Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1403 The cunning wolf resorts to the same old trick, only to kick a hornet's nest.

The cold—the feeling of climbing ice and lying in snow—is something that only those who have experienced it can truly understand.

Some people might go to scenic spots or the wild in winter to take photos, bundle up in thick clothes, lie in the snow to take pictures, brush off the snow and stand up, feeling nothing special.

But that was mostly during the day, and the temperature was usually around minus ten or twenty degrees Celsius, and the duration was at most a few minutes.

Try lying down or crouching in the snow for half an hour when the temperature is minus 20 or 30 degrees Celsius.

If protective measures are not taken properly, the disease might be lost just by trying.

Of the three, the worker was the youngest, and Li Xiangqian had the best protective measures, but in reality, Li Long seemed to be the best.

Firstly, Li Long himself is quite talented, and secondly, he made ample preparations. Although he is over thirty years old, his stamina is still strong, so after lying there for half an hour, he only felt cold, but was not completely frozen.

He could still take a moment to observe. The worker, Zhang Shouyi, was indeed a soldier; he did a great job of infiltration. He lay in front of the Land Cruiser for so long without moving, as if he were asleep.

Li Xiangqian almost couldn't keep moving after lying down for about ten minutes, as if he had worms crawling all over him and kept making tiny adjustments.

Fortunately, he didn't move around too much. He would move slightly every now and then, and the movements weren't big. It seemed like he couldn't stay in the same position for too long, or maybe he wasn't feeling hot enough.

Li Long ignored him; it was still a bit early, and they might have to wait a while longer for the wolf to arrive.

Li Long had overestimated the wolf's patience. The moment the thought crossed his mind, he saw several dark figures moving at the boundary between the forest and the grassland to the southeast.

The wolf appeared.

It was already the end of the lunar month, and a crescent moon hung in the sky. The light was not very bright. Li Xiangqian was still moving slightly, so Li Long picked up a snowball and threw it to him very gently.

The snowball hit Li Xiangqian. He was about to cry out when he looked up and saw a blurry sound coming from the woods.

Li Xiangqian covered his mouth and looked in Li Long's direction. He saw that Li Long was staring in the direction of the dark figure, and he knew that it was this kid who hit him.

That worker, Zhang Shouyi, certainly didn't have the guts. However, Li Xiangqian also knew at this point that he couldn't move any further; if he did, he was very likely to be discovered by the wolves.

There were seven wolves in total. After emerging from the woods, they dispersed, spread out a net, and headed towards their eastern den. The snow had been trampled flat by cattle and sheep, so the wolves didn't need to wade through it, but they moved slowly, as if they were on guard.

Li Long recalled the first time he and Halim ambushed the wolves. He knew that these wolves were quite intelligent and would not attack directly as people usually imagined. Instead, they would have a very precise division of labor and cooperation.

If he hadn't been well-prepared, he would have been ambushed by the wolves that circled around from behind.

So, while keeping an eye on the seven wolves, Li Long also scanned his surroundings, trying to see if any other wolves would appear from other directions.

The wolves stopped about fifty or sixty meters from their winter den. At this point, the location of the alpha wolf was not discernible.

The last gray wolf didn't appear particularly strong; it surveyed the area, looking far from calm, as if waiting for something. The other wolves, however, were quite patient, their eyes fixed intently on the sheepfold, but they didn't attack.

Li Long guessed that there must be one more wolf, or even several, hiding. Those wolves were probably waiting for the hidden wolves to launch an attack, or for the command to do so.

His gaze swept over Zhang Shouyi and Li Xiangqian, who were lying in ambush. Zhang Shouyi was fine; he was lying down right next to the side of the Land Cruiser's wheel, with the vehicle completely blocking his view from behind, making him difficult to attack from behind.

Li Xiangqian was positioned five or six meters in front of the winter den. Although he had the winter den behind him, there was a gap in the middle. If a wolf came around from behind the winter den, he would still be in some danger.

Li Long's own position was with his back to the sheepfold, which was the safest spot. Under normal circumstances, it was unlikely that a wolf could come directly around the sheepfold because there were haystacks all around. Even if it had the skills of the wolf that tried to ambush the butcher hundreds of years ago, it would still take several days to empty the haystacks.

