Republic of China: Ace Pilot

Chapter 632 Taishan Meat Products Factory, Nanning Trip, Guangxi Clique 31st Army

As soon as Fang Wen got off the plane, he saw Fang Shouxin and Manager Liu waiting for him at the dock.

Fang Shouxin introduced the man beside him. "General Manager, let me introduce you. This is Wang Xinzheng. He used to be the head of our airline catering department. He has a knack for food processing and management. Now he is the head of the meat processing plant."

Fang Wen knew this person; he was a long-time employee at the company and someone he could trust.

"Let's go, let's go to the factory and take a look."

The group then boarded an airport shuttle bus and headed to a meat cannery in the Thames Industrial Park in Yangon.

Not long after, the shuttle bus drove into the industrial park and stopped inside the meat cannery.

As Fang Wen got out of the car, he smelled the rich aroma of meat filling the air—a blend of the mellow flavor of beef, the slight gamey smell of mutton, and the scent of various spices.

"General Manager, look over here!" Factory Director Wang pointed to the raw material area on the left side of the factory.

Fang Wen looked over.

Workers pulled up from the side in several trailers, the trailers filled with beef and mutton carcasses, each piece of carcass still frozen solid.

Factory Director Wang explained, "The cold storage uses the open space of the No. 1 aircraft manufacturing plant, the original aircraft parts storage area. We added an insulation layer and installed an imported American refrigeration unit, which can now stably maintain a temperature of -15°C. These ketone bodies are transported out of the cold storage at 6 a.m., placed in the thawing room of the raw material area for 2 hours to allow the ice to melt slightly, and then sent to the cutting and processing workshop."

Then, Fang Wen and his group entered the cutting and processing workshop.

The workshop was very noisy. The equipment used to cut the frozen products was a mechanical power band saw originally used for processing wood.

Workers sent the frozen carcasses to the band saw, where the cutting of frozen meat and bones produced a piercing sound.

On the workbenches on both sides of the workshop, workers are manually processing the cut beef carcasses with tools: holding the frozen beef with their left hand, and using their right hand to push along the fascia texture with a knife, the blade cutting through the frozen meat, and soon the whole piece of beef is divided into different parts.

Each piece of cut meat is placed in a basket labeled with its type, and then workers move it to the sorting station.

"The meat we use for canning varies depending on the type of can. The batch we're making today uses beef shank, which is low in fat and high in protein, making it suitable for soldiers to carry and eat in the field." Director Wang pointed to the conveyor belt next to the sorting station. "You see, the workers over there are removing the tendons and membranes—if the tendons and membranes aren't removed properly, it will affect the taste and make it harder to eat when it's put into the can."

Fang Wen looked in the direction he pointed and saw several workers carefully removing the white membranes from the meat with small knives. The pure meat after removal was thrown into an iron basin, and when the basin was full, it was carried to the meat grinding workshop by a special person.

The meat grinding workshop is located next to the processing workshop. It was originally the fuse assembly area of ​​the ammunition factory, but now it is equipped with two meat grinders that Taishan modified itself.

It uses a low-power propeller engine to drive the blades to rotate at high speed, and the effect is very good.

One machine is for beef, and the other is for mutton.

Workers pour beef and mutton, after removing the tendons and membranes, into the feed inlet of the meat grinder, press the start button, and the machine's gears begin to turn. The ground meat is squeezed out from the outlet and falls into the stainless steel trough below.

Factory Director Wang picked up a spoon, scooped up a spoonful of minced meat, and showed it to Fang Wen. "Look, the size of this minced meat is just right. It's not mushy. It will taste even better after processing."

After the minced meat comes out of the meat grinding workshop, it is sent to the seasoning workshop.

Several huge stainless steel mixing tanks are placed in the workshop. The ingredients list is posted on the wall next to the tanks. Different flavors use different recipes. After processing one flavor, the equipment needs to be cleaned before processing other flavors.

Workers poured the minced meat and seasonings into the mixing tank in sequence, pressed the mixing button, and the propeller inside the tank began to rotate. The minced meat and seasonings tumbled and blended inside the tank, and a rich aroma wafted out from the mouth of the tank.

