In the early 1960s, China's economic development was seriously backward. From 1952 to 1958, under the leadership of the Party, the "first five-year plan" with national industrialization as the main body was launched. Under the patriotic enthusiasm of the high popularity of the people, the first five-year plan task exceeded the standard, and only the oil industry reached about 70%, which attracted the attention of the Party Central Committee.
1. The Commission's re-appointment of difficulties
In order to solve this weak point, Chairman Mao decided to make changes to the personnel appointment of the oil department, but he has been chaotic in the candidates for the lead, which has taken a lot of trouble. One day in January, Chairman Mao appointed Zhou Enlai and Peng Dehuai to elect a colleague among senior generals to take over as Minister of the Petroleum Industry.
Premier Zhou conveyed and put forward three requirements: first, young; second, able to endure hardships; third, able to open up the situation.
After careful consideration, Peng Dehuai gave the candidate he liked, so he found Premier Zhou to report: "I see that Yu Qiulixing, the political commissar of the General Logistics Department, is considered to be the younger among the senior generals. He is only 43 years old, with ideas, ability and method."
Once, when Premier Zhou reported to Chairman Mao about the preparations for the fifth session of the First National People's Congress, he proposed to Chairman Mao that the candidate he and Peng Dehuai selected was Yu Qiuli. Chairman Mao nodded after hearing this and said, "Okay, I understand this comrade Yu Qiuli."
As one of the "Five Tiger Generals" under Peng Dehuai, Yu Qiuli followed Peng Dehuai to fight south and north in his early years and made great achievements. Not only did he have superb military talents, but he also made great achievements in politics. At the enlarged meeting of the Shanxi Front Committee of the Northwest Field Army in January 1948, Yu Qiuli talked about his experience of complaining about the three sufferings, which was highly praised by Chairman Mao and left a deep impression.
On the day in early February, Yu Qiuli received a notice to go to Zhongnanhai to attend the meeting. At the meeting, Chairman Mao had a conversation with him. Chairman Mao took the initiative to ask: "Comrade Qiuli , the Prime Minister recommends you to take on this task. What do you think? Can you bear it?"
Yu Qiuli knew in his heart that Chairman Mao was asking about his transfer to Ministry of Petroleum Industry . He touched the back of his head and said: "Chairman, you also know that I have been in the army and have never been in contact with industry. There must be a better candidate than me."
Regarding Yu Qiuli's remarks, Chairman Mao smiled and replied: "Knowledge comes from practice, and it is the case with war and economic construction."
Afterwards, he specially approved it:
If you lack cadres, you can call for it. If you are above the military, you can choose whoever you want.
A few days later, the Central Political Meeting was held. When mentioning the appointment of Yu Qiuli, Chairman Mao asked a comrade sitting next to him, "How is Yu Qiuli like? I want him to be the Minister of Petroleum. Do you think it's okay?" The comrade replied, "I'm afraid I'm a little tender." Chairman Mao replied, "It doesn't matter if it's tender, exercise! Let's get up!"
2. Going to the post of Ministry of Petroleum
1958, Yu Qiuli left Juli Bookstore with Chairman Mao's trust and came to the Ministry of Petroleum outside Deshengmen. Coming to a completely new field, this task is undoubtedly arduous. The previous minister, Li Jukui, expressed a strong welcome to Yu Qiuli's arrival and also gave strong help in the handover work. Finally, a cadre meeting was held before and after leaving, and Yu Qiuli was officially accepted to all cadres. During the conference, Yu Qiuli was surprised to find that there were great problems with the style and discipline of these cadres, and even the old minister's speech was perfunctory. How could he do the tasks assigned by his superiors in this way? At the cadre meeting half a month later, Yu Qiuli angrily scolded the leaders of cadres at all levels: "In the future, whenever there is a problem with the cadres in the organs, the leaders at all levels will be the first to ask about the leaders at all levels."
Under Deng Xiaoping's instructions, the focus of New China's oil exploration began to shift eastward from the western region. Yu Qiuli lacked theoretical knowledge and began to learn day and night, constantly asking geologists for solutions. Finally, a good news fell from the sky. In March 1958, a large amount of crude oil was found in three oil wells in Sichuan. Yu Qiuli was overjoyed and planned to hold an oil battle here.
However, after nearly 70 oil wells were drilled, crude oil production became smaller and smaller. After another exploration, it was found that there were no large oil fields at all, which could not solve the fundamental needs of our country, so we could only have a happy moment.
hit a nail in the middle of Sichuan, which made Yu Qiuli a little depressed. In April 1959, Yu Qiuli went to Shanghai to attend the 8th Seventh Plenary Session of the Central Committee, and Chairman Mao was also present. Chairman Mao knew about Sichuan crude oil and comforted him: "Don't be discouraged. Since Sichuan has not been found, then go to other places to look for it. The old saying goes, if the east is not bright, the west is bright. If you believe that China is so big, can't you even find an oil field?"
Mao Zedong's encouragement allowed Yu Qiuli to regain confidence and regain his momentum.
After Yu Qiuli returned to Beijing, he took a bus to the home of geologist Li Siguang. Li Siguang was also aware of Yu Qiuli's encounter with the wall in Sichuan, and took out the Saltu earthquake structure map and Yu Qiuli's research. Looking at the detailed earthquake survey results sent by the Northeast, the two turned their attention to Songliao Plain . In this regard, the focus was officially transferred to the Songliao Plain and the Songliao Petroleum Exploration Bureau was established.
Deputy Minister of Petroleum Kang Shien led an exploration team to reach the northeast wasteland of tens of thousands of kilometers in just a few months. At the end of July, Kang Shien excitedly reported to Yu Qiuli: "Now there is a well that has oil. Now you can complete the well and try the oil in advance."
Hearing the news, Yu Qiuli was very excited. The things that have been waiting for for so long finally came to an end. At this time, Soviet experts spoke out against it and asked to drill the depth of the plan before conducting the test. Yu Qiuli thought about it over and over again and decided to complete the well and test the oil in advance. The shortage of resources is urgent and we cannot waste more time.
1959 On September 26, 1959, after Yu Qiuli agreed to test the oil in advance for 50 days, Daqing Oilfield was born. On January 7, 1960, Yu Qiuli arrived in Shanghai for a meeting again and reported to Mao Zedong: "It will take about half a year to determine whether a large oil field has been born."
3. Oil Battle
On February 1, 1960, at the cadre meeting of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry, a group of cadres held a discussion on the Songliao Petroleum Conference and decided to take over the Daqing Oilfield. However, the shortage of manpower is still an unsolvable problem. There are only more than 30,000 oil workers in the conference battle, which is far from enough to carry out oilfield mining.
My thought hard for more than Autumn, how can we make up for the manpower? As the Central Military Commission was holding a meeting in Guangzhou, Yu Qiuli had an idea to apply to him to divide 30,000 veterans into the Ministry of Petroleum.
1963, after more than 1,000 days and nights of oil battle came to a successful end, and Daqing Oilfield achieved a decisive victory. In just three years, 14 million tons of crude oil were produced.
China has completely removed the label of "oil-poor country" and has become the fifth largest oil power in the world. In 1964, Premier Zhou proudly announced in the face of the world that China can now fully realize oil self-sufficiency, and the "foreign oil era" is over!
