Thirty-five kilometers northwest of the Dabulgan oil field, a small oasis is particularly conspicuous in the desert, the oasis, which means life, in the endless desert, the water source in the oasis is the foundation of human survival, because there are often tribes, villages and towns, but this oasis is the place where the smell of color changes nearby.

A gang of horse bandits occupied the place and used it as a base for raiding. In a yellow-colored building by the lake in the center of the oasis, the leader of the horse bandits, Sand Scorpion, is studying the Qur'an in front of him, his fierce appearance at odds with what he is doing.

The scorpion was not born a horse bandit, he was born into an aristocracy, his original name was Omar, he was educated, and he knew a little English. Eight years earlier, the British had made Kuwait a protectorate, and Omar, who had been a strong opponent of foreign rule, saw Kuwait sink under Ottoman rule and then occupied by the British, and proposed to the Emir of Kuwait to resist foreign rule with arms, but was refused. Omar then defected from his family and formed a rebellion on his own, renamed the Sand Scorpions, and maintained it by plundering British, Ottomans, and local nobles.

Turning a new page, the sand scorpion raised his head, the guest was about to arrive, and he couldn't wait for a long time. A few minutes later, Major Lawrence of the British Army Intelligence Department walked in, dusty and exhausted.

"Major Lawrence is here for the first time, how could you come to this remote place of mine with your noble body?" The sand scorpion didn't get up, sat cross-legged on the carpet and asked slowly.

Lawrence doesn't mind the attitude towards the sand scorpion, and the two are originally in the relationship between exploiting and being used. From a long time ago, Lawrence provided weapons and ammunition to the Sand Scorpions, on the condition that the Sand Scorpions did not target the British, preferably to trouble the Ottoman Turks, and also used this armed force to threaten the Emir of Kuwait and force Sabah to follow the British in desperation. The Scorpion uses the weapons and ammunition provided by Lawrence to strengthen itself. When the strength is sufficient, the banner of resistance will be raised, and then the British will be the first target, and then the Ottomans will be driven away!

Picked up the kettle on the ground and drank it, and only gasped after half a ring, and then ate a few bites of sand dates. Lawrence said, "I'm getting out of here." ”

"I know, why, do you need me to give you some parting gifts?"

"Yes, your life will be even more difficult after the arrival of the Chinese, they will not send you weapons and ammunition like me, and they have more than 2,000 soldiers who landed three days ago, and they can't accommodate your desert bandits."

"You don't need to say more nonsense, I know it in my heart, so you can tell me the purpose of coming today!"

"The Chinese landed three days ago. In addition to more than 2,000 soldiers, there is also a large number of construction machinery, presumably to extract oil here, and you may not know the importance of oil now, as long as you know that the major powers of the world are indispensable for this kind of thing. ”

"I know the role of oil, I'm a horse bandit, but I'm also a horse bandit who is very interested in the outside world!"

"That's good, whether there's oil here or not. The Chinese will strengthen their rule here, and there will be more than 2,000 troops stationed there. Your enemy is no longer the hundred or so Britons I lead, but thousands of Chinese soldiers who can fight well. ”

"You mean to let me lead people to trouble the Chinese? If their oil extraction operation is disrupted, won't the country send more soldiers? ”

"But you can't sit idly by and watch the Chinese rule become more and more secure! As long as you agree to this, there are two secret arsenals in Kuwait that I have left, and I will take you to the first one before I begin. When you do that, you'll get the second one. ”

"How many weapons and ammunition are there?"

"3,000 rifles, 15 machine guns, 100 pistols, and 500,000 additional bullets."

"If you find out that you have been deceived, Major Lawrence, you will know what the consequences are!"

"Of course, I won't throw my life away in this abominable desert!"

On the third day of arriving at the exploration site, everyone knew about the affair of Lieutenant Colonel Gao Cheng and the leader of the medical team, Yanni. This adds a little fun to the harsh desert life and stimulates the soldiers to run to the medical team more often.

"Get out of here, Lieutenant Colonel, what's the matter with running around here like those boys!" Yanni smiled at Gao Cheng in front of her, although her words meant to scold, her tone was full of sweetness.

"Huh!" Gao Cheng touched the back of his head, then walked out of the tent of the leader of the medical team with a smirk, and as soon as he went out, he saw a long line of more than ten meters in front of the medical team, and the line stretched beyond the roof of the medical team. The young men all showed the same smirk as Gao Cheng, straightened their waists, dark and strong, and saw that there was nothing wrong with this posture physically, and they couldn't say psychologically.

