Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 599 Large-scale purchase of Australian beef and lamb; acquisition of a new 6000-ton cargo ship
"People from Australia and New Zealand have also joined?" Fang Wen's eyes lit up, and he leaned forward slightly. "Who exactly are they? What are their connections like in those places?"

Fang Shouxin took out the membership register, opened it, and pointed to a few lines of text: "The White family of Melbourne, Australia. Old White is a mining tycoon with three tin mines in Australia and a meat processing plant under his name. His son, Little White, just joined the club last year and even rented our plane for a trip last month; there is also Zhou Yuan from Auckland, New Zealand, who is a descendant of overseas Chinese and owns three farms in New Zealand. He joined the club three months ago through the introduction of overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia."

Fang Wen took the list and his eyes fell on the names "White" and "Zhou Yuan". These were exactly the connections he was looking for.

"Are they still in Myanmar?" Fang Wen asked, looking up.

“Little White is still in Mandalay. He just booked a flight experience with the club for next Monday on the new aircraft. Mr. Zhou went back to New Zealand last week, but I have a way to contact him,” Fang Shouxin replied.

“Okay, I’ll go to Mandalay now. Send a telegram to Zhou Yuan saying that Taishan Group wants to talk to him about cooperation on importing meat from New Zealand, and ask him if it would be convenient for him to introduce local suppliers.”

"I'll get on it right away!" Fang Shouxin left the office.

With the meat trade showing promise, Fang Wen, a man of decisive action, immediately flew a seaplane to Mandalay.

More than an hour later, the plane arrived over Mandalay.

It's been a long time since I've been here; there have been some changes below.

The sea airport was moved to the moat surrounding the royal palace, next to Mandalay Hill to the north.

Fang Wen turned on his radio and made a call on the company's unified aviation frequency.

"Taishan Seaplane No. 001 requests to land."

This is a rule that even the general manager must follow: communication with the ground must be done before landing to avoid the landing site not being properly cleared.

Staff at the seaplane base below quickly responded, "You can land."

Immediately afterwards, Fang Wen piloted the plane and landed it on the surface of the moat.

The plane taxied for a while and came to a stop, then turned and docked at a small pier.

As the plane landed, several staff members dressed in Taishan Airlines uniforms came over to greet it.

The leader was Liu Yinfeng, the head of the Mandalay Aviation Club. As a member of the special operations team, after the team was disbanded, the members were assigned to different departments, and Liu Yinfeng was assigned to the aviation club. He has been in charge of the club for many years and has done a very good job.

The plane door opened, and Gong Xiuneng came out first, followed by Fang Wen.

Upon seeing Fang Wen, Liu Yinfeng immediately stepped forward: "General Manager, you've finally come to visit the club. I was afraid you'd forgotten about me."

Fang Wen patted him on the shoulder and smiled, "You've done a great job. Fang Shouxin praises you every day in his year-end summary. It's precisely because you're serious and meticulous that I feel comfortable entrusting you with management."

This made Liu Yinfeng beam with joy.

Then, Fang Wen said, "I came here this time for someone, Little White."

"Him? A playboy. But he really loves flying. He can now fly a seaplane solo and is planning to buy our comfortable private jet."

“Take me to see him.”

Immediately afterwards, Liu Yinfeng led Fang Wen and Gong Xiuneng into the palace.

Over the years, the palace has been leased to Mount Tai, and maintenance of the buildings and environment within the palace has been ongoing, making the environment look much more beautiful than before.

After passing through the north gate of the palace, the group arrived at the club's entertainment area.

The palaces there have been converted into rooms with different functions, among which the bar is the most popular among club members.

Little White was in there too.

Fang Wen entered the bar, and the light dimmed.

The rotating light bulb illuminates the room with colorful light.

On the left is a bar, where several men are sitting on high stools drinking and listening to music.

To the right, a singer is performing on a small stage, a band is playing music, and a dozen couples are dancing together on the dance floor.

These designs may seem outdated in the future, but they are fashionable today.

“That’s White.” Liu Yinfeng pointed to a blond young man on the dance floor who was dancing cheek-to-cheek with his female partner.

Fang Wen found a seat by the dance floor and sat down to wait.

When the song ended, everyone left the dance floor. Liu Yinfeng went over and talked to White.

White nodded repeatedly, gesturing for his female companion to leave, and he and Liu Yinfeng went to where Fang Wen was sitting.

"General Manager, this is White."

"Mr. White, this is Fang Wen, the general manager of Taishan Airlines."

