Reborn in the 1980s: I made my fortune hunting wild game in Changbai Mountain

After chatting briefly with Xiao Tao, Yue Feng busied himself with cooking lunch inside the house.

They brought dried meat and plenty of dry food with them when they went into the mountains, so lunch was easy to prepare.

Throw the meat into a pot and cook it, then add salt and other seasonings.

Once the meat is almost cooked, arrange the dry rations around the stove opening, and they will soon be hot, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

After the meal was ready, the brothers each took a square aluminum lunchbox, filled it with meat and soup, and then ate some toasted steamed buns. They slurped it all down, finding it both filling and warm.

After eating and drinking his fill, Yue Feng glanced at the time on his wrist.

1:35 PM.

Lunch was served much earlier than planned, which means they set up camp and cooked much more efficiently, saving a lot of time.

"Are you all full and rested? Come on, let's take a stroll around the area before it gets dark! Xiaowen, you stay here and watch the tent?"

Xiaowen nodded: "Okay, I'll keep an eye on things at home!"

After arranging for people to guard the camp, Yue Feng, carrying a gun, led Xiao Tao and Xiao Wu, along with their dogs and eagles, and left the camp, heading straight for the large grove of dead pine trees that Xiao Tao had mentioned.

Along the way, Yue Feng observed animal tracks in the surrounding snow as he traveled.

This mountain area is at least a hundred kilometers away from the nearest village. It is only because Yue Feng and his group have snowmobiles and tricycles that they were able to get here and set up camp in such a short time.

There were quite a few animal tracks in the surrounding snow, including roe deer and wild boar tracks. However, none of them were left in the last day or two; they must have been left at least three to five days ago.

Instead of following the footprints, Yue Feng and his companions went to the pine forest that Xiao Tao had mentioned.

When he got close, Yue Feng frowned slightly, even though he was mentally prepared.

This forest is practically a primeval forest, with many other species mixed in besides pine trees.

But looking around, all the trees of the Korean pine variety, whether they are small saplings that have only grown a few years ago or large pine trees that several people can hug, all have yellow and withered leaves.

In the snow-covered, white world of mountains and forests, the withered and yellowed pine trees that had died of disease stood out starkly, creating a desolate scene as far as the eye could see.

"Holy crap! Such a huge area, and all the pine trees are dead!!" Xiaowu couldn't help but curse when he saw this scene.

Yue Feng frowned slightly and said, "It must be a large-scale outbreak of pine wilt disease! When we came last year, we didn't see any large-scale dieback, and it's only been a year!"

"What should we do with this? Is it contagious?" Xiao Tao asked with a worried expression.

Yue Feng curled his lip: "What else can we do? Cut down trees and burn them! Cut off the source of infection!"
I heard Uncle Du from the Forestry Bureau mention it once. This thing seems to be some kind of insect or fungus that can cause large-scale infection and death of pine trees!
It's most likely that thing!
Alright, let's go! Let's circle around and see if we see any wild boars or anything, and we can dig up pine nuts to eat in the woods!

In this era, the price of pine nuts from red pine trees has already begun to rise.

Every autumn, harvesting pine cones in the mountains is an important source of income for many villagers who collect mountain products.

However, most people rarely venture into such remote areas.

The traffic problem cannot be solved.

Now, all the trees are dead. I don't know if they started dying in spring or if it happened after summer and autumn.

The pine cones on the tree may still be there in stock. Pine nuts have an extremely high oil content, which is a favorite food for animals such as wild boars and squirrels to fatten up for winter.

Yue Feng led the way, walking silently for about three or four hundred meters. From a distance, his attention was drawn to a dark brown area.

"Look over there!"

"The ground was turned over by a herd of wild boars! It was just turned over after the snow!" Xiao Tao, with his sharp eyes, immediately made the judgment.

"Let's go take a look! Maybe the pigs haven't gone very far!"

The three of them strolled over, and the closer they got, the more traces of wild boar trampling they discovered.

There were traces of pine cones that had been turned over and eaten on the ground.

This also indirectly confirms Yue Feng's guess.

Yue Feng bent down and picked up a gnawed pine cone. He squeezed the top of the cone, lifted the husk, and took out a pine nut that hadn't been eaten.

The pine nuts are quite honest, which suggests that these pine trees most likely died off in large numbers in the second half of the year.

"Brother, these marks look pretty fresh, they must have been there in two or three days at most!" Xiao Tao said excitedly.

"Azure Dragon, search!!" Yue Feng shouted, immediately ordering the dog to begin searching for scents.

Upon hearing the command, the dog excitedly began to move around, leaving behind a strong, lingering scent of wild boar.

