Canteen System Assistance Notes

"Please allow me to interrupt, Mr. Liu. Perhaps you have been a little too busy lately." Gu Shaochuan's expression changed, but he quickly returned to normal. This young man probably didn't know about Wang Jingwei's escape and rebellion. He couldn't get angry yet. He had to explain to him, "The chairman refers to the head of the Military Commission. Currently, it is still solely held by Chiang Kai-shek. There has been no change..."

"Oh...it's Generalissimo Chiang...I see."

As a national government that currently holds the title of "legitimacy," the government does not yet have a complete national constitution, nor has it established a complete management system. Who will exercise the power of national management is completely chaotic in legal terms. There is only a vague description that "the chairman may exercise the powers of Article 3 of the Organization Act": whether government orders are implemented smoothly or not is more often determined by the size of the military force controlled by the policymakers.

Liu Helian's expression was instantly a jumble of subtle changes, which Gu Shaochuan naturally noticed. He quickly reassured him, "Chairman Chiang holds multiple positions, including Premier of the Executive Yuan and Chairman of the Military Commission. He has devoted himself tirelessly to the country and its people. This is a wartime situation, and special measures must be taken. I believe that with the help of world peace advocates, things will change after we defeat the Japanese invaders."

Having said that, without giving the other party a chance, Gu Shaochuan hurriedly introduced the various achievements of the domestic war of resistance.

Gu Shaochuan entered the field where he was good at.

With the listing of many exciting, touching and tragic events, in his description, preserved fruit has become a flawless saint who resisted the Japanese aggression and saved the nation. It is glorious and has sacrificed countless people. Countless preserved fruit patriots have fought one after another just to restore a bright and clear world to the world.

The young man in front of me was obviously moved. Tears welled up in his eyes as he said excitedly:

"Ah, what a great thing this is! Under the leadership of the Party and the country, our compatriots will surely be able to turn Pingjin into the front line of defense against the enemy and firmly block the Japanese invaders outside the country.

".Uh..." Gu Weijun broke out in a cold sweat, "Mr. Liu, although the Japanese invaders are a small country with few people, they are well-equipped and fierce like wolves and tigers. Tianjin and Beijing have already fallen into the hands of the Japanese invaders."

"What?" The young talent was deeply moved and was very surprised. He quickly lowered his voice and asked, "We paid such a heavy price, but even... So, what about Shanghai? What about Guangzhou?" "Mr. Liu, Shanghai is close to the sea. Alas! The Japanese have powerful ships and artillery, and Shanghai, Shanghai, has unfortunately fallen."

"This! This... Then," the newly rich businessman's surprise turned into horror, "What about our country's capital, Nanjing?" "It was also... also occupied by the Japanese army..."

"What about the Chicago of the East, the river city that connects five provinces..." "Oh, our army is still fighting here... but, alas!"

"Sir, the news from a few days ago," Xie Zhixiang, who had been silent for a long time, whispered, "Jiangcheng has been occupied by the Japanese army." Hearing this, Liu He felt as if he had suffered a major blow. His hand shook and the wine glass fell to the ground.

Chapter 145 Ambassador for Petroleum Development

(This chapter involves many historical figures)

"If Gu Shaochuan was just trying to solicit donations, he definitely wouldn't have wasted so much time on me."

Liu Helian sat at the edge of the meeting and whispered to Xie Zhixiang, "Most of the overseas Chinese businessmen present are willing to help the war. Even if I don't donate, there are still many Chinese who are willing to donate generously." "Ha, our wealthy Liu is such a stingy person!" Xie Zhixiang pretended to be angry, "He is actually unwilling to donate money and materials to support the war. He is really unworthy of being a Chinese son and daughter!"

"Old Xie, please don't kidnap me. If the Chiang Kai-shek government could truly clean up its mess, crack down on corruption, and change its murky habits, not to mention the donations from overseas Chinese, the domestic tax revenue alone would be enough to train elite troops, drive out the invaders, and then work hard to govern the country and fulfill Mr. Sun's last wish." Liu He shook his head. "Forgive my ignorance, but while there must be some, and even many, streams of pure, untainted water within that chaotic vat, I can't think of any better solution besides trying to separate it as much as possible and then dumping out the entire vat of dye and starting over."