"The mixing time must be strictly controlled within 15 minutes. Too little seasoning will result in uneven mixing, while too much will cause the minced meat to release water, affecting the shelf life of the canned goods." Director Wang pointed to the timer on the mixing tank. "The factory strictly follows the standards; there is no room for carelessness."

The seasoned minced meat is then sent to the aging and bottling workshop for high-temperature cooking.

High-temperature chambers are the best way to sterilize. After maturation, workers will pour the finished product into iron cans and then expel the air from the cans through high-temperature steam.

The final step is sealing. The sealing machine's pressure rollers rotate rapidly, pressing the can lid tightly against the can body, making a "click-clack" sound. The sealed cans are stamped with a steel stamp that reads "Exclusively for Taishan Military Industry," along with the production date and shelf life.

After cooling, these canned goods are packed by workers into boxes of 24 cans each and moved to the finished product warehouse in the factory area.

On the shelves of the finished goods warehouse, there were already many packed canned food boxes piled up, with labels on the corners of the boxes that read "Sent to Taihang Mountain", "Sent to Junshan Lake" and "Sent to Southern Guangdong Independent Regiment", waiting to be transported to the front line via the air transport capacity of Taishan.

Fang Wen walked to the finished product warehouse, picked up a can of food that had just cooled down, and tapped the can with his fingers, making a crisp "bang bang" sound.

“Not bad, it’s sealed very tightly.” He turned to Director Wang and asked, “How many ketone bodies can you process each day now? Can you increase production further?” Director Wang quickly replied, “We can process 1 ton of ketone bodies per day now, producing 4000 cans of food. If we hire another 30 workers and various equipment, the daily production capacity can be increased to 6000 cans.”

Fang Wen nodded: "Hire people as soon as possible. There's a lot of meat in the cold storage right now, and more meat will be shipped over later. Your production capacity is too low."

After inspecting the meat processing plant, Fang Wen went to check out the cold storage.

The cold storage facility has two floors, one above ground and one below ground. One thousand tons of meat products are stored in the underground floor, which allows for better freezing and saves energy.

The cold storage is supplied with 20 vertical twin-cylinder ammonia compressors purchased from York Corporation in the United States, with a cooling capacity of up to 5400 refrigeration tons, which is sufficient for current refrigeration needs.

The energy source for them was Soviet heavy oil generator sets.

After visiting the meat processing plant, Fang Wen was satisfied with the factory's condition.

Considering that the factory has only been open for a short time, it's already quite impressive that it has achieved this level of success.

Of course, this also depends on Taishan's current industrial strength. Without its own industrial technology foundation, the lack of technical personnel and equipment alone would be a major problem.

He then left the meat processing plant and returned to headquarters with Fang Shouxin and Manager Liu.

The General Manager's Office in the Headquarters Building.

Fang Wen and Fang Shouxin, along with Manager Liu, sat around the tea table and chatted.

"I'm going to Nanning tomorrow. Is there anything going on with the civil aviation department?" Fang Wen asked.

"The current tense situation in Europe has also affected our business, especially in the Balkans."

Fang Shouxin described the current situation.

In the two months that followed, Germany occupied Poland, the Soviet Union forced Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to sign a mutual assistance treaty, and recently marched into Finland.

As for Taishan Civil Aviation, since the UK and France made a choice on the surface but did not actually take any action, the routes have not been significantly affected for the time being.

However, it's not entirely without risk. In the Balkans, Hungary and Romania have already submitted to Germany and become its vassal states. If Germany's sphere of influence extends into Asia through the Balkans, Taishan Airlines' Asia-Europe civil aviation business will definitely be greatly affected.

Hearing this, Fang Wen frowned, his mind racing.

Nowadays, the civil aviation business is no longer about making a profit, but more importantly, about maintaining connections with Europe.

Therefore, Taishan Airlines must maintain a neutral stance in order to navigate between Britain, France, and Germany.

It seems we need to maintain some contact with Germany.

