Tibetan Mastiff Notes

Chapter 18 Fighting the Wolves (8)
On our way back to the village, the wind kept blowing, and the wind was so strong that people tucked their heads and faces into their collars.I didn't dare to ride in the car, because when I sat down, I felt cold all over, so I got out of the car and walked with Dahei.The wind was blowing against my face, and I hadn't run with a load for a long time. I felt that my physique was not as good as when I was in the army, so I started trotting along with the car.Dahei was in a good mood today, seeing me running, she thought it was very interesting, so she ran with me.

Mastiff is a kind of animal that is not afraid of severe cold. They are not afraid of wind and snow, and they are more active in cold climates.I was wearing a loose Tibetan robe, and my feet were a bit bound when I ran. Dahei was not in a hurry to overtake me. She followed me a step behind my butt in a leisurely manner. Therefore, the way I ran looked very funny. , as if being chased by a dog.

Running and stopping along the way, I saw the entrance of the village in the distance.There was a burst of excitement in my heart, thinking of rushing into the house quickly, lighting the stove to warm up the fire, so I accelerated the speed of my feet.Dahei was also very excited. With a big belly, she rushed in front of me, spread her legs, and ran towards the place called "home".

I ran into the village full of excitement, but when I walked into the yard, I was stunned by the sight in front of me!

The yard was in a mess, with dead leaves and wolf dung everywhere, and all the belongings that were not taken away were turned upside down and dumped in the yard and in the house.None of the things that could be torn apart were complete, they were all torn into shreds, and the things that could not be torn apart rolled everywhere, and they were covered with wolf feces and urine.

Wolves have come?Looting?Copy the house?My scalp was a little numb, I didn't expect that the wolf could do such a great job, I felt a chill on my back, and the cold air shot out from the bottom of my heart.

Dahei was also stunned by the scene in front of her. She seemed a little in disbelief. She didn't believe that the wolf dared to act so wildly on her territory.I ran twice inside and outside the big black room, looked up at the messy things and ruined scene, raised my head and screamed fiercely.

The sound of Dahei shook the trees, and a broken pot on the ground clanged and rolled from one side to the other.The people who came afterward were also a little surprised by the sight in front of them, but they were herdsmen on the grassland after all, and they knew far more about wolves than I did. After a while, they returned to their own yards and started to tidy up their things.Uncle Dorji said: "This kind of thing is not surprising. A few years ago, someone beat a few wolf cubs, and those wolves did it once for revenge. They knew they couldn't fight the mastiff in the village, so they waited for us to move them away." When the time comes, rush in and play wild."

I was a little in awe of the ferocity and intelligence of wolves, but I was a little disdainful of this approach.Dahei also understands, but she is just annoyed that wolves dare to run wild on her land. She has a strong sense of hegemony over her territory.Dahei rushed out of the courtyard angrily and yelled for a long time. We almost finished cleaning up the house before she came in slowly, drank some water, then ran out alone, stood in the direction of the village entrance, and yelled into the distance again After a pass, he just stood there refusing to come back, like a loyal city guard.

Uncle Dorji seemed to be thinking about something. After packing up his things, he sat there and smoked silently.I also walked over, sat beside him to rest, and asked, "Uncle, do you have something on your mind?"

Uncle Dorji nodded, smoking a cigarette, looking a bit like he was talking to himself, he said: "When I was cleaning just now, I found that these dried wolf dung were not from the same pack of wolves, and they came first and then, the earliest Maybe they stayed after we left the village, a little later, maybe a week ago." "That is to say, two packs of wolves have come?" I asked.

When I was cleaning just now, I found it strange that some of the wolf dung had dried like stones, while others were still a little squishy.

"Those wolves came in two batches, and in two packs. Maybe the first pack of wolves was the pack of young wolves. They came to look for the cubs. After the cubs were sent back, they never came again. But what about the pack of wolves?" I asked.

