Chapter 838: The big guy eating the wild mountain goat, is it a Northern Tianshan tiger?

Deep in the Tianshan Mountains, on the alpine meadows, large flocks of sheep move slowly, like white clouds dotted on the green grass.

Looking further up, some cloud clusters that look like cotton balls are indeed moving about on the mountain peaks, only they are whiter than these flocks of sheep.

"Halimu, you just keep an eye on my sheep. They are very well-behaved; as long as they don't wander into the woods, you don't need to worry about them." Yushanjiang instructed Halimu, "I'll be back by sunset at the latest. If I'm late, just help me drive the flock into the pen."

"Why are you running so far away?" Halimu, riding on his horse with a rifle slung over his back, asked, "What exactly are you chasing?"

"I don't know either." Yushanjiang explained as he mounted his horse with his rifle on his back, "I saw that wild mountain goat yesterday, gnawed down to just a bit of skin, bones, and its head. I figured whoever killed it was either a wolf or a bear. I haven't collected many pelts lately, so I thought I'd try my luck. If it's a bear and I manage to bag it, I can take the pelt to Li Long—I specifically told him to fix up my winter shelter when I left, and he surely won't have forgotten."

"The way you put it, I want to go too." Halimu took his rifle off his back to check it and said, "Last year, he fixed up my winter shelter like it was brand new..."

"You can't go. We have two herds of cattle and sheep between our two families; there must be a man here, otherwise, what if a pack of wolves comes?" Yushanjiang hurriedly dispelled Halimu's idea, "I'll go take a look first; it's not certain I'll even bag anything."

Halimu knew this was true, so he had to give up the idea of following Yushanjiang to find the predator, turning instead to say: "If the dead one is a wild mountain goat, so be it, but if it's an ibex or an argali, bringing back the horns and head would be fine too. Li Long said those are quite good as well."

"Hmm, they do like such strange things. Alright, I'm off."

"Did you bring naan? What are you eating for lunch?" Halimu shouted at Yushanjiang's retreating back.

"I brought it, and I brought water too. You don't need to worry about me, just watch the cattle and sheep."

Yushanjiang spurred his horse toward the woods. While herding sheep yesterday, he had wandered into the woods at the edge of the pasture and seen the "crime scene." A wild mountain goat had been dragged into the woods; its internal organs were eaten clean, and there wasn't much meat left on its body. The nearby claw marks indicated it was a big guy—the grass was too thick to tell if it was a bear or something else.

But regardless, the tracks were fresh, and Yushanjiang didn't intend to let it go.

Actually, he could have called for help. Halimu's wife was there, and Kazakh women could handle herding, or he could have gone to other pastures to call some young men, like Talihar; if he heard this news, he would surely be very happy.

But Yushanjiang didn't call anyone. He intended to hunt it himself—Talihar was currently the most prominent hunter in this small tribe, but ten years ago, he was still a bit behind Yushanjiang.

Yushanjiang also had his pride; although he wasn't as flamboyant now that he was middle-aged, who hadn't been young once?

Moreover, Halimu had bagged a tiger last year. This matter hadn't spread throughout the tribe, but Yushanjiang knew. He also knew this tiger had brought Li Long great help, which made Yushanjiang have his own thoughts. In this regard, Yushanjiang didn't say much, but he secretly had the idea of comparing himself to Halimu.

With his wife staying at the base point to look after the children and Yushanjiang here alone, he thought that if he could bag a big guy this year, he could just drop the pelt at Li Long's place, and wouldn't that repay the favor of fixing the winter shelter?

True friends are like that. If you are good to me, I must be doubly good to you to feel comfortable in my heart.

Deep in the Tianshan Mountains, where human footprints are rare, this is a paradise for wild animals. The entire Tianshan mountain range stretches for thousands of kilometers from east to west and is several hundred kilometers wide from north to south. Even the Kazakh herdsmen who have lived in the mountains for generations have only seen a very small part of the scenery.

The local Kazakhs have never considered themselves the masters of the Tianshan Mountains; they understand they are merely residents living within them.

Even those forty years later who claim to frequently traverse the Tianshan Mountains only dare to walk the few ancient paths like Xia Ta and Wusun; no one goes into the deeper parts of the Tianshan Mountains. There are no roads, no signals, and many wild animals; danger is everywhere. Going there means a high probability of disappearing, never to be seen alive or dead—after all, even on the few mature ancient paths that are frequently traversed, people occasionally encounter danger, let alone those places that have never been stepped on by anyone.

