Chapter 27: Hunting

Li You changed the subject and said with a smile, "Little Ruan said there are rabbits in the mountains to the west, let's go take a look... I've been here for quite a few days and haven't even seen a shred of meat!"

"We already scoured this area clean before; are there rabbits again?"

Wa Qingyun became excited all of a sudden and said to Liu Longjin, who was beside him, "Brother Liu, go get that bucket of kerosene from under the bed!"

"Kerosene? What do we need that for?" Li You was a bit bewildered.

"Hey, we only have two forks, but those split-lipped ones have four! How could we ever catch up? If they dive into a hole, we'll use the kerosene to set a fire! Don't tell me you're actually counting on that iron bow on your back, Master?"

Wa Qingyun knew Li You had a good temper, so he teased him a bit: "This iron-spined bow is purely a case of the bow bullying the archer. Whoever can actually draw this thing should just throw it away; it's dead heavy to carry."

Li You laughed: "In my hands, it's only the archer bullying the bow; how could it ever be the bow bullying the archer... Let's go first. No one is managing the mine today, and a bunch of the little brats are nowhere to be seen; I'm afraid they've all gone into the mountains to forage for food because they're hungry."

"Mm." Wa Qingyun nodded.

"Archer bullying the bow" — this is a technical term in archery. When the hand is strong and the bow is weak, it is called an "archer-bullied bow"; when the bow is strong and the hand is weak, it is called an "archer bullied by the bow."

Less than a mile or two west of the West Pit, one actually enters a branch of Mount Daba. Here, the forests are vast and the ravines deep; tigers and wolves roaming about is a common occurrence.

Historical records state that the tiger plague was most severe at the end of the Great Ming, and in the end of the Great Ming, it was most severe in Sichuan.

Volume 16 of the "Nanchong County Annals," under "External Records," states: "The two prefectures of Bao(ning) and Shun(qing) in Shu are mountainous. After the chaos of the Xian bandits, the smoke of dwellings became desolate; from spring to summer, suddenly thousands of tigers emerged from the mountains. They arrived at the city walls in succession; the residents fled, and many were devoured. The county government school became a tiger den, and for hundreds of miles, there was no trace of humans; this was especially true in Nanchong County."

The "Anyue County Annals" record that tigers could "break through walls, climb onto roofs, and ascend trees to harm people... places with little smoke have been like this for over twenty years."

In fact, this was all caused by the sudden drop in temperature during the Little Ice Age. Tigers and wolves also need to eat; the sharp drop in temperature led to a drastic reduction in herbivores, so these beasts began to descend from the mountains into villages, towns, and even cities. At the time, this was not considered strange at all.

What was strange, however, was that humans, the highest existence in the animal chain, became the easiest food for tigers to catch, which actually ended up nourishing the tiger population, eventually leading to a large proportion of the population in Sichuan dying from the tiger plague.

Liu Shixi made a rough estimate in Volume 5 of "Mirror of Shu Turtles": "From the beginning of the chaos in Shu in the fifth year of Chongzhen, until it was settled after the third year of Kangxi," in the long span of over 30 years, in southern Sichuan "two or three out of ten died from plague and tigers," in northern Sichuan "one or two out of ten died from plague and tigers," in eastern Sichuan "two or three out of ten died from plague and tigers," and in western Sichuan "one or two out of ten died from plague and tigers."

Regardless of its authenticity, it at least proves that the tiger plague at the end of the Great Ming was truly severe.

Therefore, in the area of the Nanshan of Longmen Shanzhai, the mountain bandits rarely set up defenses; in any case, once you enter these deep mountains, you will definitely end up in the mouths of tigers and wolves.

Li You and Wa Qingyun walked west along the dry creek bed. Before long, Liu Longjin caught up, carrying a wooden bucket with a broken rim in his right hand, filled with some tung oil, and he had also brought Wa Qingyun's single-edged blade.

"We're almost there!" Ceng Ruan was impatient and ran happily, taking the lead.

Li You and the others followed him around a mountain hollow, and the view opened up. The foothills on the north and south sides were relatively gentle, and without the creek, they gradually merged into one, forming a small plain.

"Where are the people?"

Li You frowned, only to hear Ceng Ruan shouting, "Brother Yu... Brother Yu..."

Only then did a few "black coal balls" crawl out from the wild grass.

"It's Little Ruan, ah, Master Li is here, and Brother Qingyun too..."

Song Baishun shouted in surprise, and a bunch of the little brats gathered toward Li You.

Wa Qingyun was very anxious; seeing Yu Zhengchun, he asked, "Where's the rabbit? Did you spot the nest?"