"It seems that besides being an oil tycoon, Mr. Liu also wants to be a poet of melancholy." Xie Zhixiang took a drink from the waiter and handed it to Liu Helian. "Cheer up, our special envoy comrade, you still have to play your role well... According to your guess, does Gu Shaochuan have any other purpose in staring at you?"

Liu Helian stood up, pondered for a moment, and seeing that no one around him paid any attention to him, he softly uttered two words: "Yumen."

―—-―-——-

"Yumen? The spring breeze doesn't reach Yumen Pass?"

"It's not exactly there, but it's not far off." The two men slowly moved along the edge of the conference room, and Liu Helian explained the information he had in detail. "Actually, before developing the Majiagang Oilfield, I purchased a lot of equipment for small oilfield development in the border area. They used it in Yanchang. The donkey-powered oil pumps, wooden derricks, and wooden barrel stills there are simply... I can't stand looking at them. The only advanced equipment is the oil drill pipe, which was bought from Germany by Sun Yuqi. This person also laid the foundation for Yanchang. After we took over, we relied on the old equipment to maintain production.

"Old Xie, you've been to the Spanish battlefield. You know there's no oil. Planes, tanks, or cars are all just firewood."

"That's true," Xie Zhixiang agreed. "The several SP bombers in the column are fuel-guzzling aircraft. They burn nearly ten barrels of fuel just for one takeoff." "The border region is truly short on oil. Even with the addition of powered kowtow engines and a small thermal cracking distillation tower, our annual production has barely reached 20,000 tons."

Liu Helian was too embarrassed to admit that half the blame for this situation lay on his own shoulders. More than half of the GAZs and Fords currently plying the border region's roads owed their existence to his "electric fan wings." Coupled with the arrival of new aircraft and armored vehicles, the border region's oil problem was becoming increasingly severe. While the canteen system had refined oil, it was biodiesel used to fuel the high-fire stoves and gasoline used as backup fuel for the generators. It wasn't on the supplier's inventory list, making it extremely difficult to siphon off oil. As a result, many cars had to be equipped with gas generators, burning conventional charcoal instead.

"There's an ancient place called 'Petroleum Spring' over in Yumen, and I'm thinking... there's oil there." Liu Helian, a little guilty, recounted his assessment. "Then I looked up information and asked the central intelligence comrades, 'Hey, guess who holds the prospecting rights from Suzhou to Yumen?'"

"Could it be, Gu... Hearing Liu Helian ask this, Xie Zhixiang naturally thought of the answer immediately and revealed an incredible expression, "How could it be him?"

_--―-———

The story begins in 1927. Gu Shaochuan, having lost his official position following the fall of the Beiyang government, turned to business and ventured into oil exploration and development. At the time, evidence of oil reserves was evident in the Suzhou area of ​​China. Gu Shaochuan, along with a group of shareholders, applied to the Chiang Kai-shek government in 35 for exclusive oil development rights in that area.

However, Chiang Kai-shek attached the condition "no foreign investment" to the oil exploration rights, requiring that development be entirely Chinese-owned. At least Chiang Kai-shek took the need to revitalize domestic industry into account, a significant achievement.

But this made the highly westernized Ambassador Gu unhappy. His original plan was to bring in the world-famous Standard Oil to develop the area, and then have his own controlled company monopolize the refining business. In order to circumvent Chiang Kai-shek's ban, Gu Shaochuan asked Standard Oil to develop the area in an extremely confidential manner, which caused the entire exploration progress to fall behind.

By the middle of 38, Weng Yongni, then Minister of Economic Affairs, was getting restless. A Belgian-educated geologist, he had previously explored areas like Suzhou and had discovered numerous oil deposits, but he had been unable to develop them due to a lack of development rights.

