My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 277 Mystery of the Fierce Beast
"If we lose money, we lose money. Who knows where that pig went or how hard it is to find?"

As Wang Lixian spoke, he glanced at Chen Ling.

"That's true."

Chen Ling nodded, understanding the meaning in Wang Lixian's eyes.

He was worried that the half-tail he had found in the trap was indeed left by a leopard.

If it really is a leopard, it means that the leopard that disappeared before has reappeared.

Then it definitely wasn't just this one.

If you can't figure out the truth, it's too risky to venture into the deep mountains.

Some people certainly won't understand.

What's there to be afraid of if there are leopards in the mountains? Can't we bring guns?
Indeed, you can bring a gun.

However, if you're targeted by a leopard, even having a gun won't help.

Because leopards are different from tigers, bears, and the like.

It generally avoids direct confrontations and face-to-face interactions.

Instead, it was a sneak attack from behind.

Or ambush from the tree.

It happens silently, making it impossible to guard against.

Even with the increased number of leopards, hunters in Kinmen Village are still hesitant to venture into the mountains for safety reasons.

Not to mention a real leopard.

These things are ferocious and slippery; you can use traps to deal with them, or poison them with veterinary drugs.

As for using guns, unless you're a seasoned hunter who specializes in this, you won't be able to hit them even if you have a gun.

Leopards are fast runners, traversing mountains and valleys with ease. Even when faced with steep cliffs, they can leap over them in just a few bounds, giving humans no chance to aim.

If an ordinary person encounters a leopard in the mountains, in most cases, they will die before they can even see where the leopard is.

in other words.

In the wilderness, humans have little chance of winning against any wild beast.

Even if you see a leopard face to face, what can you do? At most, you'll still panic and be afraid out of instinct. When you're panicked, it's hard to even escape.

The mountains and forests are their domain; even humans can't outrun them.

Jackals, wolves, tigers, leopards, and bears are all extremely aggressive towards humans.

They are different from wild boars, which can be scared away by people.

These ferocious beasts will gradually test you.

Once you figure out that you're all bark and no bite...

That's when they're looking for an opportunity to strike.

Unless it's like last year, when a team of ten or twenty able-bodied young men went into the mountains together.

This way, you can carry more guns and a pack of dogs.

Even if tigers and bears come, they won't be afraid.

It's just that one pig has escaped, it's not worth making such a fuss.

Besides, this year's harvest was good, so even if someone wanted to organize a hunting trip, no one was motivated to go into the mountains.

Chen Ze was still unaware of their thoughts. Upon hearing that Wang Lixian had given up chasing the pig, he immediately said anxiously, "Why don't you go and find it, Brother Xian? If necessary, we can call a few more people to go into the mountains and search. Look at the ground, it's bleeding like this and it still managed to escape. It must be a big pig. It would be such a waste not to catch it."

Wang Lixian was tongue-tied and didn't know how to explain it to him. He frowned and ultimately remained silent.

Chen Ling was looking at the half-tail he was holding.

Hearing this, he chuckled and said, "Don't worry, Shuiwa. Even Xian Ge's dog is useless now. You urge him to chase the pigs, but he can only watch helplessly. There's nothing he can do."

"Let me do it. Let me show you first which way the pig ran off to."

As he spoke, he whistled twice loudly in the direction of the farm.

Before long, a magnificent yellow-clawed falcon flew in from afar, gently flapping its wings, and landed at Chen Ling's feet.

The hawks won't land on Chen Ling if he doesn't have shoulder and wrist guards.

Now the hawk's claws are becoming increasingly thick, hard, and sharp, truly capable of piercing human flesh.

Chen Ling dared not let it land directly on him.

"Oh my, it's a hawk."

Chen Ze exclaimed in surprise. His sister's family of three, along with Da Ni'er and Si Ni'er, were also stunned. They had thought Chen Ling was going to call the dog over, but instead, he called a hawk.

Many people know that Chen Ling's family has this thing, but they have never actually seen it in person.

"Yes, hawks can fly, which is faster than dogs running on the ground, making them more convenient."

As Chen Ling spoke, he walked to the bloodstains left by the wild boar, dipped his finger in the blood, and smeared it on Er Tuzi's nose, letting Er Tuzi experience the smell of the prey.

Seeing that Er Tu Zi's eyes sharpened instantly, it knew that it had discovered the trail of the escaped wild boar.

He immediately grabbed it, held it in his hand, and tossed it into the air.

Two Baldys spread his wings and took flight, circling in the sky for a while before suddenly flying off in one direction.

"My goodness, really? Dogs can pick up girls, and hawks can too? Don't eagles and hawks rely on their eyes? How come you're relying on your nose?"

Upon seeing Chen Ling's actions, Chen Ze immediately exclaimed.

