Chapter 832: Meat is a burden when there

Wang An heard this, and subconsciously cast his eyes toward the dead pigs. Once he combined that with what Wang Li had just said, he was completely dumbfounded.

For a supreme slacker like Wang An, if skinning and butchering all these would take an entire night, he'd rather just be killed on the spot.

If you count the small wild boars bitten to death by the dogs, there were a full 44 wild boars that needed skinning and butchering.

The key issue was that this mud wallow was located deep in the mountains; neither the four-wheeled tractor nor the walking tractor could make it here. In other words, after skinning and butchering these boars, they would have to carry the meat down the mountain bit by bit.

Damn! Wouldn't that just work a person to death!

Just like that, Wang An stared with his two large eyes at the pile of wild boar carcasses for a long time. Once he came to his senses, he said with great annoyance:

"Oh, damn, this really is a massive project!"

It must be admitted, having no meat to eat is a worry, but having too much meat is also a damn worry!

After pondering for a long time, Wang An said to Wang Li:

"Old Five, drive the four-wheeled tractor back right now. Tell my dad about the situation here, and have him bring everyone helping out at the house over here in the tractor."

He paused, then added:

"No, one tractor won't be enough for both the people and the pigs. Here's what you do: when you come back, drive your family's walking tractor too. Have my dad hitch up our few gelded horses and the stallion to the cart and lead them over, and bring your family's four horses too."

After mulling it over for a long time, Wang An said again:

"Alright, hurry off. I'll stay here to keep watch and cut up some meat to feed the dogs while I'm at it."

After Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li didn't move. Instead, he said in shock:

"Fourth Brother, you mean you want them to haul these wild boars back before skinning and butchering them?"

Wang An nodded at his words, then adopted an attitude that suggested it was only natural:

"Yeah, obviously. If we don't utilize all those people, wouldn't we just be pure idiots?"

Hearing this, Wang Li blinked rapidly several times, his face full of disbelief.

Clearly, this flashy maneuver of Wang An's had completely shattered Wang Li's understanding of things.

To have work that is clearly your own but push it onto others to do—what kind of logic is this?

After a while, seeing that Wang Li was still stunned and not moving, Wang An said impatiently:

"Get moving, will you? What are you standing there like a fool for?"

Wang Li came to his senses and muttered:

"Is it really appropriate for us to do this? They're here to help build the house; will they really come if we ask them to carry pigs in the mountains?"

Wang Li called it "carrying pigs" because Wang An's family had a total of nine mules and horses, but two of the mares were pregnant and couldn't do heavy labor.

As for Wang Li's family, they had a total of four horses.

That meant the two families combined only had eleven horses capable of work, yet there were a full 15 large wild boars.

And that's not even counting the 36 small wild boars.

So it was clear that the first thing these people would have to do upon entering the mountains was to carry the 36 small boars and the 4 large ones down the mountain.

You have to know that it took Wang An and the others over half an hour of running with the dogs just to find this sounder of boars, and that was while traveling light.

If they had to walk through these pathless mountains while carrying or shouldering wild boars, it certainly wouldn't be an easy task.

Carrying heavy loads over mountains is the nightmare of every person living in the mountains. Just thinking about it simply makes one's scalp tingle!

Wang An glared at Wang Li and said:

"Look at you, you coward. Here's what you do: just say what I told you. Tell them that once they finish skinning and butchering the pigs, each person gets 10 catties of pork—no, each person gets 20 catties. Damn, if they can't even handle this little job, then screw it all." Once Wang Li heard Wang An say this, he finally smiled with relief and said cheerfully:

"If you put it that way, then it's simple. 20 catties of pork is worth about eight or nine yuan at the market now; they'll definitely come running over happily."

Wang Li was right to say that, because since no one was hunting in this season, this wild meat—which didn't require ration coupons—had gone up in price.

After all, while domestic pork is delicious, it not only requires coupons, but it's also rationed; you can only buy a catty or half a catty per person before they stop selling to you.

So in this season, as long as it's meat, it's a genuinely scarce resource. A slight price increase becomes a matter of course.

After Wang Li finished speaking, Wang An muttered to himself:

"If that's the case, did we give away a bit too much? These wild boars are skinny as hell; I'd say getting four or five hundred catties of meat would be good. So for these 15 large boars, if we average 200 catties each, we'll get at most 1,400 catties of meat."

Speaking of which, Wang An suddenly asked:

"How many people are helping out at my place?"

Wang Li frowned and thought for a long time before saying uncertainly:

"Seems like 24, or maybe 25."

After Wang Li finished, Wang An muttered again:

"If there are 25 men, that's 500 catties. Then those sisters-in-law and the two widows need a share too..."

He muttered for a long time before saying:

"Alright, let's just do it this way. 20 catties per person. After we distribute that, we'll still have over 800 catties of meat and these 36 small boars left. That's fine."

After Wang An finished speaking, he started muttering again.

The main thing was that trying to get any game during this season was incredibly difficult. If he didn't calculate carefully, he really wouldn't be able to hold out.

But then again, if you don't pay, or if you don't pay enough, no one will work for you.

In short, you have to master the balance: you have to satisfy the people helping you, but you can't let yourself suffer too much of a loss.

Otherwise, given the interconnected relationships in the village, a little bit of carelessness could cause everything to fall apart.

Although they were all living their own lives and could theoretically ignore these social niceties, it really wasn't worth ruining relationships over such a small matter.

Thinking of this, Wang An said:

"Hurry back now. Run fast, don't delay. If these pigs start to rot, we're done for."

Wang Li nodded without a word and ran off in a flash.

It must be said, he was running quite fast—whoosh.

After Wang Li left, Wang An didn't idle either; he picked up his skinning knife and walked toward the nearest wild boar.

Once you've caught game, no matter what, you can't treat your hunting dogs poorly.

However, this time, Wang An didn't use meat to feed the dogs; he used the wild boar's innards.

For dogs, the heart, liver, and lungs of a wild boar are far better than the meat, and for people, wild boar innards won't keep in this season.

So using the innards to feed the dogs was absolutely the right thing to do.

(End of chapter)