Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 301, 300 Nanjing Commendation Meeting, Taishan Independent Regiment Number, Troops Marching North
Jinan Airport, one day after Fang Wen left.

Wu Yingzong, who took over the affairs of Jinan Airport, along with mercenary officers and the airport security team, made arrangements to deal with suspicious phenomena outside the airport.

Based on the information they gathered, there were a total of seven suspicious individuals.

Although they disguised themselves cleverly, using various identities as cover, they did not expect that the commercial area outside the airport was also a fortified block operated by Taishan Airlines.

What exposes them is their accent and lifestyle.

Although the local dialect of Jinan is not much different from Mandarin, it has its own characteristics. This group of people did not conduct a detailed study and were discovered by the family members of Taishan employees who had lived in Jinan for a long time.

For example:
Thunder in Jinan is called "da gua la".

Falling from a height is called "chuli" (出立).

The local pronunciation of this character is 奏 (zou).

These localized language and lifestyle habits are very difficult to imitate. Those spies who disguised themselves as locals and infiltrated the business district outside the airport were discovered by careful undercover agents.

Wu Yingzong did not immediately order the arrest of these Japanese spies.

In his view, these people were not meticulous in their work and did not meet the prudence expected of a qualified military intelligence officer.

Even those who travel the world have more experience than them.

He suspected that these were just some of the Japanese operatives sent to Jinan, or even military personnel, rather than professional intelligence agents.

Arresting them would obviously alert the enemy and make other Japanese agents more covert.

In order to find out who was in charge of the Japanese agents' operation at Jinan Airport, Wu Yingzong began to monitor these people.

This will ensure greater airport security and provide Fang Wen with a safe return.

8 month 5 day.

The Taishan Air Force landed at Nanjing Military Airport.

The Tianjin detachment's plane had arrived before them.

The ten pilots who participated in the Tianjin South Air Battle warmly welcomed the Taishan Air Force. Their shared experience in combat brought them closer together.

Fang Wenze talked with Captain Gao.

"General Manager Fang, you commanded well that day. If it weren't for your plan and the early retreat, our operation probably wouldn't have ended so well. It's a pity that my two colleagues were greedy for credit and acted rashly. We must take this as a warning in the future and make sure everyone knows the importance of obeying orders."

Captain Gao was implying that while the young master soldiers possessed excellent knowledge and skills, which enabled them to pilot fighter jets well, their undisciplined and free-spirited nature due to their status and environment made them difficult to manage.

He clearly hoped that this incident would teach his pilots a lesson and make them more obedient to his orders in future operations.

Fang Wen offered a suggestion in response.

"Yes. Soldiers are duty-bound to obey orders. Discipline is essential for fighting a good war. This is how I, a businessman, lead troops, so the National Air Force should be even more so. You lack a bit of courage. Don't let their status or position hold you back. If soldiers under you disobey, they will be disciplined. If they can't be disciplined, they can get out."

These words made it clear that the military does not need a free and undisciplined attitude, even the air force. This made Captain Gao somewhat interested, and he seemed to be considering making changes.

At that moment, the officials who were there to receive them also arrived.

Several officials from the Nationalist government came to Fang Wen and explained the upcoming itinerary.

"Hello Mr. Fang, we will arrange your itinerary in Nanjing. This afternoon, you will attend an internal meeting. Tomorrow morning, there will be an awards ceremony, followed by a press conference with Chinese and foreign journalists in the afternoon to cover the air battle. As for your accommodation, it will be arranged at the Overseas Chinese Guesthouse. Please follow me."

Immediately afterwards, Fang Wen and the pilots from the Taishan Aviation Team got into the car that picked them up and went into the city.

I checked into a classic brick and wood hotel in downtown NJ.

(Nanjing Overseas Chinese Guesthouse during the Republic of China era)

After arranging accommodations for Fang Wen and his group, the official instructed, "We will send someone to pick you up for the meeting this afternoon. Lunch will be arranged by someone else."

After saying that, he left the Overseas Chinese Guesthouse.

Not long after, the person who arranged lunch for the Taishan Air Force arrived.

Quan Yuncai is the nominal major shareholder of Taishan Airlines' domestic branch.

With a broad smile, Quan Yuncai entered Fang Wen's room and praised him, "Fang Wen, I thought you had focused on business after the Shanghai air battle, but I never expected you to have such a patriotic heart. Shooting down Japanese warplanes in the north really brought honor to our country. This lunch today is a personal invitation to you air heroes, as a small token of my appreciation."

