1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 1015 Founding Ceremony (Fifteen)

It was possible for so many high-level personnel of Haihan to gather together for a meeting on the night of the National Day. The things discussed were naturally not trivial. The word "top secret".

Beks went on to say: "Our current industrialization process is indeed far ahead of this era, but for us people, the current development speed is still too slow, and there is still a considerable gap from the industrial society we want to build. Especially in terms of production efficiency, the mechanical equipment we can use now is still limited by the small-scale hydropower stations built six or seven years ago, as well as primitive steam power. We have already had the manufacturing technology of internal combustion engines, but Limited by the fuel supply, it cannot be put into practical application. However, this short board can limit our development time will not be too long, because the next project we are going to implement is to solve the fuel supply problem of internal combustion engines .I believe everyone in this room understands what it means for us to take this step.”

In the original history, it was not until 1794 at the end of the next century that the British Streeter proposed the concept of mixing air and fuel to obtain power from fuel combustion.By 1833, the British Wright proposed the design of directly using the combustion pressure to push the piston to do work.After that, various internal combustion engine schemes appeared, but it was not until 1860 that the Frenchman Lenoir imitated the steam engine structure to manufacture the first practical gas internal combustion engine, but the thermal efficiency of this thing was only about 4%. In 1876, the German inventor Otto manufactured the first four-stroke internal combustion engine, which is the real internal combustion engine that can be mass-produced and practically applied.

The invention of the internal combustion engine has far more significance in improving social productivity and technological development than the steam engine, but this more advanced power equipment has much higher fuel requirements than the steam engine.Although gas can also be used to manufacture internal combustion engines, gas that is not convenient for transportation and storage is obviously not the best solution, and travelers from later generations are very clear about this.In order to put the internal combustion engine into the practical stage, the fuel problem must be solved first-first of all, oil must be extracted, and refined oil must be refined to ensure the fuel supply of the internal combustion engine.

Although the traversers have dragon-slaying skills, they are limited by the objective environment on this issue.There are no known recoverable oil fields in the land area that Crossing controlled in the first few years.There are many large oil fields with astonishing reserves on the bottom of the South China Sea. For example, 120 kilometers southeast of Vung Tau Port in southern Annan is the location of the Baihu Oilfield with the largest proven reserves in Vietnam.But before the traversers enter the coffin, they will definitely not be able to realize the production technology and large-scale equipment required to exploit the subsea oil fields, so even if they know that there is oil on the bottom of the sea, they can only look at the sea and sigh.

However, the Ministry of Industry, which has always been obsessed with internal combustion engines, has nothing to do with it. Thanks to the all-encompassing database, the travelers have already confirmed that there are underground oil fields on Taiwan Island that can be exploited. exist.Since then, the Ministry of Industry has made up its mind to advance the history of industrialized oil well exploitation from a small town in Pennsylvania, USA in 1859 to Taiwan Island two centuries ago.

In the original history, in the last years of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, people in Chusulkeng, Miaoli County, Taiwan discovered that there was oil gushing out of the ground.The local people dug a well more than one foot deep with manpower, and they can harvest seventy to eighty catties of crude oil gushing out of the ground every day.However, the real internal combustion engine had not been invented at that time, and the locals only used it for lighting.In the third year of Guangxu, Shen Baozhen, the governor of Liangjiang, inspected Taiwan. After hearing about this, he took over the oil field and hired American technicians to mine it with machines. He once increased the oil production to 13 catties per day.In the 120th year of the Guangxu reign, Liu Mingchuan, governor of Taiwan, set up the Mineral Oil Bureau and drilled five wells, the deepest of which reached [-] meters.

On the island of Taiwan, this is not the only oil and gas field that has been discovered and exploited in later generations. There are oil and gas fields with considerable reserves in Jinshui and Tiedanshan in Miaoli County, Qingcaohu and Qiding in Hsinchu, but their exploitation The technical difficulty of the oil field varies, and it is not as close to the surface as the oil field in Chusulkeng, Miaoli.It is said that the oil field in Chusulphengeng still had stable output until the crossing operation. Considering that its geographical location is the closest oil producing area to Sanya, and it is relatively difficult for Haihan to control the local area, it has become an industrial The preferred mining targets identified by the ministry.

