The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

No wonder the four waves of Hunters had never even come face-to-face with that boar.

Another thing was that this mountain was too overgrown. Besides the secondary forest, it was almost all dense, thorny scrub. For a boar, pushing through the finger-thick stems and branches was like plowing a straight path.

But the dogs couldn’t. They couldn’t get through.

Just as Zhao Jun said, when the boar charged to gore the dogs, they were hindered by the scrub and thorns, making it hard to dodge.

Hounds rely on their agility and speed to hunt boars and bears. If a dog can’t dodge in a fight, how could it possibly avoid getting injured?

"My young friend, you’ve really got it!" Huang Gui gave Zhao Jun a thumbs-up and praised, "You’re right. Trying to corner this boar with dogs is going to be tough."

But Wei Lai asked Zhao Jun, "Brother Zhao Jun, you say that, but from the looks of it, you’re still planning to use the dogs to corner it, aren’t you?"

’After hearing what Zhao Jun had to say, Wei Lai had already given up, no matter what reward the Forest Farm and the Village Office were offering.’

’He knew that Zhao Jun wasn’t just right—he was exactly right.’

’According to Zhao Jun’s first point, they’d need at least twenty dogs just to hold this boar back.’

’And with the terrain this overgrown, the dogs would suffer heavy losses fighting the boar.’

’Putting those two things together, even if they managed to gather thirty hounds to corner it, as the boar injured more and more of them, their numbers would dwindle, and it probably still wouldn’t be enough.’

’That meant they would need forty hounds to even have a chance of trapping this boar.’

’But these days, some families in the mountains could barely feed themselves. Who had extra food to raise dogs?’

’A family that could afford to keep three or four dogs was already considered well-off.’

’Someone like Huang Gui, who could support six dogs, was a rarity in the entire Yong’an Forest Area.’

’If they did as Zhou Jianjun suggested and got more people to team up, they might be able to scrounge up forty dogs, a few from this family, a few from that one.’

’But those dogs wouldn’t know each other. The moment they went up the mountain, if even two of them started fighting, the rest might just pile in and start a massive brawl.’

’It can take four men to pull two fighting dogs apart, let alone forty of them.’

’When men fight, they might hold back and keep a shred of reason. But when dogs fight, they go for the kill. It’s all too common for them to bite to death or maim each other.’

’And yet, despite all this, Zhao Jun still brought his dogs, which was something Wei Lai couldn’t quite understand.’

Zhao Jun pointed west again, but since they were at the bottom of a gully, no one could see what was up there.

But Zhao Jun asked Wei Lai, "Brother Wei, to the west, there’s a pine forest. Uphill from there is a ridge with two knolls on it, forming a whole sheltered basin. Do you remember it?"

Hearing Zhao Jun’s description, Wei Lai’s eyes widened. He was stunned for a moment, unable to react.

Jiang Ming, who was beside him, tapped him and said to Wei Lai, "He’s talking about that place where we used to go with the adults to pick pinecones when we were kids."

"Ah..." Wei Lai finally understood. He asked Zhao Jun, "I know that place, brother. What about it?"

Zhao Jun asked him and Jiang Ming directly, "Are there old boar lairs there?"

"Yes!"

"Yes!"

Wei Lai and Jiang Ming nodded in unison.

Wei Lai immediately turned and slapped Jiang Ming’s back, saying, "Remember? What autumn was that? My third aunt and your grandmother went to that forest to pick pinecones and even saw a wild boar."

"Right!" Jiang Ming laughed. "They came back and told us, and the very next day your dad and my dad went up there with guns and killed two boars."

Zhao Jun said, "Brother Wei said that when he and his dogs cornered that big loner, it was heading from West Mountain toward North Mountain. Yesterday, when Brother Huang was after it, I didn’t go far, but from the tracks it left, it seemed to be going from East Mountain toward South Mountain.

"In a bit, let’s go with Brother Huang and check. If it’s really like I said, then this boar must be running in a circle: from east to south, then to west, then to north, before looping back to East Mountain. If that’s the case, we can set up an ambush and drive it."

"That’s right!" Jiang Ming exclaimed. "The first time I took my dogs to corner it, it was going from..."