Seeing that the war was becoming increasingly fierce and domestic oil production was still difficult, he took a risk. On the one hand, he found Sun Yuqi, who was good at oil development in the Resources Committee, and sent explorers to Yumen to look for oil without authorization. On the other hand, he began to look for loopholes in the wording of Gu Shaochuan's authorization, intending to take back the exclusive development rights. Naturally, he was well versed in the officialdom of the Republic of China, and joined forces with the powerful Kong Yongzhi to fight Gu Shaochuan.

Even before the Yumen Oilfield began development, the table for profit sharing was already filled with the four major families, diplomatic ambassadors, and foreign investors, all vying for control and arguing fiercely over the distribution of profits. Ironically, Yan Shuang, who was in charge of the practical development of the Yumen Oilfield, initially struggled to find even drill pipes. Construction steel was in short supply, the roads at the development site hadn't been repaired, and there wasn't even a drill pipe for drilling.

(Historically, the drill rod was supported by the righteous Duke of Zhou.)

"Now, we are at a critical juncture in the competition for exploration rights. Standard Oil stands on the side of Ambassador Gu, and the Kong family stands on the side of the Investment Committee. As far as I know, there are some loopholes in the terms of the exploration rights held by Gu Shaochuan--" Liu Helian signed his name in a flamboyant manner on the checkbook, filled in the numbers, and folded it up.

The reception was drawing to a close, and Ambassador Gu Shaochuan was on the stage, delivering a speech.

'So, as a company with a Chinese background that has successfully developed the Majiagang Oilfield, and Synopec with its exploration capabilities, aren't we an excellent disruptor? Ambassador Gu naturally wants to bring us into the game! ""I see... There is actually such a trick here. This is simply a decisive battle on another battlefield..."" Xie Zhixiang nodded in agreement, but then shook his head

He frowned. "But, from my perspective, although the members of the Investment Committee are doing some real work, are Kong Mou and Gu Shaochuan, the people behind them, really good or bad? Should we really side with one of them?"

"Dear old Xie,"

He filled out the check for 9 pounds 1 shilling and 3 pence, folded a paper airplane, and threw it into the donation box. "We are not the protagonists of this matter, the development of Yumen. We are not on either side."

"We just need to get a ticket from the organization."

Ambassador Gu, who had finished his speech, walked towards them again with a slightly playful smile on Liu Helian's face.

Chapter 146: People who do things

Fast forward a moment. On the other side of the World Island, a man named Qin Kegong squatted by the roadside, staring at a kerosene stove. "Zi Gan! Brother Zi Gan!" he shouted, but his voice could not carry far in the whistling wind. "Did you find any water?"

There was no response. He could only continue to stare at the dancing flames in the windshield of the kerosene stove - the wind direction was changing, and it was not easy to make a fire in the freezing cold. He picked up the small pot of muddy water and moved the old Mobil kerosene stove from one side of the car to the other, just to avoid the wind.

This was the drinking water for him, his three daughters, and his good friend Sun Zigan. The large jug of drinking water was found to have sand holes on it after leaving Haojing City, and it would gradually leak water. In the freezing northwest in October, he searched for a long time but could only find a pool of frozen mud.

There were no people around, not even any vendors. The weather was too harsh for human-drawn or animal-drawn carts, leaving the Northwest Passage nearly deserted and Qin Kegong completely unable to find help. Why would a man with a family take the Gaolan Highway in the freezing cold? The reason was simple: Qin Kegong was an oil exploration expert, busy searching for the Yumen oilfield.

He checked the kerosene stove on the side of the convertible, sighed, and slowly turned his body, stiffened by the cold wind. He stretched himself a bit, turned around, and checked on his daughter, who was cowering in the car. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, Dad will light the fire right away, and we'll have hot brown sugar water to drink soon..."

The three daughters were huddled in the back seat of a convertible Ford, wrapped in several layers of blankets, shivering. When they saw their father coming, the eldest daughter opened her eyes and looked at him, nodding to show that she was fine, while the younger daughter burst into tears as soon as she saw her father.

"Dad! I'm cold..."

