Chapter 227: Is this chasing them to the wild boar den?

When Li Long and the others arrived and discovered the fresh traces left by the wild boars rooting, they happened to see two wild boars grunting as they ran toward the forest in the southwest.

These two wild boars were not large, only twenty or thirty kilograms, and in no time, they darted into the forest and disappeared.

"We're late!" Li Long said, charging down with his gun in hand, "You all go back first, I'll chase after them and take a look..."

"I'm going too!"

"Let me see..."

As it turned out, not one of the four people stopped; they all followed and chased into the mountains.

Li Long remembered the location and chased all the way into the forest before slowing his pace. He could hear grunting sounds coming from ahead from time to time, and there were large patches of footprints on the ground, as well as mud and freshly broken branches on the nearby trees.

All of this indicated that there should be a group of wild boars ahead, only they had finished rooting for grass roots early and had already returned to the deep mountains.

And what Li Long and the others saw were the stragglers.

After entering the forest, Li Long slowed his pace, trying his best not to make any sound, and the people behind him followed one by one.

Passing through this pine forest, they reached the top of the mountain upon exiting. The two wild boars plunged down, and Li Long climbed to the flat slope at the summit, squatted down to look ahead slowly, and then saw that the grass in the gully below was quite deep, with the two wild boars completely submerged in the grass.

Fortunately, the group of wild boars that had passed through earlier had trampled a large "path" through the grass. Li Long could still see small wild boars appearing and disappearing in the grass at the tail end of the boar procession, which then crossed the small hill ahead and went to the other side.

They were already two or three kilometers away from the wooden cabin. Li Long said to Li Jianguo and Tao Daqiang who had caught up from behind:

"You all go back. I'll come back once I hit this small wild boar. If I can't hit it, I'll come back when the time is about right."

"I'll follow you," Tao Daqiang said, "I'll follow, and if we hit one, I can carry it for a bit."

Li Jianguo looked at the wild boars in the deep grass that were almost invisible, seeing only the grass moving, and shook his head, saying:

"We can't hit them here. If we want to hit them, we have to run further ahead..."

"The sun hasn't come out yet, let's run a bit more."

Li Long still didn't want to give up.

At this moment, Li Qing Xia caught up. Seeing that the two wild boars had already crossed the small hill and disappeared, he said with some disappointment:

"What should we do? Go back?"

"Dad, you and my big brother go back. Daqiang and I will chase for a while longer. If we can catch up, we'll chase; if we can't, we'll come back."

"Alright." Li Jianguo knew that if he didn't go back, the old man wouldn't go back either, so he handed the small-caliber rifle to Tao Daqiang. He and Li Qing Xia identified the direction and headed toward the wooden cabin.

Li Long immediately charged down the mountain. In two or three minutes, he rushed to the top of the opposite mountain, just in time to see the two small wild boars playing and rooting in the water in front of the small stream at the bottom of the gully.

Li Long squatted down, preparing to fire, when grunting sounds suddenly came from the mountain opposite. The two small pigs seemed to have been summoned, so they darted across the small stream and quickly charged toward the opposite mountain.

When the small wild boars ran, they didn't take a straight line, and from time to time, the two would root at each other. Li Long aimed a few times but couldn't get a bead on them, so he finally had to give up and charged down the mountain again.

By this time, he already felt a bit tired. Just this trip alone was two kilometers. Moreover, charging up the mountain was even more strenuous.

Tao Daqiang followed closely behind Li Long. He carried the small-caliber rifle on his back instead of holding it, likely worried about an accidental discharge.

Rushing to the side of the small stream, Li Long bent down and scooped up water with one hand to splash his face, cooling himself down a bit, and then quickly charged up the mountain again.

This was the first time for such a chase, and Li Long felt a bit like he didn't want to run anymore.

Tired!

He silently told himself in his heart that he would charge up one more hillside, and if he could hit the small wild boar, he would just hit it. A thirty or forty-kilogram wild boar would be enough to eat for two days.

Of course, if he couldn't hit it, then consider it as if he hadn't said anything.

This mountain was relatively steep. The small wild boars climbed to the middle of the hillside where there were shrubs, and he could hear grunting from time to time; otherwise, Li Long really would have felt he couldn't catch up.

Climbing all the way to the top, Li Long let out a long breath, and then saw that ahead it wasn't a gully, or rather, there was only a shallow gully. Further ahead was a gentle slope slanting upward. In a sparse pine forest, the two wild boars he had been chasing ran past lightly. In that forest, one could see more wild boars rooting for something from time to time.

Li Long lowered his head and looked. This area had moss, wild strawberries, and wild mushrooms, all of which should be things wild boars liked to eat.

Tao Daqiang also climbed up at this time. He bent down, supporting his knees, panting heavily, and then looked at Li Long.

