- Source: Internet
- Author: Unknown Author
- Time: 2025-04-08
- Visits: 41
Wang Jinxi was born on October 8, 1923, into a poor peasant family in Chijinbao, Yumen County, Gansu Province. His infant name was "Shijinwa" and when he grew up, he was named "Wang Jinxi". His parents hoped that he could go to school, learn skills and revive the family business. However, at the age of 6, he led his blind father to beg. He also herded cows for the landlord and was forced to transport wool and carry coal for the warlords. In 1938, at the age of 15, he became a child laborer at the Yumen Oilfield, enduring heavy labor as well as oppression and exploitation.
In 1950, Wang Jinxi passed the operation assessment of the Yumen Oilfield and became one of the first-generation oil workers in New China. At that time, many drilling rigs stopped drilling due to the lack of drill bits. He organized a youth commando team to find used drill bits from the scrap heap for repair and assembly, which not only saved costs but also did not delay production. In March 1955, he was transferred to the Beiwu Team 5 (the predecessor of Team 1205) as a driller. On April 29, 1956, he joined the Communist Party of China. In June of the same year, he served as the captain of the Beiwu Team 5 and became one of the 48 drilling team captains in the Yumen Oilfield. During this period, he put forward the goal of "(drilling footage) reaching over a thousand meters a month, over ten thousand meters a year, and setting a benchmark at Yumen Pass". He led the whole team to transform the originally backward team into an advanced one. In 1958, he led the team to create a national drilling record of over 5,009 meters of monthly footage. In 1959, he created a new national record of 71,000 meters of annual drilling footage, and the footage in one year was equivalent to the total drilling footage in 42 years of old China.
(This picture is sourced from the Internet.)
In February 1960, the Daqing Oilfield Campaign was launched, and Yu Qiuli, Minister of the Ministry of Petroleum Industry, specifically named Wang Jinxi to lead a team to participate. In March, he led the Beiwu Team 5 to rush to Daqing and shouted out slogans such as "Seize the opportunity when there are conditions, and create conditions to do it when there are no conditions" and "I'd rather live 20 years less and strive with all my might to develop the big oilfield". After arriving in Sartu, facing the problem of insufficient cranes, they used methods such as pulling with ropes, prying with crowbars, and padding with wooden blocks to break down the drilling rig equipment weighing more than 60 tons into smaller parts. They unloaded it from the train and transported it to Well Sa 55 near Majiayao by pulling with manpower and carrying on their shoulders. They completed drilling the first production well in the oilfield in just 5 days and 4 hours.
In the early morning of April 29, 1960, when relocating to the second well, Wang Jinxi's right leg was injured by a drill pipe. When the second well (Well 2589) was drilled to a depth of 700 meters, a blowout occurred. A powerful airflow carried the mud and rushed out of the wellhead for more than 20 meters. If it was not suppressed in time, the well would be destroyed and people would be killed. Ignoring his leg injury, Wang Jinxi threw away his crutches and took the lead in jumping into the mud pit. Other workers also followed and stirred the mud with their bodies. His old injury had not yet healed, and his hands and feet were burned with blisters by the mud, and his injury worsened. However, he still led his teammates in a hard battle and finally successfully suppressed the blowout, saving the drilling rig and the oil well. On July 28 of the same year, Wang Jinxi was honored as one of the "Five Red Flags" of the Daqing Oilfield Campaign.
At the end of 1964, Wang Jinxi was elected as a deputy to the Third National People's Congress and delivered a speech titled "Build the Oilfield with the Revolutionary Spirit". He once served as the captain of the Second Drilling Brigade of the Drilling Command. In 1965, he was promoted to the deputy commander of the Drilling Command of the Daqing Oilfield. Even after becoming a cadre, he still insisted on working and solving problems for the employees. In the spring of 1969, he was elected as a delegate to the Ninth National Congress of the Communist Party of China and was elected as a Central Committee member. He was received by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai. On October 1, 1970, despite being ill, he participated in the National Day celebration and reviewed the parade on Tiananmen Rostrum. However, in April of the same year, he was diagnosed with gastric cancer. On November 15, he passed away due to ineffective medical treatment at the age of 47, and his ashes were placed in the Babaoshan Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery in Beijing.
Wang Jinxi clearly distinguished between public and private affairs in his life and was strict with his family members. His wife had been a temporary worker for many years, and he did not agree when his relatives wanted to be transferred to Daqing. For the hardship subsidies given by his superiors, he asked the trade union to subsidize the extremely poor employees. His family was not allowed to ride in the jeep allocated to him. When his old mother was ill, his eldest son carried her to the hospital on a bicycle. His family lived in an ordinary "dry rammed earth" house, and he often helped the families of his colleagues solve their accommodation problems. He always carried "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", a flour bag for making fried noodles, and a sheepskin coat with him. The "Selected Works of Mao Zedong" was used for learning and solving problems. The flour bag was used to solve the problem of eating during difficult times, and the sheepskin coat accompanied him on the well site to keep out the wind, drive away the cold, and rest.
The connotation of the "Iron Man Spirit" left by Wang Jinxi is rich, including the patriotic spirit of "sharing the country's worries and striving for the people's dignity"; the selfless dedication and hardworking spirit of "I'd rather live 20 years less and strive with all my might to develop the big oilfield"; the spirit of arduous struggle of "Seize the opportunity when there are conditions, and create conditions to do it when there are no conditions"; the scientific and realistic spirit of striving for perfection in technology and "Doing work that can stand the test of future generations"; and the selfless dedication spirit of ignoring fame and fortune and working hard without complaint. The Iron Man Spirit has a profound influence and inspires generation after generation to strive for national construction. It is a precious spiritual wealth of the Chinese nation.