Wang Wang!

In just a few seconds, Canglong locked onto the direction of the wild boar herd's scent and barked at Yue Feng a few times.

"Chase!"

At a command, the dog was the first to chase after them, running wildly across the sun-facing hillside that had been cleared.

The lead dog moved, and the other dogs also became anxious, but since the ropes were still in place, they could only watch helplessly!

"Bro, shall we let the dogs go?"

Yue Feng shook his head: "No rush, hold on tight and don't let go! Let Canglong lead the way himself!"

It'll be dark by four o'clock. Today, let's roughly locate the pigsty and find their direction. Ideally, we should find a pens where they'll spend the night, and then take them all out first thing tomorrow morning!

"Haha, that's great! Now we've upgraded from slingshots to cannons. The firepower of just one AK is enough to wipe out the entire herd of pigs!" Xiaowu said excitedly, patting the gun.

"Let's go, follow them, and see how things go!"

……

Having grown through the previous hunting seasons, Yue Feng, the team leader, has indeed developed the demeanor of a seasoned veteran.

Knowing what was going on, they acted with remarkable composure. Following their leader, Canglong, they made their way along the trail, and in less than an hour, they discovered a dark-colored animal trail frequently traversed by wild boars.

Wang Wang Wang!
After discovering the beast path, the Azure Dragon roared a few more times and stood still, refusing to move forward.

Yue Feng knew that Gouzi was waiting for its owner, so he quickened his pace with his friends and soon arrived at the animal path.

"Good dog! Keep going, but be careful not to bark, or you'll scare the prey!"

Yue Feng patted the dog's head, and Canglong immediately opened and closed its mouth, switching to 'vibration mode'.

The dog walked in front, and the people followed beside it, trying to make as little noise as possible, for fear of suddenly startling the wild boar herd hiding somewhere.

Led by Canglong, the group quickly found their destination.

Located halfway up the sunny slope of a red pine forest, this is a wild boar's den used for overnight lodging.

Upon seeing this vast expanse of pigsties, Yue Feng gasped in shock.

A typical wild boar's den is at most two or three square meters in size, but this wild boar's den, judging from the size of its core area, is at least twice that.

In a typical pig herd, there are about seven or eight wild boars that roam together, huddling together for warmth at night. The area they occupy is roughly two or three square meters. Doubling that means the herd size would roughly double.

A herd of ten wild boars is not a small number. If the herd is fourteen or fifteen, it means that it has been surviving for at least three to five years and that there must be plenty of food around.

Why do I say that? Wild boar herds may seem chaotic, but there's an underlying logic to how large a herd can be maintained.

Generally, a pig herd is led by a core sow, and the piglets born to the sow grow up and move around with the herd.

At this point, once the male piglets have grown to a certain size, they will leave the herd to find new territory and mates on their own.

If there is not enough food, older sows will also drive away the piglets that have grown up in the herd.

As for the male boars in the herd, these are the ones who have their own territories. Except during the breeding season when they move around in the herd, they spend most of their time alone.

Now, a large herd of pigs can be formed, and the sows have a strong ability to reproduce and lead the herd to survival.

Only when the number of offspring is enormous and there is enough food in the surrounding area to feed so many individuals will the swarming strategy not be triggered.

"Guys, we've got it! It's a huge herd! At least ten pigs!" Yue Feng said with great certainty.

"Hehe, tomorrow morning, I'll mow them all down!" Xiaowu held up his gun and made a firing motion toward the pigsty.

"Don't go any closer, or you might scare the pigs away! Remember the direction and location, let's go back the way we came! Azure Dragon, come back!"

Upon hearing its master's call, the Azure Dragon immediately scurried back.

With the discovery of this large herd of pigs, everyone felt much more relaxed on the way back to camp.

The game resources near our home in the back mountains are limited; we need to venture deeper into the mountains for more opportunities.

If the forecast is accurate, this herd of wild boars could yield at least one or two thousand catties of wild meat in one go. That's equivalent to the harvest of a hunting team working hard in the mountains for half a month right outside my door.

Returning the way we came, the guys all started humming little tunes.

Under such overwhelming firepower, even if one of these pigs was a mutated wild boar king weighing over a thousand pounds like the one we fought last time, it would still perish on the spot.

Less than a kilometer from the camp, Yue Feng was walking when Xiao Tao suddenly pulled him along.

"What's wrong?"

Xiao Tao didn't speak, but pointed into the distance: "There are roe deer at two o'clock straight ahead! There seem to be three or four!"

"Where is it?" Upon hearing that there was a roe deer, Xiaowu immediately raised his gun.

