Hunting 81: Gathering Goods in the Mountains, I Spoil My Ex-Wife to the Extreme

Two days have passed in the blink of an eye since I had a big drinking session at my uncle's house on Friday.

On the third day, before dawn, Lin Xiulan got up early and busied herself in the kitchen making pancakes for Li Yunshan.

The hunters in the village would go out in a group to hunt in the mountains. This was a big operation, and the trip could take anywhere from two or three days to four or five days.

During this period, all food, drink, and sanitation must be done in the wild, so it is important to carry plenty of dry food to avoid going hungry in the wild.

In the pan, one burnt flatbread after another was baked, and almost all of them were put into a sewn-up dry food bag.

One, two, three...

Lin Xiulan made about fifteen or sixteen pancakes, each about the size of two palms, until her food bag was full, and then she stopped, satisfied.

She put the remaining pancakes in a bowl.

"With so many flatbreads, he can eat for several days in the mountains."

Lin Xiulan thought to herself as she tied up the food bag.

When she brought the bag of dry rations and the pancakes from the basin to the main room, she found that Li Yunshan had already gotten up and was organizing his ammunition pouch.

On the table was Li Yunshan's Tiger Head brand hunting rifle.

Since all the hunters in the village were mobilized, and they had a total of nine hunting rifles, their firepower was not a problem, so Li Yunshan didn't think about bringing his Mosin-Nagant rifle.

After all, the bullets for the Mosin-Nagant rifle are finite; once they're fired, they're gone, and it's hard to find a place to replenish them.

Although he could ask Director Zhou for help, Li Yunshan didn't want to owe him too many favors.

"Here's some dry rations for our trip into the mountains. Take them with you."

Lin Xiulan placed the bag of dry food on the table, then pulled over a chair and slowly sat down.

"This much is enough to eat for several days."

Li Yunshan picked up the bag of dry food and weighed it in his hand: "Xiulan, you've gotten up so early to make me pancakes, you've really worked hard."

"It's not hard work, it's what I should do."

Although Lin Xiulan looked tired, she still wore a gentle smile.

"This trip into the mountains will take at least two or three days, and possibly four or five days. Take good care of yourself and Dou Dou at home. If anything happens, go to your mother and second sister."

Li Yunshan picked up a pancake, took a bite, and while eating, he gave Lin Xiulan some instructions.

"Don't worry, Mother told me that when you and Uncle Zhou go hunting in the mountains, she will let me take Dou Dou to her place. She, my second sister, my fourth sister, my sister-in-law, and I will keep her company."

Lin Xiulan said slowly.

"With your mother and second sister keeping you company, I feel at ease."

Li Yunshan paused for a moment, then spoke.

"Eat quickly, fill your stomach first."

Lin Xiulan said.

After finishing his breakfast, Li Yunshan wrapped the bullet pouch and food bag around his waist, slung the Tiger Head brand hunting rifle over his shoulder, grabbed a wild boar spear, hugged Lin Xiulan, and headed towards Uncle Zhou's house in the cool, glaring morning sunlight.

When he arrived at Uncle Zhou's house, Zhang Sange and Cai Er were already there.

Like Li Yunshan, Zhang Sange and Cai Er also carried bullet pouches and food bags on their waists, their hunting rifles on their backs, and a knife or a wild boar spear in their hands.

Good morning.

After greeting Zhang Sange and Cai Er, the three of them gathered together and chatted.

At this point, people started arriving one after another.

Li Baotian, Zhao Shuanzhu, Peng Youlian, Wu Shenghong, Wang Laojiu...

Once everyone had arrived, they walked towards the village entrance, chatting and laughing, as they greeted the morning light.

Daqingshan is located northeast of Guapigou Village. It belongs to the Xinganling Mountains. The mountain is high and densely forested with undulating terrain. It is home to many wild animals, such as red deer, sika deer, wild boar, wild wolves, and roe deer. They can often be seen here. It is a hunting ground that hunters from several nearby villages like to go to.

However, in the hunting business, in order to have a good catch in the mountains, in addition to relying on the experience accumulated over the years to obtain prey, luck plays an even more important role.

Because luck is also a part of ability.

Although it's freezing cold today and the mountains and forests are bare, without the cover of lush foliage, and prey has no barrier to hide its tracks, the snow on the mountain, which is ankle-deep, makes it difficult to walk.

However, this was within their expectations.

As hunters who live off the mountains, they spend most of their time in the mountains and are used to this kind of thing.

"Uncle Zhou, do you think we'll have a stroke of good luck this time?"

On the way into the mountains, Zhao Shuanzhu asked with a smile.

Every hunter who goes into the mountains hopes to have a stroke of good luck while hunting. If they do have a stroke of good luck and hunt a valuable gift, it can be equivalent to two or three years' worth of work points earned in the village collective.

Of course, hunters all hope for good luck, which is actually a form of self-psychological suggestion.

Take Li Yunshan, for example. He's a prime example of someone who's had a run of good fortune, and he's had one stroke of good luck after another.

