Go back to the valley to farm

Chapter 32 Night Watch
Chapter 32 Vigil

While leading them to the side of the mountain, Li Junge introduced to them the basics of night watch in the mountains, such as long-sleeved clothes and tight trouser legs.

"Zhiqiu, why did we rush to be on the first day just now? It's because we have to make shelters, fire pits and other things tonight. If I don't rush to come, then Uncle Orion will have to come. How much Not suitable."

Then he said: "It happens that you can also experience the experience."

Wu Zhiqiu was very excited and said, "Brother Junge, you can just order me around when the time comes."

After walking through a large unharvested corn field to the side of the mountain, he chose a relatively flat slope. Li Junge said, "Let's build the shed here first. We have to get the shed out before dark. You go there first." Drag some felled corn stalks from the outskirts."

Putting gunpowder and lead on his back, Li Junge went into the woods and dragged a few logs out after a while. Wu Zhiqiu and Li Ermao had already dragged a lot of straw to the slope.

Li Junge framed the wood into two herringbone shapes, tied them firmly with vines, then erected the two herringbone wooden frames, and put a piece of wood on the top as a beam.A shed was fixed out.

Then he went into a bamboo grove and cut a lot of bamboo poles, and tied the poles between the legs of two herringbone frames, parallel to the beams, and tied four bamboo poles on one side.

Then pick up a corn stalk, remove a leaf at the bottom, leaving only the leaf stalk, and then turn the stalk upside down, the part of the leaf stalk becomes a natural hook, through which the straw is hung on the bamboo pole , Said: "Come on, hang up the straw like me, first hang the bamboo poles at the bottom, and then hang the top ones after they are full, and each layer must be full."

The three started to work, and after a while, a corn stalk shack was ready.

Wu Zhiqiu thought it was very fresh, so he went in and out of the shack twice, and said, "This thing is really fun, can it prevent the rain?"

Li Junge smiled and said: "It's too rainy, we have to put plastic sheets on it, but now we don't have to worry about it. Tomorrow, we can drag a cool board to spread it inside, and then we can sleep. Tonight we will put it on Just a moment."

The cool board is a bamboo bed commonly used by people in the countryside. It is cool to sleep on in summer.

Li Junge grabbed a few big stones and built a firepit, and lit a fire with dry grass and twigs in the middle.

At this time, the sky began to darken, and the horizon turned into lavender.

Li Junge scooped up half a pot of water from the creek by the mountain and set it on fire.

After thinking about it, he went to the edge of the forest and brought back some weeds.

Wu Zhiqiu looked at it with great interest, and said, "Junge, is this wild vegetable? Do you want to make wild vegetable soup?"

Li Junge has a black line on his forehead. This guy seems to be a foodie, but who would guard a cornfield to find wild vegetables?Is it bad to eat corn directly?
But he still patiently explained: "No, look at this grass, this one with purple flowers is called Artemisia Sileng, also known as False Cornus. Does it look similar to Cornus coriander? This thing has a scientific name Nepeta."

"Look at this again. There are some small hairs on the leaves. This is mugwort. You should be familiar with it?"

Wu Zhiqiu also had a quick mind, and said, "I see, you are using it to smoke mosquitoes."

Li Junge smiled and said: "That's right, the mosquitoes in the mountains are so powerful that they can't stand it without them."

Pulled some burning charcoal from the fire, threw wormwood and nepeta on it, and soon a puff of smoke with a strong smell rose.

The three of them sat by the firepit looking at the stars and chatting nonsense.

When the water boiled, Li Ermao said to Li Junge: "Erpi, I'll break some corn. It's no fun talking about Longmen formation with an empty mouth."

Li Junge smiled and said, "That's fine, you can go."

Li Ermao ran to the field below the slope, broke off a dozen corn cobs and came back.

Li Junge peeled off a few corn cobs and threw them into the pot, and stuffed the rest into the ashes under the firepit.

Then he stood up and said, "Come on, let's go get some meat."

One of them walked to the stream with a flashlight, walked up the stream, and came to a small wetland.

Seeing a few tube-shaped grasses, Li Junge pulled them up, each with a white stem head and a clump of fibrous roots underneath.

Li Junge said to Wu Zhiqiu: "This is a wild onion. With it, the food we make will taste better."

The wetland was filled with the sound of frogs, and Li Junge searched slowly following the sound of the frogs.

Suddenly, Li Junge's flashlight stopped, and a frog squatted among the light spots on the ground.

Li Ermao walked up gently, stretched out his hand, and easily caught the frog.

Li Junge said to Wu Zhiqiu: "Look, Qiuwa, it's most convenient to catch frogs at night, as long as you use a flashlight, it won't move."

The two gradually became familiar with each other, and they began to call each other casually.

Wu Zhiqiu was very happy and said, "I'll be the next one, I'll be the next one."

There were a lot of frogs on the wetland, and after a while, the three caught more than ten of them.

Li Junge took out the hunting knife, peeled and washed the wild onions and frogs in the stream, picked up a small stone slab by the stream, scrubbed it with thatch, and brought it back to the fire pond.

Take the pot down, the corn inside is already cooked.

The corn in the ash pit was also pulled out, and they were placed on the stones of the firepit to keep warm.

Li Ermao found two bamboo tubes, fished out two corns and inserted them through the bottom, and handed one to Wu Zhiqiu.

Li Junge took out the bottle of wine and said to the two of them: "This is made by Uncle Medicine Master, it is for dehumidification and wind removal, you all have to drink some."

The two drank while gnawing corn, and then watched Li Junge clean up the frogs.

