94: From Technological Warfare to Space Empire

A farm in Heilongjiang Province, Northeast China.

There are also paintings on several walls in the residential area:

Rooted in the black soil, building a great granary!

The slogan.

This is a state-run farm, one of the 458 million hectares of black soil reclaimed during the Great Northern Wilderness period.

The old factory manager sat cross-legged on the heated kang (a traditional heated brick bed) watching a black-and-white television.

"Straw... what can straw be used for again?"

The black and white TV screen was distorted and the sound was not very clear.

In the end, he still couldn't remember what the straw could be used for, but at least he knew that the straw was useful.

Every autumn after the harvest, it seems like those piles of straw that form mountains don't need to be burned anymore?

That would be wonderful.

This thing produces choking black smoke when it burns, and it can even cause a fire if you're not careful.

......

BJ, the conference room at Sinopec headquarters.

They all knew that Lin Yu would be giving a speech at tonight's 315 Gala.

Those who couldn't go to the event are all gathered here waiting.

They personally verified the ethanol gasoline, and they also have the formula.

More than twenty people sat around a color television.

After hearing Lin Yu say that the formula would be made public for free...

hiss.

hiss.

hiss.

One person hissed and gasped for breath.

It looks like a large meeting of a group of western diamondback rattlesnakes.

"He doesn't even want a billionaire? He... he... he..."

The person who finally spoke couldn't come up with a coherent explanation after a long time.

Finally, she whispered something to the young technician in the corner.

"He's so handsome."

"When a man is born, he must eat five things."

……

Guangzhou, Guangdong, is one of the cities with the most cars in this era.

A master mechanic from a car repair shop was eating a bowl of braised pork trotters rice at the door.

It was already 10 o'clock.

But for people here, if they want to earn money with their own hands, they don't care too much about time.

Upon hearing Lin Yu's words, he stopped eating and turned to shout into the shop:

"You little brat! Come here!"

"Come out here, all of you, and listen to what they have to say."

Several apprentices with oil-stained hands crawled out from under the car and stared at the television screen. All they heard was the word "ethanol gasoline".

His eyes were filled with confusion.

"Master, is this ethanol gasoline?"

The experienced craftsman didn't answer, but just sighed and said:

"If any of you can't continue in this line of work and still have land at home, you can try to switch careers. There's a new way out now. I'm too old to do this anymore."

"But if any of you are willing to take a gamble, then go ahead and give it a try."

……

Harbin was the birthplace of many engineers from all over the country when the Daqing Oilfield was first developed.

After dedicating their lives to this land, they retired and stayed here.

In a tenement building, several elderly professors with gray hair were gathered around an 18-inch color TV.

Peanuts and Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) were laid out on the table.

As he was drinking, the old man suddenly slapped his thigh.

"Good lad, you've got guts!"

People nearby quickly helped him up.

"Old Zhang, take it easy."

"What do you mean, 'yoyo'?!"

Old Zhang's eyes widened in disbelief.

"I've worked in the gasoline industry my whole life, and what I hate most are those bastards who hide lead in gasoline!"

"Back when I was working at the factory, someone told me that there were rumors from the United States that something was wrong with this thing."

"But in the end, the US still kept quiet and refused to admit it."

"From my 40s to my 60s, I watched their tone go from completely harmless to possibly something, to something definitely happening, and then to a complete ban."

"From now on, I'll spit on anything American says! I won't believe a single word they say!"

"It has to be our young men! They've got guts!"

……

Heilongjiang Province, Daqing Oilfield.

In early March, in Daqing, which is at a high latitude, it was already very late at night by 10 pm.

But the oilfield's central control room was brightly lit.

"Ethanol gasoline...ethanol made from fermented grains..."

The person who spoke had a dry voice.

"Old Zhang, pinch me and let me hear if this is real."

No one pinched him because everyone was stunned.

From Yumen to Daqing.

From a drilling team member to a senior engineer.

The people in this little house have seen far too many things.

They had seen the unfinished project left behind by the Soviet experts when they withdrew. In the winter of 60, they were also Lin Yu's age.

In the wilderness where the temperature was below -40 degrees Celsius, several classmates gathered around a campfire and used twigs to draw an oil layer distribution map on the snow.

They explored and figured things out little by little, and eventually developed the Daqing Oilfield.

I also witnessed workers during the three years of hardship, going hungry but still managing to keep production going. They single-handedly ensured oil production through sheer manpower.

Many old friends asked them before they left when they would catch up with the Soviet Union's level.

They always thought they would see signs of it when they died of old age.

But now it seems they've already retired before they even started?

In this rapidly changing new China, the memories left by the years on them enable them to see most things and understand them fairly well.

But the current situation...

"We've worked on this before, haven't we? Back in the 90s, we tried fermenting ethanol from old grains in the lab."

"But the octane rating just wouldn't go up, so we stopped."

Many people nodded in agreement.

They then lit a cigarette together and started smoking.

The dispatch room was filled with chatter.

"We tried ethanol gasoline, but we didn't push it forward because we thought the cost was too high."

"But if that formula actually works, the cost..."

"Three cents a liter, that's not much more expensive!"

"Money isn't the point; the point is, this road is open! Our old one was completely ruined after we finished it!"

They had tried it, but in those days, every technological direction was a process of trial and error.

The cost of trial and error is terrifyingly high.

Once you think this path is blocked...

The project was stopped at will, the drawings were locked at will, and no one thought anything was wrong.

Everyone's used to it.

But now, someone is offering this solution to everyone for free.

Finally, Chief Engineer Wang Demin spoke:

"Find all the data from our previous tests, and tomorrow morning, contact Old Chen at Sinopec to ask when we can get the specific formula."

"Forget it, no, just book me a train ticket to Beijing."

"It sounds to me like he's implying there are other unleaded gasoline options?"

……

A village within the city of Xiong'an in Shenzhen.

This is the place with the most people leaving home to work hard in this era.

Several young people were gathered around a secondhand black-and-white television, watching the 315 Gala.

They came to Guangdong to work; their hometowns are scattered all over the country.

During the day, I stand on the factory assembly line for 10 hours, and at night I squeeze into this room of less than 10 square meters to sleep.

A young man from Sichuan suddenly spoke up.

"In my hometown, every year after the harvest, the fields are full of straw, and there's no way to burn it all."

The person next to him nodded.

"In my hometown, it's the same; when we burn straw, the whole sky is dark."

They looked at each other.

They both felt there was something they wanted to say but didn't.

"What if we went back and opened a factory, specializing in collecting straw to make ethanol...?"

They are indeed the most ordinary workers on the assembly line, but they are not stupid; they just lack resources and opportunities.

Now, they understood the hidden meaning in Lin Yu's words.

This entire industry chain is profitable at every step from start to finish.

People who collect straw make money, people who transport straw make money, people who produce ethanol make money, and people who sell gasoline also make money.

With connections across the entire supply chain, anyone can get involved.

"But we don't have any money."

"If you don't have money, you can start small. Collecting straw doesn't cost much; just find a place to pile it up!"

"What about the technology?"

"Didn't he say it would be free to release? We'll just ask him when the time comes."

The group got more and more excited as they talked, and didn't even notice what was playing on TV later on.

Finally, someone muttered something.

"If this works out and we make a fortune, I'll set up a longevity tablet for him."