Liu Yinfeng introduced the two parties.

White sat down directly, his white linen shirt still smelling slightly of alcohol, and his blond hair was dyed in iridescent colors by the lamplight.

"I've heard about you before; you're my idol."

It's often said that Australians and British people are completely different in character, and Fang Wen found this to be true.

He smiled and said, "Really? I'm honored."

This response only emboldened White.

"After I return home, I will join the Royal Australian Air Force and fight in the air like you."

"You want to join the army?" Fang Wen was surprised. This guy looked like a playboy, and he would actually go to a place like the army with strict discipline. It was really unexpected.

“Yes. Ever since I learned to fly a plane, I’ve grown tired of the monotonous life. Fighting the enemy in the sky is what I want.” White excitedly spoke of his dream, then paused and asked expectantly, “I know you’re very skilled. Can you teach me some special techniques? I’ll do anything for you if you teach me.”

Before I could even open my mouth, this kid had already taken the bait!

Fang Wen chuckled inwardly, but remained outwardly calm, patiently engaging in conversation.

"Flying a fighter jet is different from flying a seaplane. Fighter jets have higher speed and physical requirements, so you need to be mentally prepared. As for special skills, why should I teach them to you?"

“I know that’s why you became a super pilot, so I’m willing to pay any price.” White pleaded persistently, believing he still had a chance.

In response, Fang Wen feigned reluctance for a few moments before finally stating his demands.

“Everyone’s talents are different. I can give you some pointers to help you avoid detours, but you have to do one thing for me: use your family’s connections to sign a long-term meat purchase contract for me.”

White had considered many possibilities, but he never expected Fang Wen to ask for this.

He knows this very well; his family owns a business in this field.

White then spoke at length about this.

Today, the main export destination for Australian meat is the United Kingdom.

Meat is transported year-round by refrigerated ships from two companies, "Blue Star Shipping" and "Federal Shipping".

In addition, some are exported to Canada and other Commonwealth countries.

Meat exports from non-Commonwealth countries account for less than 10%.

Hearing this, Fang Wen interrupted White and asked.

"What do non-Commonwealth countries need to do if they want to import your meat?"

"Generally speaking, trade orders are signed directly between the company and Australian ranchers, and the Australian government coordinates export quotas through the Australian Meat Council to ensure a stable supply to the UK."

"So, if I want to buy meat in large quantities, I need to get approval from that committee?"

“That’s true. But there are exceptions. For example, the committee has a fixed export quota every year, which is issued to member companies and does not require review. My family has this quota, which is about 1 tons. But in recent years, my family has been transforming into a mining company, so this quota has basically not been used. If your trade volume is 1 tons, I can meet your requirements myself.”

After listening to White's words, Fang Wen pondered. His idea was to formulate meat protein supply standards according to Soviet standards.

Each soldier receives a 300-gram can of meat daily, with meat making up 60% of the total weight, or 180 grams.

Including losses, each can of meat requires about 220 grams.

Based on this demand, 4500 million cans could be produced.

No way, so many!
Even if it's a 1-ton trade, buying the whole carcass, removing the bones would yield 4000 million cans.

How much would all that meat cost?
Fang Wen then inquired.

White quoted a price directly.

“每100磅牛肉25先令，每100磅羊肉20先令。这个价格是我家和农场的直接采购价上浮2成。”

Fang Wen mentally calculated the implications.

As a Commonwealth country, Australia currently uses the British system and Commonwealth currency.

They used three currencies: the pound sterling, the shilling, and the penny, which were equivalent to the Chinese yuan, jiao, and fen.

However, this currency is not currently decimal; one pound can be exchanged for 20 shillings, and one shilling for 12 pence.

The unit of weight, pound, is equivalent to 0.9 jin (a traditional Chinese unit of weight).

Therefore, the conversion is quite troublesome.

After some calculations, Fang Wen arrived at the price.

The import price of beef is US$0.055 per kilogram and mutton is US$0.044 per kilogram.

1 tons of beef only requires a payment of US$110 million.

Including transportation and warehousing costs, it comes to approximately $140 million.

This amount of money might be a lot for an individual, but it's negligible when used for war supplies.

Fang Wen even came up with the idea of ​​using production to support production.

The canned meat was divided into a domestic military supply version and an international trade version, which was sold to the Soviet Union and Europe, with the profits covering the input costs.

Thinking of this, Fang Wen smiled.

“Okay, it’s settled then. I’ll teach you how to fly, and you help me secure the export trade of 1 tons of meat.”

