Chapter 189 Takin, leopard, or badger?
After breakfast, the three of them set out to look for new prey.
The direction we are heading is closer to Taibai Mountain, and I hope to gain something.
When we set out, everyone brought some dry food with them and did not return until noon.
Mount Taibai is extremely tall, and Lin Heng and others dare not climb it. In winter, it is covered with ice and snow, and is very dangerous.
The most important thing is that it may be two or three in the afternoon when we climb up, and we need to travel at night when we come back.
Traveling at night in the primitive Taibai Mountain without any modern protective facilities is undoubtedly no different from committing suicide.
Of course, there are still some roads that were built in ancient times, but the danger has not decreased, and those ancient roads may be even more unsafe.
After searching in the mountains for more than three hours, Lin Heng couldn't help but sigh: "It seems that today's luck is much worse than yesterday."
It was already noon and he hadn't seen a single squirrel. It was as if his luck had run out.
But it’s okay. Thanks to yesterday’s musk deer, he is in the mood to enjoy the scenery today.
Standing on the mountain here, you can see the green mountains at a glance.
In winter, there is still a lot of white snow in the forest, and with the clouds and mist, it is definitely a paradise. No wonder there were always people living in seclusion here in ancient times.
There are people living here in Taibai Mountain, and there is a small town, but it is poorer than Huangtan Town.
Without infrastructure, it would take two or three days for people here to get out of the mountains.
There are no roads, only narrow paths and forest trails. Everything depends on human and animal power, and even tractors cannot drive in.
Lin Heng couldn't see those people from where he was. They were on the other side of the Taibai Mountains and he had to cross the mountains to see them.
"There are some enoki mushrooms."
Lin Heng picked up a mushroom from the snow. Only the enoki mushroom was still growing in the cold snow.
The enoki mushrooms in the snow look particularly authentic in color, brown-yellow, and as lively as elves.
This place is quite primitive, with many rotten trees and a few enoki mushrooms that you can see from time to time.
Before he knew it, it was already afternoon, and Lin Heng still hadn't found any prey. He picked mushrooms and dug some herbs in the woods.
From time to time, the sound of birds can be heard in the silent forest, which is crisp and pleasant, and the quietness is intoxicating.
“Woof woof!”
Suddenly, Xiongba shouted from not far away, and then started digging behind the stone.
When Lin Heng came over, it took out a lot of chestnuts and pine nuts.
"There are pine nuts." Lin Heng showed a hint of surprise.
The cave was full of chestnuts and pine nuts, which was a pleasant surprise.
I took a pine nut, cracked it open and tasted it, and the faint fragrance lingered between my lips and teeth.
"I received it."
Lin Heng took out a bag and took away all the things.
After rubbing Xiongba's dog head, they continued to travel through the woods.
Not long after, two gunshots were heard. Lin Heng was a little curious about what prey they had caught.
Unknowingly, he brought Xiongba to the top of the mountain.
There is a huge white rock in this place, and you can see the emerald green stream at the foot of the mountain, like an emerald belt.
This was not the stream that ran along their camp, but one in another valley.
In addition to the stream, there are mountains in the distance, which make people feel majestic and ethereal while also feeling a sense of despair.
This mountain is too big, even several generations may not be able to walk out.
After looking for a while in the cold wind, Lin Heng went down the mountain.
After the reunion, Lin Heng saw the harvest of his uncle and Grandpa Gao.
His uncle Li Baiquan was holding two golden roosters, and Grandpa Gao was holding four bamboo chickens.
"It seems that your luck has run out today." Grandpa Gao said with a smile.
"Bad luck, but I picked up some mushrooms and we can stew them with chicken." Lin Heng showed the enoki mushrooms in the bag.
"Then we are blessed." Grandpa Gao smiled. Lin Heng's skill in stewing meat was also very good.
When he returned to the shelter, Lin Heng discovered that the hung bacon and musk deer meat had been looted by magpies and crows.
Fortunately, after the musk had dried, he had wrapped it in plastic and carried it with him.
"These things are damn good." Li Baiquan cursed.
"Just put it away tomorrow. It's almost dry." Grandpa Gao said as he looked at the bacon.
This bacon has been smoked and sun-dried, and is now completely dry.
"I'll cook first." Lin Heng shook his head and went to light a fire to cook.
We had rice for dinner, and the dish was fried musk deer entrails. We were destined not to take these things back, so we had to eat them here.
Grandpa Gao and his uncle were processing the prey they had hunted.
