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

"They are hunters from Kuandian Village. The leader is called Xiao Yuan. He is a hunter by family tradition. He served in the army and returned from military service more than ten years ago. He has a very sharp hand and his hunting skills are also superb."

While the hunters across the way were admiring the hunters of Guapigou Village, Uncle Zhou watched carefully for a while and then pointed to the leader of the hunters in the distance and said...

"There should be eleven hunters in Kuandian Village, so why are there only seven?"

Cai Er was puzzled.

As they were talking, three more hunters emerged from the distant mountains and forests, carrying a large wild boar. They joined the other seven hunters from Kuandian Village.

"They killed six wild boars in one go, which should be enough for them to carry for a while."

Zhao Shuanzhu said.

Previously, when they discovered the hunters in Kuandian Village, they had already killed five large wild boars. Now they have brought back another one, making it six in total.

Six wild boars, each about the same size, estimated to weigh between 200 and 300 jin (approximately 100-150 kg). Based on their experience, after gutting these boars, they estimated that these six boars would yield a little over 1,000 jin (approximately 500 catties) of meat.

Wild boar meat was 80 cents a pound at the market in Xiangyang Commune, but it was 85 cents a pound at the county town's farmers' market.

The hunters from Kuandian Village can earn over a thousand yuan in a single trip into the mountains. Even if the money is divided equally among everyone, they would still receive around a hundred yuan, which is a considerable income in this day and age.

However, after listening to what Li Yunshan had just said, Cai Er and the others no longer had much envy in their eyes. Their minds were full of thoughts about hunting in the mountains and making sure to catch the most valuable prey.

They came into the mountains this time hoping to make a lot of money.

"Should we go over and say hello?"

Li Baotian asked Uncle Zhou.

"Judging from their wary look, they probably don't welcome us."

Uncle Zhou laughed.

Although Kuandian Village and Guapigou Village are two adjacent villages, and there have never been any disputes between them over water sources for spring planting or over mountain and forest land, the hunters in Kuandian Village have just hunted six wild boars. If they approach rashly, they may be seen as wanting a share of the spoils, which could cause some trouble.

Out of caution, Uncle Zhou didn't want to cause too much trouble, so he didn't even think about going over to greet the hunters in Kuandian Village.

Seeing that Uncle Zhou had made his decision, Li Baotian said nothing more. Then, the hunters from Guapigou Village turned around and returned to their camp along the same route they had come from.

"Remember, today is only our second day in the mountains. Don't be discouraged just because we didn't hunt those wild boars. We still have several days to search for our target prey in these deep forests."

"Back at the camp," Uncle Zhou said.

Before heading into the mountains, each of them prepared five or six days' worth of dry rations and some necessities, such as salt.

If they hunt their desired prey, which fetches a high price, within five or six days, they will return within that timeframe.

However, if they fail to catch their desired prey within five or six days, they will have no choice but to stay in the mountains for a few more days.

What if we run out of dry rations and have no food left?

Of course, it's about living off the land.

In these deep mountains and forests, there are quite a few animals like wild rabbits, pheasants, and roe deer. Just like the roe deer that Li Yunshan hunted yesterday, it not only allowed everyone to enjoy a delicious roasted meat meal, but also saved everyone a meal's worth of food.

If they run out of dry rations, the prey in these mountains will become their food source.

Although the hunters from Kuandian Village beat them to the wild boars they discovered today, they still managed to catch one with a trap. When they get back to camp, they'll gut the boar and have enough meat for two or three good meals.

Although wild boar meat has a gamey smell, even when cooking at home, you need to add a lot of scallions, ginger and spices to suppress that smell. But in those days when even food was scarce, and they were hunting in the mountains, it was already a blessing to have wild boar meat to eat. A little gamey smell didn't matter.

Besides, each of them carried strong liquor with them, which could be used to remove the gamey smell from the wild boar meat.

So, after returning to the cave, seeing that it was already past four in the afternoon, they did not go out again to search for prey in the nearby mountains.

Because in winter, it gets dark around 5:30 pm here. If you go out at that time, you might not come back until it's dark.

In the deep mountains and forests at night, dangers abound, making it even more perilous than during the day.

After all, even though there are dangers in the deep forests during the day, people can still see them.

But at night, after it gets dark, even if they carry torches or turn on headlamps, their vision is still greatly affected.

Moreover, lighting torches or headlamps might attract carnivorous beasts.

So, upon returning to the cave, they immediately dragged the wild boar that had been caught in the trap to the cave entrance.

