Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 11 Dog Thief!
Zhujiaping, Shangfeng Mountain, Lansha Town, a county in a central and western city of Hunan.

The snow-capped mountain range is shrouded in dark clouds.

The rain was pouring down.

On the road to Houshan Pai Shang Village, a van was driving along the mountain road.

The sky was just getting light, and although there was heavy rain, many mountain roads now had solar street lights, so even though the early morning was as dark as night, the roads were still bright.

The van slowly moved up, and two middle-aged men in the car were identifying the road. After passing Pai Shang Village, they turned left and headed towards Zhujiaping.

"Is it this way?"

One person asked.

"should be."

"Will the villagers get up at this time?"

"It's raining so hard, and you thought it was the same life as before, where you had to get up at four or five in the morning?"

Another person laughed and said, "Nowadays, every family plays with their phones until late at night. Even the elderly often watch TV until late at night and cannot get up in the morning."

The driver had a pointed face and a big mole on his chin. His name was Zhang San and he was from Tongxiang Town, Songxi County next door.

The other man had shifty eyes and a face full of moles. His name was Li Si, and he was also from the neighboring county.

Their purpose today was to steal dogs.

The dog-losing incidents that Zhu Yunfeng saw in the group recently were caused by these two people.

But before that, they had stolen dogs from people living at the foot of the mountain.

Many people just let their local dogs go when they are lost, and they don’t make a big fuss about looking for them everywhere, and they rarely report the case. Even if they do, they are basically never found.

This encouraged Zhang San and Li Si's arrogance.

Some time ago, they stole from the foot of the mountain to the mountainside, and now they have set their sights on the dogs raised by the villagers of Zhujiaping.

Many villagers in Zhujiaping keep dogs, but the place is too remote, being located on the top of a mountain.

Although Lansha Town and Tongxiang Town are the border areas of two counties, outside Lansha Town is Tongxiang Town in the neighboring county, which is relatively close.

But the journey is still about 25 kilometers. It takes to minutes to drive from the neighboring Tongxiang Town to the foot of the mountain via the national highway, and then it takes about another hour to go up the mountain, which is a waste of time.

Moreover, due to the frequent thefts of dogs in nearby villages, the villagers became alert and they never had any chance to take action.

The heavy rain today made them feel that they had found a good opportunity.

Because of the heavy rain, the villagers certainly would not get up so early, and the dogs in the village often gathered in groups to play around at six or seven in the morning.

It would be much easier to steal.

Although many people also lock up their dogs, the customs in the southern region, or in Hunan Province, cities and counties, are different from those in the north.

The terrain in the northern region is very flat and spacious, and people often have yards where they tie their dogs.

However, this county is a mountainous area, the land is not big enough, and few houses have yards.

The houses in the countryside are mostly two-story wooden or earthen houses. In recent years, two- or three-story concrete buildings have been built, and there are basically no yards.

The dog was either tied outside the cattle and sheep shed to watch over the cattle and sheep, or simply not tied up at night and led back into the main room.

But in order to prevent thieves or to make it convenient for dogs to go out to defecate and urinate at night, a dog hole was set up in the main room to allow dogs to enter and exit freely.

There are very few young and strong people in rural areas now. During the day, some middle-aged and elderly people will grow vegetables and do farm work in the fields. Since the mountains are far from the town, they will also ride motorcycles to the town.

If you meet someone from another place on the road, you will definitely be more vigilant and it will be more difficult to take action.

But it’s different at five or six in the morning.

Everyone is very sleepy at this time, and dogs are very active. The heavy rain outside is so loud that even if a dog barks, it will not attract people's attention.

Even if they were discovered, they could immediately escape by car, and no one would come out to chase them in such heavy rain.

Therefore, Zhang San and Li Si felt that this was the best time to steal the dog.

"The last time I came here, I found a dog that was quite big, probably at least 60 or 70 kilograms."

"The big yellow dog?"

"Ah."

"I remember that dog wasn't a local dog, it was a pet dog called something like Golden Retriever."

"Golden retriever? It should be quite expensive."

“It’s quite expensive.”

"Then do it?"

“Yes.”

"Are you not afraid of accidents?"

"What are you afraid of? Did you know that there was a very popular thing on the Internet some time ago?"