Precisely because no one comes, the resources here are unimaginably rich. After Yushanjiang drove his horse into the woods, he saw patches of morel mushrooms growing in the moss by the horse's hooves. In places where the trees were sparse, thumb-thick stems of Codonopsis pilosula grew everywhere. The Kazakh herdsmen didn't consider this stuff precious at all; they just cut it down to use as sheep fodder.

As for ordinary mushrooms—on the alpine meadow he had just left, there were at least ten mushroom rings nearby. Some of those fragrant grass mushrooms had already rotted and become a playground for maggots, while others had just grown out, fresh and tender white, with the membrane under the cap still intact. If the county committee's Clerk Ma saw them, he would definitely run over and pick them all.

Grass mushrooms are everywhere on this alpine meadow; the cattle and sheep despise them. Occasionally, a curious cow will come over, take a bite, and then turn away, never touching a second one.

These mushrooms, just wandering around here, picking a sackful in a morning is no problem.

It's just that there's no one here.

(Not bragging, in July 2000, at the Wild Wolf Valley in ZS County, my comrades and I went to the abandoned winter shelter of the herdsmen to dig sheep manure. When we were waiting for the second vehicle to arrive after digging, we wandered around the nearby mountain meadow and encountered seven or eight mushroom rings of various sizes in half an hour. The large ones were over ten meters in diameter, and the small ones were one or two meters. That was the first time I combined the textbook "Tianshan Scenery" with reality, and I was so excited.)

(In 2009, in front of Wusun Mountain, east of the Ninth Company of a certain regiment of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, this time it was June—before a certain special day, I would go out for a stroll every morning and then bring back seven or eight kilograms of mushrooms to the kitchen squad. The kitchen squad leader would be very helpless and even a bit disdainful—what are you bringing these grass mushrooms back for?) Note: Zhaosu, average altitude is about 1,800 to 2,000 meters.

Yushanjiang used to like hunting and had learned hunting knowledge from the elders in the tribe. Although he didn't have the abnormal sense of smell and vision that Li Long had, his observation ability was very strong.

After discovering this "crime scene" yesterday, Yushanjiang only simply confirmed the direction the carnivore had left in and did not go deep to look for it.

He still had to manage his own cattle and sheep; he couldn't just leave the flock alone.

Today, after handing over the cattle and sheep to Halimu, Yushanjiang could fully go and look for this prey. The Type 56 semi-automatic rifle was loaded with ten rounds of ammunition. He believed that whether he encountered a bear or a wolf, or even if it were possible to be a tiger, he could take this guy down.

The pine forest at the edge of the meadow was not dense. Even wild animals were not very dense here, so the traces left by the predator yesterday were still very obvious.

Yushanjiang held the reins in one hand and the rifle in the other, riding on the horse, following the direction the big guy had left in. Before long, he had already left this forest and reached another meadow.

This meadow was not large, long and narrow, running east to west. On the distant sandy mountain to the south, a flock of wild mountain goats discovered Yushanjiang and quickly jumped away, disappearing on the other side of the mountain.

Yushanjiang didn't think about hunting these wild mountain goats. He had bagged a few red deer and a few roe deer some time ago, and after peeling and drying the pelts, they were sitting in the yurt.

Here in the deep Tianshan pastures, such wild animals are quite numerous. The pelts of these herbivores didn't feel very rare to Yushanjiang anymore, and he wasn't satisfied with just hunting these small guys. He only wanted to hunt a big one, preferably a bear or a tiger, so he would have face when he took it to Li Long.

That predator had hugged the edge of the forest and headed southwest, not entering the meadow or the forest. Yushanjiang followed its tracks forward. When he reached the end of the forest, the horse he was riding suddenly became unwilling to obey Yushanjiang's commands, walking and stopping, not wanting to go forward. Yushanjiang guessed there was a smell ahead that made the horse uncomfortable.

Seeing the horse unwilling to go, Yushanjiang simply dismounted, hung the reins on the saddle, and left it there to graze. He carried his rifle and continued to follow the tracks forward.

The forest gradually disappeared, and the turf on the meadow slowly became thinner. Further ahead, the gravel on the ground became more frequent, and shrubs began to grow on the turf. Some thorny shrubs, although not large, grew very stubbornly in this alpine zone at an altitude of nearly 3,000 meters.

The surrounding environment was no longer an endless expanse; stones of various sizes blocked his view. Yushanjiang's pace slowed down, and his expression became cautious.

Passing through a stretch of undulating rocky beach, Yushanjiang climbed onto a quite high stone platform and looked ahead. The traces of the predator were basically gone here, but at this moment, he didn't need to look for traces anymore—on the opposite hillside, a big guy with yellow and black stripes, a circle larger than a snow leopard, was gnawing on its prey.

Looking at the horns of the prey, Yushanjiang recognized that the one killed was an adult red deer.

