Chapter 99 Encountering a pack of wolves in the mountains, the two tigers even recognize each other
Chapter 99: Encountering a pack of wolves in the mountains, two tigers recognize each other as relatives
Author: Han Ming
Chapter 99: Encountering a pack of wolves in the mountains, two tigers recognize each other as relatives
Zhang Ancheng carefully dug the mud on the ground with a hoe, fearing that he might accidentally dig up the Huang Jing and break it into the ground by using too much force.
The more Zhang An dug, the happier he became. Although it took more time, it meant that the root of Polygonatum underground was very large and must have been growing for many years.
After a while, I finally dug it out completely.
Looking at the long Huang Jing in my hand, it really has some weight and feels heavy in my hand.
Zhang An has seen the wild cabbage collected by his second grandfather before, but they were not this big. The largest one was only about ten years old.
The main reason is that the ones at the bottom of the mountain have been dug up long ago, and those who can dig them for more than ten years are lucky.
The one on Zhang An's hand is more than a foot long from beginning to end. They are like rooster heads stacked one on top of another, connected together to form a long string.
The few nodules on the edge are very small, not as big as Zhang An's thumb. This is because these nodules are the first parts of the Polygonatum plant to grow, but the nodules that grow later start to grow bigger.
A big one, the biggest one is almost as big as half of Zhang An's fist.
And it also grew many branches. When the main root grew, nodules also grew on the branches.
Zhang An counted, not counting the branched nodules, there were more than 20 main roots alone, which meant that this was an old Huangjing root that had been growing here for more than 20 years, and it was a rare treasure.
Zhang An estimated it and found that this one weighed at least seven or eight pounds.
Zhang An became even more excited at that moment. Seeing that there was still so much left next to him, Zhang An planned to poach them all.
Of course, if the seedlings are too small, don't touch them. This is a matter of principle. Killing all the people in the mountains is not the right way. Learning to save seeds is the truth.
Zhang An came at the right time. This period was when the seeds of Polygonatum japonica were ripe, and every plant of Polygonatum odoratum was covered with seeds.
The land was so fertile that Zhang An immediately picked some of the seeds from the Polygonatum stalk and planted them in the newly dug ground, believing that they would sprout soon. The remaining seeds were of course kept for planting.
Into space.
In this forest, because the surrounding trees were too tall and dense, Zhang An could not see the position of the sun, but luckily he had bought a watch before so that he would not lose time in the forest.
It looked like it was already four or five o'clock, and Zhang An had just dug two Polygonatum spp.
There was not enough time today, so Zhang An had to speed up his work.
Because he still needs to leave enough time to find a place to camp.
Zhang An did not intend to camp in this forest. The jungle with so many weeds was too dangerous at night.
Soon, it was almost six o'clock. Even if Zhang An speeded up, he couldn't dig out much.
But we definitely can’t continue today, we can only wait until tomorrow morning to continue digging.
Immediately, he took Big Tiger and Little Tiger with him, packed up his things, and walked out of the forest.
Fortunately, it is summer, and it gets dark relatively late at night. If it were winter, it would already be dark by now, and it would be particularly inconvenient to move around in the woods.
The topography of Yingzui Cliff is flat, which makes it a suitable place to camp. However, because the place is very high, the mountain wind blowing through the top of the mountain at night is very strong, so it is not suitable to stay there.
The creek at the foot of the mountain below is even more unsuitable for camping at night.
There are many large animals in the mountain forest that do not like to come out during the day and come out to look for food and water at night.
Whether it was Zhang An's second grandfather or later generations of village walkers, they all told Zhang An about this issue, and Zhang An remembered it clearly.
If Zhang An chooses to camp in a place like this, and encounters leopards and mountain wolves that come out to drink water or look for food at night, then it will be a real Barbie Q.
Even encountering a group of monkeys in the mountains is a very dangerous thing.
Because there are so many Wukongs in this mountain, they always come in groups. If they encounter someone, they will attack you crazily and throw stones at you from the trees.
Just over there at Yingzui Cliff, although there were some caves under the mountain, Zhang An didn't dare to go in.