Chen Ling looked up at the direction where Er Tuzi had flown and laughed, "Why aren't there any eagles that rely on their noses? You've never trained an eagle, so you probably don't know that training an eagle requires it to remember your scent, right?"

One of the most important aspects of falconry is teaching the falcon to remember its owner's scent.

When people train eagles, they do so to make the eagles more accepting of them.

You can spit your own saliva onto the meat and then feed it to the eagle.

You can also combine sweat and saliva and smear it on the eagle so that it becomes familiar with the scent of your body.

Over time, gradually and subtly, the eagle will come to regard you as one of its own.

Therefore, although an eagle's sense of smell is not as strong as its sense of sight and hearing.

But when it comes to distinguishing smells, it's quite impressive.

With Chen Lingling feeding him water, Er Tuzi could track prey even by relying solely on his nose.

Otherwise, I'll still need to search for medicinal herbs in the mountains in the future, and I can't do that without a healthy nose.

"Good heavens, there are so many tricks to training an eagle?"

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, and then thought: It's probably only Fugui who has the time and inclination to do these things. He has dogs and eagles, and he's almost made a name for himself with them. Other people probably wouldn't know the ins and outs of this in their entire lives.

The group chatted idly for about ten minutes before Baldy flew back.

"This pig seems quite large; it ran this far with the trap in its mouth. It looks like it'll take a lot of effort to catch it. Anyway, it's definitely not going to make it today..."

Chen Ling stroked the kite and said.

It takes the kite about ten minutes to fly back and forth, meaning it flies for about five minutes before it can find the pig.

If it were a person walking in the mountains and forests, climbing up and down, with varying heights, it would take at least half an hour.

Moreover, even if we found a pig, it would be too big to carry down the mountain, and by the time we finished cleaning it up, the sun would have already set.

What's the point of chasing after this?

Even Chen Ze was discouraged, stamping his feet and saying it was a pity.

Wang Lixian patted him on the shoulder: "What's the pity? There are still some wild boar cubs here. Fugui treated people to a pot of soup a few days ago. You guys who went out to work didn't get to eat it. This time you came to my house, I'll treat you to it."

Chen Ling perked up at this: "Great! Piglets are so tender, a big stew would be delicious. I'll bring some wine over tomorrow."

Chen Ze waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "No, no, no, I wouldn't dare drink your wine. Everyone in the village says that one jar of your wine can be exchanged for a tractor. If I drink with you for one meal, I'll drink away the tractor wheels by myself." This made everyone laugh.

Of course, Chen Ze was just joking on purpose.

He hasn't been visiting Chen Ling much lately, and he hasn't seen Chen Yuqiang and the others for a long time either.

Lately, they haven't done anything but work from dawn till dusk at the factory in Huangni Town.

Some went to mooncake factories, some went to feed mills, all sorts of jobs were offered.

Although I don't earn much, it's relatively close by, so I can take care of the autumn harvest at home. I'll earn whatever I can.

The group descended the mountain together, chatting animatedly along the way.

Once the mood struck, Chen Ze suggested that after finishing tomorrow's drinking session, everyone pick a day to go to the mountains for a trip, since the corn hadn't ripened yet and they weren't too busy lately.

Upon hearing this, Wang Lixian knew it was difficult to persuade him, so he slowly revealed his own guesses.

They say there might be leopards in the mountains again.

If there's nothing else to do and there aren't many people around, don't go up the mountain. The harvest is pretty good this year; it's not like we'll starve if we don't hunt.

It's best to avoid going deep into the mountains.

Even when going up the mountain to pick fruit, it's best to go together.

"Brother Xian, why didn't you explain clearly earlier? I thought you had something else on your mind and didn't want to go into the mountains. Turns out you were afraid of leopards. What's wrong with talking about leopards?"

Chen Ze was quite puzzled. Why couldn't they just speak their minds?

"It's not that I can't say, it's that I'm unsure."

Wang Lixian shook his head: "The footprints next to the trap were all messy and hard to see. There were no other footprints left nearby either. I can't be sure if this thing is a leopard. I'm just telling you to be careful when you go into the mountains, just in case."

There are many wild grasses and fallen leaves in the mountains.

In autumn, the ground is dry, unlike after rain when the soil is soft and wild animals can leave clear footprints for people to identify.

Therefore, Wang Lixian dared not speak recklessly based on only half a tail.

Otherwise, if word gets out, it will spread like wildfire, and who knows what will become of it?

"Oh, so that's it."

Now the Chen siblings and their families knew what had happened.

Then they took the tail from Chen Ling's hand and looked it over. Of course, they couldn't see anything wrong with it; they were just curious.

They had no choice but to give it to Wang Lixian and tell him to go back to the village and ask the village elders to take a look.

Upon reaching the foot of the mountain, the group parted ways and went their separate ways home.

But in the evening, Wang Lixian came to the farm again.