Before he could finish his words, the eldest daughter slapped him with a chestnut: "Dad has already given us all the clothes he can give, why are you cold?"

After saying that, she hugged her two sisters in her arms and tucked them under the seat. She turned her back to the windward side and said tremblingly, "My dear third sister, there will be hot water to drink soon... Dad, you go ahead and do your work. I'll take care of them..."

Seeing this scene, Qin Kegong could only sigh.

Sun Ziqian, another exploration expert who had been traveling with him, had gone out to find water, leaving him alone. Fortunately, the sun still peeked through the fast-moving clouds, preventing anyone from freezing to death. Qin Kegong crawled under the car and poured the melted muddy water into a filter lined with gravel and rags. He then filtered the water into a clean cup and waited for it to boil.

But after waiting for over ten minutes, the water in the cup was only slightly steaming, with no sign of boiling. Qin Kegong tried adjusting the kerosene stove's knob and found that the flame had been turned up to maximum. The piece of cotton wool used to start the fire had risen to its highest point, and the tip had begun to turn red and black, showing signs of carbonization.

"Oh no, I'm afraid the oil is running out..."

Shaking his head helplessly, Qin Kegong lifted the tarpaulin from the back of the convertible and began rummaging through the stuffed contents. He hastily set aside his packed belongings and suitcases, carefully unpacked the documents locked in the cowhide trunk, and even more carefully removed the carefully stored pieces of surveying equipment at the very back. Finally, he found the kerosene canister at the very bottom. He grasped the handle with both hands and, exerting all his strength, prepared to lift the heavy canister from under the car to refill the kerosene stove.

Then he leaned back violently, his strength was in vain, and he fell to the ground. The kerosene can drew an arc and was thrown behind the car with a bang. "Hiss... It's okay! It's okay! Your dad is okay! Watch me! Don't get out of the car!"

Qin Kegong didn't think about anything else and just yelled into the car. It was as if his nerves had been paralyzed by the cold wind. After he finished shouting, the pain slowly emerged from his cotton-padded vest, penetrated his bones, and then jumped to his throat. He wanted to groan loudly, but he felt completely lacking the energy to do so. Qin Kegong lay on the ground, gasping for breath, waiting for the pain to pass.

Why is the kerosene bottle empty? Logically speaking, the quantity purchased is enough to be used from Haojing to Jincheng! Could it be that the trading company cheated me of the weight? No, I personally checked each item of equipment prepared for oil field exploration in Haojing... Qin Kegong finally slowly got up, took a few steps, and picked up the oil bottle.

He turned the large oil can over and saw a crack on the side of the can. It was a seam that had been patched with tin. The tin on the seam had cracked again. Presumably, it had cracked again due to the bumpy road conditions in such low temperatures, causing the entire oil can to leak out.

"Oh!" He was depressed and even threw the oil bottle away in despair.

Qin Kegong turned off the dying kerosene stove, then picked up the filtered water, which hadn't yet boiled, and took a sip to test the temperature. Then he returned to the car seat and handed the water to his daughters. Watching the children greedily grasping the cups, craving the slightest bit of water, he could only suppress his sore eyes and nose and reach out to touch their dirty hair.

The Gaolan Highway was now little more than a dirt road, in poor condition and harsh conditions. Even after serving as a Soviet aid route in 37, repairs hadn't been completed, remaining largely unchanged from its 35 construction. Since leaving Jinjing, this old Ford convertible had been constantly bumping along the road, even having to frequently get out to repair the road, making it impossible to speed.

If this goes on, how long will it take to reach Jincheng, and then Yumen? I've already sacrificed my life to the oil industry, so it doesn't matter; but how much more suffering will these poor children have to endure... Sigh, I wonder if Brother Ziqian can find it...

Qin Kegong suddenly realized that his oil expert, Sun Ziqian, had been away from the vehicle looking for water for nearly half an hour. He had been so busy trying to boil water, find oil, and take care of the children that he hadn't paid any attention to him. This was a desolate place in the middle of nowhere, with no village or shop nearby. Where was he?

