Catch the Mountain 1985

Chapter 31

When Zhang Peng and Malan returned home, Wang Xiufen quickly asked how the situation was. She learned that the blind date was successful, and the other party's family was also satisfied, and they were happy from ear to ear. In this way, Zhang Peng was allowed to get along first, and when the opportunity was ripe, the parents of both parties would Went over to meet and get engaged.

After thanking Malan repeatedly, Wang Xiufen asked Zhang Peng to bring a piece of bear meat to Malan and asked her to take it back and give it to her family to taste.Malan thanked him repeatedly, and then Malan stayed at Zhang Peng's house for a while, then got up and left.

After a while, Zhao Chunming also came to Zhang Peng's house. When he learned that the blind date was successful, he also smiled and congratulated Zhang Peng and asked when he would meet his sister-in-law.

Zhang Peng and Zhao Chunming chatted about the mountains for a while, and then Zhang Peng told Zhao Chunming that he would go up the mountain to prepare himself tomorrow. This trip was expected to take a week, and he had agreed with his family that he would pack and pack everything.Then he asked Zhao Chunming how he was familiar with the gun. He was told that he was almost familiar with it, so only live ammunition practice was left. Zhao Chunming promised Zhao Chunming that he would teach him and practice the gun in real combat after he finished the underground gun.

After hearing this, Zhao Chunming also excitedly asked when he would be there tomorrow. Zhang Peng thought for a while and said, "Let's leave early tomorrow. This way we can work when we get to the place and finish things early, so we can go hunting early."

Zhao Chunming nodded when he heard this, and stopped chatting. He said hello and went back to prepare. In fact, he had almost packed up the things that needed to be prepared in the past few days. He just needed to check it again.

Early the next morning, Zhang Tiejun and Wang Xiufen got up at dawn. Wang Xiufen made breakfast, put the leftover rice from last night into a pot, and boiled water to heat it up.Zhang Tiejun waited for the water to boil, scooped it out of the pot, scalded some corn noodles with boiling water, and added some salt to it. He relied on rhubarb and sunspots when going up the mountain. They can provide early warning and tracking, and can solve big problems.

Wait until the corn noodles have cooled down, then take them out and cut them in half so that they can eat half full. The hunting dog cannot eat until it is full before going up the mountain, otherwise it will not be excited, and a heavy belly will not be conducive to the hunting dog going up the mountain.

After feeding the dog, Zhang Tiejun returned to the house. At this time, Zhang Peng also got up and packed his luggage. After a while, Wang Xiufen had heated up the food and saw Zhao Chunming opening the door and walking in.Wang Xiufen asked Zhao Chunming to have something to eat together. Zhao Chunming said he came over after eating at home, so Wang Xiufen gave up. When Zhang Peng finished eating, Li Cuihua also came over. Zhang Peng and Zhao Chunming carried their guns and luggage and took them. The shovel and pickaxe, with Wang Xiufen and Li Cuihua shouting for safety, left home and headed towards the mountain.

When the two of them arrived near the Immortal Cave that they had previously hoped for, they put down their luggage, tied up Rhubarb and Heizi, and sat on the ground.After resting for 10 minutes, Zhang Peng said to Zhao Chunming: "Chunming, let's get started. We probably won't be able to dig it out today. Let's build a temporary Xirenzhu first so that we can stay in it at night."

Xierenzhu is a traditional residential form of the Oroqen and other ethnic groups in Northeast China. It is a movable residence inherited from their long-term hunting life.

After Zhang Peng selected the construction site, Zhao Chunming took an ax and chopped more than 20 birch poles about 4 to 5 meters long nearby, and then built an umbrella-shaped house skeleton. Zhang Peng then covered it with birch bark. As a sloping pillar, the encirclement is also called "Tiekesha". Between the two wooden poles facing east or south, the roe deer skin brought as the door of the residence is used.At this point, a slanting pillar is completed.

