Return to 1983 Hunting Xing'an Mountains

Chapter 451: Those who catch a deer hanging from a tree alive deserve to die

The treetops sway with the southeast wind, but people walking through the mountains can hardly feel the speed of the wind because the dense branches and leaves block the wind. Only in the more obvious wind path can you feel the wind by sticking out your tongue...

The Northeast region often has southeast winds in spring and summer, and northwest winds in winter. This is because it is affected by the Siberian high pressure. After entering spring, the high pressure retreats to the north and is replaced by low pressure in the south. Another reason is the special terrain of the Northeast, which forms a step-by-step decrease from south to north, prompting the air flow to form strong southerly winds, that is, southeast winds.

This phenomenon is similar to valley wind, with high mountains on both sides and a plain in the middle, so it is also called the narrow channel effect.

The three of them ran forward for more than three miles against the headwind. Chai Bing and Sun Jiye had strong endurance, so Xu Ning didn't have to worry about them not being able to keep up. He just kept rushing forward, and continued running along the hillside for more than a mile. Suddenly, his eyes swept across a bush. There were many scattered young leaves under the bush. Without thinking, he turned and ran under the bush.

Chai Bing and Sun Jiye followed closely behind, panting and asking, "What's the matter? Erning."

Xu Ning pointed at the young leaves and a patch of messy tracks on the ground and said, "Deer tracks! There was a group of deer here just now!"

Sun Jiye was stunned: "Deer...how do we chase it?"

Chai Bing said anxiously, "Hurry up and chase them! How many deer are there in this group?"

Xu Ning looked closely and judged, "There are at least six or seven of them. Oh, I should have brought Black Wolf with me earlier! The three of them are good at driving away the rods."

"What? There are dogs that can intercept the stick? Fuck."

Xu Ning took a step forward. Time was running out and he didn't know what would happen to the gang of dogs that had rushed out from the front. Xu Ning turned around and said, "We'll talk about it later! Let's chase them first!"

"Throw out!"

Then, the three of them ran away.

Before this, a group of deer gathered around the bushes and chewed on the branches and leaves. The branches and leaves here were not only tender, but also the deer's favorite shrubs. This kind of shrub can bear fruit, and the fruits are called mountain eggplant fruit, black blind fruit, and blue indigo fruit.

It is a variant of the blue honeysuckle of the Caprifoliaceae family and the genus Lonicera. It blooms in May and June and bears fruit in August and September. It is dark blue when ripe and has a sweet and sour taste. It can be eaten directly or soaked in wine or made into jam. Its nutritional value is also very rich and there is no need to elaborate on it.

In the distance, a gang of dogs led by Blue Wolf and Spotted Wolf were moving through the mountains and forests. Although they did not bark, their movements were louder and the sounds they made attracted the deer that were eating. The deer were stunned at first, and then frightened, and fled to the southeast in panic.

The blue wolf pursued relentlessly with its eyes shining and its tongue hanging out. The white wolf tried to imitate it by also sticking out its tongue and glaring... If Xu Ning saw this, he would definitely scold: What a fucking follower!

The panicked escape of the deer made the dogs want to play, so they sped up and chased after them. However, the pace and jumping ability of the deer were much stronger than those of the dogs. In just half a minute, they left the dogs more than fifty meters behind. But the blue wolf was a stubborn species. He once chased a wild boar for sixty or seventy miles. Even if the wild boar stopped to make a living, he would not go forward to bite it. He just wanted to play!
This time, the blue wolf's playful nature was aroused. It led the spotted wolf, one-eyed wolf, gray wolf and other dogs, lined up in a row, and howled behind the deer herd. The sudden barking of the dogs scared the deer and made them jump around. The terrain to the southeast of Laoniugou was relatively flat, but as they continued to run up the mountain, the slope became steeper and steeper.

A young male deer with tender velvet cried twice, raised its legs and jumped down the slope. There was a two-meter-high pit below. The young male deer didn't pay attention while jumping in the air. Its forelimbs and neck just happened to get caught on a crooked lime tree with four or five branches.

The little male deer was stuck tightly. It raised its neck and cried out in pain, and kept struggling with its hind legs. However, it was stuck too tightly and no matter how hard it struggled, it was useless.

The blue wolf was startled when he saw the little deer hanging on the tree branch. He looked up and barked twice, but the spotted wolf following closely behind him took over and jumped down. The blue wolf couldn't bear to see it fall to the ground, so he turned his head and ran towards the gentle slope. The gray wolf, one-eyed wolf and other dogs followed closely behind. They only heard the spotted wolf howling twice, and when they looked again, they saw that the spotted wolf had fallen to the ground, rolled a few times, and stood up again in dejection.

