Chapter 294: Badgers Are Relatives of the Honey Badger; They Are Hard to Catch!

Tao Da returned from setting his net and, upon hearing they were going to dig for badger-pigs, agreed immediately.

In the eyes of the locals, badgers fell into two types: dog badgers and pig badgers; dog badgers were rare, while what one usually saw locally were pig badgers.

However, adults in ordinary households were typically working in the fields, busy year-round with endless tasks, so they had no time to dig for such things.

As for children, they were usually warned by adults; after all, a badger's mouth was quite formidable, capable of biting people without a second thought, so adults would tell children to stay away from these creatures.

In the wild, one might see fox dens and badger dens, but usually just took a curious glance; even upon encountering a rabbit hole, few would bother to dig.

The main reason was simply not being hungry enough, or rather, that other food sources were relatively abundant; with fish, wild vegetables, and crops from the fields, one could easily fill their stomach, so there was no need to take risks.

Yet there was a contradiction: although no one wanted to go digging, if badger oil were truly available, everyone would certainly welcome it.

The three of them chatted and laughed as they carried their gear back.

Meng Zhiqiang, who was still setting nets in Little Little Haizi, watched the three of them together and felt a bit unsettled.

He had heard Li Long come to call for people, but he had hesitated for a moment and not followed; thinking about matters in other villages and considering that he was not particularly close to Li Long, what would following them accomplish?

At the time, seeing Yang Yang Yongqiang rush out to follow Tao Daqiang in that direction, Meng Zhiqiang had even chuckled that the young man was a bit simple-minded.

Now it seemed the young man was not simple at all, or perhaps, a fool has a fool's luck?

The three went home to fetch their tools, met on the road outside the settlement, and then let Yang Yang Yongqiang lead them to find the badger den.

The badger den was actually not far, located beside an abandoned major canal less than a kilometer from the settlement.

As they walked, Li Long sighed silently to himself.

In his memory, the length of this stretch of road kept changing; in his previous life, when they first started farming, walking this same distance felt incredibly long, with several marker points in between, where each segment required ten minutes or even half an hour to traverse.

Of course, part of the reason was the poor condition of the road.

Later, twenty years on, the settlements merged, and the roads to the fields became even longer; then another decade passed, the county built a ring road that looped through here, and afterward, with cars available and the ring road paved with asphalt, it felt like a single press of the accelerator got you there—how could it have become so close?

He even had the illusion that some unseen great expert had directly scooped out a chunk of the land in between; otherwise, how could the distances between those original landmarks, which once felt so vast, now seem so near?

"This is the place," Yang Yang Yongqiang said, pointing at the badger den. "It's not night yet, so I don't know if the badger is inside."

"Whether it's there or not, we dig," Li Long said, carrying not only a shovel but also a gun on his back. "If we dig it out and it's there, we kill it; if it's not, then it just has a fortunate fate."

The three began digging; Li Long and Tao Daqiang worked below, excavating from both sides, while Yang Yang Yongqiang cleared the hole from above.

"Don't rush; dig slowly," Li Long said. "This badger den likely has no other exits. Be careful while digging; don't let it bite you. We absolutely cannot let it bite; this creature's teeth are too fierce—it can snap wooden clubs in two."

In truth, this was just an excuse to start a conversation; all three present knew well how formidable a badger was, especially since one of its close relatives was the Honey Badger, a creature daring enough to go head-to-head with lions and crocodiles, utterly vicious.

Although the pig badger was not as famous as the Honey Badger, they both belonged to the badger genus, so how much could they really differ?

The soil in Northern Xinjiang typically had a layer of loose, alkaline earth on top, which turned hard, extremely hard, further down; digging was somewhat laborious, so after half an hour, they had excavated less than a meter, slightly narrowing the space inside the hole, but it was evident that something frequently entered and exited, as they even dug out some corn cobs.

"This thing actually eats corn?" Tao Daqiang asked, somewhat surprised.

"It's an omnivore; it eats many things," Li Long replied. "Snakes, earthworms, fish, bird eggs... it also eats corn."

Then they pulled out half a snake; there were two types of snakes locally, the most common being the "long worm," which locals also called "earth bow" or "earth centipede," though it differed from the "earth duke" found online in that its tail was round, its appearance less snake-like, resembling a round stick with head and body of similar thickness until suddenly tapering near the vent, yet still looking like a round stick.

In the eyes of the locals, it counted as a non-venomous snake; however, few people actually liked getting close to snakes, so in reality, across the entire village, the one most capable of handling snakes among the older generation was Li Long, who often encountered them while fishing out of necessity, while among the younger ones, it was unexpectedly Qiangqiang.

Since elementary school, Qiangqiang had possessed a strong curiosity; in his previous life, after eating snake meat with Li Long once, he had ceased to fear snakes.

Whether it was a non-venomous "long worm" or a venomous plateau viper, as long as one was bold yet careful, they could handle them.

In Li Long's view, Qiangqiang's reputation for catching snakes was sometimes forced upon him; initially, it might have been an occasional encounter, but after he caught just two, word spread, and thereafter, whenever someone encountered a snake, they would seek him out; constrained by his reputation, he had to catch them, but fortunately, he hardly ever failed, and being inherently bold yet careful, his fame only grew.

