Back in the 1980s, hiking in the mountains was also a way of life

Chapter 1017: Finding the Deer Path
After everyone arrived, it only took more than half an hour for the four dishes to be ready.

The first dish, the pig-killing dish, is actually meat stewed with cabbage, with a lot of meat and very few vegetables.

The second dish was stewed large bones and ribs, a whole pot of stew.

The third dish, blood sausage, pork liver, and pork heart with mashed garlic, although there are three things, they are all placed in the same bowl, so it can be considered as one dish.

The fourth and final course was stew.

That's right, it's stew, the kind without any side dishes.

The entire pig, apart from the head and hooves, only had the lungs, heart, stomach and intestines. They were put aside because they were inedible. To be more precise, there were too few of them for these people to eat.

Everyone was quite satisfied with the meal.

You have to know that people of that era generally lacked oil and water, and the meat at Wang An's house was enough for everyone to eat as much as they wanted, so you can imagine how everyone ate.

Although everyone ate a lot, meat was quite filling, so they didn't even finish half of the pig-killing dish and the stewed meat, and more than half was left.

There were only stewed large bones, blood sausage and heart meat, but they were all eaten up.

It was obvious that Liu Guilan had miscalculated everyone's appetite and stewed too much meat!
But to be honest, eating like this is not good, because after not eating meat for a long time, most people's stomachs cannot bear to suddenly eat such a large amount of meat.

I still remember the first time Wang An went into the mountains and hunted a wild boar. Although Wang An's family ate large cornmeal pancakes, which can be said to be very greasy, the family still suffered from diarrhea to varying degrees.

Fortunately, every household has medicine to treat diarrhea, such as Scutellaria baicalensis, Coptis chinensis and Pueraria lobata, so diarrhea is not a big deal.

After the meal, Liu Guilan distributed the leftovers, mainly pig-killing dishes and stewed meat, to each family, even Zhao Cuiyun's family was not left out.

It was not until then that Wang An understood why Liu Guilan insisted on stewing a whole pig even though she knew that no one could finish it.

The main thing is that if you send fresh meat to your relatives, people will feel embarrassed and they will have to rely on you for favors.

But if you share the leftovers with your relatives, it becomes a very natural thing and will instantly make people less worried.

It must be said that although Liu Guilan is a bit stingy in her life, there is absolutely no fault to be found in her character and work.

There was no words all night, and in the blink of an eye it was dawn.

After breakfast, Feng Chengmin, Mu Xueli, Wang An and Wang Li, each riding a horse and leading another horse, walked towards the southwest of the mountain.

The reason why they were riding one horse and leading another horse was that each person was carrying a large sack on the back of the horse.

What was inside the big sack was the wooden foot catch that everyone had spent an entire afternoon making yesterday.

In addition, everyone brought several kilograms of salt particles to use as bait.

However, because the four people wanted to catch the sika deer instead of shooting it with a gun, they did not bring a dog on this trip.

On the way, Feng Chengmin suddenly said:

"I'm telling you, when we get there, we shouldn't smoke, especially when we're in front of that saline-alkali land."

Upon hearing this, Wang Li asked with a puzzled look on his face:

"What's going on, uncle? Doesn't the smoke just blow away? How can it scare away the deer?"

After Wang Li asked this question, Wang An and Mu Xueli also looked at Feng Chengmin.

Obviously, Wang An and Mu Xueli were also a little confused. Although a deer's nose is very powerful, even more powerful than a dog's nose, the smell of smoke is dispersed by the wind.
The main thing is that when Wang An and his two companions went into the mountains, they never had any scruples. They smoked when they wanted to and whenever they wanted. They never once said that they had missed hunting because of smoking.

Besides, when Wang An and Feng Chengmin were learning hunting, they smoked whenever they wanted to, and Feng Chengmin never said such a thing at that time.

So it was really surprising that Feng Chengmin suddenly said such a thing.

Feng Chengmin glanced at the three of them and said:

"It's okay to smoke, but you can't leave ashes and cigarette butts in front of you. Can you do that?"

The three of them were stunned when they heard this, then they all shook their heads subconsciously and said in a very firm attitude:
"cannot".

Nowadays, who doesn’t throw away the cigarette butts when smoking outside?

The most they're afraid of is causing a fire, so they'll step on it after throwing it away.

Do you need to collect the ashes and cigarette butts after smoking? Come on, where should you put them? You can't just put them in your pocket.

Feng Chengmin rolled his eyes at the three of them and said:

"If you can't do it, don't talk nonsense. Just throw the cigarette butt there, and the smell of tobacco oil will be so strong that it will last for many days."

As he spoke, Feng Chengmin took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth and lit it, and said to Wang An and the other two:

"It's not fun to ride a horse, you guys should all smoke your own cigarettes."

After exhaling a puff of smoke, Feng Chengmin continued:
"Don't you think about it? The deer's nose is so sharp, and it suddenly smells like this. How stupid must the deer be to stay near it?"

Wang An and the other two felt that what Feng Chengmin said made sense, so they all took out their cigarettes and lit one for themselves.
In this way, the four of them chatted while they traveled. Although their speed was not very fast, it definitely could not be said to be slow.

The mountain road is difficult to walk on, and the horses can't bear it if you walk too fast.

After walking for two hours, the four people finally arrived at the saline-alkali land that Li Dashan, Li Xiu Yu's elder brother, had mentioned.

Almost all animals, including humans, cannot live without salt.

If your domesticated mules, horses, cattle, sheep, etc. lick stones or eat soil, it means they have a taste for salt and it's time to feed them some salt particles.

As for herbivorous animals such as deer and roe deer in the mountains, the way to solve the problem of salt consumption is to rely on the saline-alkali land in the mountains.

Normally, as long as the salt in a saline-alkali land is still available for licking, the deer will generally not move to another place.

So the salt that the four people brought was to deepen the temptation.

After tying the horses outside the saline-alkali land, Feng Chengmin, Wang An and three others began to wander around the saline-alkali land.

The reason was simple: the four of them wanted to confirm the direction from which the deer came, that is, to find the "deer path".

Because deer are similar to rabbits, they usually go back and forth along the same route and will not easily change their route. Perhaps in their opinion, this is the safest way.

Soon, the four found a trail of footprints left by deer in the southwest of the saline-alkali land.

After finding the "Deer Path", the next step would be much easier, but Wang An still asked Feng Chengmin:

"Uncle, what are our rules?"

(End of this chapter)