Haihan only officially set foot on Taiwan Island in October of the previous year, and basically completed control of the west coast of Taiwan Island in the first half of last year, and the Ministry of Industry only started formal preparations for the oil project last year.

The relevant preparatory work is mainly divided into three parts. The first is the production of drilling equipment. The drill bit is the finished product brought over during the crossing. It only needs to produce drill pipes and drilling rigs.Although Haihan's steel production capacity is still very limited, it is not difficult to squeeze out a part of it to produce drill pipes, while drilling rigs and beam pumping units can only use steam power, and the production technology in this area is basically mature. Just make some adjustments according to the needs of oil extraction.Although the production efficiency is definitely not comparable to the professional equipment of the later generations, but the local method can be used as long as it can be used. First of all, the problem of whether there is any problem must be solved, and then the matter of upgrading the equipment will be considered slowly.

The second part is the construction of oil refining facilities. The extracted oil must be refined to obtain refined oil for internal combustion engines.Although it is impossible to build a large-scale oil refinery due to the limited productivity of this era, but with Haihan's current industrial level, it is not too difficult to build tube furnaces, vertical kettles, and use kettle distillation to refine oil. , but the processing capacity is limited, and the quality of the refined fuel cannot be as high as that of later generations.

Although the oil refining method is the same, the resources that the Ministry of Industry plans to invest in the oil project are not comparable to those of the private workshops of later generations, and a series of technical improvement plans have also been formulated for this purpose.For example, design a more efficient furnace structure and heating system, build a catalytic tower and increase the temperature of the reactor, configure a fractionation tower, use continuous feeding and rapid slag discharge to improve production efficiency, etc.Although these technological improvements will greatly increase the initial investment and increase the workload in the production and commissioning stage, the Ministry of Industry believes that these are all worth paying. The era of internal combustion engines will be ushered in sooner and earlier, so that Haihan Country A greater advantage leads this era.

The third part is the organization and training of production personnel, which is divided into two parts: drilling and refining.The professionals needed to drill this area already have a certain reserve. In recent years, the drilling team organized by the Ministry of Industry has drilled a lot of artesian wells on Hainan Island. I have mastered it more proficiently.It's just that there are no corresponding facilities for oil refining, and it is difficult to train skilled industrial workers purely on paper, which can only be trained while producing after the project is implemented in Taiwan.

These preparatory tasks are difficult to say, simple to say, and require the cooperation of many departments, mainly the Ministry of Industry. In addition, it depends on the budget and staffing that can be finally approved by the Executive Committee.So far, the executive committee has given the green light to this. Basically, the project preparation team will give what it wants, and the drilling equipment required in the initial stage has basically been in place. In addition, the local situation on Taiwan Island has stabilized. Prepare, just wait for the start of work.After a few days of the celebration, the first batch of engineering personnel composed of the exploration team of the Ministry of Industry and the construction team of the Ministry of Construction will go to Taiwan to carry out initial oilfield exploration work.

"At present, the personnel and production equipment are in place, and the drilling plan and local construction site infrastructure have also been planned. The next step is to arrange the work of transportation and safety protection." After Bai Kesi introduced the preparations for the project, he will The right to speak is given to the people behind.

"Then let me continue." Sun Changmi, the former Minister of Shipping and now the Deputy Minister of Communications, took the initiative to take over the conversation.Both he and Yue Zhiyun were not idle that night. They attended two meetings led by the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Industry separately, and they were considered one of the busiest departments.

"We have mobilized 22 ships for relevant materials and personnel in Sanya Port, and strive to complete the delivery work at one time." Sun Changmi said: "There are also some living materials that will be sourced in Guangdong, and will be shipped directly from Hong Kong at that time. The required ordinary labor will be selected from the nearest immigration camp in Penghu, which can also save part of the long-distance transport capacity. In addition, because the army is accompanying this time, the chosen route is subject to the opinion of the military.”