After these thoughts flashed through his mind, Li Long focused his attention on Li Xiangqian. His gaze would occasionally shift from the seven wolves to Li Xiangqian. Li Long and Zhang Shouyi were like the two ends of a semicircle, while Li Xiangqian was at the center of the arc. They formed an angle, allowing them to observe each other.

Li Xiangqian had adjusted to the outdoor light, and he noticed that Li Long kept glancing in his direction, which he found a little strange. How could Li Long be so untrustworthy? Was he afraid Li Xiangqian would shoot him?

He slowly released the safety and pulled the bolt. The gun was working fine; it hadn't frozen due to the cold outside. However, holding it without gloves was incredibly cold. But with gloves on, it was difficult to fire accurately.

He hesitated for a moment, then slowly pressed the gun against his cheek and aimed at the wolves, noticing they were moving back and forth. At this distance, he wasn't really confident of success.

However, since he was already there, he couldn't back down because of this difficulty. So Li Xiangqian felt he could persevere a little longer, after all, the wolves had already appeared.

As long as they lay in ambush well, the wolves will definitely rush towards the sheepfold again; it shouldn't take more than half an hour. Li Xiangqian estimated his physical endurance and figured he could hold out for half an hour.

Just as he was lost in thought, he suddenly noticed that the wolves had moved. As if they had received some command, they began to make their way towards the sheepfold.

Li Dong also noticed the wolves' movements. He didn't hear any howls, so what kind of orders did these wolves receive? What did they see that prompted them to act?

He immediately looked around, trying to find the guy who had given the wolf the signal, and then he noticed a dark figure slowly appearing in the northwest corner of the winter den.

Li Long suddenly realized that the other wolves must have spotted the wolf that had been lying in ambush before him. Once that wolf made a move, the other wolves would have received the signal and then acted.

Li Xiangqian had no idea that someone had appeared beside him who could injure him, or even kill him. At that moment, all he felt was: damn cold.

Li Xiangqian felt that he had lost all feeling in his penis, and his toes were slightly numb and itchy. From his stomach down to the top of his feet, everything felt cold and even numb. His cotton-padded clothes could not stop the cold from seeping into his body.

He regretted it a little; he had volunteered to come with Li Long, acting recklessly. If his second son had really gotten cold, he would regret it for the rest of his life.

He glanced around again and thought, "No, I have to ask Li Long for two deer penises when I get back. I've lost too much."

Then he discovered a frightening situation: Li Long had actually turned his gun on him.

Li Xiangqian was about to shout: "Is this guy crazy? Is he planning to use the wolf-hunting opportunity to shoot me?" There was no animosity between them, and they were already on good terms. He had been very good to Li Long.

He also habitually and subconsciously raised his gun, preparing to turn it towards Li Long. However, his reaction was not as fast as Li Long's.

Just as Li Xiangqian saw a flash of light from Li Long's gun and then heard the gunshot, Li Xiangqian suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, as if something was breathing on his back!

Li Xiangqian instantly realized that there must be something behind him, and Li Long was preparing to knock that thing down.

By the time he figured things out, Li Long had already fired his gun. Without even looking at the result, he turned the gun around again and aimed it at the wolves that had heard the gunshot and were about to run away.

The wolves had just approached the eastern den, within forty or fifty meters, when they turned and ran away in a panic. Then, gunshots rang out one after another.

When Zhang Shouyi saw Li Long fire, he knew a battle was about to begin. He had already lassoed the rightmost wolf in his crosshair. The moment Li Long fired, his own gun went off, and a wolf fell to the ground.

According to Zhang Shouyi's own plan, he had to take down at least three of the seven wolves. Of the three, he was a professional soldier, while Li Long and Li Xiangqian had never served. Even to uphold the honor of military service, he couldn't lower his standards.

So when Li Long fired the second shot, Zhang Shouyi had already taken down one wolf and was aiming at the second target.

Li Long was aiming at the target on the left, mainly to avoid colliding with Zhang Shouyi.

