Sheng Xiping stayed in the security department, where the work was easy and there was a lot of free time.
After the snowfall, it was a good time to go hunting in the mountains, and Sheng Xiping naturally wouldn't miss it.
Chen Weiguo, Wang Jianshe, and others went up the mountain to work on logging. As for the few people from the security department, Sheng Xiping led them into the mountains to hunt a few times, but he always felt that they weren't quite right for each other.
Hunting requires teamwork and coordination between the rider and the horse. If you force yourselves to hunt together without teamwork, you will be in danger if something goes wrong.
Therefore, Sheng Xiping basically acted alone, taking his dog into the mountains by himself, hunting when he encountered prey, and setting traps when he didn't.
Sometimes, when the dog got tired from going up the mountain, Sheng Xiping would go into the mountain to walk it himself.
If I'm on a day shift, I leave home at four or five in the morning, finish my walk around at seven or eight, go home, have a quick meal, and then go to work. Nothing gets delayed.
It's perfect to be on the night shift; I can sleep at the farm headquarters at night and won't miss anything during the day.
That morning, Sheng Xiping didn't bring the dog; instead, he carried his gun and went into the mountains.
He was in a second-crop forest, using frozen green grass and salt water as bait, and set traps around it, intending to catch a roe deer or a deer.
As winter approaches and the weather gets colder, meat can be frozen, so Sheng Xiping plans to save up more, not only for his own consumption but also to send some to Zhou Mingyuan.
In winter, animals lack salt, and even though the ice is made of salt water, wild animals can still smell it and be attracted to it.
Not to mention, there's also the delicious frozen green onion; the combination of these two makes it an absolute favorite for deer and roe deer.
Therefore, Sheng Xiping was full of confidence, believing that he would definitely achieve something this time.
But when he finally arrived at the place where he had set the trap after traversing mountains and valleys, he only found a patch of blood on the ground. The roe deer that should have been caught in the trap had vanished without a trace.
"Damn it, what the hell stole my prey?"
Sheng Xiping knew immediately from the sight before him that it must be some kind of wild beast that had killed and carried away its prey that had been caught in the snare.
But what exactly was it? There were only bloodstains and drag marks on the ground; the animal tracks were covered by the drag marks.
This guy seems very cunning; he didn't leave a single trace.
"I refuse to believe it! I'm going to see what kind of thing dares to steal my prey today!"
Sheng Xiping was furious. He took off his gun, held it in his hand, and chased after the trail of dragging.
Sheng Xiping left home around four o'clock in the morning and walked for about an hour to get here.
In Northeast China, winter days are short and nights are long; it's just barely dawn now.
Sheng Xiping has excellent eyesight, and with bloodstains on the ground, tracking him down wasn't too difficult.
And so, Sheng Xiping followed the trail of blood and drag marks, crossed a mountain ridge and went down. In the distance, he saw something moving among the rocks and weeds.
Sheng Xiping crouched low, carefully avoiding branches and weeds, trying not to make a sound, and quietly moved forward.
As we got closer, we could vaguely see two dark brown creatures in the weeds. They didn't seem very big, and we didn't know what they were.
Sheng Xiping held the gun, slowly moved closer, aimed at the weeds, and pulled the trigger.
With a bang, one of the two dark brown animals in the weeds had its head smashed, while the other let out a shrill cry and turned to run away.
Sheng Xiping was holding a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle. With his marksmanship, how could he let the other one escape?
As soon as the guy moved, Sheng Xiping immediately pulled the trigger.
The little thing was quite chubby and round, and it didn't run very fast. Sheng Xiping's shot hit the little thing in the head again.
The little thing lurched forward and then stopped moving.
Sheng Xiping put away his gun, walked quickly over, and carefully examined the two small animals on the ground.
This thing is one and a half to two feet long, and it looks to weigh only about ten pounds. It has a short, chubby, and round body, smaller than a dog or a fox.
The semi-automatic gun was too powerful, it shattered the head; otherwise, you could have seen two round spots on the little thing's face, like a pirate mask, making it look like a raccoon.
Raccoon dogs, the same kind of raccoon dog as the raccoon dog in the Chinese idiom, belong to the genus Raccoon dog in the family Canidae. Their fur is thick and soft, and is considered a top-quality fur material second only to mink.
The fur of this thing is perfect for making hats and scarves; that's really warm.
Raccoons are monogamous animals and usually move in pairs.
They typically inhabit open areas of forests near water sources. They are omnivorous, feeding on birds, small mammals, and fruits.
Some say that raccoon dogs hibernate in winter, but in reality they are just lazy and love to sleep. They will come out to forage for food when they are hungry.
Raccoons seek out burrows to live in during the winter, but they don't dig their own; they often find abandoned burrows belonging to badgers.
Or, in the fall, they would linger outside the badger's burrow, serving as a dirt cart for the badger.
The raccoon lies on its back with its belly up. The badger digs up dirt and puts it on the raccoon's belly. Then the badger grabs the raccoon by its tail and drags it out of the burrow to dump the dirt.
Don't assume raccoons are kind-hearted; they're actually quite cunning.
In the fall, they act as earthen carts to help the badgers with their work, and in return, the badgers dig a separate room for the raccoon dogs in their burrows.
Then, after the badgers have fallen into a deep hibernation in winter, the raccoon dogs will dig up soil and block up the burrows where the badgers live, suffocating them to death.
Then, the raccoon dogs dragged out the dead badgers one by one and ate them.
Sheng Xiping had encountered this once before when he went up the mountain with Liu Changde and the others to catch badgers.
If you dig open the badger's burrow with a pickaxe, you'll see that every so often there's a large pile of dirt blocking the burrow's exit.
Liu Changde said that was the work of the raccoon.
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