The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu rode on Wang Fu’s ox-drawn sleigh, following the old northern Wood Transport Route to where they had killed the brown bear the day before. Zhao Jun seemed preoccupied the entire way.

Just as they were about to arrive, Elder Niu smelled the brown bear’s scent and absolutely refused to go up the hillside.

The three of them pushed and pulled, managing to force Elder Niu to a spot about two hundred meters from the brown bear.

But this was its limit. No amount of whipping or pulling could make Elder Niu take another step forward.

The three men stood around the ox, hands on their hips, panting heavily. Wang Fu stared resentfully at the animal, his chest heaving. He was clearly furious.

"Uncle Wang, don’t be angry." Zhao Jun said consolingly, pointing to a nearby birch tree. "Let’s tie the ox here for now and stop fighting with it. We’ll drag that Xiong Ba over and get it onto the sleigh."

Wang Fu thought that was a good idea. He tied the ox securely to the tree, positioning it so its tail faced toward the brown bear.

Even so, Elder Niu kept struggling and bellowing. The pitiful sounds it made would have made any passerby who didn’t know better think someone was about to slaughter an ox.

When they got close to the brown bear, Wang Fu couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement, "Whoa, what a huge bear."

Li Baoyu laughed and said, "Uncle Wang, can Elder Niu even move it?"

Wang Fu nodded. "It’s a good thing it’s winter and there’s snow. Otherwise, it’d be a real struggle to move it."

The three of them tied ropes to three of the brown bear’s legs and, chanting in unison, dragged it toward the sleigh.

As the brown bear’s carcass drew closer, Elder Niu struggled all the more frantically, bellowing nonstop.

Finally dragging the brown bear beside the sleigh, the men re-rigged the ropes, running them underneath the sleigh to get the leverage to roll the bear on top.

Zhao Jun and Wang Fu pushed while Li Baoyu yanked on one of the bear’s legs. The three of them exhausted themselves just to get the carcass flipped over.

When the brown bear was flipped over, it landed squarely on the sleigh, and the impact nearly crushed the vehicle.

The three men used ropes to secure the brown bear onto the sleigh. Wang Fu untied the ox and led Elder Niu down the mountain.

With the scent of the brown bear behind it, Elder Niu was terrified. It trotted forward on its own, no urging from Wang Fu needed.

But with the immense weight of the brown bear on the sleigh, Elder Niu couldn’t go fast even if it wanted to.

On the way, Zhao Jun asked Wang Fu, who was leading the ox, "Uncle Wang, I heard from your wife that Zhang Zhanshan stopped by your house this morning."

"Yeah, he did." Wang Fu didn’t think much of it and simply replied, "He asked me for a block of sheep tallow."

Wang Fu was on good terms with Zhao Youcai and was well aware of the conflict between the Zhao and Zhang families. But he ran a business, so he couldn’t afford to be like Li Dayong and cut off all contact with Zhang Zhanshan for Zhao Youcai’s sake.

Zhao Jun understood this. He just asked, "Uncle Wang, how much sheep tallow did he get from you?"

Leading the ox with his right hand, Wang Fu gestured with his left thumb and forefinger, holding them about ten centimeters apart. "That was the only piece I had left. I gave it all to him."

Zhao Jun nodded, as if he’d figured something out.

Although taking the northern Wood Transport Route was a bit of a detour, they had taken the sleigh early that morning, which had saved them a lot of time on the way there.

By the time they pulled the sleigh back into Yong’an Village, it wasn’t even three in the afternoon. The moment the big brown bear entered the village, a whole crowd of people swarmed after them.

The crowd followed the sleigh toward Zhao Jun’s house. As they passed Qin Qiang’s place, Tao Hehua saw the scene from behind the wicker fence, grinding her teeth in hatred, her eyes spitting fire.

Tao Hehua went back inside and told Qin Qiang what had happened. Qin Qiang just shook his head and said nothing.

Just then, Tao Ersheng burst in, fuming. "Fucking hell! Zhao Jun got that Xiong Ba too!"

"That’s enough, Second Brother." Tao Dasheng followed close behind, closing the door. "We can’t beat Zhao Youcai. What can we do?"

"I..." Tao Ersheng was about to retort when he heard a noise at the door to the outer room.

The Tao Family Siblings looked over, but the person who entered wasn’t Tao Sansheng. It was Zhang Laibao.

At the sight of Zhang Laibao, Tao Ersheng curled his lip, turned, and sat down on the kang.

Tao Dasheng also turned away, gazing out the window.

Tao Hehua had no desire to acknowledge Zhang Laibao either. Just looking at the guy made her furious now. ’The other day he was bragging about his silver tongue, guaranteeing he could get Zhao Jun to help him with the dogs. The night before last, he came to our house, saying he was taking the dog to go up the mountain with Zhao Jun the next day. And what happened? He brought the dog right back first thing yesterday morning. Our family’s only good dog left was injured so badly. If it had been injured during a hunt—clawed by a bear or gored by a wild boar—I wouldn’t have said a word, even if it had died on the mountain. But no, the dog was bitten by one of Zhao Jun’s dogs, and Zhang Laibao brought it right back afterward. In the end, I even had to pay for its shots out of my own pocket. If our family didn’t still owe him money, I would have clawed his face yesterday.’

"Feeling any better, Brother Qiang?" Seeing that the Tao Family Siblings were ignoring him, Zhang Laibao forced a conversation by asking after Qin Qiang.

"Much better, brother," Qin Qiang replied.

Tao Dasheng, who couldn’t stand the sight of Zhang Laibao, said hostilely, his voice laced with anger, "You’ve already been neutered, so what trouble are you still trying to stir up?"

Zhang Laibao knew he was being insulted, but he also knew he was in the wrong. He just said, "I was thinking... could we steal that Hua Gou from Zhao Jun’s family?"

"And where would you put it if you did steal his dog?" Tao Ersheng asked with a sneer.

They all lived in the same village. If you stole a dog from Zhao Jun’s house and kept it at your own, you’d be caught the next day.

Zhang Laibao said, "I have a relative who’s a logging contractor at No. 42 Logging Camp. We steal the dog and head up the mountain the same night."

As soon as Zhang Laibao said this, Tao Dasheng and Tao Ersheng both looked toward Qin Qiang.

Qin Qiang, however, looked at Zhang Laibao and asked, "So you’re saying we take the dog to your relative’s Logging Camp?"

"Exactly!" Zhang Laibao said. "We’ll hide the dog in one of the sheds. The mountains are huge. How would they ever find it?"

"That could work!" Tao Dasheng said. "We can keep the dog in their shed, and whenever we need it, we can just go get it."

"That’s a great idea!" Qin Qiang was so excited he almost jumped up from the kang.

As the saying goes: An army of a thousand is easy to find, but a single general is hard to come by.

In a pack of hunting dogs, the lead dog is the general. And a lead dog like Hua Xiao’Er could be compared to the likes of Lü Bu or Xiang Yu.

Come to think of it, the four dogs Qin Qiang’s family used to have were all trained by Hua Xiao’Er. He and the Tao Brothers knew Hua Xiao’Er’s abilities better than anyone.

Now, hearing Zhang Laibao suggest they steal Hua Xiao’Er—and that there was a place to keep him afterward—larcenous thoughts immediately sparked in the minds of Qin Qiang and the others.

Seeing that Qin Qiang and the others were silent, Zhang Laibao knew they had tacitly agreed and immediately added, "Then let’s do it tonight."

"What?"