Chapter 22: The Mother of Industry

  Gobi desert, under the Qilian Mountains in Gansu Province, Yumen is adjacent to the eastern end of the Great Wall "Jiayuguan Pass" and west to the "Eastern Art Pearl" Dunhuang Mogao Caves. "Spring breeze does not pass through Yumen Pass", originally a desolate land, Yumen has suddenly become prosperous in recent years. In December 1938, patriotic scholars Sun Jianchu, Yan Shuang, and Jing Xigeng arrived at Laojun Temple on the banks of the Oil River amidst the rumble of anti-Japanese war cannons. In 1939, the Yumen oil field officially began exploration and development. On March 3, 1939, a man-made well at the No. 1 well site north of Laojun Temple struck oil, and on August 11, the old No. 1 well discovered the K oil layer, marking the beginning of Yumen's oil industry development. In May 1940, China began using rod pumping technology for oil extraction in Yumen's Laojun Temple oil field.

  After the cooperation between the KMT and the CPC, in order to accelerate the development of the Yumen Oilfield, after consultations between the two parties, old equipment was urgently transferred from the Yanlong Oilfield to the Yumen Oilfield. The Yumen Oilfield began production, but the production of the old equipment could not keep up with the pace of resource consumption.

  In the past few days, a large number of mechanical equipment has been transported from Lanzhou, and many Soviet experts have also arrived. It was relying on these experts that the Yumen Oilfield established a complete industrial chain for petroleum exploration, extraction, transportation, refining, as well as manufacturing related machinery.

  And in the Junggar Basin, Tarim Basin and Turpan-Hami Basins of Xinjiang, as well as the Qaidam Basin in Qinghai, a group of mysterious herders appeared. They seemed to have lost interest in their sheep and instead erected tall poles everywhere, frequently asking other herders where they could find "black oil". Similar groups also emerged in various parts of Sichuan Province, but since it was an area under strong control by the Chinese government, their actions were more open.

  These people were the ones who implemented China's energy development plan formulated by the government based on He Juncai's materials. The Yumen Oilfield was designated as the main place for oil extraction and refining due to its distance from the war zone and relatively strong government control. In fact, before 1942, 90% of the oil extracted in China came from the Yumen Oilfield. Later, the Yumen Oilfield sent many talents and technologies to other major oilfields in China and overseas petroleum bases. It can be said that all the oilfields in China were built with the Yumen Oilfield as a model, and wherever there are oilfields in China, there are people from Yumen.

  However, except for the Yumen oil field, all other oil fields are in secret exploration, some of which are due to the fact that part of the oil resources are located in combat zones or areas easily attacked, such as Sichuan oil field; Some oil fields are not under the full control of the central government, such as Xinjiang and Qinghai oil fields.

  He Juncai could have known that there was a view in later generations that "the poor oil country hat allowed China to win the War of Resistance!"

  Japan's invasion of China was able to win victory after victory in the early stages of the war and capture the capital city of Nanjing, mainly because Japan's mechanical power was stronger than that of China, including its tanks and aircraft.

  It is well known that at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, China did not have its own mechanized forces. The Chinese army's troop carriers were mostly horse-drawn carts and trains, with very few automobiles. The Flying Tigers, which were later formed to counter Japanese air raids, were also established by American Claire Chennault after Nanjing was captured, using aid from the US Congress. The lack of mechanized forces was one of the reasons for the repeated defeats of the Chinese army.

  However, the mechanized warfare of the Japanese army required a large amount of oil. At that time, China had no oil fields, and Japan itself was resource-poor and had no oil. The nearest oil-producing area to Japan at that time was Brunei in Southeast Asia, and it was also possible to purchase oil from West Asia through the Malacca Strait in Southeast Asia. However, these areas were all under British control.

  The Japanese military needed oil, but because Japan and Fascist Germany were both members of the Axis powers, Germany in Europe had conquered France in 1939, controlled all of Western Europe, and threatened Britain. Japan in Asia had already occupied Nanjing, the capital of China at that time. To prevent these two Axis powers from supporting each other east and west, the United States and Britain began to control the export of war materials to Japan, especially rubber, steel, and oil.

  China had abundant resources at that time, but only lacked oil. Oil is the blood of war, without oil, tanks and planes are just a pile of scrap iron.

  Japan could not find oil supplies in China, and the US and UK began to restrict Japan's oil imports. Therefore, it was necessary for Japan to occupy Southeast Asia, which was controlled by the US and UK and produced oil and rubber, while also controlling the Strait of Malacca, Japan's sea lifeline.

  In order to ensure that Japan can firmly control this strategic material-producing area of Southeast Asia, Japan decided to first deal with the US Pacific Fleet which threatened Japanese sea security.

  In the original history, Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and its invasion of Southeast Asia began on the same day in 1941. With the fall of Singapore, a British stronghold, Japan controlled what it wanted. However, the Pearl Harbor incident and the attack on Singapore finally made the US and UK determined to go to war with Japan. The United States, as a powerful country, entered China's War of Resistance, providing large-scale material assistance to China, with the "Hump Airlift" and "Stilwell Road" being important supply lines supporting China's resistance at that time.

