After a brief exchange with the Chinese students, the three members of John's family continued their journey to the Church of Our Lady at the top of the hill of Fourvière. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Don't look at John's appearance of "goodwill to China" in front of others, participating in China's anti-Japanese fundraising, and preparing for the establishment of a volunteer air force to aid China, but in fact, he has his own interests.

As a "capitalist of all evils", although John has a good impression of China in his heart, it is absolutely impossible for him to take out real money to make selfless contributions. The reason why John couldn't wait to make frequent overtures to China when FedEx was not yet mature was mainly for the company's future Asia-Pacific strategic considerations.

The Asia-Pacific region is the most densely populated region in the world, and it is certainly impossible for John to turn a blind eye to this huge market. The impending war in the Pacific is a great opportunity for FedEx to intervene in the region. Everything John had done before was to get a head start.

If he could establish enough interests and connections with the Chinese authorities before the United States entered the war, John would be able to use these connections to establish himself as a "China-intellectual" after the outbreak of the Pacific War, and thus be able to exert influence on certain decisions of the American government and military.

In turn, FedEx can rely on its influence on the US government and military to extend its tentacles to the entire Asia-Pacific region and gain a certain say in the post-war US Asia-Pacific strategic balance system.

From the very beginning, John had his eye on not China, but the entire post-war Asia-Pacific market.

John, who is well aware of the future direction of history, has no intention of investing too much in China at all. He knows very well that such investments are destined to be wasted. Because the current Chinese authorities are simply unreliable, and the future winners, the CCP, naturally stand in opposition to these capitalists.

Now I can take the opportunity of the Anti-Japanese War to leave some incense in China, and mix it with the name of "international friend". As for the Chinese market after the reform and opening up, it is not certain whether John will survive to that time.

However, none of this prevents John from making a little money from China first. For example, John not only made a fortune from the small and medium-sized planes of the previous batch of aircraft of the China Volunteer Air Force, but also greatly expanded the production capacity of Hughes Aircraft Company with this purchase money. This kind of benefit without spending and killing multiple birds with one stone, John certainly welcomed it with both hands.

John believed that if the H1 aircraft performed well in the war against Japan, he would have a chance to get another piece of the Lend-Lease Act in the future. At that time, it will not be a "small order" of just 100 aircraft.

Historically, after the defeat of France in June 1940, President Roosevelt ordered the production of 50,000 aircraft to secure the Western Hemisphere. Even if only one-tenth of the orders were grabbed, it would be enough to make John, the majority shareholder of Hughes Aircraft, make a lot of money.

Ritter Butler, the hero of the novel Gone with the Wind, famously said, "There are two ways in which you can make a fortune, one is when the nation is founded, and the other is when the nation is destroyed." When the country rises, it gets rich slowly, and when it collapses, it gets rich quickly. "Now that China is on the verge of collapse, it's a good time for John to get rich.

When he was helping Song Ziliang purchase trucks before, John found a good opportunity to make money. Historically, the Yunnan-Burma Highway was a big cornucopia. After a large number of inland government agencies, industrial and commercial enterprises, colleges and universities, and countless refugees retreated to the rear, a huge commodity distribution center was formed in Kunming.

At that time, Song Ziliang's Southwest Transportation Office was the most powerful transportation force on the Yunnan-Burma Highway. They have more than 10 transport brigades at the regimental level alone, and they own nearly 10,000 cars. However, they mainly transport strategic goods such as weapons and ammunition, vehicles and machinery, gasoline, medicines and military uniforms.

Compared with strategic materials, the demand gap for civilian materials is even larger. This is done through thousands of small private transport companies. It was at this time that many overseas Chinese businessmen in Nanyang made a fortune by opening transportation companies, and even many Kunming locals bought a truck together and started transportation.

Through Burma, they shipped a large amount of cotton yarn, cloth, auto parts, and all the consumer goods that could be bought and used, and then shipped raw silk, tea, tung oil, lacquer, and pig bristles to foreign countries in exchange for foreign exchange.

John certainly wouldn't let go of such a good opportunity to make money. Before leaving the United States, he had already arranged for Dvořák to start recruiting truck drivers from the diaspora. John is going to set up a medium-sized transportation company in Kunming, and make some oil and water first with the good relationship he has formed with Song Ziliang and others.