Thinking of this, Fang Wen asked, "How is our boutique in Berlin doing?"

Manager Liu replied, "Because Britain and France declared war on Germany, the French border was closed, and our goods could not be delivered to Berlin. There is no goods available for purchase there."

"What is the demand for our products from the Germans?" Fang Wen pressed.

"The upper and middle classes in Germany are very interested in the ZVSTON radio. Like people in Paris and London, they really like this portable device that can be carried in a coat pocket to listen to the radio anytime. For this reason, SS members have already come to the specialty store to express their willingness to facilitate our supply."

"How can we facilitate this?" "They said that a neutral shipping route could be established in Switzerland, with the SS ensuring the safety of the route. We would unload the ZVSTON radios in Switzerland and then transport them across the border into Germany. The SS would ensure the safety of the transport process."

After hearing what Manager Liu said, Fang Wen realized that the Zhongxing Semiconductor Radio probably had a good appeal to the upper echelons of the Nazis, and there were quite a few people who liked this kind of electrical appliance, which is why they took the initiative to give it the green light.

Selling consumer electronics would not affect relations with Britain and France, and could even help maintain some relations with Germany.

Fang Wen nodded: "Okay, let's follow the German plan. We need to have a liaison point in Germany, it might come in handy later."

"Okay," Manager Liu replied.

The three then had another discussion about the company's civil aviation business.

It mainly involves cigarettes and Southeast Asian feeder shipping.

Cigarette production could no longer be increased, and sales in France ceased to expand. However, in Britain, following Parisian fashion trends, a group of smokers became interested in Taishan cigarettes, leading to a surge in sales in London. But because Taishan Airlines did not have flights to London, passengers had to use British Airways for shipping, which significantly increased the price.

Southeast Asian regional shipping mainly relies on ten seaplanes. As the war situation in Europe and Asia intensifies, Southeast Asia, which has not yet been affected by the war, has become a safe zone. A group of wealthy people are taking Taishan's regional planes to Southeast Asia to buy property.

In response to these circumstances, Fang Shouxin and Manager Liu proposed adding new flights: Paris to London, and increasing investment in Southeast Asian feeder shipping.

Fang Wen disagreed with this, knowing that the world war would continue to expand, affecting Britain and France, and Southeast Asia was seen by the Japanese as a resource-rich area that they had to occupy.

Seeing the general manager's firm attitude, Fang Shouxin and Manager Liu gave up the idea of ​​expanding their business.

After finishing his conversation with Fang Shouxin and Manager Liu about civil aviation business, Fang Wen went to the telegraph room, where he took out a notebook recording the contact frequencies of the military in Nanning and sent a telegram directly to the Nanning military.

The beeping sound of the telegram echoed in the room.

[Taishan Fangwen, having learned of the urgent military situation in southern Guangxi, wishes to travel to Nanning to investigate. He will be piloting a military aircraft and needs to land at a land-based airport; he requests permission to proceed.]

Half an hour later, a reply telegram arrived.

[Commander Wei of the 31st Army is eager to see you. He has coordinated with an airport outside Nanning to grant you permission to land. A staff officer will meet you at the airport.]

After the telegram communication was completed, Fang Wen returned to his residence on the top floor.

I ate dinner delivered by the staff in the empty apartment, then washed up and rested.

The next morning, Fang Wen got up early, packed his belongings into his bag, and left.

Outside the door, Gong Xiuneng, who had already packed his bags, was already waiting.

"Commander, no matter where we are, I will stay by your side to protect your safety."

"There are no seats in the rear cabin of the Qinyuan. Besides, I'll be back soon after I go there," Fang Wen replied. From the flight to Nomonhan to the Battle of Changsha, the rear cabin of the Qinyuan was used as a spare ammunition loading space. If Gong Xiu wanted to go, he could only lie on the ammunition rack, just like he did when he went to Nomonhan.

“Then I’m going too. Nanning is probably dangerous right now,” Gong Xiuneng insisted.

Since that's the case, Fang Wen didn't say anything more.

He then took Gong Xiuneng to the No. 2 Aircraft Manufacturing Plant.