"Okay." White happily shook hands with Fang Wen and reached an agreement. For him, this was a way to earn money for his family and also to learn to fly from his idol. Why not?

The trip to Mandalay has ended, and the meat trade deal is largely successful.

White immediately set off, taking two trade negotiators from Taishan Airlines on Taishan's South Pacific branch seaplane to Malacca, from where they would take a ship to Australia.

And the other side

Zhou Yuan also called back.

Compared to White, Zhou Yuan readily agreed to supply meat from his own farm to Taishan.

However, his three farms are not large in scale, so he needs to contact other farms to supply goods together.

Compared to Australia, the estimated purchase volume here is only 1000 tons. Although it is a small amount, Fang Wen still sent people over to negotiate.

Although trade between the two sides has not been completely settled, there should be no major problems.

The next thing to consider is the storage and transportation of meat.

Although the purchase of 1 tons is not a one-time purchase, the round-trip transportation requires large refrigerated ships for loading.

Meat needs to be stored in large cold storage facilities once it reaches Yangon.

Both of these are issues that need to be addressed.

Fang Wen had never seen anything like making it himself. Everyone has their own expertise, and energy is limited. How can one rely on oneself for everything?

He then sent telegrams to the European and American sides, asking the heads of the branch offices on both sides to find out if there was any corresponding equipment available locally.

This kind of thing was easy to find out. Not long after, Lin Shuiwang from the United States called back.

In his telegram, he mentioned that the Grace Shipping Company in New York had a refrigerated cargo ship called the "Condor" for sale.

The ship, designed to have a deadweight tonnage of 4748 tons, was built in 1920 by the Todd Dry Dock and Construction Company of Tacoma, Washington, for the U.S. Shipping Commission, and was then named the "Rotalian".

Three years later, it was sold to Grace Shipping Company, renamed "Condor," and served the company for 16 years.

During this period, the ship's hull was modified and its internal equipment was upgraded.

The ship's current specifications are: 115 meters long, 16 meters wide, 8 meters draft, and a deadweight tonnage of 6500 tons. It is equipped with refrigeration equipment and is driven by a 339-horsepower triple-expansion steam engine, which enables the ship to reach a speed of 10 knots (approximately 19 kilometers per hour).

Fang Wen was very satisfied with the ship's specifications, as they perfectly met his requirements for refrigerated cargo transport.

He then instructed Lin Shuiwang to negotiate with Grace Shipping Company, aiming to purchase the goods under the name of Taishan International (a New York-listed company) and then sublease them to the parent company.

With refrigerated ships, cold storage facilities are also essential.

This time, Fang Wen instructed the US and European branches to send out tenders to refrigeration equipment manufacturers on both sides.

In this day and age, building a cold storage facility capable of storing tens of thousands of tons is a very large project, and various companies are very interested in it.

This includes Thermo King Corporation and Servel Company in the United States, and Prestcold in the United Kingdom.

Even German companies DKW and GEA sent inquiry letters to their European branches.

In response, Fang Wen asked several companies to develop their own solutions and quotes for cold storage facilities.

After several days of preparation, their proposal and quote were ready.

Fang Wen made his choice.

Ultimately, he chose Cold King Company.

This company has invented a mechanical refrigeration unit that can improve the efficiency of cryogenic transportation, reduce the reliance on ice and salt to maintain cryogenic transportation, and better serve long-distance freezing, refrigerated transportation and large cold storage facilities.

Fang Wen believes that applying this technology to refrigerated ships and cold storage facilities would greatly improve efficiency.

Early August of the 39th year.

A large refrigerated cargo ship departed from the east coast of the United States, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and headed towards Asia.

The ship also carried refrigeration equipment from Thermo King, as well as a large number of installation technicians.

In preparation for their arrival, the Yangon Industrial Park is also constructing the brick structure exterior walls of a large cold storage facility.

A group of food factory technicians also arrived by plane from Xiangxi Airport. These people will set up a meat pre-processing workshop in Yangon to decompose and process the transported beef and mutton carcasses into semi-finished products on-site, so that they can be transported to Xiangxi Airport for further processing.

Meanwhile, the ammunition factory at the northern Myanmar base also allocated some of its production capacity to mass-produce the first batch of canned food boxes using stamping machines.

Meanwhile, the Soviet Union also transported its ordnance and weapons production lines to Lanzhou via the Northwest Transport Line.

Everything went so smoothly.

Fang Wen, however, focused his attention on Europe.

Only he knew that a major upheaval would soon occur, turning Europe into a powder keg.

(End of this chapter)