"There's a group of wild boars over there." Li Long slowly recovered and said to him:

"Let's sneak over quietly and see how many we can hit, but we must choose a good spot. Don't let the wild boars scatter; if they charge at us when they scatter, that would be trouble!"

Although he had hit quite a lot of game, except for when he ambushed the wolf, Li Long was still relatively cautious. If a group of wild boars scattered, and they really charged at the people, that impact force was not something an ordinary person could withstand.

Li Long carried his gun and walked forward slowly. He had to go down that shallow gully here, and he couldn't let the wild boars ahead discover him, so he had to be slow.

Tao Daqiang also bent down, twenty or thirty steps away from Li Long, in another direction.

Li Long set his sights on a black rock seventy or eighty centimeters high in the grass on the other side of the gully. Leaning behind this black rock to aim, he would have something to block for himself, so he wouldn't be afraid of being rooted by the wild boars.

When Li Long ran behind that rock, he turned his head to look at Tao Daqiang and found that Tao Daqiang had just crossed the gully. After crossing the gully, he bent down and slowly walked behind a patch of shrubs, then glanced at Li Long.

Seeing Li Long looking at him, Tao Daqiang smiled and began to aim his gun.

Li Long felt that although those shrubs were a bit unreliable, there was nothing better to hide behind there at the moment, so he didn't think much more, turned his head, rested his gun on the rock, and began to aim.

That sparse forest was fifty or sixty meters away from the rock; the distance was very close, and Li Long only needed to find a suitable target here.

It was just that the wild boars in the forest were constantly moving, occasionally fighting, and further away, one could see a wild boar using its body to rub hard against a tree. The force was so great that the pine tree as thick as a washbasin was constantly shaking.

Li Long aimed for a while, and he finally set his target on a small wild boar weighing fifty or sixty kilograms. This wild boar was on the outskirts of the forest, head down, rooting for moss to eat, and its body was sideways, making it quite easy to aim at.

Li Long was slowly aiming when suddenly a chubby fellow darted out from beside the rock.

A marmot!

This thing had just crawled out of its hole and then saw Li Long. It was startled, gave two nervous "chi-chi" calls, and then turned its head and dove back into the hole.

Li Long was also startled, because that hole was roughly located on the reverse slope of Li Long's position, and he hadn't noticed it at all.

These two "chi-chi" calls were the marmot giving an alarm to its own kind, but those wild boars heard it and immediately stopped their movements!

Li Long knew he had been exposed, so he hurriedly went to aim at that wild boar again!

"Bang!"

He only fired one shot, and that wild boar had actually already started charging. Li Long's shot directly blew off half of its ear!

Oh no!

Li Long hurriedly aimed again to fire a follow-up shot—fortunately, this wild boar was originally running toward Li Long's side. When the gunshot rang out, the boar group scattered. The wild boar knew Li Long's side was dangerous, so it hurriedly turned around, and in the panic, it collided with another wild boar. Li Long fired a follow-up shot at the right moment! Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Crack!

Bang!

Li Long was firing, and Tao Daqiang was also firing. Li Long fired two follow-up shots to kill this wild boar, and then aimed at another half-grown wild boar, wounding it with two shots.

It was just unexpected that this wounded wild boar became ferocious and charged directly toward Li Long's side. Li Long wasn't worried, and fired a follow-up shot in advance at the right moment!

"Bang!"

The wild boar ran halfway and fell to the ground.

Tao Daqiang only fired one shot, also only wounding a wild boar, and then that wild boar followed the footsteps of the previous wild boar and charged toward his side—

Li Long could tell that the wild boars were scattering and running randomly. That wounded wild boar was likely thinking of finding a way to escape, but it didn't expect to scare Tao Daqiang. Tao Daqiang saw the wild boar charging over, was stunned for a moment, and actually didn't fire again.

"Shoot!" Li Long roared, and only then did Tao Daqiang raise his gun and fire again. Li Long also aimed at that wild boar and fired several shots in a row.

That wild boar's movement was very fast, and its running speed was also fast. Li Long's bullets all hit the air, and Tao Daqiang's bullets didn't know if they hit or not. Finally, the wild boar brushed past Tao Daqiang, darted into the gully behind him at a distance of two or three meters, and then tumbled twice in the grass, climbed up, and actually ran away again!

What a lucky life!

Over here, the wild boars in the pine forest had already disappeared, and most of them had run into the deeper mountains.

Li Long carried his gun and walked toward the wild boars, and Tao Daqiang also followed up.

Both wild boars had no movement at this moment, with a large patch of blood soaking the ground beneath them. Li Long stepped forward and kicked them, confirming that both wild boars were already dead.

"Let's go, carry them back." Li Long said, "We'll process them when we get back."

!.

"Alright." Tao Daqiang carried his gun on his shoulder, picked up the slightly larger wild boar, carried it, and walked down.

