Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

"Cousin, you are really awesome. You can even fight back such a powerful thing."

Yu Qiyuan had always admired Yu Qiutang, and now he admired him even more.

Yu Qiujiang was calmer and asked, "Qiu Tang, what are our plans for the future?"

"We now have two and a half musk deer, which means we have basically achieved the goal of this trip. We also hunted a few wolves, so the harvest is not bad.

However, we have finally come here, and supplies are not a problem. It seems a bit of a waste to just go down the mountain, what do you think?"

"makes sense."

Yu Qiu said from the side: "Cousin, you must have a new plan, right?"

"I like your clever mind."

Yu Qiutang smiled and pointed to the higher mountains. "We have only been to the altitude level of moss and azaleas. We have not yet been to the Songluo area. The Songluo area not only has forest musk deer, but also possible horse musk deer. The probability of musk deer appearing there will be greater."

"What else is there to say? Let's just go for it."

Yu Qiujiang glanced at him and said, "You are fine now. The higher the altitude, the more wolves there are. Are you not afraid of wolves?"

"Of course I'm still afraid," Yu Qiyuan shrank his head, but after looking at Yu Qiutang, he raised his head again, "But even a wolf can't beat my cousin. We have my cousin here, so what am I afraid of?"

This is a tall hat for you.

But Yu Qiutang did not refute.

This is good. As long as we trust him absolutely, he won't mess around. As long as he doesn't cause any trouble, most problems in the mountains will not be a big deal.

With his current abilities, he can even give it a try even if jackals, tigers and leopards come.

After all, as long as we have guns in our hands, there is no need to panic.

"Okay, let's rest here tonight and continue to move upwards tomorrow morning. Our goal is the Songluo area at an altitude of 3,000 meters."

Seeing that the two were confused, I gave them some knowledge about Usnea during the breaks between cooking and eating.

Although musk deer eat a lot of things and are relatively omnivorous, their favorites are various fungi or mosses. Usnea, as a lichen plant, is a delicacy that all musk deers cannot refuse.

However, the growing conditions of Usnea are quite harsh. It must be an environment that is humid and foggy, with good air quality and plenty of sunlight. They also have a special form that needs to rely on other plants or terrain.

To sum up, alpine plants can meet the living conditions.

After eating, the three of them took turns to rest.

After the wolf attack last night, Yu Qiyuan had a hard time falling asleep tonight, so he was arranged to guard the safety the night before, and when he could no longer hold on, Yu Qiujiang would be replaced.

Yu Qiutang was originally scheduled to work the last shift, but Yu Qiujiang took into consideration that he was too tired and did not call him in the second half of the night. When he woke up, he found that it was almost five o'clock.

As the weather cleared up today, the sky in the east was already turning pale, and a hint of red could be seen faintly.

"woke up?"

Although Yu Qiujiang was smiling, there was a hint of fatigue in his eyes.

He had hardly slept in the second half of the night before, and was nervous during the day, so he had to stay up half the night again. Even if he was a strong man, he showed signs of fatigue.

Yu Qiutang was grateful in his heart, but his attitude was still serious, "Brother Jiang, I know you feel sorry for my lack of sleep, but don't do this in the future. We take turns to rest, which is the best way to ensure everyone's energy distribution.

If you don't rest, you won't be in good shape today. If anything goes wrong, you won't be able to keep up physically. You must pay attention to this point. You must wake me up when it's time."

Yu Qiujiang did not refute, but nodded, "Okay, I'll do as you say from now on."

Yu Qiutang certainly knew that he couldn’t blame others entirely, the main reason was that he didn’t wake up in time.

I can only secretly remind myself to be more careful in the future and never let this situation happen again.

This is because there are people around him. If he is alone in the mountains in the future and he is still asleep, he will be in great danger.

All ready to go.

Unlike when they came here easily, they have a lot more things this time.

Six wolf skins, one musk skin, a lynx, and two musk deer, one big and one small.

There are also some daily necessities that I brought with me.

It’s really not light when added up.

After negotiation, it was decided that since the lynx was too heavy, Yu Qiutang would carry it on his back. If something happened at a critical moment, it could be temporarily handed over to Yu Qiujiang.

Both musk deer were taken care of by Yu Qiujiang.

Yu Qiyuan had the least strength, and might not be very strong even when climbing the mountain later, so he was only responsible for carrying seven skins and some daily necessities.

But that's not light either.

He was still struggling.

