Chapter 97 Ambush

When wild boars are moving, they will look down and forage for food as they go.

If there is even the slightest unusual noise around them, the wild boar will stop, raise its head, and sniff and listen.

Once they sense danger, they will immediately take off running.

Based on the wild boar's habits, Sheng Xiping devised a plan to set traps and snares along the wild boar's usual route into the fields.

If even one of these wild boars gets caught in the trap, the rest will definitely have to run away.

Sheng Xiping could team up with a few other people who were slightly better marksmen to ambush the wild boar on its escape route.

When wild boars are fleeing in panic, they are not very alert and are more likely to be ambushed.

The large traps used for hunting wild boars were not available in the Sheng family, but the Liu family had them.

However, at this time of year, the farmland in Dajianchang Village is likely also being attacked by wild boars.

So Sheng Xiping didn't say he would borrow from the Liu family, but instead said he would go to the small repair shop to get a few.

The small repair shop has lathes, welding equipment, and plenty of iron; making a few animal traps wouldn't be a problem.

As for steel wire rope, needless to say, the forest farm may not have much else, but it has plenty of that stuff.

Winch hoisting, tractor towing, and trolley binding of timber—aren't they all done with steel wire ropes?

It's easy to get some money from the forest farm.

Wild boars have a keen sense of smell, so newly made traps and snares cannot be used until they have been burned and wiped with mugwort.

These things all take time; it's impossible to finish them in a day.

Therefore, Sheng Xiping instructed the people on night watch to patrol together in large groups.

If you encounter a wild boar, light firecrackers or bang on a pot to scare it away; avoid direct confrontation.

Wild boars are actually quite clever.

After several incidents where they only heard noises but caused no real damage, the wild boars became increasingly bold and less vigilant, and began to recklessly enter the fields and wreak havoc on the crops.

What Sheng Xiping wanted was for these wild boars to lower their guard.

On the afternoon of the 11th, four days after those wild boars entered the land.

Sheng Xiping and his men set seven or eight animal traps right next to the back of the field.

They also set several traps along the routes that wild boars would inevitably take to escape.

You can't use leg snares to deal with such large animals.

The hanging rope is used, but wild boars are too strong, and the small tree's elasticity is sometimes not enough.

When wild boars go berserk, they either break free of the ropes or the trees, and you can't hold them back at all.

Those dead snares tied to trees won't work either; wild boars are very powerful when they go berserk.

If the snare is dead, the wild boar can break the steel cable by struggling desperately.

Therefore, a snare is used to trap wild boars, which is usually made by tying a steel wire rope to a large piece of wood or a large rock.

When a wild boar gets caught in a snare and tries desperately to escape, it has to drag a large log or rock along with it.

This thing is physically demanding, and the forest is overgrown with vegetation, so you might get stuck on some tree and have to keep grinding in place.

With a steel wire rope around its neck, and focused on escaping, the wild boar couldn't eat, and over time it became exhausted and weak.

Once the hunter finds the trail, it's easy to kill it.

"You guys stay downwind nearby, a little distance away is fine."

If the wild boars aren't caught in the traps and end up in the ground, you guys come out and shoot at them to scare them away.

After installing the clips and covers, Sheng Xiping began assigning tasks to the educated youth team.

Du Jiabin was holding an old-fashioned hunting rifle, which was actually quite difficult to use for hunting wild boars.

So Sheng Xiping ordered him to take a few men to guard a hidden spot on the back of the land. If the wild boars entered the land and damaged the crops, they would shoot to scare them away.

Sheng Xiping and Sun Yunpeng, one with a No. 16 hunting rifle and the other with a double-barreled hunting rifle, lay in ambush on the path where the wild boar might escape.

Sheng Xiping had surveyed the terrain beforehand and selected two of the possible escape routes for the wild boars.

Sun Yunpeng hid behind a large rock, ready to shoot any wild boar that passed by.

His double-barreled shotgun can fire separately or simultaneously. It's loaded with slugs, so as long as you find the right opportunity, there shouldn't be any problems.

Sheng Xiping found a fairly large tree and hid in a branch two or three meters above the ground.

When the wild boar passes by, shoot from a high vantage point.

His No. 16 cannon has a drawback: after each bullet is fired, the spent cartridge case must be ejected and the cartridge reloaded.

Hiding in a tree can better protect you from danger and prevent wild boars from going berserk and injuring you.

"The rest of you should stay put and come over when you hear the signal."

Having more people might not be helpful; it could actually make things more chaotic. If anyone gets hurt, Sheng Xiping will have to take responsibility.

Therefore, Sheng Xiping did not allow Wang Jianshe and others to participate, and instead had them wait for news in the collective household room.

This arrangement caused some dissatisfaction among the educated youth at Qianchuan Forest Farm.

"Jianshe, what's wrong with Xiping lately? Why is he getting so close to Sun Yunpeng and Du Jiabin?"

Oh, I also heard him praising those guys, saying they were smart and quick-witted, and that their marksmanship had improved, and so on.

Hey, why does this sound so weird to me?

"Those people are nothing! Clever and shrewd? What kind of spell did they cast on Xiping?"

After the arrangements were made, everyone went to find places to lie in ambush. Only the educated youth from Qianchuan Forest Farm had nothing to do, so they all went back to the few rooms in the collective household that had been renovated to rest.

Some people didn't understand and complained to Wang Jianshe and Gao Haining.

“We grew up with Xiping, don’t you know what kind of person he is?”

We'll just do whatever he says. Anyway, if we hunt a wild boar tonight, we'll all get a share.

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