In the Northwest, weasels are not as mysterious as in the Northeast. These creatures love to come to homes to steal chickens, and if you're not careful, you'll end up locked in the chicken coop and unable to get out.
Moreover, once caught, they will be truly killed, instead of worrying about any retribution or treating them like Wong Tai Sin.
Although both are from the North, people from the Northwest tend to be more rugged and fearless.
Wang Tianxiao had caught weasels several times, always in the chicken coop. He would hang the weasels upside down on the wall and let them starve to death so that he could get a complete weasel pelt.
Weasels are valuable from head to toe. Their fur can be sold for money, and their tails are bought at high prices. Although the meat is not very tasty, it is still edible.
In those days, meat was rationed, and it was generally given to urban residents first, with very few allocated to rural areas. Many people could only afford to eat pork, beef, or mutton during the Lunar New Year. People had less fat in their bodies, so they loved pork, unlike in later generations when beef and mutton were much more expensive than pork.
Wang Tianxiao found it amusing to see his younger brother making such a fuss. His brother was usually quite bold and had a passionate heart, ready to dedicate himself to the country. He never expected that even after being brought to the mountains, he would still show his youthful side.
He patted his younger brother on the shoulder, looked up at the vast mountains, and laughed, "Don't be afraid. The animals in the mountains may be dangerous, but they are not insidious. Humans are the animals in this world that we need to be most wary of."
"Brother, you're becoming more and more like your mother. How come you're always spouting platitudes?"
Wang Tianxiao was taken aback, then laughed heartily.
The two continued walking in the snow for a while, and then they could no longer see the nearest village. They had finally reached the foot of the mountain.
At the foot of the mountain were rolling hills, which farmers had cultivated into fields. These lands were not under government jurisdiction, so there was no need to pay grain taxes. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and sorghum were the main crops grown there, and they were also quite good.
It's winter now, and the fields are all bare, with rows of haystacks piled up on the edge of each household's land.
Some were stacks of sorghum, others were sweet potato vines, and under the moonlight they looked like long, thin steamed buns.
The villagers living near the mountains didn't have a shortage of firewood, but Li Yali is now physically unable to get out of bed due to her large belly, let alone go to the mountains to cut firewood, so the family's firewood supply has become a problem.
"Brother, how much longer do we have to walk?"
Wang Tiancheng felt a bit cold. He had no experience patrolling the mountains at night. After walking for two hours, his patience and initial enthusiasm gradually waned, and he began to feel unwell.
"Shh!"
Wang Tianxiao stopped and took one of the snakeskin bags from his waist and handed it to Wang Tiancheng.
"elder brother?"
Wang Tianxiao pointed to the haystack in front of him, and then to the snow on the ground.
Wang Tiancheng followed his brother's hand and looked at the snow. To his surprise, he found two rows of small paw prints on the ground that extended all the way into the sorghum stalk stack in front of him.
"Something's wrong?" Wang Tiancheng's breathing became rapid.
"Just you wait and see."
Wang Tianxiao took the flashlight out of his pocket and put it in his mouth. He untied the homemade gun from his back, aimed at the sorghum stalk stack, and slowly moved the stack apart little by little. Sure enough, he saw a small hole in the middle.
Suddenly, the bright beam of the flashlight shone into the burrow, where a gray hare was sleeping.
The bright light from the flashlight startled it, and the blinding light made it lose its sense of direction. Instead, it charged straight at Wang Tianxiao.
"This idiot." Wang Tianxiao reacted quickly, using the tip of his gun to strike the rabbit, knocking it unconscious inside its burrow.
Despite their agility, wild rabbits are actually quite slow and not very smart.
Without terrain limitations or cover, none of them have the stamina, let alone outrun a dog.
Every autumn harvest, villagers would bring their local dogs to work in the fields. They would often encounter wild rabbits hiding among the grain, and the dogs would rush over quickly, usually catching the rabbits with ease.
Hare, pheasant, and badger are known as the three fools, meaning they are incredibly stupid and easy to catch.
Badgers, whether Eurasian badgers or hog badgers, are all show and no substance. Don't be fooled by their fierce appearance; one may bite, and the other may gore. In reality, they are nothing but paper tigers and can be easily countered.
Pheasants were probably hunted so badly because they were considered too stupid. In those days, you could see pheasants even in a vegetable garden, but they are rarely seen in later generations, and thus they have become protected animals.
As human civilization continues to develop, it has to some extent squeezed the living space of these wild animals.
But this is also the survival of the fittest in nature; after all, they are wild animals.
Give me a piece of the rope.
Wang Tiancheng hurriedly pulled out a long rope, several feet long, from the bundle of thin hemp rope and handed it to Wang Tianxiao. Although he had eaten wild rabbits before, he had never hunted one himself. He was very excited to see the unconscious rabbit.
Wang Tianxiao, on the other hand, was not so excited. Hunting rabbits was just an everyday occurrence for him.
It's no different from going to the toilet.
He quickly tied the rabbit's mouth shut with rope several times, then secured its legs before putting it into a snakeskin bag and handing it to his younger brother to carry.
A hare's teeth are very sharp. If you put it directly into a bag, it will bite the bag and run away.
If only the legs are bound, it can still bite through the rope.
Many people have no idea about rabbits' teeth and think that rabbits are really cute, but in fact, rabbits are also rodents. Their incisors are very sharp and can bite through wood. If you are bitten by a rabbit, you need to get a rabies vaccine, otherwise you may really die.
In addition, rabbits are also very good at digging burrows.
When Wang Tianxiao was a child, his mother raised many rabbits in a small cave. As a result, these rabbits made countless small holes in the walls of the cave. They usually stayed in the holes, and you really couldn't see them unless you fed them.
Even knowing that the rabbit might escape, you still can't just kill it. The price of dead and alive wild animals is completely different.
A live wild rabbit can be sold for five yuan in the city, or even ten yuan if you're lucky, but a dead one won't even fetch one yuan.
In addition, all wild animals should be kept as intact as possible in terms of skin. There should be no holes, gaps, cracks, or anything like that. Damaged skins are basically unwanted.
Therefore, Wang Tianxiao would only use a gun as a last resort, and even then, he would only use a small amount of gunpowder to prevent damaging the hide too much or killing the rabbit and thus failing to fetch a good price.
Wild rabbit meat is just so-so, not very tasty, and there's not much meat. Hunting one rabbit isn't even enough for a family to have a decent meal, so people in the mountain village don't really care. But city dwellers find it a novelty, especially in many big restaurants where there's a huge demand.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
