Rebirth in 1972: Redemption in Changbai Mountain

Everyone reacted instantly.

Several wolves climbed over the haystack outside and immediately joined forces to kill the sow protecting her piglets. They didn't even touch a single piece of meat, and then they carried the piglets away the way they came, without making a sound from beginning to end.

"How many did they actually take?" Gu Shaofeng muttered subconsciously.

"We'll know how many there are when it gets light; just ask the breeder."

Zhou Rui raised his hand to interrupt him: "The most important thing now is to guard until dawn and not let them sneak in and harm the remaining pigs."

"That's right." Gu Dayong immediately made the decision: "Zhou Rui, you take one person to guard this cave entrance, and the rest of you will patrol around the perimeter of the entire house with me. We must not give the wolves any more opportunities."

"I can guard this hole by myself." Zhou Rui patted the Mauser rifle in his hand, the cold light of the gun shimmering under the flashlight.

"With too many people, it's difficult to spread out. Having one more person patrolling is actually safer."

Gu Dayong stared into his eyes, which held no trace of pretentious bravado, but genuine confidence.

Recalling his ruthlessness in killing jackals and fighting against petty thieves, he immediately nodded: "Okay, we'll do it your way."

The men and their hounds scattered instantly, patrolling the perimeter of the house.

Zhou Rui went around to the outside of the cave, raised his foot and kicked hard at the pile of branches and straw he had used as a stepping stone. The whole pile of straw scattered into the mud with a crash.

He looked around, found a thick wooden post stuck in the mud wall, reached out and touched Big Yellow's head, and climbed up the post to the roof in a few quick movements.

Big Yellow looked up and glanced around, without barking or making a fuss. It found a sheltered corner, dug a shallow hole with its front paws, and settled down peacefully inside.

On the roof, Zhou Rui crouched at the corner of the eaves, his view perfectly encompassing the entire wall leading to the opening.

On the other side was the wall where Gu Shaofeng and his hunting dogs were patrolling, which was also fully visible, leaving no blind spots in the field of vision.

The wind carried the chirping of insects from the distant fields, mingling with the grunting of pigs in the pigsty, and drifted up to the rooftops.

Zhou Rui squatted on the eaves, his fingertips resting on the trigger guard of his rifle, his eyes half-closed, like a stone nailed to a wooden beam.

Big Yellow lay at the base of the wall, its ears turning every three seconds, able to accurately distinguish even the sounds of field mice running across the field ridges.

About an hour later, it got even darker, the darkest hour before dawn.

Suddenly, a very light rustling sound of grass drifted from the direction of the eastern field ridge; it wasn't the sound of Gu Shaofeng and his patrol footsteps.

They walked steadily, their shoes making a deep, muffled sound as they stepped into the mud.

The movement was as light as a breeze, yet it possessed a more regularity than the wind, gradually moving towards the cave entrance.

Zhou Rui slowly placed his finger on the trigger, but did not fire immediately.

He saw half a wolf's head peek out from the darkness, its emerald green eyes only briefly appearing before quickly disappearing back into the darkness.

Gunshots rang out from the wheat fields to the north. They weren't loud, but they were clear and carried very far.

The wolf didn't move, only the tip of its ear twitched slightly.

Unfortunately, Zhou Rui was more steady; he didn't move his gun at all, keeping it aimed at the wolf's head.

The wolf was extremely cautious. It first picked up a twig and threw it towards the cave entrance. The twig landed on the broken haystack with a very soft sound.

The big yellow dog at the base of the wall didn't move an inch, not even lifting its ears.

The wolf probed twice, and only when it saw no movement inside did it finally relax and let out a low howl.

Immediately afterwards, three wolves emerged from the shadows of the field ridge and headed straight for the cave entrance.

Zhou Rui didn't shoot the wolf at the very front; instead, he lowered his gun slightly and aimed at the wolf bringing up the rear.

"Bang."

Gunshots rang out in the darkness, the bullets accurately blew half of its head off, and the last wolf didn't even whimper before lying down on the spot.

