Xing'an Mountains 1984: Starting from climbing mountains to support the family

Chapter 117: Making a Snow Hole
The scenery of the snow-covered Xing'an Mountains is very magnificent, making people feel insignificant in front of the vast nature.
However, Li Shengli and the other two were used to it and had no interest in the surrounding scenery. They just wanted to get to Laoyinggou as soon as possible.
Chen Weidong just felt a little emotional because he was reborn. He also didn't feel anything in his previous life!

After sliding on the snow for a while, the four people put on the dog leash to prevent the dog from running around.

The four of them skied and led their dogs to Eagle Valley.

However, not all places on the way to Laoyinggou are suitable for skiing. When encountering some difficult mountain roads, the group needs to walk.

The mountains are closed due to heavy snow. Stone and Bingzi are not knowledgeable, so they have to be careful. You should know that every winter when people go into the mountains to hunt, many of them are not injured by wild animals in the mountains, but by themselves.

Some places were covered with heavy snow, and looked like roads, but they were not actually roads.

Chen Weidong and Li Shengli led the way.

When the mountain was closed due to heavy snow, there was not much snow on the ridge, only a thin layer.

Therefore, it is relatively easy to walk along the ridge, but you just have to be careful not to fall into the snow.

Those valleys in summer and autumn will turn into snow pits in winter when the mountains are blocked by heavy snow.

The snow in other places was one meter thick, while the snow pits were almost two meters thick. If people fell in, they would disappear immediately.

The four of them walked and stopped from time to time. Around three or four in the afternoon, Chen Weidong and his three companions, leading the dog and sliding on the snow, arrived at Laoyinggou.

We slid for a while before stopping and, following Li Shengli's instructions, headed towards the birch and hazel forests ahead.

This is the favorite environment of flying dragons. Laoyinggou is rarely visited by people all year round, so there are many flying dragons in it.

In winter, when the land is covered with snow, flying dragons will forage for food in the trees during the day. If they hear any noise, they will hide in the snow and come down to the ground at night.

The four of them came to the birch forest.
On the way, Li Shengli had already distributed the corn kernels to the three of them.
I heard from Li Shengli that the corn kernels are soaked in henbane leaf juice.

Chen Weidong is very familiar with henbane leaves. It is a good medicine for curing diseases. It can treat insanity, chronic cough, watery diarrhea (diarrhea like water), dysentery (stool like pus and blood), toothache, breast nodules, ulcers, bruises and so on.

But there is a saying that all medicines are poisonous to some extent. Chinese medicinal materials are both medicines and poisons.

Scopolamine leaves are also a poison that can make people restless, cry and laugh uncontrollably, delirium, hallucinations, dry mouth and skin, dilated pupils, drowsiness, limb stiffness and contractures. In severe cases, it can even cause coma and death, not to mention flying dragons.
Therefore, scopolamine leaves are also called "tianxianzi", not only because of their beautiful appearance, but also because of the hallucinogenic effect of "scopolamine", which makes people become "half fairy and half human" after taking it, and make people as wild and unrestrained as gods and fairies, and "behave well", so it is called "tianxianzi".

Scopolamine is the main ingredient of "knockout drugs", "anesthetics" and "analgesics".

The four men led the dogs to the birch forest. Chen Weidong observed carefully for a while before scattering several pieces of bait.

Then, the four of them went to the nearby hazel forest and spread the bait there as well.

The four of them were skiing and the snow was scattered in about six or seven places.

"Brother Weidong, Brother Shengli, look, there are roe deer footprints ahead!"

"These are not the footprints of a silly roe deer, but the footprints of a yellow muntjac! But we should hurry up and dig a snow nest, otherwise it will be dark soon."

Li Shengli reminded.

It gets dark early now, especially in the mountains. It gets colder as the night goes on. A cold wind is blowing now, and everyone is feeling the cold.
If you don't build a snow nest early, you won't be able to start a fire later.

"Brother Shengli, wait a moment,"

Chen Weidong turned to Shitou and Bingzi and said, "Shitou, Bingzi, whoever has something to pee, pee here!"

"What? Pee? Pee here!"

Although the two didn't know what Chen Weidong was doing, they still obeyed him obediently.

Chen Weidong did not explain. In fact, human urine is salty. Animals living in the mountains need salt when the mountains are blocked by heavy snow.

There are crisscrossing footprints in this place, which means that yellow muntjacs should often move around here. For yellow muntjacs, human urine is also a good bait.

Then sprinkle corn kernels on the urine, and the yellow muntjac will lick the snow containing urine and eat the corn kernels.

