Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 334, Section 332: Parisian German-equipped black market merchants, their peculiar trading methods.
A day after arriving in Yangon, Fang Wen set off again.

The Sichuan Army will be deployed to the defense zone north of Taiyuan by the end of October, and the transaction must be completed before then.

Before setting off, Fang Wen contacted Taishan International in the United States and asked Lin Shuiwang to prepare a cargo ship to dock at the port of Algiers in Algeria, North Africa. As for where to pick up the goods, Fang Wen himself did not know.

In order to get to Spain as quickly as possible, I first flew to Kolkata.

The gunboat was anchored on the waters of Kolkata port. Fang Wen, Gong Xiuneng, and William got off the plane and took a small boat arranged by the airport office staff to disembark at the port.

The group walked among the dark-skinned port workers, their body odor permeating the entire port.

The smell was quite unpleasant, and Gong Xiuneng, experiencing it for the first time, couldn't help but frown.

"Commander, why do these people smell like this? It's like they haven't showered for days and then there's a stench of decay mixed with all sorts of other strange smells. It's making my nose hurt."

Fang Wen replied with a smile, "Just bear with it. Look at those British people over there, they always have a handkerchief to cover their noses. They consider themselves gentlemen, but they've gotten used to it. You can too."

To be honest, Fang Wen wasn't used to this kind of body odor either, but his mental strength far exceeded that of ordinary people, allowing him to suppress the discomfort caused by the smell.

Gong Xiuneng was in the worst pain, while William was slightly better.

Then, the two simply covered their mouths and noses with the hems of their clothes to block out the unpleasant smell. Fang Wen chuckled to himself and led the way, walking quickly away from the port.

After leaving the port, the group boarded a vehicle and headed to Kolkata Airport.

Over there, staff from Taishan Airlines' Kolkata office brought over a set of airline uniforms.

"General Manager, the uniforms are ready."

Fang Wen nodded and picked up the captain's uniform to change into.

While changing his clothes, he asked, "What about the flight?"

The flight he asked about was an Asia-Europe flight departing from Guangzhou, which is currently the only domestic flight still operating normally to Europe.

To avoid being intercepted by the Japanese naval air force along the coast, the route was adjusted, passing through Guangxi from Guangzhou to Kunming for a transit, before finally flying to Kolkata.

The staff member replied, "The flight is expected to land at the airport in half an hour. We have already informed the passengers that the pilot is unwell and a replacement pilot will be assigned."

After the staff member finished speaking, he left the room. Fang Wen, who was already dressed in his uniform, explained to his two subordinates.

"This time we will be taking a commercial flight to Spain. After landing in Paris, I will fly a commercial airliner to Spain."

After explaining, the three rested in the room, waiting for the Taishan International Flight to land.

Thirty minutes later, the A3 passenger plane landed on the airport runway.

Fang Wen, now in uniform, went to the runway and handed over the plane to the French pilot who was disembarking, while Gong Xiuneng and William boarded as passengers.

Everything was perfectly normal, there were no problems, and the passengers had no complaints.

The plane then took off again under Fang Wen's piloting, heading towards Europe along the established route.

We rested overnight in Ankara, departed at 7 a.m. the next morning, and arrived in Paris around noon.

After the passengers and crew had all disembarked, Fang Wen immediately began preparations.

He opened the rear cargo hold and unlocked the locked metal cabinet inside.

The metal cabinet contained penicillin powder brought this time, which was known as "Miracle Sterilizer". After several transactions with Spain, those drugs had a very good anti-infection effect in treating wounded soldiers and were highly praised by the medical personnel of the People's Front.

He divided the "miracle sterilizer" inside into two parts: one part was the original transaction amount, and the other, larger part, was used to exchange for currency to buy guns and bullets.

If they didn't intend to buy firearms in Spain, then that batch of "miracle sterilizer" wouldn't have been traded there.

After the medications were distributed, they were placed in two separate suitcases, one black and one gray.

He put the gray one back in the metal cabinet and locked it, then took the black briefcase and handed it directly to Gong Xiuneng.

"Take this; it's something we're going to trade in Spain."

Gong Xiuneng nodded. From this moment on, the black briefcase would never leave his hands again until the transaction was completed.

Afterwards, Fang Wen spoke with William.

"I'm flying to Zaragoza, Spain tonight. There's still time. Do you have a way to contact the arms dealers in Germany?"

“I know a German in Paris who has been secretly selling arms to Germany. We used to have a good relationship, but I’m not sure about now.”

William's fears were his crime.

Now that Hitler's status in Germany is at its zenith, Wilhelm, who has been accused of assassinating the Führer, fears betrayal from his former friends.

Fang Wen thought for a moment: "Then I won't use your real face. Wait for me."