Li Junge put the stone slab on the firepit to burn, and then pressed the wild onion into a cake shape on the stone slab. After a while, the wild onion softened and lay obediently on the stone slab.

I cut a few bamboo sticks and pierced the frog, then put some lard on it, and put it on top of the wild onion to be scalded.

The scent of wild onions and frogs soon came out.

Li Junge also peeled a roasted corn and gnawed on it, while turning the frog back and forth.

After a while the frog was roasted, Li Junge sprinkled a little salt on it, handed it to the two and said, "Come, let's eat."

Wu Zhiqiu couldn't bear to wait a long time ago, but fortunately there was boiled corn on the bottom, so he didn't feel uncomfortable. He tore off a frog's leg and chewed it, screaming that it was hot, and shouting that it was delicious.

Li Ermao slowly gnawed on the frog's leg, shook his head and said, "This slate frog tastes like the tail of a dead fish—don't shake it."

Li Junge smiled at Wu Zhiqiu: "This is a tooth festival. I will get you some river fresh wild game and mountain mushrooms some other day, so that you can have a good time. I just got bamboo rats and catfish at Uncle Carpenter's house at noon today. It's cool."

Wu Zhiqiu said, "Are there many bamboo rats here?"

Li Junge said: "That's a lot, it's almost a disaster. Yesterday I played ten sets, but there were four sets. Uncle Bamboo Carpenter's back mountain is full of holes."

Wu Zhiqiu said: "This thing can be raised. There is information on raising bamboo rats in the county. If you are interested, I can bring you a copy."

"However, this thing has to find a good market, and you can't go on the horse blindly. Now there are a lot of head-scratching projects, which make the farmers hard. It's not uncommon to see things in rotten fields after a year of hard work."

Li Junge patted Wu Zhiqiu and said: "Based on your words, that is the person you can turn to. What you think about is not the grades, but the real benefits that the villagers can get. My cousin runs a restaurant in the county , when the time comes, I’ll ask, if it’s feasible, I’ll keep it for fun.”

Wu Zhiqiu said, "That's fine, then I'll bring you the information some other day."

Li Junge cut some bamboo tubes for the three of them to scoop up the corn water in the pot.

The boiled corn water is sweet and delicious, and it is not bad to drink as a drink.

The moon rose, and insects chirped all around.

They chatted for a while, and Li Junge pulled some corn stalks into the shack, and said to Wu Zhiqiu and Li Ermao, "It's late at night, why don't you go to bed first? Ermao, you can get up in the middle of the night and replace me."

Li Ermao yawned and went into the shack to sleep, but Wu Zhiqiu found it very novel, so he just stood by the firepit with Li Junge.

The mountains at night seem to be silent, but if you listen carefully, you will find many sounds.

There is even a "yo yo" sound from wild animals in the distance.

Wu Zhiqiu asked, "Erpi, what's that sound?"

Li Junge said: "It's too far away, I can't hear it clearly, there are many things in this mountain, it sounds like a red-haired dog."

Wu Zhiqiu asked: "What is a red-haired dog? Is it a fox?"

Li Junge said: "No, it's a jackal."

Wu Zhiqiu said: "Oh, isn't that thing fierce?"

Li Junge smacked his mouth and said, "Everyone says wolves are fierce, but jackals are actually the most ferocious canids."

Wu Zhiqiu said: "Then tell me about it."

Li Junge said: "This thing is similar in shape to wolves and dogs, but smaller than wolves, with a wider head and a shorter mouth, so when viewed from the side, its face is bulging. This is the difference between jackals, dogs and wolves. .The body is reddish brown, with a fox tail. It actually looks pretty good."

"But it is ferocious and bold by nature, and it is not afraid of the opponents it encounters, no matter how big or small. It has a good sense of smell, good endurance, and fast running. It usually goes out in groups. These characteristics are like canines."

"However, it has a flexible body and excellent bounce. These characteristics are similar to cats. It can be said that it has the advantages of cats and canines in one body. It is really hard to hide from ordinary prey."

"What's more, these guys are very obscene, with barbs on their claws. Generally, the focus of attacks is either the eyes or the chrysanthemum."

"Once the prey is found, one of the jackals will try to hold it back as much as possible to prevent the prey from running away, while the other jackals will quickly outflank the prey from both sides to block the escape route. At this time, the prey is in a dilemma. The jackal at the tail will take the opportunity to jump on the back of the prey, and then use its sharp claws to pull out the intestines of the prey. When the prey runs away in pain, the guts that have been pulled out will be caught on the branches, and the stomach will be empty and blood will die. "

Wu Zhiqiu heard Chrysanthemum tense, and said, "This is too wretched."

Li Junge added some wood to the firepit, his voice became lower and lower, and he continued: "Do you know how jackals deal with cattle? First, a jackal ran up to play in front of the cattle to attract the attention of the cattle. At this time, another jackal The dog will quietly run to the back and gently scratch the cow’s buttocks with its front paws. Scratch...scratch...then the cow feels itchy and will flick its tail..."

Seeing that the voice was so low that it was almost inaudible, Wu Zhiqiu was absorbed in listening, and gradually moved his head towards it unconsciously.

Suddenly, Li Junge grabbed Wu Zhiqiu's eyes with his hand, and shouted loudly: "Wow! Aim at the chrysanthemum and take a bite!"

"Oh my mother!" Wu Zhiqiu was so frightened that he fell backwards, and the corn in his hand flew far away and disappeared into the darkness.Getting up angrily, he cursed: "I scared the shit out of me! Now I know why everyone keeps calling you 'Piwa'!"

(End of this chapter)