Flower Wolf tried to take a step forward, and when he found that his legs and feet were fine, he regained his energy, called out loudly twice, and ran after Flower Bear's butt...

After the slow-moving Big Yellow and Little Yellow caught up, they stood on the top of the slope and looked at the little deer hanging on the tree branch in confusion. They sat down in a half-squat with their tongues hanging out, staring at the little deer with curious eyes, and barking from time to time.

Later, Xu Ning, Chai Bing and Sun Jiye caught up with the two dogs. At first they were puzzled by the two yellow dogs half-squatting on the ground. However, when they looked up and saw the little deer hanging on the tree branch, all three of them exclaimed in surprise.

Chai Bing laughed and said, "Oh my god! Why is this little deer hanging on the tree branch?"

Sun Jiye said, "This is ridiculous. I've been hunting for so many years, and I've only heard of deer jumping off cliffs and breaking their legs or dying, but this is the first time I've seen one hanging on a tree!"

Xu Ning said with a smile: "It should be that when the dogs were chasing the herd of deer, the little male deer didn't check the terrain and jumped down and got caught on a tree branch."

"Well, I see this fawn is only a little over one year old and weighs more than 100 kilograms. Hey! Look at the antlers on its head, they look like mushroom caps."

"That's not bad! This is the first time I've seen such a big fawn with antlers."

Xu Ning waved and called out to the two yellow dogs, saying, "Let's ignore it for now. It can't fall off anyway, so let's chase it away first!"

"to make!"

Now is the season for harvesting antlers. In March and April, the antlers of male deer fall off and new antlers begin to grow. Antlers are produced before the antlers are fully grown.

The time for harvesting velvet antlers is from May to August, depending on the age, growth, velvet type and other factors of the deer. For example, the velvet of this one and a half year old male deer is mushroom head velvet, also known as peach velvet. For 5-8 years old, two-bar or three-branch velvet is harvested, and for those over 3 years old, three-branch velvet is harvested...

Generally, the first batch of antlers are harvested from June and the second batch is harvested in August. If the antler grows into three branches, its medicinal value will be reduced and it will be worthless, so the best antler is the two-bar one.

Two yellow dogs were leading the way, and Xu Ning and three others were following behind. Dogs' ears are more sensitive than humans'. People cannot hear the barking of dogs in the distance, but the two yellow dogs can hear it clearly.

After running two miles forward, Xu Ning saw that the terrain ahead looked very familiar. He frowned and shouted, "Be careful! There is a big ditch in Liushugou ahead!"

Chai Bing was stunned when he heard this: "What do you mean?"

Sun Jiye explained: "A big ditch is a deep ditch with steep slopes or even cliffs..."

Xu Ning had walked past this big ditch before when he and Dalaba went to Shetanggou to hunt black bears. At that time, they took a shortcut from the big ditch above Liushugou to Shetanggou.

"Big Yellow! Go over there! Little Yellow, follow!"

These two dogs are watchdogs. They are not as agile as hunting dogs like blue wolves, but they can understand human language.

Up ahead, a gang of dogs was chasing a herd of deer, barking as they ran, and the deer were so frightened that they didn't even dare to look back, and leaped straight forward. If the deer were on an open flat ground, they could jump more than two meters away. But this was a forest in the mountains, and the weeds and branches hindered their escape speed, so the smaller dogs were able to lock onto the deer firmly.

The herd of deer ran forward for more than 200 meters, and then fled in panic. Two deer followed behind, without seeing the road ahead clearly. They jumped directly into a deep ditch from halfway up the mountain. Although the ditch was not a cliff, the slope was very steep. After the two deer landed, they rolled down the mountain, rolling about six or seven times before stopping.

At this time, the two deer's brains were already confused. When they came to their senses, they saw a gang of dogs led by the blue wolf chasing them. Seeing the two deer lying alone on the ground, the blue wolf's eyes lit up, his tongue stuck out and drooled, and he pounced on them without stopping.

Ouch! Ouch!

The deer's body was covered with leaves and pine needles, but that was secondary. The important thing was that the deer's limbs were not injured. When it was about to stand up, the Blue Wolf, the Spotted Wolf, the Spotted Bear and other dogs rushed to it and bit the deer's crotch, hind legs, lips, ears...

