Chapter 18 Rock Frog
On March 15th, the rain began to fall more frequently, often for several days in a row, and the water levels of streams and rivers were rising rapidly.
“Huff, huff…”
Under the eaves of the bamboo house, Jiang Xuan was working hard to dig a drainage ditch with a bone hoe, and Chi Shao and others were doing the same thing.
When the rain increases, water easily accumulates under the eaves. If there are no gutters, their bamboo houses will be wet everywhere.
Fortunately, the top of the bamboo roof was covered with two thick layers of bark, and it was a newly built bamboo house, so the leakage was not serious.
After digging drainage ditches around the bamboo house, rainwater flowed back to the stream along the drainage ditches.
Because of the rain, muddy water from the mountains rushed into the stream, causing the stream to become very turbid and the water flow increased.
Jiang Xuan wiped the rain off his face, washed the bone hoe, and then returned to the bamboo house.
"Everyone, have some ginger soup."
Because they dug drainage ditches in the rain, all five of them got soaked. Although they were all warriors now and had relatively strong physiques, Jiang Xuan was still afraid of catching a cold from the rain, so he cooked ginger soup in a clay pot in advance.
Jiang Xuan wrapped the boiling hot clay pot with thick bamboo shoots, and then poured a bowl of ginger soup for everyone.
The ginger is wild ginger, which has a very strong flavor, and no sugar is added, so the soup made from it is rather unpalatable.
But the tribesmen were more receptive and had eaten much more unpalatable things, so drinking a bowl of ginger soup was nothing for them.
Soon, everyone drank up the ginger soup in their bowls.
The other pottery jar contained bamboo shoots stewed with bighorn mutton, which had been stewed for a long time. Jiang Xuan used chopsticks to pick up the mutton from the pottery jar and eat it.
As the weather warms up and the rainfall increases, the bamboo shoots in the bamboo forest grow like crazy. Even inside the bamboo houses, bamboo shoots emerge from the ground from time to time.
These bamboo shoots naturally become food and are great for stewing meat.
After drinking ginger soup, eating mutton, and roasting by the fire, my body soon became warm. The damp and cold feeling brought by the rain was swept away, and my spirits were lifted.
Uncaria complained: "It rains every day, so I can't go hunting. The stream is also swollen, and the fish traps I dug before are all submerged. They are useless."
Jiang Xuan looked up at the bighorn mutton being smoked above the fire pit and said, "It's okay. This meat is enough for us to eat for a while. What's more, we have a lot of fish, so we won't starve."
The others nodded. Only the meat hanging above the fire pit made them feel at ease. The feeling of being hungry was too uncomfortable.
“It’s not like we can’t go hunting at all.”
Chishao suddenly stared outside the bamboo house and said, "Rain has its benefits. Some prey like to come out on rainy days."
Chishao put down the bowl, suddenly picked up the spear, and walked out of the bamboo house.
"Gu Gua..."
A loud frog croak suddenly sounded, the sound was so loud that it shook the bamboo forest.
"frog!"
Jiang Xuan's eyes lit up, and he immediately took his spear and ran out with Chi Shao.
Both of them ran away, and Uncaria, Shiqiu and Nanxing also went out with their spears.
Outside the bamboo house, on the newly opened farmland, there was a giant frog the size of a washbasin squatting there, constantly using its tongue to roll up insects that emerged from the ground and eat them.
This is a rock frog.
It is bluish-gray in color and looks like a rock from a distance, so it is called rock frog.
Because it had rained for several days, the soil was soaked. The insects underground could not stand it and burrowed to the ground. These insects became a delicacy for rock frogs.
Jiang Xuan and his friends have eaten a lot of these insects that came out on rainy days.
Perhaps to avoid the rain, insects of all sizes ran towards the bamboo house, some climbed onto the wall, and some even crawled directly into the house.
There was no reason for Jiang Xuan to refuse the food that was delivered to his door. As long as they were edible, he would catch them all and roast them.
Similarly, rainy days make it easy for frogs that are not afraid of water to prey on insects, and they are days of carnival for them.
Of course, what they didn't expect was that they were also regarded as food.
Chishao did not run towards the rock frog. He even bent down and waved behind him, signaling Jiang Xuan and others to slow down.
Frogs are also one of the foods on the tribe’s diet.
The long years of hunting have allowed them to summarize a lot of experience in dealing with various prey.
Frogs have very poor eyesight, but they can clearly sense fast-moving objects and avoid them.
The slower an object moves, or even if it is completely still, it is harder to see it.
Therefore, Chishao walked very slowly, approaching the rock frog little by little.
When she felt she was close enough to the rock frog to stab it with her spear, Chishao really took action.
“Whoosh!”
Chishao suddenly accelerated, raised his spear, and stabbed at the washbasin-sized rock frog.
At this point, it was too late for the rock frog to turn around and jump away, so it could only jump to the side with all its might.
However, Chishao was quick-witted and stabbed the rock frog in the back before it jumped, preventing it from jumping.
"Gu Gua..."
The rock frog stared on its four legs and struggled to its death.
Chishao pulled out a stone knife from his waist and stabbed it into the back of the rock frog's head. The rock frog's limbs suddenly stretched straight, and it was obvious that it was dead.
"What a big frog!"
Jiang Xuan who came over from behind exclaimed in amazement. In this world, be it insects or animals, all of them were extremely large.
Chishao grabbed one of the rock frog's legs and lifted it upside down, saying, "This is still small. I heard from the old man in the hunting team that they caught a rock frog before, and the frog's legs were thicker than a human's legs."
How big would that be? Jiang Xuan was very shocked just by imagining it.
The three young men were also envious and wished they could catch such a big rock frog.
"Go back."
Chishao walked back holding the washbasin-sized rock frog, while Jiang Xuan and the three teenagers followed happily behind him. No one even cared about getting wet in the rain.
After returning to the bamboo house, Chishao laboriously used a stone knife to cut open the skin of the rock frog's abdomen, and then removed the internal organs and intestines. Jiang Xuan threw these internal organs and intestines into the pond to feed the carnivorous fish.
Afterwards, Chishao cut the rock frog into pieces, skewered the frog legs and body with wooden sticks, and roasted them over the fire.
As the frog meat is roasted at high temperature, it gradually changes from white to the color of barbecue, and the fat in the meat seeps out, making a sizzling sound.
The meat of the rock frog has a special feature, which is that it contains a peculiar oil. After being roasted, it has a very strong aroma that makes people drool when they smell it.
“It smells so good!”
Jiang Xuan smelled the aroma of the meat and couldn't help but tear a piece of meat from the roasted part and put it into his mouth.
This is a taste that is completely different from ordinary animal meat.
The meat of the rock frog is very tender after being roasted, and has little fishy smell. Even without seasoning, just one bite is unforgettable.
“What a delicious delicacy!”
After Jiang Xuan swallowed the frog meat, he exclaimed.
Chishao smiled and said, "If it tastes good, eat more. It's so big, it's enough for the five of us to have a full meal."
After the rock frog was roasted, the five people began to feast on it. Jiang Xuan even held a huge frog leg and chewed it, enjoying it very much.
The soldiers were very strong and had big appetites. They ate a rock frog as big as a basin cleanly. They were even not satisfied and ate some bighorn sheep meat before they were satisfied.
Thanks to the book friend "Free as the Wind" for the reward.
Thanks to the book friend “…” for the reward.
(End of this chapter)
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