And the guy who preyed on it was, in all likelihood, the Northern Tianshan tiger that Yushanjiang had been thinking about!

Yushanjiang raised his rifle, slowly retreated down the stone platform, and prepared to test the mettle of this big guy, relying on that large rock. However, he didn't expect that before he reached the designated position, the big guy over there suddenly stopped gnawing on its prey and turned its head to look toward Yushanjiang's side.

Yushanjiang was shocked. Was this thing so big, and its hearing and smell so keen? Had it discovered him?

The distance from here to that Northern Tianshan tiger was about 120 meters. If it had really been discovered, then this big guy was too alert!

Yushanjiang did not dare to be negligent. He hurriedly adjusted the muzzle of his gun, aiming at that big guy. Just at this moment, the big guy moved; he abandoned his prey and suddenly began to run across the meadow!

This big guy's speed was extremely fast; in a few bounds, it had already pounced forty or fifty meters toward Yushanjiang's side!

Facing the threat of a muzzle and a strange human, generally, even animals like bears would only run away. This big guy actually ran directly toward him; it looked like it intended to treat him as prey!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Yushanjiang decisively opened fire. He was calm and collected, adjusting the direction of the muzzle slightly with every shot, ensuring that even if he didn't hit the big guy, the range of the bullets would be right around it.

Roar—

The big guy suddenly let out an angry roar. This roar was extremely loud, reverberating in the valley. Even though it was still seventy or eighty meters away, Yushanjiang had a deafening feeling.

When he overcame the shock and fear brought by the roar and went to observe the big guy again, he found that the guy had already turned its head and darted into the mountain rocks to the north. By the time Yushanjiang turned the muzzle, the guy had already crossed the hillside and disappeared.

Yushanjiang immediately took a handful of bullets from the satchel he carried, loading the rifle while chasing, and after loading it full, he pushed the bolt to chamber a round and ran quickly in the direction the big guy had just passed.

There were drops of blood on the long, narrow grass leaves on the meadow, smelling strongly of blood. The big guy had been hit and injured, otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to run away.

Yushanjiang guessed that this Northern Tianshan tiger wasn't seriously injured, otherwise, it wouldn't have been able to run so fast. But since it was hit, it should be easier to deal with, right? Yushanjiang chased after it with full confidence.

However, when he climbed to the top of the mountain along the hillside, there was no shadow of that Northern Tianshan tiger ahead.

The traces on the ground were very faint; this guy ran too fast, covering four or five meters in one pounce and one stride. Yushanjiang tried hard to find its traces and then followed the traces into the inner mountains. This search lasted for most of the day. When he found a forest of snow firs, he discovered that the moss here was very thick; when he stepped on it, the moss returned to its original state when he lifted his foot. The traces of the Northern Tianshan tiger disappeared here, and the bloodstains were gone too. Yushanjiang looked around blankly, not knowing how to look for it.

After finally firing a shot, it actually ran away. Yushanjiang's frustration was beyond words.

There was no way; he had to go back first.

He climbed to the top of the mountain, looked at the surrounding terrain, and then returned along the original path.

On the way back, he encountered a few wild mountain goats jumping in the mountains. Yushanjiang aimed a shot, bagged one, and dragged it to his horse.

That horse was very loyal, waiting for Yushanjiang at the edge of the forest. Seeing Yushanjiang return, it snorted and walked forward, coming to Yushanjiang's side in a few steps.

Yushanjiang lifted the thirty or forty-kilogram wild mountain goat onto the horse and turned back to his pasture.

The sun was halfway down the mountain in the west, already half-set. Halimu was patrolling between the two flocks of sheep. Herding sheep on this high mountain was also an easy job, as long as one guarded against the occasional wolf pack and didn't let these sheep run into the woods at the edge of the pasture. Such a large pasture allowed them to graze at will; for these cattle and sheep, being able to graze freely without restraint was simply too comfortable.

Halimu saw Yushanjiang—hurriedly whipped his horse's rump and trotted to meet him.

"How is it? Did you find it?"

"Found it, it was a quite large Northern Tianshan tiger. I fired a few shots and injured it, but it ran away." Yushanjiang shook his head, "What a pity!"

"Sigh, it's just a great pity." Once Halimu heard it was a Northern Tianshan tiger, he immediately felt sorry along with him. He hadn't seen such a thing many times in his life, and although he had hunted one once, that time was also by taking advantage of a situation, and he still felt lingering fear thinking about it now. He already knew from Li Long that this thing was more precious than two bears!

"Since it was preying on prey nearby, it means this tiger's range of activity is right in this area." Halimu dismounted and started helping Yushanjiang peel the skin of the wild mountain goat, saying while peeling, "I think we will definitely be able to encounter it later."