Because they only brought one pot, which wasn't enough to boil water for scalding the wild boar's bristles, Li Yunshan and his men gutted the wild boar, removed its internal organs, and simply skinned it as well.

Next, the wild boar meat was chopped into pieces.

By this time, the water in the pot had boiled—it was water obtained by collecting clean ice blocks from the surrounding area, boiling them in the pot until they melted.

After the water boils, put the chopped wild boar meat into the pot and blanch it once. This will reduce the gamey smell of the wild boar meat.

Pour out the water from the pot, then add clean ice cubes to melt and bring to a boil. Add the wild boar meat, pour in an appropriate amount of strong liquor, and then cover the pot with the lid.

After cooking for more than half an hour, the wild boar meat in the pot was cooked until tender.

By then, it had completely darkened.

Li Yunshan and the others sat around the burning fire, eating wild boar meat heartily.

As for dry rations, nobody likes to eat them anymore.

Although wild boar meat still has a faint gamey smell after cooking, it is much better than the monotonous taste of dry food.

Throughout the year, they rarely get to eat meat to their heart's content. Right now, there's still more than half a pot of meat and broth in the pot, so who cares about eating dry rations?

After eating wild boar meat, drinking a few sips of broth and then a few sips of strong liquor, it's simply delightful.

After eating and drinking their fill, they lit a bonfire outside the cave as usual. Then, after setting up animal traps at the spot where they had discarded the wild boar's entrails and outside the cave, they went inside, closed the wooden fence, and began to rest.

Sunset and sunrise, a night passes.

The next morning, after Li Yunshan and his group woke up and came out of the cave, they found that the animal traps at the entrance were still untouched. So, after deactivating the trigger, they went to check the place where they had discarded the wild boar's entrails the day before and found that the four animal traps set there were also intact.

Cai Er was somewhat disappointed, but quickly cheered up.

Although the trap didn't catch any prey, today is a new day, and maybe I'll catch my desired prey today.

So, after putting away all the animal traps and having a hearty breakfast, Li Yunshan and his men continued their journey, searching for prey in the deep mountains and forests.

However, after a whole day of searching, they did encounter quite a few wild animals in the mountains, but they were mostly small animals such as pheasants and rabbits, which saved them from even having to fire their guns and directly saved a lot of bullets.

"Did the hunters from Kuandian Village scare away all the wild animals in the nearby mountains when they were hunting wild boar today?"

"That's possible. After all, they fired so many shots. Just hearing the gunfire would scare the animals in the mountains into running around and hiding, or running to more distant places."

"We'll get up early tomorrow and expand the search area further. If we still can't find any prey, we'll have to move to another location."

In the evening, after dinner, everyone hid in the cave and started chatting.

"Hopefully we can find some good prey tomorrow, preferably a tiger, a bear, or a leopard. We have nine hunting rifles, which is more than enough to deal with tigers and bears. If we do encounter one, we'll just shoot it dead like we did a few days ago."

Zhao Shuanzhu said expectantly.

"What a pipe dream! You think tigers and bears are just like weeds on the ground, growing everywhere in these mountains? Heh heh."

Uncle Zhou laughed and scolded.

Although everyone is in a good mood at this time, some unrealistic fantasies need to be stopped in time.

"hehe."

Inside the cave, everyone let out a good-natured laugh.

However, perhaps God was truly looking out for them, or perhaps Zhao Shuanzhu was right after all. The very next day, after expanding their search area, they indeed found prey that they found appealing.

However, the prey they found this time was not a tiger, a bear, a leopard, or a wild boar, but a herd of red deer.

Yes, it was a herd of red deer.

Its body is dark brown with white spots on its back and sides, and its rump is noticeably light yellow. With these physical characteristics, what else could it be but a red deer?

So, when they discovered this herd of deer, Uncle Zhou and his group were incredibly excited.

But to avoid alerting the enemy, they forced themselves to suppress their excitement.

"It's a sika deer...it's a sika deer..."

"My goodness, such a huge herd of red deer! How many of them are there?"

"They are mostly adult red deer, with only two or three being half-grown."

"One, two, three, four, five... eighteen, nineteen... My goodness, nineteen deer in total! If we kill them all, how much money could we sell them for?"

"Don't bite off more than you can chew. Even if you kill all these deer, do you have the strength to carry them all out of the mountains?"

On the ridge, Li Yunshan, Uncle Zhou, and the others lay on the cold snow, but their hearts were warm. They stared intently at the herd of deer in the distance, their gazes unwavering.

Just as everyone was whispering among themselves, Li Yunshan spoke up: "I have a way. If we kill all of these deer, or at least most of them, we can transport them all out of the mountains."