Volume 1: Entering the War of Resistance Chapter 47: American Base

  Hu Shi and Chen Qingyun spent nearly half a month traveling back to China from the United States, enduring bumpy rides on land and sea, passing through multiple countries before finally returning to Chongqing. However, their return journey was exceptionally comfortable, with the two of them leisurely sipping tea in the lounge of the floating base, accompanied by He Juncai. Two days later, in the evening, the floating base would land at the American Base in the Nevada Desert.

  "Peng Fei (He Juncai's courtesy name), as the saying goes, 'a day's journey of a thousand miles', I think it's just that. You've been living in this heavenly palace for a long time, it's truly blissful like being an immortal. Hu Shi stayed at the Floating Base for two days and has already fallen in love with everything here. After all, the Floating Base was built as a resort village, its comfort level is not something that can be compared to this era."

  "Haha, thank you Ambassador Hu for the compliment, but these are just superficial things. It's still Ambassador Hu who is a high-ranking and learned scholar that we admire!" He Juncai gave a subtle flattery. Hu Shi was indeed pleased.

  " Peng Fei, tell me. The Chinese Air Force's surprise attack on Hankou Airport and the bombing of Japanese territory relied on a floating airbase, didn't it? I was wondering how the Chinese Air Force suddenly had such a large long-range transport and bombing capability. Are you using the floating airbase as an aircraft carrier or is it truly an 'air' mother ship, rather than a naval mother ship?" Just as they were about to leave, Chen Qingyun suddenly came to his senses.

  "Haha, Tianyou brother, you really know a lot about the Chinese Air Force. That's right, we're doing it this way." He Juncai smiled and replied, "However, don't look at me with that kind of gaze, these tasks are all sudden and unexpected, can't be repeated multiple times, we can't just rely on this surprise attack to make the Japanese retreat, still have to do it solidly, step by step."

  "Oh, so the floating base still has weaknesses after all?"

  "That's for sure. The floating base was originally manufactured overseas, inspired by the Zeppelin airships of World War I, but instead of being filled with flammable hydrogen, it was filled with non-flammable inert gas - helium, which is very difficult to produce, so in the short term we can't even build more floating bases."

  "Secondly, the floating airbase must descend to an altitude of 3000 to 5000 meters in order to release fighter jets. This altitude is precisely the optimal attack height for mainstream Japanese fighter jets. Although there are some self-defense weapons on the floating airbase, it remains very fragile. The stationed fighter jets can reach a maximum of three squadrons, which would find it difficult to defend against an enemy with thousands of fighter jets. It wasn't until the emergence of anti-aircraft missiles that the floating airbase could truly serve as a combat platform. Notably, jet fighters that emerged in the later stages of the war were already capable of effectively attacking high-altitude floating airbases."

  "Finally, our industry is very weak, and the bombs and fuel for planes need to be accumulated, making it difficult to support large-scale operations. So it can only be done in a surprise attack, and the success rate will be low if the enemy is prepared. Of course, the most important reason is that He Juncai does not suggest fighting Japan to the death now, but must drag America and the Soviet Union into the water, so as to win the greatest benefits for China in World War II."

  "Alas, it's like this! It seems I was too eager for success." Chen Qingyun's expectations were dashed, and she felt a little disappointed.

  "After arriving in the United States, please take care of purchasing military equipment, including aircraft, engines, wireless telegraphy, radar devices, and mechanical equipment. I have listed what is needed on a sheet. As for funding, Minister Huang will provide it to you.

  In previous discussions, He Junci understood that at this time, the United States was no longer insisting on its original "neutrality" policy and had relaxed its restrictions on these war materials, only emphasizing cash payment and self-transportation. Moreover, with the existence of the floating airbase, some equipment that could not be transported out before can now be secretly brought into the country."

  "You can rest assured, this is my responsibility, and with the chairman's appointment as Minister of Overseas Department of KMT Central Executive Committee, I will be able to mobilize more resources to complete these tasks. Moreover, I believe that the valuable intelligence you provided to Ambassador Hu and the technical materials you provided to me will help us secure more assistance." Chen Qingyun returned home this time with great satisfaction, not only was he warmly received by the chairman, but also promoted, so he had even more confidence in this trip.

  "That's good, thank you both," said He Junci sincerely. "The tea is almost finished, we are already above Nevada, let's take a look at this desert."

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  The current date is September 15th. Under the faint sunlight of dusk, a mysterious area can be seen in this Nevada desert. A large area of the desert has been fenced off with barbed wire, and it's clear that this land has been purchased as private property. Buying desolate land in the desert was quite cheap in 1940. Because the view is blocked, this ordinary-looking factory area from the outside can only be seen differently from the air. It doesn't have a factory building, but only a small number of warehouses, and the rest are large open spaces. A warning line has been built around the perimeter, making it more like a material base than a factory. But what is the point of building a material base in this desolate place? What could possibly need to be stored in this extremely inconvenient location for logistics?

  This place, named "American Base", is still under construction. The overseas Chinese workers led by Sutou Meitang have built the outline of the peripheral facilities. This time, the floating base brought a large number of personnel to the United States for the "American Development Plan". Domestic engineering and technical personnel, as well as some professional technicians and apprentices, were transported to the United States. Here, the construction personnel will be responsible for the subsequent construction and security of the American Base. The professional technicians and apprentices, with the help of Sutou Meitang, forged the identity of overseas Chinese and were dispatched to newly built and acquired factories to supervise production and learning.