Qin Kegong jumped out of the car and shouted: "Ziqian! Brother Ziqian! Where are you? Have you found water?" "We agreed to find oil together, open up oil mines, and help the war of resistance!"

"If you hear it, answer it!"

Nothing will happen!

Qin Kegong shouted, as if questioning the surrounding wilderness. This geologist who believed in "saving the country with pure science" activated his vocal cords and issued a deafening cry, but it was drowned out by the strong wind blowing across the northwest land and dissipated under the vast and boundless sky, just like some weak flames that tried to burn in the country at this time and then gradually went out - the environment here was too bleak and perhaps could not accommodate the purity of one's ideals.

However, things seem to have changed.

In the far east, the whirring wind began to pick up the murmur of machinery. It was noisy, unrestrained, and full of power, gradually approaching with a cloud of dust. On the Gaolan Highway, where the sun occasionally shone, Zou Kegong saw a dusty car, then another, and another, and finally many, many more, lined up in a row, rolling in, as if there was no end in sight.

Sun Zigan was clinging to a Ford truck in the lead, waving at him and shouting something.

Because of the wind, Qin Kegong couldn't hear what he was shouting, but he could see a red flag stretched out diagonally from the cab, unfurling in the wind. The red flag fluttered in the wild northwest wind.

Chapter 147: The Security Team Digs for Oil

"Kegong! Kegong!"

"Are you Qin Kegong? Where are they?"

A strange truck with a closed cab emerged from the rolling traffic. Two thin and long antennas were erected on the top of the truck. Two soldiers wearing sand-colored robes, gray scarves, carrying long rifles and wearing brown goggles followed Sun Zigan and jumped out of the truck.

"Yes, I am. They are my three daughters..."

As he spoke, Qin Kegong instinctively hid his three daughters behind him.

"Don't be afraid! Don't be afraid! They are not those kind of bandit soldiers!" His good friend Sun Zigan hurriedly explained. He turned around and shouted to the two men, "Sir, he is my friend! The one I told you about before!" The soldier looked around and saw the kerosene stove standing at the rear of the car. He didn't care about anything else and ran up to take a look. He saw only a pool of muddy water that had re-frozen inside.

"Alas! Alas! Those who run along the Northwest Road are all people who suffer!"

The man shook his head repeatedly and wiped his eyes with his hands, but only wiped the goggles. He turned around and said a few words to another soldier. The two of them gave Sun Ziqian a few words and turned back to run towards the strange-looking big-nosed truck.

"What took you so long to find water?"

As soon as the other party ran away, Qin Kegong grabbed his good friend Sun Zigan and asked, "Why are there another group of soldiers here? What are they doing? If they are not horse bandits, what are they?" "Oh!"

Sun Ziqian lifted his clothes, and Qin Kegong realized that his colleague was wearing the same sand-colored cotton robe as the soldiers. "There's no surface runoff here, and even if there was, it's hard alkaline water. I'm going to follow the path and look for a low, shady valley. I'm hoping to find some snow that hasn't melted yet and can be used as drinking water."

"The wind was so strong that it kicked up sand, and I was blown away and fell into a ditch by the roadside."

The oil expert laughed sheepishly. "I'm a geology student, and I was blown into a gully by the northwest wind. It's hilarious! I was still floundering in the gully, trying to get out, when their convoy happened to pass by and pulled me up. Seeing that my clothes were torn, one of them lent me some."

"I figured since a soldier would lend me his clothes, he must not be a bad person."

"Then who are they?" Qin Kegong finally felt relieved after hearing what Sun Zigan said. He had fled all the way from Henan Province and had seen a lot of war and chaos. In many cases, soldiers were even more terrifying than the Japs and bandits. Now he was lucky to meet an army that did not rob. "But are they heading to Suzhou? Can they take us with them? If we can reach Suzhou one day earlier.

The sooner we can start exploring, the sooner we can find oil.”