It's just a pee, it won't take long. As for many southerners thinking that people from the Northeast will be frozen if they pee in the middle of winter, this is completely a rumor.

Chen Weidong has lived in Northeast China for so many years, with the lowest temperature being minus 40 or 50 degrees Celsius. He has never encountered anyone freezing while urinating, but the urine on the ground easily gets stuck to the shoes.

~

After spreading the bait, several people then looked for a place to make a nest in the snow.

There are some skills to making snow nests in the wild. It is not as simple as digging a snow pit.

Then they came to a snowy ridge. Chen Weidong immediately thought this place was suitable for making a snow nest.
So he took out a small shovel from his backpack and asked Shi Tou to clear the snow behind him.

Li Shengli and Shitou were also three or four meters apart, and they started working together under the snowy ridge.

Northeastern people are all experts in "digging snow caves". First, they dig out a cave entrance that is more than half a meter high and more than half a meter wide. After digging in, they expand it to the left and right, up and down.

Moreover, the snow in Xuelingzi that Chen Weidong found was very solid, and when he dug it, it was a large piece.
Soon a space of two meters high was cleared, so that people could stand upright. The snow above was very hard, so there was no need to worry about collapse.

Seeing that the snow cave was gradually taking shape, Chen Weidong asked Shitou and Bingzi to go to a place where there was no snow to scrape up some grass and branches and use them as a kang underneath.

When Shitou and Bingzi returned to the place with a large bundle of branches, they couldn't find the snow cave they had dug. Even Brother Li Shengli and Brother Weidong were missing.

While hesitating, he saw Chen Weidong and Li Shengli pushing a square block of snow and stuffing it into the entrance of the snow cave they had dug.

Shitou and Bingzi suddenly realized that this had blocked the entrance to their snow cave. No wonder snow caves can keep out the cold and protect against wild beasts.

It was getting dark, and the mountain wind was blowing hard and freezing cold! Chen Weidong took a deep breath, checked the ventilation holes, and then quickly led the three people and the dog into the snow cave.

First, they covered the ground in the snow cave with branches, and then covered it with thick leaves and weeds. Then Li Shengli took out a roe deer skin from his body and spread it on the ground. Several people sat on it and it was very soft.

Then light the fire again.

I felt much warmer when I entered the snow cave just now, and it is even more comfortable now that the fire is lit.

While roasting the fire!
While eating dry food! Then I fed some dog food to my dogs. After the heavy snow closed the mountain, the forest was very quiet, and the snow cave was even quieter.

Silent all night.

The next day, before daybreak, the four of them arrived at the place where they had spread the bait yesterday.

"Brother Shengli, Shitou and Bingzi, look around. The bait has been eaten. The prey must be nearby."

When Chen Weidong arrived at the place where the bait was spread closest to the snow nest, he saw that all the bait spread yesterday had been eaten up.

"Okay!" The three of them agreed, took their dogs and went out to look for drugged prey in the woods.

Li Shengli's medicine is not fatal. Even if a mountain bird eats it, it will only make it comatose for a dozen hours at most.

However, being unconscious for more than ten hours in this icy and snowy environment would be a life-threatening situation.

"Brother Weidong, I found something here!" Shitou shouted excitedly while holding two flying dragons.

After a night, Feilong had already been frozen stiff.

"Brother Weidong, I have one here too!" Bingzi also found a flying dragon.

Flying dragons are generally gregarious birds. A group of flying dragons can have as few as seven or eight individuals, or as many as a dozen or twenty.

Then, Li Shengli also came out carrying two flying dragons. "Not bad, a good start!"

Seeing the flying dragons in the hands of the three people, Chen Weidong smiled and said that he did not follow them to pick them up.

Then the four of them walked to another nearby place where the bait was spread.

This place is where Bingzi and Shitou peed yesterday!
"what!"

Chen Weidong looked at the footprints on the ground and was a little surprised.

This footprint is the latest one to appear. It seems that letting Bingzi Shitou urinate yesterday was effective. This bait was obviously eaten by the deer.

And there are two yellow muntjacs, one big and one small!
"Brother Weidong, your method is really useful. Bingzi and I have not urinated in vain!"

"Well, let's go and take a look ahead!"

Chen Weidong led the dog and followed the footprints, walking forward first.

At this moment, even without a dog leading the way, the footprints can be seen clearly.

Li Shengli and the other three did not say anything. They followed Chen Weidong and walked forward.

The movements of yellow muntjacs are very obvious. When they come out to look for food, they walk back and forth along the same route, which is similar to rabbits.

After walking about three hundred meters along the footprints of the yellow muntjacs, I saw two yellow muntjacs lying on the ground, one big and one small. The big one weighed about 40 kilograms, and the small one weighed only a dozen kilograms.