The two deer were large in size, and when the dogs bit various parts of the deer, the deer suddenly jumped up and kicked with their hind legs. One of them kicked the blue wolf's hip axis. The blue wolf swung its body, stared with its eyes, and bit off a piece of meat from the deer's crotch. Then it limped back two steps.

There was a buzzing sound in his mouth, and he kept cursing. After a while, the blue wolf felt that it was not a big deal, so he pounced forward again. This time, the place where he bit was still the crotch! It was not that he had no memory, but he would bite the crotch, and suddenly changed his bite place, and the taste was not right...

The two deer let out wailing sounds. The gray wolf ran to the top of the deer's heads and jumped twice, then jumped onto the deer's bodies and stomped on them twice. As for the fleeing deer, they had no time to chase them, because it was really difficult for eight dogs to hold down two deer.

Five or six minutes later, Xu Ning, Chai Bing and Sun Jiye arrived late. At first, the three of them stood on the hillside and looked down. When they saw the dog gang holding down two deer, they were so excited that they found a gentle slope and slid down.

Sun Jiye was quite surprised: "Fuck! Erning, you guys are such a badass! You can even hold down a deer..."

"Good idea!" Xu Ning said with a smile.

This was indeed good luck, why? Because if there hadn't been a big ditch blocking the deer's escape route, the dogs would have been exhausted and unable to stop the deer. The blue and gray wolves were fast, but not fast enough to compete with the deer.

"Oh my god, this blue wolf is such a beast! Look at what it has bitten off the deer's crotch, even the basket has been bitten off..."

"Hahaha, fierce! This dog is really good!" Sun Jiye was a little envious. Although his Lao Hei was not bad, he was the only one and the rest of the dogs couldn't keep up with Lao Hei's pace. Xu Ning took a closer look and said, "One male and one female! The male is a little hairy."

This deer didn't have much antlers, with only two bars emerging. Xu Ning estimated that it must be more than three years old.

Female deer are smaller in size, weighing about 130 pounds. Adult female deer can grow to more than 170 pounds, and adult male deer can grow to 270 pounds.

"Third brother, let's bleed quickly!"

Sun Jiye said: "It's all in vain if we bleed them here. How about we catch them alive? Tie them up!"

Chai Bing put away his sword, looked at Xu Ning and said, "What do you think? I also think it's useless to bleed him now. It's better to catch him and kill him later. Then we can make some deer blood wine!"

Xu Ning nodded and said, "Okay! Then we have to tie it up quickly. I think the dog gang is running out of energy."

Sun Jiye said: "Don't say the dog is weak, I am almost weak too. We had breakfast this morning, but the dog didn't eat a single bite."

After taking out the rope, Sun Jiye pulled one end of the rope, first put it around the two hind legs of the male deer, then wrapped it around the front legs, and pulled the rope hard to tie up the four legs of the deer. This knotting technique is a double knot pig's hoof knot, but it is just wrapped a few more times, so it is more secure.

Xu Ning drove away several dogs including blue wolf and gray wolf. They circled around him with their tongues hanging out. Without the dogs to bite the stag, it made warning sounds of "cough cough" and tried to kick its legs to get up, but was locked tightly by the rope and could not move.

Seeing this, the blue wolf and the gray wolf felt that something had happened. They stood in front of the stag and shouted at the top of their lungs. The sound was deafening, and the stag was so scared that it fell backwards...

Chai Bing and Sun Jiye were tying up the doe. Xu Ning said with a smile, "This is the best idea I've had this year. I haven't encountered a yellow-skinned deer since the beginning of the new year. I've shot a few black-skinned deer, but they were all wild boars. I finally caught the trail of a black-skinned deer, but I couldn't see its shadow."

Sun Jiye tightened the rope and said, "It's the same thing. I was hunting a roe deer in the winter two years ago, and it was almost killed by a black bear. I was so scared that I almost died."

"What's going on?"

"That morning I was thinking of going for a walk in the mountains to collect bags, so I didn't take my 56 rifle, and I just left with an old pistol. At noon, just as I was about to go home, a black bear fell from a tree and pounced on me. I didn't think about anything at the time, I just handed over my gun and fired. I don't know if I hit it or not, but the black bear ran away when it heard the gunshot. I chased it for four miles, and the more I chased, the more I felt something was wrong, because there was Tiger Leaping Cliff in front of me! That place is a bit spooky, so I didn't dare to chase it and hurried home."

"Luckily I didn't continue chasing. If I had continued chasing, I would have been buried in the snow. I've heard of Tiger Leaping Cliff. It's a bit spooky."

