bookrebus Chapter 240: Taking down the head Khan Dahan was so satisfying!
Chapter 240: Taking down the head Khan Dahan was so satisfying!
Hanzi turned and ran towards Li Ju'an. He held his gun steadily and led the Lu brothers to fire one after another.
boom! boom! boom!
At 800 meters, it wasn't the optimal range for the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle, but it was within its effective range. The five men fired continuously, muzzle flashes erupting constantly.
The intense gunfire echoed through the forest, startling birds into flight. Two charging female elk fell amidst the gunfire. One was shot in the throat and below the ear, dying instantly. The other was shot in the heart and lungs, foaming at the mouth, mouth agape, eyes wide open, lying on the snow, its nimble hind legs still kicking powerfully.
Song Desheng was about to step forward to deliver the finishing blow when Li Ju'an called out to him, "Wait, there's more!"
The group wondered, "How could there be more?" When they looked, they saw a mother elk running around in a panic, leading a half-grown fawn. Terrified by the gunshots and the barking of the hunting dogs, she seemed to have lost her soul and was rushing around aimlessly, heading straight into the alkali field area.
The small artificial alkali field area was covered with traps.
The traps, designed specifically for catching deer, opened their wide jaws, waiting for a deer's hoof to step into them. A deer, in a panic, leaped over the bushes and actually stepped into the trap's gap. With a crisp "click," the trap's spring was triggered, and the tightly fitting wire clamped down with a powerful bite, gripping the deer's hoof firmly.
The elk howled in pain, struggling to kick off the trap. In excruciating agony, it tried to twist its neck to bite the leg. The chain on the trap was taut, the other end secured to the base of a bush. No matter how much the elk pulled, it couldn't escape the trap.
Old Zhang from the security department's eyes lit up with excitement. He quickly pulled the bolt of his old pump-action shotgun, swooped down, and fired another shot.
Bang! Old Zhang's marksmanship was accurate, making up for the lack of precision of the old pump-action shotgun. He dodged the traps and snowdrifts, rushed to the elk, and shouted, "It's not quite dead yet! It must weigh about 200 pounds."
Several people looked at each other and laughed.
Lu Zhiqiang laughed excitedly, "In just a few minutes, we've taken down three Handahan! Hahaha, that's so damn awesome!"
Old Zhang from the security department rubbed his kneecaps, pulled out a dagger from his waist, stabbed the mother moose in the neck, then took out a wine pouch, tilted his head back, and gulped down a mouthful of wine, saying, "Who among you has any more wine?"
Lu Jinyang doesn't drink, and Lu Zhiqiang wants to but doesn't have the money to buy any. Song Desheng brought Wuliangye. A bottle cost 4.75 yuan, enough to buy over 8 jin of good pork. He originally wanted to bring it, but his wife wouldn't let him, so he secretly took it before leaving. Li Ju'an took the Red Star Erguotou from his waistband; back then, Erguotou was quite cost-effective.
Old Zhang looked at the homemade liquor in his hand, then at the white liquor the two young men had brought, shook his head and said, "Young people really know how to enjoy life. Come over and lend a hand, these old bones and legs of ours are getting old and hurt."
Old Zhang had spent most of his life running through the mountains and, like the old man from the Lu family, suffered from rheumatism in his legs. At night, the pain was so bad that he tossed and turned, unable to sleep. He retied his leg wraps and took out the lunchbox from his cloth bag.
The lunchboxes originally contained steamed rice cakes, but they had all been eaten. The group then took out their own lunchboxes, placed the empty ones under the bloodline on the deer's neck, and collected several lunchboxes of deer blood.
Fresh deer blood is still warm. When you pour wine over it, the blood coagulates into a block, and in no time, several lunchboxes of deer blood wine are ready.
Li Ju'an tilted his head back and took a swig of deer blood wine. The fiery taste of the wine, even in the dead of winter, sent a surge of heat through his abdomen, flowing into his limbs and bones, making him feel warm and comfortable all over.
Several people poured drinks for him and helped Old Zhang up; it's common for old people to have bad bones. They looked at Li Ju'an, their expressions conveying their satisfaction. This trip to the mountains had been quite fruitful.
