Chapter 181 Wolves
The main purpose of this trip is gathering, so they don't need to worry about hunting, because there are really a lot of wild animals in the deep sea. Small wild animals can be hunted at will, and powerful wild animals will come to them. What they need is to be prepared, shoot and kill!
Because the surrounding areas were all unexplored mountains, and considering the safety of the Zhou family, Chen Lie and Chen Dashan discussed and decided to sweep horizontally to the other side along the place where Zhou Laizi's family lived.
Perhaps because there were no human traces here and the plants grew wildly, after the real autumn, there were more mountain products in the mountains than they had expected. Indeed, there were more. Sang Luo didn't even bother to go to the mountain where she had spotted wild grapes last time. She only searched two mountains near Zhou's house and found more than a dozen wild grape plants. The vines of each plant were climbing everywhere.
Compared with the last time, more than half of the wild grapes were riper. The unripe ones were left alone, and the ripe ones were picked. Tremella, fungus, mushrooms, and hawthorns were always found, and the hands never stopped.
Zhou Laizi and Zhou Erlang were both extremely excited. It was not like they had not looked for things in the mountains before, but they had only hidden them on the outskirts before. How could they have seen so many?
With Chen Lie and the others leading the way, even if there wasn't much food, the father and son knew that their family could survive.
You said they are all vegetables and fruits?
What a joke! When people are extremely hungry, they will eat grass roots. Wild vegetables and grass seeds are treasures. They are already incredible good things.
Tremella, black fungus, and mushrooms are placed in one basket, hawthorns that are not afraid of being pressed are directly put in sacks, and grapes are placed in a separate basket. During the period, if you encounter pheasants and hares, it goes without saying that they are all put in a sack according to their own abilities.
As for the possibility that the smell of blood might attract wild beasts, that was also part of the original plan, saving them the effort of actively looking for them. The relatively experienced Chen Lie, Chen Dashan, and Lu Erlang also kept an eye on the movements around them while gathering and hunting. However, large wild animals would not want to stay in a place where they had to use a machete or hoe to clear a path after walking a dozen steps. They were more accustomed to places where they could move around easily and hide.
Because there were so many people, the speed of picking wild fruits and mushrooms was much faster than the last time when there were only four people. When they came down from the fifth mountain and were about to explore the sixth mountain, passing by the edge of the forest, Chen Lie and Chen Dashan almost simultaneously discovered a wolf hidden in the forest.
No, more than one.
The two men paused and raised their hands to stop the people behind them. Chen Lie whispered, "There is a wolf ahead." He then glanced at Sang Luo beside him and signaled her to hide.
Chen Dashan and Lu Erlang immediately checked the woods around them to see if there were any wolves hiding. Sang Luo understood and quickly looked around. She saw three wolves in the woods about four or five feet away from them.
While the two sides were still sizing each other up, Sang Luo quickly locked onto a large tree about ten feet behind her, reached out and gently pulled Shi Erlang's frightened wife, carefully and slowly put down the sack in her hands and the backpack on her body, and took out the bow and quiver that had been placed on the backpack and put it on her back.
Shi Erlang's wife had also experienced these things when she first went into the mountains. She swallowed, finally came to her senses, and followed Sang Luo's actions to make preparations.
Chen Lie and Chen Dashan had already bent their bows and drawn their arrows. Those who were good at archery followed suit, and those who were not good at archery also clenched their weapons. At this time, the wolves on the opposite side also made up their minds to attack, and jumped up and rushed towards this side.
As soon as the wolves moved, Sang Luo and Shi Erlang's wife rushed to the tree as fast as they could. They climbed up the tree so quickly, one in front and one behind, and soon they each occupied a branch and sat down. They watched the battle situation carefully and saw that two of the wolves that were running towards them fell down while running, having been shot by arrows.
For those behind, it was no use relying on bows and arrows as they were too close. Chen Lie put away his bow and arrows, and rushed forward with Chen Dashan, swords raised. A group of people followed suit as if they had received an order, and engaged in close combat.
At this point Sang Luo and Shi Erlang's wife could see clearly that there were eight wolves. Two of them were quickly killed, leaving six.
Both of them were sweating as they pulled the bows, which were no longer so skillful. The people and wolves below were now moving targets, fighting in a melee. With their archery skills, they didn't dare to shoot at all and could only wait.
One wolf discovered Sang Luo and the other person, but considering the height, it still chose to attack the people on the ground. It and another wolf went around to the back of the crowd, which was the closest position to Sang Luo and the others. Sang Luo seized the opportunity, drew her bow and shot an arrow.
