Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Chapter 122 The Mule with a Stuck Head
"Brother Jiang, give me the crossbow." Yu Qiutang said in a low voice.

Foxes have a wide range of habitats. For example, the red fox can live in any environment, such as grasslands, forests, deserts, mountains, etc., depending on the local environment.

As long as there is a steady source of food, they can survive.

Unlike other wild animals, foxes do not need to stay away from humans. They may build their dens in bushes or grass near human settlements.

At present, this abandoned deep pit, because of the legend, few people come here, and it just happens to be their hidden habitat. It seems that this has formed a family.

Yu Qiujiang didn't say anything more. He took off the crossbow from his back and handed it to Yu Qiutang, while he held the knife tightly in his hand.

Foxes are small and have weak fighting power, but we must prevent them from doing anything desperate. If they are bitten, it can be quite troublesome, so it's always better to be more careful.

"call!"

Yu Qiutang took the crossbow and quickly hung the arrow on the bowstring. Just as he was about to shoot, he saw Dahei rushing out of the woods and pouncing directly at the fox.

Dahei is not so good at dealing with wolves and bears, and he is a piece of cake when dealing with leopards. But he has no problem bullying foxes.

The three foxes were originally looking at Yu Qiutang and the other person, and they never expected that Dahei would rush out from the side. They were immediately panicked and split into three groups on the spot and fled in all directions.

There is no absolute difference in running speed between red foxes and dogs, as it varies by breed and individual.

Red foxes have high agility and speed, which enables them to escape from natural enemies and catch prey in nature. If they run freely, they can reach speeds of about 40 to 50 kilometers per hour.

Dogs run at different speeds.

Different dog breeds and individual physical fitness, size and training level will affect their running speed.

For example, some hunting dogs and sheepdogs have excellent running ability and may be faster than red foxes.

However, many comparisons in the animal world involve too many factors, and the results may be completely opposite depending on the specific circumstances.

The big black dog is a thin dog from eastern Sichuan, so there is definitely no problem with its breed. But apart from a series of factors such as its size, endurance, and health status, it also involves a sense of initiative.

This is also very important.

Many people always think that hunting dogs are just tools. When hunting, you just need to let the hunting dogs charge, and they will fight desperately and exert 120% of their initiative to chase or bite the prey.

totally not.

A dog's fighting ability is greatly affected by its mood.

With encouragement from the owner and a close relationship with the owner, the dog will find ways to express itself and often perform beyond its normal level.

If they are scolded by their owners, or do not get the motivation they want, their motivation will decrease. Although they will not be "slacking off" or passive, they will definitely not be as motivated as when they are excited.

These three foxes also reacted very quickly.

In a panic, two of them rushed into the forest nearby. Yu Qiutang did not dare to shoot the crossbow easily because of the dog in front and his body was wandering around chasing the fox.

I watched the fox rush out of the deep forest.

The dog's figure also disappeared.

"This bastard."

Yu Qiutang retracted the crossbow and looked at the woods under the night sky with regret. If all three red foxes of this size could be dealt with, their fox fur could be sold for at least over a hundred yuan.

"Do you still want to pursue her?" Yu Qiujiang asked.

"No, let's go find the mule first," Yu Qiutang shook his head, "I just heard the mule howling, I suspect the mule fell down here, let's go over there quickly.

If I get hurt, I might get killed by wild animals here if I'm not careful. I didn't think it through before. Although this location is not far from people, there is a cornfield in front of me and the foot of the mountain in front of me. It's normal for wild animals to hide in here.

We see red foxes now because they are agile, courageous, and like to live secretly under the hands of humans, but some minks do not have this habit.

I see the woods here are very dense, and I guess the birds are slowly forming a system. Now is the season when acacia seeds mature in autumn, and in addition to the birds, there are also some small creatures such as squirrels moving around.

It’s a good hunting ground…”

“Ah…Ah!”

As they were talking, they suddenly heard the mule braying again. The two looked at each other, and the next moment they immediately ran towards the source of the sound.

