Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 287, Section 286: A Dramatic Turn of Events on the Haihe River Route; Japanese Warplanes Cause Damage During Harassment; The Taishan Escort Team is Established.
The Fang family is preparing to move.

After making the decision overnight, the Fang family took the initiative to announce it to the outside world.

Having lived in Jiaxing their entire lives, the Fang family members have their own sentiments and relationships, and they inevitably have to meet and say goodbye to relatives and friends.

From their conversation, everyone knew that this was the decision of the third young master of the Fang family, out of concern for the deteriorating situation.

However, no one else was willing to follow suit. After all, the south was peaceful and breezy, and no one believed that the situation would suddenly turn bad.

But another matter is of greater concern to them.

That means Fangjia Rice Shop is selling it.

The third young master sold the family's rice shop, resolving the family property dispute, and disposed of it in the blink of an eye.

The owners of rice shops in Jiaxing, big and small, were all eager to take over Fang's rice shops. For them, having Fang's rice shops would be like taking another step forward.

After a fierce battle, Fang Family Rice Shop was eventually sold to several alliance rice merchants, and at the same time, Fang Family's belongings were packed up.

Fortunately, his family had a capable third young master who used a seaplane to transport the Fang family and their luggage.

Four seaplanes were parked at the sea airport outside Jiaxing City; two were used for carrying luggage, and two were used to pick up passengers.

All three branches of the Fang family left, and the personal maids, servants, and managers who were willing to go with them also went.

Before leaving, relatives and friends came to see him off, making it a lively farewell.

Once everyone and their luggage were on board, the four seaplanes took off one after another, heading west directly to Wuhan, 700 kilometers away.

They landed at the Yangtze River Seaplane Wuhan Terminal near Wuhan Taishan Aviation Land-Based Airport.

Fang Wen and Kuang Mingzhu greeted their parents and brothers on the shore.

He and his wife went forward specifically to support their father and mother, one supporting the other.

Fang Wendao said, "Father, I've already arranged where you'll stay. You can start your new life here."

"Where are you staying?" Mr. Fang asked.

“In Hankou, you can move into a detached house there. Let’s go take a look first.”

Immediately afterwards, Fang Wen instructed Fang Shouxin to have the Fang family's maids, servants, and managers move the luggage and load it onto the ship, while he, his parents, and brothers boarded the ferry first and went to Hankou.

The ship sailed across the wide Yangtze River and docked at the Hankou Wharf.

After disembarking, a car was arranged to wait for them. Fang Wen and his party got into the car and arrived in Hankou city.

As he said, it is a detached villa with four floors, each floor is more than 200 square meters, with several rooms, just enough for the whole family to live in.

After showing them around their new accommodations, the porters who had been carrying their luggage also arrived by boat.

All the luggage from the two small trucks was brought into the house, and everyone was amazed by the very stylish and comfortable new environment.

At this point, Fang Wen had a heart-to-heart talk with his parents and brothers.

"If there's no problem with the accommodation, then we'll stay here. Just let us know if you need anything regarding food, lodging, or transportation."

Fang Wen said this on purpose. He could have arranged things better and prepared everything in advance, but his two older brothers would not have accepted his kindness and would have felt that everything their younger brother gave them was their due.

Their initiative in making requests, however, carries a sense of demanding, which would at least give the two older brothers some leeway.

Just as he had predicted, his two elder brothers indeed spoke up urgently.

The eldest son came over with a big smile: "Fifth brother, with so many people in our family, it's inconvenient for us to get around. How about we get a car for us?"

The second young master stopped arguing with the eldest young master and spoke up in support: "It's good to have a car, but no one in our family can drive, and we don't usually need one in Jiaxing. If we were to get a car now, it would be best to also have a driver."

"No problem, we just need a family car. Don't worry about the driver. I'll have Mingzhu arrange it."

Upon hearing Fang Wen's agreement, the two wanted to make further requests.

"Fifth brother, we've lost our livelihood here, and everything we need costs money. The little money we got from the family division probably won't last long. Why don't you find us something to do?"

"Yes, we're in the prime of our youth, the time to build our careers. You should help out your older brothers."

The two brothers' words tempted Master Fang; he couldn't just live off his savings.

He also spoke up: "Fifth brother, they don't have any great skills, but they're good at maintaining the business. Why don't you arrange for them to work in a simple business like a rice shop, so they'll have something to do and won't be idle all day and get cheated?"

Father's words make sense. Fang Wen, who had a deep relationship with the thieves and the gang leader Wang, had heard of and seen many shady dealings. In the Republic of China, as long as someone had a little money and showed it off, all sorts of people would try to get their hands on it.

Therefore, Fang Wen and Kuang Mingzhu, a married couple, discussed it.