Yu Qiutang wanted to share some of the burden with him, but Yu Qiyuan was quite stubborn. He felt that he needed to take his time and it would be a waste of time to go into the mountains if he was always protected by others.

Yu Qiutang thought about it and agreed.

He communicated secretly with Yu Qiujiang, and the two of them walked and stopped, trying to slow down the pace so that Yu Qiyuan could keep up and maintain the self-esteem of this little cousin without leaving any trace.

In this way, the three of them slowly climbed up.

Because of the snow, the terrain, which was already untraceable, became even more complicated. Many times the three of them had to stop and let the agile Yu Qiutang go ahead to explore the way, confirm that there were no problems, and then continue on their way.

This wastes more time.

After passing through the azalea slope and the mixed pine and cypress forest, you will come to the edge of the more cold-resistant fir forest. After passing through the fir forest, there will be a forest of high mountain pine in front of you. At the edge of the pine trees, close to the south slope, is where Usnea likes to grow most.

The few of them just took a short rest next to the fir forest, and then they continued to cross several forests and reached their final destination.

This side of the pine forest is like a cliff.

About thirty or forty meters below the cliff, there is a flat area between the mountains. After the flat area, there is another mountain on the opposite side.

"Look, beyond this mountain, it's not Qingquan Town anymore. The mountain on the opposite side belongs to other towns."

It was the first time for Yu Qiyuan and Yu Qiujiang to reach the top of the mountain. They saw the mountains in the distance shrouded in clouds and mist. The very edges were dyed red by the rising sun, as if a red edge was being painted on the clouds.

Occasionally, an eagle or a goshawk would rush out from between the clouds, quickly glide across the shadow, and then dive back into the clouds, just like a fairy bird in the fairy world.

"It's so beautiful!"

Yu Qiuyuan sighed sincerely.

He was at a loss for words and after a long time he could not find any useful vocabulary. In the end he could only express it in the simplest language.

Yu Qiutang smiled but said nothing, letting him immerse himself in the refreshing feeling of nature and stay a little longer.

This kind of natural beauty cannot be created or simulated artificially.

In his previous life, Yu Qiutang had visited many developed cities and witnessed many high-tech modern constructions.

Regardless of whether it is convenient or beneficial to people's lives, in terms of beauty alone, no matter how much wisdom and ability humans have, they cannot compare to the wonders of nature.

After coming to his senses, Yu Qiutang took the two of them to find a place to camp.

At this altitude, there are very few things to prevent.

Large birds will not actively attack humans.

Among the wild animals on earth, the only ones that can actually live at this altitude are wolves and martens.

But as far as Yu Qiutang knows, there are no traces of martens on this mountain. Whether it is the stone marten, the yellow-throated marten or the sable, their only traces are on the opposite mountain called "Shasha Mountain".

The lowest point of that mountain is only a few hundred meters lower than here. It is the highest peak in the Qinling Mountains in the Ning County area.

Because of the natural barriers around that mountain, there is no cable car to reach it. To get there, you need to go down from a hidden place on this side of the mountain to the flat land connecting the two mountains, and then go to the other side.

It is difficult for ordinary people to find the passage. If you want to force your way through, you can only use a rope to lower yourself down the cliff and then go to the other side. But it is very inconvenient to go back and forth like this, and you can't carry heavy objects. If you encounter danger at a critical moment, you have nowhere to run.

Therefore, it has not been widely used by people.

Since there is a natural barrier, the only remaining wild animals here are wolves and bears.

The bear can basically be ignored.

Encountering a bear in the snowy mountains is more difficult than encountering a beautiful woman.

Any bear with a bit of ambition will eat its fill before wintering and store a lot of food in its den so that it can wake up and replenish it temporarily.

Only a few bears who are not full and have not stored enough food have to go out to find food.

But bears mainly feed on fruits and some plants. If they come out in the winter, they really can't find anything to eat.

Small animals such as mice that can be easily encountered in other seasons mostly hide very deeply in winter, and it is quite difficult to find or catch them.

"Actually, I think we're pretty safe at the moment,"

Yu Qiutang and the other two found a strange big tree. There were three thick trunks growing side by side on one tree. Each trunk was surrounded by two or three people. The three trunks together looked no different from a wall.

This is how you find a campsite in the mountains. It must be convenient for retreat and not in a blind spot, but there must also be a barrier behind it to prevent being ambushed by prey.

Just like the cave below and the three-headed tree over here.

"Why, cousin? I think the surroundings are quite dangerous. The wind is blowing so hard."

Yu Qiyuan looked around nervously.