The wolves were fast, but Li Long was also a good shot. Just as one of the wolves was about to run into the woods, Li Long fired, and the wolf fell to the ground.

By the time Li Xiangqian figured out the situation, Li Long and Zhang Shouyi had already fired their guns. He felt a bit ashamed and angry at that moment.

On the way here, Li Xiangqian boasted to a few people that although he was the oldest, his marksmanship, while not the best, was certainly no worse than the others. He bragged about it, but now nothing has come of it.

So Li Xiangqian didn't even glance at the thing Li Long had shot down behind him; he immediately raised his gun, cheek rest, and aimed. At this point, he didn't care that the gun was cold; if he didn't shoot now, he'd miss his chance.

At this moment, the three remaining wolves in his field of vision were already close to the edge of the woods. Li Xiangqian knew that if he didn't shoot now, he would miss his chance. He quickly selected a target in the middle, roughly aimed, and pulled the trigger.

Fortunately, the wolf was running straight ahead, so there was no need to anticipate its movements. The bullet entered through the wolf's rear end, tumbled several times inside its belly, and finally extinguished its life.

When he was about to fire another shot, he found that the wolf was gone.

Then, Li Xiangqian noticed that Zhang Shouyi had already sprung up from the ambush point and was quickly chasing after them towards the woods. Li Long also got up, but he headed towards the winter hut, which was in Li Xiangqian's direction.

Only then did Li Xiangqian turn off the safety lock, and somewhat reluctantly turned to look at the thing that had just fallen beside him. It was a huge gray wolf, not much smaller than his Kazakh mastiff.

The bullet entered through the wolf's left shoulder; the wolf was no longer moving, and a large pool of blood stained its body.

The door to the winter hut opened, and the employee came out. He was startled to see Li Xiangqian and the wolf at his feet.

As Li Long walked over, Li Xiangqian said, "Little Long, I really didn't expect this wolf to be so cunning, even coming around from behind. Luckily, there was only one wolf, otherwise, you might not have been able to catch it in time, and I might have been bitten."

Li Long explained, "I actually saw it a little earlier. I was going to tell you, but I saw that it had spotted you and was about to attack you, so I fired. Boss, please don't blame me."

Li Xiangqian smiled and said, "Why blame you? If it weren't for you, I would have at least one bloody hole in my body by now. It's a good thing you fired the shot. By the way, what did Zhang Shouyi run over there for?" Li Xiangqian pointed in the direction Zhang Shouyi ran into the woods.

Li Long said, "I fired two shots, hitting two people. He fired three shots, killing two and wounding one. The wounded one ran into the woods. He probably wanted to see if he could finish him off."

Li Xiangqian counted on his fingers: "If we calculate it this way, then only one wolf escaped. Our results are pretty good."

Li Long nodded, then shook his head and said, "It's still uncertain whether the wolf that Xiao Zhang injured can stay."

As they were talking, gunshots rang out from the southeast, clearly indicating that Halim and Xu Haijun had also made their move.

Li Xiangqian slung his gun over his shoulder and said, "Let's go, let's go see the results of the battle."

He was in high spirits; after all, he hadn't come empty-handed today, and his boasting hadn't been in vain. Li Long told the herdsman to clean up the dead wolf beside him, skin it before it froze solid, and then he followed Li Xiangqian forward.

The livestock in the pen were startled and were now bellowing incessantly. As Li Long passed by, he casually grabbed a tree branch and tapped it on the warm enclosure of the pen, immediately silencing the cattle and sheep.

When they reached the wolf that had been shot dead with its head down, Zhang Shouyi had already emerged from the woods, carrying a gun. He then bent down, grabbed a dead wolf from beside him, and dragged it down the path.

Clearly, the wounded wolf was faster and couldn't be caught. Zhang Shouyi was unfamiliar with the area, so he didn't chase it far after entering the woods.

Li Xiangqian said loudly to Zhang Shouyi, "Young Zhang, your marksmanship is quite good. You killed two and wounded one. You deserve to be a soldier. Your unit did not train you for nothing. You are a real source of pride."

