A doctor who travels through two eras

On Lunar New Year's Eve, the Zisu Xinzhou aircraft, which was Lin Sanqi's private plane, hovered low over the Daqing Oilfield.

The fact that Air Force officers Yang Shufeng and Sun Jing personally served as pilots, allowing two generals to fly the plane, is definitely a state guest treatment.

Lin Sanqi and Minister Zheng from the Ministry of Petroleum leaned against the cabin window, looking down at the land of Daqing.

Minister Zheng explained from the side:

"What we see now is Datong Town. The first oil well in Daqing, Songji No. 3, was drilled here."

This story begins in 57, when Team 32118 of the Longjiang Petroleum Exploration Brigade of the Songliao Petroleum Exploration Bureau drilled its first benchmark well about 14 kilometers east of Renmin Town, Anda County, Longjiang Province.

We also call it Songji No. 1 Well, but the result was disappointing. There was no oil, not even a bit of natural gas.

At the time, many people believed that it was unlikely that there was an oil field in Daqing, including Soviet experts.

But I refused to believe it and switched to another exploration team, 32115, which drilled the Songji-2 well in Gorlos County, Jilin Province.

Unfortunately, only a small amount of oil and gas was found in the end, and the second well failed.

Oh dear, there were so many people who reported me for wasting national funds back then, but I firmly believed that there was oil in Daqing.

In November 1958, we began exploration of the third well, and located it about 200 meters east of Xiaoxitun and 100 meters west of Gaotaizi in the northwest of Datong Town.

Finally, our hard work paid off! When we reached a depth of 1462 meters, the well started gushing oil. We were so excited that we all jumped into the oil pool! Haha.

Comrade Sanqi, the Songji No. 3 well is no ordinary well. It marks the official discovery of the Gaotaizi oilfield, providing the first foothold for oil exploration in the Songliao Basin and pointing the way for our subsequent exploration.

Later, we drilled oil well after well nearby, and every one of them produced oil; the situation looked very promising.

Looking out from the plane, Lin Sanqi saw a vast expanse of white snow below.

It's February, the coldest time of year in the north.

Lin Sanqi had originally planned to go back to Bao'an County for the Spring Festival, but Minister Zheng insisted on dragging him to Daqing for a so-called inspection, which was actually to get the oil refinery project implemented.

Lin Sanqi knew that the Ministry of Petroleum was desperate to refine oil on its own, so he had no choice but to agree to come along.

Luckily, he has a private jet now. If he had to take a train and then a car, it would have taken at least a week to get to Daqing, which would have been crazy.

After looking around for a while, Lin Sanqi finally noticed that there were many people working next to the drilling platforms on the ground, looking like ants moving around.

So I couldn't help but ask curiously:

"Minister Zheng, today is Lunar New Year's Eve, why do I still see workers on the job?"

Minister Zheng remarked with emotion:

"There's no other way. We're so short of oil right now that we can't rest for even a day. We just want to produce more oil, contribute more to the country, and get rid of the label of an oil-poor country as soon as possible."

To put it simply, look at the cars on the streets of our capital city; they all have huge bulges on top of them. Isn't that a slap in the face for us oil workers?

Before the Soviet experts withdrew, I was at the Yumen Oilfield. At that time, the Soviets said that without their assistance, we would not be able to produce refined oil on a large scale for at least 20 years.

I was so angry at the time. I just didn't believe it. We'd be eating hairy pork without Zhang the butcher? The Soviets could do it, the Americans could do it, so why can't we Chinese do it?

However, the output of Yumen Oilfield was far from sufficient. Before liberation, it was enough to supply our army, but after liberation, it was not enough to undertake the supply of refined oil products nationwide.

Therefore, we urgently need to find new large oil fields. As the saying goes, "Even Buddha fights for a stick of incense, and people fight for a breath of air." This is why I insisted on finding oil fields in Daqing despite everyone's objections.

Lin Sanqi was still somewhat curious:
“Minister Zheng, there’s something I don’t understand. Our country has 960 million square kilometers of land. How can you be so sure there’s oil here? Drilling a test oil well costs hundreds of thousands of yuan, which is no small amount.”