"I roasted the musk deer eggs and the gun. Who wants to eat them?" Lin Heng said with a smile. These things smell very good after being roasted.
Grandpa Gao smiled and shook his head: "You young man, eat it. I don't need it, an old man."
"Haha, then give me a musk deer egg." Li Baiquan said with a smile.
Lin Heng handed him an egg and ate the other egg and the gun himself.
There is nothing unclean about the processed food, and it tastes very good.
After dinner, Lin Heng fetched some more water and stewed a golden chicken in the pot, adding nothing else except chestnuts. He placed it by the fire and ate it early the next morning.
When he got up the next day, the water in the pot was almost gone, so Lin Heng hurriedly added some water.
Then add yam, enoki mushrooms and salt, cook for another half an hour and it is ready to eat. The chicken is completely soft and the meat and bones can be separated with a slight tear.
The chicken is full of fragrance and has a light yellow color. The flavors of chestnut and chicken blend perfectly.
"This chicken is stewed well." Grandpa Gao nodded repeatedly. It was so friendly to him and tasted so delicious.
"The meat of the chrysanthemum meat is also good. It tastes good even without adding anything to it." Lin Heng said with a smile.
"Yes." Li Baiquan drank bowl after bowl. It was so delicious.
Drinking chicken soup and soaking the leftover rice from last night together, it tastes so delicious.
It is such a pleasant experience to drink such a bowl of soup on such a cold morning.
Lin Heng’s favorites are chestnuts and enoki mushrooms. One tastes fragrant and glutinous, while the other has a smooth texture.
After finishing the meal, everyone set out again.
Lin Heng began to change his strategy today, holding a rope and setting up traps at some places nearby.
In addition to the Yama King's trap, ordinary noose traps were also set up for a day.
My uncle-in-law also made some arrangements, but Grandpa Gao was not interested in them and ran around in the woods with his gun.
He has been looking for the traces of the bear these two days. Lin Heng had wanted to find it before. Whether it is a black bear or a giant panda, it would be great if he could find it.
But unfortunately, the snow melted and the footprints could not be found, so there was no way to determine where the guy went.
In the next two days, the three people's harvest was not big, just small animals such as golden pheasants, bamboo chickens, grouse, or rabbits.
I ate some and left some.
He went to check out the trap set by Lin Heng, but there was no movement.
In the blink of an eye, it was already December 25th, and they had been in the mountains for nearly ten days.
On the afternoon of the 25th, everyone gathered in the camp. They hadn't made any big gains recently, which made people feel discouraged.
"Lin Heng, when are you planning to go back?" Li Baiquan looked at him and asked.
Lin Heng thought for a moment and said, "Let's stay for another week. Let's wait until the new year is over. I think there is still hope."
"Okay then." Li Baiquan nodded. He actually wanted to go back a little.
Grandpa Gao looked at Lin Heng and said, "Let's go somewhere farther tomorrow."
Lin Heng nodded. This was the only way.
The next morning, they ate some noodles with sauerkraut dumplings and set off early.
After finishing the meal, Li Baiquan said, "I'll be nearby. You two go look from a distance while I check the traps."
He has been running around almost all the time these days, his Liberation shoes are almost worn out, and he hasn't gained anything yet, so he doesn't want to go anymore.
"That's fine too. Uncle, be careful."
Lin Heng nodded and didn't force it. It would be good to take a day off if he was tired.
He set off with Xiongba and Grandpa Gao.
They were already very familiar with the area, and they traveled far all the way. At about eleven o'clock, they took a shortcut, climbed over three mountains, and arrived at a canyon more than ten kilometers away from the camp.
As soon as they entered the canyon, Xiongba found something. Lin Heng walked over and took a look and said quickly, "There are antelopes here, but it's a pity that it's not fresh feces."
There are three forms of antelope feces. When there is enough water, it is in puddles like domestic cattle.
When the water content is less, it is in lumps. When the water content is very scarce, it becomes granular like sheep.
Although the takin has the same name as a cow, it is strictly speaking a member of the subfamily of sheep. It is the largest sheep, generally weighing between 200 and 400 kilograms, and the largest is said to weigh one ton.
The feces that Xiongba found were in clumps and had already dried up, which meant that it had been there for at least half a month.
This is also good news for Lin Heng. Although the takin is not very valuable, it has a lot of meat and can be sold for a lot of money.
Moreover, the fur is very cold-resistant and the price is not low.
If you can kill one, it will be worth about a thousand dollars.
