Beat the iron flower

　　Strike while the iron is hot, which is the rigid existence of farming civilization and the perfect combination of strength and wisdom.
　　Turn left when you go out of my street gate, which is my neighbor Huichuan’s dad’s house. His family lives by striking iron. Sometimes, I am really uncomfortable sitting on the bench at home with a bowl of rice. I can’t swallow a mouthful of rice, so I feel flustered and want to sneak out of the house.
　　A low Westinghouse in Huichuan’s dad’s house is a blacksmith’s room, where the sound of "tinkling while the iron is being struck" often comes out, giving the silent courtyard a different vitality at once. Huichuan dad is of medium height, slightly thin, not good at words, and only works hard all day; On the contrary, Huichuan’s mother is a warm and cheerful person, with a big face and a big face. She is very good at talking and has a sweet mouth. Their family is a typical man and woman.
　　My home was too close to my father’s home in Huichuan, and I was so impressed that I unconsciously fell in love with watching while the iron was hot. Huichuan’s mother gave birth to five boys and one girl. Under the influence of Huichuan’s father, all five boys can strike while the iron is hot. After his eldest son got married, he started his own business and still made a living by striking iron. Relying on the booming business while the iron is hot, Huichuan Dad built three two-story buildings on the west side of three halls.
　　There are five boys, which is a kind of big capital in the countryside, because in the countryside far away from mechanization, all the work is hard work. If there is labor at home, you can be self-reliant and don’t have to ask for help. Among the five boys in Huichuan’s dad’s family, except the second one is slightly thin, the others are unambiguous: the eldest one is simple and tolerant, the second one is low-key and honest, the third one is slightly stubborn, the fourth one is active, and the fifth one is honest and frank. All five boys in Huichuan’s dad’s family can strike while the iron is hot, and they have practiced hard since childhood, and the muscles on their arms are bulging and hard.
　　It is not easy to strike while the iron is hot. In summer, the fire in the iron room is blazing, and it is as hot as a steamer, so that people’s sweat falls off. In winter, it’s too hot to put on clothes in the iron room, and you can only bare your back. Once you get out of the iron room, you need to wear cotton-padded clothes. It’s really ice and fire.
　　It takes a stove, bellows, square anvil, long iron clips, pliers, sledgehammers, small hammers … of course, coal is definitely needed. Therefore, the business while the iron is hot is very close to the dust produced by pulverized coal, and clean people and people who cherish their strength can’t do it. A stove while the iron is hot is generally made of bricks, not ordinary bricks, but refractory bricks. The inside and outside of the stove are coated with yellow mud mixed with wheat straw, which is smooth, beautiful and airtight. Generally, the stove is two or three feet high, the widest cavity is only one meter, the small stove is only about one foot, and the mouth of the stove is generally small, like a bowl in the sea, which not only saves carbon blocks, but also gathers flames.
　　The bellows is mounted on the hearth. When the bellows is pulled and delivered, the fire on the stove burns strongly. The ironware to be beaten is white and bright in the furnace first, and then it is moved to the big anvil with iron tongs. Huichuan’s father holds the small hammer and his son holds the big hammer, and begins to beat one by one. The small hammer plays a guiding role, it is fast and the big hammer is fast; It is slow, so is the sledgehammer. Huichuan’s father is an old blacksmith with rich experience. In the process of striking the iron, he watched with his eyes and kept turning the iron. Sometimes, he also holds iron in a vice. Scarlet iron was hammered into an ideal square, round, long, flat and sharp after being tempered … Later, with the electric hair dryer, it became convenient and labor-saving to blow the stove. Only when there was a power failure did the bellows sound again in the iron room.
