Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 351: Picking up the head and the black blind man catching the feet
In the forest, pieces of white snow are spread on the dead leaves. When people step on them, they can feel a slight resistance, just like stepping on cotton, and hear a rustling sound.

What comes into view are numerous oak trees, with many unfallen oak leaves hanging on the twisted branches, so the view is somewhat obstructed.

Xu Ning stared straight ahead at the gang of dogs lying or squatting, and he was not afraid. He knew clearly in his mind that there was no danger in this place at all.

At this moment, Lao Jiang, Liu Daming, Wang Hu and Da Laba walked towards Hei Pi from the left and right respectively. Xu Ning stood there with a gun, greeting Qing Lang, but Qing Lang stuck out his tongue and did not move.

Xu Ning frowned and walked forward more than ten meters, then heard Wang Hu's voice.

"Second brother! You are such a black blind man!"

The loud speaker shouted, "Brother, dead!"

Liu Daming took two steps forward and said, "Erning, it's nothing, come over here."

Hearing this, Xu Ning put away the 56 and a half, hung it on his shoulder, and walked forward quickly.

When he reached the middle of the dog gang, the gray wolf, spotted wolf and other dogs surrounded his legs. The blue wolf in front of him was squatting next to the black blind dog, with its front paws on the black skin, it raised its neck and barked twice, then grinned and squinted its eyes, with an expression that seemed to be smiling but not smiling.

Xu Ning looked closely at the dead black bear. The black bear was not big, probably less than 200 kilograms, and was extremely skinny. It was clearly visible that it was just skin and bones.

It was lying on its side, with a few oak leaves hanging on its body. Its hair was a little dark, and the hair on its neck was a little matted...

Wang Hu looked at it curiously and asked, "Why did this black bear die here?"

"I'm starving."

With just one glance, Xu Ning figured out the clue. The black bear had no injuries on his body. Judging from his palm, he was less than two years old and not yet fully grown.

Xu Ning squatted down and rubbed the blue wolf's head, praising it. The blue wolf grinned and kept rubbing its face into Xu Ning's arms...

Lao Jiang and Liu Daming squatted down and poked Hei Xia Zi's skin with their hands. Lao Jiang said, "It's frozen hard. It must have lost its courage."

"Well, it's been four or five days."

Da Laba took out a cigarette from his pocket, glanced at Lao Fei and San Sha, then handed a cigarette to Lao Shu and Liu Daming, and sighed, "What a pity for this black blind man."

Liu Daming nodded in agreement, "Not really."

No one was too excited, they just felt it was a bit of a pity.

From a hunter's perspective, what does it mean to find a starved black bear in the mountains? Of course, it means that the hunter lacks courage!
The black bear in front of us weighed only more than 300 kilograms at its peak when it was alive. It must not be very brave, but being brave or not is two different things. No matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat.

Lao Jiang looked up and asked, "Erning, what should we do with this? Should we drag it home or leave it here?"

Xu Ning pulled the blue wolf and the cheap gray wolf apart, took out his knife and poked the black bear's skin, saying, "It's frozen hard. We can eat it after cleaning it up at home, but there's not much meat... Uncle Jiang, let's keep some meat, and you can sell the rest."

Lao Jiang did not refuse and nodded: "I'll keep both the bolero and the nose for you."

Then, Wang Hu took off the cloth bag, took out two ropes from it and handed them to Da Laba, and he and Liu Daming tied up the black bear.

The black bear was stiff all over, with half of its belly touching the ground. After turning it over, I saw that its belly was flat, with no fat left on its abdomen. Lao Jiang poked it with his fist and said, "How can there be fat as thick as a finger..."

Normal black bears have a high fat content in their abdomen. When is the black bear the fattest? After autumn, the reason is naturally that they eat crazily to prepare for the winter and then store fat for the winter. At this time, the fat in the abdomen of the black bear can reach four or even five fingers thick.

Liu Daming nodded: "He's so skinny that he's just skin and bones. It would be good if he could be one finger thick."

Wang Hu stood nearby and asked, "Uncle Jiang, why don't we open its stomach and see if it has the guts?"

Lao Jiang laughed and said, "What are you looking at? The bile must be gone."

After the black bear dies, the gallbladder will no longer produce bile, and the stored bile will be digested in less than a day after its death. This is a normal phenomenon after the death of an organism.

If you ask these uneducated hikers present to explain it, they won’t be able to do so.

Xu Ning had heard of a saying that when a living thing dies, it cannot decompose and eliminate toxins in its body by itself, so the bile stored in the gallbladder will flow to the intestines and liver, and then enter the epidermal tissue. After 2-3 days of decomposition, the corpse will emit a foul odor, which is what people often call corpse odor.

At this moment, the black bear lying on the ground did not emit a corpse odor, because the weather was relatively cold now, in the late winter, the temperature between day and night was not high, so after the black bear was frozen at night, it would not be easy to melt even if it was exposed to the sun during the day...

Liu Daming turned around and asked, "Erning, look at the time now. If we are in a hurry, we can just gut it right on the mountain."