Zhang Shouyi, who was initially somewhat dejected, hurriedly said modestly, "Director, you flatter me. Your guns are well-maintained. You can shoot so accurately even without a caliber. I was just lucky."

Li Xiangqian waved his hand and said, "Don't be modest. You hit three. If that's considered a lucky break, then I would have lived in vain if I had only hit one. Although one escaped, it was still very impressive in such a short time."

Zhang Shouyi was a little smug, but he remained clear-headed and said, "Our boss is still the best; he even defeated the three-headed wolf."

Li Xiangqian glanced at Li Long and said, "Don't compare yourself to him. When you were still in the army, he was already wandering around this forest. He's hunted at least twenty or thirty wild boars, wolves, and gazelles. You guys practice with targets, he practiced with live animals. It's different, it's different."

The three men chatted and laughed as they dragged a wolf to its winter den. They were all in good spirits, having already exceeded their mission goals for the day.

Of the eight wolves, two escaped, one of which was wounded and might not survive in this weather. This is tantamount to wiping out the entire pack. While wolves might retaliate, they're not stupid. With so many guns around, the remaining wolf and a half probably won't dare return anytime soon.

Six dead wolves—one herdsman certainly couldn't handle them all. Li Long drew his knife and joined in skinning the wolves. Zhang Shouyi wanted to help but didn't know where to start; he was definitely no expert in this area. Li Xiangqian told him to just help pull the wolves' legs.

Only then did Zhang Shouyi recall the events and said with some surprise, "That wolf was too cunning; it actually knew to come around from behind."

Li Xiangqian said, "Your boss encountered something similar before and told me about it. I took it as a joke at the time and didn't pay any attention. I didn't realize it until today. Now I know that wolves are really cunning."

Zhang Shouyi said, "I seem to remember reading such an article in my textbooks when I was a child in school."

While peeling the skin, Li Long said, "Yes, it's from Pu Songling's 'Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio,' right? According to the ancient text, the butcher encountered two wolves, one confronting him in front, and the other pulling up haystacks behind him. It's similar to this one today."

Zhang Shouyi hurriedly nodded and said, "Yes, yes, that's it. I didn't expect what the book said to be true."

Having fired guns and fought wolves together, Zhang Shouyi suddenly felt like he had integrated into this small group. At least for tonight, they were on the same side, and the hierarchical relationship was no longer felt. They started chatting quite enthusiastically.

Zhang Shouyi was quite curious about Li Long's hunting experiences, so Li Long took the time to tell him some of them. Then, Zhang Shouyi and Li Xiangqian watched as Li Long skinned a wolf.

Li Xiangqian exclaimed, "Li Long, I never expected you to be such a skilled hunter and wolf skinner. I never noticed before."

Li Long smiled and said, "I learned from Halim and the others. In those years, I would go up the mountain in both winter and summer. As soon as I got up the mountain, they would slaughter sheep. I couldn't just watch them eat, could I? So I learned from them how to skin them."

Later, when I raised sheep myself and asked them to help, they didn't like to skin and gut them, so I learned by doing. That's how I gradually mastered it.

The herdsman also noticed how fast Li Long was moving and secretly began to compete with him. However, both of them were careful and increased their speed without getting hurt.

By the time they finished dealing with the six wolves, it was already past 1 a.m. Halim and Xu Haijun hadn't come over; Li Long guessed they were probably resting over there. After all, the wooden platform here was only so big and couldn't accommodate so many people.

Although the winter shelter smelled quite strong, people didn't care about the environmental conditions at this point. Zhang Shouyi added coal to the stove several times, and the room was still quite warm. Li Xiangqian then asked him to open a few cans of meat, put them in a pot, add water, and boil them into a meat broth.

After having an extra meal, the group lay down on the wooden kang (heated brick bed) to rest. Li Long was also quite tired, and he fell asleep without realizing it while chatting. When he woke up again, it was already dawn, and there was noise outside. He could tell from the sounds that Halim and the others had returned.

Li Long's movement of getting up startled Li Xiangqian and Zhang Shouyi. He realized that the herdsman was not in the house; he must have gone out early.

