Rebirth of Bayi Fishing and Hunting in the Northwest

Chapter 1018 Lynx, Wolf, Tiger King!
By the time Li Long realized the yellow creature was a lynx, he had already raised his gun, instinctively cocking it, loading a round, and aiming.

Then he pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

However, the lynx was faster and more agile than he had imagined.

As Li Long pulled the trigger, the creature unusually lunged directly in Li Long's direction, and the bullet instantly struck the spot where it had been.

Just as Li Long slightly adjusted his gun to prepare for a follow-up shot, the lynx dodged, its hindquarters swinging up like some soldiers turning around to snipe, its entire body making a 180-degree turn, kicking up a cloud of snow mist as it suddenly darted into the distance!

"boom!"

"boom!"

"boom!"

The lynx was extremely fast; Li Long fired several shots, but they all hit the snow mist it was kicking up, without causing any damage.

The lynx was light and didn't sink into the snow at all. It seemed to float away and quickly darted into the forest and disappeared.

Li Long was very unwilling to give up, so he picked up his gun and chased after them. He was in high spirits after the hunt that morning had gone so smoothly.

Shooting down a lynx is much more interesting than shooting down several wolves.

Of course, lynx pelts are also more expensive, which is the main reason.

Although the snow was thick, Li Long ran forward at a speed not much slower than the lynx. When he entered the forest, he saw the lynx stop beside a large fir tree and turn its head to look back.

When the lynx saw Li Long approaching, it quickly ran forward again.

Li Long continued chasing, and once he left the forest, he could no longer see any trace of the lynx.

The paw prints were still there, spreading down the snow and disappearing over a hundred meters down the hillside.

Li Long sighed and stopped chasing. It seemed his marksmanship was still not good enough, and his prediction of the prey was inaccurate. The lynx was also smart enough not to flee immediately after spotting its predator, causing him to misjudge the situation.

As he walked back with his gun in hand, Li Long realized just how fast he had run when he passed through the thick snow.

The distance from the cabin to the woods was so long that I carved a path just wide enough for one person by myself; I must have had a lot of kinetic energy.

Back in the room, Li Long loaded a few more bullets into the gun, tucked it in, and then leaned against the bed.

As darkness fell, Li Long felt a bit hungry again, perhaps because he had used up some energy while running. He put the stir-fried wild boar meat in the pot on the stove to heat it up, and then tore open the half-bread and put it inside.

When the pot was hot, he used a spatula to stir the vegetables haphazardly a few times. The meat and oil that had been solidified quickly melted, boiled, and bubbled. He stirred them for a while longer, and when he saw that they were almost ready, he scooped out half a bowl, then put the pot on the stove, covered it with the lid, and started eating.

After finishing his meal, Li Long poured some boiling water from the thermos into the rice bowl, then went out to the spring to scoop up some cold water. After washing the bowl, he returned to rest.

The water is still frozen in the snow; I wonder if it will attract prey again.

Li Long felt regret again, realizing he hadn't been able to shoot down the lynx.

Back inside, Li Long added some coal to the stove, but leaned against the bed, still not really ready to sleep. He searched the room and found a novel lying in the corner, a copy of "The Legend of Tong Lin" that he had brought with him sometime during the day.

The book cover was torn off, and the back cover was also ripped apart, but fortunately the main content was still intact and readable.

I had read it before, but hadn't finished it. I didn't really like it, but since I had no other books available, I lit the oil lamp and leaned against the headboard to start reading.

After watching for a while, Li Long looked up and realized that it was already dark outside.

Li Long stood up, walked to the window, lifted the paper windowpane, and looked outside.

Two blurry figures were moving around where the water had just been poured.

Li Long was startled. He quickly turned around, grabbed his gun, blew out the oil lamp, and went back to the window. He then peeled back the paper window and held the gun out.

The view darkened for a moment, then I slowly made out that there were two wolves. One of them was dragging a large piece of offal toward the woods, while the other one was probably starving and was tearing at the offal in the snow.

