Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 254 Just for Fun

The iron sheet was thrown into the furnace, and the blacksmith pulled the bellows, the air hissing as it poured into the furnace, and flames soon shot up.

Heated by the coal stove, the iron sheet quickly turned red-hot.

The blacksmith didn't stop until the iron sheet was glowing red-hot. Then he got up, picked up the tongs, grabbed a piece of iron, and hammered it on the forging table.

The coppersmith, who was bored nearby, waved to Chen Fan, "Come and sit down, he won't be well anytime soon."

Chen Fan smiled and thanked him, first offering the coppersmith a cigarette before sitting down on a chair nearby.

The coppersmith took the cigarette, glanced at the cigarette box, and immediately smiled, "Oh, Donghai."

He then lit it over the charcoal fire, took a satisfying puff, and looked at Chen Fan with a smile, "How's the copper buckle I made last time?"

Chen Fan turned to look at him, then continued to look at the blacksmith who was forging, carefully observing the rhythm and force of his hammering, and said with a smile, "It's not used yet. I can't buy cowhide, so I'm still just wearing a belt."

He discovered that the blacksmith didn't just hammer away with all his might; he used varying pressure and speed, and the red-hot iron sheet gradually transformed into a U-shape under the blacksmith's hammer.

By comparing the application of force in Xingyi Five Elements Fist and the spear stance, and combining the physics and chemistry knowledge from middle school textbooks with his understanding of the properties of steel after reading "Steelmaking by the Ground," he suddenly realized that these horseshoes were not difficult to forge.

Then, as expected, a "ding" sound was heard: "Watching the blacksmithing process will reward you with +1 forging experience point. Your current forging skill level is LV1 (5/20)."

Chen Fan's expression did not change at all. He was already used to the occasional increase in experience points and activation of skills.

At this moment, all he wanted to ask was, what use are so many skills to me?!
The skill board is densely packed with nearly 20 skills, enough to make one dizzy.

However, the skill board was beyond his control, and he could only silently bear it all with his frail shoulders.

The coppersmith, unaware of Chen Fan's heartfelt emotions, looked at him in surprise, "Can't buy a belt? The supply and marketing cooperative has them."

Chen Fan turned his head and smiled, "I want to get a genuine leather one, otherwise it won't be worthy of the brass buttons you made."

Upon hearing this, the coppersmith immediately burst into laughter, "As expected of an intellectual, you have a rather pleasant way of speaking."

He paused for a moment, then laughed and said, "If you want a genuine leather belt, you have to go to the county to buy it. Our supply and marketing cooperative stores here only have two kinds: one is artificial leather and the other is canvas belt. Actually, buying artificial leather belts will look pretty much the same."

Chen Fan chuckled on the outside, but in his heart he was silently complaining that the quality of artificial leather these days was far too poor, almost no different from plastic sheets, not even as good as canvas straps, at least canvas straps don't hurt people.

But he felt that using a canvas belt was no different from the cloth belt around his waist, so why bother changing it?

The two chatted idly, with the blacksmith occasionally chiming in.

After finishing his cigarette, the coppersmith picked up his tools and began working.

Chen Fan watched from the side and realized that the coppersmith had just as many things to make as the blacksmith. It was just that the blacksmith was much busier because he had to repair farm tools.

The coppersmith is now crafting a copper pot. The purplish-red copper sheet is bent and shaped little by little in his hands. He hammers, melts, flattens, carves, drills... one craft after another is displayed in front of Chen Fan.

The coppersmith glanced at him, then continued to meticulously carve the copper sheet, a hint of pride in his smile. "Copper work is a delicate skill. Anyone who can work with copper can work with gold and silver without any problem. This kind of copper pot doesn't require much skill. The most complicated part is the copper lock. Ordinary copper locks are fine; you just need to put together a few parts. The troublesome ones are the delicate ones, some shaped like ruyi (a type of scepter), some like auspicious clouds, and some with unique shapes."

For wealthy families, a brass lock not only had to be safe and reliable, but also exquisite and beautiful. Various patterns and designs had to be engraved on the lock body, and different patterns required different techniques, like the one I'm using now..."

As Chen Fan listened to his self-praise, his newly activated forging skill experience points surged rapidly. The coppersmith's words, demonstrations, and the blacksmith's forging techniques in the corner were all imprinted in his mind, and he soon reached LV2.

He himself was lost in thought.

So, is coppersmithing also considered a forging skill?
The blacksmith's skills were indeed superb. He was asked to wait for more than half an hour, and he actually finished forging four horseshoes in just half an hour.

He quenched and cooled the horseshoes in a bucket of water, then smoothed the edges with a steel file. Afterward, he took four horseshoes and came out, saying, "Keep an eye on the horse; I'm going to shoe it."

Chen Fan quickly got up, went outside, grabbed the horse's reins, and asked the blacksmith, "How do I do it?"

The blacksmith said, "I need to trim its horseshoes first. Just tell it not to move around."

He placed the horseshoe on the wooden cabinet by the door, took down a scimitar that was similar in shape to a sickle from the wall, moved a stool over, and then picked up a horseshoe and began to scrape it with the scimitar.

Chen Fan watched in terror, quickly grabbing the horse's head and muttering, "It's alright, it'll be over soon."

The mare snorted. "Mmm, it's fine, it's actually quite comfortable."

Comfortable?

Chen Fan looked at it with some curiosity.

Seeing Chen Fan's actions, the blacksmith looked up and smiled. "The hooves of this horse are just like human fingernails. When they grow long, they need to be trimmed. Trimming a horse's hooves is similar to trimming human fingernails. It doesn't hurt at all; in fact, it's quite comfortable. Look at it; it doesn't show any signs of discomfort."