This continued until he graduated high school and entered university; at that time, his eldest sister-in-law, Liang Yuemei, had heard from somewhere that these snakes were "little dragons" and forbade Li Qiang from catching them casually; as Li Qiang went off to university, the matter gradually faded, and while the villagers still remembered a child who was very good at catching snakes, it had become merely a memory.

"It really does eat snakes," Yang Yang Yongqiang exclaimed, looking at the half-snake. "It seems to have eaten it not long ago; the snake meat hasn't rotted yet."

"Look, there's also a piece of fish head—this one has gone bad," Tao Daqiang said, having dug something out as well.

Li Long, however, noticed movement inside.

A short tail retreated inward, then turned around, revealing a tiny bit of a head marked with white stripes.

"Careful, there's a badger inside!" Li Long warned; his words instantly excited both Yang Yang Yongqiang and Tao Daqiang, for digging for half a day with no result would be unlucky, but finding something would certainly bring great joy.

At least it guaranteed a harvest, didn't it?

The two of them immediately accelerated their digging, intending to extract the creature directly.

Li Long stopped digging, took a step back with his shovel in hand, and said:

"If one runs out in a moment, I'll deal with it; as for whichever of you sees... never mind, just Daqiang, you free your hands to help me finish this off as quickly as possible; Yang Yongqiang, you stay at the hole entrance and handle the next one if there's another inside; otherwise, if we all rush at one emerging creature, the ones behind will escape."

Although Li Long's words were simple enough for anyone to conceive, laying out the plan at this moment gave the other two mental preparation; otherwise, when the moment arrived, they might easily panic.

In truth, to speak of the organizational capability of the Chinese people, calling it number one in the world would not be an exaggeration; after all, they had only recently emerged from those years, and the concept of 'all people as soldiers' was merely a dozen years past; even now, every winter, the village militia underwent a period of training, so once a matter was stated, the other two could immediately grasp it and strive toward their respective tasks.

To use a formal phrase, their subjective initiative was very strong.

Less than half a minute after Li Long finished speaking, a pig badger burrowed out of the hole, raising its front claws in a desperate stance; its movements were not very fast, but its gaze was fierce and its momentum overwhelming.

Li Long stepped back another pace and swung his shovel down straight at it!

The badger dodged slightly but not completely; one of its legs was instantly broken by Li Long's blow, and with a miserable shriek, it limped and tried to flee.

Boom!

"Daqiang, you watch the hole; I'll finish this one off."

Li Long shouted, luring the badger away from the spot, and began dealing with it five or six meters away.

Injured, the badger's fangs looked even fiercer, its mouth agape as if ready to bite, but after all, its size was small, weighing around ten kilograms, not even as large as the big dogs in the village, so Li Long felt no fear; he struck suddenly with his shovel, yet the creature's head was hard, and several blows to its skull seemed to have little effect.

Over there, Tao Daqiang suddenly cried out in alarm:

"Another one is coming out!"

While shouting, his shovel moved without delay, chopping viciously right onto the head of the small badger that had just darted out.

This strike carried immense force, nearly severing the badger's head completely.

Yang Yang Yongqiang froze for a moment, then said:

"Daqiang, you're amazing!"

"Hehe," Tao Daqiang chuckled. "Just happened to hit it... Look, here comes another..."

He shouted loudly; Yang Yang Yongqiang reacted a bit slower, and just as his shovel came down upon hearing the sound, another badger darted out with extreme speed. Yang Yang Yongqiang's shovel only chopped off its tail; the force wasn't great enough, and the badger struggled free, fleeing into the ditch.

Yang Yang Yongqiang hurriedly chased after it, while Li Long, carrying the badger he had either slapped dead or stunned, walked over.

The badger Tao Da had chopped hard was still moving, but clearly could not survive. Li Long took Yang Yang Yongqiang's position, probed inside with his shovel, and said as he probed:

"Don't know if there are any more..."

One large and two small ones had emerged so far; Li Long guessed that this litter of badgers should still have one larger one remaining.

But it hadn't appeared yet.

When he had probed less than half a meter inside with his shovel, he felt something soft touched within—there was still one!

Tao Da and Li Long had worked together for a long time; seeing Li Long's movements and expression, Tao Da immediately exerted force to chop that small badger, then held his shovel ready.

Seeing the creature inside neither move nor emerge, Li Long jabbed again with his shovel, this time with greater force. The badger inside could not endure it; it emitted a threatening sound from its mouth and darted out, meeting two sharp shovels right at the hole's entrance.

"Strike to kill; we can't let it escape!" Li Long didn't know whether Yang Yang Yongqiang could catch that other badger; if he couldn't, this one would have to count toward their quota, so each of the three could have one.

Tao Da understood as well, so the moment the badger showed its head, he struck with heavy force.

However, the badger was clever; as soon as force was applied here, it shrank back inside.

The two of them spent quite some effort before finally killing the badger—the hole was also dug much larger in the process.

Yang Yang Yongqiang returned, holding the badger and looking somewhat proud; he had succeeded.

Four badgers.

Just as Li Long was wondering how to divide them, a somewhat annoying voice rang out:

"Oh, Xiao Long, what have you caught? Badgers? So many? Not bad, not bad. Since I've seen them, I should get a share. You three, how about giving me one extra? I'm not asking for much; even a small one will do!"

Li Long looked up and saw Ma Jinbao.

How could there be such an annoying person? (End of chapter)