The overall appearance of the Xieren Pillar is conical, with an internal height of more than 3 meters, and a diameter of about 4 meters at the bottom. To keep out the cold and keep warm.

By the time they finished building the Xieren Pillar, it was already noon. The two of them took out the dry food they had brought, ate something casually, drank some water, and started to prepare to dig the tunnel.The underground cellar evolved from the all-hole type house of the Manchu ancestors. A pit is dug in the ground in the leeward direction, and a shed is built with wood, branches and thatch on the pit, leaving a small door facing the sun for entry and exit.From the outside, it looks like a low shack, but from the inside, half of it is lower than the ground, so you can bend down and move around inside.

Choosing a place with leeward direction and facing the sun, they had to dig a deep pit that was five meters long, three meters wide, and about one and a half meters deep, so that two people could live in it, and there would be room for luggage in case winter arrived. Keep warm when you are cold.

The two got to work in full swing. First, they removed the hay and fallen leaves from the soil. Zhao Chunming used a pickaxe to loosen the soil. It was late autumn and the soil had not yet frozen, so it was relatively easy to dig more. , Zhang Peng took the shovel and dug deeper into the soil. By the time they dug out something, it was already about three or four o'clock in the afternoon.

Zhang Peng and Zhao Chunming stopped, feeling that they could not continue. Such a sudden high-intensity work would exhaust their bodies. They returned to Xirenzhu, where they boiled the newly purchased small iron pot with water and waited for the water to boil. He opened it and took out a large piece of birch bark.Put the corn noodles you brought on top and blanch them in boiling water. This is the dinner of rhubarb and black seeds.

The two of them took out the marinated pork they had brought, cooked it in a pot, and ate it with the dry food they had brought.After eating and drinking, Zhang Peng proposed to practice shooting. He placed a wooden board in the distance and asked Zhao Chunming to aim and shoot from a distance. For the first shot, Zhao Chunming loaded the gun. Because he did not understand the recoil of the gun, he raised the muzzle of the gun. Zhao Chunming's face turned slightly red when he missed the target. Zhang Peng encouraged him and explained the precautions when shooting. Although the subsequent shots did not hit the center, they at least were on the target. Zhang Peng was very happy about this. Satisfied, Zhao Chunming made rapid progress because he was relatively strong and could hold the gun relatively steady when firing.

Because he was very tired today and bullets were valuable, Zhang Peng asked Zhao Chunming to rest after practicing a few shots. He spread hay and branches on the ground of Xieren Pillar, covered it with sacks, spread a quilt on top, and lay down in his clothes. Next rest.

At dawn the next morning, the two of them got up, heated up the leftover meat from yesterday, took a bite, and then continued digging. By noon, the depth, length and width were basically enough. After resting for a while, Zhang Peng built an earthen kang in the cellar. Once he moved in and covered it with animal skins, he would live on it. There was a stove made of mud and stones at the entrance, connected to the wall. A hole was cut out on one side, and a chimney was built on it.This is their kitchen. It sounds simple, but it takes another day to make it.

On the third day, the underground cellar was completely completed. The underground cellar was made of strong pine beams, covered with a thick layer of branches, and then covered with 20 centimeters of soil, which was strong and warm. The door was covered with tape. The long nails they brought made a strong wooden door to prevent them from hunting and wild animals sneaking in.

The two of them did not move in that night. Instead, they lit a fire inside, heated the earthen kang, and burned firewood in the stove. They smoked it all night to remove the moisture inside, and then moved in.

As for the Xierenzhu where they lived before, the two of them did not demolish it. When the meat was brought back, there was no place to put it, so they could put it in it, which was regarded as a temporary warehouse.

On the first night they moved in, Zhang Peng and Zhao Chunming cooked a big meal together. They cooked pork, shot two chinchillas and roasted them, plus steamed sorghum rice. It was a celebration and a sign of their successful settlement. Then the hunting season has arrived for them.

(End of this chapter)