The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 112 Hunting in Longshan
Longshan is very large.

There are four types of ridges: one, two, three, and four.

It's not something that can be overcome in a day or half an afternoon.

Besides, they were hungry.

The plan before we came was to stay under the watchful eyes of these Guan soldiers.

This confirms the fact that they were really miserable and hungry.

The soldiers who had been secretly following behind this group heard the officers leading the way discussing loudly:

"We're so hungry we can barely walk. The forests in Longshan are so dense, let's just live off the land!"

"That's a great idea! Let's go look for wild boars, brothers. If we catch a couple, it'll be enough for a good meal!"

"Whether it's a wild boar or a wild sheep, we'll eat whatever we catch. We don't mind the smell as long as it's meat."

"Slurp! Stop talking, I'm so hungry I want to gnaw on my own fingers, I can't resist the thought of meat!"

"What are we waiting for? Let's grab our weapons and go!"

"Wait, let's call Scholar Zuo and the others too."

The officials finished assigning tasks in just a few words.

Fifty-odd strong young men, carrying wooden sticks, ventured into the mountains.

The women and children who remained were clearly very experienced in this kind of wilderness survival.

They found a sheltered spot by the clear river in the valley and quickly began digging a pit and burying a stove.

There were also old women washing pots and pans in the river.

Guan Junmen:
Is this some kind of self-made estate in Longshan?
Who are these nice folks, so comfortable on someone else's turf?!

What's even more outrageous is.

They also saw a pregnant woman who picked a handful of green wild grass from the riverbank, washed it in the river water, and then ate it raw!

Eating wild grass raw?!
Guan Jun, whose wife is also pregnant, expressed his understanding:
"The pregnant woman is eating for two people. It looks like she's been starving for more than three days. Wild grass isn't poisonous, so she won't die from eating it!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the woman eating grass handed the grass in her hand to the child beside her.

The little guy thought it was something delicious and stuffed a big mouthful into his mouth.

As a result, he ended up with a mask of pain from eating it.

"Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey! Mother, this duck is so bitter, I need to eat!"

The soldiers hidden in the shadows were all amused by the little brat's miserable face.

Someone said, "To be honest, compared to this group of people, our lives aren't so bad!"

The weeds they looked down upon.

Gan Minglan, however, treasured it.

The excitement was like a mouse that had fallen into a rice jar.

This is mustard greens, which are hailed as the "first vegetable of spring".

Perhaps it's due to the unique environment of this valley in Longshan, coupled with the moist soil on both sides of the river.

Most shepherd's purse is surprisingly not old at all this season!
The taste of eating it raw.

It has a bittersweet taste with a strong grassy aroma.

But you can get rid of the bitterness by blanching it.

Squeeze out the excess water, mix with chili oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and other seasonings, and it becomes an absolute delicacy!
Mix it with meat, and it goes without saying that it's great for making dumplings, wontons, and the like.

Before the apocalypse, this large patch of shepherd's purse could have sold for several hundred dollars.

How could we let Gan Minglan be unhappy?
She called to the She family and others, and without saying a word, she buried herself in digging.

He even dug some up by the roots and put them into the space.

She plans to enter the Divine Tree Space whenever she has time and use her wood-based abilities to cultivate some shepherd's purse seeds.

Then, she'll be able to eat shepherd's purse freely!

After leaving Hangu Pass, her supernatural abilities leveled up again. Not only could she easily manipulate annual plants, but she could also tamper with the roots or branches of perennial trees.

I feel safer and safer!

The division of labor between men and women is quite detailed.

The soldiers felt sympathy for the officials who went up the mountain to hunt.

They hid in a secluded spot, keeping watch while chirping crickets.

"Tsk tsk, you're already thinking about eating wild boar and wild sheep as soon as you enter Longshan! If there were still those wild animals in the mountains, would we need to risk our heads to rob those Western Region merchants?"

A seasoned veteran said in a nostalgic tone:
"Ten years ago, that would have been enough! Back then, when we were craving meat, just sending two small flags on a trip to the deep mountains would be enough to feed us for ten days or half a month!"

"Uncle Sheng! I just regret being born a few years too late. I heard from the old soldiers that you guys used to be so tired of eating wild boar! We've really had enough of this life now!"

"Tsk, if your father heard you say that, wouldn't he break your legs? Our lives were indeed better before! Although we didn't have military pay, the grain from the military farms was barely enough to eat."

The wild game in the mountains not only satisfies our cravings, but if we're lucky enough to encounter bears or tigers, we can bring them to Anxi Prefecture and exchange them for a considerable amount of silver.

"Wow! I heard that bear skins, bear paws, tiger bones, and tiger penises are very expensive! You guys must have received a lot of money back then, right?"

"Nonsense! Our Longguan Guard is fully staffed! The lion's share goes to the centurions and platoon leaders. We lowly rankling soldiers are lucky if we get three or four taels of silver a year!"

"Isn't three or four ounces a lot? Besides, you used to be able to eat meat every two or three days, but now, it's been a year or two since you've even seen a speck of oil."

It's no wonder the young Guan soldiers complained.

For over a decade, the forests of Longshan were relentlessly hunted by more than a thousand soldiers from the entire garrison, regardless of the season.

Large prey have long been killed off!

The officers formed a raiding squad and wandered around the nearby mountains for more than half an hour.

They didn't see a single trace of prey.

Unable to contain his complaint, he said, "Wild boar, my foot! There's no pig droppings or hoof prints at all."

Meanwhile, a little further away on the mountainside, a group of people led by Zuo Xiucai were screaming in alarm.

"They're out! They're out! There are at least three in this litter."

"Ah, it ran away! That one ran away!"

The leader, surnamed Mao, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "What are you arresting?"

The other side immediately replied, "It's a rabbit! We caught a rabbit!"

The officials' eyes lit up. That's right!

There aren't any large predators in the mountains and forests, but surely we can catch some wild rabbits or something?

Even though rabbits are small, they're still meat!
They also lowered their heads and began searching on the ground.

After that.

Whenever they saw a hole the size of a bowl, they would take a stick and poke it inside.

And you know what? When we got to the fifth hole...

The tip of the wooden stick in the hand of the leader surnamed Mao clearly poked something that was moving.

He immediately perked up and frantically gestured to his subordinates:
"Come quick, come quick, I've found the rabbit burrow too!"

"Boss, hurry up and kill the rabbit. They say rabbits have three burrows, so don't let it escape through another one."

"No, my stick is still moving."

Before the leader surnamed Mao could finish speaking, he felt a "whoosh" as his wooden stick was pushed aside.

After a few breaths.

A snake, about the thickness of a bowl, with a brownish-black back and two black longitudinal stripes on each side, quickly swam out of the hole.

As soon as he came out, he made eye contact with the leader surnamed Mao.

"My goodness!"

(End of this chapter)