The first arrow, as expected, missed because the wolves were moving.
The second arrow, the third arrow, the fourth arrow, until the fourth arrow hit the target!
An arrow hit the wolf's hind leg, but due to the limited force and the fact that it was a bamboo arrow, it was impossible to kill it with one arrow like Chen Lie and the others did. The wolf was enraged and it turned around and stared at the two people, trying to pounce on the tree.
Shi Erlang's wife was so frightened that she almost screamed, but she knew that she couldn't distract her man at this time, so she held it back.
Sang Luo, on the other hand, knew clearly that at the height they were at, it was unlikely for the wolf to pounce on them. Seeing that the wolf turned its head and stared at them, she took out a small porcelain bottle from her arms, dipped the arrowhead of a bamboo arrow in it, covered the porcelain bottle and put it back, then put the arrow on it. She didn't care how the wolf roared and howled as it pounced upwards. She just aimed at it, found an opportunity, and shot an arrow at the right time!
The wolf was originally pouncing upwards and was very close, so I hit it with one arrow!
The wound was not very deep at first, at most some blood would be seen, and it would not be fatal. But it was different after being stained with arrow poison. When the wolf once again rushed towards the tree in anger, its body stiffened slightly, and then it lost its balance and fell down. It was impossible to stand up again, and could only wail and struggle, and finally fell down unwillingly.
Shi Erlang's wife!!!
He almost wanted to scream out "Ahhhhhhh!" But he held back and excitedly grabbed Sang Luo's arm: "Ah Luo, you're amazing!"
She looked towards the wolves eagerly, wishing that if there was another one, she could shoot a few arrows at it! ! ! !
But obviously she did not have the chance to do as she wished. Of the eight wolves, two were killed at the beginning, and one was shot dead at close range by Sang Luo using medicine. As for the remaining five, more than ten men below attacked them with hoes, knives and axes. Within half an hour, three of them fell down, and two escaped and were shot dead by Chen Lie, Chen Dashan and Lu Erlang.
This thing holds a grudge, so we can't let it get away.
Uncle Xu and Zhou Dalang were slightly injured, but the others were fine.
Chen Lie was sure that there was no danger nearby, so he looked up at Sang Luo on the tree. He took a quick look during the battle to make sure that she had already climbed up the tree. Now seeing someone smiling at him on the tree, he couldn't help but laugh. He strode over and motioned for Sang Luo to come down.
Sang Luo got down from the tree carefully. As soon as she landed and turned around, she saw Chen Lie looking at her and asked, "Are you scared?"
Before she could answer, Shi Erlang's wife, who had stepped down from the tree, said repeatedly, "No, no, did you see the wolf? Ah Luo shot it."
It was so exciting that it was no less exciting than if she had shot it herself.
Chen Lie also saw the wolf lying not far from the tree, with a bamboo arrow stuck in its body, which was slightly bloody.
Sang Luo was also a little excited, with a smile in her eyes, and asked, "My archery training was not in vain, was it?"
After joking, he said seriously, "Actually, I was very close to him, so I was lucky to have shot him. Otherwise, my strength and accuracy were not enough, it was just luck."
Chen Lie was very happy, his face full of smiles: "Very impressive."
Just this adaptability and courage are very strong.
…
Zhou Laizi and his son stared blankly at the wolves on the ground. The father and son had just been howling for a while, and only after the fight was over did they regain consciousness.
There are so many wolves near their home!
What was even more surprising was that Chen Lie and his group reacted so quickly when they encountered the wolves.
The father and son turned to look at Sang Luo and Shi Erlang's wife who came down from the tree, and then looked at the wolf shot by Sang Luo. They were really dumbfounded and very excited.
Chen Dashan looked at the wolves on the ground, then at everyone's already half-full backpacks, and looked at Chen Lie: "Why don't we send the stuff to Uncle Zhou first and sort it out before we set off?"
After all, it's still early, it's only noon, it would be a pity to go home now.
Chen Lie had the same idea. He couldn't go any deeper with the stuff. It would be a waste of time to turn back now, so he turned to Zhou Laizi and asked, "Uncle Zhou, can we leave the stuff over there first? If the smell of blood attracts wild animals, can we leave a few people over there to deal with it?"
How could Zhou Laizi have any objection? He nodded repeatedly: "Okay, okay."