"what's up?"

"A woman brought her dog back to her hometown in the countryside, but it was stolen. When she chased it to the town, only four paws of the dog were left. She sold it for less than 500 yuan. The dog was a golden retriever."

"Then?"

"What happens next?"

Zhang San chuckled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "There is nothing wrong with dog thieves and dog dealers."

“It can be sold for more than 400.”

There was a greedy look in Li Si's eyes.

The price that dog dealers charge for dogs varies, but is generally less than 10 yuan. Some old-fashioned dogs are a little more expensive.

Because people who like to eat dog meat, like people who like to eat chicken, think that the older the food is, the more nutritious it is. Old native chickens are expensive, so old dogs are also expensive in the eyes of people who eat dog meat.

In some dog meat restaurants, the price of old dogs that are more than five or six years old can reach fifty or sixty yuan, or even more than one hundred yuan per pound.

Moreover, they are often out of stock and difficult to obtain.

But those are the prices that dog dealers sell to dog meat restaurants, and then the restaurants sell them to customers.

The profit margin for dog thieves like them is much lower.

往往搞到的狗卖给狗贩子一般也就7-8-9块钱，那种五六年以上的老狗就卖个17-18左右，很难卖出20以上。

Therefore, even if they get a 30-40 kilogram old country dog, they can only sell it for 500-600 yuan.

In comparison, although we don't know whether the golden retriever is more than five or six years old, its weight and size are there. Even if it is not an old dog, it should be no problem to sell it for 8-9 yuan per pound.

Zhang San and Li Si had seen it before. The dog weighed at least 60-70 kilograms. Even if it was only sold at 8 yuan per kilogram, it could be sold for 500 yuan. This was better than anything else.

Thinking that if they caught a golden retriever today, the profit would be equal to that of two or three ordinary dogs, both of them smiled happily.

Soon the van drove up the mountain and entered the area of ​​Zhujiaping Village.

The village was indeed very peaceful.

Every household was sleeping, with only the occasional barking of dogs being heard.

The two men had already identified the golden retriever as their first target. They ignored the barking sounds of other dogs and drove straight towards Zhu Yunfeng's house.

Unlike villages in the plains where every household is very close together, Zhujiaping is located on the top of a mountain, where land resources are very limited, and many fields are terraced, so the houses are a little farther apart. The closest to Zhu Yunfeng's home is his sixth uncle's, which is about 20 meters away, separated by a fish pond half an acre in size.

The reason why it is half is because Zhu Yunfeng's house is located on the west side of the fish pond, and Sixth Uncle's house is on the south side of the fish pond.

The rural road is just to the west of Zhu Yunfeng's house, but it is not a direct road. You need to turn inward for more than ten meters and go up a slope to get there. Therefore, the van slowly drove up the slope and approached the fish pond.

Fortunately, now no matter where the rural roads are, as long as cars are needed, most of them are cement roads, so it is convenient to go up.

Otherwise, if we drive on the muddy road in this weather, the car will get stuck in the mud.

Zhang San and Li Si saw that to their right was the two-story building they had seen during their previous scout.

They remembered that when they came to scout the area during the day, they pretended to be a passing truck and saw a young man taking a big yellow dog to the small forest in the north.

Because of the dog at the time, I took a few more glances and instinctively memorized the location.

Now they looked it up and down, and Zhang San said, "Are you sure this is the one?"

"determine."

Li Si nodded.

"Take the needle."

Zhang San first turned the car around and stopped it on the country road seven or eight meters away from Zhu Yunfeng's house, then took out a cage from the back seat.

There was a female dog weighing about 20 kilograms locked in the cage. It was dirty all over and its throat was made hoarse by the poison so it couldn't make a sound.

In order to steal dogs, they often use a variety of methods.

The most common method is to use sausages, canned food, etc. to attract dogs, and then poison them with a dog poison needle.

The second method is to apply estrus potion on the female dog's body to attract male dogs for mating.

Since they didn't know whether Zhu Yunfeng's golden retriever was male or female, Zhang San and Li Si decided to take a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, they prepared poison needles, and on the other hand, they prepared the female dog and food.