Maybe it's someone's home inside. If Zhang An plans to go in and spend the night, there might be something particularly enthusiastic saying "yeah, hello~" to Zhang An.
While talking, he was yelling at Zhang An. This is the most terrifying thing.
There are quite a few bears in Zhang An and his group in the mountains, and they are considered the tyrants in the forest.
They like to regard caves as their homes, and usually sleep in them when they are full.
After some searching, Zhang An finally found a large dam, which was far away from the water source and on a back slope with a wide field of vision. Zhang An observed for a long time and found no trace of other animals.
There happened to be a sunken rock behind, and Zhang An could spend the night here just by setting up a tent.
After choosing a place, Zhang An started to chop some wood to build a simple tent.
Although it looks like a beautiful sunset now, there is no guarantee that it will start raining lightly at night.
Taking out the ax in the space, Zhang An found a few small trees that were not very thick, and started chopping them down one after another.
Cutting four or five pieces of wood is almost enough. Anyway, it's just to build a frame against the mountain wall, so you don't need too much wood.
There happened to be some wild vines nearby, and Zhang An also cut many of them back.
On that seemingly flat rock, a triangular shelf was built against the mountain wall using chopped wood.
Tie the plastic sheet you brought in the morning on top so that even if it rains, you won't get wet.
Zhang An also disliked the hardness of the stones on the ground, so he went to the forest and cut two large bundles of wolfberry grass and spread them on the stones, which made it much softer to sleep on.
This is how it is in the wild, but sleeping like this is not good for a long time. If it is used for a long time and often, rheumatism will easily enter the body, and you will suffer it when you get older.
In later generations, Zhang An went to show warehouses to people. Because he was young and had capital, he slept on the ground when the weather was too hot. He contracted rheumatism at a young age.
While Zhang An was cutting down trees to set up camp, Xiaohu and Dahu went out to look for food.
Zhang An didn't pay much attention to them. He still believed in the ability of his two dogs to hunt in the mountains and forests, because they often went to the mountains to catch rabbits and pheasants.
It doesn't matter even if you can't catch them, there are plenty of rabbits and grouse in the space anyway.
Letting them out is just to release their natural instincts, especially the big tigers. This guy needs to see blood often, otherwise it will always be in a state of disarray.
And when they came all the way here, Zhang An didn't find any traces of large animal activity, so he let them go out with confidence.
After setting up a place to sleep at night, Zhang An began to dig a fire pit in the dam.
It is important to have a strong and burning campfire in the mountains. It not only provides lighting and temperature, but also if some ferocious animals come around you at night, they will not attack you immediately if there is a campfire.
Especially nocturnal predators like wolves and leopards.
The only thing you need to pay attention to is that after lighting the fire, you must pay attention to it, otherwise if the wind blows the fire into the forest, it will not be able to light the mountain on fire.
So Zhang An dug a large fire pit to avoid the accident of the fire being blown away by the wind to a large extent.
Moreover, this area is on a backslope, so the mountain wind blowing at night is very small.
We'll have to pick up food later, and we can't do it without a fire.
He took a hoe and dug a large fire pit in front of the camp, and then went to the forest to collect some dry firewood.
Suddenly, he heard a cry from the forest in the distance. This sound was very familiar to Zhang An. Zhang An was sure it was the cry of a big tiger, and then another sound came.
Although it is also the sound of a dog barking, it is not the sound of Erhu.
Zhang An didn't think much, he picked up the steel fork and rushed towards the direction where the sound came from.
Although tigers usually have a wild temper, their calls are not so urgent. Zhang An is worried that they will encounter poachers or large animals in the mountains.
It would be fine if you met an experienced hunter from the nearby mountains, but it would be a bit worse if you met those unscrupulous poachers.
Zhang An ran for a while following the sound before entering the woods. However, the sound of the tiger in his ears became louder and louder, which meant that he did not run in the wrong direction.
However, it is not easy to walk in the woods, because this area is a whole slope, and the slope is quite steep. If you are not careful, your feet will slip and you may slip to the bottom.
So Zhang An had to slow down his speed, step by step steadily before moving forward.
Zhang An couldn't see clearly where the slope was, because there were not only many tall fir trees in the woods, but also many jujube vines and wolfberry weeds, which blocked the ground completely.