Uncle Dorji took another puff of cigarette, looked outside the house, the wind was blowing, the scenery outside looked very desolate, he didn't answer my question directly, but asked me instead: "A few days ago, didn't you hear me in the middle of the night? Are the wolves howling? This winter will be very cold, and the smarter wolves will know to run to places with food sources.” I immediately understood, and said, “There are more wolves coming, so naturally we must act first and seize the food.” The land, the later wolf dung and wolf urine are a mark left by them!"

Uncle Dorji nodded, his expression was a little worried.I know what he is worried about. There are not many people in the village, and there are only two mastiffs. This winter will be extremely cold. People's lives will be difficult, wolves' lives will be even more difficult, and cattle and sheep's lives will be even more difficult.The food for the cattle and sheep is not enough to survive the whole winter, and the wolves that migrated from all around are secretly playing with these cattle and sheep. There may be other beasts that cannot find food. Raid the village.

"Let's resign ourselves to fate!" Uncle Duoji sighed and said to himself, "Our place is remote and cold, and the roads are impassable. There is a 'natural disaster wolf', and we have to resign ourselves to fate. What else can we do?"

Looking at the deep wrinkles on Uncle Duoji's forehead, I feel a little sad. This is the life of the working people.The life of the working people at the bottom is really very different from the life of those people who sit in high-end boxes in big cities, their faces are full of red, and their stomachs are full of fat!I decided to use my actual actions to solve the problems of the people in the village. Although my strength alone is limited, it is better than doing nothing all day and watching the cattle and sheep being killed by wolves one by one.

The village is not big at all, only a few families, but one bad thing is that the houses of each family are scattered everywhere, not very close together, and it was originally intended to build a whole village around the whole village. Circle the wall, but it seems a bit unrealistic now.The courtyards here are actually open. Strictly speaking, they are basically not a courtyard, because there is no actual courtyard wall at all.Unlike the courtyard houses in Beijing, the courtyard here is just a large open space in front of the house, which looks like a courtyard without walls.

The yard of Uncle Dorji’s house was built by himself with adobe bricks. There is only a wall on one side and no wall on the other side. It is a sheepfold made with a fence.These days, whenever I have free time, Gesang and I go to the woods far outside the village to cut trees, and when we come back, we chop them into fence logs.Gesang asked me, "What's the point of making fence logs? Our sheep pens are very strong." I said, "It's useful anyway, just wait and see."

In fact, I don't know in my heart whether this can prevent those cunning wolves, but I still insist on chopping the fence wood one by one.I cut each piece of fence wood into a spike shape, which doesn’t look like the fence wood used for sheep pens. Its top is very sharp, and a spike is nailed on each side, which looks like a fence. trident.

I put these sharpened woods on the inside of the fence of the sheepfold, tied them tightly with iron wires, and then specially nailed many iron nails on the outside of each fence wood. Like a big hedgehog.After strengthening the sheepfold, I proposed to strengthen the courtyard wall again to form a complete courtyard.Uncle Duoji disagreed a bit. When he built the wall, he simply protected the sheepfold from the wind and did not intend to build a yard. The same is true of other houses.

The people living here are very simple, they don't have the jealousy of people in big cities, apart from being wary of wolves and wild animals, it doesn't matter whether the yard is built or not.Here, the primitive simplicity of those human beings gave me a feeling of "not closing the door at night" from the beginning to the end, but now, building walls is not to guard against people, but to guard against wolves.I explained it to Uncle Duoji over and over again, but he insisted on refusing.

Gesang has also been tormented by me in the past few days, and he doesn't really want to do these manual jobs. He doesn't understand when he hears that he needs to build a wall and build a yard to isolate himself from the outside world.He felt that it was very unkind to do that. Everything on the prairie is vast, the sky, the land, and the hearts of the people are all like this. The courtyard is simply a superfluous scenery for them.I had no choice but to go to another house to mobilize, but they didn't quite accept my proposal, and finally had to give up the idea completely.Then I proposed to help them re-strengthen their sheepfolds.Several families felt that their sheepfolds were strong enough and there was no need for this, so the uncle accepted my proposal.