The two wolves in front immediately bristled and turned to dash towards the edge of the field.

Zhou Rui fired his second shot immediately afterward, and the wolf running to the side had its hind leg broken, rolling in the mud and howling in agony.

The remaining, strongest wolf reacted incredibly quickly. Using the shadow of the nearby woodpile, it suddenly darted diagonally, and instead of fleeing into the woods, it went straight to the eaves of the house, hoping to use the blind spot of the earthen wall to avoid Zhou Rui's gun.

As soon as it rushed to the base of the wall, Big Yellow pounced from the shadows, its two front paws hooking tightly around the wolf's back, its sharp teeth aimed straight for the back of its neck.

The two beasts rolled together in the mud, and the wolf's sharp teeth grazed the base of Big Yellow's ear, tearing off a large tuft of yellow fur.

Big Yellow didn't loosen its grip at all, making a muffled sound in its throat, and biting so hard that blood gushed out of the wolf's carotid artery instantly.

Instead of jumping down from the roof to finish off the wolf pack, Zhou Rui suddenly turned around and aimed his gun at the ridge where the wolf pack had just emerged.

He miscounted.

The first wave consisted of three wolves; two died, and the remaining one was entangled by Big Yellow.

But just as the wolf howled, at least two green lights flashed briefly in the rice paddy, but none of them rushed out.

They weren't there to steal the piglets at all. They deliberately sent three wolves as bait to lure Zhou Rui into firing and revealing their position. The remaining wolves went around to the back of the house, trying to sneak in through the ventilation opening on the other side.

"Senior Brother, behind the house!" Zhou Rui shouted at the top of his lungs, firing his third shot directly towards the direction where the wooden planks behind the house had shattered.

The bullet struck the wooden plank, sending up a string of sawdust. Wolf, who had just stuck half his body into the ventilation duct, let out a muffled groan as he was shot in the shoulder and fell to the ground.

Gu Shaofeng led his men to charge from the side, followed by the sound of shotguns. The last wolf that tried to slip away was pounced on and pinned down by the hunting dogs.

When Gu Dayong arrived with his men, all four wolves lay dead in the mud. Big Yellow, with blood on its mouth, was still lying on top of the big wolf, its throat emitting a low, menacing growl.

Zhou Rui slid down the wooden pillar from the roof, squatted down, and examined the mouth of the wolf that had been killed first. Inside, besides bloodstains, there was a tuft of white fur.

He rubbed the tuft of white fur with his fingertips, and his face instantly darkened. It was wool.

"That's not right." Zhou Rui suddenly stood up and looked at Gu Dayong.

"We've been stuck in the pigsty for so long, but there's been no movement from the sheepfold. The six brothers who went to the sheepfold earlier haven't even sent back a single gunshot."

The stench of blood in the wind suddenly changed, mixed with a faint, almost imperceptible smell of burning, drifting slowly from the direction of the sheepfold.

From the edge of the distant woods, a deep wolf howl suddenly rang out. It was not the high-pitched sound of the wolves from before, but a rough, hoarse sound, like sandpaper scraping against stone.

That was the wolf king; he never appeared in the pigsty from beginning to end.

It sent all the wolf cubs as bait, trapping all five of them in the pig farm, while it led the main force to the unsuspecting sheep pen.

Gu Dayong reacted instantly, gritting his teeth: "There's one more person over there, but fewer dogs. We're probably going to be at a disadvantage."

"Then you guys go over and provide support, take all the dogs with you, I'll stay here and guard this place myself." Zhou Rui started taking out his backpack; he had brought more than just this Mauser rifle.

He had a pistol, bullets, firecrackers, and all sorts of other stuff in his bag.

"Are you sure you can do it?" Gu Dayong looked up at Zhou Rui on the roof.

"Hehe... Whether it works or not, ask the gun in my hand." Zhou Rui said, cocking the Browning and gently placing it on the thatched roof.

"And I don't believe that it can just transfer us around and then come back."