sjar Chapter 237 Pulling a Stick to Catch a Bear
Chapter 237 Pulling a Stick to Catch a Bear
Li Ju'an got up without even glancing at the hunting dogs, and started digging in the snow on the shady slope behind the mountain with the shovel he had brought in his cloth bag.
Sun Weimin turned to look at him and found that he really hadn't come along. He said, "Just you wait and see. I'll bring you four roe deer. We'll have roe deer meat hot pot for dinner tonight. I won't give you a single piece. You'll be drooling."
He walked away without looking back.
Lu Zhiqiang was also anxious as he watched the herd of roe deer disappear into the distance. He said, "Li Ju'an, Da Hu can run, but there are green-skinned stags ahead. Da Hu will come back once he smells them. In the end, we won't catch the deer herd, but we can still lure the green-skinned stags here."
Nobody wants to encounter a large pack of wolves in the mountains. Hunters also avoid provoking wolves unless the forestry station organizes wolf-hunting teams to regularly eliminate wolves that have killed humans—wolves that have tasted human flesh cannot be kept alive.
Li Ju'an said, "Don't rush. This area is full of shrubs and grass seeds, and there's more than one herd of deer."
Everyone fell silent. Despite all the talk, it was rare to encounter deer in such a vast mountain area. Song Desheng asked him what kind of snow nest they were digging.
Li Ju'an said, "Let's build an artificial alkali field."
Hunters always carry a cloth bag with seasonings when they go out. After catching their prey, they stay overnight in the hunter's hut, where they can roast the meat or cook it in a hot pot. Seasonings are essential, and the most important is salt. He used a shovel to dig a hole more than a foot deep in the ground, then used wooden wedges to drill a pit, about 3 square meters in area. The location of the salt pit is also very important; it has to be on a shady slope where elk and deer frequently roam. He sprinkled salt into the pit and then covered it with a layer of soil with a shovel.
Covering the soil with earth is to alkalize it. Elk and deer, who roam the mountains, are extremely sensitive to smells. A deer or roe deer can survive for several days without grass seeds, but they will definitely seek out alkaline soil to lick and replenish their salt levels. Otherwise, these mountain animals, like humans, would be weak without salt. Li Ju'an, when hunting in the mountains, discovered an artificial alkaline field used by hunters to attract deer. Once the deer found it, they would lick the alkaline soil, at which point the traps set by the hunters would come in handy.
The local hunting practices of the Greater Khingan Mountains hunters were inherited from the Evenki villages. Hunting using alkali flats is a relatively recent development, dating back only about a century, and the Evenki hunters initially learned this method from Russian hunters. In the past, Russian hunters frequently crossed the river to hunt in the Greater Khingan Mountains, creating numerous artificial alkali flats. At that time, the Evenki hunters also often hunted in the mountains near Qigan on the banks of the Ergun River, frequently trading with Russian merchants.
As they traded, they also exchanged hunting tips. This practice was prevalent more than 20 years ago, when Evenki hunters still maintained 14 large alkaline pits and hunted with bows and arrows and old-fashioned hoes. Now, with the availability of Type 56 semi-automatic rifles, which have an effective range of up to 600 meters, deer can be hunted from a great distance, so fewer and fewer young hunters know how to operate alkaline pits.
Lu Zhiqiang wanted to smoke a cigarette, but after Li Ju'an finished covering the soil, he stubbed out Lu Zhiqiang's cigarette and said, "Cigarette butts are forbidden in the alkali field, and animal blood must not be left behind."
Lu Zhiqiang cried out in grievance, saying that Old Zhang was allowed to smoke his pipe bag, so why couldn't he?
Li Ju'an told him that the pipes he had just smoked on the ridge were different now that they were down at the alkali field.
Elk and deer have exceptionally sensitive noses; they can detect not just a whiff of smoke, but even a tiny wisp of tobacco. They will be wary and won't come in, turning around and leaving immediately.
Lu Zhiqiang finally gave in, put his thumb in front of him, and grinned, "It has to be you, Li Ju'an. Alright, let's break the clips."
He's very cunning; he just doesn't want to put in the effort of using pliers to bend the wire clips. Last time, he made so many 200 clips that he couldn't lift his arms the next day, his eyes ached, and he couldn't straighten his back. He was even laughed at by Lu Jinyang afterwards.