Old Zhang took the lunchbox from Li Ju'an, drank the deer blood wine with a happy heart, sat on the bluestone slab covered by a cloth bag, lit his pipe, took out the bowl, stuffed in the tobacco, lit it with a match, and took two long puffs. As he exhaled the smoke rings, he started talking, saying:
"Back in our day, on nights like this, in the pitch-black mountains, three or five of us would go up together, carrying bedding on our backs and old-fashioned cannons in our hands. There were so few dogs to hunt back then. We couldn't even keep one dog alive, we just had to make do with it. If we didn't hunt any livestock for two or three days, plus the time it took to get back to the village, it would take us four days."
Song Desheng, intrigued, asked, "Uncle Zhang, it's been four days already, how much meat must have been left behind?"
Old Zhang exhaled a smoke ring and sighed, "There really aren't many. Getting a wild boar is considered lucky; at most, you might catch a pheasant, a half-pound hamster, or a jumping cat. The people who teamed up each got twenty or thirty pounds of meat."
Back then, being able to carry twenty or thirty pounds of meat down the mountain was quite an achievement.
The group found it amusing when Sun Weimin and Lao Qin arrived, dragging the little roe deer along.
Just as Sun Weimin was about to boast about how much roe deer meat he could make in a pot, he saw Li Ju'an leading a few people, receiving deer blood wine. It was deer blood wine made from the blood of three moose.
Several lunchboxes were full, and a lot of deer blood was still left to freeze slowly in the cold wind. Lu Jinyang looked at it, shook his head, and said regretfully, "What a waste."
Sun Weimin was having trouble breathing. He had put in a lot of effort, following the three newly bought hunting dogs, running them for almost twenty miles, running in circles as fast as he could, almost crossing ditches and running to another hilltop. In the end, Li Ju'an's artificial alkali field was fenced off, the corn was planted, and now there were three wolves running into the line of fire. How infuriating!
Enraged, he lightly kicked Whirlwind, sending it tumbling over: "You damn good-for-nothing! Useless piece of trash."
Old Qin was unhappy that he kicked the dog like that, and he defended the dog, ready to fight him. Sun Weimin angrily shook off Old Qin and walked into the mountains on his own, shouting, "So you insist on teaming up with me? I'll just go by myself, close my eyes and get to work."
Old Qin called out to him, "Where are you going!"
The group called out to Sun Weimin. It was freezing cold, and it was almost completely dark. They still hadn't found the hunter's hut. Spending the night there was dangerous, let alone if Sun Weimin had to go on his own—that would be even more perilous.
Sun Weimin shouted nonchalantly, "You really think I can't find anyone? Don't try to take that black bear from me. I'll lead my men and shoot that beast down tomorrow morning."
There were no signs of bears around. His certainty surprised Li Ju'an and the others. Could there be other members of the Sun family in these mountains?
Old Zhang from the security department mentioned it, and only then did the group realize that there really were relatives of the Sun family living in this area.
There are too many mountain dwellers and hunters in the Xingan Mountains, and the number of livestock has decreased rapidly in recent years.
In addition, the northern part of the mountain is wide and borders the Huma River, a major right-bank tributary of its northwestern upper reaches. About a hundred years ago, it was called the Humar River or Kumar River, later shortened to Huma River. In the Oroqen language, it means "a place with deer." The transliteration of the Daur language means "a rapid stream in a high mountain valley where sunlight never reaches."
Sun's mother's family were residents of that area. There weren't many hunters there, but plenty of livestock. Sun's father used to take the Sun family children to visit his in-laws, and then go hunting in the mountains, reaping a particularly good harvest. The reason was simple: the villagers in the villages along the Huma River all practiced fishing and hunting, a tradition passed down from ancient times.
It's currently the winter fishing season, and Sun Weimin's unmarried aunts, uncles, and maternal uncles are all fishing in the Huma River.
Lu Zhiqiang said, "Ignore him, let him be. What good will it do if he calls his uncle and maternal uncle? Fishermen and hunters can't actually catch bears."
It's often said that every profession is like a mountain, and mountain hunters and fishermen each have their own specialties. Although both make a living from the mountains, their experience and reaction time when facing prey differ greatly.
Li Ju'an, however, was quite interested in fishing and hunting, and said, "Let's follow them and take a look."