When I went to bed last night, I didn't arrange for anyone to be on duty. I mainly thought that we had already fired shots here and taken down the wolves that needed to be shot, so nothing else should come over in the middle of the night.

Li Long now thinks they might have been a bit careless. After all, the wolves were also awake, and maybe some animal would come and lick the wolf's blood in the middle of the night.

When they put on their coats and went outside, they found that it was indeed Halim and Xu Haijun, who had already arrived at the winter hideout. Their haul was slightly less—just three wolves.

After seeing Li Long, Xu Haijun asked him, "You guys had a good haul yesterday, didn't you?"

Li Long gestured six numbers.

Xu Haijun nodded and said, "I knew it. The wolves came early and fired early from your side, so you must have set up an ambush."

"Our wolves had just emerged from the woods and hadn't even reached their winter dens yet. Before we were all ready, your gunfire startled our wolves, and we missed several."

Li Long could hear the regret in Xu Haijun's tone. He smiled and asked, "What do you mean? Are you planning to stay another day? To fight another round?"

Xu Haijun nodded and said, "It's not that it's impossible, it's just that I didn't tell my family in advance, and I was afraid they would worry."

Li Long turned to look at Li Xiangqian, who had followed him out, and said, "The director definitely can't stay here. I'll send him back and then call the team to let them know."

I came over again in the afternoon, and I saw that these wolves were indeed quite arrogant, charging over in packs. It's only because the cattle and sheep were in the warm pen that they were able to kill at least dozens of them if they were in the open pen.

"Let's work harder tonight, change locations, and set up another ambush. At least we can leave a few more wolves behind to lighten the burden on Halim and his men."

After he and Xu Haijun reached an agreement, he turned to look at the two workers.

Zhang Shouyi quickly nodded and said, "I'm fine."

Another worker shook his head, indicating that he was fine too.

Li Long then said to Li Xiangqian, "I'll take you back after breakfast, but we'll need to borrow the gun from our supply and marketing cooperative for a while."

Li Xiangqian said, "No problem. But you have to give me two of these wolf pelts, otherwise I won't be able to take them back to report."

Li Long smiled. Even if Li Xiangqian didn't say anything, he would still send a few wolf pelts.

Halim felt that the current situation was already sufficient. Killing the nine-headed wolf should be enough to deter the other wolf packs.

However, since Li Long and his group were willing to stay, Halim didn't refuse and then instructed the herders to prepare to slaughter a sheep. After Li Long and his group finished breakfast, they drove Li Xiang down the mountain.

There were four wolf pelts in the car, along with a small bag of freshly knocked-off wolf teeth. Li Xiangqian had started giving wolf teeth to his friends; he didn't know when this had become so popular.

As the car drove out of the mountain pass, it was unexpectedly stopped by the forestry police at the checkpoint. Li Long recognized the two unfamiliar faces in uniform blocking the way and knew he was in for a bit of trouble.

He stopped the car, got out, and proactively explained, "Comrades, thank you for your hard work. We're from the supply and marketing cooperative, and our director is inside. Is this a routine inspection?"

Upon hearing that they were from the supply and marketing cooperative, the two men exchanged a glance and then asked, "There were gunshots in the mountains last night. Did you have anything to do with them?"

Li Xiangqian had already gotten out of the car. He said to the two men, "I am Li Xiangqian from the supply and marketing cooperative. The gunshots last night were from our counterattack against the wolves that were attacking our livestock pens, along with our ethnic minority brothers whom we are paired with for assistance. This operation was reported to our superiors. Who is your leader in charge?"

One of them said, "The supervisor in charge is the deputy director, who went to a meeting in the county. Please wait a moment, we need to make a phone call to ask for instructions, and then please open the car door, we need to conduct an inspection."

Li Long scratched his head, thinking that there was indeed a little trouble. It seemed that he shouldn't have brought this wolf pelt with him, but with Li Xiangqian around, it shouldn't be a big problem.

The reeds crawling forward

The black fruit we used to talk about was the once-famous black goji berry. (End of Chapter)