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

The moment the sheep's blood started flowing, Wang An immediately grabbed a basin and started catching it.

Faced with something as precious as sheep's blood, Wang An didn't want to waste a single drop.

Furthermore, while collecting the sheep's blood, Wang An continuously stirred the fresh sheep's blood in the basin with a stick.

However, upon closer inspection, one would notice that the end of the stick Wang An was holding, which was inserted into the blood, was wrapped with a thick layer of medical gauze.

The reason for wrapping the stick with gauze is that by constantly stirring the blood with the gauze-wrapped stick, the blood can remain in a non-coagulating state without the addition of salt and water.

Of course, Wang Anjia continued to use the same method for extracting deer blood each time.

There's no way around it; deer blood wine is good, but you can't use every time you extract deer blood to make wine, right? And adding salt would affect the quality of the deer blood.

Moreover, whether it's dried into deer blood powder or processed into batches for direct consumption, the deer blood must not coagulate.

This method of constantly stirring with gauze or clean cotton cloth was discovered by local people who had sika deer at home during their long deer-raising careers.

According to Fang Xiu'e, the reason for constantly stirring fresh blood with medical gauze or cotton cloth is that stirring for a period of time can prevent the blood from clotting.

That's because during the stirring process, the gauze can remove fibrin from the blood, and fibrin is precisely the coagulant that causes blood to clot.

A few minutes later, the bleeding from the sheep's neck stopped, and the basin that had collected the blood contained about 9 pounds of sheep's blood.

Normally, the amount of blood loss in a local long-haired sheep is about 8% of its own weight.

The blood content in the stag goat is likely higher due to its high-altitude habitat, approximately 10% of its body weight.

While stirring the blood in the basin, Wang An called to Mu Xueli:

"Xue Li, what are you looking at? Hurry up and take out the sheep's heart. Sheep's heart is a good thing."

Like deer heart, sheep heart is a very high-quality medicinal material and also a very high-quality tonic.

Of course, the most precious thing is actually the blood in the heart of the sheep, because although this blood is not much, only about one or two ounces, it is the most essential part of the sheep.

Upon hearing this, Mu Xueli agreed and immediately slashed the blade towards Xuan Yang's chest and abdomen.

Immediately afterwards, Mu Xueli reached into the chest cavity of the suspended sheep and pulled out its heart and liver together. With a couple of slashes of her right hand, she caught a fresh suspended sheep heart in her hand.

Then, Mu Xueli threw the hanging sheep's heart into a wine jar that had been prepared in advance.

The main problem is that there isn't much effort put into it to begin with, and if it's processed further, some of it will inevitably be wasted. Soaking it directly in alcohol is the only way to maximize its value.

The next steps are much simpler: skin the animal, butcher it, and remove the head, hooves, and offal.

Unlike the treatment of normal local sheep, the lower leg bones of the mutton are not discarded, but are cut off and placed together with the leg bones of the mutton to be used for making liquor later.

Only then did Wang An speak again to Mu Xueli and Wang Li, who were unloading the meat:

"You two can each have half of this mutton and half of the bones. Keep an eye on it before you chop the bones, so you don't end up with too much of a difference."

Currently, the economic and medicinal value of the ram is second only to that of the tiger and the leopard, and even higher than that of the sika deer. Therefore, when allocating resources between them, we should try our best to be fair.

After Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li immediately said:

"It's alright, it's fine if my brother Mu gets a bigger share."

Mu Xueli said almost at the same time, "Just give Lao Wu a bigger share, it doesn't matter to me whether I get more or less!"

Surprisingly, these two idiots actually get along quite well.

Wang An ignored how Mu Xueli and Wang Li divided the hanging sheep. After stirring it, he used a funnel and a rice scoop to start guzzling the hanging sheep's blood into a pile of empty wine bottles.

Since becoming wealthy, Wang Anjia no longer drinks high-proof bulk liquor, but instead drinks bottled liquor.

Most of the liquors produced in Northeast China, such as Beidacang, Heitudi, Yuquan, Longquan, and Laolongkou, were brought by Wu Dong and Zhang Shuya when they came. As for Wuhejiao from Hebei Province, those were brought by Han Xiaomin and her group when Wang An and his two companions went to Hebei Province.

Therefore, Wang Anjia had quite a few empty glass bottles after finishing his wine.

The reason I switched to bottled liquor is because, to be honest, the high-proof bulk liquor made by Han Shuisheng doesn't taste as good as bottled liquor. It's just too damn spicy. It's quite good for making medicinal wine, though.

Wang An didn't know how Zhang Shuya and Sun Nian planned to consume the suspended sheep blood, so he decided to simply send the sheep blood, after removing the fibrin, directly to them, and let them handle it as they pleased.

After processing the 90-pound sheep, the 130-pound sheep was lifted onto the slaughter rack.

The procedure was the same, except that this sheep was larger and produced more blood, yielding about 13 kilograms of blood.

After Wang An bottled all the sheep blood, he found that there were exactly 22 bottles, which weighed about 22 jin (11 catties), and there were still about two spoonfuls left in the basin.

After thinking for a moment, Wang An picked up the spoon and started drinking.

That's right, it's drinking raw sheep's blood.

Wang An was willing to try blood that could be soaked into blood wine and drunk directly, but he dared not drink blood that could only be eaten after being cooked, such as chicken blood, pig blood, and sheep blood.

Wang An was mainly worried that he would make himself too wet from drinking too much water.

After taking that one bite, Wang An immediately understood the special nature of the suspended sheep blood.

Wang An had tasted fresh deer blood and felt it was just so-so. It had a thick texture, a strong fishy smell and a faint muttony smell, and also an indescribable sweetness.

As for sheep's blood, it has a very mild fishy and muttony smell, but it has a sweeter taste than deer blood.

Wang An drank only a small spoonful before daring to drink more. He didn't dare to drink too much deer blood, and since sheep blood was even more energizing, he dared to drink even less.

Turning his head, Wang An greeted him:

"Dad, Xue Li, Fifth Brother, Xiao Zhong, come and have a sip too! This stuff tastes even better than deer blood."

Hearing Wang An's greeting, Wang Dazhu thought for a moment before walking over and saying:
"Why don't we wait until it's soaked in alcohol before drinking it? Drinking it now might make us sick."

Wang An said calmly:
"Oh, Dad, don't worry, nothing will happen. Let me tell you, Dad, this stuff is only safe to drink when it's fresh, and it's very nourishing. If you wait too long to drink it, it will cause diarrhea, and you can only drink it after soaking it in alcohol."

Wang Dazhu hesitated for a moment before decisively picking up the spoon and drinking the remaining half spoonful.

Seeing this, Wang An quickly said:
"Oh my god, Dad, why are you drinking so much? I heard this stuff is even more potent than deer blood. Can your body handle it?"

Wang Dazhu smacked his lips, nodded, and said:

"This stuff is actually pretty good, it definitely tastes better than deer blood." (End of Chapter)