While the wasp was engrossed in gnawing on the meat, Jiang Zhi secretly looped a thread around its waist, with a feather tied to the other end of the thread.
Within minutes, the wasp had gnawed off a piece of flesh, picked it up, and flew into the sky, hurrying back to feed the queen bee.
It had no idea that its diligence would soon bring annihilation to its family.
As wasps flew over the woods and cliffs, the feather on their waists stood out conspicuously in the air.
Below it, three people followed closely. Xiaoman and Xu Errui were quick on their feet, running after the feather.
Jiang Zhi could only follow the sound to find the person.
They ran for half a mountain, and just when they were about to lose track of the feathers again, they finally saw the feathers descending.
Jiang Zhi, panting heavily as she leaned against the tree trunk, watched the feathers disappear into the woods at the edge of the cliff. She then said to Xiao Man beside her, "Found it! The beehive is right here!"
In order to find the wasp nest, Jiang Zhi and his two companions started by catching live rabbits and using the meat to catch wasps. Now they have finally succeeded in finding the nest.
On a tree on the edge of the cliff, a brown beehive the size of a washbasin hangs high, with dozens of wasps going in and out.
Even from a distance, you can hear the buzzing sound of their wings flapping.
Jiang Zhi and the other two hid in the distance, spying on the beehive and discussing how to harvest it that night.
Eight out of ten boys who grew up in the countryside have poked at beehives with sticks, and the other two were the ones who ran after them.
Xu Errui and Xiaoman were just tagging along, while Nie Fantian, who was the most thoughtful, was the one who stirred up the most trouble.
Xiaoman said in a low voice, "We can't use a stick to poke them. Even if we can't see them, these bees will still come along the stick."
He was stabbed once, and his head swelled up like a gourd.
Xu Errui's expression was solemn: "We can only burn it with torches!" He had seen others do it before. He lit a torch on a long pole and placed it directly under the beehive. As soon as the wild bees came out of the hive, their wings would be burned off.
This approach also carries risks; if even one escapes the net, it could cause widespread panic and even death.
When a bee stings, its stinger pierces the skin and breaks off, leaving its internal organs behind, and the bee dies quickly.
Wasps are different; they sting without dislodging their stingers, and you can sting them several times without them dying…
We must deal with this carefully.
No matter how fierce a wasp is, it is no match for a cunning human.
Water and fire are the nemesis of wasps.
The three men found the beehive, left a mark, and went home to prepare for their fire attack plan that night.
When night fell, the three returned with their tools. Wasps are blind at night and were already resting, leaving the noisy hive hanging quietly on the treetop.
After determining the wind direction, pile up dry grass under the tree and put tung seeds collected earlier in the grass.
Tung seeds, being highly flammable and producing a lot of smoke, are perfect for fumigation; once lit, they will kill any flying wasps.
They lit the dry grass with a flint and steel, and the three quickly hid at a distance. At this time, each of them put on a thick coat to prevent being stung by wasps.
The fire started, and the smoke and flames quickly aroused the wasps. In the blink of an eye, the hive began to buzz, and a swarm of sensitive wasps rushed out.
Their target was clear: the bonfire. They frantically circled the fire, trying to extinguish the flames.
The flames of the tung oil were so intense that wasps were scorched by the smoke and fell to the ground with a crackling sound.
More and more wasps emerged from the hive; some went to fight the fire, while others began searching for the culprit. The entire area was filled with swarms of wasps flying around.
Jiang Zhi and the other two dared not approach, and fled even further away in a disheveled state, not daring to even breathe, for fear that their breath would attract a swarm of bees.
These wasps have gone mad, buzzing so loudly it sounds like rain, and even the sky is blackened by the smoke.
Without a flamethrower and protective clothing, smoking out wasps is the simplest but also the safest method.
If you directly set fire to a hornet's nest, the end result will be an explosion.
A beehive is a space containing many small, compartmentalized cells. When heated and expanded, it explodes into a mushy mess.
The beehive was torn to pieces, the bee larvae inside were destroyed, and the flying, burning beehives could cause wildfires.
This beehive is also medicine; we can't afford to lose it.