I let the uncle live alone, and there is no one to help him, so I should do more things for him. The reinforcement of the sheepfold in his house was done by me alone.When I was doing these things, Dahei followed me with a big belly, watching me do these things.She squinted her eyes, like a supervisor, I knew that Dahei was not supervising me, she was just spending those boring times with me.Dahei also knew in his heart that in fact, I was very lonely in my heart. I left the army I loved the most, but I couldn't accept a new life.My coming is just a kind of escape from the world. I escape from the hustle and bustle and choose to be alone, but the real me does not belong to this prairie, and my heart is only wandering here temporarily.Maybe others can't see through me, but I believe that Dahei can see through this.Perhaps, her heart is also like mine. As a member of the mastiff family, under the eyes of the world, she once had great ambitions, but she is indifferent in the ordinary real life day after day.Perhaps, a hero does not have to do something earth-shattering with vigor and vitality, but to hide in the ordinary life, walk in a corner of the most ordinary street, and be the most ordinary person.Inconspicuous, but don't forget your responsibilities and duties, keep a hero's heart, and only stand up when the crisis comes, that is also a hero.

In the silent stares with Dahei again and again, from Dahei's indifferent and murderous eyes, I gradually realized a truth.Even if I leave the army forever, no longer touch my beloved gun, and no longer be able to complete difficult tasks well, that does not mean that I am no longer a hero.Everyone is their own hero, and the real heroes are in their hearts. They hide in every corner of the world, just like all the little people. Where you should stand, contribute what you should contribute.I thought how ridiculous I was at the beginning. After I left the army, I lost the title of hero.
If you don't look down and reverence, you will be reduced to a mediocre family.How ignorant, how ridiculous, and how disgusting this idea is!

I suddenly felt homesick, wanted to go back, and confessed to my parents my guilt and regret over the years, and regretted my impulsiveness when I left home and the rage against my parents.I want to go back and let myself reintegrate into this society, even if it is a new life after death.Start my new life again, like Dahei, a hermit in the mortal world.Before I had time to express my thoughts to Uncle Dorji, the first snow fell in Shigatse.

The snow came late, but it didn't disappoint me.I have never known what the snow on the prairie looks like. I have imagined the boundless whiteness that connects the sky and the ground more than once. I was thinking: how beautiful it is, it must be like heaven.Indeed, there is a piece of pure white all around, the sky is white, the ground is white, everything near and far is covered by snow, my eyes are stinging from the whiteness of the snow, I just want to cry Feel.I don't know why, in this boundless white, I have a feeling of being exposed. In front of this magical nature, how small and ignorant I was once!I thought that everything I did was right, but in the end all the arguments and arguments were completely overturned by a mastiff.

I ran to the entrance of the village, rushed into the open snow field, and yelled loudly, trying my best to yell, just like when we were tortured by the dustpan, we yelled loudly to cheer ourselves up.Now, I am also cheering for myself. When I left the army, I was like a ball whose valve core had been pulled out. Now is the time to cheer myself up.

Dahei rushed into the snow with me, saw me running crazily in the snow, yelling, she didn't quite understand, but thought it was interesting, so she rushed over, yelling with me, and surrounded me I run.I saw that Dahei's belly was swollen very much, and she might give birth in a few days. I didn't dare to let her do too strenuous exercise, so I stopped running, lay on my back in the snow, and fell straight Go down, just like you used to do in training.Although Dahei failed to support me like his former comrades-in-arms, I also felt very relieved.

A mastiff is a mastiff, and a person is a person. A mastiff should do what a mastiff should do, and a person should do what a human being should do. I, too, should do what I should do.I suddenly burst out laughing, very happy. This was the first time I laughed with such openness since I came to the Tibetan-inhabited area.

