bookrebus Chapter 241 The Joy of Winter Ice Fishing
Chapter 241 The Joy of Winter Ice Fishing
Sun Weimin walked ahead, groaning and dragging the little roe deer by its legs, hurrying towards the hunter's hut.
About 600 meters behind him, Li Ju'an, driving a dog sled, and five other men with three gutted elk were also heading towards the hunter's hut. The mountain hunters in the Xing'an Mountains need to find a place to stay at night, so they are very familiar with every hunter's hut and every forest ranger's duty room.
This time, the hunter's hut was located on a cliffside rocky outcrop, and Sun Weimin was the first to arrive. He went inside, grabbed a kerosene lamp, but couldn't find any kerosene. Cursing under his breath, he reluctantly began searching the surrounding snow for firewood to start a fire. He rummaged through his pockets for a long time but couldn't find a single match, only a flint.
To start a fire with flint, you need tinder and oily wood. It's freezing cold, and there's no tree fluff or tinder. He was worried; if it froze all night, people would freeze to death. He glanced behind him; Li Ju'an and the others were coming in one after another. Sun Weimin cursed, "Bad luck."
Li Ju'an saw through his meaning at a glance and laughed, "It's all good luck. If you're so capable, then don't ask us to borrow firewood."
Sun Weimin glared at him, got up and sat down elsewhere, muttering, "Even if I don't lend you the fire, you still have to light it, otherwise we'll all freeze together."
Li Ju'an laughed heartily, took out a lighter from his pocket, and lit the pile of firewood.
Seven hunters gathered around the campfire, took out pots from their cloth bags, shoveled snow into them, and used stones to prop up the fire to boil the snow water. Once the snow water had melted and was bubbling with steam, Li Ju'an used his knife to peel the skin off the elk's hind leg meat and slice it open, putting large, firm pieces of meat into the pot one by one.
Simply sprinkle some salt on it, and you'll have a pot of venison hot pot with a rich, savory aroma that's irresistible. The meaty fragrance fills your nostrils.
Lu Jinyang called Sun Weimin to sit down and eat with him. Sun Weimin glared at him, cut the meat off the roe deer in his hand, found a pot, placed it on a stone, lit a fire, and boiled it. He broke off two branches to use as chopsticks and ate the meat.
Lu Zhiqiang shouted, "Ignore him, just let him be when we go to sleep."
They ate meat heartily and drank deer blood wine in large gulps. The hunters' laughter and chatter filled the fireside, creating a lively atmosphere.
A night with temperatures of minus forty degrees Celsius can be freezing. But if you huddle around a campfire, warming yourself with your back and lying close to the fire, you won't feel cold.
Li Ju'an laid a tarpaulin on the snow to insulate it from the melting snow, lay down fully clothed on the tarpaulin, turned his back to the fire, and closed his eyes to sleep. Lu Zhiqiang and the others did the same.
Seeing that the best spot by the fire was taken, Sun Weimin could only sleep next to Lao Qin, making do with sleeping a little distance from the fire. He kept muttering to himself that he would see if he took them with him when he went fishing at his grandfather's house tomorrow.
"Just you wait and see, you'll have something to be envious of tomorrow."
The hunting dogs dug snow holes with their forelegs, then crawled into them one by one to sleep. Iron Hammer, too lazy to dig, shamelessly fawned over Tiger, relying on his good relationship with him, then happily wagged his tail and snuggled into a snowdrift to sleep with Tiger, completely ignoring his three pups.
Seeing that their mother was only focused on her own enjoyment, the three little puppies, including Flower Ear, had no choice but to imitate Flower Ear and the others, using both their front paws to dig a snow hole. The three little wolfhounds squeezed into one snow hole and finally found a place to rest peacefully.
……
The next morning, Li Ju'an woke up with a fine layer of sweat on his back. Who says you can't survive a winter at minus forty degrees Celsius? This hunter's cabin is where countless hunters can get a good night's sleep.
