Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 373 371 Heading to University, The River Crossing Plan

Three cars passed through Qingliang Gate and Caochang Gate into the city, arriving first at the nearest university, Ginling Women's University.

Located on Ninghai Road in the east of Gulou District, this place was the earliest women's university in the Republic of China era, and it was also a church university.

After the car entered the campus, Fang Wen saw a lively scene.

Many women and children stayed on campus, and students and faculty were setting up stoves on the lawn. Whitney's wife was also there, seemingly preparing to cook for these civilians.

These past two days, Fang Wen has been busy with the war and has no time to take care of the Whitneys. He has only sent two security personnel to accompany them and asked them to try their best to meet their needs.

I never expected to end up here.

In a moment of reflection, Fang Wen understood.

Both Ginling College and Ginling University are American church-funded universities, and the Whitneys were Christians, so of course they would come here to visit.

Fang Wen walked over quickly and greeted Alison Grace Whitney in English.

"Alison, you and your husband are here. Where's Connor?"

Allison put down her tools and replied, "Connor is at Nanjing University. We've gone our separate ways, but we're both doing our part for the common people."

As she spoke, she introduced the women beside Fang Wen.

“This is Ms. Minnie Vautrin. She opened the door to the common people and welcomed them in. Connor and I admire Vautrin and the other members of the church for their actions, and therefore wanted to do our part.”

Fang Wen looked at the woman, who had short hair and wore glasses, and smiled, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, ma'am."

“My Chinese name is Hua Qun. Mr. Fang Wen, what you are doing is even greater. May God bless you.” The woman extended her hand to shake hands with Fang Wen.

After a conversation, Fang Wen learned about the situation.

The seaplane airport is currently full, and it's impossible to take more people away by plane.

Can't we use other methods?

Perhaps we can do what we did last time in Texas.

The distribution of Japanese troops, which he had learned during aerial reconnaissance, flashed through his mind.

When the Japanese army besieged Nanjing, their forces were weakest on the side near the Yangtze River. Only one division was stationed on the north bank of the Yangtze River, more than 100 kilometers away from Nanjing. At the marching speed, it was estimated that this force would need 5 days to reach the other side of Nanjing and complete the encirclement of the city.

If, during this time, the civilians stranded in the two schools were allowed to cross the Yangtze River and escape westward from the north bank, that would also be a viable option.

But this is a huge undertaking. Having planes alone is not enough; ground personnel are needed to organize the escort and deal with any potential pursuit by Japanese troops.

With this in mind, Fang Wen left Jinling Women's University and headed to Jinling University on Hankou Road.

He saw the same scene at Jinling University, but unlike Jinling Women's University, which only took in women and children, there were more people there.

Fang Wen observed that, in order to accommodate civilians, the school had vacated classrooms, gymnasiums, libraries, teachers' dormitories, and other facilities for civilian use.

However, due to the large number of civilians, these venues are already overcrowded and extremely crowded.

Delivering just the rice porridge each day is a huge workload.

That is why many students did not go to the seaplane airport to register, but chose to stay and serve the people.

Seeing all this, Fang Wen was moved. He found the person in charge of staying at Jinling University and spoke sincerely.

"Professor, I have an idea. If we could get a ferry to cross the Yangtze River, could you organize the civilians to go to the ferry crossing?"

The other party was overjoyed, not expecting Fang Wen to say that.

"Right now, the only problem is that there's no way to escape. If the solution you suggested is feasible, they would certainly be willing. The school staff and I who remain are willing to help persuade everyone to leave."

Hearing the other party say this, Fang Wen felt relieved. There are not many people left in Nanjing who can help with things. It would be best if the university faculty and staff who stayed behind could help.

Subsequently, Fang Wen found Connor Alexander Whitney on campus.

"Connor, I have a plan. Would you like to join?"

Hearing Fang Wen's words, Whitney solemnly warned, "I can participate, and I hope you succeed. If you fail, I will use diplomatic means to protect your safety, but this will only be for a very small number of people."

Fang Wen then took Whitney to Ginling College and informed the remaining faculty members there of the same plan, which they approved.

And so, Fang Wen went to the city without taking a single student with him, and instead rushed back to the sea airport.

A grand, earth-shattering plan was already brewing in his mind.

The task of gathering civilians has already been undertaken.

The more difficult tasks of acquiring boats to cross the river and arranging escorts had to be handled by Fang Wen himself.

He convened a meeting with his men at the sea airport.

Shopkeeper Liu, Sun Debiao, Fang Shouxin, and later Shao Sishen and Howard, who came from Wuhan, all arrived at the airport.

Fang Wen then shared his plan with everyone.

Manager Liu used a single sentence as an analogy.

"This is terrible. Even Liu Bei didn't have it this bad."

Upon hearing this analogy, everyone found it amusing.

Sun Debiao said excitedly, "I've heard the storyteller mention this before. If we succeed, aside from anything else, I'll have someone write a story to record it and pass it down to future generations, so that future generations will also know that I, Sun Debiao, have done such a great thing."

Others thought the same thing.

Unlike outsiders, they always had a mysterious confidence in what Fang Wen was going to do, and this time was no exception. They firmly believed that Fang Wen would succeed once again.

