My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 425 Delivery
"A jackal?"

"Yes, it's the jackal from the jackals and tigers. I encountered a pack of jackals when I went into the mountains a while ago, and I didn't expect to run into them again today, this time with the wild animals they've been harming..."

Chen Ling also informed the village about this.

After all, the older generation of mountain folk all know what kind of jackal he is, so there's no need to elaborate.

Last time, if the wolf pack hadn't arrived, that pack of jackals wouldn't have retreated easily against Chen Ling and his two dogs, given their numerical advantage.

So recently, with fewer people around, not many people are venturing into the deep mountains.

After Chen Ling finished speaking, Wang Cunye added a few more words of explanation to the crowd, which made them change color involuntarily.

It's one thing for them to gouge out their prey and torture them beyond recognition, but they even resort to cannibalism.

Who wouldn't get a chill down their spine after hearing that?
“Fugui, you said before that when wild boars are mating, even the big boars that don’t usually interfere much will become protective of the herd…”

"These mountain donkeys are probably like that too. Uncle Han said they prefer to be alone and often walk on bare rocks in the mountains, so they are very difficult to see. Now it must be the time for them to reproduce, so they will appear together as a male and a female."

"It's just a pity that the male died at the hands of the jackals while protecting his mate and offspring."

"The mother must have been too frightened after being attacked by a pack of jackals at night. Now, being surrounded by a pack of dogs, she was so scared that she lost control and gave birth on the spot."

The lynx squatted beside Chen Ling, looking at the mountain donkey in front of him and speculating.

"Yes, very likely, and it could even be premature..."

Chen Ling nodded.

That female mountain donkey might not be due to give birth yet.

But it first encountered a pack of jackals, and then a pack of farm dogs.

In addition, the male mountain donkey was surrounded and killed by a pack of jackals, which made it so frightened that it began to give birth on the cliff.

To put it simply, it's just like a human pregnant woman.

Premature birth can be easily triggered by unexpected events during sensitive periods.

However, since the mountain donkey was giving birth on a cliff face, walking and giving birth at the same time, the scene was much more shocking.

Zhao Dahai was also taken aback upon hearing this: "So, it's very likely that it will really encounter a difficult birth, just like Uncle Zhong said earlier?"

"Oh? Is it really going to be a difficult birth?"

"Then we have to go and take a look. If all else fails, we can find a few people from the village to help deliver the baby."

Everyone got excited after hearing that.

There was both shock and sympathy for the mother mountain donkey giving birth on the cliff, and a touch of emotion at the male mountain donkey's actions in protecting his wife and offspring from the vicious attacks of the jackals.

Even Chen Ling thought that this male donkey was far better than the scumbag red muntjac that abandoned his wife and children last year.

But he still shook his head slightly and said, "Don't rush. The female mountain donkey is in a critical situation right now. Let's wait a while, deal with the male one, and then go and take a look."

"That's fine."

No one had any objection.

Zhao Dahai and Shanmao carried the dead male donkey to the orchard for everyone to examine closely.

To put it simply, the serow is basically an antelope with a mane.

However, in terms of appearance, it's not just that it has a mane; it's truly a hybrid of a donkey, a goat, a cow, and a horse.

It has a short body, thick limbs, and a tail with a tuft of long black hair at the tip, making it resemble a donkey.

Its head resembles that of a cow, but it has long donkey ears and a pair of short, black goat horns.

From the top of his head, at the base of his horns, there is a tuft of grayish-white mane that is more than ten centimeters long, which is very obvious as it flows down his neck, making him look like a horse.

The fur on its body and tail is black, but the fur on its four legs is a bit yellowish.

Upon closer inspection, the hooves also resemble those of a cow.

Zhao Dahai scratched his forehead and muttered, "This is all black, and it doesn't look like the mythical creature from the Investiture of the Gods."

"What you're talking about is a Père David's deer, which is a bit prettier than a mountain donkey."

Chen Ling smiled upon hearing this and looked at the elderly people whose faces still showed sorrow: "Whether it's a mountain donkey or a deer, since we've found it, let's butcher it and eat it today. Does anyone have any objections?"

"I have no opinion."

Zhao Yubao shook his head and sighed, "It's already dead. What else can we do but eat it? Although the donkey's act of protecting its wife and children with its life is admirable, since it's already like this, even if we don't eat it and bury it, it will just rot. Who knows, it might be dug up and eaten by wild animals in the mountains."

"Yes, we ate it, and Old Zhao will even write an article to commemorate it, haha..."

Old Zhong made a clumsy joke.

Everyone else also smirked.

To be honest, while I admire this male mountain donkey, it's not something I raised myself, so I don't find it disgusting to eat.

Therefore, no one objected to Chen Ling's suggestion.

Wang Cunye took out his tools and hung the mountain donkey upside down from the tree. "Sigh, it's a jackal after all. It emptied its cavity so clean that there's nothing left."

