Chapter 98: 97, Shanghai Intelligence Trading, Crucial Intelligence On Penicillin
There’s an old saying: get married first, then establish your career.
Of course, this isn’t absolute; there’s also a common saying: “Meet a good partner and get married first, meet a benefactor and establish your career first.”
Fang Wen himself possesses the mechanical perception supernatural ability, so he can be considered his own benefactor.
Kuang Mingzhu belongs to his good partner.
Although they married hastily without even holding a formal banquet, Kuang Mingzhu’s arrival truly made Fang Wen understand how wonderful it is to have a good wife who manages the household.
She is not just one person.
To ensure his daughter wouldn’t be bullied at her husband’s home, Master Kuang prepared a dowry.
The dowry included Kuang Mingzhu’s private savings from the Kuang Family, dividend money as the daughter managing the Kuang Family business, and the Kuang Family’s accompanying marriage money.
Besides these, as the Kuang Family’s only daughter, Master Kuang feared she wouldn’t live well, so he sent a batch of personnel from Guangzhou.
This included:
Two accompanying maids for Kuang Mingzhu, both raised with her since childhood and serving her closely.
One cook skilled in Cantonese cuisine, who could also clean with the two maids and manage household chores on ordinary days.
The housekeeper and guards were originally to be sent as well, but Fang Wen refused; with Fang Shouxin and Shunzi there, he trusted the father and son more.
Besides these people, there was a group of commercial subordinates trusted by Kuang Mingzhu herself.
All poached by her from her own family, they became new staff members of Taishan Airlines.
These were all business veterans; though not as good as Shopkeeper Liu, they handled various affairs better than other employees.
With Kuang Mingzhu, Fang Wen finally experienced the comfortable life of a Republic of China young master.
Every day, he no longer needed to worry about every aspect of the company; his wife managed everything in an orderly manner.
If a problem arose, she wouldn’t decide alone but would discuss it with Fang Wen.
After some time understanding Taishan Airlines, Kuang Mingzhu keenly discovered the company’s problem.
She felt it needed to be resolved as soon as possible, but would her husband listen?
Kuang Mingzhu recalled her mother’s words: “After you marry, forget those outdated rules like the three obediences and four virtues, but at least learn to coax men. On big and small matters, go along with them as much as possible. Men are like donkeys that go with the fur—you can’t yell at them, or they bristle. Your father is like that, and I think all capable men in the world are similar. You need to learn this.”
She agreed with her mother; tonight when she got home, she needed to talk it over properly with her husband.
December 10, 1932.
After dropping his wife off at Taishan Airlines Headquarters for work, she seemed to have something to say to him but didn’t speak up, so Fang Wen planned to ask her in the evening.
Back home, Fang Wen leisurely ate breakfast, enjoying the pleasant time.
With his wife presiding over the company’s daily operations, plus Shopkeeper Liu and Fang Shouxin, he didn’t need to worry at all.
Regarding flight apprentices, the first Taishan Airlines flight apprentice class had graduated.
A total of 8 flight apprentices were hired as permanent staff; the remaining 12 could choose to join the Taishan Airlines ground crew department to work at airports in various places or leave to sign up at other aviation schools to pursue their ambitions.
Of those 12 flight apprentices, only 2 stayed; the rest pursued their dreams in different directions.
Fang Wen wished them well, hoping they would become pillars of Huaxia Airlines in the future.
As for flight paths, the Shanghai to Nanchang flight path was officially launched; now the company had three north-south flight paths operating simultaneously, with 8 pilots rotating, so Fang Wen no longer needed to fly personally.
The remaining two flight paths, Shanghai to Wuhan and Shanghai to Fuzhou, were under development.
As long as the tung oil for airplanes transaction launched in the first half of next year, two Boeing 247s would also be deployed on those two flight paths.
Everything was progressing steadily, with a successful undertaking.
In a peaceful era, Fang Wen could have been a successful person enjoying life.
But not now—World War II was about to break out, so preparations had to continue.
Thinking of this, Fang Wen set down his bowl and chopsticks and walked to the neighboring courtyard.
The neighboring courtyard was now where Fang Shouxin and Shunzi lived; after Fang Wen got married, Fang Shouxin and Shunzi had moved out to avoid suspicion, living next door so the young master could find them anytime if needed.
Fang Shouxin had gone to the company early for work, leaving only Shunzi reviewing cultural lessons.
To ensure Shunzi could be selected for the second batch of Taishan Airlines flight apprentice exams, Fang Shouxin quit Shunzi’s job on the security team, letting him focus on studying at home.
When Fang Wen entered the courtyard, Shunzi was sitting on a stool, pondering bitterly over the notebook in front of him.
