My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 209 Losing the Pig
Although the winters in the mountains are frighteningly cold, they are not without their advantages.

For example, food eaten at home no longer needs to worry about spoiling if left out.

For example, Chen Ling's family used to worry about wasting goat milk, but now they don't have that concern anymore. In just a few days, they've accumulated more than half a vat.

These are all from dairy goats.

Even in winter, this baby's milk production doesn't decrease.

Besides feeding the lambs, we can also milk them three or four pounds of milk every day.

Whenever he didn't feel like cooking, or if he got up late in the morning, he and Wang Susu would boil some goat milk to drink, which was very pleasant.

On the twelfth day of the twelfth lunar month, the sky remained overcast, with no sign of clearing up.

Chen Ling practiced archery in the courtyard for more than half an hour. After he had his fill of it, he brought some firewood and started a fire in the courtyard.

Then he took out a few animal traps, threw them into the fire to roast, and when they were red-hot, he coated them twice with dried cow dung dipped in snow water.

This is to mask the smell of rust on the clips, as well as the smell of people left on them.

Otherwise, the wild animals in the mountains can smell from afar that the trap is not there and will detour in advance, so they will not fall for it.

The clamp will then fail, yielding no results.

After the metal clamp hisses and smokes, it's done.

Wait for the clamps to cool down.

Chen Ling put on his coat and headed down to the foot of the mountain to get the traps.

Actually, the traps haven't been completely empty these past few days; they've caught a few wild rabbits.

However, such small prey is really not very interesting.

The game in the mountains is very wary and difficult to catch, so Chen Ling took the trap back and covered the smell again.

To completely mask the smell of rust, he even heated it over a fire for a while before applying the dung. This way, the dung would be thoroughly absorbed by the clamps, leaving no trace of rust.

"Wang Wang Wang Wang..."

When we got to the village entrance, we saw a crowd gathered around the threshing ground, making a lot of noise. Heiwa and Xiaojin were also barking and circling around with a pack of stray dogs.

It's been snowing these past two days, and the two of them have been really into playing. They've been wandering around in the snow all day with the village dogs. They even ran out early this morning, not even bothering to eat.

Chen Ling was too lazy to care about them.

However, at this moment, he noticed that something was wrong, and the dog's barking was not normal, so he quickly went over to investigate.

"Brother Donkey, what's wrong?"

"Oh, it's Fugui, are you setting another trap?"

When Ermaolu saw that it was Chen Ling, he smiled and then pointed to a family next to the threshing ground: "Old Trouble's pig is missing. His wife has been cursing all morning and has disturbed everyone. We just checked the hoof prints outside the pigpen and everyone says that it's most likely that a wolf broke into the pigpen."

"What? A wolf raided the pigsty? Wolves really can come to the village and raid pigsties?"

Chen Ling was very surprised.

"It's true! There are so many wolf footprints in the snow, what else could it be but wolves?"

As Ermaolv spoke, he pulled a few people aside and then talked to Chen Ling for a while.

In short, they insisted that the wolf had raided the pigsty.

Chen Ling observed the reactions of his two dogs, then went to check on the pigsty.

I was filled with doubt.

The pigpen wall is quite high, and the gate wasn't open. How did the pig get out?
Could it really have been done by wolves?

When he was a child, he heard the elders say that wolves would use two clever tricks to raid pigsties.

First, they invited him; second, they rushed him.

The story of the wolf and the pig is about a cunning and clever wolf that sneaks into a pigpen at night, targets a fat pig, bites its tail, and drags it backward.

Pigs are stubborn; the more you drag them back, the more they struggle to move forward.

At this moment, if the wolf releases its grip at the opportune moment, the pig, which is protecting the pain, will stand on its hind legs, jump over the wall of the pigpen in fright, and run wildly into the wild.

They don't harm the pigs; they simply devise a plan to lure them out of their pen. Once the pigs are out of the pen and run into the dark wilderness, the other wolves in the pack will come to greet them warmly.

This is called a wolf inviting a pig.

And what about wolves chasing pigs?

It's because some wolves are unwilling to eat pigs hastily and fearfully near the village.

If you bite and drag the pig, you'll find it too strenuous and cumbersome because the pig is dead, fat, and heavy.

So they came up with another method: herding the pigs.

The method of wolves chasing pigs is so easy and ingenious that even humans would be impressed.

They simply open their mouths and gently bite the pig's ears, while their thick tails swirl like brooms, patting the pig's rump, and the pig will obediently follow them.

It goes left, and the pigs follow it to the left; it goes right, and the pigs follow it to the right.

Of all the parts of a pig's body, only two are most sensitive: its ears and its tail.

Unfortunately, the wolf managed to touch and use those two sensitive spots. How could it possibly disobey?