Li Si took the poison needle and crossbow, while Zhang San carried the bitch cage, with sausages in his trouser pocket and a small crossbow in his right hand, in case the shot missed, the other person could fire again to ensure a 100% hit rate.

The two men got out of the car, opened the trunk, and carried the dog into the car immediately after poisoning it, and then drove away.

This series of actions is very skillful.

After everything was ready, the two of them came to Zhu Yunfeng's door and looked around.

“This family didn’t dig a dog hole?”

Zhang San was puzzled.

It will be difficult to deal with the dog if the other party locks the dog in the house and there is no dog hole.

"Let's go over there and take a look. Maybe he's locked up in the backyard."

Li Si noticed the backyard.

As mentioned before, there is a yard in front of Zhu Yunfeng's house, but it has no walls, so it is not a private yard.

However, there are several vegetable plots in the backyard. Zhu Yunfeng's father plans to grow vegetables and raise some chickens in the backyard in the future. He built a wall to prevent the chickens from running away.

But the wall was not high, and a 1.8-meter-tall person could even see what was going on in the yard by standing on tiptoe.

The two men arrived outside the backyard wall. Zhang San was rather thin, less than 1.7 meters tall. Li Si squatted down and let Zhang San ride on him, then lifted Zhang San up to observe him.

Zhang San stuck his head out. The yard was quite big, probably around 200 square meters. Since no one took care of the vegetable garden and no vegetables were planted there, it was now overgrown with weeds.

The vegetable garden has a back door. Unlike the front door and side door which are both anti-theft doors, the back door is only a simple wooden door because of the wall.

There is a window next to the door, through which you can vaguely see the kitchen and the utility room next to the kitchen.

"Hey, there's the dog."

Zhang San looked through the window of the utility room and saw Pippi squatting at the door of the cellar.

As if smelling a strange odor, Pippi raised his head to look at the window, noticed Zhang San sticking his head out, and immediately started shouting.

"Wang Wang Wang!"

"It's broken, it barked."

"How to do?"

"Do it."

Zhang San sneered and said, "Put me on it."

He just observed that the door to the backyard was an old-fashioned wooden door, which should be able to be opened with a bank card.

It’s raining so hard now that the dog owner may not be able to hear the barking.

It would be a waste not to get a dog like this that is worth five or six hundred dollars.

Li Si then lifted Zhang San up, and Zhang San climbed over the wall and stood on it to receive the crossbow from Li Si.

When he climbed up the wall to observe just now, he put the dog poison needle and the female dog cage on the ground.

The heavy rain was still falling. Zhang San jumped down from the wall, walked quickly to the wooden door, took out his bank card from his pocket and inserted it.

Not open.

Zhu Yunfeng had locked the door before.

At this time, Pippi had already rushed to the corridor and stood outside the kitchen, shouting towards the wooden door.

Zhang San was extremely anxious because it would be difficult to open the door with his bank card if it was locked.

He looked around and saw the window of the kitchen next to him. He gritted his teeth, picked up a stone from the vegetable garden, and smashed it with a "bang".

Then he reached out from the window and opened the door at the speed of light, and saw Pippi yelling at him three meters away.

Zhang San raised the crossbow in his hand.

Just at this moment, the cellar door opened.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di walked out from inside. The utility room was connected to the kitchen.

The sound of dogs barking was heard.

Zhu Yuanzhang said to Zhu Di with a smile: "Did you hear that cry? This is my national guardian dog, the Great General. If it weren't for Pipi, I would still be tied up by that grandson of Xia Ren. It's a pity that I came in a hurry and forgot to bring meat bones."

After saying that, he came out of the utility room with a smile on his face. He turned his head and saw a man holding a crossbow at the back door at the end of the corridor.

Pippi was standing at the kitchen door, shouting at him.

Zhu Yuanzhang's smile froze.

"Whoosh!"

A needle from the crossbow flew over in an instant and hit Pipi.

The injection needle contained a powerful anesthetic. After just one or two seconds, Pippi fell down, convulsing all over.

"Pippi!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes were about to burst.

Then he raised his head with anger in his eyes and looked at the astonished Zhang San. He reached for the knife at his waist and squeezed out a few words from between his teeth.

"Dog thief!"

(End of this chapter)