　　It’s really an excellent enjoyment to watch while the iron is hot. It’s a demonstration of strength, a free release of heat, and a perfect combination of plastic and manufacturing. While the iron is hot, the sound is cadence, full of rhythm and great sense of music, with a simple ancient style. Bellows are pulled up, whistling wind, pulling up like a prelude, playing like a tune. With the need of heating, the bellows will accelerate in a gentle and symmetrical rhythm, and the cheerful rhythm is full of powerful steps of life, like human beings marching hard and blowing slowly like a song of triumph. The flames in the stove jumped with the beat of the wind box, which seemed to be a deliberate rhythm. One cheered up and the other started to rise and fall with the rhythm. Rising and falling again, the mood is getting higher and higher, and the momentum is getting more and more magnificent, which is not only the perfect combination of dancers and music, but also the poetic combination of masculinity and femininity. When the iron is hot enough to be red, it is quickly clamped to the big anvil with a long iron clip. After a hammer goes up and down, a string of jingles, a spark splashes, and a sweat falls, the red iron block will gradually become an ideal model. According to the need, Huichuan Dad will suddenly put the hammering iron into the sink slowly. First, he tentatively "zi zi" emits white smoke. With the iron all put into the water, there is a powerful "bang" sound, and a burst of white smoke whirls up and rises rapidly, dispersing in the iron room, and quenching has been completed. Quenching is a heat treatment method when iron is being struck. Iron is heated to a certain temperature and then rapidly cooled in water with a certain temperature, with the purpose of improving the hardness and strength of iron. The finished products of ironware are mostly matched with traditional production methods.Farmers have plows, rakes, hoes, picks, sickles, etc., as well as some daily necessities, such as kitchen knives, iron pans, shovels, planers, scissors, etc., in addition, there are knockers, foam nails, door inserts, rake nails, large and small nails, etc.
　　Huichuan’s dad is not good at words. He is always silent when the iron is hot, but his eyes are very focused and he knows what he is doing. He doesn’t talk with his mouth and tongue like we do. He talks with his fingers in the water temperature and the strength and focus of the hammer. Only when the children swing the wrong sledgehammer does he move his mouth, which is also a calm and simple way to talk about the essentials, not to blame. He is calm and seldom gets angry. I also like to pull the bellows and knock on the anvil with a hammer when my father is not busy. Pulling the bellows requires endurance. According to the need, sometimes it needs to be pulled slowly, and sometimes it needs to be accelerated rapidly. It is very hard to pull and pull, and it is very difficult to make wind by friction. I am tired after pulling my arms for a few times. The sledgehammer used to strike the iron weighs more than ten kilograms, so I need two hands to lift it. It is indeed a man’s job to strike iron, and you can’t strike iron without strength; Of course, without the spirit of suffering, you can’t make iron.
　　It is a great fun in the countryside to "strike the iron flower" in the New Year Festival.
　　Every August 15th or the 15th of the first month, the Huichuan Dad family became the main force of the brigade. The location was chosen on the road two or three meters east of his house. There were open spaces on both sides of the road, and the location was just right. First set up a simple stove and a bellows. When there is electricity, drag a wire and connect a hair dryer. The main tool for striking iron flowers is a suitable long wooden board, which is thick and heavy and needs to be held by both hands. The front section of the board is wider, so it is convenient to scatter sawdust on it. In order to prevent burning and scalding, people who play iron flowers can wear a straw hat.
　　After the waste raw iron blocks are heated and softened in the fire, those who are strong will clamp the hard section with iron clips, and then shovel the soft red iron mass melted at the front end to the sawdust at the front end of the board with a shovel. The sawdust on the board "poof" burns. Those who are holding the board ready to strike iron flowers should be bold but cautious and nimble at this moment. First, gently winnow the red iron ball and the burning sawdust, and immediately hit the air with fierce force. Look, the hot red iron ball is scattered in mid-air, and the scarlet iron filings and burning sawdust splash, coupled with the collision and separation of dense treetops, suddenly form colorful sparks. In order to keep the rhythm, two or three people can also swing the board at the same time. With the sound of "bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. From a distance, it looks like a golden snake dancing wildly and lightning cracking empty, which is dazzling and dizzying.
　　There were many blacksmiths like Huichuan’s father’s family in the past. The fire ignited, the bellows snapped, and the tinkling hammer sounded. The village, like a god on the earth, was full of hot energy, emitting bright light from this light source, bravely expelling the dark and heavy canopy, bravely opening the cover of the boundless night, and standing tall and mighty.

Zhang Yuefeng