There are many mountains with this kind of terrain. You may not look very deep, but when you actually go down, you will find that it is a clump of particularly tall and lush wolfberry or other grasses.
After spending a lot of time, Zhang An finally came from the sloping slope to a rugged forest full of huge rocks.
You can see that the trees in this forest are growing out of the gaps between the huge rocks, and these rocks are covered with green moss.
Although the sparse big trees and the rocks all over the mountains and plains are a bit out of place, these trees do grow so big here.
Directly ahead, Zhang An could only see a group of blue-gray mountain wolves surrounding the tallest boulder not far away, while a big tiger and a small tiger were confronting them on the rocks below.
There are about a dozen mountain wolves in this group, and several of them are still cubs, about the size of a newborn puppy.
Zhang An cautiously moved forward, and when he got a little closer to the wolves, he discovered that there was a gray-yellow wolf among the wolves.
Something's wrong, it's impossible for local mountain wolves to have this color. Although wolves in the mountains have gray, they don't have other coat colors.
In the past, this big mountain forest was full of ferocious beasts like leopards and tigers. According to the old man, there used to be many black bears in the mountains.
In order to adapt to this forest, the mountain wolf has already gradually turned its fur into blue-grey.
The leader of the wolf king is even more so, his fur is blue and black without a trace of mottled color.
Zhang An felt that something was wrong with this yellow-gray wolf, but there were several wolf cubs following it, which showed that it was the mother of these wolf cubs.
The more Zhang An looked at it, the more strange he felt. The more he looked at it, the more he felt there was something wrong, but he couldn't think of a specific problem at the moment.
Zhang An couldn't think of it for a moment, so he simply didn't bother to think about it anymore and quietly touched it with a steel fork.
He was getting closer to the wolves and his two dogs, and now he could clearly see the situation here.
Damn it, it can’t be true, can it?
Zhang An felt a sense of familiarity in his heart.
Zhang An's memory is very good now. Although he does not have a photographic memory, he can remember most of them.
Zhang An could see the group of wolves clearly in front of him now, and he just saw that one guy who stood out among the wolves.
Other wolves have their tails pointed down, but this one's tail is turned up.
Zhang An felt something was wrong when he was far away, but he couldn't remember what was wrong.
Now he remembered, what stood out about this female wolf was a local native dog.
Although its two ears are standing up, and it may have regained a lot of its ferocity during the time it followed the wolves, its upward tilted tail has already revealed its identity.
Looking at the native dog, Zhang An suddenly looked at the largest wolf on the boulder, and then at his little tiger.
Damn it, these tiger cubs must be the offspring of the green wolf.
The fur on the tiger cub's body, eyes and posture are somewhat similar to those of the wolf, except that the tiger cub's tail is usually turned up.
At this time, Zhang An remembered that when Xiaohu was hunting in the forest, his tail was also tucked downwards.
The big tiger is not very similar to the two tigers, but they are covered in fur and have no chance of running away.
Zhang An felt that this girl looked familiar before. Isn't this the biological mother of brothers Xiaohu and Dahu?
Because Zhang An had brought it into space, so when I thought about it, I was sure it was it.
The native dogs in the village are generally only exposed to native dogs, and there are currently no other breeds in the village.
Isn't it a trip to the mountains to help the Xiaohu brothers find their biological father?
However, Zhang An was quite curious as to how this big gray dog got close to the wolf.
This wolf was also so blind that he could accept a local dog and bring it to live with the wolf pack. Zhang An couldn't understand it.
There is no other possibility. If the alpha wolf in the wolf pack is not able to accept it, it would be impossible for the big gray dog to stay and follow the wolves if it were another male wolf in the pack.
Only if the alpha wolf accepts it can it follow the pack.
Zhang An looked at the big gray dog making small noises next to the alpha wolf.
It's like two people having a conversation:
You can't kill the boss, they are your children.
Thinking of this, Zhang An immediately had a picture in his mind. Isn't this a large-scale family ethics drama?
No wonder it has been so long. Although the little tiger and the big tiger have been confronting the wolves for a long time, there has been no fight.