"But..." Qin Kegong pondered to himself, searching his pockets. His wallet was deflated. "Zi Qian, do we have any money left in the cash box on our train? Their large convoy is safe and secure, but, alas, the fare is probably not cheap. If all else fails, we can sell them some supplies."

"It's okay... I told them we were going to look for oil, and they said they'd take us along..."

Before Sun Ziqian finished speaking, the two soldiers who had run away came back, carrying a large bag of things and an oil drum.

"Two experts! Come! The journey is long, let's go together!"

"Excuse me, fellow soldiers, who are you?"

Zou Kegong and his daughters boarded a Ford truck converted from a cargo truck to a passenger vehicle, while his old car, driven by a driver, followed behind the convoy. Wrapped in large cotton robes given by the soldiers, his daughters gathered at the exhaust vents in the carriage, drinking hot water. Their complexions gradually improved.

"We? Ha!" The soldiers entered the car and hung their guns on the gun rack on the roof. When they heard such a question, they pointed to the identification badge on their chests with pride.

He boasted: "We are the Eighth Route Army...Oh no, we are the Northwest Railway Guard.

of!"

"Eighth Route Army? Northwest Railway Guard?"

"Don't listen to his nonsense," the driver in the front seat said. "We are now the security team for the Sino-Soviet Highway, Gaolan Highway, and Lanxin Highway. We are like a security group."

Qin Kegong didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that the faces of the soldiers carrying guns turned very ugly when they heard the words "security group". However, the driver quickly added a few words:

"Although this title doesn't sound good, the entire Northwest and half of the rear area are relying on our four wheels for resource input. A year ago, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party finally joined forces to fight against Japan. We are all considered anti-Japanese troops, so we still have to keep our face!"

"Tsk—ah." As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers gave a mock murmur of agreement. "Captain, you're right anyway. Security Corps, Security Corps, we've become a swordsman escort agency, and the Party and the state still don't pay us. Your family is the Security Corps!"

After the successful resolution of the Gaojing Incident and its aftermath around 37, the Soviet Union finalized its aid plan with China. The Eighth Route Army, which had obtained the right to the Northwest Road, took advantage of the relatively relaxed window period to form a "Railway Guard" to cooperate with the Soviet soldiers who were escorting the trains.

Together, they put down the rampant banditry in the Northwest Passage. For a time, the Eighth Route Army, armed with numerous light weapons and riding Ford and GAZ vehicles, chased the bandits throughout the Northwest Passage, significantly increasing the safety of the entire route.

Of course, in order to prevent the Communist Party from "expanding its military under the guise of protecting the railway," Guofu ordered the Northwest Railway Administration, which managed the Northwest Passage, to also form its own "railway protection team." Moreover, it was determined not to approve the establishment of the Eighth Route Army's railway protection team, let alone issue them a single gun or bullet!

However, the preserved fruit troops could not bear the hardships and could not endure the suffering of traveling and sleeping in the open air. After a few months, they chose to set up checkpoints on the spot, which became fixed "checkpoints". In addition, there were even cases where preserved fruit officers colluded with horse bandits to harm the passing merchant convoys, which led to the passing merchants, drivers and even Soviet people gradually moving closer to the Eighth Route Army. This situation became more obvious after the Eighth Route Army successively blew up several Kuomintang checkpoints that colluded with horse bandits to ambush the convoy.

By the end of 38, the only effect of Chiang Kai-shek's resistance was that the Eighth Route Army's "Railway Protection Team" could no longer call itself a Railway Protection Team, but had to use the name "Northwest Security Corps."

"I see. There's another layer of meaning to this." After listening to the driver explain the "official" origins, mission, and goals of the railway protection team, Qin Kegong finally understood the situation. "So, are you going back to Suzhou and then to Xinjiang Province to pick up the next batch of goods?"

"Yes, we are heading back to the Russians." The soldiers in the car took over the conversation. "We are bringing mechanical equipment, weapons and ammunition from the Russians.

But we can't leave the car empty when we go back. So we also take some on the way back.

Goods, such as bristles, candy, liquor, and thermal clothing, are sold to the Russians.