That family head sighed.
One sentence “times have changed” summed up all aspects of this era.
1936 was a year of enormous changes.
Japan’s February 26 Incident and Germany’s reoccupation of the Rhineland were just fragments of this year.
This year, the Great Depression that affected the world had passed its most dangerous phase, and the major Europe and America countries were gradually emerging from the crisis.
This year, the world’s only war was Italy’s strange invasion war against Ethiopia that had been going on for 4 years without ending.
This year, France’s left-wing coalition Popular Front gained an advantage in the election, promising to bring vacations to the French people, giving the salaried class that never had holidays time off.
This year, the Spanish Communist Party won the election and was preparing for sweeping reforms.
The whole of Europe seemed to be in the midst of communist transformation.
Affecting the global social situation as well.
Young people were more enthusiastic about discussing and participating in political actions.
Overseas Chinese descendants were no exception.
As inheritors of unique Chinese culture, overseas Chinese descendants had a sense of belonging to China and were willing to join meaningful actions to change the motherland and drive out invaders.
From that Chinese family clan leader, Fang Wen learned about overseas Chinese descendants’ attitude toward the motherland and realized he had nearly missed an important source of support.
He immediately leveraged the power of South Asia and Southeast Asia Chinese descendants to issue a recruitment call for elite pilots to the entire overseas Chinese-speaking circle.
Under this recruitment propaganda, some young people with flying foundation came to Yangon.
In Yangon, Fang Wen selected them.
The suitable batch stayed and joined the Taishan Elite Aviation Team candidate plan.
Those unsuitable but with good flying technique, Fang Wen chatted with them and had them stay to become low-speed fighter jet pilots.
At the same time, a batch of hired pilots from Europe and America arrived in Yangon one after another, becoming members of the elite aviation team.
Now the elite aviation team had pilots.
But the fighter jets custom-made for them were not yet determined.
Lacking foundation, Fang Wen had given up the plan for independently developing high-speed fighter jets and turned to procuring high-speed fighter jets.
For this procurement, he paid a considerable intelligence expense to gather intelligence on the current top fighter jets from various countries.
Once the intelligence was compiled, he would select the suitable model and then figure out how to order it.
In the spare time before intelligence compilation, Fang Wen mainly focused on R&D for the militarization modification of low-speed airplanes.
Inside the Yangon Taishan Aircraft Manufacturing Plant.
Fang Wen was in the manufacturing plant discussing airplane modifications with the plant’s senior engineers and Howard.
This was the fifth technical seminar; the previous four had not reached a conclusion.
Meeting presider Bai Zeshan spoke:
“This seminar mainly targets two modification plans: ‘Light Seaplane Gunship’ and ‘Heavy Seaplane Gunship’. These are the results from the previous four rounds of seminars. If anyone has different opinions, please elaborate.”
The more than twenty senior plant engineers participating included French engineers as well as many university engineers recruited from domestic universities.
Regardless of nationality or school, they had split into heavy and light camps based on different arguments.
The heavy camp spoke first: “We reiterate: firepower supremacy and armor supremacy. The aerial fortress type low-speed fighter jet can withstand infantry attacks and suppress ground forces, which is the best direction.”
The light camp immediately countered: “An airplane’s defense can never compare to a tank. Low-speed airplanes are a bit slow but can maneuver with ground forces. But if we follow your design, the airplane speed will drop to 150 kilometers per hour, making it a target for many weapons. No amount of thick armor or strong firepower will help.”
Neither side could convince the other, and fierce arguments arose as soon as the discussion began.
Fang Wen had a headache; he felt the entire R&D direction had deviated from his original intent. Their debate on light vs. heavy had not touched his design focus at all.
This discussion meeting had to pull their thinking back in line with his.
Thinking of this, Fang Wen stood up and walked to the podium.
His appearance silenced the arguments.
“Everyone, I want you to set aside your disputes and listen to me carefully. Can you do that?”
All the engineers greatly admired Fang Wen and responded in unison: “Yes.”
Fang Wen nodded and continued:
“This plan comes from a dream of mine. In my dream, a low-speed airplane circled around a ground attack target as the center and used a special broadside weapon system to attack the target. This circling flight attack maneuver with the target as the center can provide continuous firepower suppression on the ground.”
Pausing, Fang Wen continued: “This air-to-ground tactic doesn’t require high speed; even low-speed airplanes are more suitable for air-to-ground firepower suppression shooting. So, the modification focus is continuous stable circling flight, broadside weapon system, and specific nighttime illumination projection auxiliary devices. Its function is to cooperate with ground troops for three-dimensional firepower attack suppression. So, think about it—hasn’t the current debate deviated?”
（Fairchild AC-119 Gunship, Vietnam War）
