Chapter 7 Oil Extraction Team

  The 1987 green train, crowded like a can of yellow peaches, luggage swaying back and forth between people like juice. The toilets were usually occupied to the point where people even turned yellow.

  In Suzhou, people often sit on three-person seats and occasionally give up half of their seat to let the person next to them rest their legs.

  By nightfall, some people couldn't hold on any longer and simply slipped under the seats to lie down. This kind of hardship was something that Su Cheng had never experienced before.

  However, the people in the same car didn't feel tired at all, but instead chatted non-stop and had a sense of closeness.

  After two days and one night, they finally arrived at Dongying.

  At this moment, in the dead of night, looking out of the window, you can see the dense oil rigs on the wasteland and the dragon-like traffic flow. Old Zhang suddenly stood up with excitement, saying: "Look! This is the victorious Petroleum War!"

  "How magnificent!"

  "Many bowing machines."

  Finally back home.

  Su Cheng listened quietly. As a student at the Petroleum University, he also had the beautiful dream of becoming an engineer. However, after entering the new millennium, even the children of oil field workers were eagerly waiting for job opportunities, and this student without any connections was gradually drifting further away from his dreams.

  The passengers in the carriage were mostly oil field workers, full of grandeur, and Suzhou also straightened its waist.

  After a while, the green skin car stopped steadily.

  Su Cheng said goodbye and shouldered his bag, getting off the train.

  Old Zhang followed from behind and smiled foolishly: "Little Su, it's still several hours before dawn, is there anywhere to go?"

  Su Cheng shook his head dazedly.

  "Go with me." Old Zhang pulled Su Cheng along without giving him a choice, saying as they walked: "I have an old acquaintance at the reception center, and you can stay there for half a night without paying a dime."

  At this time, there really aren't any hotels still open.

  Su Cheng reluctantly followed, spending half the night amidst snoring and stinky feet.

  The next morning, Old Zhang asked in a familiar tone: "Little Su, I'm going to the oil pipe factory, what about you?"

  "Report to headquarters."

  "Oh? Good place! Let's go together and take a bus at the station." Old Zhang was very good at making decisions for others, so he pulled Su Cheng along and ran.

  All the way, Su Cheng was observing this city that rose because of oil. He was born after the era of oil wars had passed, but he often heard his elders recall those stories that seemed both real and dreamlike.

  As the second-largest state-owned oil field after Daqing, Shengli Oil Field is extremely rich, which can be seen from the buses.

  As early as the beginning of the 80s, under the extremely tense foreign exchange situation in various departments, the oil field purchased a batch of buses from abroad. The two-section bright yellow car body was quite spacious and played the role of commuting bus for the oil field for a long time until the establishment of Dongying City, also undertaking urban public transportation responsibilities. In order to distinguish, the numbers of the oil field buses were all within 100, while local buses used numbers after 100.

  It is said that "there was a drilling machine first, and then Dongying City", which further illustrates the status of the oil field here.

  In Su City's view, the scale of Dongying Railway Station is even better than some county-level cities 20 years later. At least that bus connected by wrinkled leather looks brand new.

  Upon arriving at the command center, after presenting the letter of introduction, Su Cheng's Peking University identity once again caused a stir, only this time, everyone was more regretful.

  A university student from the north was assigned to the petroleum department, and a month later was sent down to the Victory Oil Field. No matter how I think about it, it seems like I've offended someone.

  The head of the personnel department observed in the office for a while, seeing Su Cheng looking left and right, but neither getting close nor being greeted by anyone, so he assigned him to the Dongying Oilfield Command Center with a stroke of his pen.

  This is a secondary unit of the Shengli Oilfield and can be said to be the grassroots under the command of the war command.

  Su Cheng sat in a daze on the Guangzhou medium-sized bus heading to Kenli County, and when he arrived, he took the shuttle bus from Kenli County to the Dongying Oilfield Command Center.