He is also funny. He is afraid all the time, but he keeps encouraging himself and overcoming his fear.

Yu Qiutang thought it was pretty good.

It's like a sword, which has to be tempered thousands of times and ignited repeatedly before it can finally become indomitable.

If you rush it out and encounter an emergency, it will be more likely to break.

"We just captured a pack of wolves down there. This mountain is not big. I don't think it can accommodate two packs of seven wolves each. Even if there are wolves left, there will probably be only three or five at most.

Even a lone wolf!
Atom, don't be too afraid when you see a wolf. If it's a lone wolf, just treat it like a dog. Just be careful not to let it pounce on you head-on, and it won't be able to do anything to you."

Yu Qiyuan agreed with a wry smile.

"It will be fine slowly. Don't think too much about these things. They just take up a lot of light."

"But these guys eat people!!"

Ok.

Yu Qiyuan finally spoke out the most real fear that ordinary people face when facing wild beasts.

However, if you speak out your fear, it will be lessened.

While setting up the camp with them, Yu Qiutang explained that in fact most wild animals are very afraid of humans and will not actively attack humans.

In the eyes of wild animals in the mountains, humans are also very rare animals.

When they face unfamiliar creatures, the first thing they judge is their size.

Teams contend with one another, reminders of size and weight, always taking precedence.

Humans are very tall creatures in front of many wild animals, and they will never attack humans unless they have no choice.

But if they encounter humans who are timid and running away, they may attack.

After some explanation, Yu Qiyuan suddenly understood.

This solves some of the doubts.

After Yu Qiutang finished speaking, he responded with a surprise attack, "However, having said that, we still need to be extremely careful in the wild.

Except for professional hunters, the strength and endurance of ordinary people are certainly not as good as those of animals, and humans are not used to the mountain environment, so their movement agility will decrease.

When two animals meet on a narrow road and face off in a life-and-death confrontation, the prey has a firm advantage in the geographical environment, so we must guard against this.”

Yu Qiyuan agreed again.

After cleaning up, the three of them ate some food, and then Yu Qiutang took Yu Qiyuan to set up traps.

Through observation, it was found that there were sparse Usnea in the vicinity, but there was one patch that was the most lush, and it was densely hanging in the air like a weeping willow.

And on the ground, there were traces of musk deer walking.

Yu Qiutang buried cloth soaked in musk deer urine in several places under the tree and placed hunting traps underneath.

Musk deer are much easier to catch than lynx.

Because once the male musk deer are a few months old, it will leave the female musk deer and its children and live a free and unrestrained life.

Therefore, once a female musk deer smells the scent of a male musk deer, she will go to the chest musk deer, unless the female musk deer has just given birth to a baby.

The musk and urine of male musk deer are both fatally attractive to female musk deer.

After setting the trap, the three men began to wait and see.

I don’t know how long this wait will take, but according to common sense, when the snow has just cleared up here, if the female musk deer has babies, they will definitely come out to look for food.

Just based on the footprints, it seems to have been here before, so I don't know how long it will take for it to come again.

As a result, the wait lasted for a day and a half.

Not a trace.

Yu Qiutang didn't think it was a big deal. Hunting was like that, it was impossible for everything to go smoothly every time. If he did, he would be lucky.

But Yu Qiyuan was somewhat bored, and when he was having lunch the next day, he asked dejectedly, "Cousin, should we continue to wait?"

Yu Qiutang looked at the sky. It was another foggy day today. The sun was not visible and it was gloomy, as if it was going to snow at any time.

He thought for a while and said, "How about this, let's wait another afternoon. If there is still no sign today, we will go down the mountain early tomorrow morning."

Yu Qiujiang nodded.

He generally does not express his opinions.

Seeing Yu Qiutang say this, Yu Qiyuan had no choice but to persevere.

But actually I didn’t have any big plans in mind. I was just waiting to get through the afternoon and return home tomorrow morning.

It’s been four or five days since I came out, and I still miss my family a little.

However, at around 1:00 p.m., things suddenly took a turn for the better.

A female musk deer finally appeared in the pine forest.

It may not have realized that there were humans lying in ambush here, so it was not panicked. It almost strolled leisurely all the way to the nearby area.

Suddenly, it looked up this way.

The nose also moved vigorously.

It smells like a male musk deer.

Suddenly, he came running over with brisk steps, stepping on the snow.

However, after running to the vicinity, it looked around and did not see any familiar figure, and became confused again.

After trying again, he slowly began to walk towards the trap. (End of this chapter)