Fang Wen felt warm inside from this situation. With these people supporting him unconditionally, he was very motivated to do his work.

He immediately explained the difficulties of the plan.

“We need a batch of boats to cross the river, as well as troops to intercept the Japanese army pursuing the evacuation of civilians. I’ll figure out the troops. I heard there’s a batch of boats on the north bank of the Yangtze River. Does anyone know anything about them?” Fang Shouxin replied, “I know. Those boats on the north bank were confiscated by the Nationalist government and are all locked up. I heard that if the situation deteriorates, they will all be set on fire to prevent the Japanese army from using these boats to cross the river.”

Fang Wen nodded: "It's this batch of ships. Where exactly are they located? Let's go there and settle the ship issue first."

“Over in Pukou,” Manager Liu interjected.

"Okay, let's go now."

Fang Wen got up, and together with Manager Liu and Fang Shouxin, boarded the Water Tiger No. 4 gunboat and flew to the north shore.

(Evacuation plan diagram)
The plane crossing the river only takes a few minutes.

After circling over Pukou in Jiangbei, Fang Wen quickly located the docking position of the ships.

He said, "This is an extraordinary matter, so we need extraordinary measures. Don't just think about reasoning; we also need to use incentives to resolve it as soon as possible. Manager Liu, it's up to you."

Manager Liu raised the small leather suitcase he was carrying in his right hand and said with a smile, "It's for this."

The plane then landed on the river and headed towards the riverside dock.

Upon approaching the dock, Gong Xiuneng was the first to disembark, stepping onto the buoy wheel and jumping onto the dock to secure the cable.

The group then disembarked and searched for the manager of the dock.

Driven by both the promise of good deeds and the promise of money, these people agreed.

But now, there's a shortage of people to operate the boats.

The Tiger 4 gunboat returned to the airport dock on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Fang Wen and his group quickly went ashore and then announced a recruitment notice among the civilians for people who knew how to sail.

Taishan Airlines staff used loudspeakers to make announcements inside and outside the airport.

"We urgently need someone who can operate a ship, with experience in small steamships and passenger steamships. Once hired, you will be granted the privilege of having your family and friends leave by plane ahead of time."

Immediately, many people signed up.

Fang Shouxin conducted a unified interview for all these individuals.

He solemnly explained the consequences: "Don't take any chances. We'll be taking you there for a test run later. If we find out you're impersonating someone, you and your family will lose your eligibility to leave by plane. Do you all understand? If you can't drive a boat and want to impersonate someone, you'd better leave now, or you won't have another chance later."

Upon hearing this, half of the job applicants immediately left.

There were still about twenty people left, and Fang Shouxin immediately took them to see Fang Wen.

The group was then taken to the north bank, where tests confirmed that the ships could indeed be operated.

Although there are fewer people, it's not impossible. As long as they drive the boat and we find some people to help on board, we can sail back and forth between the north and south banks.

But now is not the time to let them sail over.

Now there are also ferries to cross the river.

All that was left were the troops responsible for intercepting the Japanese army.

It's difficult to transfer troops from Fuping on a large scale.

In response, Fang Wen decided to talk to Commander Li of the 156th Division.

He entered the No. 4 gunboat alone, adjusted the frequency, and called out to Niushou Mountain, 20 kilometers away.

"Taishan is calling the 156th Division. Please respond if you hear me."

The position west of Niushou Mountain.

Because the enemy's 114th Division headquarters was wiped out.

They are doing very well now.

The Japanese army did not launch an attack.

Commander Li judged that the Japanese troops of the 114th Division were searching everywhere for the enemy who had destroyed their division headquarters, but they did not expect that the enemy had already returned to Niushou Mountain.

That's why Commander Li treasured the 700-kilogram real-time voice communication device that had been brought back so much that he placed it directly in his command post and had his adjutant take care of it.

Unexpectedly, before the next day even arrived, the Taishan Independent Regiment called again.

Commander Li quickly took the microphone from his adjutant.

"156th Division received, 156th Division received. This is Commander Li."

Fang Wen's serious voice came through the device: "Commander Li, I want to talk to you. The content may differ from your ideas, but I would like you to listen to my answer before you respond."

From the tone of his voice, Commander Li realized the seriousness of the situation and quickly replied, "Go ahead and say it, I won't interrupt you."

"Alright, I have a plan."

Fang Wen explained his plan in detail.

This is both a great thing and a great foolish thing, but it benefits both the hired soldiers and their officers.

In the current situation, no one dares to say they can win, after all, they still failed in Shanghai when they were at their strongest.

Thinking of this, Commander Li replied, "This matter is not up to me to decide alone. I will get back to you later."

He said to his adjutant, "Send someone to invite Division Commander Feng over. Tell him we have very important military information to discuss and that we must make sure he comes."

After a while, Commander Feng came over, and the two talked alone.

After listening to Commander Li's words.

Commander Feng replied, "Giving him the man is no problem, and I don't care about the money. But the problem is, if he's in charge of the civilians, he probably won't be able to look after us. Ask Regiment Commander Fang what about the agreement we made to assist us in our defense?"

(End of this chapter)