  It was almost closing time when I arrived at the Dongying Oilfield Command Center. The cadre in charge of receiving me glanced at my introduction letter and assumed that I was a student who had made mistakes and been sent here as punishment. Without even asking any questions, he said: "You are a university graduate, you should be staying in the office, but now the quota is full, so go to the oil extraction team first."

  "Oil extraction team?" This time it was Su Cheng's turn to be stunned. He grew up in the oil field, of course he knew how hard the oil extraction team worked.

  When he came to the Victory Oil Field, he wanted to play his professional role, but did not think of doing basic labor work.

  "Drilling Oil Factory 3, Team 2. Once you arrive at the location, people will tell you what to do. First, take this introduction letter and stay in the reception house." The person in charge stamped a big red seal on it, not giving him any chance to speak.

  Although somewhat unexpected, Su Cheng still boarded the converted commuter bus on the second day and headed to Oil Extraction Plant No. 3.

  Since it's from the grassroots level, then let's start from the grassroots level.

  Su Cheng doesn't seem like a university student of this era, physically strong but mentally weak, always comparing himself to ancient imperial scholars.

  He is a university student from the 21st century, accustomed to the identity of a migrant worker and the treatment of a beast of burden, with a strong spirit. The body he crossed into was exceptionally strong, and he was not afraid of physical labor at all.

  The captain of the No. 2 oil drilling team, Dou Wanshan, was a middle-aged worker with a completely blackened body, only his eyes and palms showing white. After reading Su Cheng's report letter, he sighed: "Another movement?"

  The white shirt of Su City has turned into a grayish-brown color, and he exclaimed in surprise: "There isn't one."

  "How did you end up being sent here?" The captain patted his buttocks and poured himself a cup of hot tea.

  Su Cheng was at a loss for words and could only say, "It's all the same everywhere."

  "It's all the same." Du Wanshan rolled his eyes, swallowed hard, and downed half a cup of hot tea.

  Just as Su was smiling foolishly in Suzhou, someone else came looking for him. Du Wanshan immediately put down his cup and said, "Let's get started, Little Su is here too, you can follow me and learn."

  Team 2 is in charge of over a hundred oil wells, with five cars going back and forth between the mines. In addition to injecting water for oil extraction, there are also special teams responsible for maintaining oil well equipment.

  Compared to the former, the latter's responsibility is obviously heavier. Drilling oil is a relatively fixed way of working, and once an oil well has problems, it requires "emergency repairs". As Du Wan Shan said: "If you don't drill for one day, you will lose tens of tons of oil."

  As the team leader, Dou Wanshan had to supervise the daily oil extraction work and also rush around on various routes.

  The Liberation truck produced in the 1970s was shaking and swaying, it took an hour to get to the destination.

  Dong Wanshan led the workers off the bus and without resting at all, assigned tasks to them. He straightened his clothes and went down into the well for inspection.

  Su Cheng helplessly shrugged his shoulders, and walked around the nodding machine. It had a long rod that was several meters above the ground, which was lifted up by electricity and then fell down, just like nodding one's head. With each nod, oil from thousands of meters underground was brought to the surface, and then transported through underground pipelines to designated locations.

  This ancient beam pumping unit is the grandfather of mechanical oil extraction machines, but until the 21st century, it was still used in some oil fields, and even more so in privately-owned wells. Although from an academic point of view, the old-fashioned pump jack has many shortcomings, in harsh environments, this oil extraction machine with only four main components has the advantages of simple structure and easy maintenance, workers can be trained to use it within three to five months, and become proficient in two years, with extremely low costs and minimal initial investment.

  Su Cheng matched the knowledge in his books with the scenes from his internship. In order to stay at the oil company, he spent half a year working on an oil field, serving his master with good cigarettes and liquor, and learned quite a few things.

  The workers in the same team were busy, Su Cheng shook his head and picked out a wrench to tighten the screws on the slightly loose oil pump base.

  "What are you doing!" Old Wu, a maintenance worker nearby, suddenly roared.

  ……