After Xu Dazhu's back injury, in addition to lower limb paralysis and incontinence, he also suffers from stabbing and throbbing pain throughout his spine, which requires massage from his family to relieve.
Now that he's getting more nutrition, Jiang Zhi is also starting to look for some pain-relieving medications for him.
Exposed bee nests are the nests of the yellow-spotted long-legged wasp, an insect of the Vespidae family, and have the effects of dispelling wind and dampness, reducing swelling and relieving pain.
It is a commonly used medicine in clinical practice for treating rheumatic bone pain and joint pain. It can be applied externally to the painful area to relieve symptoms.
The beehives were just an afterthought; what Jiang Zhi valued most were the bee pupae.
Bee pupae are high in protein, low in fat, and contain a variety of vitamins and trace elements. They are an ideal nutritious food and a health supplement, and are known as "ginseng from heaven." They are also the supplement that Xu Dazhu is currently most lacking.
He needs to recuperate before he can receive various treatments.
However, this hive is not easy to access. Not only is it located high up, but the worker bees are fiercely defending their home and never show mercy to intruders.
The wasps were fighting desperately, and the Kiriko flames were also working hard, gradually reducing the number of wasps in the high sky.
An hour later, the fire went out, and there was no more movement outside the hive.
Xu Errui sneaked out, kicked the tree trunk, and ran away, but the beehive on the treetop remained quiet.
Is that all?
Jiang Zhi could hardly believe that it could be done so easily, but thinking about the smoke from burning that pile of tung seeds... even an elephant would be suffocated by it.
Xiaoman climbed up the tree with a cloth bag and a sickle. He carefully covered the beehive with the bag before boldly cutting off the stem. The heavy beehive almost pulled him down.
From below, the honeycomb didn't seem that big, but now it feels huge, like a giant wine jar.
It weighed over ten kilograms, and Xiaoman couldn't carry it down, so she had to tie it with a rope and lower it down from the tree.
Below, Jiang Zhi was also sorting out her spoils. These wasps soaked in alcohol were also a good thing; the more toxic they were, the better the effect. They were also a medicine for regulating and nourishing the body.
Unfortunately, the fire was too big and the smoke was too thick. Those that fell into the fire were burned to ashes, and she only managed to find a few dozen whose wings had been removed.
In the middle of the night, the three carried the beehive back home, and the enormous beehive immediately startled everyone.
There was no way to sleep, so everyone gathered together to pick out bee pupae. By dawn, they had picked out half a basin of them.
The white bee pupa was still moving.
There are many ways to eat bee pupae, including deep-frying and steaming. However, since there is not enough oil in the mountains, they can only be steamed.
Such good food shouldn't be wasted, and without considering that it was evening, we immediately lit a fire on the stove and started cooking.
It had been a long time since we had eaten such high-protein food, and each person ate more than a dozen bee pupae.
The rest could only be steamed, dried, ground into powder, and left for Xu Dazhu, for which Xiaoman was filled with gratitude.
Now that the bee pupae are in their own possession, they'll be enough for Dazhu to eat for a long time.
He remembered that there was a pregnant woman in the Jiang family.
Qiaoyun couldn't eat bee pupae, and she couldn't just keep them all to herself, so she gave all ten remaining eggs in the house to Xu Errui: "Errui, once Dazhu recovers, I'll definitely thank you and your mother properly."
Jiang Zhi didn't try to refuse; Qiaoyun was now in her late pregnancy and did indeed need to eat eggs.
Moreover, she wanted to hatch chicks and had saved up eggs at home, so she asked Errui to take them.
Everything was going smoothly, with various tasks keeping us busy, including weeding the sorghum and bean fields on the grassy slope.
Xiao Manye originally thought he would just casually harvest some grain, but seeing the strong seedlings and the increasingly rampant weeds, this old farmer couldn't sit still anymore and started weeding every morning.
Half the mountain is covered with Miao people.
He couldn't possibly weed all the way through, so he could only save as many as he could.
I chopped firewood at home in the afternoon.
Those dried-up tree stumps could be cut down and used as firewood, which was piled up in front of and behind the houses at the foot of the cliff. Even next to Jiang Zhi's house on the cliff, there were stacks of firewood, enough to last all winter.
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