Next came the distribution of the prey. Those that were shot belonged to whoever shot them, and those that were killed in a group were divided equally among those who killed them. In the end, Chen Lie and Chen Dashan each got one and a half, Lu Erlang got one, Sang Luo got one, and the other three were divided equally among Zhou Laizi and his son, Zhou Cunzheng's two sons, Chen Youtian, Lu Sanlang, Xu Shu, Xu Wenqing, and Shi Erlang.
Three people share a wolf equally!
The Zhou brothers, Zhou Laizi and his son, and the Xu family, all of whom rarely see meat, were extremely excited.
Except for Zhou Laizi's family, every family that went out hunting brought medicine for wounds. However, both of them were only scratched and their clothes were torn, but the wounds on their bodies were not serious. They were reluctant to use medicine. They just walked around nearby based on their experience and found some herbs, chewed them and made a paste with them and that was it.
The wolves were still bleeding, so they didn't carry them directly. Instead, the group got some wooden sticks as thick as arms, tied up the eight wolves with vines, and carried them back.
It had been less than two hours since they came out when they returned with a full pack of wolves. Zhou Laizi's wife and their children were all stunned. They all ran to the bottom of the mountain. When they saw so many wolves, they were frightened and stunned.
"No one was hurt?"
The mother and daughter both looked at Zhou Laizi and his son, and then at everyone else.
Zhou Laizi laughed so hard that his mouth couldn't close. He kept saying, "No, no."
Then he thought of Uncle Xu and Dalang Zhou and said, "Old Brother Xu and Changming were slightly injured."
Changming was Zhou Dalang's name. When he heard Zhou Laizi mention him, he smiled and said to Zhou Laizi's wife, "Aunt, it's okay. It's just a scratch. I've applied the medicine paste."
Zhou Laizi's wife then laughed: "It's good that you're alright."
Looking at so many wolves, I felt very excited, but I wondered if there was any share for me.
As if knowing what she was thinking, while everyone was setting up stakes at the edge of the forest to prepare for skinning, Zhou Laizi whispered to his wife, "Erlang and I can share about 60 to 70 kilograms of meat."
This is a conservative calculation, after the skin is removed, the blood is drained, and the internal organs are drained.
His wife and daughter opened their mouths slightly into circles, as if a pie had fallen from the sky, and the mother and daughter almost held their breath.
Zhou Laizi smiled and went to help Chen Lie and the others.
The wolves had to be skinned and divided first, and the pheasants, rabbits and other things would be dealt with by Chen Lie and the other hunting veterans later, but they could not take care of the collected things for the time being, so Shi Erlang's wife discussed with Sang Luo and thought about putting the things together, putting them in sacks and placing them in the small courtyard surrounded by wooden fences at Zhou Laizi's house, and then freeing up a backpack and following the hunters inside.
Sang Luo looked at the area outside the courtyard where the Zhou family was driving wooden stakes. She heard Chen Lie say that it was for planting, but there was still a lot of space outside the area that the Zhou family was going to fence off. Thinking of the large fields of cattails at the water source she had just passed, and looking at the countless mountains around here that had never been explored, another idea came to her mind.
Just then, Zhou Laizi's wife came over, and Sang Luo hurriedly called her over: "Aunt Zhou, I have something to discuss with you."
Zhou Laizi's wife hurriedly pulled her daughter and walked a few steps quickly, saying, "Alie's wife, if there is anything, just tell me."
Sang Luo said, "We have probably been looking for mountain products in the mountains throughout the fall. We should be around here during this period. I think it is not very convenient to transport fresh mountain products or freshly hunted meat directly back. In a situation like today, we can still go hunting in the afternoon. If we are busy transporting them back, we will waste time on the road. Do you think we can go cut some cattails and make some cattail mats, and put the mountain products that need to be dried here first, and then bring them back together after they are dry?"
The sunshine time in the valley is much shorter than outside, and the open space is really limited. It is not as convenient to dry things as outside. It is okay to only dry a little bit at ordinary times, but it will be difficult to dry more. In addition, we don't plan to go in and out frequently. It always takes someone to watch over the things drying outside the village, which is a waste of manpower, and too much time is wasted on the way back and forth.
Sang Luo thought it would be much cheaper to process them all at the Zhou family's place first. Of course, if the Zhou family disagreed, they could choose a piece of land nearby and build a small area where people could stay safely, and they could also just dry the things outside.
When you are no longer in the Zhou family area and go to another place, you can first find a piece of land to make a drying yard, and leave a few people in the safe area to guard and do some drying work. It's the same.
In this way, you can stay far away from the valley and have a safe place to stay at night, and you don't have to rush back frequently and waste time on the road. It is much cheaper.