Jiang Ming thought for a moment, then said with certainty, "From North Mountain toward the east."

While they were talking, the four dogs wolfed down their food until they were full. Zhao Jun then said, "Let’s go. We’ll head up and pick up the trail."

The others all agreed, and they headed up the ridge together.

When they first entered the mountains, the four dogs had led the men. Now, with their bellies full and round, they didn’t even need leashes and just ambled slowly behind the group.

The group arrived at the spot where the boar and dogs had fought yesterday. Following the path, they walked until they saw the black dog that had died after its carotid artery was pierced.

Frozen for half a day and a night, the dog was stiff as a board. Only when they got close did they see that its nose and mouth had been gnawed on by small animals.

’It was probably a yellow fox.’

Huang Gui paid no mind and picked it up. He found a nearby pine tree, cleared the snow from around its roots, placed the dog under the tree, and covered it with snow.

This was a tradition among the Hunters. Taking the pine tree’s quality of being evergreen, they buried their fallen hounds under pine trees, hoping the dogs would be like the pines.

If it weren’t winter, they would have dug a pit around the pine tree. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

But it was winter now. The mountains were frozen solid, the ground frozen hard a meter deep. Digging was impossible, so they could only give it a simple burial in the snow.

Huang Gui took three pre-rolled cigarettes from his pocket, lit them one by one, and stuck them in the snow in front of the black dog.

Then, Huang Gui actually knelt and kowtowed three times.

Seeing this, only Zhou Jianjun couldn’t understand why a man would kowtow to a dog.

But the others, including Li Baoyu who had only been hunting for a few days, knew this was something only those who hunted with dogs would do.

’That black dog must have saved Huang Gui’s life.’

After paying his respects, Huang Gui got up and walked on.

Not far ahead, they saw Hua Gou lying quietly. Its intestines, which had been torn out, were frozen solid and could no longer be put back inside.

Huang Gui found another pine tree and buried Hua Gou, along with its intestines, beneath it.

For Hua Gou, Huang Gui only lit three cigarettes; he did not kneel and kowtow.

"Heh..." Huang Gui let out a laugh as he turned around, but everyone could see the bitterness on his face.

Zhao Jun and the others didn’t try to console him, because they all knew that such grief was beyond words.

After Huang Gui buried his dogs, the group of six continued on in silence. They followed the boar’s tracks for over a kilometer before Jiang Ming finally said to Zhao Jun, "Young brother, you were right. This boar really is running in that pattern."

Huang Gui suddenly spoke up, asking Zhao Jun, "Young brother, how do you plan to hunt this boar? Count me in, will you?"

"Of course," Zhao Jun smiled. "That would be great."

"Count me in too," Jiang Ming added.

Zhao Jun agreed and pointed ahead. "Today, we’ll take our time and walk over to the South Mountain side, then head down and go home. We’ll come back early tomorrow, start from South Mountain, and circle around to the west to check out that old boar lair. Then we’ll make a big loop, find a spot where the dogs have room to dodge, and set up a drive. Some of us will act as beaters, and the others will wait with the dogs to block it."

The moment Zhao Jun said this, Wei Lai, Huang Gui, and Jiang Ming had the same thought flash through their minds, just as Li Baoyu had that day when he first heard Zhang Yuanmin’s brilliant plan to kill Xiong Ba: ’Can you even hunt like that?’

Among the three, even Wei Lai, who had the least experience, had been a hunter for seven or eight years.

But to them, a dog-pack hunt was a dog-pack hunt, and a stalking hunt was a stalking hunt.

Combining a dog-pack hunt with a stalking hunt was something they had never heard of before.

But after hearing it, they thought Zhao Jun’s plan was brilliant.

So, the three of them did as Zhao Jun said, heading south together, looking for open ground as they walked.

On and on they walked.

"WOOF! WOOF!"

Suddenly, Hua Xiao’Er barked twice and took off running.

At Hua Xiao’Er’s bark, the other three dogs reluctantly ran off, their speed clearly slower than usual on full stomachs.

"Follow them!" Before Zhao Jun could speak, Huang Gui roared, slinging the gun off his back and sprinting forward.