He said that after he went back, he asked several elderly people in the village, and they all said it looked like a leopard's tail.

But as for whether it was a leopard, no one dares to say for sure right away.

There's nothing we can do; leopards haven't been seen in public for far too long.

From the 1950s and 60s, anti-corruption campaigns were launched continuously throughout the country.

While the goal is to eliminate tigers, leopards and wolves are also included in the plan.

Teams like the Tiger-hunting Team and the Wolf-hunting Team were all the rage at that time.

Therefore, by the 1970s, leopards had become extinct in the local forests.

Only the leopard remained, occasionally popping its head out to make its presence known.

"Uncle, look, isn't this a leopard's tail? I heard that there were leopards in your Lutou Mountain area ten years ago."

After Wang Lixian sat down in the courtyard, he didn't say more than a few words before taking the leopard's tail out of the basket and showing it to Wang Cunye.

Wang Cunye took a look, gasped, and pondered, "You know what, this tail really does look like a leopard's tail, only much thinner. I've seen this kind of thing when I was young. Some villages in my area still have leopard skins. The tails of those leopards were thick and long, like whips."

After saying that, he added, "Be careful of leopards, and make sure more people go up the mountain during the day, but don't go up the mountain at night."

"As the old saying goes, a leopard can travel a hundred miles at night and always has wild delicacies in its mouth. This thing is very fierce; even a wild boar weighing over a hundred pounds can't beat it."

"Especially at night, catching a half-grown wild boar is like child's play, and killing a person is even easier."

These words made the two of them take things seriously.

Gao Xiulan and Wang Susu were terrified when they heard them say there was a leopard.

"It's okay, don't panic."

Chen Ling comforted him, saying, "Our farm has dogs and kites. If something sneaks into the orchard, it's not easy to stop it. But if it tries to sneak into the farm, that's impossible."

"Relax, there are so many wild animals to eat in the mountains, even if there are leopards, there's no need for them to come down the mountain."

After chatting for a few more minutes, seeing that Chen Ling's family was about to eat, Wang Lixian got up and left.

Chen Ling escorted him to the outside of the farm.

Remembering his father-in-law's words, he reminded him, "Whether it's a leopard or not, this thing was definitely attracted by the wild boar piglets in your traps, or it was following the wild boar herd after smelling the wild boars."

Wild animals living in the mountains are very intelligent.

When they hunt, they are sometimes not much different from humans.

For example, if a person wants to set traps for wild boars on a mountain, they certainly can't just set the traps anywhere. They have to follow the wild boars' tracks or simply the paths they take down the mountain, that is, the animal trails, to set the traps.

When larger wild animals hunt, they do the same thing, specifically seeking out animal trails where the animals frequently appear.

They could lie in ambush near the animal trails or follow the animals directly, looking for an opportunity to launch an attack.

Let's talk about wild boars.

When there are many wild boar piglets, they are most likely to attract the attention of various wild animals.

Even the wild boars dared to provoke the herds, often snatching a piglet from the herd and leaping up a tree to escape.

The mountain leopard can climb trees, run and jump, and move incredibly fast; even wild boars can't catch it.

Moreover, wild boar cubs are initially no bigger than a human palm.

In the mountains, any bold wild animal that dares to break into a herd of wild boars can easily snatch them away in one bite.

If it's just a small herd of sows without any boars to protect them, then it doesn't matter at all.

They simply drove the piglets away; the sows couldn't manage them all.

Chen Ling realized this, and Wang Lixian quickly followed suit.

“You’re right. Then tomorrow, after we finish our drinks, we’ll set the trap again, and we’ll put two piglets on it. Let’s see if we can get it out.”

He'd been hunting for so many years, but he'd never caught a live leopard before. Seeing this half-tail today, he was immediately itching to catch one.

"Okay, I'll replace the clips with new ones too. Let's go take them off together."

Chen Ling responded in agreement.

However, deep down he felt that it didn't matter whether the beast was a leopard or not, and that it wasn't necessarily a bad thing if there were leopards in the mountains.

Only when there are enough jackals, tigers, and leopards in the mountains will wild boars and other wild animals not proliferate.

Looking around, no matter which region there is an overabundance of wild boars, it is definitely because there are no large wild animal predators.

Although I think so.

However, the premise is that these large wild animals do not interfere with people's lives, otherwise it would be bad if they hurt people.

"There are fewer and fewer tigers and leopards in the mountains, so killing them is not a good idea. If we do manage to catch one, we should first take it to a cave and raise it there."

Chen Ling made his own plans as he watched Wang Lixian leave.

The two agreed that after drinking tomorrow, they would take people to the mountain to set traps, and set several traps for each household.

However, to Chen Ling's surprise, before they even started, the simpleton Heiwa got into trouble the very next day.

(End of this chapter)