Reborn in 1977

The iron piece was thrown into the furnace, and the blacksmith pulled the bellows, air rushing into the furnace, and soon flames leaped up.

Heated by the coal furnace, the iron piece quickly turned red.

But the blacksmith didn't stop, until the iron piece was glowing red, then he got up, picked up the iron tongs, clamped an iron piece, and placed it on the anvil to hammer.

The coppersmith, bored on the side, waved to Chen Fan, "Come and sit down, he won't be done for a while."

Chen Fan smiled and thanked him, first handing the coppersmith a cigarette, then sitting down on a chair beside him.

The coppersmith took the cigarette and glanced at the cigarette case, immediately smiling, "Oh, Donghai."

Then he leaned over to the charcoal fire to light it, took a good puff, and looked at Chen Fan with a smile, "Is the copper buckle I made last time still useful?"

Chen Fan turned to look at him, continued to watch the blacksmith forging, carefully observing his rhythm and strength, and smiled, "Not yet, I can't buy leather, so I'm still using a belt today."

He found that the blacksmith's hammering was not just blindly pounding, but with varying degrees of lightness and heaviness, slowness and urgency. The red-hot iron piece gradually turned into a U shape under the blacksmith's hammer.

Through comparing the force application of Xingyi Five Elements Fist and the spear stance, combined with the physics and chemistry knowledge in middle school textbooks, and the understanding of the properties of steel after watching 'Indigenous Steelmaking,' he suddenly realized that these horseshoes didn't seem difficult to make.

Then, as a matter of course, he heard a 'ding' sound, "Watching the blacksmithing process, reward forging experience +1, current forging skill level LV1 (5/20)."

Chen Fan's expression didn't change at all. He was already accustomed to the occasional increase in experience points and skill activation.

At this moment, he just wanted to ask, what's the use of so many skills?!

There were nearly 20 skills densely packed on the skill panel, making people dizzy.

But the skill panel was not under his control, and he could only silently bear all this with his weak shoulders.

The coppersmith didn't know Chen Fan's feelings, and looked at him in surprise, "Can't buy a belt? There are some in the supply and marketing cooperative."

Chen Fan turned his head and smiled, "I want to get a real leather one, otherwise it won't match the copper buckle you made."

The coppersmith laughed heartily upon hearing this, "You are indeed an intellectual, you speak quite nicely."

After a pause, he smiled again, "If you want a real leather belt, you have to go to the county to buy it. Our supply and marketing cooperative here only has two kinds, one is artificial leather, and the other is a canvas belt. Actually, buying artificial leather looks almost the same."

Chen Fan smiled on his face, but silently complained in his heart, the quality of artificial leather these days is too poor, almost no different from plastic sheets, not as good as a canvas belt, at least the canvas belt doesn't chafe.

But using a canvas belt, he felt there was no difference from the cloth belt on his waist, so why bother changing it?

The two chatted idly, and the blacksmith occasionally interjected a few words.

After the coppersmith finished smoking, he also picked up his tools and started working.

Chen Fan watched from the side, and then realized that the things the coppersmith had to make were no less than the blacksmith's, but because the blacksmith had to repair farm tools, he was much busier than the coppersmith.

Now the coppersmith was making a copper pot, and the purple-red copper sheet was gradually bent and shaped in his hands, hammering, melting, flattening, carving, drilling..., one skill after another was displayed in front of Chen Fan.

The coppersmith turned to look at him, continued to carefully carve the copper sheet, with a hint of pride on his face, "Copper work is delicate work, those who can work with copper are guaranteed to have no problem working with gold and silver. This kind of copper pot has no technical content. The most cumbersome is the copper lock. Ordinary copper locks are okay, just put a few parts together, the troublesome ones are those exquisite copper locks, some are in the shape of Ruyi, some are auspicious clouds, and some are unique shapes.

For wealthy families, a copper lock must not only be safe and reliable, but also exquisite and beautiful. Various patterns must be engraved on the lock body. Different patterns require different techniques, such as the one I am using now…"

Chen Fan listened to his self-promotion, and the forging skill experience points that had just been activated were rising rapidly. The words spoken by the coppersmith, the skills demonstrated, and the blacksmith's forging skills in the corner were all imprinted in his mind, and soon reached LV2.

He himself was in a daze.

So the coppersmith's skill is also considered a forging skill?

The blacksmith's skills were indeed unquestionable. He told him to wait for more than half an hour, and it really only took half an hour to make four horseshoes.

Quenching the horseshoes in a bucket of water to cool them, then using a steel file to smooth the edges, then taking out the four horseshoes, "Watch the horse, I'll nail the horseshoes on."

Chen Fan quickly got up, walked outside to hold the horse's reins, and looked at the blacksmith and asked, "How do you do it?"

Blacksmith: "I have to trim its hooves first, just keep it from moving."

He placed the horseshoes on the wooden cabinet at the door, took a scythe-shaped machete from the wall, moved a stool over, then lifted a horse's hoof, and began to scrape it with the machete.

Chen Fan watched from the side with trepidation, and quickly hugged the horse's head, muttering, "It's okay, it'll be over soon."

The mare snorted, "Um, um, it's okay, it's quite comfortable."

Comfortable?

Chen Fan looked at it strangely.

The blacksmith saw Chen Fan's movements, looked up and smiled, "This horse's foot is like a person's fingernail, it has to be trimmed when it grows. Trimming the horse's hooves is similar to a person trimming their fingernails, not only does it not hurt, but it's actually very comfortable. Look at it, it doesn't have any uncomfortable reaction at all."

Chen Fan grinned and carefully observed the blacksmith's technique of nailing horseshoes.