It was a calculation problem, very simple—calculating the range of flight paths on the map.
The map had scale markings corresponding to actual distances; as long as the different scale ratios were applied in the calculations, the actual flight path distances could be easily figured out.
Yet Shunzi still hadn’t figured it out.
Fang Wen sighed inwardly; in this situation, he didn’t dare use connections to get Shunzi through—that wouldn’t help him, it would harm him.
“Hm.” Fang Wen hummed.
“Young Master, do you need me for something?” Shunzi looked at Fang Wen with hopeful eyes—doing tasks was much easier than doing problems.
“Yes, want to go to the city?”
“Of course.”
“I want you to go find Zhao Jiu in Zhabei and give him this letter.”
“Got it.” Shunzi took the letter, happily grabbed his jacket, and ran outside.
Fang Shun took the airport shuttle bus into the urban area, then switched to a rickshaw to head to Zhabei.
Originally, only the southeastern part of Zhabei District was the International Concession, but after the ceasefire agreement was signed, there were many more Japanese here.
Fang Shun distastefully eyed those Japanese ronin wearing wooden clogs, kimonos, and exposing their chests.
He really wanted to find a chance to beat up these Japanese ronin, but the young master’s instructions kept him from acting rashly.
The young master had said Zhao Jiu was a small leader of the Green Gang in this area; as long as he found someone on the street wearing a short jacket and unafraid of Japanese, it was basically a Green Gang member.
He looked around and walked toward the man leaning against the wall by the roadside, cigarette in mouth.
“I’m looking for Zhao Jiu.”
“You can’t just casually call for Brother Jiu?” The man widened his eyes, looking fierce.
“I’m from Taishan Airlines.”
Shunzi’s next words instantly dispelled the man’s hostility.
“Should’ve said so earlier. Wait here, I’ll report to Brother Jiu.”
The man ran off, and Shunzi waited in place.
After a while, Zhao Jiu came over.
Zhao Jiu strode forward with wind in his step, exuding a dashing flair.
Two months ago, he had joined the Treasure Hunting Group action team and participated in a miraculous treasure theft activity, also gaining considerable profit sharing.
With money, a person changes.
He spent generously, and gained more underlings.
This area of Zhabei was now all his territory.
Seeing it was Shunzi, Zhao Jiu smiled and immediately hooked shoulders with him.
“The General Manager sent you, right?”
“Yeah, he told me to give you this.”
Shunzi handed over the letter Fang Wen had sent.
Taking the letter, Zhao Jiu glanced around and instructed his underlings: “Guard outside, don’t let anyone in.”
With that, he pulled Shunzi into the nearby alley.
In the alley, Zhao Jiu opened the envelope and carefully read the text inside.
Then he burned the entire letter.
“Got it. You wait here; my brothers will take care of you. It’ll probably be ready by afternoon.”
With that, Zhao Jiu hurried off.
The place he was going was for intelligence trading, to purchase intelligence from Europe for Fang Wen.
As a local snake, though he hadn’t been there, he knew exactly where the various countries’ intelligence institutions secretly exchanged intelligence.
After weaving through streets, he arrived at the French Concession.
The French Concession had many leisure gathering spots for foreigners: clubs, coffee shops, bars.
These places were not only centers for social activities but also important venues for intelligence exchange.
Intelligence officers from various countries might exchange information with colleagues through social events or hold secret meetings.
Zhao Jiu found a Green Gang brother in the concession.
“Fifth Ox, ask around—where do those foreigners who sell intelligence hang out?”
“Few during the day, more at night; not many out at this hour.”
“I have business; give me a place where I can find someone.”
“There’s a bar over there; try your luck. An intelligence dealer often stays overnight at the bar.”
“Thanks. We’ll hang out another day.”
Zhao Jiu finished speaking, jogged across the street, and entered the bar opposite.
Inside the bar, a thick smell of tobacco and alcohol.
The bartender was cleaning; besides him, there was a foreigner asleep slumped over the bar counter.
Zhao Jiu pulled out a silver dollar and handed it to the bartender: “Wake him up, and get us double drinks.”
The bartender pocketed the silver dollar and roughly shook the man: “Wake up, someone wants to buy you a drink.”
Hearing there was alcohol, the man woke immediately and looked around with bleary eyes: “Who?”
“Me. Here to buy something from you.”
In the afternoon, Shunzi returned to the airport.
After getting off the shuttle bus, he ran all the way to Fang Wen’s residence.
“Young Master, I got the stuff. I offered Brother Zhao Jiu money, but he wouldn’t take it.”