"This guy is injured and has difficulty moving, so it will be easier to hunt if we encounter it later." Yushanjiang also said, "I'll just wander around nearby when I'm free later to see if I can encounter it. If I encounter it, I'll take it down."

In the large courtyard, Li Long and Jia Tianlong were inspecting and weighing Fritillaria bulbs bag by bag.

Looking at those bags of clean, plump, mostly high-quality Fritillaria bulbs with embryos, Jia Tianlong praised while weighing:

"I went to other counties to collect Fritillaria bulbs these past two days and found that the output in the other few counties has dropped significantly. On the contrary, not only has your output increased, but the quality is also improving. With such good Fritillaria bulbs, I'd be embarrassed if I didn't raise the price for you.

Let me tell you, for Fritillaria bulbs that are cleaned like this and screened to be this large, I'll collect them at 70 yuan per kilogram. The others will remain at the original price. Of course, if there are any that haven't been cleaned well and have debris, I will downgrade them. How about that?"

"That's definitely no problem. You get what you pay for; everyone understands this." Li Long said with a smile. These Fritillaria bulbs had all been checked by him bag by bag, and he had the confidence in his heart. Among the more than two tons of Fritillaria bulbs, at least 60% were of the quality that Jia said was worth 70 yuan per kilogram.

Calculating at this price, this batch of Fritillaria bulbs could sell for about 140,000 to 150,000 yuan.

The suitcase of money Jia Tianlong pulled out might not be enough.

For more than two tons of Fritillaria bulbs, it took Jia Tianlong and Li Long about two hours to finish checking, weighing, and loading the truck.

It was mainly about the grading of these Fritillaria bulbs; if it were a small amount, it wouldn't matter if there was a little more or a little less.

But this time the quantity was large, and there were many high-quality Fritillaria bulbs, so Li Long fought for every bit he could. The quality of the Fritillaria bulbs was good, but the cost was also high. The comprehensive cost of these Fritillaria bulbs was about 40 yuan, about 10 yuan more than before. Fortunately, he could earn 30 yuan per kilogram, and although the comprehensive income was slightly lower than before, the overall income was much higher.

Jia Tianlong added up the kilograms of each grade of Fritillaria bulbs, then multiplied the total price of each grade according to the previously agreed price, and finally summarized it. Jia Tianlong showed Li Long the result after calculating each step, and after Li Long confirmed it, he calculated the next step.

"Look, the total price added up like this is 147,622 yuan." After Jia Tianlong added up the total with a calculator, he wrote it down in a notebook. Then he pressed the calculator step by step again in front of Li Long, and the total obtained twice was the same.

It's no wonder he was cautious. This was more than 100,000 yuan; in this era, it was unimaginable for ordinary people.

"Old Jia, is the money you brought enough?" Li Long joked, "Do you need to go and withdraw some? Or load fewer Fritillaria bulbs?"

"Let me tell you, I brought exactly 150,000 this trip, and you left me with more than 2,000 yuan, so it's definitely enough, but if you count those Fritillaria bulbs that aren't dry yet, then it wouldn't be enough."

Jia Tianlong counted the money stack by stack from the suitcase; the two of them spent nearly half an hour just counting this money.

Before the money was finished counting, Gu Xiaoxia and Han Fang had already returned.

Sister Yang hadn't started cooking yet, mainly because Mingming and Haohao could stand and crawl and were now very naughty. If there was no one to watch them, they didn't know what kind of trouble they might cause.

Now the two little guys couldn't be put in the playpen; after being put in, the two guys would jailbreak.

Fortunately, the ingredients were all ready-made. After Gu Xiaoxia returned to take over Mingming and Haohao, Sister Yang hurriedly went to cook. With Han Fang's help, lunch was ready very quickly.

Here, Li Long and Jia Tianlong had also finished handing over the money, and Jia Tianlong simply handed the suitcase to Li Long.

"I won't eat lunch; you're busy enough here. I have to hurry and take these Fritillaria bulbs to Wucheng, and then find a freight car to ship them to the interior, otherwise, I won't even have money to collect Fritillaria bulbs next time." Jia Tianlong said to Li Long, "When do you think it's appropriate for me to come next time?"

"Five days, no more than that." Li Long thought that there was another batch of Fritillaria bulbs in the forestry team's warehouse waiting for him to receive, so he set a short date for Jia Tianlong, "When you come then, it will be enough for you to load a truck."

"Good!" Jia Tianlong responded, got into the car, and drove away from the large courtyard.

Li Long also breathed a sigh of relief; finally, he had shipped out goods again.

(The next chapter will be later, no need to wait) (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 839 =====