Xu Ning raised his wrist and glanced at the watch, then shook his head: "Uncle, let's clean up after we get home. It's already half past three, so it won't be until five o'clock when we get home, right?"

Lao Jiang said, "It's fine. Tie it up quickly and go home. It's frozen hard. If you're not careful, it will break its intestines. Let's thaw it at home first."

"also……"

At this time, Hei Xia Zi had been tied up, with Da Laba and Liu Daming holding two ropes. Xu Ning called the dog gang and walked quickly towards the north.

Liu Daming said with a smile: "These two villages have just ordered some bear meat. I think the meat from this black bear will be enough."

"That's certainly enough."

Lao Jiang said, "When they're all sold out, we'll split it among the five of us."

Xu Ning waved his hand and said, "Come on, Uncle Jiang, I'll just keep some meat for myself, and the rest can be shared among the three of you."

"Is that possible? If the blue wolf hadn't been able to smell the scent from a long distance, would we have been able to catch the black bear?"

Seeing that Lao Jiang was a little bit persistent, Liu Daming said, "Brother Jiang, leave some meat for the two of them, and keep the bolillo bream and the nose. After we sell the rest of the meat, we can split it among the three of us!"

Da Loudspeaker glanced at Xu Ning and said with a smile, "Brother Jiang, let's just settle it. We'll have to run mountains together in the future."

"...Okay! Then let Er Ning suffer a little."

Xu Ning grinned and said, "Why would I lose anything? The most valuable parts of a bear are its gallbladder, and the rest are its horn and nose. No matter how you calculate it, I won't lose anything. Tomorrow... tomorrow is Qingming Festival. Let's go for a walk in the mountains the day after tomorrow."

"Okay! Then you can leave it to Pi again."

Xu Ning said with a smile: "My uncle Jiang is afraid that I will suffer a loss, okay, stay."

"This shouldn't be the case."

A few people went down to the east side of Yongshengtun and walked along the path towards Taiping Qing'an. There were woods on both sides of the path.

There was no such road before. Later, as more people walked on it, they trampled out a path. As time went by, ox carts and horse carriages were needed to pass through, so people cut down the trees on both sides of the path to clear a road more than two meters wide.

The road is full of potholes and is easy to walk on in winter, but when spring comes or it rains, the road becomes muddy. Of course, except for the main road in the village, the rest of the roads will be filled with water and mud.

When they arrived at the west entrance of Taipingtun, Da Laba waved goodbye to the four men and went back home. Lao Fei and San Sha saw that he was not holding their hands, so they lowered their heads and looked depressed. After turning their heads to see Xu Ning and Wang Hu, San Sha immediately became well-behaved and followed the dog gang to Qing'antun without saying a word.

"Can you hold it, uncle?"

"Yes! There's nothing that can't be done with five puppies."

When they were about to enter the village, the dogs pulled forward harder. They had not eaten much in the mountains and were already starving. They wanted to go home as soon as possible and have some hot food.

"I'm going back." Lao Jiang walked to the intersection and said while dragging Hei Xia Zi.

Xu Ning turned around and responded, "Okay, Uncle Jiang."

After parting, the three of them led the dogs and staggered into the courtyard of Old Xu's house.

Seeing the three people return empty-handed, Liu Lizhen stood at the door and smiled. After the three people tied up the dog and walked into the outer room, the mother patted Xu Ning's arm and said, "Why didn't you get anything done today?" "You underestimated your son, didn't you? Huzi, tell your aunt what we got today."

Wang Hu grinned: "Auntie, we are going to have a big egg-digger today."

"What's so great about peeling the eggs? You can't eat the meat." Liu Lizhen wasn't interested.

"Hey, there's another black blind one!"

"What? Black blind man?!" Liu Lizhen said in shock.

Han Fengjiao said: "Oh my god, what a talent! Where is the black bear?"

"Yes, courage!" Mom went straight to the point.

The atmosphere that Wang Hu had started froze. He laughed dryly and said, "We found a black bear that had been dead for three or four days on the mountain. It was frozen hard and its bile must have been gone long ago."

Liu Lizhen was stunned. "What a pity... Hey, the bear gall is wasted."

Xu Ning stood in front of the basin, washing his hands, and said, "That was a little black blind man, so skinny that only skin and bones were left. Even if he had courage, it would not be very big."

"That's better than nothing!" Liu Lizhen said, "Is the black bear good?"

Liu Daming shook his head: "It's not rotten. Let Lao Jiang take it home and let it soak overnight. We'll unload it tomorrow. We'll keep some meat for our family and sell the rest."

"Sold it? Is there anyone in our village who wants it?"

"Why doesn't anyone want us? The three of us have already taken on a lot of work. We might not be able to finish it before spring."

Liu Lizhen patted him and said, "You are so capable that you dare to take this job. Aren't you afraid of being blamed?"

"What's there to complain about? At worst I can give them food. I want to see who dares to lick their ass and eat for free..."

Xu Ning wiped his hands and said, "Mom, please stop worrying about that useless thing. My uncle and the other two have figured it out. It's only a few days before spring. We can just fight as much as we can. After spring comes, I'll go into the mountains to dig a few Yin-Yang cellars and place a few traps..."