"What kind of business should we get them?" Fang Wen asked. His wife knew more about business than he did, but he was focused on the aviation industry.

“I want them to have an easy life, but also something to do all day to prevent them from causing trouble. I know what kind of business this is. Opening a shop. Sun Debiao said the shop doesn't need to be big, just one in Hankou is enough for the two brothers to manage,” Kuang Mingzhu replied.

That's true. Running a shop involves a lot of work, but it's not too busy. The main thing is that you have to keep an eye on things all the time.

After all, in today's business environment, there's no computer monitoring; people are expected to do everything themselves.

Having come up with an idea, Fang Wen explained it to his father and two older brothers. Upon hearing that it was a retail business supplied by Taishan Airlines, which was similar to a rice shop, they immediately agreed.

Fang Wen wouldn't personally handle the matter of opening supermarkets for his two older brothers, and even Kuang Mingzhu wouldn't need to get involved; everything would be left to Sun Debiao.

Sun Debiao took this very seriously, treating it as a pilot project. If it succeeded, it could be expanded nationwide.

Fang Wen did not interrupt Sun Debiao's pipe dream; he would naturally accept reality once things reached a certain stage.

Time passed little by little, and before we knew it, the end of the year was approaching.

On February 11, 1937, the Fang family spent their first Spring Festival away from home in Wuhan.

Fang Wen and his wife arrived at the small villa, and the family spent the Spring Festival together in harmony.

However, North China was not at peace during this period.

The northward-bound Central Army and the Northeast Army clashed several times, resulting in a split within the Northeast Army and a period of chaos.

Wang Yizhe, who was bedridden, was killed at home by officers from a faction that favored the Central Army.

Therefore, General Yang led a portion of the Northeast Army to withdraw from Weihe River and head north, while the Central Army took advantage of the situation to advance and press forward step by step.

The situation was eventually brought under control thanks to the mediation of the Yan'an authorities.

By the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the proposal for cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party was finally put on the table. Although things had changed, they were still developing in a positive direction.

As the New Year holiday ended, employees of Taishan Airlines who had gone home for the holiday returned to their posts.

Under the standardized management and operational procedures that Fang Wen has always demanded, Taishan Airlines seems to have been wound up like a machine, and has begun to operate with precision once again.

Everything seems fine, but there are always things that don't go as planned.

There's a problem in the north.

On the third working day after the New Year, the commercial telegraph office received an urgent telegram. The telegraph operator rushed out and knocked on the door of the general manager's office.

Hearing the voice outside the door, Fang Wen looked up and stopped what he was doing. "Come in," the telegraph operator said urgently as he pushed the door open. "General Manager, something has happened to the North China operations."

"Let me see." Fang Wen took the telegram, and his expression changed slightly as he read the text.

The Haihe River waterway was harassed by Japanese aircraft. While evading Japanese fighter planes in the air, a seaplane made a technical error and was forced to land on the water. The extent of the damage is still being assessed.

The Haihe River route was the first seaplane route opened by Fang Wen, and it was also a relatively dangerous route.

Those involved in flight operations and management are now all locals from Hebei, and they have consistently persisted in doing so.

Given the status of the major shareholder behind Taishan Airlines' domestic branch, there haven't been any problems so far.

But now, the Japanese have still taken action.

Fang Wen felt a surge of anger, but he suppressed it: "Send a telegram to the Haihe River waterway management station and tell them to report the damage investigation results immediately."

The telegram from the north didn't arrive until the afternoon.

The situation report stated that the seaplane stalled due to improper evasive maneuvers, but because it was a low-speed aircraft and was flying along a river, the pilot managed to make a forced landing on the water in an emergency.

Due to a deviation in the landing maneuver, one side of the fuselage flipped onto the water, the right wing broke off, and the landing gear floats were damaged. Fortunately, the watertight layer of the cabin was not damaged, allowing the fuselage to remain afloat on the water.

Aside from the impact during landing, there were no injuries or fatalities among the people on board.

The Haihe River Route Management Office has already sent people to pick up the passengers by boat, and is now applying to headquarters to send a mechanic for repairs.

After reading the telegram, Fang Wen made arrangements to send mechanics from the seaplane engineering and maintenance department to inspect the damaged aircraft. If it could be repaired, it would be repaired; otherwise, it would be scrapped.

After handling the accident, Fang Wen realized that it was time to mobilize crisis awareness regarding Taishan Airlines.

Just like the series of Spanish Civil War briefings in Yangon, which allowed mercenary groups and workers there to experience war in advance.

However, the sense of crisis regarding the Japanese invading army was still insufficient among Taishan Airlines and Taishan Volunteer Army.

Immediately afterwards, he sent a notice to all departments of Taishan Airlines and to Yangon, requiring all direct superiors of each department to come to Wuhan for a pre-battle mobilization meeting.

