book of old days

Chapter 79
The dogs cost him another ten guineas, no doubt much cheaper than the briquettes, but still a considerable outlay.

The next step is to buy a sled.

There are several wood workshops in Nordfössen, and almost all of them sell sleds. Here, sleds are the main means of transportation in winter, and large sleds are the most common. This kind of large sled needs to consider lightness and durability. Pine and birch are usually used Or made of spruce wood, the sled boards are polished very smooth, and more elegant ones need to be painted with a layer of paint to increase the smoothness, and then some decorative patterns are carved on the body of the sled, which is as solemn as buying a car.

Local people usually buy custom-made sleds in advance, but Sean didn’t have that much time. He decided to use his superpowers again and bought a spruce wood sled with top configuration for 12 gold pounds. The sled was wrapped with thin steel plates, which is light And strong.

Next is the food supply. Sean almost prepared the winter food again, buying a lot of bacon, hard bread, lard, dried mushrooms, sausages, wild onions and even cabbage and apples. It is not suitable for travel, because it is heavy and low in calories, so it is not cost-effective, but Sean has a dimension pocket, so he is not so particular.

Sean did some calculations, and he spent more than 30 gold pounds for this day's work, not counting his bearskin coat.

It seems that this winter hunting is really a money-burning business.

Driving the carriage to pull the things back, the snow on the ground was pressed hard due to the weather, and I can walk for the time being, but it will not be so convenient when it freezes hard in a few days.

Sean decided to start training the ability of sledging in advance. When he went to find Ragnar at night, he didn't ride a horse. Instead, he walked for half an hour to Nordfössen. He was going to turn around and drive the sled home directly.

It was already dark when he reached Ragnar's house.

As soon as Xiao En entered the courtyard, he saw a large pot set up on the open space in the courtyard. The fire was burning vigorously, and the inside was bubbling and bubbling. The rich smell of meat filled the air, and several sled dogs were in the corner Gnawing on the bones.

Sean was a little surprised, seeing how his posture seemed to be setting up a banquet, he greeted Ragnar: "I've bought everything, so what else do I need to prepare?"

Ragnar was skinning a deer, which seemed to be newly skinned in the past two days.He threw the chunks of venison into a nearby basin and wiped the blood from his hands with a sackcloth.

"There is only one thing left to do next—to get fat."

He said it seriously, making Sean confused for a moment whether he was joking or not.

"Get fat? Do you mean gain weight?"

"That's right, gaining weight."

Following Ragnar's explanation, Sean finally understood the reason.

Hunting in the ice and snow is a very energy-intensive and calorie-consuming thing. Under high-intensity labor and cold weather, people's weight will drop rapidly, so accumulating enough fat has become a necessary job, otherwise May not know which morning will not wake up. "

A large amount of fat can not only help keep out the cold, but also in case of a break, a few pounds of fat can last for a few more days, so every time before the winter hunting, the hunting leader will lead the team to have a meal to gain weight, and by the way contact Get emotional.

Sean was surprised by this answer, but it made sense after thinking about it.

This is not a difficult task, isn't it just eating.

Sean smelled the aroma of the meat, and watched Ragnar fish out the big piece of meat from the pot, and put the juice in the basin, and he actually looked forward to it.

Someone came soon, first a few familiar hunters, then the old man Milok, and then a few less familiar hunters. When it was getting dark, the hall of Ragnar's house was already full of people. people.

Everyone sits around a huge round table with bread, oatmeal, and pots of roast and stew in front of them.

Ragnar's cooking is very Nord style. Large pieces of meat are stewed and stewed, seasoned simply with salt and wild onions.

A layer of honey is brushed on top of the barbecue to add flavor. Although the technique is rough, the appearance is not bad.

He glanced at the people around him, and there were a few Sean recognized, including old Miloch, Scar Wilson, and the guy who seemed to be called a cripple, but he couldn't name most of them, but the people who knew him were more More, Sean was surprised to find several people who couldn't name them at all greeted him.

After chatting for a few words, I realized that they seemed to be friends I made after getting drunk that day.

"Let me introduce you. This is John Smith, my new friend. Although he is from Brighton, he is very nice. This time Winter Hunting will act with us."

Then Ragnar introduced those hunters to Sean one by one.

"This is Scar Wilson, the one with the glove is Sigmund the Iron Arm, the one with the gold tooth is Aldous the Gold tooth, the one with the long legs is Bjorn the Farstrider, and this is Tyre the Fat Waugh, Alec the Redbeard, Edin the Lame..."

The nicknames of these hunters are simple and easy to understand, and they are very appropriate to their images. Sean can easily memorize the names and nicknames of these people.

"So each of you has nicknames?"

"of course."

"Then what's your name?"

Gold-toothed Aldos interjected, "Ragnar the Bear Slayer, he once hacked a brown bear to death with an axe."

Pretty domineering, Sean said in his heart, "Then I'll call him 'Handsome Smith'."

The hunters laughed out loud when they heard this, and the fat man laughed and said, "Haha, that's not acceptable, the nickname has to be created by someone else."

"Okay, then you have to give me a nice one."

"It's hard to say, nicknames always appear inadvertently—"

At this moment Ragnar raised his hand, and everyone fell silent immediately.He glanced at everyone present, "The first snow fell late this year, I'm afraid it will be extremely cold then, but the colder it is, the better the animal's fur will be. You are all good hunters and understand that we will What will I face, I won’t talk nonsense, tonight, let’s enjoy this feast to the fullest, let’s eat.”

Everyone started to move immediately, everyone gnawed meat, drank wine, and ate nonsense.

There were only the sounds of biting, chewing, and babbling, making Sean feel as if he was among a group of wild beasts.

Before he had time to make a choice, a large piece of wild boar knuckle was thrown onto Sean's dinner plate.

While gnawing on a deer leg, Ragnar beckoned him to eat it quickly.

Since Xiao En is going to participate in winter hunting, he naturally wants to do as the Romans do, so he picks up the pork knuckle and starts to eat it.

I have to say that the meat smells very good, and it tastes very strong, but it is a bit greasy. Sean gnawed on the stewed squishy skin and the pork inside, and after a few mouthfuls, he felt a little overwhelmed. A gulp of mead downed the meat, and the fight went on.

After finally eating a pork knuckle, I felt very satisfied and burped a lot—even the burp smelled like meat.

"It's not over yet, this is where it is."

As Ragnar spoke, he picked up another piece of venison. The fat and thin meat looked very tender, and the juice was covered with oily flowers, but Sean couldn't stand it anymore. It sounds very enjoyable to eat meat, but The taste is too single, either meat or fat, it is really unpalatable.

He took a few bites pickily, but Ragnar didn't take it seriously, "It's useless to eat only lean meat, but eat more fat meat, and this thing will grow fat." As he spoke, he took a large piece of fat with the skin on Throwing it onto Sean's plate, Sean couldn't help but feel his stomach beating as he looked at the plate that was filled in an instant.

(End of this chapter)