I heard that in the past, a family in Chenwangzhuang lost a pig at night. They went looking for the pig with torches and saw wolves chasing it. When they came back, they described the scene as: "It was as obedient as a man who was afraid of his wife being dragged along by his wife by the ear."

However, when a pig is invited into a wolf's den, the outcome is far more tragic than that of a man who is afraid of his wife.

……

"I've never seen it with my own eyes, so I don't know if it's true or not. Anyway, it sounds like a story about a monster to me."

Chen Ling shook his head.

He knew very well how intelligent wolves were, but he still couldn't quite trust the two who stole the pig.

When he was a child, he heard these things as just stories.

"Haha, you're still too young. I didn't really believe wolves were as powerful as people said before, but you found out later, didn't you? That time one sneaked into my house, trying to steal my donkey..."

"It was quite a coincidence. That night I caught a cold and had a stomachache, so I got up to go to the outhouse. I happened to run into this wolf. When it saw me, it didn't pounce on me right away. It waited until I squatted down before it pounced on me from behind. Can you believe how cunning this thing is?"

"It's absolutely insidious and deadly."

Er Mao Lu laughed heartily as he shared his thoughts, which drew agreement from many people around him.

Chen Ling didn't say anything else after hearing this, but simply asked, "Did you go look for the pig?"

"We've searched for it, we've searched it several times already. The footprints led westward, so the wolves must have driven the pigs up the mountain at night."

Ermaolu gestured and said, "Old Trouble'er bought these half-grown piglets on credit from the village. The two cousins ​​were raising them together to slaughter them for meat at the end of the year. Now all that effort has been wasted, and half a year's worth of grain has been wasted."

"I heard that you, Fugui, want to raise things at the foot of the mountain in the future. You'd better be careful about that."

"I know, if I were to raise one, I would definitely take good precautions."

Now that winter has officially arrived, things are quite different from early winter.

In early winter, although food is scarce, one is not starving.

At this time, things are different. In the dead of winter, when snow covers the land, herds of grazing wild animals will migrate south in large numbers, resulting in a scarcity of prey.

When wild animals cannot find prey and become extremely hungry, they will be forced to turn their hunting targets to people in villages and livestock.

Sneak attacks, ambushes, and even night raids occur frequently.

Such incidents were relatively rare in previous years.

This was because people in those years couldn't even fill their stomachs. Before the wild animals came down from the mountains to ravage the village, groups of people went up the mountains to hunt.

Later, as more people went out to work, fewer hunters appeared, and the number of wild animals on the mountain increased again. In the last two years, they have started to move down the mountain.

……

“We chased the wolves away last time, yet they still dare to come down the mountain. I think they’ve forgotten the pain once they’ve healed their wounds. If they dare to steal from this house today, they’ll dare to steal from that house tomorrow. The New Year is almost here, we can’t let them continue like this…”

"Go back and get ready. We're going to set the traps and catch that son of a bitch."

Someone saw Chen Ling carrying the traps and, on a whim, suggested a plan. The crowd immediately stirred, and those living on the edge of the village rushed home to prepare their traps.

Seeing that the crowd had dispersed, Chen Ling did not linger any longer and went to his own field to set his own traps.

The bird-catching nets were removed a couple of days ago; only a few traps were set up nearby.

He then found another place to put the trap, and placed grains, sweet potatoes, potatoes, and meat next to the trap, a variety of foods including both meat and vegetables.

Traps and snares are like traps, but they're not as direct as hunting in the mountains.

It requires a lot of patience to wait.

In other words, after a heavy snowfall, the weather is more favorable, and it's easier to have a good harvest than usual.

however……

Chen Ling hadn't expected to reap the rewards so quickly.

On the morning of the thirteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, he had just gotten out of bed and drunk a bowl of hot goat milk when Chen Dazhi rushed over to call him, saying that he had caught a wild boar near the orchard.

But the wild boar injured someone, and in its anger and fear, it ran away with the trap.

This wild boar with the trap on its leg can't run far. If we hurry and chase after it, we can still catch it.

The few sentences contained a lot of information, and Chen Ling was stunned after hearing them: "What happened? Did you catch a wild boar? How did it end up hurting someone?"

"Oh, don't ask about that now. That wild boar is quite big. You should hurry up and chase after it. I'll tell you what happened on the way."

Chen Dazhi couldn't wait any longer and dragged Chen Ling outside.

After Chen Ling grabbed his pitchfork and other tools, and called his two dogs, he hurriedly headed out of the village.

The two walked hurriedly, with Chen Dazhi explaining the situation to him as he spoke.

“It’s that dirty kid. He was upset about losing the pig at home, so early in the morning he called Bao Liang and Bao Shuan to go outside the village to hunt for traps. He said he caught a wolf and insisted on killing it himself.”