Apart from a slight tearing sound, there were no other sounds at all.

They didn't make a sound!

Is it that the wolves have become smarter, or is it just a coincidence?
Li Long looked towards the woods again, but it was quite far away, and there was no moon yet, so it was dark and he couldn't see very clearly.

The offal was frozen solid and very heavy. The wolf dragging the offal forward stopped after about twenty or thirty meters. It looked at the wolf tearing at the offal, then at the offal near its own mouth, and began to eat it as well.

Li Long was delighted; he loved shooting at these stationary targets.

He raised the gun, aimed, and mentally simulated the shooting scene before quickly pulling the trigger.

"Bang!" "Bang!"

After two shots, the two wolves fell to the ground.

Li Long put away his gun with satisfaction, and just as he was about to leave, he heard a long wolf howl suddenly come from the woods.

Sure enough, there were wolves waiting to meet him, but by the time Li Long went out with his gun, the wolf howls had already faded into the distance.

He strode quickly toward the two wolves, gun in hand. One wolf was still alive, struggling and twitching slightly in the snow. The other was completely still.

Li Long quickly slit the throats of the two wolves, while simultaneously observing his surroundings.

Unfortunately, the two wolves' companions didn't have the guts to come and avenge them.

Li Long slung his gun over his shoulder and carried the two wolves back to the cabin.

The two wolves were quite thin, like sheep that had lost weight. It was still early, and I couldn't sleep anyway, so I simply skinned the two wolves and put their entrails in a bag, placing it in the small room next door.

Prepare to continue being the bait.

After dealing with the two wolves, Li Long was exhausted. He added some broken coal to the stove, pressed down some coal dust, washed his hands, and then lay down on the bed to rest.

Silent all night.

When he got up the next morning, he felt that the room was still a bit chilly. He got dressed, took a stove hook and checked the stove, and found that the fire had completely gone out.

After opening the furnace lid, cleaning out the ashes in the furnace chamber, and resetting the furnace, Li Long went outside. It was already daylight.

To his surprise, the two pieces of sewer that hadn't been dragged away by the wolves yesterday had now disappeared.

The snow nearby was trampled into a mess. Li Long walked over and examined it closely. There were tracks of various animals on the ground: wolves, foxes, and what looked like a lynx, though he wasn't sure if it was the one he had chased yesterday.

It seems I slept too soundly, and these wild animals are quite cunning, stealing things without making a sound.

Let them take it; at least it's still in the small room.

In the morning, Li Long cooked himself some porridge and baked half a naan bread. The wild boar meat left over from yesterday was too greasy, so he stir-fried a plate of the pickled vegetables he brought with him. It was crisp, refreshing, and went well with rice.

After finishing their meal, Li Long cleaned up the pots and pans, put the stove back on, started the jeep, and headed towards Dongwozi in Yushanjiang.

Where there is vegetation, the wind is calm, but where the vegetation is sparse, there will be some snow. The wind in the mountains is cold and harsh. When driving, Li Long can feel the wind blowing fine snow particles against the glass window, making a faint sound.

Although it was a bright sunny day, there was an eerie feeling. The wind swirled up snowflakes, which then fell back down from mid-air, sometimes even blurring people's vision.

To Li Long's surprise, Halim and Talihar were both at the entrance of Yushan Jiang's winter camp.

There was a wolf pelt at Talihar's feet, which Li Long guessed he must have shot down.

The jeep stopped in front of the winter camp. Li Long got out and greeted Talihar and the others. Talihar pointed to the wolf pelt at his feet and said:

"These are four wolves I killed yesterday, but unfortunately I only managed to kill one; the rest escaped." "It's alright, we can keep fighting these next couple of days and kill more. Once we've either driven the wolves away or scared them off, your cattle and sheep will be safe."

Several people laughed when they heard Li Long's words.

"Come on, come on, let's go inside and have some milk tea." Yu Shanjiang came over from the sheepfold and greeted everyone.