Minister Zheng suddenly burst into laughter and said: "That is based on scientific evidence, and of course, luck is also indispensable."

You don't know this, but in 1915, Mobil sent people to Northeast China and other places to conduct oil exploration.

The survey at the time concluded that most areas in northeastern China had no potential for oil production and that large-scale oil development was impossible.

The argument that "China is poor in oil" thus appeared in the articles of foreign geologists. They believed that only marine sedimentary strata could generate large oil fields, while large areas of inland China were terrestrial sedimentary and could not possibly contain oil.

In 1930, Japan, which had coveted my country's resources for many years, also began oil drilling in the Northeast region.

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Japanese carried out another large-scale oil drilling operation. By the time drilling stopped in 1942, a total of 81 test wells had been drilled, but no large-scale oil reservoirs were found.

As a result, the Japanese also firmly believed in the theory that "oil only exists in coastal areas" and concluded that my country was an oil-poor country.

What was actually quite alarming was that in 1940, the Japanese army drilled a 1000-meter-deep well in Anda County in the Songliao Basin, but no industrial oil flow was detected.

This well was only one kilometer away from the main oil-producing area of ​​the Daqing Oilfield, which was later discovered.

Comrade Sanqi, don't underestimate this small kilometer. If the Japanese had discovered this huge oil field back then, the consequences would have been unimaginable. They would have definitely spared no effort to firmly occupy Northeast China.

Once the Japanese have oil and no longer rely on the United States, this war of aggression will be even more difficult for us to fight.

Putting aside other things, the Japanese had the capability to produce tanks and airplanes back then, but they didn't produce oil domestically, so they had to import all their gasoline and aviation fuel from the United States.

The Americans later cut off the Japanese supply of refined oil, which prevented the Japanese aircraft and warships from operating, limiting their combat effectiveness. Otherwise, the Japanese might have actually turned the tide of World War II.

Lin Sanqi was also hearing this story for the first time, and she was somewhat frightened as she said:

"Thank goodness, it seems our national fortune is on our side, just one kilometer away. The Japanese are really lucky, haha."

Minister Zheng then continued:
In 1954, based on the theory of geomechanics, geologist Li Siguang proposed that it was worthwhile to conduct preliminary investigations in the North China Plain and Songliao Plain for the exploration of oil resources in my country.

In addition, geologist Xie Jiarong firmly believes that there may be oil reserves beneath the North China Plain and the Songliao Plain.

He also proposed that organic matter in continental sediments may mainly have originated from the differentiation of terrestrial plants, and that terrestrial strata are the most likely source of oil.

In addition, Huang Jiqing and other geological experts have concluded through repeated research that terrestrial strata can generate oil, which is contrary to the views of Americans and Japanese.

We held many meetings back then, went through dozens of rounds of discussions and conducted hundreds of field surveys before concluding that there would be oil in Daqing.

Later, with the approval of higher authorities, dozens of outstanding drilling teams, thousands of scientific and technical personnel, workers and 3 veterans were gathered from all over the country, along with more than 7 tons of equipment and materials, forming a large-scale oil exploration force.

This led to the massive oilfield campaign, and ultimately, we found the Daqing Oilfield.

We only drilled three test wells, while the Japanese drilled a whopping 81 test wells back then, haha.

Lin Sanqi looked out the window and nodded slightly:
I thought to myself, yes, the fate of the nation is in my hands. Sometimes you have to believe in these kinds of mystical things. For example, decades later, when two buildings in the United States collapsed, it also ushered in a golden decade for our country.

We seized this opportunity, and our domestic economy took off. That was good fortune.

The special plane, named Zisu, then landed smoothly at Daqing Temporary Airport.

Lin Sanqi stepped out of the cabin and was instantly frozen solid by the northwest wind.

To keep warm, he wore a down jacket that was unavailable in China at that time, along with a mink hat and a mask, but he still couldn't stand the cold.

Looking at Minister Zheng and the other accompanying personnel, they were dressed much more lightly in military overcoats, but they didn't seem to be cold.

Lin Sanqi thought to himself that the physical constitutions of southerners and northerners are indeed somewhat different. (End of Chapter)