Because it's winter, there aren't many vegetables in the mountains, but there's plenty of meat.
After a snowfall, it's the perfect time for hunting. You might even encounter many large wild animals, let alone small ones.
When Wang Tianxiao told everyone about his plan, the two Wu brothers and their two younger brothers were overjoyed.
The three dogs seemed to understand human speech, circling around him continuously.
Before hunting, Wang Tianxiao went to town to buy some vegetables and some leather belts that were very elastic and tough.
The snow-covered roads were slippery, and it took him more than an hour to get back to the depot. It was already noon.
Since we had agreed to have a big meal that night, Wu Wenhua simply heated up some steamed buns and stir-fried a large plate of shredded potatoes at noon, and everyone sat around and ate it all up.
Li Yali couldn't eat spicy food, so Wu Wenhua specially made chicken soup for her in a small pot. Wang Tianxiao tasted it and found it fragrant but not greasy, and the taste was really good.
So, Wu Wenhua told Li Yali that her cooking wasn't as good as his, and from then on, Wu Wenhua became the head chef at the station.
Wu Wenhua readily agreed. Before he and his brother became stevedores, they worked as cooks in a brick factory, where they could easily feed hundreds of people. The station only had a few people for the time being, so serving them was a piece of cake.
During their conversation, Wang Tianxiao learned that Wu Wenhua was married to someone from the next town and had a son and a daughter. However, his older brother, Wu Qiancai, was still single, which had always been a major concern for Wu Wenhua.
The two brothers lost their parents at a young age and have always depended on each other for survival. Wu Wenhua was able to get married thanks to the money the two brothers earned together. Now that he has children of his own, his older brother is still a bachelor. It's no wonder he's anxious.
Wang Tianxiao comforted them, saying that if everyone worked hard together in the mountains, they would definitely make enough money, and then they could marry any kind of girl, including a big-hipped, fertile girl.
After several days of getting to know Wang Tianxiao, the two Wu brothers realized that this young boss was a straightforward, generous, and sincere person who was also straightforward in his work. They believed in what he said without a doubt.
After finishing his meal, Wang Tianxiao began preparing his hunting gear.
Apart from him, the other four, including his two younger brothers, had no concept of hunting at all. In their minds, hunting was basically about shooting down prey with a single shot or using dogs to chase it.
But in reality, different prey requires different methods.
Take the most common wild boar as an example.
It is easier in the north than in the south because hunting boars is most convenient after a snowfall in the north.
To truly hunt a wild boar or wipe out a herd, the first step is tracking it. If you can't even guarantee that, then there's nothing else to do.
Prey in the mountains have an extremely keen sense of smell, and wild boars are no exception.
To actually encounter a wild boar by chance is extremely difficult.
Therefore, the task of searching is usually given to hunting dogs, which are faster and have a more sensitive sense of smell. Wild boars can smell them, and the dogs can also smell the scent of wild boars.
They are highly professional hunters with exceptional skills, and their dogs are also very fierce.
For example, Wang Tianxiao knew a hunter who kept more than a dozen dogs at home. They would take turns hunting in two shifts. When they encountered wild boars, they would drive the dogs to chase them away and scatter the herd. Then, they would use the dogs to surround any stray wild boars and pierce their bodies with a long spear that resembled a red-tasseled spear.
…
In short, hunting is a rather systematic activity.
If it's just a small-scale scramble, you can try your luck, but to really get something good, it's no less difficult than a small battle.
The more thorough the preparation, the greater the chance of victory and the more reaping the rewards.
Wang Tianxiao will live in the mountains from now on, where planting medicinal herbs, hunting, and raising livestock are all essential parts of his life.
Life in the mountains may not be too earth-shattering, but he had suffered a lot in his previous life and experienced too much trouble and helplessness. Now he feels that this kind of life is very happy and full of endless fun.
Wang Tianxiao took out the belt he bought in town, along with his toolbox and the thick iron wire left over from making the cage last time. He then sat down on a stool at the door.
"Second brother, what are you doing?"
"Make a slingshot."
"Huh?" Wang Tianxin didn't understand. "Weren't we going to go hunting in the mountains? Why are you playing around again?"
"Who said I wanted to play? I'm making this a hunting tool."
"What can a slingshot do? Is it just for tickling wild animals?" Wang Tianxin said dismissively.
Wang Tianxiao smiled and said, "You'll find out in a moment. Here, use scissors to cut this belt into thin strips about the width of a finger."
"Oh." Wang Tianxin didn't understand, but he still obediently followed Wang Tianxiao's instructions and started cutting.
"Mr. Wang, are you going to hunt birds?"
Wu Wenhua observed for a long time before finally asking a question out of curiosity.
Wang Tianxiao looked up at the distant white mountains and smiled, "You can hunt birds, but there are actually things that are more valuable than birds."
"You mean... Stone Marten? Or Tiger?"
Wang Tianxiao glanced at him in surprise, "You even know about stone sable?"
Wu Wenhua chuckled and said, "Our village is also close to the mountains, and that guy sometimes comes to our village's fields to catch mice or weasels, and sometimes he even steals chickens."
Wang Tianxiao nodded, "Yes, we're going to clear the snow."
The stone marten is also a small carnivore of the genus Marten in the family Mustelidae. It is closely related to the sable, but there are no sables in the Ziwuling mountain range, only stone martens.
When this creature matures, it is about 40 to 50 centimeters long, with a small head that resembles a triangular pyramid.
The stone marten has a very fast reaction time, but when it moves, it likes to drag its tail along the ground, like a small broom sweeping snow, so the people here also like to call it "snow sweeper".
This creature inherited the weasel family's extraordinary reproductive ability, giving birth to up to seven or eight offspring per litter. As a semi-omnivorous carnivore, it once overpopulated to the point of being a nuisance.
Unable to find food in the mountains, they gradually gather in groups and head to human settlements to steal food.
Even more terrifying is that stone martens also fit the very "cruel" habits of the mustelid family; they are addicted to killing weak animals.
Large carnivores generally stop hunting once they are full, but stone martens will kill their prey even if they are not hungry.
This is somewhat similar to cats.
Therefore, if the stone marten population is allowed to proliferate uncontrollably, it will pose a huge challenge to the survival of other small mammals, rodents, reptiles, and even birds in the vicinity.
In earlier years, the government organized people to hunt and kill stone martens because of their overpopulation. Later, people discovered that marten fur could be used to make expensive clothes, so they came uninvited to hunt and kill stone martens. Soon, the stone martens were killed to a very low number and became a national protected animal.
In just a few decades, humans have indeed significantly altered the ecology of certain places.
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