“Li Long, we owe you a lot this year.” After entering the winter shelter and sitting down at the kang table, Talihar spoke first. “I heard from the B people in the pastoral area that many herders like us in the mountains have had their winter shelters or sheep pens collapse this year.”

"If it weren't for you and your team helping us repair our house last year, we might be suffering from the same disaster right now, not knowing where to live."

"What will happen to the herders whose winter shelters were crushed?" Li Long asked, taking the milk tea handed to him by Yushanjiang.

Yushanjiang and his Yanggangzi were mixing milk tea by the stove at the door. As they were mixing the milk tea, Yushanjiang said, "Those people from the pastoral teams are finding places to settle down, mainly by combining several families together."

"We've found a place to stay, but we still need to dig out their fodder from the snow and transport it there. Some herders' entire families' cattle and sheep were buried under the snow, and only a few survived."

Li Long could imagine such a thing. After all, the severe snow disaster in Inner Mongolia and the state-run ranches couldn't even supply cattle and sheep to Yanjing. You can imagine how big the disaster was.

"Of all the pastoral areas belonging to the entire pastoral team, our area is the safest, and we have the most stored fodder. Almost none of the cattle or sheep have frozen to death. We have also provided some fodder to the pastoral team."

Yushanjiang said as he served milk tea to Halim and Talihar:

"Because of this, the ranching team said that next year the amount of wool and broiler sheep we have to hand over to the team will be reduced, as a reward for us."

Li Long wondered if the pastoral team would still exist in the next year or two. Maybe it would be like the production teams, where these herders would be assigned to various local production teams, their cattle and sheep would belong to them, their pastures would be divided, and they would be like those who delivered grain quotas, delivering a certain amount of cattle, sheep, and wool each year according to the purchase price. The rest would be entirely up to them.

In fact, the current pastoral teams have roughly the same function, but they are more like the production teams before the distribution of production to individual households.

It may be time for change.

Sipping milk tea, the group discussed their hunting plans for the day.

According to Halim, you should just follow the direction where wolves like to appear.

Talihar disagreed, saying that he had scared the wolves away with his shots yesterday, and that he hadn't seen any wolves this morning. He suggested that the gunshots yesterday might have affected the wolf pack on the Yushan River side.

“Yes, from yesterday afternoon until this morning, there has been no movement from the wolves on my side.” Yu Shanjiang’s words confirmed this judgment. “Maybe these wolves were scared away by the gunshots and didn’t dare to come over for a while.”

“Then let’s wait until night to see if these wolves dare to come over,” Halim said. “Whether we shoot or scare them, we have to fire and teach them a lesson. Otherwise, these wolves will be a real nuisance, like a leech that we can’t shake off.”

Everyone else agreed with this opinion, and the group stayed at the winter hut.

The children from Yushanjiang finished their work outside and came into the house, greeting Li Long somewhat shyly.

Li Long asked in detail about the textbook swap, but didn't get any results.

They simply said that one day, the school suddenly took away their textbooks, without specifying why. After that, classes became limited to simple literacy lessons, with more emphasis on math and other subjects.

Later, some history and Chinese language knowledge were added to the lessons. It turns out that their school in Kazakhstan was entirely taught in Kazakh, and it's said that the school in Uyghurs was also entirely taught in Uyghur.

He's starting to learn Chinese now, and although there aren't many lessons, Li Long sees it as progress.

Yushan Jiang Halimu and his family also agreed with this approach. They felt that the next generation wouldn't necessarily stay in the mountains herding sheep; they wanted to go out into the world and see the world, so mastering Mandarin Chinese was essential.

Li Long sat in the winter shelter for a while, but he couldn't stay still. He went out, took a gun from the jeep, and prepared to take a walk in the nearby woods.

Talihar also chased after them, with the same idea in mind.

"Besides wolves, what other prey are there in the mountains lately?" Li Long asked him as he walked forward, carrying his gun.

“I’ve seen red deer twice, roe deer once, and wolves most often,” Talihar said as he walked forward. “But I didn’t have a gun with me when I saw them, so I couldn’t shoot them.”