Immediately, Fang Wen took out a disguise tool from his luggage. This thing was originally intended for special situations, but he didn't expect to use it on William first.

He shaved off William's beard, then put on a skin mask and meticulously groomed him.

Upon seeing this, Gong Xiuneng exclaimed, "Commander, you also know the art of disguise!"

Fang Wen nodded slightly and continued operating.

Half an hour later, it was finished.

William has changed his appearance; his face shape has been adjusted, and he looks completely different from before.

William stared in disbelief at his new appearance in the mirror: "Is this my face?"

He incredulously tried to reach out and rub his face, but Fang Wen stopped him: "Don't touch it, the human skin mask is very thin."

William immediately stopped, still marveling at the amazing secret technique. "Now I don't have to worry about being recognized."

"Let's go then. Gong Xiuneng, you stay on the plane and keep watch until we return," Fang Wen instructed.

The two then left the airport, drove a car from the Taishan Airlines Paris office, and headed into Paris.

The car drove into Paris and traveled slowly along the north bank of the Seine.

“This is it. The bar is nearby. Let’s find a place to park and walk over.” William pointed to a tall tower ahead.

(The Tower of St. Jacques, the only remaining structure of the Church of St. Jacques from hundreds of years ago.)
It was a uniquely shaped tower, probably a Gothic building, standing alone and out of place with the surrounding architecture.

Across from it lies Île de la Cité in the Seine, home to the famous Notre Dame Cathedral.

Fang Wen found a place to park, and after parking the car, the two walked around looking for a bar where they could contact German arms dealers.

After walking for a while, they found the Bavarian Rose Bar for William.

The bar was open during the day, so the two of them pushed open the door and went inside.

Inside, a German song was playing on the record player. The bar was empty except for the bartender behind the counter, who was wiping glasses in a vest.

He saw that a guest had arrived and asked in French, "Welcome, what would you like to order?"

William said in perfect Bavarian dialect, "Maibock, two glasses."

Maibock is a German wheat spirit brewed in May, also known as May ale, which is actually a type of strong beer.

Bavarians can consume this as both a drink and food.

Upon hearing Wilhelm's Bavarian accent, the bartender immediately regarded him as a fellow German, poured him two glasses of strong beer, and then they started chatting.

During the brief conversation, William revealed the purpose of his visit: "I need to see Adler; I have a business deal to discuss with him."

Upon hearing the name, the bartender's smile immediately vanished. "I don't know Adler."

"Don't get me wrong, a friend in China asked me to come here. The man next to me is planning to buy a batch of large cigars."

Clearly, the large cigar is a code word here, alluding to a specific shipment of firearms; only those who know it can decipher the code.

The bartender was visibly relaxed and replied directly, "How much do you want?"

"A lot, 16000 Kar98k rifles, and bullets."

William's words took the bartender by surprise. In Europe, it was extremely rare to see someone order 16000 rifles at once; he had never seen such a large client before.

He couldn't believe it.

William continued, “He’s from Asia, you know, there’s a war going on there, and their army needs a lot of weapons.”

The bartender looked at Fang Wen and then replied, "Wait for me in the bar."

He then left the two behind and turned to enter through a small door at the back of the bar.

At this point, William explained the situation to Fang Wen: "The disguise worked very well; he didn't recognize me. I doubt Adler will recognize me when he comes over either. But I estimate that it will be very difficult to produce 16000 guns at once."

Fang Wen replied calmly, "I don't know if there are that many guns, but what I'm worried about now is that you've said the wrong thing."

"Did I say something wrong?" William was stunned.

“You shouldn’t have told him how many guns we needed. That would have been like telling them that two rookies were coming with a lot of money, and they might have tried to steal the huge sum we were carrying.”

After listening to Fang Wenyi's explanation, William suddenly realized how stupid he had been. He had rashly conducted an arms deal without the guarantee of a local power, and had even revealed that he was carrying a large sum of money, which could easily arouse the other party's greed.

“Then let’s leave here immediately,” William said hastily, getting up.

"Don't panic."

As the owner of an international airline, Fang Wen knows very well that the most important thing in the trading process is to maintain a calm mindset and never let problems during the trading process affect his judgment.

He stood up and, before leaving, took a sip of the strong beer in front of him.

The dark brown liquid mixed with white foam was swallowed. This pure malt fermented liquid could hardly be considered beer.

The alcohol content is already at the level of rice wine, but the taste is not the kind that Fang Wen likes.

After putting down their glasses, Fang Wen and William left the bar and went straight to the parking lot to drive away in their car.

The two men sat in the car and stopped about 300 meters from the bar, observing the scene.

After a while, a group of burly men appeared outside the bar, gathering in twos and threes, clearly blocking the bar and preparing to rob it.