Chai Bing asked: "How is it so weird?"

"There used to be a Japanese base three miles away from Tiger Leaping Cliff. I forgot what year it was, but my grandfather was still alive at the time. A mountain torrent leveled the base and all the Japanese inside were washed under Tiger Leaping Cliff. If you go and dig with a shovel now, you might find something."

"Fuck, is that the mountain god opening his eyes? He's so accurate!"

Sun Jiye said with a smile: "There are often mountain gods strolling to Tiger Leaping Cliff and standing on the cliff to look down. Old Guo saw this once when he was alive."

"Then why doesn't anyone go to the base to take a look?"

"Of course there isn't any. Someone went there more than ten years ago and I heard that he took out dozens of boxes of small yellow croaker and bighead carp."

Xu Ning pulled Hualang aside and said, "How can there be so many treasures in the mountains? Unless they are dug out from underground, bases and caves like this have already been explored by others."

"Well, the mountain runners here are fast and can basically run into any hole they see. They dare to go anywhere. I saw quite a few people carrying guns going into the mountains a while ago. What do you think they did?"

Chai Bing nodded: "Ah, I see..."

"Now everything in the mountains has been taken away, even if there are some left, it is not easy to find."

Sun Jiye said with a smile: "In fact, there are many treasures in the mountains. For example, isn't this animal a treasure?"

"Yeah!" Xu Ning glanced at the deer lying on the ground and said, "These two animals are quite heavy. It's hard for the three of us to get them back."

"Sure! My third brother and I will carry the male deer, and you can pull the female deer by yourself. Wait, I'll go cut a pole."

After Chai Bing finished speaking, he drew out his sword and went to chop the pole, while Xu Ning took out a rope from his cloth bag, and he and Sun Jiye changed the shape of the doe, using the rope to tie up the doe's four hooves and head to make the hair smooth, which would make it easier to pull.

Not long after, Chai Bing came back carrying a manchurian elm as thick as his arm. He and Sun Jiye put the pole through the deer's four hooves and lifted it up.

"Oh my god, it's pretty damn heavy..."

Sun Jiye said: "Let's go up the gentle slope in front. There is a little deer behind us."

"Oh my god, it's not that good! Then let's just light a fire. I'm so hungry after running for so long."

"Okay! What about these dogs? There's nothing to feed them. If nothing works, we can just give them less food..."

Xu Ning said, "No need, Third Uncle. The dogs eat much more than the three of us. The food we have is not enough for two dogs. Let them starve first and kill a stag when we get home."

"I think so. The stag's crotch is bleeding from the bite. I don't think it will survive the night."

Sun Jiye turned around and said, "After you kill the deer, shouldn't you give some to the people who work for your family?"

"Of course we have to give some. It's easy to talk to the people in the forest farm, but everyone living in a village has to give some."

Xu Ning went on to say, "This big male deer's antler, share it between the two of you. Take it home and soak it in some wine. Then, tomorrow we'll kill the female deer and each of you can take half a antler back to taste the freshness of the deer."

Sun Jiye waved his hand and said, "Come on, forget it. I have a lot of deer antlers at home. Give them all to the third brother. We can eat them when we go there on the 12th!"

"Haha, fine! My old man likes this, so I won't be polite with you, Third Brother."

"Why are you being polite? Neither of us did anything to catch these three deer. It was the dogs who did all the hard work. We just followed behind and ate them."

In fact, Xu Ning's meaning was similar to Sun Jiye's, but he couldn't say it clearly. After all, Sun Jiye and Chai Bing both treated him as a brother, and he had to be fair and just on the surface, otherwise there would be a rift between the brothers because of a small matter, which was not worth it.

"This little buck is still stuck! Oh my god, it looks like it's dead..."

The little male deer stuck on the tree branch was motionless, its head and limbs drooping and it was dead.

Xu Ning threw the doe down and slid down the steep slope. He looked up and said, "It's really dead... Third brother! I'll climb up the tree to get it down, and you stay down there and take over."

"okay."

Sun Jiye went to collect firewood. After Xu Ning climbed up the tree, he put his legs on the branch and pushed the deer with both hands to loosen it. He held the deer's hind legs and handed it to Chai Bing.

Chai Bing put it on the ground and said, "Erning, do you want to cut it?"

"Cut! Cut along the skin of the head. Oh, I was thinking of giving it as a gift, now it's gone..."

"Who are you giving the gift to? Or why not go to the city and buy some beef?"

(End of this chapter)