Double-Cut During the War of Resistance: My Wife Came from 1937

After hanging up the video call, Ma Hongwei sat back down on the sofa.

Xia Weiwei asked curiously, "Is this video call expensive? How much does it cost per call?"

Ma Hongwei said, "We all pay monthly. The internet fee is fifty or sixty yuan a month, and it's unlimited. As many people as we want can use it."

"Only fifty or sixty a month? And it can be used indefinitely?"

Xia Weiwei felt it was too cheap.

During the Republic of China era, if you wanted to install a private telephone in your home, you had to pay 350 silver dollars, which was equivalent to 10 years' wages for an average worker.

For workers in the Beijing-Shanghai area, this is equivalent to less than 5 years' worth of wages.

The monthly rent was 6 silver dollars, equivalent to one and a half to two months' wages for an average worker.

Those who couldn't afford a phone had to pay to make calls; five minutes cost 0.6 yuan, equivalent to one-fifth of their salary.

Domestic long-distance calls cost 1 yuan per minute.

Xia Weiwei took a deep breath and couldn't help but ask, "Hongwei, is it really impossible to achieve this in 37 years?"

"There's no internet over there, so it definitely won't work."

Ma Hongwei shook his head and said, "However, we can get some walkie-talkies. They don't need any lines or anything. They can only make calls, and the effective range is more than 20 kilometers."

"Even if it only allows for communication, that's already very impressive!"

Xia Weiwei's eyes lit up.

Being able to contact someone anytime, anywhere would greatly increase command efficiency.

"Oh, right!"

Suddenly, Xia Weiwei remembered something and hurriedly asked, "Hongwei, do you know if you can get your hands on sulfonamides? One of our leaders is injured and infected."

"I went to the Taihang Mountains to pick medicinal herbs, and accidentally fell off a cliff, which is how I came into this world."

"If we can get our hands on sulfonamides, this leader should recover quickly."

"Sulfonamides?"

Ma Hongwei was taken aback.

He had watched many movies and TV shows and knew that this was a drug similar to an antibiotic.

However, he has never used sulfonamides since childhood; he has only taken penicillin-type drugs.

Therefore, he didn't know whether sulfonamides still existed in modern society.

"Is it very difficult to do?"

Xia Weiwei became extremely nervous.

She never imagined that sulfonamides would be so hard to obtain even in the future.

"Yeah, they're really hard to get!"

Ma Hongwei nodded and said, "Because we haven't used this kind of drug for a long time."

Upon hearing the first part of the sentence, Xia Weiwei's heart sank.

But upon hearing what followed, she was immediately filled with excitement.

Immediately, Xia Weiwei glared at Ma Hongwei, pouting, and said, "Can you finish what you're saying in one breath? Don't leave things unfinished; it's scary!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Ma Hongwei quickly explained, "The main problem is that I really don't remember having this kind of medicine."

He told Xia Weiwei, "We mainly use antibiotics such as penicillin and cephalosporins."

"Among them, penicillin is penicillin. This antibiotic was discovered in 1928, but in your current timeline, it can only be produced in laboratories. Mass production will not be possible until 1942."

Xia Weiwei nodded and asked, "Is penicillin easy to buy? How much can you provide?"

"Penicillin is a prescription drug, and I can only buy a very small quantity if I buy it directly."

Ma Hongwei said, "However, veterinary penicillin is readily available; you can buy as much as you want."

"For veterinary use?"

Xia Weiwei asked, "Is this for livestock?"

"In modern society, it is used for pigs, cattle and sheep on farms."

Ma Hongwei said, "But the penicillin of this era, even the veterinary version, is of higher purity than that of decades ago."

"That's true!"

Xia Weiwei thought of so many technologies.

This era is so advanced, its technological level is indeed incomparable to that of the Republic of China, even compared to the great powers of the Republic of China era.

Ma Hongwei opened JD.com and searched for veterinary penicillin.

He handed the phone to the other person, pointing to the product on the screen and saying, "See that? 400 million units of veterinary sodium, only 29.3 yuan!"

"How many people can 400 million units serve?"

Xia Weiwei inquired.

"None of you have used penicillin before, so your dosage is definitely lower than ours. We've all developed resistance to it."

Ma Hongwei activated the Bread AI and said in voice, "Could you look up the units that used penicillin during World War II?"

Soon, the bread AI displayed a series of messages.

"Penicillin was not mass-produced until 42. In 43, the U.S. military signed a penicillin production contract. At that time, one vial of penicillin contained 40 units of 0.24 grams of penicillin and cost $200 on the black market."

"When the U.S. military landed in Normandy in June 1944, they had only prepared 18 kilograms of penicillin, equivalent to 300 billion units."

"At that time, bacteria had not yet developed drug resistance, and one or two thousand units of penicillin could save a wounded soldier."

"In 1945, penicillin production reached 4.7 tons, and the price plummeted, but 1 gram was still worth $25, enough to buy 20 bottles of Coke or 2 cans of luncheon meat."

After reviewing this information, Ma Hongwei said to Xia Weiwei, "Based on 2000 units per wounded soldier, 400 million units are enough to treat 2000 wounded soldiers!"

"One box contains 20 vials of 400 million units each, which is enough for 40000 wounded soldiers."

"If we buy 1000 boxes, we can treat 4000 million injured people. The price is 2.93 yuan."

"If we had the resources, I think we could treat the wounded with the same dosage as the US military in the later stages, which was 5000 units. Even so, that would be enough for 1600 million wounded soldiers!"

"hiss!"

Upon hearing Ma Hongwei's words, Xia Weiwei couldn't help but gasp.

In the future, the price of a car will be enough to buy medicine to treat 4000 million wounded soldiers.

This price is incredibly cheap.

This level of productivity is truly terrifying.

If we calculate based on $200 per 40 units, then 400 million units of penicillin would be worth $2000.

According to Xia Weiwei, before the Japanese invasion, the exchange rate between the Chinese yuan and the US dollar was 1 US dollar to 29.6 Chinese yuan.

In other words, a box of penicillin costing 29.3 yuan in later generations was worth 59200 yuan in legal tender.

Considering the outbreak of war and the blockade imposed by Japan, its value is even higher.

Although the legal tender was not as strong as the silver dollar, it was still very, very valuable when converted into silver dollars.

Xia Weiwei took a deep breath and couldn't help but say, "Hongwei, do you think... if we take a large amount of penicillin to another time and space, wouldn't that allow the organization to make a lot of money? Wouldn't that allow us to build a larger army?"

"sure!"

Ma Hongwei nodded and said, "This box of 400 million units of penicillin sodium only weighs 48 grams. Even with the packaging, it doesn't take up much space at all."

"Our space is 10 cubic meters, I feel that's enough to hold 1000 boxes."

1000 boxes are enough to treat tens of millions of wounded soldiers.

In 1937, the Eighth Route Army had only 4.6 troops, and by the end of the year, it had only increased to 8.

With so much penicillin, if they sold it, the money they made should be enough to support an army of hundreds of thousands.

However, medicine alone is not enough; they also need a large amount of equipment.

Ma Hongwei was powerless to help with this.

On the contrary, in another time and space, one should be able to buy more equipment with money.

Or they could simply take the medicine and exchange it for guns and ammunition with the Kuomintang.