Wild 1979: From Fishing and Hunting to Becoming a Literary Master

Chapter 7 Woodland Wolverine

"Uncle Wu, I'm barely scraping by! I can't just feed these perfectly good crucian carp to the dog!"

Although I just mentioned two large mandarin ducks, they would rather feed them to dogs than sell them to the forest farm canteen.

But when faced with a life of scarcity, Chen Tuo was quite honest with himself.

After saying that, he picked out the fish liver from the fish offal.

They even took the thin layer of fish fat between the internal organs.

I wanted to keep the fish belly as well, but the knife I had was too long and too big, and it wasn't suitable for processing the fish belly.

Chen Tuo tossed the fish head and offal to two female mountain dogs not far away, and even praised their eating manners.

"Uncle Wu, look at them, aren't they eating quite happily?"

Holding a fish fillet that still had a lot of meat left, Chen Tuo pointed to the mother mountain dog who was munching on the fish head and eating the fish offal, and gave his reason for being stingy.

Seeing Chen Tuo gutting the fish, leaving bloodstains all over the snow-covered shell, Wu Laowai angrily said:

"You little brat, do you even know where you are?"

Knowing that Wu Laowai was never nice when he opened his mouth, Chen Tuo pretended to be confused again.

"I don't know!"

"This is the Xingan Mountains! Apart from the forestry workers and their families, the surrounding area is uninhabited for miles around. Xinlin, Huzhong, and Tahe to the north, and half of Huma to the east are all uninhabited areas."

After saying that, Wu Laowai, still furious, pointed to the surrounding mountains and forests and continued:

"This is the largest bend in the Dobukur River. Besides wild dogs, there are also black bears and Ussuri brown bears hiding in the dugouts around it."

Although pretending to be confused, Chen Tuo also wanted to get some useful survival information out of Wu Laowai.

"By the way! Uncle Wu, don't bears hibernate? Wild dogs are similar to bears, don't they hibernate too?"

Chen Tuo asked the very question that Wu Laowai was about to ask.

In the Xingan Mountains, apart from the traditional hunter-gatherers such as the Evenki, Oroqen, Daur, and Hezhe, there are almost no settlements for outsiders.

Although Songling was predatoryly logged by the Japanese, that was forty or fifty years ago.

After the Japanese left, it wasn't until 1953 that a survey team entered the mountains.

Logging resumed in 1964 and 1965, using a combination of logging and tending.

After more than 30 years of recuperation, there are quite a few large wild animals in the old forest.

"Mountain dogs are different from bears; they don't really hibernate in winter and can come out whenever they want."

After explaining the habits of the mountain dogs, Wu Laowai then mentioned the dangers Chen Tuo faced in killing fish in the Hetao region.

"But that's not entirely true. Winter came half a month earlier this year, and the bears are hungry too! The smell of blood you've created can travel for miles; if a bear isn't fast asleep, it'll definitely come!"

"Besides bears, below Songling lies Hulunbuir. In winter, Mongolian gazelles graze along the river. When the gazelles arrive, they are often followed by packs of wolves!"

There are bears on the ridge and wolves in the river bend, which is why Wu Laowai got angry.

What if the bears and wolves that Chen Tuo attracted by killing fish settle in this river bend?

Besides endangering personal safety, it will also drive away most wild rabbits and pheasants within a radius of dozens of miles, affecting his profits from setting traps.

"Let's fight them if they come!"

Chen Tuo's words made sense. Wu Laowai didn't want to argue with the educated youth who had been burned out. What if he was extorted by him again?

Old Wu turned to leave, but his words came true on the spot.

A wolf howl followed.

Under the glow of the campfire, a string of green lanterns appeared on the snow-covered surface of the Hetao Plain.

"The wolf is coming! You little bastard, go and fight it!"

Chen Tuo was dumbfounded by Wu Laowai's words and couldn't quite come up with a response.

Looking at Shan Gouzi, who was still busily preparing the fish head, he roared in embarrassment and anger:

"Damn it, look who's trying to steal our food! Let's get them!"