Fang Wen smiled and thanked them. Then, the group went to the dining area on the first floor and ordered a table full of dishes.

While eating, Quan Yuncai continued his conversation with Fang Wen.

"This place was established by the owner in partnership with others a few years ago. It has a prime location and the business is doing well. The restaurants are all staffed with famous chefs from the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas. The people who arranged the itinerary know a bit about the domestic branch of Taishan Airlines, so naturally they arranged for you to come here."

Fang Wen nodded, so even if this place isn't Er Dongchen's property, it's still closely related to him.

He remembered the purpose of his visit and spoke up.

"I'd like to meet him. Can you arrange that?"

Quan Yuncai paused for a moment, then asked, "What do you want to see him about?"

"In order to fight against the Japanese, I formed a civilian volunteer army. I wanted to get a designation through it so that we could establish contact with friendly forces on the battlefield," Fang Wen replied.

Quan Yuncai was quite surprised by this, not expecting Fang Wen to have done such a big thing, not only establishing an escort team but also ground armed personnel.

He said he needed to report to his superiors before he could get a response.

He then got up and left to report the situation using the phone outside.

After a while, the National Games team returned.

"The boss said that an awards ceremony will be held first, and then he will meet with you afterward."

With things starting to look promising, Fang Wen immediately smiled and began chatting with Quan Yuncai about all sorts of things.

The meal took more than an hour longer than expected, until after 1 p.m.

The receiving official has arrived.

Only Fang Wen, as the captain of the air force, attended this internal meeting; the others returned to their guest rooms to rest and await orders.

He traveled by car to the Executive Yuan of the Nationalist Government, which was also located on Zhongshan North Road.

There, Fang Wen was taken to a conference room in the Executive Yuan building.

Captain Gao was still in the meeting room. The two looked at each other but said nothing, simply waiting silently.

After a short while, the person arrived.

A group of officials took their seats, with one of them presiding.

"Hello, my name is Gong Shaohui, and I am the head of the Publicity Section of the Aviation Department of the Ministry of Military Affairs, Executive Yuan. This commendation meeting will play a significant role in the Air Force's external publicity, and I hope you, especially Mr. Fang, will cooperate."

Because he wasn't part of the system, Fang Wen felt no pressure and asked frankly, "How do we cooperate?"

"Tomorrow's commendation ceremony will include the battles of Nanyuan and Tianjin South. We hope you can cooperate and publicly declare that these were military operations carried out under the command and dispatch of the Aviation Military Commission."

Fang Wen did not immediately agree to this request.

He understood that this was his best leverage in coming here, so he leaned back, remained calm, and kept silent.

The situation suddenly became a little awkward, and the airline officials didn't know what was going on.

They looked at Captain Gao, who was also powerless to do anything about it.

An airline official whispered to the head of the publicity department: "There are probably some things we don't know about here that he can't say publicly. Why don't we ask someone?"

"Who should I ask?"

"Old Liu, he was Fang Wen's teacher when he was at Nanyuan Flight School."

The meeting was then suspended, and Instructor Liu, who had been called in, met with Fang Wen alone.

The teacher and student hadn't seen each other for three years, so they reminisced about the past.

Instructor Liu has now moved from Guangzhou to Nanjing and is still working for an airline.

He was very pleased and deeply moved by the student's great achievements in aviation.

"Who would have thought that you only studied at Nanyuan Flight School for one year before graduating? But your talent will not be buried. From the moment you were recruited by China Airlines, I believed that you would definitely be extraordinary in the future."

Fang Wen smiled and replied, "Teacher, you've let something slip. It should start from our final flight training. If you hadn't taken me home and arranged for me to take the flight test with China Airlines, I wouldn't have had this opportunity."

"Even if you don't get into China Airlines, with your abilities, you can still develop in other aviation fields. Who knows, you might already be a key member of the National Air Force."

At this point, Teacher Liu realized he had said the wrong thing.

Today, Fang Wen owns a multinational corporation with assets spanning Asia, Europe, and America. How could he possibly be subservient to anyone?

He immediately got back to the main topic.

"By the way, Fang Wen, do you have any opinions on the arrangements for this commendation meeting? If so, please tell us the truth, and we can discuss it."

“Yes, I want to change something,” Fang Wen replied.

Getting military designations through Chen's connections in Erdong is one approach, but we can't give up on this one either. Only by working together from multiple sides can we achieve twice the result with half the effort.

After hearing Fang Wen's request, Instructor Liu reported to his superior.

The airlines can't make that decision.