Li Long also carried the other wild boar. Only then did he feel what it meant to be dead heavy.

Although it only weighed fifty kilograms, this was much more troublesome than carrying a fifty-kilogram sack.

When a fifty-kilogram sack is carried on the shoulder, at least it won't move around, and basically, it can maintain balance.

But after this wild boar was carried on the shoulder, it would slide this way and that way from time to time, so he had to carry the wild boar's abdomen, just like carrying the wild boar on his back.

Walking back at this time, especially when going down the mountain, one had to be very careful; otherwise, it was very easy to be slipped by the grass.

By the time they returned to the wooden cabin, it was already more than an hour later. Although the sun hadn't risen yet, the sky was already bright, and Li Long's chest and back were already soaked through.

Li Jianguo and Li Qing Xia had long since seen the returning Tao Daqiang and Li Long, and hurriedly came over to help, lifting the wild boars to the wooden cabin together.

"Hit two, oh my, this is really not bad!" Li Qing Xia first exclaimed, and then felt regret, "Sigh, I didn't see it!"

"Dad, don't think about it anymore. Let's get the basin; these wild boars are dead, we have to process them, right?"

Li Long rested and recovered a bit, and after drinking some water, he began to process the wild boars.

Disembowel, remove the internal organs and offal.

Li Jianguo was processing the other one. Tao Daqiang and Li Qing Xia went to do the internal organs and offal, and Li Long specifically skinned them.

After all, this craft was something even Li Jianguo hadn't mastered. After Li Jianguo finished disemboweling, he specifically cut the meat into pieces, put them in a large basin, and soaked them in cold water.

By the time everything was processed, the sun had already risen.

Li Jianguo and Li Qing Xia had already loaded the poles onto the horse cart earlier, so they only needed to harness the horse when leaving. Most of this meat had to be taken away, and a small portion would be left at the wooden cabin to improve their meals.

There was still a lot of the previously braised meat left, and there were also quite a few braised internal organs, so this time the offal was also taken home.

They needed to ensure the freshness of the meat, so after Li Long and the others finished, they just ate simply and then harnessed the cart and left.

On the way to the county town, they just bought a few steamed buns and continued on their way while eating.

When they reached the township middle school, Li Long stopped. He let Li Qing Xia lead the horse cart and wait by the side of the road, while he himself quickly carried a rack of ribs and a piece of meat toward Gu Xiaoxia's dormitory.

Gu Xiaoxia was cooking, and she was very surprised to see Li Long come.

"We were cutting poles in the mountains and transported a batch back. We happened to hit two wild boars, so I'm sending you some." Li Long said, "Remember to eat it."

"Then you wait, eat a meal before you go."

"Can't wait anymore, there's still meat to take back to process." Li Long said, "My dad is still there."

"Then... alright." Although Gu Xiaoxia still wanted to talk more with Li Long, Li Long was busy, and she couldn't force him to stay.

Walking out of the dormitory, she watched Li Long run toward the outside of the school, and then lead the horse cart, hurrying toward the direction of the village.

Gu Xiaoxia felt a sense of loss. Li Long had been busy recently; when would they have time to spend together again?

This time, Li Long led the horse cart home first. There was no one in the courtyard, so Li Long shouted:

"Mom?"

"Hey, hey!" Du Chunfang's voice came from the vegetable garden, "Little Long is back? I'm weeding."

"Dad and I came back together, we got some meat that needs to be processed." Li Long said, "Where's my sister-in-law?"

"She went to work in the fields." Du Chunfang walked out of the vegetable garden, put a handful of weeds by the wall, and said, "She said there were bugs in the cornfield, some kind of heart-boring worm, so she went to catch bugs."

Li Long knew that was the corn borer, which bores into the heart of the corn. It was actually the same thing as the cotton bollworm in the cotton fields, and it was quite hateful.

"Did you hit anything?" Du Chunfang asked.

"Hit two wild boars," Li Long said while unloading the meat, "We'll keep most of it at home, take a leg to Daqiang's family, and take another rack of ribs."

Dividing meat was a man's business, and Du Chunfang didn't care about that much. The most important thing now was to process the meat.

Putting down most of the meat, and with his dad also staying, Li Long led the horse cart and left, going to the Tao family first to hand the meat for their family to Tao Daqiang, and only then did he go to Xu Chengjun's home.

A thousand poles made Xu Chengjun very happy. In this way, it seemed that they could finish cutting enough poles in about ten days.

Were there that many poles in the mountains?

He couldn't help but ask Li Long.

"It's not that there are many, it's my forestry team's certificate." Li Long knew Xu Chengjun's thoughts, "If an ordinary person went, they would be arrested upon inspection, and would have to pay a fine. I have a certificate here, so that means we are our own people, and no one will bother us."

Xu Chengjun understood.

This matter, an ordinary person couldn't do it!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 228 =====