Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 7: Going Down Fengshan Again
1981年7月8日，农历6月7日
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After Wang Jiankun and his grandfather finished their breakfast, they started on their journey. On the way, his grandfather explained to Wang Jiankun some key points about being an apprentice. Although Wang Jiankun was not going there to learn blacksmithing skills, he believed that being sweet-spoken and hardworking was a must, and he had to respect his master and senior brothers.

Wang Jiankun nodded in agreement. He would have done so even if his grandfather hadn't told him to. In order to allow himself to learn more freely and let the blacksmith shop make things according to his ideas, Wang Jiankun even prepared the funds to bribe his master and fellow apprentices.

When they arrived in Fengshan, Grandpa took Wang Jiankun to the butcher shop and bought two pounds of pork for 1 yuan. They also went to the supply and marketing cooperative and bought two bottles of Tsinghua Daqu for 6 yuan. These were gifts prepared for his apprenticeship.

It was about 8: in the morning when Wang Jiankun and his grandfather arrived at the blacksmith shop.

I saw that the blacksmith shop was already busy. The young boy was making a fire, the young and middle-aged blacksmiths were sharpening the blade of the hoe, and the blacksmith Grandpa Quan was sorting out the account book, which recorded which production teams or individuals had ordered farm tools. The finished ones would be marked, and the unfinished ones would be prepared in advance according to the date to avoid people making a wasted trip.

Seeing the grandfather and grandson coming to the blacksmith shop, Master Quan hurried to make tea and asked why they came so early. He thought they would have to come to get the plowshare at least tomorrow, but fortunately it had been made in advance.

Grandpa told Master Quan that Wang Jiankun would be an apprentice for a period of time, and gave Master Quan some pork and wine.

Master Quan pushed the gift aside and said, "Brother Wang, you are being too formal. Your grandson is here to experience blacksmithing for a few days. There is no need to bring these."

Although my grandfather had a good relationship with Master Quan, he still had to show courtesy and insisted that Master Quan speak. After several refusals, Master Quan accepted the gift, which meant that he agreed to let Wang Jiankun come to experience and learn.

Wang Jiankun quickly expressed his opinion, "Grandpa Quan, I will abide by the rules here and will not cause trouble or hinder us."

Master Quan said: "When you come to experience and learn blacksmithing, you must pay attention to safety. You are your grandfather's treasure, and you are also a literary star. You can't let anything happen here."

Wang Jiankun said: "I will definitely pay attention and won't cause any trouble."

Then they discussed the time to start as an apprentice, which was tentatively set for three days later, because Wang Jiankun had to first guide the finalization of the kiln factory construction.

It was agreed that he would temporarily live in the blacksmith shop as an apprentice. There was a small room. Originally, the young boy Cha Xiaoming lived there alone at night, but now that Wang Jiankun came, he squeezed in with him.

Let’s go to Master Quan’s house for meals and just pay for the food.

After discussing these things, the grandfather and grandson said goodbye and left the blacksmith shop without further delay.

Master Quan sent Wang Jiankun and his grandson out of the blacksmith shop. Grandpa took the plow and went home first. Wang Jiankun told his grandfather that he would go and give the bullets to others first and go home after he was done.

Wang Jiankun arrived at the door of Cheng Hongbing's house and shouted if anyone was home. Four young men came out of the house. They were Cheng Hongbing and his friends.

Everyone was very happy to see Wang Jiankun coming, because making bullets had been very painful for them in the past few days. The people they found to make bullets were not very good at it. The adults didn't have the time or the knowledge to do it. The children took the job but did not do it well and the quality was uneven.

Wang Jiankun then gave the finished bullet to Cheng Hongbing and said, "Take a look and see if it works. If not, I won't charge you."

Cheng Hongbing didn't hesitate. After a brief look, he randomly picked up 5 bullets, picked up the air gun and started to try. He found that all 5 bullets fired smoothly.

So Cheng Hongbing took out 5 yuan from his pocket and gave it to Wang Jiankun, and asked him if he was still willing to do it. If he was, the price would remain the same. He could buy the steel balls and glue now and give them to him in a few days. Of course Wang Jiankun was willing. No one could resist money, and he could just get the start-up capital by making bullets.

On the way to the supply and marketing cooperative, Wang Jiankun asked how much the air gun cost. Cheng Hongbing did not hide it and said that he bought it for 80 yuan.

Wang Jiankun thought, it’s too expensive, a little more money would be enough to buy a bicycle, and asked if we could buy more, it wouldn’t be enough for four of you to have just one gun, right?
After saying this, all four responded: "It's not satisfying, but it's hard to buy. I asked relatives at several places, but they are all sold out. I don't know when I can buy it next time."

After hearing this, Wang Jiankun had an idea in his mind, and told the four people that he would go to the blacksmith shop as an apprentice in a few days and would bring the bullets over in three days.

Arriving at the supply and marketing cooperative, Wang Jiankun waited for Cheng Hongbing to buy steel balls and glue and then went to buy 6 White Rabbit candies and 2 exercise books. They were all prepared for his sister. Since he wanted his sister to study hard this summer, he had to give her some sweet treats.

After buying the things, Wang Jiankun set out on his way home. He was not idle along the way. He used his ability to project the stone mountains a few meters along the road into his mind to see if he could find some stones rich in precious metals or iron, and extract these elements when he had time.

After returning home, Wang Jiankun gave a piece of candy to his sister and told her that if she finished the assigned exercises every day and scored above 90 points, she would be rewarded with a piece of candy.

Wang Jiankun will be going to Fengshan in a few days, and he plans to come back one day every week until school starts.

So I have to copy my sister's exercises while I have time in the next two days. Although I have designed several sets in my mind, it still takes a lot of time to copy them by hand.

In the afternoon, Wang Jiankun went to the brick kiln factory and found that the drying shed was already being built. Judging from the progress, it should be completed in two days.

The kiln entrance has already completed tamping the soil and is now laying bricks. There are three people laying the bricks. It should be completed the day after tomorrow. We can check it before going to Fengshan. All that’s left is to apply the mud and wait for it to dry.

We should be able to fire a kiln when Wang Jiankun comes back next time, and after that we won’t need Wang Jiankun’s guidance anymore.

After the inspection, Wang Jiankun went for a walk along the riverbank as usual. He planned to collect more elements. The 10 cubic centimeters of capacity that could be mobilized every day could not be wasted, and it was slowly increasing if used more.

Based on the knowledge learned from high school textbooks, Wang Jiankun felt that he could collect more iron, copper, gold, tungsten, manganese, silver, lead and zinc.

So over the next two days, Wang Jiankun collected about 8 kilograms of iron, 2 kilograms of copper, 200 grams of gold, 500 grams of silver, 300 grams of tungsten, 1 kilogram of lead, 1 kilogram of zinc and 100 grams of manganese.

Wang Jiankun hid all the collected metals in a hole he dug near a mountain spring and took them out when needed.

When the time comes, I'll go to Fengshan and prepare to bring some tungsten and manganese to make alloy knives, in preparation for making guns and other things. I won't have much time to collect them when I get to Fengshan, and it won't be easy to use my abilities to do these things if I'm not familiar with them.

The night before departure, his family helped prepare a straw mat and spare clothes. Wang Jiankun also packed his prepared things in a small box, which contained 300 grams of tungsten, 100 grams of manganese, and 1 rounds of ammunition.

(End of this chapter)