While avoiding the areas with the thickest fallen leaves and following the sound, the two of them turned around many times and finally found the stupid mule.

It was stuck in a very strange position between two trees. Its head went through but its body did not, just like a primary school student who stuck his head through the railing and got his head stuck.

When the mule saw the two humans, Yu Qiutang and Yu Qiujiang, it howled even louder, and its eyes were bright under the flashlight.

A mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey, so its eyes tend toward the parent animals.

Both horses and donkeys have a certain night vision ability, so in ancient times, whether riding a horse or a donkey, people could travel in the middle of the night.

But their night vision is quite limited, far inferior to animals such as cats and dogs, which have particularly strong night vision.

Mules naturally inherit their characteristics and also have certain night vision capabilities, but not much.

The two men approached slowly and found that not only was the mule's head trapped, but its foot was also caught in a weasel trap.

"It can really run," Yu Qiutang patted the mule's body gently from the side, then slowly walked to the front and patted the mule's head. After the mule trusted them and calmed down completely, he quickly and accurately removed the weasel trap with the help of Yu Qiujiang.

The weasel's clamp was not big, but it was very strong. The mule's leg was broken. When the clamp was removed, it felt so painful that it almost kicked Yu Qiutang.

"Behave yourself," Yu Qiutang stood up and stroked the mule's head again. "If you kick me again, I'll leave you here to be chewed by martens and weasels."

I don't know if the mule understood or had gotten over the pain, so it calmed down again.

Yu Qiutang then tried to slowly push its head back.

But it was easy to get in but difficult to get out. After trying for a long time, he found that it was not working. Looking at the mule's marks, it must have stepped on the trap, so it was in great pain and turned around and jumped into the gap between the trees.

Now that it's quiet, trying to force it out while enduring the pain would undoubtedly be torture.

There was no other choice, Yu Qiutang and Yu Qiujiang had to try slowly.

Push outwards little by little.

Even at the critical moment, Yu Qiutang used his tremendous strength to lift up the upper half of the mule's body. Finally, there were still a few centimeters left to push the mule back.

But at this moment, a rustling sound suddenly came from the woods on the left, and then Dahei rushed out dragging a red fox. He put the fox in front of Yu Qiutang, panting heavily, and seemed very excited.

As for the mule, it had almost gotten out, but was startled by the dog and suddenly leaped forward, "poof", and stuck its head into the gap between the trees again.

"Oh shit!"

Yu Qiutang was almost speechless.

He looked at the mule, and then at the black dog who was excited and waiting for the reward, and for a moment he didn't know who to blame.

Looking at Yu Qiujiang again, it was rare to see him smile in the dark night.

"Forget it, come and take a rest, I'll just cut down this half of the tree, at least you have one more red fox, it's a good thing."

What could Yu Qiutang say? Now that things had come to this, this was actually the easiest way.

He didn't have the energy to push the mule's head back a little bit more, and the unpleasant smell from the mule's howling almost suffocated him.

"Okay then, let's switch. The tree on the left is thinner, so let's cut that one."

"Okay, you take a rest first."

Yu Qiujiang spit some saliva in his mouth, rolled up his sleeves, and swung the knife to use it as a chopping knife.

But just as he swung the knife, before it could land on the tree trunk, a miraculous thing happened. The mule had originally been unable to retreat, but when it saw Yu Qiujiang's knife, it thought she was going to chop it, and it was immediately frightened to death, and it suddenly pulled back and regained its freedom.

As soon as I got out, I was ready to run immediately.

Yu Qiutang was quick-witted and quick-handed. Just as the animal was about to run away, he threw the rope loop he had prepared long ago around its neck, and in no time, the other end was wrapped around a nearby tree.

He now has a strength of about 300 kilograms, but an adult mule can pull things weighing several hundred kilograms, so for the time being he may not be able to match the strength of this beast.

This mule is a horse mule, and its intelligence is inherited from its mother.

Strictly speaking, mules are divided into horse mules and donkey mules.

Since it is a hybrid, there must be the question of who is male and who is female.