"Leader, introduce your experience!"

"Yes, head of the group, let my sister-in-law help introduce me!"

Gao Cheng was a little embarrassed, as an officer, he took the lead, he was the first to endure hardships and the last to enjoy himself, so of course he would be embarrassed to find a daughter-in-law to walk in front of his brothers. It happened that a young man from the engineering team came to inform Gao Cheng that there was a situation with a well, so he spread his steps and ran over there, and behind him were bursts of laughter from the soldiers.

"Lao Xie, what's the situation?" More than 300 meters away from the camp, Gao Cheng sat on a wooden box and asked, pouring the sand grains in his shoes.

Xie Guang touched the top of his head, there was not much hair in the first place, and it was estimated that there would be no hair left after returning from this mission: "I can't say, we judge that this well will produce oil, but we can't be sure." The geological conditions here are very different from those in China, and we can't use our experience in drilling in Shengli Oilfield and Zhongyuan Oilfield. ”

From the perspective of oil exploration theory, the terrain of the Middle East is lower than that of other regions, forming a basin state, and it is easy for oil to accumulate in it. But who knows where to pump oil from the ground in the vast expanses of the Middle East?

As he was talking, he suddenly heard a "bang", and a black pillar burst out of the drilling, rose to a height of more than ten meters and scattered, and everyone who had no time to dodge was covered with the black liquid that had been spilled.

Gao Cheng didn't understand what the situation was, but Xie Guang and the others cheered, ignoring the spilled oil, and shouted: "Self-blowout well!" Self-blowing well! ”

The ability to form a self-blowing well shows that the underground oil reserves are abundant and the energy is huge, which will break the balance between the pressures and make the oil eject out.

All the people in the camp, except for the guards and wounded soldiers around them, ran to the well to cheer with the engineers, and the joy of successful exploration made them pick up the thick oil and feel the touch of this black gold.

It is not an exaggeration to say that oil is black gold, and in five years, oil prices have risen from $0.5 to $11 per barrel, and they have not stopped growing. The United States is the world's largest exporter of crude oil with the world's largest crude oil production. Relying on the exploitation of the Baku oil fields, Russia has obtained huge profits, not only gradually stabilized the domestic situation, partially repaid European loans, but also improved the domestic economy, and Nicholas II even participated in the ranks of the international naval arms race because of the oil dividend, expanding the size of the army and adding new equipment.

As for the reason for the favor of oil, it is very simple, the development of gasoline engines and diesel engines has proved that they are better than coal-fired power, and as oil is widely used in various means of transportation, factories, power generation, etc., the price of oil has also risen. Especially since the beginning of this century, the popularity of automobiles has led to an increasing demand for oil, and the United States produced more than half a million cars in 1906, and China produced more than other countries in a year! Car production in Europe is also growing rapidly, and although the production volume is smaller, the future is bright.

Before the end of the Northern Expedition, one-third of China's domestic oil supply came from submarine mining vehicles, mainly imported from the United States. After the end of the Northern Expedition, oil exploitation was listed as one of the most important projects, and a large number of exploration and exploitation personnel entered Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places in search of oil. With the exploitation of a series of oilfields such as Shengli Oilfield, Zhongyuan Oilfield and Yulin Oilfield, the shortage of oil in China has been alleviated to a certain extent, but the contradiction between supply and demand is still very large.

Some time ago, in order to reconcile the contradiction between the needs of the people and the needs of the army, Lu Liang said that the construction of several major industrial bases in the north requires a huge amount of oil, and the army and navy need oil for the training and sailing of warships, the training of armored units, and the training and patrol of the air force. There are no resources in hand, and no matter how much you say, you will be fooling the east wall and making up for the west wall, and treating the symptoms but not the root cause.

In addition to domestic territory, the government has also organized a number of exploration teams to go to Xinjiang, the Philippines and other places in search of oil, and the desire for oil now exceeds that of steel. In fact, not only China, but also Britain, France, the United States, Germany and other countries are sparing no effort to carry out oil exploration work, and it is better to find oil on their own soil. Fortunately, no one has yet looked for desert areas, whether it is the Middle East or the desert of Mexico, which provides an advantage for the layout after Luliang. As for how long the advantage can be maintained, it is not certain, as long as the news of China's discovery of oil in Kuwait spreads, Britain and France and other countries will definitely send teams to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other regions, and sooner or later they will find oil fields. (To be continued.) )