Following the sled path through the mountain valley, you'll find the Huma River ahead, a rapid current hidden from sunlight in a high mountain canyon.
The rivers of the Xingan Mountains were home to large-scale fishing and hunting. In addition to hunting wild animals in the mountains, hunters also lived along the rivers for generations. The rivers were rich in fish, with the "Three Flowers," "Five Luos," "Eighteen Zis," and "Seventy-Two Miscellaneous Fish" being very common. The "Three Flowers" are bream, mandarin fish, and auspicious fish, while the "Five Luos" are taimen, fava fish, yaluo fish, copper fish, and huluo fish.
In calm, large rivers, there are also sturgeon, beluga sturgeon, as well as salmon, Ussuri whitefish, lenok, taimen, Amur fennel, whitefish, mandarin fish, and other fish.
Old Zhang from the security department had visited the fishing village years ago; it's also called Hala Township. The village comprises five natural hamlets with a total of 334 households—quite a large population. It's a place that stays open even in winter, nestled against the mountains and surrounded by the river. In winter, Hala Village is bustling with fishing and hunting.
As Li Ju'an drove his dog sled into the fishing village, he spotted two old men dressed entirely in fish skin clothing and adorned with fish bone ornaments. Several women were also carrying fish skin bags, with fish skin bracelets over their blouses.
Lu Zhiqiang stared wide-eyed, clicking his tongue in amazement: "I've never eaten fish in my entire life. What kind of village is this? It's so rich."
Lijiatun is a residential village for the families of the forestry farm. Not to mention the Lu family, even the brigade leader Yang Dezheng has only tasted fish and meat when he eats with the top leader of the forestry farm. As for prawns, he has never tasted them.
An elderly man dressed in fish-skin clothing stared at the frozen river. The ice was four or five feet thick. They were going to use tools to chisel out a small hole, like a small well, and then shine a flashlight down into it. The flashing light attracted fish to poke their heads out. The two men quickly used large iron hooks to catch the fish. Such a fast hooking speed required decades of skill and technique to keep up with the fish.
Li Ju'an looked around again and saw that the two old men had already hooked a river carp with a large iron hook, weighing about five or six pounds. A lot of children had gathered on the ice, watching the old men fish, and the air was filled with their cheers. The fish that was hooked with an iron hook and finally pulled out of the ice hole was called the "first fish," and it was usually quite big.
The fishing and hunting techniques of ice-cracking and hooking fish have been passed down for more than ten generations. The two old men were laughing heartily as the children praised them. Then they turned around and saw Li Ju'an standing on the sled track, looking at this area.
Li Ju'an's group consisted of seven people and ten hunting dogs; such a mountain running team was bound to attract attention.
Upon seeing the old man, Sun Weimin excitedly exclaimed, "Grandpa, Second Grandpa!"
The two old men were his maternal grandfather's brothers. His maternal grandfather had died years ago when he went fishing with others in the spring when the river thawed.
When the rivers in the Xing'an Mountains thaw, it's a tremendous spectacle. Ice blocks and river water churn and roar, crashing back and forth like raging wild bulls. Fish that have been dormant in the rivers for four or five months leap excitedly, as if awakened by the thawing.
The weather was terrible that day; the river was rough and the waves were high. Somehow, the boat capsized. Grandpa tried to save people, but he lost his strength and sank, never to resurface.
Sun Weimin heard about this from his mother, who was crying and sobbing. From then on, whenever he ate at the Sun family's house, his mother and father, Sun Quande, forbade him to say the word "flip". Even when eating meat, they avoided flipping it over and instead said "correct" or "correct back".
The eldest son of the Sun family has Hezhe ethnicity. He was carrying a five or six-pound fish in one hand, laughing happily, and said, "Kid, it's been a long time since you've been here. Come on in, everyone, it's cold outside."
Outside, the river was freezing cold. Li Ju'an followed the eldest son of the Sun family into the old house and witnessed firsthand the Hezhe people's most meticulous method of eating fish: "chopping raw fish".