If it is a male donkey and a female horse, the resulting mule is called a horse mule. This is the type of mule that people widely use.

This is because the mating of a male donkey and a female horse is easier and has a higher success rate. The resulting mules inherit the advantages of horses, are tall and strong, and are more useful in agricultural production and transportation.

On the other hand, if it is a male horse and a female donkey, the offspring will be a mule, which is of no use other than being big.

Because the mule is a hybrid breed, it has an odd number of chromosomes and cannot pair normally, resulting in severe reproductive dysfunction and difficulty in reproducing offspring.

In recent years, mules are rarely seen.

Firstly, they did not reproduce, and secondly, with the widespread use of mechanization, the need to spend a lot of money to breed mules was greatly reduced, and mules gradually disappeared from the stage of history.

The mule struggled for a while, panting heavily, but failed to break free. It then leaned against the tree nervously, staring at the black dog with fear on its face.

The black dog ignored the mule.

"You're really embarrassing your father."

Yu Qiutang laughed teasingly.

When a wolf meets a donkey, it is useless to try to deal with both.

Mules are larger and stronger than donkeys, while dogs are generally not as powerful as wolves.

The mule was actually frightened by the dog. Who can he go to for justice?

even.

Yu Qiutang guessed that the reason why the mule rushed into this pit was probably an exception.

He guessed that the fox ran into the house to steal chickens, and was seen by the mule when it came out. The mule was frightened and broke the reins. The reason it ran into the pit was that it was probably panicked and ran away with the fox.

Apart from this, I can't think of any other reasons for the time being.

He squatted down and found that the red fox that was pulled back by the dog still had some breath left, so he sent it away.

Dahei is indeed a well-trained dog. He bit the fox half to death, but did not damage the fox's skin, which is quite rare.

Fox meat is not tasty.

The texture of the meat is very rough, with a flavor similar to dog meat or rabbit meat.

Different people experience different tastes when eating.

Moreover, foxes have many parasites on their bodies. If you eat fox meat blindly without proper cooking and processing, it may cause diseases to be transmitted to humans.

Therefore, the most valuable part of a fox is its fur.

Yu Qiutang skillfully skinned the fox and threw the internal organs to Dahei to eat on the spot.

If no one eats the remaining meat, Yu Qiujiang will take it back and dry it into jerky, which he can feed to the dog slowly. Of course, when he processed the fox, he carried a mule on his back.

If this guy saw me, he might be scared to death, and then I would be doomed.

This is how livestock are. When they are frightened, they lose their strength. Sometimes they even become stressed and cannot eat, eventually starving themselves to death.

This kind of thing is quite common.

Especially large livestock, such as cattle, sheep, pigs and the like.

Many people, when trying to sell their livestock, failed to sell them immediately because they could not agree on the price, and had to take the animals back home.

You will find that some livestock that have been to the market once will not be able to adjust for a long time, and may be unwilling to eat in the following days, making themselves very thin.

People joked that they were worried that if they got fat, they would be taken away and sold by their owners, so they deliberately made themselves thinner.

It’s actually a stress response.

Frightened.

"Shall we go back first?" Yu Qiujiang tied the fox meat with a rope and hung it on the knife.

Excluding the internal organs and fur, the fox still has less than ten kilograms of meat.

Yu Qiutang carried the fur with him, and he was in charge of all the things that needed to be cashed in.

Yu Qiutang looked at the mule who looked like he had lost all hope in life and said, "Let's go back first and hand the mule over to Uncle San. They will be less worried. They must be so anxious."

Yu Qiujiang said calmly: "A mule is so anxious, but it is very indifferent to people."

Yu Qiutang smiled bitterly in his heart.

Yu Qiujiang is a very stubborn person. Once he has some unresolved issues in his heart, it will be really difficult to deal with him.

The conflicts of the previous generation had become an irreversible deadlock due to the death of his uncle Yu Detu. Even though Yu Qiutang was reborn, he still had no idea how to resolve them.

Of course, he didn't deliberately say anything to comfort her.