By the time I got my gun out, it was gone. These things are very alert now; as soon as they see us, they run far away, impossible to catch. Sigh, the snow is just too deep.

Just as Li Long was about to speak, Talihar added:
"By the way, I saw a gazelle a couple of days ago. I never expected to see gazelles in these mountains. I remember these animals are always found in the Gobi Desert."

“There’s no grass left in the Gobi Desert. If these animals aren’t driven into the mountains or into the thickets where there’s no food, they’ll starve to death,” Li Long explained. “Now, many people outside the mountains are guarding the roads and uninhabited areas, specifically hunting these gazelles that run from the Gobi Desert into the mountains.”

"Hey, that sounds so comfortable!" Talihar exclaimed enviously. "You could probably do a lot of hits a day like that, right?"

"It's uncertain. If we encounter a large herd of gazelles, we can kill about a dozen a day. If we encounter a small group, we can kill a few. Of course, there are also times when we don't encounter any at all."

As the two talked, they arrived in the woods, where Li Long saw wolf claw marks in the snow at the edge of the woods.

However, judging from the marks, they must have been from a few days ago.

Once inside the forest, the snow covered with more tracks. Li Long guessed that because the forest provided some shelter, the chill was less intense than on the snow-covered ground outside, so the wild animals would be more active in the woods.

As they moved around, they discovered even more tracks. There were not only hoof prints of wolves and foxes, but also hoof prints of deer, smaller ones resembling rabbit footprints, and bird claw marks.

But there were only traces, and no living creature was seen.

Li Long was somewhat disappointed, but he did not give up. Instead, he carried his gun and circled the woods before following the direction with the most tracks out of the woods and onto the snow.

Various animals had carved out paths in the snow. Li Long followed the newest route, and Talihar hurriedly followed, asking questions as they went:
"Li Long, the tracks are the deepest and largest over there, why don't we go that way?"

“The marks over there are at least three days old; we won’t find anything if we go over there.”

The marks here must be from yesterday; maybe we'll find something.

They followed the trail for about seven or eight hundred meters and made a discovery.

In the valley below the hillside, a roe deer had been gnawed down to its head, hooves, and scattered bones.

The bloodstains seeped into the snow, creating a very tragic scene.

“Those wolves killed and ate the roe deer here yesterday,” Talihar said, picking up a twig and poking at it.

They continued walking forward, circled around again, found nothing, and then turned back.

After returning to the winter lodge, we had lunch not long after. The afternoon was spent waiting, and still no wolves appeared nearby.

Today was basically a wasted day.

Although he suspected that wolves might come at night, Yushanjiang meant that they didn't need to stay there in ambush. If wolves really came at night, he would shoot.

Li Long and the others then went back to their respective homes.

Back in the cabin, Li Long went inside and found that the fire in the stove was still burning. He gathered some firewood and pressed it on the remaining embers. After the fire started burning, he put some pieces of charcoal on top.

While the fire was roaring, Li Long started boiling water. Then he took out some of the wolf's offal from next door, carried some out, and put it back at the spot where he had set the bait the day before.

I had hand-pulled mutton for lunch at Yushanjiang, which was quite filling. So I just wanted some porridge for dinner.

After dinner, although the sun had already set, it was still quite bright. After cleaning up the pots and pans, Li Long rested against the bed for a while before preparing to go out to relieve himself.

As he was about to leave, he thought for a moment and picked up his gun again. There were a lot of wolves around lately; safety first.

I had just stepped outside and taken a few steps when I felt something suddenly lunge at me from my right front!
Yu Guangli's thing was particularly large, which shocked Li Long. He felt that he was no match for it, so he suddenly rushed forward and did a forward roll, landing on the wooden table outside.

The big guy also rushed over, and Li Long hurriedly overturned the table and used it to shield himself!

With a loud roar, the guy smashed the case to pieces with a single slap.

But the solved case gave Li Long a brief opportunity to retaliate. He picked up his gun and, without caring whether there was snow in the muzzle, pulled the trigger!

"Bah!"

(End of this chapter)