  When the massive floating base landed on the ground, it stirred up a large amount of yellow sand, covering the sky. All this was discovered by a cowboy passing by from afar. The cowboy stared blankly at an object rapidly descending vertically in the distant desert, thinking he had drunk two more cups when he came, rubbed his eyes and looked again, and the floating base had already landed on the ground, losing its shadow.

  From then until the end of World War II, the floating base was repeatedly transported between China and the United States. Due to the vast expanse of the desert, under the bright moonlight, the late evening sunset, and the morning light, the shadow of the floating base was captured by local residents many times.

  A UFO legend spread in a local tavern, and some people even came from afar to catch a glimpse of aliens. Once, when the floating base landed, it forgot to turn off the porthole lights and was photographed by a reporter from a newspaper far away, causing a sensation in the United States. Even Hollywood made several films based on this story, most notably...

  After World War II, the Chinese military handed over a memo to the US military, briefly informing them of the existence of the floating base. The US then linked UFOs to the floating base, but only a few core figures knew about it.

  Therefore, civilian organizations have been paying attention to UFOs and the miracles that occurred in the Nevada Desert, even linking these events to the secret military zone set up by the United States in the Nevada Desert - Area 51.

  "General Hu, General Chen. To send you a thousand miles, we must eventually part ways. The two of you will take the car from here to Washington." He Juncai led the two important figures down from the floating base first.

  At this time, some materials had been piled up on the empty land of the American base. Fu Feng's work for more than a month was very effective, and the first batch of ten boxes of penicillin crystals produced had arrived here and would be transported back to the country for trial use. At the same time, Fu Feng also ordered a complete set of equipment needed to produce penicillin in the name of Yang Sen Pharmaceutical, and then transferred these new equipment to the American base under the guise of scrapping them, and now these equipment were intact in large wooden boxes.

  Fu Feng secretly dispersed and purchased some equipment and materials that are currently available for purchase in the United States but are urgently needed domestically. As a result, the floating base is almost piled up with various steel materials, parts, and various machine tools such as lathes, milling machines, grinding machines, drilling machines, and forging presses. Electric motors and various engines can be seen, and Chen Qingyun even identified several aviation engines among them.

  Trucks parked in the open space were loaded with another kind of goods urgently needed at home - grain. Fu Feng had set up a grain processing plant in Kansas, purchasing grain from nearby farms, but these grains were not processed and were transported to the American base one by one, ready to be shipped to China together with the vehicles. At that time, China's main industrial cities were occupied, and its main grain-producing bases, Hunan and Hubei, were also controlled by the Japanese army, causing a large number of refugees to flood into southwestern China, making China's grain supply extremely tight. The recent loss of the fertile grain-producing areas in northern and western Hubei during the Battle of Zaoyi made this situation even more severe.

  "The situation is like this now." He Juncai stretched out his hands, saying helplessly, "Domestically, almost everything is in short supply, so we have to rely on smuggling. However, the amount of smuggled goods is limited after all. In June last year, Roosevelt had already urged Congress to pass the 'Strategic Materials Act'. As the US participates more and more in the war, there will be more and more restrictions on strategic resources, and even a rationing system will be implemented. So sooner or later, the smuggled goods on the market will be scarce, and we'll have to ask you two to think of a way from formal channels."

  "We understand this, but funding is a problem. US loans come with conditions and are also hard to find. And domestically, there's a shortage of foreign exchange," said Chen Qingyun.

  "This is not a problem, General Chen will contact the right channel first, our air force has some background." He Juncai said mysteriously.

  "If that's the case, can't we consider competing with Japan for high-quality iron scraps and fuel? Knowing that Japan's imports have increased greatly in recent months, I worry that the Japanese war potential is getting stronger and stronger, which is unfavorable to our country." Chen Qingyun had long wanted to use business methods to hinder Japan from obtaining these war resources.

  "This is possible to give the Japanese some trouble, but we can't use real gold and silver. Fuel and iron ore are gradually becoming self-sufficient in our country, so it's useless to transport them from so far away, let the Japanese tighten their belts to buy instead." He Juncai replied, "Moreover, our funds are not yet sufficient to rival the wealth of Japan, we must invest in some urgently needed equipment and materials."

  "But will the Japanese turn these substances into weapons and bombs?" Chen Qingyun retorted.

  "The Air Force General Staff has inferred that due to the long supply lines and the instability of the occupied areas, the Japanese army is already unable to launch an attack. Therefore, the front line has stabilized recently. According to recent intelligence, Japan will invest more resources in naval construction, and it is clear that these strategic materials are difficult to use on our mainland." In fact, He Juncai's underlying meaning was that a large part of the materials being sold by the Americans have become bombs falling on Pearl Harbor, Malaya, the Philippines, and the warships of various Allied countries, which is self-inflicted suffering.

  "That's great, it seems you've thought this through carefully. Then I'll just play the role of a US military procurement officer." Chen Qingyun said happily.

  "It's time, we should set off. Farewell, amazing General He!" Hu Shi tipped his hat to He Juncai.

  "See you again!"