If you have never experienced other people's sadness, you cannot talk about it lightly.

Even if Yu Qiutang's relationship with his father was like that, if for some reason he indirectly caused his father's death, he would definitely not easily forgive the other party.

These matters in a big family are just a mess.

Yu Qiutang untied the mule's rope. When the mule saw Dahei beside it, it no longer had any idea of ​​causing trouble and obediently let Yu Qiutang lead it, walking towards Yu Deshui's house in the night.

When he reached the fork in the road, Yu Qiujiang turned around and went back.

He also left the flashlight for Yu Qiutang to use.

Yu Qiutang stood there and watched Yu Qiujiang's back slowly disappear into the darkness, feeling an indescribable feeling.

When and what can be done to allow this cousin and close friend to live a more sunny life?

Yu Qiutang appeared in front of Yu Deshui's family, leading a timid mule, and everyone was surprised and delighted.

They all rushed out at the same time and circled around the mule several times.

Gao Meilan, who was usually not very proactive in expressing gratitude, was also very happy. She pulled Yu Qiutang's arm and praised him non-stop.

"Good boy, our Tangtang is still the best. Look at your uncle and the others. They have been out for half the night and are still not as capable as you."

After hearing this, Yu Deshui and Yu Qiyuan had no intention of refutation.

Getting the mule back would be better than anything else.

otherwise.

Their family really didn't know how to solve the problem. Even if they sold all their money, they might not be able to raise enough money for the mule.

It was said that he helped them find the mule, but in fact he saved their entire family's lives and property.

How can I not be grateful?

"Qiu Tang, where did you find it? Tell me, uncle."

After settling the mule, the family pulled Yu Qiutang into the main room and put Yu Qiutang, a junior, in the main seat, while Yu Deshui, the uncle, sat beside him with his butt half-rested.

Yu Qiuyuan was leaning against Yu Qiutang, sitting on the edge of the sofa.

The relationship between Yu Qiutang and Yu Qiuyuan is not as deep as that between Yu Qiujiang, but it is also very good.

After all, there are differences in the closeness of the relationship between brothers.

Otherwise, Yu Qiutang would not have asked Yu Qiyuan to help him lay the foundation.

In front of Yu Qiutang, Yu Qiyuan was not particularly reserved or restrained, and looked very casual.

"Tangtang, please sit down and wait for your aunt to cut a watermelon for you. Someone will come to exchange watermelons in the afternoon. I tasted them and they are very sweet, so I exchanged a few more. When you go back later, bring one for your father."

Exchanging watermelons is a common exchange activity these days.

Every year when the watermelons are harvested, some people push the watermelons on carts and go door to door to exchange them for food.

It is also very cheap to sell, only two or three cents per pound, and you can buy two or three melons for one dollar.

At that time, the price of food was not low, and wheat cost several cents, so a bowl of wheat could be exchanged for two large watermelons.

If you meet someone who has a lot of food, you will basically exchange it bag by bag.

The Northwest is relatively dry and rainy, with long sunshine hours, so the melons are very sweet and taste super sweet.

Interestingly, Gao Meilan never mentioned Chen Meidi in front of Yu Qiutang.

She had a very close relationship with Yu Chunmei and Yu Qiutang's mother, and her sisters-in-law. Yu Chunmei's mother Gao Meiying was her cousin. The "sister" and "sister-in-law" she often mentioned were referring to the two of them respectively.

She looked down on Chen Meidi anyway. Not to mention calling her sister-in-law, she was even too lazy to call her by her name.

Don't even mention it.

Yu Qiutang was not polite either, he knew that his third uncle's family was like this.

Gao Meilan's temper comes in waves. When she's in a good mood, she can kiss someone to death. When she's in a bad mood, she becomes very violent and won't give in at all.

Overall, he is a decent person.

While Gao Meilan was out picking watermelons, Yu Qiutang told Yu Deshui and Yu Qiyuan about the mule. They were both quite shocked. They didn't expect that there would be a fox in that deep pit, and they didn't expect that the mule could have run there by accident.