Lu Jinyang took out three or four medium-sized deer clips from his woven bag; he had already prepared them at home. Li Ju'an inspected the deer clips and gave him a thumbs up: "You really have to be a scholar; you can do anything."
Hearing the familiar praise, Lu Zhiqiang snorted coldly, sat down without saying a word, and began to try to bend the wire rings. Li Ju'an tossed him a bundle of used oiled silk rope and said, "Don't waste your energy, you won't be able to bend them properly anyway. Come with me and make a pulling rod."
According to Sun Weimin, there were bear tracks in this area. The group stood cautiously downwind, focusing on making snares out of oiled silk rope. After processing the rope to remove the scent, they made two loops and tied one end in a knot. Li Ju'an asked Song Desheng for an axe, found the thickest larch tree, selected a thick branch, removed his hand glove, gripped the axe tightly, and chopped away with all his might.
His hands were numb from the impact, and he clenched his teeth, straining with all his might. He chopped more than twenty times, and finally, a ring of bark appeared in the tree.
Song Desheng said, "No, the bark is frozen solid and covered in frost. We need to borrow a chainsaw, otherwise we'll never be able to cut it down."
The trees in the Xingan Mountains are already sturdy, so if you want to make a snare that can pull corn, the solid wood sticks have to be heavy. Otherwise, a bear weighing over 800 pounds could easily lift a solid wood stick like carrying corn, so what use would it be?
The heavy wooden stick was too heavy for the bear to lift, and even a person couldn't easily chop it. Li Ju'an gritted his teeth and mustered all his strength, swinging the axe with all his might, chopping away with a series of clangs. The bark shifted again, leaving a ring of marks, which could be considered effective.
Lu Jinyang shook his head and said, "That's not how you use an axe. You have to use skill. I'll do it."
Lu Jinyang used to have the best grades in school. After graduation, the Lu family arranged for him to work as a temporary worker in the forest farm, and he was later promoted to a permanent position. He was the smartest. When he said this, several people stopped and looked at him.
Without even removing his handcuffs, he gripped the axe handle tightly with both hands, using the rotational force of his waist and abdomen to smash the sharp side of the axe into the tree trunk. Large beads of sweat rolled down his forehead, his eyebrows and nose were covered in frost, and he was breathing heavily.
After 2 minutes, the tree trunk sustained minor damage.
Lu Zhiqiang couldn't stand it anymore. He took off his gloves, pulled Lu Jinyang behind him, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "I'll show you what the Lu family's Great General is all about! Go around to the surrounding villages and spread the word when you have time."
He assumed a horse stance, his legs firmly controlling his lower body. Song Desheng teased him, "You really look the part, but I'm afraid your underwear will freeze later."
Lu Zhiqiang glanced at him sideways and said, "Whether it's embarrassing or not, it was clearly your underwear that was frozen last time, don't blame me. General Lu can't make a pulling stick hammer."
He let out a low growl, his eyes wide and fierce, veins bulging on his forehead and hands, and gripped the axe tightly, hacking away at the tree trunk. The brutal force made him feel like a wild bull, his face flushed red. Several minutes passed, his hands still moving, his whole body drenched in sweat, even his underwear was soaked with sweat, as if it were free.
The tree trunk sustained minor damage.
When the cold wind blew, in the mountains where the temperature was minus forty degrees Celsius, the sweat on his underwear froze into ice crystals, making him rub against the fabric and feel extremely uncomfortable. He couldn't let others see him and laugh at him, so he could only grimace, wiggle his buttocks, and clench his legs, looking like a woman.
Song Desheng couldn't stand it anymore and said, "It's the dead of winter, the trees are all frozen solid. If we just relied on axes to chop them down, I bet we could do it for five hours. Otherwise, why would the No. 69 timber yard be full of chainsaws? Workers only get things done with chainsaws."
The forest farm is far away, and the 69th Forest Farm is also very far away; it's impossible to run there now to borrow a chainsaw.
The group was stumped. Making the pull rod seemed simple, so why were they stuck on the solid wood rod?
Suddenly, Song Desheng asked, "Lu Zhiqiang, did your old man bring that landmine?"
Lu Zhiqiang slapped his forehead and grinned, "How could I forget this? I brought it with me."