2 month 20 day.

Managers from various departments across the country and even abroad gathered at Taishan Airlines' Wuhan headquarters.

These people include...

Domestic airport managers, leaders of land-based and seaplane flight route departments, and heads of distribution departments.

The two mercenary group leaders who came from Yangon.

Supervisor of Taishan International Aviation's offices in various regions.

These people gathered at Taishan Airport in Wuhan and sat down in front of a makeshift stage.

Fang Wen took the stage and presided over the opening of the meeting.

"Hello everyone, today's meeting will only discuss one thing: should we choose to protect ourselves or step forward? My view is that China is currently facing internal and external troubles, and as a Chinese enterprise, Taishan Airlines has its own sense of responsibility and cannot remain aloof. We must take patriotism into account while running our business."

After a pause, Fang Wen scanned the area below, and with his current eyesight, he could clearly see the expressions and movements of the attendees.

Most of them listened attentively, but the effect was not very good.

Simply saying this won't bring any results.

Fang Wen wanted to make those who had thought they had lived a peaceful life for two years realize that danger was just around the corner.

He continued, “A nation is the foundation of a home; this is not an exaggeration. When foreign invaders invade, they will inevitably plunder wealth and resources, taking everything good for themselves. All the good things we have now are just an illusion without the protection of the nation. If you don’t feel this way, let my colleagues from the Hebei Seaplane Management Office tell you what it’s like to lose national protection.”

He vacated the podium, allowing another speaker to begin.

This is the real protagonist of today's story.

The man took out his speech and spoke with some excitement.

"Hello everyone, my name is Li Youning, and I'm a native of Hebei. I started by managing seaplane stations and was later promoted to the Haihe Seaplane Route Management Office to manage routes. Not long ago, one of our planes on the Haihe route was harassed by Japanese warplanes, almost resulting in a tragedy of the plane being destroyed and the lives of the crew lost. What I want to tell you now is how everyone has been doing in Hebei these past two years."

Gradually, Li Youning got into the zone.

He recounted his experiences in Hebei to the audience.

these years.

With the defeat of the Great Wall Resistance and the signing of the Tanggu Truce, Hebei became an undefended region.

However, this lack of defense was only in relation to the Nationalist government's army. Japanese planes could come and go as they pleased, and Japanese military attachés were stationed in major cities in Hebei to monitor the situation while also recruiting traitors and lackeys.

As a result of their actions, the traitors and lackeys who defected to the Japanese army became powerful figures, even gathering people to form a puppet army with weapons and equipment funded by the Japanese, and lording it over others.

It can be said that the North China National Plan continued despite the inaction of the Nationalist government.

But not everyone was willing to be a Japanese collaborator or traitor; many more were resisting.

Across North China, people are making every effort to try and salvage the situation.

In fact, the resistance they launched was no less than that of the volunteer army in Northeast China.

Li Youning became more and more excited as he spoke, revealing the little-known aspects of North China to everyone.

North China, abandoned by the Nationalist government, has never lacked courageous people.

However, in the past two years, many anti-Japanese uprisings have failed.

Some were suppressed by traitors and forces cultivated by the Japanese.

Some incidents escalated to a great extent, and the Japanese were unable to suppress them, but they were ultimately suppressed by the Nationalist government in the name of maintaining the status quo, in conjunction with the Japanese.

His speech revealed a harsh reality to the audience: there was no peace at all. The Japanese army, which had occupied Northeast China, was constantly eyeing more Chinese territory, with Hebei being a prime example.

If Hebei is in such a state, how can other places remain unscathed once the Japanese army moves south?
The speech had a profound impact on everyone, prompting the participants to reflect deeply.

Fang Wen then took the microphone.

He said meaningfully:

"A territory without national protection is being eroded, and the people of North China, struggling to resist, are powerless against the traitors and puppet troops supported by Japan. This is what I want everyone to see and know. Only with a country can there be a home, but if those in power do not act, as members of China, we cannot give up. Take the Haihe River shipping route as an example. If the Nationalist government cannot send air force to protect our Taishan Airlines planes, then I have decided to establish the Taishan Airlines Escort Squadron to patrol over North China and protect our own planes."

The audience erupted in enthusiastic applause. It was so exciting to have Taishan Airlines' own air escort team!

But can such commercial military escort teams really fly over North China?

Everyone was waiting to see how the general manager would proceed.

Fang Wen, however, flew the plane alone to Nanjing Airport to find Quan Yuncai.

The major shareholder of Taishan Airlines' domestic branch is nominally Quan Yuncai, but he is just a front man. The person behind him is surnamed Chen, and the Chen family needs to give an explanation for this matter.

(End of this chapter)