"Don't shoot! Don't fire yet! If we shoot and scare the pigs, it will be a huge loss!" Yue Feng hurriedly stopped his teammate.

When Xiaowu heard the captain say no, he scratched his head anxiously: "Let them go? What a waste! At most two hundred meters, the first shot's accuracy is probably seventy or eighty percent!"

Yue Feng looked up and surveyed the surrounding terrain. There were scattered saplings or shrubs growing around the thick red pine trees. This place was not as bright as the selectively felled or completely felled forests.

The area was too noisy; even if you whistled and shouted, it would be difficult for the big black hawk to swoop down, let alone have the dog chase it.

Now is not the time for spring thawing. Roe deer are known as "flying on snow," and even a hunting dog of the caliber of a blue dragon cannot catch up with them.

"Let them go! Focus on that large group of wild boars! This forest is too noisy; even the eagles can't help! Let's head back to camp!"

"Okay, fine!" Xiaowu sighed, locked the safety on his gun, and followed them back.

Yue Feng smiled and comforted Xiao Wu, who was looking down with his head drooping, "Don't be discouraged. It's not like we're leaving again tomorrow!"

If these roe deer are lucky enough to hear the noise and stay far away, then they're being sensible!
"If we finish dealing with the pigs and then run into them again, you can fight them however you want!"

"Well, it's not that we absolutely have to fight, it's just that we think it would be more convenient to get some fresh meat for ourselves!" Xiaowu explained, scratching his head.

"Let's go! We'll talk about it tomorrow!"

"it is good!"

……

After this little incident, the three of them were clearly a little disappointed with their return.

When they returned to camp, Xiaowen asked curiously, "Why are you back so early? Did you find any trace of the wild animals?"

Yue Feng smiled and nodded: "The livestock density here is much higher than in the back mountain! We found a large area where a herd of wild boars was grazing, and followed their tracks to their den where they spent the night!"
On the way back, we encountered several roe deer, but fearing it would interfere with tomorrow's important pig-catching operation, we didn't let Xiaowu fire the gun!

"A pigsty? How big is it?"

"The kind with at least a dozen pigs! The pigsty is made of branches and some pine needles and fallen leaves, covering an area of ​​at least four or five square meters, with a huge area for them to lie down!"

"Shall we raid their hideout first thing tomorrow morning?"

"That's right! We've got two AK-47s and a Type 56 semi-automatic rifle. A volley of fire is a powerful seventy rounds! As long as the pigs don't panic, we'll try to take them down in one round!"

Xiaowen: "If the pig herd is really that large, we can stock up on enough meat for the winter in one trip! It's just...it's just..."

"What is it? Just say what your concerns are, why are you beating around the bush!"

Xiaowen frowned slightly and said, "We are at least ten kilometers away from where the snowmobiles are located, along a mountain road!"

With so much meat, how are we going to get it back?
The blind deer could be trained and led back, but the wild boar had already been jumped on and killed; we could only drag it back bit by bit!

To be honest, this is indeed a big problem.

Yue Feng didn't have a better solution at the moment.

Just as he was about to shake his head, his gaze swept over the pine firewood cut into sections inside the tent.

The next second, Yue Feng had a sudden inspiration: "If all else fails, we can give them wild boar meat, roast it over firewood into jerky, and then take it back!"

Anyway, there are plenty of dead pine trees in the pine forest!

These timbers can't be cut down and used; they can only be burned to kill pests and diseases! Making all the pork into jerky—it takes several pounds of fresh meat to make one pound of jerky—and then dragging it down the mountain would be much easier!

To be honest, Yue Feng's strategy was flawless.

In the past, when we went hunting in the mountains, most of the wild boar meat we caught, besides what we consumed at home, was sold.

Fresh meat can fetch a good price, so a little hard work is worth it!

Now that we have plenty of money, and with so many dogs at home, the amount of meat consumed by the people and the dogs over the winter is not a small amount.

In this case, it's convenient to take the dried meat home for personal use, and it's also easier to store and transport. It just takes a little time to dry the pork.

For a child who grew up in the mountains, this kind of work is very easy. Yue Feng learned to cook field mice by himself when he was in elementary school.

"Smoked meat jerky? Sure! We'll do it the captain's way! This stuff will be several times lighter once it's dried! Let's do it this way!"

"Alright, alright, we still have about two hours before dark. Let's get to work and gather some firewood! Once we bring back the game tomorrow, we'll get right to it!"

A quick idea solved the potential transportation problem after the game was hunted, and everyone's enthusiasm immediately soared.

Those carrying axes took axes, those carrying small handsaws took handsaws, and the group set off from the camp, heading straight for the nearest infected area, the pine forest. (End of Chapter)