Maybe one day he will have to change horseshoes for the horse outside.

After scraping off the excess nail dirt and trimming the hoof into a suitable shape, the blacksmith put on the horseshoe and nailed a few long nails into it to fix the horseshoe.

The four horseshoes were nailed on in just over ten minutes. After they were done, Chen Fan patted the horse's head and asked, "How does that feel?"

The little mare circled in place, testing her hooves. At first, it felt a little awkward, but after a few steps, she walked more and more smoothly, her neck held high. "Huh, it doesn't hurt anymore, and it feels quite comfortable."

Chen Fan smiled and turned to the blacksmith. "Master, how much do I owe you?"

The blacksmith laughed heartily. "Cheap, two yuan and eighty fen."

Chen Fan didn't haggle and directly paid the money.

The blacksmith took the money and gave Chen Fan a receipt, saying, "You can't earn much nailing horseshoes in Nanhu. Although there are many mules and horses here, the roads are mostly dirt, making them easy to walk on, so horseshoes aren't usually needed.

If you were in the mountainous mining areas, or the docks and freight stations where goods are constantly being hauled, where the roads are all hard, you could make a fortune just nailing horseshoes."

Seeing that he was about to launch into a story, Chen Fan temporarily abandoned the thought of leaving, took out a cigarette, and offered one to him and the coppersmith.

The blacksmith puffed on the cigarette, exhaling a cloud of smoke. He seemed satisfied with Chen Fan's attitude and said with a smile, "I have a senior apprentice brother who used to specialize in nailing horseshoes in a mining town. Because that was all he did, he was even faster than me. He could nail a set of horseshoes in just half an hour. A set of horseshoes cost about 1 yuan, plus coal and rent, maybe 1.3 yuan at most. He could earn 1.5 yuan per set.

There were many animals that needed horseshoes in that place. Mules, horses, and donkeys couldn't walk without them. And even with horseshoes, they only lasted for three months, so business was incredibly good.

Once, he made over 70 yuan in a day, earning more than 30 yuan.

He wasn't from that town originally, but from a rural production team. He had to pay a 'sideline occupation fee' to the production team for working outside…"

Hearing this, Chen Fan's heart skipped a beat. Sideline occupation fee? What was that?

Would he have to pay a sideline occupation fee for selling pottery?

The blacksmith continued, "In the beginning, the production team asked him to pay 200 yuan a year. Later, seeing that he was making a lot of money, among all the people in the production team doing sideline work, they singled him out for the sideline occupation fee, first raising it to 300, then suddenly to 500 yuan."

Chen Fan couldn't help but click his tongue. "Could he still make money?"

The blacksmith chuckled and laughed, "Of course, he made money. But at first, he wasn't convinced and closed his blacksmith shop in a fit of pique, returning to the countryside to farm. But he had never done heavy farm work before, and he couldn't stand it after a year. He relented, paid the money, and reopened his shop in town."

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 that year?"

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

How could he guess? But he knew that the blacksmith was just looking for someone to play along.

The blacksmith made a gesture, his face full of pride. "That year, he earned over 7,000 yuan. Even after paying the sideline occupation fee, he still made a net profit of over 6,000 yuan."

Chen Fan's eyes widened instantly. Wasn't that more than he was making?

Wait, didn't I just activate the forging skill?

Where are the mountains? Where are the mining areas?

At this moment, the coppersmith next to him suddenly chuckled. "What's the point of earning so much if you have to hand it over?"

The blacksmith didn't even look at him, sighing softly. "That's right. One person earning so much money, while the people in the production team farming can only earn a hundred or two yuan a year at most. How could others not be jealous?

So, the production team raised his sideline occupation fee from 500 to 2,000 at once, and then to 3,000 the following year. And that wasn't all. They even forced two people to come and 'help' him with the fire, which was basically to monitor him. At the end of 1973, he paid 2,800 yuan to the production team. That year, a work point in their production team was only worth two mao, so the money he paid was equivalent to more than 14,000 work points, or the equivalent of four strong laborers working their butts off for an entire year."

Hearing this, Chen Fan felt even more depressed. How much sideline occupation fee would the production team charge him?

The blacksmith took another drag of his cigarette, threw the remaining butt into the stove, then took out his own pipe, and said with a pout, "You think that's the end of it?"

Chen Fan blinked. "Huh?"

"Heh heh."

The blacksmith sneered twice and said, "In 1974, sideline occupations were banned again. All rural people were called back to the production team. Even if he was willing to pay a 3,000 yuan sideline occupation fee, the production team wouldn't dare to accept it."

As he spoke, he suddenly looked up at the sky, exhaling a thick cloud of smoke. "That senior apprentice brother of mine took all the money he had earned before to build a few brick houses and buy a lot of miscellaneous things. When the sideline occupation stopped, his income was cut off, and he didn't have much money left. To support his family, he had to work during the day and catch loaches and eels at night, but he didn't have the skills for that either. After a year or two, both of his legs rotted, and now he's practically a cripple."

After saying that, he shook his head, went into the repair shop, lay down on the chair, closed his eyes, and said nothing more.

Chen Fan was a little baffled and didn't know whether to leave or stay.

The coppersmith looked back, then smiled at Chen Fan, "He didn't dare to say these things before. He's told this story to many people this year, anyone he gets along with. You don't have to take it to heart, just think of it as listening to an interesting story."

Chen Fan raised his eyebrows, pursed his lips, and smiled. "Master, you're busy, I'll be going now."

The coppersmith waved his hand. "Take care now."

Chen Fan looked back at the blacksmith lying on the chair, turned around, mounted his horse, and left.