The kiln in my hometown

Every time I see city dwellers looking excited and crazy in front of a deserted kiln site, I feel they don’t care about it. Even if it is abandoned and turned into a pile of dirt, I don’t have a trace of regret in my heart. A little nostalgia.

On the contrary, I am very proud of it, and it would be better if I lost it.

Ever since I was sensible, I have known that this thing makes the people in the village exhausted to death, and the most disgusting thing is that it also makes the little brats who own the kiln in our village also unlucky. Half of the happiness of childhood has been taken away by it.

The seventy-two kilns were once a symbol of Jinxi, my hometown. In fact, in the 1980s, there were far more than this number, with a conservative estimate of more than 100.

The kiln must be built near a lake or beside a wide river to facilitate the docking of large and small transportation ships. Therefore, Zhubang, Zhudian, Mingdong and our Murakami around Changbaidang,

From ancient times to the present, it has been the land of Yaotian Kiln.

In an era without industry, kilns were the wealth of the village.

Before the founding of New China, one kiln made a family rich. After the founding of New China, one kiln made a whole village rich.

From making bricks to firing them into bricks and then selling them, it has a complete industrial chain. Each chain requires a lot of labor, which provides farmers who make a living by farming with another opportunity to work and make money.

However, the work in this chain is really tiring to do. Let’s talk about blank making first. Previously, it was all done by hand.

First, the raw mud is trampled hard with feet to make the mature mud, then the mud is cut into pieces, poured into the mold with force, scraped flat, demoulded, placed on a pile of mud to dry.

After it is dried, there will be personnel responsible for transporting it from the billet yard to the kiln yard for loading into the kiln.

At that time, one person was making blanks and the whole family was burdened. From stepping on the mud to drying and stacking, it can't be done without someone's help.

It's pity for us children, as soon as school is over, we have to go directly to the billet field to work. Either stepping on the mud with bare feet, or using the strength of feeding, he piled the dried blanks piece by piece into a blank wall.

The worst fear is walking in the mud in early spring and February. Those little feet were in the cold muddy water, and they shivered with cold as soon as they stepped on them. To this day, my heart trembles when I see children playing in the mud with their bare feet and having so much fun.

Kiln installation must be directed by the kiln installer. It is very particular about where to put bricks or tiles in the kiln hall, how high to put them, and how thick the walls are. If you are inexperienced, you will burn them into raw bricks.

Getting out of the kiln is relatively less technical, but it is more tiring than installing the kiln. First, the temperature inside the kiln hall is high, and second, the bricks are really hot to touch. There is also the risk of collapse.

It's nothing to be so tired, but the green ash from the new bricks is pervasive. When the body temperature rises, the sweat pores open, and the whole skin is smeared into the green ash.

Poor, those boys and girls, they can't be washed away or faded in ten days and a half. Only the eyes and teeth remain the same.

In the entire industry chain, kiln-burning masters are the most labor-saving. Just control the heat and temperature, and the rest of the work will be done by the workers on the side.

Saving effort means saving effort, but it is tiring. A kiln of bricks are all on his shoulders. As long as the kiln is on fire, it is basically impossible to sleep well. The fire and temperature all depend on your own experience and feeling. It is not until the fire is stopped and the furnace is closed that your heart settles.

Such a master master would not be able to get started without ten or eight years of apprenticeship. Later young people are rarely willing to learn to do it. My eldest cousin was originally a master master, but he had been trying to find someone to teach him, but to no avail.

Small workers who follow a master master are not so lucky. Moving firewood, fetching water, don't even think about stopping once you get busy. Especially in the season when firepower is most needed, if there is not enough firewood piled beside the stove, the master will be scolded by the master.

The most dangerous thing is that after the kiln stops the fire and seals the furnace, you still have to carry water from the river one load at a time.

Go to the reservoir on the top of the kiln and slowly release water for the master.

Don't underestimate this water, it is the last step for masters to control the quality of bricks. If too much water is added, the bricks will become empty bricks, and they can only be bought at half price to build pig sheds. If you put too little, it will become green or red, and the appearance of green bricks will be lost, which will also affect the quality.

Fortunately, large mechanized kilns were later built, eliminating the earthen kilns in the village, leaving them deserted and reduced to the mounds they are today.

Without it, Xiao Chu said, the little kids no longer have to worry about going to work in the billet field after school, and it also gives the girls and boys in the village their fair bodies. Dachou said that air pollution is reduced and land is saved.

Sometimes, when I accompany guests to visit the kiln, I always tell them that there are some things that should not be left behind and are really not worth keeping, such as this kiln.