In addition to the Qinyuan, the hangar there also houses two Taishan high-speed fighter jets, which are scheduled to be delivered to Yan'an this month.

After glancing at the two high-speed fighter jets, Fang Wen climbed into the cockpit of the Qinyuan, and Gong Xiuneng also climbed into the rear cockpit, lying on the ammunition rack and grabbing the edge.

The engine started, the aircraft taxied out of the hangar, and accelerated onto the runway for takeoff.

After several hours of flight, the Chin Yuan flew over the Lao Plateau and entered Quey Province via Hanoi.

The plane then flew over Chongzuo and along the Zuojiang River to reach the airspace above Nanning.

Fang Wen had landed at the airport below before, so he found the location immediately.

He circled in the air, made contact with the ground, and then landed.

The plane landed smoothly on the airport runway, and Fang Wen, guided by ground staff, parked the plane in the designated parking area.

Then staff pushed the boarding stairs over, and Fang Wen and Gong Xiuneng got off the plane.

A Guangxi Army officer and several soldiers were already waiting by the runway. When Fang Wen got off the plane, the officer rushed over.

"Commander Fang, the army commander sent me to pick you up. Please get in the car with me."

Fang Wen nodded and led Gong Xiuneng into the military vehicle that the other party had driven.

The car started, drove out of the airport, and after half an hour, arrived at a church building in the city.

The building now houses the headquarters of the 31st Army of the Guangxi Clique stationed in Nanning.

Fang Wen then got out of the car with the officer and entered the command post.

The officer stood at attention and shouted, "Report! Regiment Commander Fang has arrived in Nanning in his fighter jet and brought the supplies over."

The commander of the 31st Army, who was discussing military affairs, walked over and shook hands with Fang Wen with a big smile.

"Commander Fang, you've come at just the right time. I have something to ask of you."

"What is it?" Fang Wen asked.

"Come on, let's talk over here."

Commander Wei led Fang Wen to the sand table and pointed to a spot on the south side of the sand table.

"Let me explain the situation first. On the 15th, the Japanese army forcibly landed at Qisha and Longmen on the west bank of Qinzhou Bay. The New 19th Division fought desperately to resist, but under the Japanese landing charge, it was forced to abandon the beachhead position in the evening and retreat to the reserve fortifications near Fangcheng."

On the 16th, the Japanese troops that landed at Qisha marched towards Fangcheng, while another part of the Japanese troops landed at Litouzui near Qinxian County and took advantage of the heavy rain and high tide to sail by motorboat along the Yuhong River directly to Huangwutun.

On the 17th, under air cover, the Japanese army launched a fierce attack on Qinzhou. A portion of the Japanese troops entered the city from the flank and rear. The defending troops inside the city fought them in street battles until evening, and Qinzhou ultimately fell.

At this point, Commander Wei paused, his tone heavy.

"After the fall of Qin County, the Japanese army immediately launched a three-pronged attack on Nanning. The left route started from Fangcheng, attacked the Guitaixu defensive position, and threatened Nanning from the southwest. The central route occupied Huangwutun and then advanced rapidly, reaching Dasi on the 18th and threatening Datang. The right route attacked along the Yongqin Highway from Qin County and occupied Xiaodong on the 18th. The New 19th Division was outnumbered and outgunned. After days of hard fighting, it could not withstand the attack and had to retreat to Shangsi and Bancheng."

Listening to Commander Wei's description and looking at the sand table, Fang Wen suddenly realized that the Japanese army had already surrounded Nanning from the southeast, southwest, and south.

Nanning is the largest city in southern Guangxi and an important region of the Guangxi clique. However, the Japanese army took a roundabout route and attacked directly by sea.

Fang Wen's heart also grew heavy.

The distance from Qinzhou to Nanning is only 100 kilometers, and in three days the Japanese army had advanced to a position only 50 kilometers away.

He asked, "What can I do for you?"

Commander Wei replied, "Now all of our Guangxi clique's gunboats and aircraft are under my command, but the problem is that I don't know anything about them. I hope you can help me."

(End of this chapter)