  So, because China had no oil at the time, Japan occupied Southeast Asia for strategic resources, and in order to control Southeast Asia, it was necessary to eliminate the US Pacific Fleet, so it launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, leading to the outbreak of the Pacific War. This allowed China to become an ally of the United States, receive large amounts of aid from the United States, and be able to persist in its resistance until victory. At the same time, Japan gradually began to suffer blows from the US military, step by step heading towards defeat.

  So, to some extent, China's "poor oil country" hat is a factor in China's victory in the War of Resistance Against Japan.

  Based on such considerations, He Juncai strongly suggested that all oil production work be carried out in secret. The border oil exploration was even more necessary to guard against the "polar bear", and it could only be secretly put into production when the China-Japan war front stabilized and the Soviet Union was held back by Germany.

  Petroleum is mainly composed of methane, with small amounts of ethane and propane, as well as carbon monoxide and nitrogen. Through refining petroleum, gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, lubricants for machinery, and gaseous alkanes can be obtained. Through chemical processes, synthetic fibers, synthetic rubber, plastics, pesticides, fertilizers, medicines, paints, and synthetic detergents can be produced. Therefore, petroleum is widely used in transportation, petrochemicals, and other industries, earning the nickname "black gold" or "economic lifeblood". The flow of oil has changed the global political economy, and as long as there is no new fuel to replace it, international competition for oil will not cease. It cannot be denied that the wars that broke out in the Persian Gulf region during He Zhongcai's time were largely driven by oil interests.

  Oil was also very important for China's war of resistance. The gasoline needed by piston fighters such as the I-16 came from oil, the aviation kerosene needed by jet fighters such as the Jian-1 and subsequent turboprop aircraft came from oil, and the diesel needed by transport vehicles came from oil. In the original Chinese history, all fuels were imported from abroad, and almost every ton of fuel imported consumed a ton of fuel. Now that there is sufficient fuel supply, not only can the air force go all out, but also save the import quota for other scarce materials. At the same time, oil is also the main raw material for other chemical products, such as plastics and organic glass used in large quantities on aircraft.

  Does China have oil? I believe this is a question that China wants to know, and Japan also wants to know. In 1914, an American drilling team led by Klapp drilled seven wells in northern Shaanxi, where they thought there was the most hope of finding oil, but they came up empty-handed. In 1938, the manager of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, Fuller, and others came to China again, drilling and exploring everywhere, but also returned with nothing. There were other foreigners who wandered around China's land and also left with empty hands. As a result, they concluded that "China is poor in oil". In order to make people believe their conclusion was correct, they even cited the theory of marine sedimentary rock formation, which held that China's land is mostly composed of non-marine sedimentary rocks, and from the types of rocks and their ages, it was unlikely that there were commercially valuable oil deposits. From then on, the argument that "China is poor in oil" became loud and clear, drumming up the Chinese mainland.

  However, He Juncai from later generations knew that China had many oil fields that could be exploited. It's just that they didn't dare or couldn't exploit them on a large scale at the time. If this was done to prevent Japan from advancing southward and instead solving its energy problems locally, then He Juncai would have been a sinner in history. However, this did not stop China from secretly conducting exploration, and He Juncai even recommended a capable person. Li Siguang, who had served as the director of the Geological Institute of the Central Research Institute, led a team of technical experts to find oil fields in China, one after another, and even went to Sudan to help them shake off the label of "oil-poor country".

  The Chinese government was secretly improving its own oil industry chain under the suggestion of He Juncai, extracting and refining petroleum through the open Yumen Oilfield. And also took Yumen Oilfield as the birthplace of China's petroleum, cultivating technical talents, and being able to quickly extract new oilfields that have been explored when needed.

  By the end of 1940, China had established a complete industrial chain in Yumen Oilfield with the help of Soviet technical personnel. The Yumen Oilfield had an annual output of 100,000 tons, which could basically meet the current fuel expenditure of the Chinese army. By the end of 1941, the Yumen Oilfield had reached an annual output of 250,000 tons, not only meeting the needs of the Chinese army's war efforts but also supporting a part of the Soviet Union.

  Especially after 1942, the Chinese government strengthened its control over Xinjiang and Qinghai. Sheng Shicai surrendered to the central government, and the Soviet Union withdrew its forces from Xinjiang to focus on resisting Germany's invasion. The Chinese government began to extract oil in Karamay, Xinjiang, and the Qaidam Basin in Qinghai, with China's oil production reaching 500,000 tons by the end of 1942. In addition to meeting the needs of the war against Japan, it also supported civilian production and aided the Soviet Union's war against Germany.

  By the end of 1943, with the expansion of oil production in various oil fields and the development of Sichuan Oil Field and Changqing Oil Field (Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Basin), China's annual crude oil output exceeded one million tons, which was a great boon to the Allies. Through petroleum support to the Soviet Union, it also smoothly repaid the previous debt to the Soviet Union, which made Soong Tse-vung breathe a sigh of relief, as he had been worried about the burden of resource debt for 30 years after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.

  By the end of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, China's annual oil production had reached 5 million tons, but it still could not meet the needs after the war. However, under the suggestion of He Juncai, the Chinese government began to conduct protective exploration and research on domestic oil resources, and after supporting the national liberation movements in Southeast Asia and the Middle East to help them establish oil extraction and refining industries, China turned to use foreign oil resources. Even a part of the oil was re-injected into several depleted oil fields.

  Those with money support a money scene, those without money support a personal scene!