Yu Qiuyuan said worriedly, "Cousin, it's so gloomy in there even during the day, how dare you go in there? Aren't you afraid of being disturbed?"

Yu Deshui glanced at his son and thought, let me see what you are going to say.

"What are you afraid of? We are not afraid of our own shadows, right? What could be in there? Look, I came back safely and I am fine."

"Great!"

Yu Qiyuan gave a thumbs up and sighed, "I wouldn't dare to do that anyway. Fortunately, I met you this time. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to find it at all, let alone pull it up.

By the way, where did you get the hound? How come I didn't know you and Brother Jiang got a hound?"

"I picked it up on the road," Yu Qiutang briefly explained the origin of the hound, and Yu Qiuyuan and his son sighed again.

Both father and son were honest people with simple and honest natures, and they would not have any twisted thoughts, so Yu Qiutang did not hide anything. If he had hidden everything, he would have been exhausted.

"Come on, the watermelon is here."

Gao Meilan came in with a plate of sliced ​​watermelon and handed the largest piece to Yu Qiutang, "Eat it, try it. The Mid-Autumn Festival is just a few days away. You won't be able to eat watermelon for many more days. Every time you eat it, you'll have less."

As he said this, he found a corner and sat on a small stool nearby to eat. While eating, he said, "You two can help yourselves."

But when her husband and son were about to take it, she said unhappily, "I really don't like the food I gave you. You can't do anything well. I see you two have been eating for most of the night, but you might as well have a short while in the hall."

Yu Deshui and his son had no choice but to watch the show in silence.

Experience tells them that it is best to remain silent at this time, otherwise every word they say may become the fuse that ignites Comrade Gao Meilan.

It's dangerous.

Yu Qiutang smiled awkwardly and said, "Where's Chunzhu? Why don't you come and eat with us?"

"She's asleep. She'll go to her grandmother's house tomorrow. She was just replaced in the afternoon. She's already eaten. Can we still keep her away?"

Gao Meilan said with a smile.

The mule was found, and she was in a very happy mood. When she spoke, her face became plump and she looked much friendlier.

"By the way, boss, we haven't had lunch yet. Please prepare some food and open a bottle of wine. I'll drink with Tangtang."

Yu Deshui was obviously pushing it too far.

"Shopkeeper" is a common name in the north, and couples often call each other that.

Mutual.

It does not refer specifically to husband or wife.

The manager of Yu Deshui's household must be Gao Meilan.

Under normal circumstances, Gao Meilan would definitely be unhappy to hear such an order, and would definitely scold Yu Deshui.

But today was a special atmosphere, so she didn't think it was wrong. She quickly cleaned the watermelon in her hand, threw the rind into the basin, stood up and said, "Okay, I'll go get ready. I have to cook a few dishes."

Yu Qiutang said hurriedly: "Uncle, aunt, no need..."

"Why not? We haven't eaten yet anyway, so we have to eat. You haven't come to visit us for a long time, and you came to help us a lot today. What's wrong with you having a drink with your uncle and brother?"

"It's so late, it's not a bother..."

"It's not a problem. Don't bother talking too much. If the mule can't be found, our family will be in real trouble. If the mule of the team is lost, look at Yu Dan'er's character. Will he not make us pay for it?"

Seeing what Yu Qiutang wanted to say, her face darkened, "You kid, your uncle and aunt have been talking for a long time, but you are still hesitating. If you continue like this, don't come to our house in the future.

In our Yu family, there is no one as slow as you. Why are you so slow to procrastinate when you go to your uncle's house for a drink? Don't you think you are too long-winded?"

Seeing Gao Meilan like this, Yu Qiutang had no choice but to agree.

Only then did Gao Meilan happily go to the kitchen to busy herself.

She has always been efficient and quick in her work and is the most aggressive among all the sisters-in-law.

Whenever something happens at a neighbor's home and they need help in the kitchen, she is always the first person invited.

The cooking skills are also quite good.

(End of this chapter)