Of course, these are small heads, and the real profits will have to wait until the United States enters the war. At that point, John could justifiably hand over the U.S.-owned company to the U.S. military and wait for the war "legacy" to be taken over after the war.

During the last World War, many American companies made their fortunes in this way. This kind of riches routine, John couldn't be clearer.

When the United States transitioned to a wartime economy, the government would take over many related companies and invest a lot of money to expand production capacity and product research and development for the needs of the war. After the end of the war, in order to alleviate the financial pressure, these enterprises, which had expanded many times over, would be sold by the government to the original business owners at low prices, along with a large amount of surplus materials.

If it works well, some business owners not even have to pay, but also get a royalty and compensation for losses from the government. Historically, this has been the case with Maersk Line. Such an enemy-owned company (Denmark belonged to the German occupation zone during the war) can do it, and there is no reason why FedEx, as an American company with good roots, can't do it.

By that time, John would have recovered not the 100 or so trucks he had invested before, but the size of the company would have increased by at least five or six times. At the same time, he was able to buy a large amount of surplus supplies for the US military at a very low price. For the U.S. government and military, this is garbage, and the cost of shipping it back home is higher than producing a new batch. But for post-war China, which was in ruins, these were the most sought-after commodities on the market, and they could definitely be sold at a good price.

All of the above is just a small part of John's so-called "FedEx Asia-Pacific Development Strategy". John had been secretly planning this development strategy for a long time. He knew very well that FedEx did not have the strength to enter the Asia-Pacific market in the short term, so this strategic plan was mainly focused on the post-war period. At the moment, John is only doing some foreshadowing work, and the main target is actually the post-war Japanese transportation market.

In his previous life, as an executive of a multinational transportation company, John knew all too well how much oil and water the Japanese transportation market had. For this resource-poor island country to achieve economic take-off, it is fundamentally inseparable from its dependence on multinational transport companies. Japan's three major shipping companies, NYK, MOL and K-Line, all benefit more than $1 billion a year, and logistics companies such as Japan Express, Yamato Transport, Sagawa Express, and Hitachi Logistics also make considerable annual profits.

Among them, John knows the most about Japan Express. In his previous life, he had visited this most typical and representative Japanese logistics company. This company, which claims to transport everything from civilian materials to military materials, from raw materials (such as oil and minerals) to commodities, from cash to gold and jewelry and other valuables, as long as the law allows "everything" to be transported, even almost squeezed the Japanese postal business for a time.

Today, Japan Express is a state-owned company funded by the government and the private sector, and the Japanese government has merged the transportation industry in major cities across the country under its name. This was great news for John. After Japan's defeat, he could use this as an excuse to eat the company that was once controlled by the Japanese militarist government. I believe that both the US Government and General MacArthur, the "Emperor of Japan," will be happy to see this happen.

In addition to the Japanese shipping market, John has set his sights on Singapore as another target. No international transport business owner would turn a blind eye to the Port of Singapore, located at the throat of Malacca's golden waterway. Although Singapore was still a British colony, that didn't stop John from secretly attacking it.

The main purpose of his previous enthusiastic dealings with overseas Chinese organizations was to take the opportunity to establish ties with Singaporean Chinese leaders such as Tan Kah Kee, so as to seize the shipping market there after the collapse of the British colonial system.

Of course, John is well aware that FedEx's future focus will always be on North America and Europe. The Asia-Pacific market is important, but John doesn't have to rush, it's not too late in another decade or two.

And John himself didn't know that after the end of the war, FedEx would have the spare power to take care of his "Asia-Pacific strategy" while focusing on the European market. The pioneers he is laying out now are likely to be useless in the end.

Therefore, the vast majority of John's so-called "Asia-Pacific strategic plan" is still only at the stage of talking on paper. He didn't even reveal the plan to the company's think tank team. I'm sure those experts will laugh off their big teeth when they know about it. FedEx doesn't even have a ship now, so what is there to talk about seizing the shipping market in Singapore.

But that doesn't stop John from getting pleasure from this "self-entertaining" YY. This kind of superiority of "everyone in the world is drunk and I am sober" and "the general trend of the world is under control" is still quite cool. At least when the group of Chinese students made him think about his plans, John was in a good mood.

This good mood was maintained until they had dinner in the restaurant. There, John and Adele meet someone they definitely don't want to meet.