"Uncle Cunye, what are you thinking with that jackal? Why would it leave the good meat and eat only its intestines and offal?"

"That's not the case either."

Wang Cunye shook his head: "If there's good meat to eat, even jackals want to eat good meat. But the hide of this mountain donkey is even tougher than donkey hide, so it's quite a struggle for them to pry it open."

In addition, many wild animals come out to forage at night, and if there are wolves or similar creatures nearby, they won't bother with skinning; they'll just eat the large, soft mass inside their prey and call it a day.

"Huh? I heard from Fugui that when they went hunting the year before last, the jackals they encountered also gutted them and then threw them away, leaving them with a lot of meat. I thought jackals only ate guts and didn't eat any other meat."

"The lynx is surprised," the lynx said.

"No, the jackals we encountered that time were also quite special. The jackal king was shot by us, which caused infighting among them. Also, we had our pack of dogs nearby, so they were uneasy and didn't bother to skin them."

Chen Ling said, "Actually, these jackals are very clever. Even if they don't have time to skin the prey, they will remember where they dropped it. If their noses are good at smelling the wind, they can smell farther than wolves."

Therefore, they often use discarded prey as bait to lure other small wild animals, such as badgers and foxes, to eat it. They then wait in the wings and suddenly attack when the prey is engrossed in eating.

Of course, it's not a big deal if nothing bites. Once the prey has slightly decomposed, the hide won't stop them from eating, and they can go back and feast.

This naturally refers to prey with thick hides, such as wild boars and mountain donkeys.

If their hides aren't tough, they'll eat what they catch that night, leaving very few bones behind, so there's no need for them to go through all that trouble.

"Goodness, is this jackal really that smart?"

"It's not just jackals; wolves sometimes do this too, leaving leftover prey near the edge of their territory as a warning to their rivals not to come near."

"It's just that jackals are more ferocious and extremely ruthless..."

Chen Ling gave two simple examples that made their hair stand on end and their faces turn pale.

"Then, why don't you go hunt jackals?"

"Hunting jackals? Let alone jackals, we wouldn't even hunt wolves on our own initiative. We would only teach them a lesson if they sneaked into the village and harmed poultry, livestock, or people."

"Normally, they stay in the mountains and catch badgers, weasels, foxes, and the like. To a certain extent, this is equivalent to protecting the village's poultry from harm, and everyone keeps to themselves."

The crowd gasped in astonishment. Having lived in the city for so long, they felt uneasy hearing such words for the first time.

In their view, how could they sleep soundly when man-eating beasts roamed the nearby mountains?

But they didn't say it out loud. Everyone here is fine, so they're not worried. If they asked, they would seem ignorant and idiotic.

He simply watched as Chen Ling and his son-in-law Wang Cunye skinned and butchered the mountain donkey, occasionally lending a helping hand. It was still early; it was only a little past six o'clock since he had been startled awake from his sleep.

The farm was still shrouded in morning mist.

After much effort, Chen Ling and his son-in-law peeled the donkey's hide, put it in a basket, and began to butcher the meat.

"It's hot now, and the small water tower is almost finished. We need to marinate the meat."

"It's okay, the small water tower can still be used even if it's not finished. Just seal the meat in the tank and put it in, it'll definitely be fine."

Chen Ling smiled and said, "I'll send some more to each household in the village and some to the county. The rest of the meat won't need to be kept for more than a few days; we'll finish it soon."

"If we really can't eat it all, we can pickle some more, right, Dad?"

"Okay, it's up to you."

Chen Ling glanced at Wang Susu, chuckled twice, and continued working with his hands. First, he took a piece of lean meat off the mountain donkey's back, and then he untied the mountain donkey's two hind legs.

It was tossed into another bamboo basket.

Wang Cunye carefully picked off the small pieces of meat, and instead of putting these small strips and scraps in the bamboo basket, he put them all in a large wooden basin.

Stew it together with pork bones in a pot, and eat it with rice for lunch.

Although the hide of a mountain donkey is tough, it yields a good amount of meat.

It took more than an hour to butcher the meat. After weighing it, we found that after removing the skin, head, and skeleton, we had more than 80 pounds of clean meat.

Gao Xiulan and the two old ladies had already prepared breakfast. Seeing that everyone was curious about the mountain donkey, they took some scraps of meat, washed them, and stir-fried them with chili peppers for everyone to try.

The meat, when stir-fried, resembled beef, with a dark reddish-brown color.

Adding soy sauce didn't make much of a difference.

Everyone picked up their chopsticks, took a bite, and their eyes lit up.

"This meat tastes pretty good. The skin is tough, but the meat is very tender and fragrant, just like freshly slaughtered veal."

"delicious."