The yellow muntjac is also a kind of Northeast deer. It does not grow very big. Even when it is well fed in late autumn, it weighs less than 50 kilograms. After being opened, it is even lighter and not much meat can be produced.

But the taste is very good,
Yellow muntjac meat ranks among the best among all game!
Muntjac blood is very nutritious, and some people even drink it raw.

This yellow muntjac is also stupid. Judging from the traces on the ground, the smallest one should have been affected by the drug first and fainted on the ground, and then the other big one surrounded the fainted little muntjac and refused to leave.

Whether it was out of stupidity or concern, he stayed there until the drug in his body took effect, and then he also passed out on the ground.

Shitou was very conscious. He drew out his knife and was about to go forward to cut open the yellow muntjac and let its blood flow.

"Wait!" Chen Weidong quickly called him.

"Brother Weidong, what's wrong?" Shi Tou looked at Chen Weidong in confusion.

"Look, is he still alive?"

Chen Weidong reminded.

Li Shengli had mentioned this to Chen Weidong before, that his medicine bait could not kill wild birds, let alone yellow muntjacs. At most, the birds would fall into a coma due to the effect of the medicine.

Due to their size, mountain birds will soon freeze to death once they fall unconscious, but it is different for yellow muntjacs.

The blood of the yellow muntjac is hot and its fur is thick, so even if it is unconscious for a night, it will generally not freeze to death.

"Brother Weidong, these two yellow muntjacs are still alive!"

Shitou touched the yellow muntjac, then put his hand on the muntjac's nose to try, and answered loudly.

In fact, there is no need to go through so much trouble. In the middle of winter, hot steam will definitely come out of your nose when you breathe.

"Then catch him alive!" Chen Weidong said with a smile.

A living yellow muntjac is more valuable than a dead one.

Especially the blood of a deer. Once it’s dead, you can only disembowel it!

"Let me do it!"

Li Shengli took the initiative to step forward, made a simple halter with a rope, and tied up the two yellow muntjacs.

Then, Shitou and Bingzi each carried one.

These two yellow muntjacs are not heavy, and the two people can hold them up easily.

Then the three of them went to another place where the bait was spread.

The bait on the ground had also been eaten up. The footprints were very mixed, including those of a flying dragon, a pheasant, and a rabbit.

Then several people started running into the woods to look for prey. Chen Weidong did not go looking for prey. He took a gun and led Black Tiger and White Tiger to be on guard.

The mountain is blocked by heavy snow and the forest is not so safe. You never know when wild animals will come out.

After a while,
Li Shengli and his two companions ran back happily carrying the prey.

Two rabbits, three pheasants, and two flying dragons.

Of course, there are also some that were eaten by wild animals in the mountains, leaving only a tuft of hair.

But in comparison, the four of them had a very good harvest.

"Weidong, this is a great harvest. Look how fat this rabbit is!"

Li Shengli held up the rabbit in his hand and showed off to Chen Weidong.

"Brother Shengli, when you get back, bring two rabbits with you and ask your sister-in-law to make you a Feilong soup, stew the rabbit with chili peppers, and stir-fry a pheasant." Chen Weidong said with a smile.

"Okay! Now that you said that, my saliva is almost flowing." Li Shengli said with a smile.

In this icy and snowy weather, and without a wife, all that's left is food and drink.

Even a man like Li Shengli who has a wife can't stand doing that every day. The land is fine and it won't be damaged by plowing, but the cows can't.

So what is left in the end is also eating and drinking.

We also made some gains in the next few places, but some were also reached by animals in the mountains.

The main reason is that it has been snowing for several days, and the wild animals in the mountains are short of food, especially small animals like dragons, pheasants, and rabbits.

When you see corn kernels on the ground emitting an enticing aroma, why not eat them?

Once you eat it, you can't escape.

The bait spread by Chen Weidong and his companions could even kill yellow muntjacs, let alone small animals like pheasants and hares.

Although you won’t sink into the snow when walking on skis, it is tiring!
Especially after visiting five or six bait spots,

The four of them took a lot of things. They caught fifteen or sixteen flying dragons alone. No wonder Li Shengli said there were so many flying dragons here. There were also eleven or twelve pheasants, and six or seven rabbits.

After spending a night in the mountains yesterday and searching all morning, Chen Weidong and the other three couldn't help but look a little tired.

"It's the last one. After picking up the things, go home and rest!" Chen Weidong encouraged Li Shengli and the other two.

"Yes, this is the last one. After we pick up the things, let's go home and rest!"

Li Shengli nodded.

(End of this chapter)