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

"Yunshan, come here for a moment."

Seeing Liu Maocai and the others sitting around the earthen stove warming themselves by the fire, waiting to eat meat and drink soup, Uncle Zhou waved to Li Yunshan, called him aside, and frowned, saying, "Yunshan, how come you only found six people? Even if two people can carry a deer, there aren't enough people."

They hunted down nine deer. Logically, they should have found nine people so that two people could work together to carry one deer down the mountain.

But now, including Gao Hongmei, there are only sixteen of them in total, which is...

"Uncle Zhou, I've already offered three yuan as payment, but many people in the village still complain that the payment is too low. They're also afraid of encountering danger if they follow me into the deep mountains and forests, so they're unwilling to come. I searched for a long time before I finally found Uncle Maocai and his group who were willing to go into the mountains to help."

Li Yunshan explained.

After returning to the village yesterday, he immediately began searching for people, looking for all the able-bodied men in the village. Most of them felt that the reward was too low and that it was dangerous to go into the deep mountains and forests, so they were unwilling to help.

"We've never hunted so much game before, and we've never had to ask outsiders for help. What Yunshan said makes sense. It's only natural that they'd complain about the low pay and the dangers of the deep forests, so they're unwilling to come and help," Li Baotian interjected.

"I don't mean to blame Yunshan, I just find it unbelievable. I thought a reward of one yuan would be enough to tempt people, and I also told Yunshan that he could increase the reward a little more. I didn't expect that even with a reward of three yuan, only Maocai and a few others were willing to help."

Uncle Zhou explained.

"Mao Cai and the others come from poor families, so they will definitely not let go of any opportunity to make money. They are willing to go into the deep mountains and forests to help us because they are forced to by poverty."

"The pheasants, rabbits, and ducks they're holding... you hunted them, didn't you?"

"I had Gao Hongmei make the call, as a way to give Uncle Maocai and the others more compensation."

Li Yunshan said.

Although Uncle Zhou had instructed him to increase the pay appropriately if necessary, he didn't dare to give too much.

After all, he didn't hunt the deer alone; it was a joint effort by the village hunters.

Originally, he believed that a generous reward would surely attract brave men, and he would be willing to give even five or six yuan.

But he didn't know what Cai Er and the others were thinking. Besides, there were no cell phones in this day and age, so it was impossible for him to report to Uncle Zhou about his search for people after returning to the village. So after thinking it over, he decided to give them a reward of three yuan at most, so as not to cause any rifts among the hunters in the village over money.

Another reason he asked Gao Hongmei to shoot the small animals they encountered on the road was to help her improve her shooting skills.

Gao Hongmei is not him after all. In his previous life, he suddenly realized the error of his ways and got on the right path. In order to save money for business, he often went into the mountains to hunt.

Back then, because of poverty and the preciousness of bullets, he couldn't bear to practice his marksmanship without being certain of success.

Later, after he became wealthy and had money in his pocket, he even went to the shooting range to practice shooting, firing bullets one box at a time. His marksmanship improved a lot, though he wouldn't dare say he hit the bullseye every time.

It can be said that his marksmanship is a result of the bullets he honed through his past life of wealth and success.

But there are no such conditions now. If Gao Hongmei wants to improve her marksmanship, she has to practice more now. If she waits until she goes into the mountains and encounters wild beasts to practice, that's like sharpening her spear at the last minute. It won't be fast or effective, and it will be too late.

On the way into the mountains, they encountered many small animals, which became Gao Hongmei's targets for practicing her shooting skills.

The occasional gunshots can also deter and intimidate the carnivorous beasts lurking in the mountains, achieving multiple benefits in one fell swoop.

Hearing Li Yunshan say this, Uncle Zhou and Li Baotian had a clearer understanding of Li Yunshan. This kid saw that Liu Maocai and his family were relatively poor villagers, and this was a way of compensating or helping them.

However, this is quite in line with their impression of Li Yunshan, because after the boy realized his mistake, he killed the bear that entered the village and chose to donate most of the money he earned from selling the bear to build a school in the village and to provide compensation to the two families who were hurt by the bear.

"You did a good job, kid."

Li Baotian patted Li Yunshan on the shoulder as he spoke, saying, "If your father were alive, he would be happy for you."

"Let's go eat some meat and drink some wine to warm ourselves up. After we've eaten our fill, we'll see if we can bring all the game back."

Uncle Zhou said on Friday.

Although Li Yunshan only found six people to come into the mountains to help, even with Gao Hongmei added, theoretically, after two people carried one deer, there would still be one deer left uncarried. However, after discussing it, Uncle Zhou and Li Baotian decided to dismember the remaining deer and distribute it equally among the others, so that there would be one deer left uncarried and they would have to go into the mountains again later.

"Uncle Zhou Wu, Uncle Baotian, did you take the deer's internal organs out?" Li Yunshan asked.

"We removed them. To reduce the weight, we carried the deer out of the wooden house early this morning and removed all its internal organs. The deer's spleen, lungs, kidneys, and intestines were all thrown aside, leaving only the deer's heart and stomach."

When encountering large or bulky prey, and unable to transport the prey alone or in small groups, many hunters reluctantly choose to remove and discard the prey's internal organs to reduce its weight and make it easier to carry back.

Since they hunted the red deer around 10 a.m. yesterday, 24 hours have passed.

Transporting the deer back to the village from here will definitely take longer than the time it takes them to go into the mountains.

After all, going into the mountains is a light journey, while transporting deer back is a heavy one.