I lay in the snow, which is not too deep for Tibet. When I lay down, it was just above my shoulders. From a distance, I seemed to be buried by snow. Same.I
Close your eyes and appreciate the quiet beauty of nature. There seemed to be creaking footsteps in my ears. I thought it was Dahei playing in the snow, and he walked far away, so the sound sounded very weak.I was always worried about Dahei, and when I opened my eyes, Dahei was sitting next to me. She was very quiet, looking into the distance vigilantly, with her two small ears pricked up to collect the source of the sound.I turned over and jumped up, looking into the distance, in the distance, a few black spots appeared on the snow, moving slowly towards us.The black dot was getting closer, and the outline of the wolf's head could be clearly distinguished.I don't believe that these wolves dare to rush over like this. They are just a small group, just three or four. To me, they hardly pose any threat.

The continuous contact with wolves during this period has made me feel less and less unfamiliar with animals like wolves. Now I don't have the fear of wolves that I had before, and I feel that they are nothing more than that.I wanted to tease these silly-looking wolves, so I kneaded a few snowballs, clapped them tightly, and threw them towards the wolves in the distance.Although the wolves are still far away, my arms are very strong, not to mention the strength of my wrist. I can tear a wolf's mouth alive. What's so difficult about throwing a snowball?However, the distance was still too far, the snowball did not hit the wolf's head, and fell to a place near the wolf. The wolves jumped away immediately, then stopped, and looked over from a distance.

Perhaps Dahei also knew that she was going to give birth in the next two days. She took care of the baby in her belly, so she didn't rush up, but stood beside me, yelling at the wolves in the distance.The wolves had no intention of leaving, they watched from a distance for a long time, poking their heads.I suddenly realized that a pack of wolves is a collective activity, and the few wolves who came now obviously did not represent a whole. They might be spies sent by the head wolf, just like scouts, to scout the truth.

I broke off a branch and folded it into a finger-length section with a sharp front end. I inserted the bottom into the kneaded snowball, walked forward a few steps, and threw it at the wolves.As soon as the wolf saw me approaching them, it immediately took a few big steps back. The branch missed the wolf and fell far away on the snow.Dahei saw that I wanted to attack the wolf, so he roared in cooperation, and then rushed forward.

The wolves are very cunning. They saw the heavy belly dragging under Dahei's belly, and knew that once they retreated, Dahei would never be able to catch up, so they spread out in all directions, continued to observe the movement in the village, and set up an "enemy attack". Come and retreat, the enemy retreats and advances, the enemy is quiet and we disturb" tactics.Dahei took a breath, probably because of the abdominal pain caused by the violent running, she stopped and panted for a while.I was worried that something would happen to Dahei, so I rushed up to grab Dahei and told her to come back.

Several wolves watched for a while, but retreated without rushing to attack.When I took Dahei back and looked back, the wolf had disappeared, leaving only a few paw prints on the snow.

The snow was still falling in the sky, and after a while, their paw prints were covered again by the flying snowflakes, and the snow covered up the evidence of their peeping.

[-]. A Desperate She-Wolf
The temperature was very low at night, and the basin of water I put in the yard froze. Gesang said: "It's not too cold. At the coldest time, grab a piece of mutton and eat it in the yard, and the mutton will immediately freeze into lumps of ice." , If you react slowly, your tongue will be stuck and your lips will lose a layer of skin.” This is how the plateau climate is. At the coldest time, it seems that the entire Tibetan-inhabited area has been sealed in a big ice cave, and people everywhere It's snow or ice, it seems to have entered the Ice Age, and the wind is still roaring, blowing on your face, like someone is cutting the flesh on your face with a knife.

I made meat bone seaweed soup for Dahei to drink, and mixed some black bean flour, vitamins and eggs into the meat she ate.Dahei ate very full tonight, the little mastiff in her stomach was about to give birth, she had a lot of food, several cubs were making trouble in Dahei's belly all day long, and Dahei was often exhausted from tormenting.

After dinner, Uncle Dorji told Gesang and me the story of wolves in the grassland in winter. The wolf is closely related to the life of the herdsmen, and there are wolves everywhere in life.Here, I didn't want to write more about wolves, but I can't. It seems that everything can be linked to wolves.

(End of this chapter)