Chapter 178 The Jackal Spy
Everyone laughed when Sheng Xiping said that.
"Yes, yes, as long as it's meat, it'll taste good. Who cares about anything else? Just gnaw on it!" So, everyone went back to gnawing on the bones.
At this moment, Sheng Xiping stood up, wiped his hands with a towel, and walked out.
"Xiping, where are you going?"
Upon seeing Sheng Xiping get up, Chen Weiguo and Pan Fusheng quickly followed suit and walked out as well.
"It's nothing. I was just gnawing on a bone and the meat shreds were too thick, so they got stuck in my teeth."
I'll go outside, break off a twig, and use it as a toothpick to pick my teeth.
Sheng Xiping waved his hand, came out of the house, and went to the woodshed outside.
The woodshed not only contained large firewood, but also some split firewood, which consisted of tree branches chopped into two-foot lengths.
When these tree trunks are completely dry, they are excellent for starting a fire, and they also produce a strong flame when cooking.
The large firewood is used for heating the kang (a traditional heated bed), while the smaller firewood is mostly used for starting fires and cooking.
Sheng Xiping reached out and broke off a thin twig, then split it in two.
He took out the knife he always carried, trimmed the half-twig a few times, and it became a makeshift toothpick.
Wild boar meat strips are coarse, and since you're gnawing on bones, they're very easy for them to get stuck in your teeth.
These days, where can you find toothpicks? Even if you did, most people wouldn't be willing to buy them.
They just casually break off a branch, trim it, and use it to pick their teeth.
Sheng Xiping used a makeshift toothpick to pick his teeth, while keeping the knife in his other hand.
Suddenly, Sheng Xiping sensed something was wrong and his gaze instantly fell on a certain shadow.
Almost instinctively, Sheng Xiping threw the knife in his hand.
Then, a pitiful howl was heard, and an animal smaller than a dog leaped out of the shadows, about to jump onto the bamboo pole.
Perhaps because of his injury, the guy couldn't jump up on the first try.
"Weiguo, get the gun out!" Sheng Xiping shouted hurriedly, turning around to go back into the house to get the gun.
He's unarmed now and can't possibly fight a jackal bare-handed; he needs to get a gun first.
The door wasn't closed properly, it was half-open. When Sheng Xiping shouted from outside, the people inside heard him and immediately ran out.
"What's wrong, Xiping?"
“A jackal, a jackal scout,” Sheng Xiping said as he reached out and grabbed his gun.
The moment he got the gun, Sheng Xiping pulled the safety.
But when he turned around, the wounded jackal, perhaps with all its might, leaped out through a gap in the stalk.
Seeing the jackal about to run away, Sheng Xiping took off after it, chasing it all the way out the gate. Without caring whether he could hit it, he fired a shot at the fleeing figure.
In the night breeze, I could faintly hear what sounded like a chirp again.
On the night of the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, there was no moonlight, and Sheng Xiping could not see the situation in the distance, so he had to give up and stop chasing.
"Xiping, how was it? Did you hit it?"
At this moment, Wang Jianshe and the others also chased after them from the courtyard. Seeing that it was all dark in the distance, none of them dared to continue the chase.
"I don't know. I heard a sound, but I don't know if I hit it or not," Sheng Xiping shook his head.
"Let's go back inside and rest. That shot tonight must have scared those jackals away; they won't come in again."
Jackals are cunning and suspicious by nature. The scout wolf is injured, and it is unknown whether he can return to the jackal pack.
The remaining jackals, startled by the gunfire and without receiving any feedback from their scout wolves, will not come back tonight.
With Sheng Xiping's words, everyone felt relieved and went back into the house to continue gnawing on the bones.
The wild boar was hunted by our own family, and there wasn't much meat left on the bones.
Unlike the meat stalls of later generations, where bones were more expensive than meat, so the bones had a lot of meat attached to them.
I love gnawing on bones, especially the tendons and grit; the more I gnaw, the more flavorful they become.
Actually, there's not much of this stuff; it's not enough to fill you up, let alone make you feel full.
So even though it's a big bowl of bones, several people can easily finish it.
It was already past midnight, so everyone tidied up the house.
Sheng Xiping led his men to patrol outside a few more times, and after confirming that there was nothing unusual, they went back inside to rest.
On the morning of the 27th of the twelfth lunar month, around four or five o'clock, Sheng Xiping got up, slung his gun over his shoulder, and went out for a stroll.
As expected, there was nothing unusual in the pigsty and sheepfold; the jackals didn't come in last night.
"Great, the jackals didn't come in and harm the pigs and sheep last night."
"Xiping, what do we do next? The New Year is almost here, we can't just keep staying here on night duty forever, can we?"
The others also got up, and everyone was quite happy to see that their vigil last night had been effective.
But then they thought, they can't just keep guarding them like this every day; they still need to find a way to deal with those jackals.
"Yes, let's take the initiative today. Come on, let's take a lamb and go into the woods to ambush them."
Sheng Xiping spent the whole night thinking about it. The only way at the moment was to use sheep as bait and have Sheng Xiping and his men lie in ambush around them.
They would shoot whenever the jackals got close.
No one else could think of a better idea, so they went into the sheepfold, picked a not-too-big sheep, tied it with a rope, and took a bag of hay with them.
Afterwards, Sheng Xiping, Wang Jianshe, and Chen Weiguo, carrying guns and leading sheep, followed the footprints around the breeding area to ambush on the back mountain.
Gao Haining, along with Zhang Zhijun and Pan Fusheng, stayed at the breeding site to prevent the jackals from launching a sneak attack while they were away.
On the top of the hill behind the mountain, there were many jackal footprints, so Sheng Xiping tied the sheep to a tree near the footprints.
When you place a bag of hay in front of a sheep, it will eat the hay freely, regardless of where it is or whether there is any danger. It will just keep its head down and eat the hay.
The sheep were tied up, and Sheng Xiping and the others dispersed, hiding under the cover of bushes and grass, and waited patiently.
But they waited and waited, until it was broad daylight, but they still didn't see the jackals.
"Xiping, do you think those jackals will still come?"
Wang Jianshe and his group had been hiding behind the bushes for quite some time. Early morning is the coldest time of day, and after such a long time, they felt like they were about to freeze.
"That shouldn't be the case. That spies must have been injured by my knife last night."
Given the nature of jackals, a pack should have been observing the area this morning, waiting for an opportunity to retaliate.
Sheng Xiping was also confused about what was going on. Given the nature of jackals, they would certainly not let go of any opportunity for revenge.
As he was speaking, Sheng Xiping suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, the kind of feeling where the hairs on his body stood on end.
"Damn it, we've fallen into a jackal's ambush! Turn around quickly!"
Upon hearing Sheng Xiping's words, Wang Jianshe and Chen Weiguo immediately turned around and looked behind them, guns in hand.
Sure enough, about two hundred meters away from them, there were faint, reddish-brown shadows, fan-shaped, approaching them.
Wang Jianshe and the others felt a chill run down their spines. No one had expected that the jackal would be so treacherous and cunning, full of tricks.
When people tried to ambush them, they didn't run away like wolves; instead, they ambushed humans from behind.
"Xiping, what should we do?"
Wang Jianshe pulled the safety off his gun, ready to fire at any moment, waiting for Sheng Xiping's order to shoot and kill the jackals.
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