Chapter 103

Hares in the mountains generally don't exceed 5 jin at their largest, and after skinning and removing the internal organs, they definitely won't exceed 3 jin!

This thing has no fat on its whole body; eating it alone isn't delicious; besides the earthy smell, there's no fragrance at all!

The normal way to eat it is to stew it with pheasant or pork ribs; this thing stewed with any meat tastes like that meat, and as long as there is oil, it's not tough at all!

Or it requires a large amount of various seasonings to cook, but the actual taste is just the seasoning taste! It has absolutely nothing to do with the hare's meat taste.

Each hare, whether sold for its pelt or sold whole, is worth over a yuan, but this kind of trapped hare is actually no different from picking up money for free; besides, the quantity is quite significant.

This time, the two combined had about 130 traps; after checking them all, they harvested 36 complete hares!

There were also two that had been eaten by other mountain animals, leaving only a small half; after skinning, there were only two mouthfuls of meat, useless, so they were thrown away directly!

Checking traps and setting traps took an hour and a half; the two didn't delay, found the place where they discovered the gazelle hoof prints yesterday, and started driving the sled to track them.

In less than half an hour, Mu Xueli couldn't help but shout from behind: "Brother-in-law, how about we leave the sled here and chase them on horseback?"

"Let's bypass this section first," Wang An shouted.

At this time, Wang An was also extremely irritable; in these mountains, driving a sled on the mountain ridge was fine, as there were fewer trees and bushes.

But driving a sled through the forest was truly damn difficult!

Places with sparse trees were easy to walk, but encountering a large patch of bushes was simply having no way to go; what was left between the bushes were gaps over a meter high and half a meter wide!

Roe deer or gazelles could pass through just right, and dogs could too, but horses—forget it! For a horse pulling a sled to want to pass, that was simply a fantasy!

No wonder gazelle meat is so delicious, yet no experienced hunter would go tracking and looking for this thing!

Difficult, truly difficult!

Half an hour later, the two finally bypassed this large patch of bushes, only to discover that the many hoof prints were damn gone! They had disappeared so magically!

Wang An was at his wit's end, and Mu Xueli was directly confused!

Looking left and right, Wang An decided to continue bypassing this patch of bushes and return, abandoning the idea of gazelles!

Not abandoning it, there was no way; the traces of this gazelle herd were gone, and they hadn't gone in the direction of the county town at all, or rather, that wolf pack hadn't chased the gazelles in the direction of the county town!

The two continued on their way, and after another half hour, when they were about to reach the place where they had decided to bypass, the gazelle marks appeared again!

The two were naturally overjoyed; although they had no harvest, they had a feeling of recovering what was lost.

It turned out the gazelle herd hadn't gone far into the bushes before coming out; the direction they had chosen to bypass was wrong!

Thus, the two continued to track and chase the gazelles; no one said any discouraging words about going back!

On the road, there were still all kinds of twists and turns, but the two clearly discovered that the higher they walked, the higher the terrain, meaning this gazelle herd was already walking toward higher mountain ranges!

However, there were still many wolf paw prints appearing on the gazelle hoof prints; who knew if this wolf pack was chasing the gazelles or had discovered the gazelle marks and was tracking them just like Wang An and the others!

In addition, other animal footprints appeared one after another.

Tiger cubs, red dogs, black bears, yellow-throated martens, etc.; it seemed that quite a few animals in these mountains were eyeing this gazelle herd!

Just didn't know if this bear was a black bear or a brown bear, but no matter what it was, it made Wang An feel a bit uneasy!

This thing wasn't a good character; in Wang An's heart, the shadow it cast was quite significant!

Every time after bypassing, they had to look for marks again, but the two weren't without harvest; they picked up two gazelle remains that had been eaten.

This thing was about the same size as a roe deer, but shorter than a roe deer; the two remains combined left less than 30 jin of meat, and they were all thighs and spines.

The internal organs and the rib meat near the belly had all been eaten.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the two couldn't chase anymore because they were starving, and the horses and dogs couldn't run anymore, so they found a wind-sheltered place to set up the pot, boil water, cook, and feed the horses fodder!

Gazelle meat is tastier than hare meat, so the two skinned the hares and fed the hare meat to the dogs; the hares were frozen very hard, and skinning them was very laborious, but this work was all done by Mu Xueli, while Wang An stewed the meat and heated the big pancakes!

Any meat frozen hard is very difficult to cut; Wang An held the hunting knife and tore at the gazelle remains for a long time without being able to do anything to them!

His brain turned, screw it!

Wang An directly found the board axe on the sled!

Aiming at the remains, Wang An bared his teeth and swung the board axe; must say, this thing is damn good for chopping bones!

After a few axe blows, the gazelle remains were dismantled; the places bitten by mountain animals were all chopped off; after chopping, these two remains were left with 6 complete thighs, two half-thighs, and two incomplete spines!

The head and the bloody, messy neck were all thrown away!

Seeing what was left, Wang An was very satisfied, and then he chopped the two half-thighs and two incomplete spines into small pieces!

He filled more than half the pot with snow, put all the chopped bone meat in, added salt and chili powder, covered the pot, and put it on the fire to stew!

He had originally wanted to cut some small pieces to roast, but after comparing with the hunting knife for a long time and looking at the board axe, he finally gave up helplessly!

Mu Xueli, who had finished feeding the dogs, said from the side: "Brother-in-law, how about we just roast it whole like this?"

Wang An rolled his eyes at his brother-in-law and said: "How long would that take to roast? Are we still going to work? Let's talk about it tonight!"

"We're not going back tonight?" Hearing this, Mu Xueli suddenly said excitedly.

"What? In this freezing cold weather, is it fun to hide in the mountains for a night?" Wang An asked helplessly, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, how stimulating!" Mu Xueli said excitedly.

"You're different from others!" Wang An said.

"Hehehe."

The food Wang An brings into the mountains now is still cornmeal pancakes; there's so little white flour at home, and even if it's two-blend flour steamed buns, he can't eat them!

Every time Wang An sees these pancakes frozen stiff and scratching his throat when eating, he feels the happy life is far away from him!

It's not that people are bad, or that people are arrogant; this thing going down the throat is truly uncomfortable!

It's the feeling of a file filing the throat; every swallow is a file, not missing a single one!

Stewing sheep bones, roasting pancakes, the brother-in-law and brother-in-law were already starving!

Wang An suddenly remembered there was good stuff in the sack on the sled—a flask of loose spirits!

He had forgotten to drink it after filling it yesterday; truly shitty!

But fortunately, he forgot yesterday, so he could drink a few more mouthfuls today!

He got up to find it on the sled, returned to the fire, unscrewed the cap, and took a mouthful!

Oh my god, it's that burning sensation, like a ball of fire drilling into his stomach, his whole body immediately became warm; truly damn satisfying!

"Xueli, do you want a sip?" Wang An asked after he was satisfied, only then remembering his brother-in-law.

"Wine?" Mu Xueli was also a bit excited.

"Yeah, sorghum burn, one mouthful goes straight to the top of the head!" Wang An said with a smile while handing over the wine flask.

Mu Xueli naturally liked this spicy taste, took it, and drank a big mouthful, spitting out hot air continuously from the spiciness!

Actually, there really aren't many Northeast men who don't like wine!

In this freezing cold weather, have a couple of mouthfuls! That taste, that feeling, is simply the ultimate enjoyment!

Please recommend and collect; thanks! It's not easy to ask for anything else!

(End of chapter)