Unfortunately, the bar was already empty.

A moment later, a bartender and a man came out of the bar. The man told them to leave.

"Is he Adler?" Fang Wen asked from inside the car.

“Yes, it’s him. It seems we can’t make a deal with him,” William said regretfully.

Fang Wen nodded: "It's not feasible to trade directly with him, but we have other options."

The car started and drove away from here, heading directly to the Farman Company.

He planned to find a middleman, even if it meant paying a small commission, it would be better than taking the risk alone.

Upon arriving at the Farman Company, Fang Wen spoke with familiar executives.

When they heard that he wanted to act as an intermediary to buy weapons, Farmand's executives were happy to take on the deal.

He then stepped forward and negotiated with Adler.

As a high-ranking executive of a well-known local Parisian company, Adler was someone no one dared to offend, which made it possible for the deal to continue.

Two hours later, Fang Wen and William met Adler at an upscale restaurant behind the Louvre.

This time, Adler was very straightforward: "What happened before was my fault. If you want to continue the deal, I'm willing to give you a lower price: $30 for a Kar98k rifle, with 200 rounds of ammunition."

Fang Wen mentally assessed the price.

At today's exchange rate, $30 is equivalent to 460 yuan.

The purchase price of the German Type 24 Mauser rifles used by the elite German-equipped divisions of the National Army was 300 yuan in legal tender.

The German Mauser Type 24 rifle is an older model, while the Kar98k rifle is a new rifle produced by the Mauser factory in 35 and was issued to the regular German army, with very good performance.

Compared to this, the price of the Kar98k rifle is actually not high, not to mention that each one comes with 200 rounds of ammunition.

Fang Wen remained calm and replied, "The price is acceptable. The transaction must be completed through Henry Wade of Falaman, but how much can you offer?"

That's the key issue. 16000 guns, and they were standard German equipment, which wasn't easy to get.

Adler replied, "I only have 2000 of them, which is 90% of the supply in the Paris region. Everyone else's stock comes from me. You can't buy any more."

“2000 is too few. Can’t you get more?” Fang Wen asked.

“I can’t ship it out of the country,” Adler replied regretfully.

Judging from his words, he has connections in Germany and can obtain a lot of Kar98k rifles and bullets.

This shows that he was not acting alone; it involved many interests of the German Wehrmacht.

However, these people were not omnipotent, and they could not transport large quantities of military equipment from Germany to Paris. After all, there was a great deal of suspicion between Germany and France, and it was not easy for large quantities of military equipment to cross the border.

Fang Wen suddenly had a new idea.

"If the arms cannot be transported to Paris, could they be sent to Spain? I have heard that your country has provided a large amount of military equipment to Franco's army. We can mix the weapons in and complete the transaction within Spain."

This bold idea surprised Adler.

But upon closer examination, it is indeed very feasible, but it also has problems.

Adler raised his question: "I do have a way to get the weapons to Spain, but how do I complete the deal? If the deal fails, the weapons will be given to Franco for free, and I can't afford that kind of loss."

“We will trade on the Spanish front. Have your people transport the weapons to the fighting zone between Franco and the Popular Front. I will find a way to contact you from the Popular Front side.”

Adler was somewhat tempted by this type of transaction, but he didn't dare to.

This method would indeed allow 16000 Kar98k rifles to be transported from Germany to Spain without any obstruction.

But the key question is how to complete the transaction and ensure that the money and goods are exchanged.

Fang Wen went on to explain.

"You can pretend that the weapons were robbed during transport. That way, you won't have to worry about where the weapons are. We will hand over the money to you on the spot."

This is a huge game; both sides take risks in the arms deal, but the potential profits are also enormous.

If successful, the reward would be equivalent to several years of black market arms trading profits for Adler.

Just when he was caught in a dilemma.

Fang Wen gestured to William.

William took out a small glass bottle without any labels or markings.

“We can also add this, it can treat wound infections.”

Adler looked at the small bottle, then seemed to remember something and immediately took it to examine it.

“I’ve seen this medicine before. It’s really good, but it’s hard to get in Europe. I’ve heard that it’s all coming from the Spanish Popular Front. So you’re working for them.”

By a twist of fate, Adler came to believe that Fang Wen and William were purchasing weapons for the Spanish Popular Front.

Adler would not have accepted this behavior originally.

But if that drug is added, he can do it.

After all, the drug's amazing antibacterial effects have already spread quietly in Europe, and on the black market, a single bottle of this medicine is being offered for a price higher than gold.

His eyes were filled with desire: "If you can replace half of the payment with this medicine, I can do business with you."

Fang Wen smiled and replied, "No problem."

(End of this chapter)