Wu Laowai, who had retreated to the campfire with his axe in hand, heard Chen Tuo ordering Mu Shan Gouzi around.

He lost his grip on the axe and it fell onto the snow with a 'thud'.

These are words that no good person would say...

However, the result was once again beyond his expectations.

The two female mountain dogs that Chen Tuo had yelled at, just like before, each did its own thing, and after a few moments, they ran off to the wolf pack.

A bark from a dog, a howl from a wolf, and a few random "woof-woof" cries.

The two mountain dogs came quickly, left quickly, and returned even faster.

And when they came back, those two shameless bastards even huddled together at the entrance of the ice hole, clearly having enjoyed their fish.

"Uncle Wu, what should we do?"

Looking at the two female mountain dogs and at Chen Zhiqing, who looked completely dazed, Wu Laowai was also a little dazed.

This little bastard has made a fool of himself in the mountains, could he be Old Mountain Dog?

"You decide what to do? With these two bastards around, even if Black Bear comes, he can take them all away..."

Upon hearing the answer, Chen Tuo looked at Wu Laowai suspiciously, feeling that the old man was up to no good.

But that sly dog ​​from Gongshan was really hard to deal with. It's better to coax it away with a meal of fish head and fish offal than to have your crotch ripped open again.

Killing fish is not a difficult task for Chen Tuo, who can cook.

They jingled and caught twenty or thirty crucian carp, and lured two female mountain dogs to a distance.

Seeing that the two little creatures weren't eating very quickly, Chen Tuo picked up his axe and obstacle-clearing knife and headed towards the place where the wolf pack had just appeared.

"You little brat, what are you trying to do now?"

Chen Tuo wanted to check for traces of the wolf pack, and Wu Laowai understood.

But leaving him alone to face two fearless mountain dogs was something this old mountain runner was truly apprehensive about.

If he had brought a hunting rifle, he wouldn't be afraid of even twenty, let alone two. But he didn't bring a hunting rifle, did he?

"Just browsing..."

Just as Wu Laowai had thought, Chen Tuo had only walked a short distance.

Two female mountain dogs, who were eating, growled threateningly at him.

After using the axe handle to lean on to get ashore and creating some distance, the two mountain dogs finally fell silent.

When Chen Tuo, who went to investigate the wolf's tracks, arrived at the scene with messy footprints, he was also surprised by the wolf's fighting prowess.

In the short time it took them to come and go, those two little creatures left two wolf carcasses on the snow.

This combat strength matches the fear that Wu Laowai mentioned.

He took the axe and mutilated each wolf's head before dragging the two wolf carcasses back to the entrance of the ice cave.

"Uncle Wu, do you have a small knife? My knife is too big to skin the wolf."

Chen Tuo was not afraid of killing fish, but skinning wolves was something he had only ever seen done before, having never actually done it himself.

"You keep an eye on those two bastards, I'll skin them for you!"

When he was there, the two female mountain dogs howled and barked.

When Chen Tuo returned, the two of them obediently ate the fish head and fish offal, which also aroused Wu Laowai's curiosity.

There are so many strange things in the Xingan Mountains. He can even brag about seeing people ordering mountain dogs around.

"Uncle Wu, are wolverines really that powerful? They killed a wolf in just one encounter?"

Before going down into the fishpond, Chen Tuo asked the question that had been bothering him.

He still couldn't quite believe that a dog's big thing could kill wolves unless he saw it with his own eyes.

"This is pure jungle warfare; even a mountain dog hunting a wild dog will just snap its neck in one 'snap.' A wolf is bigger than a wild dog, isn't it?"

After giving Chen Tuo an explanation, Wu Laowai didn't dare to get too close to him. What if those two mountain dogs really acted like dogs protecting their master and attacked him? Wouldn't that be a miscarriage of justice?

Hearing this, Chen Tuo also looked at the two wolverines munching on fish heads. If these things could be kept as dogs, that would be nice...