Nowadays, even though it's freezing cold and the temperature is low, those internal organs, like intestines and entrails, will still spoil and smell bad if left in a deer's stomach for a long time.

Removing the venison from the deer reduces the weight of the prey and prevents the meat from spoiling.

"In that case, I'll pick two of the lighter deer. As for the remaining seven deer, Uncle Zhou, you and Uncle Maocai can each carry one, and Gao Hongmei can carry the gun as a lookout and keep an eye on the surroundings."

Li Yunshan said.

"You? Picking two deer?"

Upon hearing this, Uncle Zhou and Li Baotian both doubted whether they had misheard.

Even the two smallest red deer, after their internal organs have been removed, weigh a total of about 400 jin (approximately 200 kg).

Li Yunshan used to be idle and had hardly ever done any farm work. How could he possibly lift two deer?

"Before, when Gao Hongmei and I went hunting in the mountains, we caught those two red deer. After we emptied their internal organs, I carried them back to the village myself."

Li Yunshan explained.

"Yunshan, you...you're kidding, right?"

Upon hearing this, Li Baotian found it even more unbelievable.

"Really, Uncle Yasuda, I'm not kidding."

Li Yunshan nodded solemnly.

"Uncle Zhou, Uncle Baotian, and Yunshan have come over for some meat."

Just then, Zhang Sange turned and shouted towards Li Yunshan.

"Okay, I'll be right there."

Soon, Li Yunshan, Uncle Zhou, and Li Baotian returned and sat around the earthen stove with Cai Er and the others. They took out their dry rations and ate the wild boar meat that had been cooked in a mortar.

"This wild boar meat smells delicious."

"I haven't eaten meat in a long time, and I've been craving it."

Uncle Maocai and the others ate the meat heartily, not even having time to eat the dry rations that Cai Er and the others handed over.

They were all farmers in the village, and they were all relatively poor. Their families rarely saw meat throughout the year. Only during festivals would they be willing to cut off a pound or two or three pounds of meat for their families to taste and satisfy their cravings.

When Cai Er invited them to eat meat, they didn't intend to be polite with him.

Although the wild boar meat still had a faint gamey smell after cooking, it was a delicacy for Uncle Maocai and the other farmers in the village.

Cai Er and the others didn't pay much attention to the fact that Uncle Maocai and the others were wolfing down their food, focusing only on eating meat and not even eating dry rations.

They'd eaten wild boar meat several times and were already tired of it.

If Uncle Maocai and the others can't finish this pot of wild boar meat, it will probably just be thrown away. We can't let it go to waste, so when we carry the deer back, we should take this pot of wild boar meat with us.

"Eat more meat."

Li Yunshan used a dagger to pierce a piece of wild boar meat in the pot, picked it out, and handed it to Gao Hongmei after it cooled down a bit.

"Is this what you eat when you go hunting in the mountains?"

Gao Hongmei took the wild boar meat that Li Yunshan handed her, took a bite of the dry rations, and asked curiously.

Although she had gone hunting in the mountains with Li Yunshan a few times, this was the first time she had ever eaten cooked wild boar meat in the wild.

Although wild boar meat has a slightly gamey smell, Gao Hongmei didn't mind.

In this day and age, many people can't even get enough to eat. If there is wild boar meat to eat, even if it has a slightly gamey smell, not many people will complain. At most, people like Cai Er and his friends will eat wild boar meat for a few meals and then get tired of it.

After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill and rested for another ten minutes, Uncle Zhou asked Cai Er and the others to cut some thick wooden sticks nearby to carry the deer later.

After the wooden sticks were cut, the branches were trimmed, and the bark was peeled off, nine wooden sticks, each as thick as an arm and over two meters long, were brought back.

Then, Cai Er and Zhang Sange went to the makeshift wooden huts they had set up for the night and carried out the venisoned deer one by one.

"Wow, this red deer is huge! It must weigh two or three hundred pounds each."

"They've already been gutted, and each one is estimated to weigh around 200 pounds, with two of them possibly weighing less than 200 pounds."

"What about the deer's internal organs?"

As one deer after another was carried out of the wooden house, Uncle Maocai and several other villagers who had come to help in the mountains couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

How much can I sell these several red deer for?

So everyone couldn't help but start discussing it.

A villager saw that the deer had been gutted and felt it was a pity, so he asked where the deer's internal organs were.

Although the intestines and other parts of the deer don't fetch much money, the villagers who came into the mountains to help transport the deer still considered it meat cut from the deer.

Although it's not high-quality meat, just deer offal, you can take it home, clean it thoroughly, blanch it a couple of times in a pot of water, and add more ginger, garlic, and star anise when stewing it to mask the offal smell. It's a way to let your family have a taste of meat and satisfy their cravings.

"We only kept the deer heart and stomach; we threw away the rest of the offal."

Cai Er said.

"Lost it? What a waste, it was at least some meat."

"Cai Er, where did you throw the deer's offal? We want to go and retrieve it so we can take it home."

"Yes, you may look down on the offal of deer, but we don't mind."

Several villagers, including Uncle Maocai, spoke up.

"Hehe, don't even think about the deer offal. How about this: after we get the deer back to the village, in addition to the reward Li Yunshan promised you, I'll personally give each of you three catties of venison. Is that alright?"

"It's almost Chinese New Year, you should have a couple of good meals."

Uncle Zhou said with a smile.

"This... Brother Zhou, are you serious?"

Uncle Maocai was a little incredulous, and the other villagers found it even more unbelievable.

"It's true, every word is a promise, and I can even make the decision to give each of you a deer head later."