The tiger in Hongxing Forest Farm earned him a job at the forest farm and a bonus of 1,000 yuan. The tiger was eventually sold for several thousand yuan.

Later, the bear that entered the village also died at Li Yunshan's hands. He donated most of the money he earned from selling the bear to the village.

There was also the deer hunting. They managed to hunt two deer with Gao Hongmei, a female comrade. Their luck was unparalleled.

Another one is the tiger that broke into the village a few days ago. A group of them guarded the village's threshing ground for three nights. Wang Laojiu even put out his big fat pig as bait, but they didn't even see a single tiger hair.

But Li Yunshan bought a sheep from Old Man Wan and tied it in his yard. That very night, the tiger took the bait.

Isn't this just one stroke of good luck after another?

Moreover, Li Yunshan used to be idle and rarely participated in the activities of the village hunters. In previous years, it was his older brother Li Yunshi who went hunting in the mountains in winter.

But after he suddenly realized his mistake, he did several commendable things in a row, such as hunting tigers and bears. Cai Er and the others were also eager to prove themselves.

As experienced hunters in the village, they couldn't let Li Yunshan outdo them.

"Hehe, I've been holding back all this energy, waiting to unleash it when I encounter my prey."

Uncle Zhou said with a smile.

As an experienced hunter, Cai Er and his men were well aware of each other's ulterior motives. Seeing how many prey Li Yunshan had caught recently, Cai Er and his men also developed a competitive spirit, which was a good thing.

If a hunter doesn't even have the will to compete, how can he improve and accumulate hunting skills and experience?

"Once we get into the mountains, everyone should stay alert. If we encounter prey, we shouldn't be greedy and rush in. There are nine of us with nine hunting rifles, so we need to play it safe."

Li Baotian spoke up from the side, suppressing Cai Er and the others' competitive spirit.

……

Ankle-deep snow covered the deep mountains and forests, and the golden sunlight shone in, dispelling the thin mist that drifted through the woods.

As Li Yunshan and his group ventured deeper into the mountains and forests, they encountered more and more prey.

Hare, pheasant, squirrel...

However, when they encountered small animals such as rabbits and squirrels, none of Li Yunshan and his men raised their guns to fight.

Their target this time was large prey such as red deer, moose, and wild boar, or high-value prey such as Amur leopards and bears, which lived deep in the mountains.

If you rashly fire your gun at small animals like rabbits or pheasants, the loud gunshot will only scare away other larger or more valuable prey hiding deep in the forest, which would be a loss.

As they reached a hilltop, they unexpectedly spotted a lynx, but they were a little too late. By the time they raised their guns to shoot, the lynx had already vanished in a flash.

"What a pity, that lynx got away."

Watching the lynx disappear like the wind into the interlacing shadows of the trees in the distance, Zhang Sange couldn't help but feel regretful after putting down his gun.

"If we can kill that lynx, its pelt can fetch a good price."

Cai Er also felt it was a bit of a pity.

If we manage to kill that lynx, that would be a very good start.

However, as everyone knows, lynxes are masters of stealth in the forest, with extremely sensitive hearing. Sometimes, even when you are far away, they will hide or run away after hearing a sound.

"Hehe, don't be discouraged if you don't catch anything. This trip into the mountains will take at least three or four days, and at most five or six days. We have plenty of time, and we'll definitely have a chance to catch some valuable prey."

Uncle Zhou said with a smile.

As a hunter, the most important thing when going into the mountains to hunt is not to be discouraged by temporary gains or losses.

Uncle Zhou, being an experienced hunter, naturally understood this principle.

As experienced hunters, Cai Er and Zhang San were not discouraged. They just felt it was a pity that they had missed the chance to encounter a lynx.

So they quickly cheered up and continued walking deeper into the mountains.

The deeper they went into the mountains, the lower the temperature felt. Even the snow on the ground was covered with a layer of ice, and it would crack and crumble under their feet.

In the deep, silent mountains and forests, the occasional calls of birds whose species could not be identified could be heard, or the rustling sound of snow falling from tree branches that could no longer bear the weight of the accumulated snow.

In the snow, you can occasionally find a series of footprints, some of them rabbits and some of them pheasants, but these are not the hunting targets of Li Yunshan and his men.

"Yunshan, what kind of footprints are these?"

Uncle Zhou pointed to a string of footprints in the snow and asked Li Yunshan.

"These are the footprints of a roe deer, but the long string of footprints is blurred, so it is estimated that the roe deer left them yesterday."

Li Yunshan squatted down, took a look, and then analyzed.

"Yes, that's right, these footprints are at least half a day old."

Before, when Li Yunshan's father was still alive, Li Yunshan rarely went into the mountains with his father.

Later, his father passed away, and Li Yunshan never went into the mountains with his elder brother. So Uncle Zhou wanted to test Li Yunshan and pass on some experience to him. Unexpectedly, Li Yunshan spoke eloquently and logically.

So, after hearing Li Yunshan's answer, he nodded in satisfaction.