We helped him resolve a worry, and Kong Laoxie's attitude was much better than before.
At around 11 o'clock in the evening, he said he couldn't sleep anymore and decided to help us build a Luoyang shovel with an earthen stove all night long. Brother Yu helped with the things and I sat on the ground to help push the bellows.
Kong Laoxie went into battle shirtless, with a cigarette in his mouth and only wearing a greasy leather apron.
"Dang! Dang! Dang!"
The sound of blacksmithing was loud, with the hammer falling and sparks flying.
The fire cannot be small, so I have been pushing and pulling the old bellows hard.
Sweating profusely, Kong Laoxie said while hammering: "Traditional craftsmanship requires 480 hammers, but I am different. The shovel I make requires 1,480 hammers."
I pushed the bellows and asked, "What's the difference?"
"You bastard! You know your stuff!"
He cursed and said a lot, and I summarized it. Kong Laoxie spent his whole life playing Luoyang shovel from his teens to his 60s. His criteria for judging a good shovel are:
"It will not fall when you carry it full of soil, it will come out quickly and easily, it will be easy to lift the shovel, and it won't bend the blade when it hits a stone."
Even the descendants of Li Yaya, the inventor of the Luoyang shovel, said that he played well because of his ancestral methods.
As we all know, the Luoyang shovel body has a curvature. If the curvature is too large, it will be difficult to dump the soil, and if the curvature is small, it will not be able to carry the soil. The curvature that Kong Laoxie hammered out with his hammer hand depends entirely on visual inspection and experience, which is called
Golden arc.
"Has the aluminum dissolved in water?"
Brother Yu looked at it and said yes, and the can completely melted.
"Has the copper water dissolved yet?"
Brother Yu said it again.
Someone may ask this, I see that the Luoyang shovels sold online are all made of steel. What's going on with you? They are made of both aluminum and copper?
In fact, steel feels very hard, but in some cases it is very brittle. This is the so-called "over-steel is easy to break."
Why do I say that Luoyang shovel forging skills are intangible cultural heritage and it is unfair to Kong Laoxie, because his unique skills are unique.
Let's just say, he's a complete shovel.
They use wooden poles, steel tips, aluminum arcs, and iron edges!
He brought all the characteristics of hard metal and soft metal to the extreme!
The most difficult thing is to make the wooden pole, because the ash wood used must be hollowed out and made into a sleeve like a screw if it is to be made into a split type.
Sparks were flying on the chopping board, and the tinkling sound of iron in the deserted village hut on the mountain continued all night...
It's daybreak, the next morning.
I pushed and pulled the bellows mechanically, leaned against the wall and closed my eyes, almost falling asleep.
"alright."
"alright!"
I immediately opened my eyes and sat up.
I saw a Luoyang shovel lying flat on the table. The blade of the shovel was shining with cold light. The internal curvature of the shovel was in golden proportion. It was connected to a peeled and matte white wood pole.
I walked over and picked it up.
The size fit perfectly in my hand, and it was very light in weight. It was effortless to swing it. I couldn't wait to run out and shovel the soil twice. The soil I brought was stuck in the shovel arc and it didn't move at all.
I was so satisfied and liked it so much that I kissed the wooden pole and said with a smile: "Good buddy, from now on we will depend on each other. As long as I am alive, I will not abandon you. From now on, you will be called Xiang Tuan."
."
In the past, swords had names, such as Ganjiang Moye, Qixing Longyuan, Yuchang Xuanyuan, etc. Why can't my favorite shovel have a name? It's called Xiang Shovel, because it is my shovel, Xiang Yunfeng.
In this way, Brother Yu and I stayed on the mountain for two and a half days, almost continuously, and made three shovels in total. After finishing the work, Kong Laoxie seemed to be completely exhausted, lying on the chair motionless, if not for looking at his mouth
The cigarette I bit was still smoking, so I thought he was gone.
"Why..."
"I can't stand it anymore, you bastard. I'm exhausted. Let's go. I need to have a good rest for two days."
I put down my bag, cupped my fists and said, "Master Kong, please rest. My name is Xiang Yunfeng. Thank you very much."
The old man was still lying on the chair, smoking a cigarette, motionless, and just waved his hands.
After Brother Yu and I came out, we went to see the dog thief. He was still tied to the tree, with his head hanging down.
"Brother Yu, are you dead?"
"He's not dead. Look at the many bumps on his head. They were all bitten by mosquitoes on the mountain at night. Mosquitoes don't suck human blood." Brother Yu said.