We had already had a great time with barbecue yesterday, so no one had much of an appetite this morning and we were thinking of eating something light.

To everyone's surprise, the donkey meat whetted their appetites, and they devoured the entire steamer of buns.

This has little to do with Chen Ling's family's cooking skills; it's just that the mountain donkey meat is indeed quite good, and everyone has a sense of novelty and curiosity involved.

The number of these mountain donkeys, or rather serows, dwindled in later generations. Besides their high-quality fur, their delicious meat attracted many hunters.

"Ah, I'm so full. Coming to Fugui's house is all about eating, drinking, and having fun every day. There's no better place than this."

Zhao Dahai rubbed his large belly and sighed contentedly, "If only life could be like this for the rest of my life, how wonderful that would be."

"If I were a woman, I would fight with Susu to marry Fugui, even if it meant pestering him relentlessly."

Everyone burst into laughter.

Xiang Wenxia rolled her eyes and said to her daughter, "Don't mind your father. He makes a fool of himself as soon as he comes to your Uncle Fugui's house."

Chen Ling was speechless and slapped him several times.

Wang Susu, however, was quite pleased. Originally, Rui Rui was not eating properly and kept making a fuss, which made her a little angry, and she wanted to teach her son a lesson.

Hearing Zhao Dahai's words, Chen Ling's anger subsided, and she couldn't help but steal a glance at him, revealing a faint smile.

……

Chen Ling glanced at the fog and saw that it was starting to dissipate, then said, "Stop fooling around, hurry up and pack your things, let's go up the mountain and check on that female mountain donkey."

If it's truly a difficult birth, we can't delay any longer.

If the delay goes on too long, the mother mountain donkey will be alright, she can hold on for a day or two, but the baby mountain donkey will probably be in mortal danger.

Upon hearing this, everyone dared not be negligent.

Then, together with Chen Ling, they packed their things, took the dog, and headed up the mountain towards the lake in the mountains.

With Heiwa and Xiaojin leading the way, finding the mountain donkey will be a piece of cake.

It didn't actually go very far.

Right on the south side of the mountain, without even leaving that bamboo grove, it lay in a bamboo thicket near the stream, laboring hard with all its might.

But the little guy behind her only poked out half of his body; he still hadn't been fully born.

There were two small, glaring bloodstains on the thick layer of dry bamboo leaves beneath him.

Upon noticing the approach of people and dogs, the female mountain donkey stared wide-eyed in terror, struggling to stand up, but unable to do so.

"It was a really difficult birth."

Chen Ling frowned upon seeing this: "After being repeatedly frightened and driven away, it is too exhausted and has no energy left to produce."

"what is it now?"

Zhao Dahai and the others were dumbfounded and asked a very stupid question.

The lynx gave the fat man a slap on the shoulder, annoyed: "What can you do? Help it give birth."

"Is Fugui okay? If not, I'll go to the village and call for help."

"Yes, that's fine. Susu and I have delivered lambs for our sheep twice already."

Chen Ling squatted down and touched the mountain donkey's big head. He noticed that it was breathing heavily and seemed to be resisting. He then said to the mountain cat and the other man, "You and Dahai come and hold it down. I'll pull this little donkey out."

How do I pull it?

"The two front hooves need to be tied with rope."

"Huh? Isn't that too rough? Won't it hurt the little guy?"

"We can't worry about that now. Besides, if we grab it with our hands and pull it out, we won't have any leverage and it'll be easier to hurt it. It's better to tie it with a rope. It'll be easier for us to exert force if we're further away."

Chen Ling took out a thin rope and, together with Wang Cunye, tied the two tender front hooves of the donkey whose head and front legs were emerging from the birth canal.

Then stand a meter or two away and slowly, carefully, pull outwards.

Throughout the process, the mother mountain donkey was in so much pain that her whole body convulsed and she was panting heavily and braying loudly.

Its condition was extremely tragic.

They helped deliver the baby donkey. Two old ladies assisted, while two old men, unable to help, simply stood by, holding their breath and carefully taking pictures.

This scene was clearly recorded.

Fortunately, the donkey's difficult labor was just due to exhaustion, not a problem with its position or anything else.

So after some effort, the baby donkey was successfully delivered.

Unfortunately, the mountain donkey was still a wild animal, and even after we helped it safely deliver its calf, it remained extremely wary and uncooperative.

They didn't even bother with the slime on the cubs, let alone the umbilical cord.

Fortunately, Chen Ling and his team were well-prepared, even bringing thermos flasks.

After cutting the umbilical cord, clean the mucus from the baby's mouth, nose, eyes, ears, and other key areas. Apply the remaining mucus to the mother donkey's mouth and nose so that it can become familiar with the baby's scent.

Otherwise, if the baby is delivered by a human and then the mother doesn't recognize it and leaves it for Chen Ling to raise, that would be quite a mess.

(End of this chapter)