The more she thought, the clearer her thoughts became, and the brighter Sang Luo's eyes became.
After she asked the question, Zhou Laizi's wife responded within a few seconds: "Of course, it's not difficult. You can free up your backpacks and go to the mountains. Just put the things here to dry. If there is anything you need to deal with, just let me know. We are free now."
Chen Lie and Chen Dashan were kindhearted. They brought their family here safely, found a place for them to settle down, and gave them a chance to make a living. She was worried about how to repay them, so being able to help out a little would be something she had been more than happy to receive.
What's more, Chen Lie and his friends had only been here for half a day, and their family not only got a lot of mushrooms and fruits, but also sixty to seventy kilograms of wolf meat. Sang Luo and the others would be busy around for a while, which meant they would be taken with them. This was a good thing that could not be asked for.
Think about it from another perspective, eight wolves.
If they hadn't hunted today, they might have surrounded their house someday. Zhou Laizi's wife now thinks that she is lucky. She also hopes that Chen Lie and the others will hunt in this area for a while longer so that they can have a better winter and have hope for safety and food.
Seeing that she agreed, Sang Luo smiled and said, "Thank you for your hard work, Auntie. If there is a sudden rain, please take care of it. We will do the rest ourselves."
"It's not hard, it's not hard, it's all I should do. I haven't thanked you for taking care of our family yet." Then he said to the eldest daughter beside him, "Go tell your father and eldest and second brothers to cut some cattails and make mats."
Shi Erlang's wife's eyes lit up when she heard this. She also said, "I'll go get my Shi Er to come with us. He can't do the skinning job well, so he's just standing there doing nothing."
Sang Luo laughed and said to Zhou Laizi's wife, "I'll go over there too."
I told Chen Lie about my thoughts.
Chen Dashan, Xu Shu, and Chen Youtian, who were standing nearby, all listened with their eyes lit up: "This is a good idea. When we go hunting in the future, we should first choose a place where mountain products are processed. It will be much easier to carry them out after they are processed."
Grapes and raisins, hawthorn and dried hawthorn, bloody fresh meat and dried meat, can they be carried back in the same way? Of course, the dried ones are easier to carry, do not take up space, have no bloody smell, and do not attract big things.
Besides, they know their own business. There are really not many plots of land left in the valley where they can stand, let alone dry large quantities of mountain products.
Chen Youtian immediately took out a sickle from his backpack and said, "I'll go cut cattails too."
Uncle Xu, Zhou Dalang and Zhou Erlang also followed.
Chen Lie saw it, glanced at Chen Dashan, and said, "I'll come this way, you follow me. The land with cattails is a long way from here, don't run into anything they can't deal with."
At that moment, the people were divided into three groups. Chen Dashan led a group of men to cut cattails, Chen Lie took Lu Er, Lu San and Xu Wenqing who was interested in learning these things to skin the wolf and divide the meat, Sang Luo and Shi Erlang's wife borrowed two ceramic basins from Zhou's house, filled them with mountain spring water, and washed their own grapes and hawthorns first. The Zhou family also found their own backpacks and took out the grapes to wash.
No one here has ever dried raisins before, so they were a little hesitant. Mrs. Zhou Laizi asked, "Do we need to pick them one by one and wash them?"
Sang Luo shook her head: "No, wash them in bunches and dry them in bunches. When they are dry enough, they will fall off one by one. And if you dry them in bunches, you can hang them up to dry, which saves space and trouble."
Zhou's mother and daughter and Shi Erlang's wife soon saw what it meant to hang and dry. Wasn't their house surrounded by a full wooden wall? Sang Luo went to find Chen Lie, and the two of them went out for a while and brought back a lot of thin bamboo poles from outside. They chopped off the branches and twigs, cleaned them a little, and directly set up several drying poles on the wooden wall.
The grapes from the three families were hung on a drying pole, each with its own full grapes. It was such a beautiful sight!!!
There were still quite a few thin bamboo poles left, and Chen Lie helped to set them up, leaving quite a few empty poles.
Chen Youtian and his friends hadn't come back yet, so Sang Luo called out to them, "Let's help them hang the grapes up."
When Chen Youtian and his friends came back from cutting cattails, there were already several poles of wild grapes drying outside the Zhou family's yard. Bunches of purple grapes were arranged up and down to form a small grape wall. It was a spectacular sight.
"Have you taken care of everything for us?"
Sang Luo smiled and said, "Yes, there are the same marks on the bamboo poles as on your arrows. You can identify which pole belongs to you."
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