"This time, the military will send four exploration-class warships, two supply ships, and a troop carrier to Taiwan with the fleet of the Ministry of Shipping. After arriving there, a pier will be built and stationed in the area. Considering the The pit is still controlled by the local indigenous tribes. For this purpose, we have prepared two companies of the army to guard the construction site and the safety of the construction workers. In addition, I will stay there for a period of time as the military and medical staff. The person in charge of the department." The next speaker was Morgan, the military representative, and this time the Ministry of National Defense also gave him a task. Although he is not a local official, at least he has more power than the medical school in Sanya. up.

"Minister He, can you also say a few words?" Tao Donglai suggested to He Xi after Morgan finished speaking.

The Ministry of Security is also one of the few departments that needs to attend the two meetings tonight separately. He Xi and Hao Wanqing are each responsible for attending one side.After hearing Tao Donglai's proposal, He Xi nodded and said, "Let me just say a few words. The Miaoli project is a key industrial project supervised by the executive committee this year. Everyone knows its significance to the future development of our country. Therefore, the confidentiality level of this project is also first-class. The Ministry of Security will station personnel in the local area to cooperate with the military to maintain intelligence security."

As for how many people will be sent there, and what kind of cover will be used, He Xi will not say any more.Although everyone here is a time traveler, the Security Department is only responsible to the Executive Committee, and these specific work arrangements do not need to be reported to other departments in detail.Moreover, the oil mining area in Miaoli will definitely be a military-administered area in the future, and the role of the Ministry of Security in the area is actually relatively limited, basically serving as a surveillance function.

The last person to speak was Liu Shanxia, ​​the new Minister of Construction. He was the latest among the heads of these departments when he learned about the project. However, this is also because the role that the Ministry of Construction can play in this project is relatively limited. Build infrastructure projects and living facilities for production personnel and troops stationed locally.The technical difficulty of this kind of work is not very high. If it is not for political considerations, in fact, he, the top leader of the Ministry of Construction, does not need to personally supervise the work. At least several construction team foremen can be competent.It is precisely because of this that Liu Shanxia's statement is really just a statement, and there are not many substantive things that need to be emphasized in this kind of meeting.

The two meetings held on the night of April 1634, [-] basically established Haihan's military and industrial goals for a period of time to come.The two decisions of marching to the northern coast of Daming and exploiting oil will have a profound impact on Haihan, and the historical records of later generations have also carried out various descriptions and speculations about these two meetings.

There are two main doubts that have caused the most speculation from the outside world. One is why Haihan took the initiative to choose to go north when the situation in the South China Sea was very good. Is it because the leaders of the executive committee at that time had already judged that the situation in Daming was about to deteriorate, so they took the initiative to catch up? Take this opportunity to actively intervene.The second is that Haihan did not have personnel stationed in Miaoli, Taiwan at that time. Why did they suddenly send an entire engineering team to the local area for exploration and successfully found an oil field, which was used as fuel to drive the advent of the internal combustion engine.

But like many other unsolved mysteries in the history of Haihan, there is no generally accepted and reasonable answer to these two doubts, and most historians can only understand them as the prediction talents that only the first generation of Haihan veterans possessed.This talent of not being able to confirm its authenticity allowed Haihan Kingdom to develop at an unimaginable speed in the first few decades of its establishment, leaving its contemporaries far behind.

But the travelers at this time don't have time to think about the vision and questions of future generations. They just want to end the meeting early and go home to have a good rest.For the heads of these departments, although it is true that they enjoy superior power in their daily work and life, the degree of hard work in their work is indeed not comparable to that of ordinary people.This founding ceremony is not only a great honor for these traversers who hold high-level management positions in Haihan Kingdom, but also a period of hard work, and many of them will go out to perform missions after the celebration. Every minute spent together with family is more precious.

(End of this chapter)