They communicated with Fang Wen, telling him to wait, as they needed to report to higher levels.

Time passed little by little.

The matter concerning the Taishan Volunteer Army has been transferred from the Executive Yuan to the Military Commission. In order to ensure the smooth conduct of tomorrow's commendation meeting, it is not impossible to have a nominal unit designation that does not require any military expenditure.

Then, the ball was passed to that person, meaning that the matter could be resolved by talking to that person after the commendation meeting.

Fang Wencai then agreed to the arrangements for this commendation meeting.

August 6th.

The Nationalist government issued a letter to air force officers and soldiers, demanding that they adhere to their duties and "strive to serve the country to the death."

On the same day, in order to boost the morale of the Nationalist Air Force, a commendation meeting for the North China Air Force was held.

After the commendation meeting held in the morning, domestic and foreign journalists were organized to participate in the interviews in the afternoon.

During the interview, the head of the publicity department of the airline presided over the meeting.

"Distinguished journalists, this interview is to commend the pilots who participated in the North China Air Battles. Since the Japanese invasion of North China and their open provocation of war, our Air Force has responded actively, dispatching multiple waves of aircraft to fight against the Japanese. The Nanyuan and Tianjin South air battles were particularly outstanding, resulting in brilliant victories, shooting down thirteen and nine enemy aircraft respectively. These facts demonstrate that our Chinese Air Force possesses the strength to contend with the Japanese, and will achieve even greater success on future battlefields. Now, let the pilots who participated in these two air battles enter the room for your interviews."

Eight members of the Taishan Air Force and ten pilots from the Tianjin Detachment of the National Air Force who participated in the Battle of Tianjin South entered the venue and, after introducing themselves, accepted interviews from reporters.

During this interview, Fang Wen and the pilots of Taishan Aviation Team were quite low-key, and the interview topics mainly focused on the Tianjin branch, to which he was very cooperative.

After the interview, Fang Wen asked the pilots to wait at the Overseas Chinese Guesthouse, while he took the car he had just received from the National Games to his host family's residence.

Upon arriving at the location and seeing such a large luxury residence in the city center, Fang Wen gained a clearer understanding of this person's status.

After explaining the situation to Quan Yuncai at the entrance, he was led into the courtyard. On the second floor of a detached building in the garden, Fang Wen met that person.

The two talked alone in the study.

“You’re a prudent person. You not only went through me but also offered your own interests in exchange. That saved me a lot of trouble. But before I agree, I need to understand the situation of your troops.”

Fang Wen replied, "The original name was the Taishan Volunteer Army. The organizational structure was divided into: an elite air force, a seaplane air force, and a ground support force. The elite air force had 8 fighter jets and 40 people including ground crew. The seaplane air force currently only had 3 gunboats. The ground support force had 2 tanks and 700 combat personnel."

Chen was quite surprised to hear Fang Wen say that.

This was a mixed-service military structure that he had never seen or heard of before, and he didn't know how such a military structure could cooperate with each other on the battlefield.

Moreover, he was very interested in how Fang Wen's high-caliber army would perform on the future battlefield.

He replied, "Less than 1000 people can be considered an independent battalion, but considering that you will expand in the future, how about we make it an independent regiment?"

"Yes. But this independent regiment will not accept orders to be deployed; it can cooperate with other units in the theater of operations."

"That's no problem. We'll keep the old name, Taishan Independent Regiment. You'll stay here for a while, and I'll make the arrangements."

After a conversation at the Chen residence, the matter was considered half successful.

However, obtaining a formal designation isn't something that can be done overnight.

This requires approval from the military commission.

The Ministry of Military Affairs was responsible for designating the specific unit numbers.

Even with the honor of the North China air battle and the help of the airline and the Chen family, Fang Wen still went through many approval procedures.

Compared to the establishment of other military unit designations, his was done relatively quickly.

On August 10, the designation of the Taishan Independent Regiment was finalized, and a notice was issued to military and political departments in various regions to inform them of this special designation.

Thus, Fang Wen's plan to form an army, after several years of preparation, was officially successful.

With a unit designation, troops could be officially mobilized through the Nationalist government's system.

Immediately afterwards, a transfer order was issued from the Military Affairs Department of the Military Commission, ordering the Taishan Independent Regiment to set off for Jinan, Shandong, to deal with the war in North China.

With this transfer order, the main force of the mercenary group at Xiangxi Airport, as well as the two tanks in Changde, could finally legitimately head north under the guise of military operations.

(End of this chapter)