"Didn't we pack that bag?"
"It doesn't matter what he does, it has nothing to do with us. Let's go quickly. I'm sure my head is already in a hurry."
There has been no signal on the mobile phone for the past two days on the mountain, and I haven't made any calls. Just like Brother Yu said, I'm probably worried about waiting.
When I returned to Sansanli Village from Xingyang by car, I happened to meet Li Yuanbao at the entrance of the village. He seemed to have just returned from somewhere, holding a big plastic bag in his hand.
"Hey? Yuanbao, where have you been?"
"It's you, Xiaoshen Yanfeng." Yuanbao's face glowed brightly. He held up the plastic bag for me to see and said, "I just came back from the city hospital and bought some medicine and nutritional supplements. She is pregnant."
"pregnant?"
"who?"
I asked in shock: "Who is your wife?"
He nodded and said yes.
I turned to look at Brother Yu, then turned around and said, "No, isn't it just the third day of your wedding? Xiaoxia already has one?"
Yuan Bao was a little embarrassed, scratched his head and said: "Haha, actually I have done something long ago, but my father doesn't know it yet, so I am going to give him a surprise today."
What can I say about this, I can only say thank you Yuanbao for being awesome, and also say congratulations to you, brother, you are going to be a father soon.
After I went back, I looked at the three shovels I brought back. Even though I had touched the handles of the shovels all my life, I praised them repeatedly and said, "Okay, that's really good craftsmanship."
"This one is mine, Yazai, this one is yours."
"Brother Yu, this is yours."
Bean Sprout couldn't put it down, waving the shovel and laughing.
Xiaoxuan stamped her feet and said, "Yunfeng, where is mine?"
"I didn't do it for you, it's none of yours."
"Why not mine? I want it too!" Xiaoxuan looked angry.
"You're only responsible for going out and buying daily equipment. It's logistics, but it's not soil work. Why do you need a shovel?"
"I don't care! Why don't I have it? I want it."
You have a big head, I said if you want to dig in the soil, I can use mine for you later, okay? We can share one.
Xiaoxuan finally calmed down and said okay.
Because the shovel handle is made of a wooden pole, if we carry it separately in the future, we can take it with us on the train. If it is still a hollow iron pipe as before, it will be checked by the security inspection machine.
They started playing around, and Douyazai and Xiaoxuan were fighting in the house with shovels.
"Botou, what are you looking at?"
When I came out of the courtyard, I saw his head resting on the table, studying something.
"Come over to Yunfeng."
Walking up to him, he pointed his head at the paper on the table and said, "This is the map of the mountains around Luoyang that Mr. Li is coming to. If you look at the map, what can you see?"
There was no high technology at that time, and now you can use satellite maps to view mountain topography.
I frowned and looked at it for a few minutes, and then said: "Look, this circle is Weishan Mountain, Xiong'er Mountain, Jiuzhen Mountain, Waifang Mountain, Yuwu Mountain, and Songshan Mountain. It is separated by Yihe River, Luohe River, and Mangshan Mountain in the north.
It’s the last time.”
"Well, keep talking."
I nodded and pointed to the terrain map and continued: "From the perspective of Feng Shui, Beimang Mountain is in the middle position, among the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. This was called earth in ancient times. It controls the four directions. It sits looking at the Yellow River, with the mountains and rivers on its back.
Purple air rises, the place of the emperor."
He banged his head on the table and glared: "Nonsense! What the hell are you talking about!"
I smiled awkwardly and said, "I'm sorry, I made it up."
"Why...."
He sighed helplessly, pointed to the left half of the map and said: "Look, this is the north of Mang Mountain. From the map, it looks like there are many mountains and rocks. In the Eastern and Western Han Dynasties, people of high status were accustomed to digging mountains to build tombs and hollowing out the mountains.
Tombs were built, so there is a high probability that a Han tomb will be found in this area."
"Looking at this place, the terrain here is flat and there is a persimmon forest. Most ancient tombs in the Song Dynasty were brick tombs. I like to be buried in this kind of place."
"Well...you're right, I thought so too."
He picked up the ballpoint pen, drew two big circles on the map and said: "This area belongs to the Song brothers. Strong dragons will not overwhelm local snakes. We should not dig here, but avoid this place."
"Then...this place is the most suitable."
Point your finger at a place on the map.
This place, if you hike into the mountain, is very deep and is called "Huanggu Valley."