Chapter 172 Entering the Mountains
Everyone in the team was very happy with the harvest.
They returned excitedly the same way, with smiles on their faces, and walked quickly forward, eager to tell their neighbors about this new discovery.
When Huo Bing came to a fork in the road, he ran inside quickly.
The person next to him raised his voice and asked, "What are you going to do?"
Don't panic, after all, the road is paved and there is no need to worry about not finding the way back.
Hearing the shout, the person in front stopped and turned to look at Huo Bing who had stepped into the bushes.
Huo Bing threw a long wooden stick he picked up into the dense grass, and the onlookers looked confused.
The wooden stick made a noise when it fell to the ground, and several fat rabbits ran out quickly, shuttling through the weeds.
Huo Bing stared at one of them with sharp eyes, followed its escape route, took a deep breath, calmed his mind, quickly raised the crossbow, aimed at the hare, and at the moment before the fat rabbit was about to disappear in the grass, he pulled the trigger and the arrow shot towards the fat rabbit like lightning!
The fat rabbit was shot accurately and fell to the ground. After struggling for a few times, it stopped moving.
Huo Bing restrainedly raised the corners of his lips into a slight arc, then quickly ran over, picked up the rabbit, pulled out the arrow, wiped the blood off on the weeds, put it back into the crossbow, and then walked towards the squad holding the fat rabbit by its ears.
From the time they left the squad to the time they shot the rabbit and came back, it felt like everything happened in an instant, so fast that they didn't even have time to react.
Now, looking at the fat rabbit in Huo Bing's hand, everyone in the team was shocked.
No, we are all human beings, why can others complete the task brilliantly and even have extra food to eat at home on the way back?
And they thought of nothing!
Dozens of people stared at the fat rabbit and swallowed their saliva. This was meat, and it was rare rabbit meat!
"A Bing, how do you know there are rabbits over there?" Feng Xing came forward and asked curiously.
Qili Village, no, the entire Xingcheng is very flat. There are rabbits in the fields, but very few. They have only seen them from afar and know what rabbits look like, but have never eaten them, let alone caught them.
"My mother told me that rabbits like to live in places with dense grass. When I came here, I heard some small noises in the grass over there, so I remembered the direction and thought of giving it a try when I came back.
Fortunately, we have the crossbow. The rabbit runs too fast, and we would never be able to catch it if we were to chase it alone." Huo Bing said directly without hiding anything.
Everyone just saw how fast the rabbit ran. It was indeed very fast, faster than any dog they had ever raised!
"No wonder you need a bow and arrow to hunt. Hares and sheep run fast, pheasants and ducks can fly, and jackals, wolves, tigers and leopards are too ferocious to fight head-on."
"We can't shoot a bow, but we can use a crossbow. Does that mean we can hunt?"
"Yeah, I heard from the hunters in the city that the fur is the best and the meat is the fattest in autumn. If we can hunt some and store it for the winter, won't we have meat to eat?"
"The sun hasn't even completely set yet, why am I dreaming? Is hunting so easy? If you encounter a ferocious beast in the mountains, you can still fight it out, but what if you encounter a poisonous snake or centipede? What do you think you will do?" Feng Tao ruthlessly broke the illusion.
The team that was originally having a heated discussion suddenly fell silent, and everyone walked back in silence.
Huo Bing, who was walking at the end of the team, was thinking about the feasibility.
She had heard that snakes were most afraid of realgar, and that snakes would avoid it if it was mixed with realgar powder. Her mother also said that centipedes and the like were medicinal herbs, and that the city's pharmacies bought them at a high price...
The people who stayed behind in Qili Village were delighted when they heard that there was an entrance and that they had actually found it.
When they heard that Huo Bing had hunted a wild rabbit, they all came over to watch.
When they saw the fat rabbit with thick and soft fur, everyone's eyes lit up, and when they looked at Huo Bing, they wished she was their own daughter or daughter-in-law.
When I got home, I found myself displeased with my own kid.
"We both took the same time to master the repeating crossbow, so how come he can hit rabbits while you can't hit anything?"
"You're always busy climbing trees and swimming in the water, and you can't do anything serious. I don't care. If you want to eat meat, practice your crossbow! Once you're good at it, you'll have endless meat to eat!"
"We've changed the rules in our house. From now on, whoever shoots prey, whether it's a rabbit, pheasant, wild sheep, or deer, will get a whole leg!"
.....
While other families were filled with mixed feelings of worry and anxiety, Shen Qing's family happily prepared rabbit meat.
Jiang Xiangdong first took the wild rabbit to the water's edge to clean it up.
I had experience in processing wool materials and nitre-making rabbit skins. Lime was also readily available, so I simply soaked the entire rabbit skin in lime water.
It takes at least one to one and a half days to soak.
Then the grease, blood and dirt on the rabbit skin are cleaned, and finally it is tanned repeatedly - these are what Shen Qing saw on the tools he bought in the mall.
The specific operation is much more complicated and tedious, but it should be done after entering the mountain. Now you just need to soak it.
On the other side, Jiang Xiangxi used an axe to chop the hare into appropriate small pieces. Jiang Yu took out a handful of pickled peppers from the pickle jar, poured oil into the wok, and stir-fried the rabbit cubes according to the steps taught by Shen Qing.
The aroma of rabbit meat filled the air, and the others' mouths began to salivate. While they were nibbling at the food, they were determined to practice their accuracy with their crossbows!
The nights in the mountains were obviously much colder, so all the carriages in the team were given to the younger children, while the others fell asleep around the fire.
Early the next morning, the fire had died down and many people were awakened by the cold.
Zhao Mingyue shivered and said, "It's cold in Jincheng, but why is it even colder in the mountains?"
Li E was scooping corn to make porridge. After hearing this, she said, "I already put a mattress on the bed and covered myself with a quilt last night, but it still didn't warm up."
In the past in Qili Village, at least we wouldn’t feel cold at night if we covered ourselves with quilts in the winter. But in Jincheng, winter hasn’t even arrived yet, and there are not enough quilts. How are we going to survive when winter comes?
The women who had risen early to prepare food interjected, "Winter is incredibly long, five months long. It's almost half a year already. We have not only the people but also the donkeys, so we have to put in all our energy to store firewood and fodder."
"We have to buy cotton too. I'm afraid the cotton clothes we used to wear are too thin."
"After buying cotton, I have to buy fabric, and also quilts and mattresses... Oh, it will cost a lot of money."
The more we talked, the more we felt that there were too many places to spend money and too much work to do. Time waits for no one, so after a quick breakfast, we hurried to the entrance.
Feng Mengjiang led the way westward.
Following behind were many vehicles.
Yesterday, they only managed to cut a barely passable path. Now the cart was moving on the bumpy road, shaking abnormally, and branches on both sides would occasionally brush against their faces. The thin branches bounced on their faces, and the soreness and pain made many children prefer to get off and walk.
Finally, everyone arrived in front of the big tree at the entrance.
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