When Liu Lizhen heard her son say that she was worrying about nothing, she pouted a little aggrievedly, "I serve you all day long, and you still think I'm worrying about nothing. If I don't worry about it, can you learn well?"

Seeing that his mother was a little depressed, Xu Ning quickly walked over and put his arm around her shoulders, saying with a smile: "Of course, if you hadn't given me two broom knobs, I wouldn't be playing around now, and someone might have caused a disaster in our family."

"Nonsense! Just go inside, you're annoying."

Xu Ning was pushed into the house by his mother, and he stood in front of the cabinet and poured some water into the teacup.

Liu Daming sat on the edge of the kang, smoking a cigarette, and asked, "Erning, do you know how to catch people?"

"Yes, uncle, you can't do it?"

"Yes, it can, but it's just a trap that I can't lock."

Xu Ning took a sip of water and said, "There are two reasons. One is that the density is not enough, and the other is that the steel bar is too soft. What did you use to make the steel bar?"

“Line 8.”

"how long?"

"It's 15 centimeters long and I think it's pretty hard."

"It's thirty centimeters in total, and there's still five centimeters to spare. That No. 8 wire is a bit long, and the wire tends to become soft when it's long. You can change it to sixteen or seventeen centimeters wide, and then lengthen it to thirty centimeters and try again. Otherwise, make it round..."

Liu Daming nodded and said, "Okay, I'll modify it when I get back and show it to you. Hey, I heard there's a way to catch deer, also called catching feet, do you know what it is?"

Xu Ning said: "Grab the feet, use a wooden board to make a round hole the size of a deer hoof, dig a hole in the ground, and nail a few barbed nails into it."

"Seems to be……"

"This method is feasible, but you have to know how to find the deer's tracks, and there are also some rules to follow when setting it down, because the area it steps on is not large, so the chance of catching a deer's feet is not great. It's not like the foot-catching method we just talked about, which covers a large area, so if the deer steps on it, its feet will slide to the bottom..."

"That's what happened."

Xu Ning said, "Uncle, if you can fix the spokes of a bicycle, you can use them to make a round foothold. The diameter doesn't need to be too large, 20 centimeters is enough."

"Spokes will work?"

"Okay, this thing should be hard enough, and if you sharpen the tip, it will hit you accurately."

"Let me search for it."

Are these hunting methods handed down from ancient times, such as Yin-Yang cellar, foot-catching, ground gun, ground arrow, wooden cat, and ratchet pole, useful? The answer is obvious: they must be useful, otherwise why would they be handed down to this day?
In the era when there were no hunting rifles, the ancients not only hunted with bows and arrows, but also used traditional traps. Although they lacked mobility and were a bit like sitting back and waiting for something to happen, the hunters who set traps and set traps had very keen eyes. They would just look for traces of animals, identify prey by their feces, and then set traps in the animal paths. This technique required a very high level of skill, and most people just couldn't do it.

At this time, Xu Feng ran in with a shoulder bag on her back and shouted, "Mom!"

"What are you doing? Why did you come back just now?"

Xu Feng blushed and said, "The train broke down again! We walked back. Mom, what delicious food can you prepare?"

"Nothing has been arranged yet, just go inside."

"Okay." Xu Feng pouted as she entered the east room. When she saw Xu Ning, her eyes lit up. "Haha, second brother! You're back pretty early today."

"I didn't go out either."

Xu Feng rushed forward and threw herself on him, "You're just teasing me. You left before I got up to eat! Second brother, tomorrow is a holiday, take me to fish."

Xu Ning frowned and said, "Something will happen tomorrow."

"Oh, I have something to do this afternoon. Let's go after lunch. Please, second brother..."

"Okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

"okay!"

Soon, Xu Laonian and Wang Erli came into the house. Liu Daming finished telling them about how they picked up a black bear in the mountains. Both of them sighed and said that their luck was both bad and good. If they had come across a dying black bear, they could have shelled it to death without any effort, and the bear gall would have been in their pockets. But now, they not only didn't get the gall, but also had to dispose of its body.

Just after dinner, I saw a flash of light at the gate of the courtyard, followed by the sound of a car roaring.

Xu Long came in carrying a bag of vegetables. Xu Feng asked, "Brother, didn't you just leave? Why are you back?"

"Don't you know what day tomorrow is? What, you don't want me to come back?"

"Oh, no! I just thought you must be tired after coming all the way here. I'm concerned about you. How come you don't understand what I'm saying...Brother, have you eaten? I'll make you some food!"

"Then please steam some for me." Xu Long put down the basket of vegetables.

Xu Feng was startled, and turned to find Wang Shujuan: "Sister-in-law, please prepare some food for my eldest brother. I'm afraid he can't eat what I prepared."

Liu Lizhen pressed her head and said, "Go inside quickly and stop nagging me. Where can you cook the food?"

"Brother Liguo brought it to me. I went to his restaurant this afternoon. I just came back from the street. Uncle San went to Brother Liguo's house. I will go pick him up tomorrow morning after visiting the grave."

(End of this chapter)