"There!"

Children like Yu Zhengchun did not dislike Wa Qingyun or Liu Longjin; in fact, their relationship was quite good, as they had all been under Wu Ying's command. So, he took a dead, fat rabbit from behind his back. The rabbit was not yet stiff; there were deep claw marks on its spine, but its head had been smashed in.

"So fat? Did a sharp-beak catch it?"

Liu Longjin swallowed his saliva and picked it up from the ground. It was heavy, weighing an estimated six or seven catties!

"Hehe, it was a yellow eagle. 'Whoosh,' it swooped down and grabbed it, but it couldn't fly up, and it was too greedy to leave... Sigh, it's a pity I was in a hurry to smash the rabbit first; I should have smashed the yellow eagle first, otherwise I would have caught both!"

Yu Zhengchun said, unable to hide his pride.

Li You finally understood in his heart; it turned out they had deliberately let Little Ruan bring him here to steal food together. It was a pity there was only one; how could so many people eat this?

"Brother Liu, find a flat spot and roast this rabbit for the children... Be careful with the skin, don't tear it..."

After Li You finished speaking to Liu Longjin, he shouted at the troublemakers like Song Baishun: "Hey, you lot go help gather some dry firewood. Don't run around; if you don't listen, there won't be any meat to eat later!"

Actually, hearing that they were about to roast meat, how could they possibly run around? It was entirely Li You's overthinking.

"Rabbits usually don't travel alone, right? Look around and see if there are any rabbit holes nearby!"

Li You said to Wa Qingyun, "If we can get a few more, that would be best. I see that among the miners and salt slaves in the mine pits, there are several who look like they are about to die..."

"Master is truly benevolent!"

Wa Qingyun sighed: "There must be plenty of grain and rice in the North Shanzhai, and at the very least, there are several fat pigs, big sheep, and dozens of chickens and ducks... It's just that every year in the ninth or tenth month, Zhang Cang, who manages the grain platform, only keeps people like us, who aren't well-liked, alive with wild vegetables and millet to survive the winter, unless we can plunder something. But in the nearby basins, where are there even shadows of people anymore?"

Li You didn't speak. He had long discovered that confidants like Cao Er, Shi Jiuen, and Xu Lifang not only ate white rice but also had meat, and sometimes even mountain bandits who performed well, like Huang Mao, Gu Laosan, and Zhao Laiwa, would be called in to be rewarded with a meal.

Every time the two of them squatted on the doorsteps to eat, their mouths would make "smack, smack" sounds that shook the heavens, acting as smug as if they were eating a Manchu-Han Imperial Feast.

"Damn it, being a dog and still so proud... But the white rice is indeed fragrant. If I were eating it... I would never make such loud smacking sounds; I definitely wouldn't be proud..." Li You swallowed his saliva calmly, thinking happily to himself.

Wa Qingyun went to take a few children and began searching along the foothills.

For convenience, Li You took Heiliuzi with him, and Wa Qingyun took Yu Zhengchun.

Li You hadn't walked far when a burst of footsteps followed happily behind him.

"Oh, little ancestor, what are you running here for?"

Li You looked speechlessly at Juzi, who was wearing a large bun hairstyle.

Juzi pointed with her flushed little face toward the foot of the mountain not far away and said, "There... there are persimmons!"

Li You looked in the direction she pointed, and sure enough, about eighty paces away, there was a persimmon tree as thick as a millstone. However, there were only a few scattered persimmons left on it, most having been pecked clean by birds.

But being able to eat rotten persimmons was still quite good. Thinking back to the spring of this year, Li You and Wu Zhengchun had almost caused a death in Liangdang County just by fighting someone over elm bark.

"Ah, there's a furry mouse!"

Suddenly, Heiliuzi pointed at a persimmon on the treetop and said, "Look, look, look, it's eating a persimmon. Eh, no... there are two!"

Li You drew his double-insert [Note], and quickly nocked an arrow. The moment he touched the bowstring, his powerful muscle memory made his movements fluid as he pushed with the left and pulled with the right.

His gaze was fixed on the furry mouse, his right hand reached his lip, and his eyes fell above the bow grip. The hand gesture was the Mongolian draw; after the thumb ring's groove hooked the bowstring, the index finger pressed onto the thumb...

Wa Qingyun took a look and turned his head away; he didn't want to make Li You feel awkward.

[Note]: A bow bag and an arrow bag, collectively known as a double-insert in the Ming Dynasty. Both have straps or ties to be bundled or hung on a belt. This was the military custom, which was basically to hang the quiver on the right side of the body and the bow case on the left.