Another characteristic of takins is that they live in groups of more than a dozen.
If you can find one, it means you have found many.
"I found it here too." Grandpa Gao nodded.
The two continued to move forward and found a lot of feces in the canyon, which showed that this was a group of takins and they did not live alone.
Lin Heng became excited. If he found it, this trip to Qinling Mountains would be a great success.
Uncle Gao obviously understood this, and the two of them quickened their pace and searched along the trail.
Before we knew it, we had already found the place in the afternoon. Grandpa Gao said with certainty, "The antelope must have gone to a lower place. We will definitely find it if we follow the canyon down."
Lin Heng also nodded, this was beyond doubt.
"But there is not enough time. Let's go back." Lin Heng said after looking at his watch.
Just as he lowered his head, he suddenly found Xiongba looking in one direction motionlessly.
He looked over and was immediately shocked: "Golden Leopard!!"
At the edge of the forest above the canyon, there stood a huge leopard with a coin pattern, staring at them.
"What?"
Upon hearing this, Grandpa Gao quickly turned his head. The leopard was noticed by the two men and quickly disappeared into the woods.
The clouded leopard is a real big cat, much larger than the clouded leopard. The minimum weight of an adult is 100 kilograms.
Grandpa Gao looked at the place where the leopard disappeared and shook his head: "I'm lucky today, but this thing is too hard to beat, it's very powerful."
"It's just luck that I can see it." Lin Heng also understood this and didn't have any thoughts about it.
To fight the golden leopard, you really need the right time, place and people; none of them can be missing.
The two looked around again and walked back.
On the way back, we met two golden roosters. Two of us took bows and arrows and each shot one. So we were not empty-handed today.
Lin Heng shook his head. The golden roosters in this mountain were in trouble. They had killed nearly ten of them in the past few days.
When they returned to the camp, it was already dark. When Li Baiquan saw them returning home, he smiled and said, "Guess what I found today?"
Seeing that he couldn't close his mouth, Lin Heng asked curiously, "Is it a deer or a wild boar? Did you catch it?"
"Neither. I found a badger cave. There are at least four or five badgers in it. I can't handle it by myself, so I dare not disturb them." Li Baiquan said with a smile.
"Badger hole?" Lin Heng was stunned. This is amazing. If it is really a badger that knows how to do this, then a lot of badgers might have been found.
Grandpa Gao was also a little surprised: "Where did you find it? We said we found traces of takin and leopards. We thought we were lucky enough, but you actually found a badger cave."
Li Baiquan laughed and said, "You guys are lucky. I was lucky too. After I saw the trap, I went to dig yams and medicinal herbs and found it by accident."
He didn't want to leave at all this time.
Lin Heng smiled and said, "Haha, then we have to be lucky too."
According to convention, the discoverer of this kind of cave can get 60% of the profits, and he and Grandpa Gao, who helped, can each get 20%.
If you are unlucky, you will get half a wild hog badger, but if you are lucky, you may get a whole wild hog badger.
"If I didn't know where you went, I would have wanted to dig a hole today." Li Baiquan grinned.
Then he asked about the takin and the leopard. After learning the details, he didn't want to leave at all.
I didn't expect that things would light up so quickly.
The few of them ate dinner quickly. They had been eating chicken or chicken offal these days, and the pig and musk deer offal had already been eaten.
I also ate some bacon.
After dinner, they went to bed without any nonsense. Lin Heng rubbed his feet and slowly fell asleep.
The intensity of this mountain running is no less than that of a military training. It is so difficult to run. The daily distance is more than ten to twenty kilometers, and the Liberation shoes are almost worn out.
It's because I was very tired during the day and slept well at night, so I felt refreshed after peeing in the morning.
I have finished eating the noodles I brought, but there is still some sauerkraut left, so I made some sauerkraut and chicken noodle dumplings in the morning.
The taste is good, but the dumpling soup doesn’t look very good.
"Let's go, let's set off quickly." After finishing his meal, Li Baiquan said impatiently.
Grandpa Gao said, "We have to prepare everything. The hog badger burrows are deep and difficult to get."
Li Baiquan waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, I prepared everything yesterday, we just need to add a little more."
"Okay." Lin Heng nodded, and the four of them went up the mountain together.
We walked along the canyon for a distance, climbed a mountain on the north side, and then crossed over to another ditch.
There are many yam vines here, so it is a good place to dig yams.
"It's just ahead." Li Baiquan said as he led the way.
(End of this chapter)
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