"Unexpectedly, these three lads didn't see the wolf get caught, but instead encountered a wild boar with its leg caught in your orchard."

Dirty Kid is the youngest son of Old Trouble.

The old troublemaker is Chen Baoliang's cousin.

These three people this morning, Chen Baoshuan, Chen Baoliang, and Zangwa'er, are cousins.

Chen Baoshuan is a bad person, and no one in the village pays attention to him. He usually only associates with a few cousins.

This morning, I guess these three people saw that Chen Ling had caught a wild boar and wanted to sneak a piece of the pie.

They happened to have lost a pig, so if they could retrieve this wild boar, they would not only suffer no loss but also make a profit.

Unexpectedly, as soon as they got closer, the wild boar pounced on one of them and began to tear him apart.

The other two men, wielding hoes and shovels, shouted and tried to drive the wild boar away. Enraged, the boar ignored the traps on its hind legs and turned to attack them.

They were so frightened that they ran away as fast as they could.

He ran back desperately to get the villagers to rescue the people.

Dirty Kid and Chen Baoliang ran back.

Chen Baoshuan, that unlucky fellow, was left there.

When the villagers arrived, Chen Baoshuan had already been knocked far away by the wild boar and fallen into a ditch.

The wild boar also jumped into the ditch and continued to bite Chen Baoshuan.

Seeing that there were many people coming, he reluctantly fled into the mountains.

“Bao Shuan deserves it. Last time he was thrown into a dung pit by a wild boar, and he still doesn’t know how to change. When he sees a wild boar, he doesn’t know to stay far away. He even tries to go up and take advantage of it. I really don’t know what to say to him.”

"It's just a pity for Uncle Sangui. He didn't save up much money, and now he has to spend it on treating his unfilial son's injuries."

After listening to Chen Dazhi's words, Chen Ling didn't know what to say to the three of them.

Wild boars are not as likely as wolves to enter villages and harm livestock.

But when food becomes scarce on the mountain, people will naturally come down to find food.

Moreover, they are most difficult to deal with at this time.

In the past, when they saw people, it was actually quite easy to scare them away.

However, once winter arrives, shouting and chasing them away are ineffective in scaring them away.

On the contrary, in most cases it will only provoke them.

Not to mention it was just a wounded lone pig.

They only have themselves to blame for this situation; if they got hurt, or even killed, they deserved it.

Just then, the villagers carried Chen Baoshuan, who was covered in blood and unconscious, back from outside the village.

Chen Dazhi ran back to inform Chen Ling, much faster than they did.

The two sides met.

Chen Sangui sighed repeatedly.

Although this son is unfilial, he is still my own son. I don't know what happened this year.

In the Year of the Pig, it seems I'm cursed with wild boars; I was injured by one twice in a year.

Dirty Kid and Chen Baoliang avoided eye contact, not daring to look at Chen Ling.

After such an incident, everyone in the village actually knew what was going on.

It's all because they were greedy and wanted to steal the prey from someone else's trap that this mess happened.

This behavior is no different from stealing.

Even in a melon patch or under a plum tree, one is afraid of offending others; how can one go up there and do such a thing?

Not only was it embarrassing, but it almost cost him his life. Now he'll be the laughingstock of everyone.

Ultimately, it was a case of underestimating the attack power of a trapped wild boar.

Do you think that just because a wild boar's leg is trapped, it can be at their mercy? You're dreaming.

However, it was the dirty child's parents, the old troublemaker couple, who said a few nice words to Chen Ling.

Chen Ling said it was nothing.

Anyway, he wasn't the one who got hurt, and he didn't raise the wild boar. It's none of his business if someone gets hurt; it's all their own fault.

Of course, that's what I thought in my heart, but I remained polite on the surface.

He then stopped wasting time talking to them and headed with Chen Dazhi to the orchard at the foot of the mountain.

Heiwa and Xiaojin couldn't wait any longer, so they rushed out and ran far ahead of them.

After crossing two steep slopes, we heard the urgent barking of two dogs ahead.

Chen Dazhi was tired from running, so Chen Ling went over first and saw that the snow on the edge of the orchard was a mess.

The wild boars knocked over the thatched hut.

The leftover sweet potato tips and corn grits by the stove were all eaten clean.

Not far from the thatched hut, on the snow, there was a patch of bright red blood and a jumble of hoof prints.

There were also clear and conspicuous footprints left by people all around, leading to a small ditch.

Needless to say, it was caused by those three guys.

The trail of wild boar blood was continuous, visible every few steps, extending deep into the forest, its bright red color strikingly clear against the snow.

"Wow, you've managed to take the trap with you. But my trap is strong enough; I reckon the wild boar's hind leg is broken now."

"It just fought with someone, it can't run far."

Chen Ling waved to the two dogs: "Chase!"

(End of this chapter)