Chen Fan grinned, carefully observing the blacksmith's technique for shoeing horses. Who knows, one day he might need to shoe horses himself.

After scraping off the excess nail polish, the horseshoe was shaped to the appropriate form, and then the horseshoe was attached. The blacksmith then took a few long nails and hammered them in to secure the horseshoe.

The four hooves were nailed on in just over ten minutes. After they were finished, Chen Fan touched the horse's head and asked, "How does it feel?"

The mare tried walking a few steps while turning in place. At first, it was a little awkward, but after a few steps, it became more and more comfortable and held its neck high. "Hey, it doesn't hurt anymore, it feels very comfortable."

Chen Fan smiled and turned to the blacksmith. "Master, how much?"

The blacksmith laughed and said, "It's cheap, only two dollars and eighty cents."

Chen Fan didn't haggle and just took out the money.

The blacksmith collected the money, gave Chen Fan a receipt, and said, "In Nanhu, you don't earn much money by shoeing horses. Although there are many mules and horses in Nanhu, the roads are mostly dirt roads, which are easy to travel on and generally don't wear out the horses' hooves."

In mountainous areas where ore is mined, or at docks and freight stations where goods are frequently transported, there are paved roads everywhere. In such places, you can make a fortune just by shoeing horses, without doing anything else.

Seeing that he had started telling stories, Chen Fan temporarily abandoned his intention to leave and took out a cigarette for him and the coppersmith.

The blacksmith puffed on his cigarette, exhaling a puff of smoke. He seemed quite satisfied with Chen Fan's attitude and said with a smile, "I have a senior apprentice who used to make horseshoes in a mining town. Because he only made horseshoes, he was even more skilled than me. It only took him half an hour to make a set of horseshoes. The cost of a set of horseshoes was about 1 yuan. With coal and rent, it would be at most 1 yuan. He could make 3 yuan per set of horseshoes."

There are many horseshoes in that area. Mules, horses, and donkeys can hardly walk without shoes, and even if they are shoeed, the shoes only last for a little over three months, so business is booming.

On one occasion, he made over 70 yuan worth of business in a single day and earned over 30 yuan.

He wasn't originally from that town; he was from a rural production team. He did side jobs outside the town and had to pay "side job fees" to the production team...

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat. Side hustle money? What was that?
If you make and sell your own pottery, do you also need to pay for this side business?

The blacksmith continued, “At first, the production team made him pay 200 yuan a year. Later, seeing that he was making a lot of money, and with so many people in the production team doing side jobs, they only raised his side job payment. First, it was raised to 300 yuan, and then suddenly it was raised to 500 yuan.”

Chen Fan was somewhat taken aback. "So he can actually make money?"

The blacksmith chuckled and said, "Of course I make money. But at first, he was resentful and angrily closed his blacksmith shop to go back to the countryside to farm. But he had never done heavy farm work before, and after a year he couldn't take it anymore. He gave in, paid the money, and went back to town to open his shop again."

At this point, the blacksmith took a puff of his cigarette, looked at Chen Fan, and smiled, "Do you know how much money he made back then?"

Chen Fan's eyes darted around slightly, and he gently shook his head. "I don't know."

How was he supposed to guess? But he also knew that the blacksmith was just asking to find a straight man to joke with.

The blacksmith gestured, his face full of pride, "That year he earned more than 7000. Even after paying for his side business, he still made a net profit of more than 6000."

Chen Fan's eyes widened immediately. This guy is making more money than me?
Oh right, did I just activate the forging skill?

Where are the mountainous areas? Where are the mining areas?
At this moment, the coppersmith next to him suddenly chuckled and said, "What's the point of making a lot of money? You still have to hand it over to the higher authorities."

The blacksmith didn't even look at him, and let out a long sigh. "Yes, it's amazing that one person earns so much money. People who farm in the production team can only earn a hundred or two hundred yuan a year at most. How can others not be envious?"
So the production team raised his sideline income from 500 to 2000, and then to 3000 the following year. That wasn't all; they also forced two people to "help" him with the fire—basically, to monitor him. By the end of 73, he had alone contributed 2800 yuan to the production team. Back then, one work point in their production team was only worth two mao (4 yuan), so his contribution was equivalent to over 14000 work points, enough for four strong laborers to work themselves to the bone for a whole year.

Hearing this, Chen Fan felt even more distressed. How much of his sideline income would the production team charge him?

The blacksmith took another puff of his cigarette butt, tossed the remaining bit into the furnace, then pulled out his own pipe, pursed his lips, and said, "You think that's all?"

Chen Fan blinked. "Huh?"

"Humph."

The blacksmith sneered twice and said, "In 74, sideline businesses were banned again, and all the rural people were recalled to the production team. Let alone paying 3000 for sideline businesses, even if they were willing to pay 5000, the production team wouldn't dare to accept it."

As he spoke, he suddenly looked up at the sky and exhaled a thick cloud of smoke. "My senior brother used to use all the money he earned to build several brick houses and buy a lot of random things. When his side business stopped, his income stopped, and he didn't have much money left. In order to support his family, he could only work during the day and catch loaches and eels at night. But he didn't have the skills. After a year or two, both of his legs were rotten, and now he's practically a cripple."

After saying that, he shook his head and went into the repair shop, lay down on a chair, closed his eyes, and stopped talking.

Chen Fan was somewhat confused and didn't know whether he should leave or stay.

The coppersmith next to him glanced back and then smiled at Chen Fan, "He never dared to talk about these things before, but he's told a lot of people this year. He tells everyone he gets along with. Don't take it to heart, just listen for fun."

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow, smiled slightly, and said, "Master, you're busy, I'll be going now."

The coppersmith waved his hand, "Take care."

Chen Fan glanced back at the blacksmith lying on the chair, then mounted his horse and rode away.

(End of this chapter)