Fang Wen took the small bundle from Shunzi’s hand.
“If he won’t take it, we still have to give it—can’t take advantage. I’ll talk to him at next month’s dividend. You go back; you still need to review today’s lessons.”
“Oh.” Shunzi’s happiness vanished instantly, and he went back home.
Fang Wen fetched a paper cutter from the bedroom and cut the rope on the small bundle.
Inside was a stack of paper.
The first sheet had writing in both Chinese and English.
“Weimar Republic Dec 1—Dec 7”
From the literal meaning, it was specialized intelligence on the Weimar Republic for those seven days.
As expected of a professional intelligence dealer—the intelligence even had timeliness.
The contents were handwritten, probably intelligence obtained via telegram and then recorded on paper; after all, newspapers took a month to arrive these days, so telegrams were the most efficient.
Looking at the first timely intelligence, Fang Wen gained an understanding of events in Germany.
With the parliamentary election concluded, von Papen was forced to resign, and Kurt von Schleicher took office as Prime Minister on December 3.
Fang Wen made no comment on this; he wasn’t familiar with either, only knowing Little Mustache.
He set down the first timely intelligence and flipped to the later ones.
The later parts were what Zhao Jiu had the intelligence dealer write on the Weimar Republic situation as per Fang Wen’s request.
Through this intelligence dealer’s perspective, Fang Wen finally gained a relatively comprehensive understanding of the current situation in the Weimar Republic.
In May this year, Little Mustache’s Nazi Party lost the general election, and Hindenburg once again became President of the Weimar Republic.
Subsequently, Weimar Republic President Hindenburg appointed Franz von Papen as Prime Minister.
But he failed in the November general election, leading von Papen to resign, with Kurt von Schleicher taking over.
The whole affair, from the intelligence dealer’s viewpoint.
He believed the Nazi Party was unstoppable; no matter who came to power, they would have to compromise with the Nazi Party to achieve governance.
Though the Nazi Party only won 30% of the votes in the parliamentary election, they had broad grassroots support.
According to the intelligence dealer’s prediction, given the current situation, the Nazi Party might control the Weimar Republic next year.
Fang Wen finished reading all the intelligence information.
Even from an intelligence officer’s perspective, it was clear that Europe would undergo major changes next year.
Probably, the reality would be the same.
So the question was.
With his purchasing power of two tons of gold, should he procure from the United States or Europe?
The United States was currently in the late stage of the economic crisis, stimulating exports and reducing imports through tariff measures.
But acquiring complete weapons production lines or ready-made weapons resources wouldn’t be easy.
He had to consider the Japanese.
With Japan so powerful now, would Americans risk offending them to trade with him?
From memory, the United States only fully sided with China after the Pearl Harbor Incident; before that, it was at most some unofficial support.
More importantly, during World War II, apart from Pearl Harbor, the U.S. homeland faced no threats, so they had no demand for his security gate or solid-fuel aerial bombs.
Whereas Europe.
If Europe descended into chaos next year, demand for security and powerful aerial bombs would surge dramatically.
That way, he could add more bargaining chips beyond the purchasing power of gold.
While Fang Wen was deciding, he stood up and paced back and forth, contemplating his choice.
At the door, Shunzi came over again.
He held a small note.
“Young Master, this is what Brother Zhao Jiu gave me later; I almost forgot. He said it’s about some mold.”
“Penicillin?!”
Fang Wen rushed over and snatched the note.
It only had a very simple piece of intelligence written on it.
“Three years ago, the British invented a substance extracted from mold, probably called penicillin. This is a strange medicine that can kill other bacteria; since it’s a mold product itself, no medical institution is willing to use it for treatment yet.”
This was a newspaper item the intelligence dealer had once seen and recorded; he just heard Zhao Jiu ask about penicillin and wrote it down casually as ordinary intelligence trading.
Little did he know how important this intelligence was.
Fang Wen took a deep breath
During World War II, antibiotics saved countless soldiers’ lives.
And now, he had discovered it at a particularly timely moment.
If the world hadn’t yet noticed penicillin’s importance, then if he went to Europe, bought the technology to produce penicillin, and brought back the relevant technicians, couldn’t he solve the medicine shortage problem for future wars?
With this invaluable medicine, he could not only treat War of Resistance soldiers in China but also sell it to the European battlefield.
At that time, he would have even stronger bargaining chips to exchange for the supplies he wanted.
Fang Wen was extremely excited; the content on this unassuming note was too important.
If possible, he was willing to spend a large amount of gold to bring back the entire penicillin technology and personnel.
Fang Wen, now eager to go to Europe immediately, was highly agitated.
At this moment, his wife came home from work.
