The Entire Mountain Is My Hunting Ground

After Zhang Yuanmin, Minister Li, and Li Erchen were rescued during their hunt at Black Bear’s Den, he hosted a banquet at his home for Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu.

That day, one of the dishes happened to be badger meat stewed with large white radishes.

While eating the badger meat, the three of them started talking about hunting badgers, and Zhang Yuanmin shared his brilliant idea with Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu.

At the time, Zhao Jun was noncommittal.

Because life was tough for people in the mountains back then. Many folks had to hesitate for a long while at the shop’s entrance just to buy a two-fen candy ball for their child.

As for the hunters, some even had to carefully measure out their gunpowder when loading their guns. Who would be willing to waste a Maze on a badger den?

Today, Zhang Yuanmin’s brilliant idea was finally being put to the test.

The three men and four dogs made their way to the badger den they had scouted the day before. However, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu didn’t go to the entrance under the birch tree; they went straight to the second one.

Li Baoyu led Da Huang and Xiaohua to the den entrance, and Xiaohua immediately shoved its head inside.

With the entrance blocked by Xiaohua, Da Huang could only paw at the snow beside it.

"Baoyu!" Zhao Jun deliberately shouted. "Give me the dogs! You go light the firecracker and toss it in."

"Aye, you got it!"

Just as Li Baoyu agreed, a voice shouted from nearby, "Brother Jun, let me do it!"

Zhang Laibao came trotting over, a large club in hand.

A moment ago, Zhang Laibao had followed Zhao Jun and glanced at the den entrance behind the rock. He knew then that Zhao Jun hadn’t been lying to him.

But he was still a little uneasy, so he took a look around, which brought him to the birch tree.

Once he saw this entrance, Zhang Laibao was truly relieved. Knowing Zhao Jun wouldn’t harm him, he started to completely let loose.

Zhang Laibao came over, pushed Li Baoyu aside, and said to Zhao Jun, "Brother Jun, let him handle the dogs. I’ll light the firecracker."

"Go ahead, then." Zhao Jun took a Maze and a box of matches from his satchel and handed them to Zhang Laibao.

With his guard down, Zhang Laibao was thrilled. All he wanted now was to enjoy every moment of this hunt.

After all, this badger hunt was unlike any he’d been on before. He’d bet that in the entire Yong’an Forest Area, no one, past or present, had ever hunted badgers this way. This would be a story he could tell everyone at work for the rest of his life.

Zhang Laibao first weighed the Maze in his hand, then twisted the fuse between his fingers. Seeing that it hadn’t been tampered with, he finally squatted in front of the entrance.

He struck a match and, the instant the fuse caught, shoved the Maze into the den.

As the Maze slid into the tunnel, Zhang Laibao spun around and ran. The fuse was long; he was a good seven or eight steps away before he heard a muffled BOOM from behind.

Zhang Laibao threw his arms over his head as snow, ice shards, and bits of dirt rained down on him.

It didn’t hurt him. Zhang Laibao looked up and saw a large badger scrambling out of the den entrance under the birch tree.

Immediately after, he heard Li Baoyu shout, "There’s another one up top!"

Zhang Laibao glanced up the slope and saw a badger suddenly dart out from a concealed spot not far away.

"Baoyu, release the dogs!" Zhao Jun roared. He tossed a Fraxinus mandschurica stick to Zhang Laibao, then hefted the Zamu Stick that was originally Zhang Laibao’s and charged toward the birch tree.

Zhang Laibao gripped the wrist-thick Fraxinus mandschurica stick. Seeing six or seven badgers scattering across the slope, he was instantly electrified. He didn’t care what he was holding; he just swung it and charged after Zhao Jun.

At that moment, Li Baoyu released the hounds, and the four dogs instantly fanned out.

Daqing, Da Huang, White Dragon, and Xiaohua caught up to three badgers and were now locked in a vicious struggle with them.

Just then, Zhao Jun and Zhang Laibao cut off one of the badgers. Zhao Jun swung his club, striking the badger across its back.

The badger howled and lunged forward. Zhang Laibao met it head-on with a strike from his own stick. As the badger faltered, Zhao Jun seized the chance to swing his club again, landing two more vicious blows.

Meanwhile, Zhang Laibao attacked from the front. The two of them rained down blows, one after the other, until the badger was curled up on the ground, twitching uncontrollably, unable to rise.

"Let’s go!" Zhao Jun yelled to Zhang Laibao, already running toward the next skirmish.

With the badgers scattering everywhere, Zhang Laibao hadn’t gotten a clear count. In reality, there had been six in the sett. Daqing and Da Huang had each pinned one down, White Dragon and Xiaohua had teamed up to subdue a third, and one had just been beaten to death by Zhao Jun and Zhang Laibao. The other two had escaped and were long gone.

Just then, a series of yelps rang out—the dogs were getting clawed by the badgers.

Badgers might not look like much, but they were formidable fighters.

In a way, they were a lot like bears: thick-skinned, tough-fleshed, with sharp teeth and claws.

If four dogs latched onto a Lynx, they could tear it to shreds in an instant. But if four dogs latched onto a single badger, they couldn’t make much headway in a short time.

Li Baoyu stood off to the side, staring blankly as the four dogs battled the three badgers. He seemed completely stunned.

Zhao Jun shouted, "Baoyu, grab that badger’s legs!"

As if the words had woken him from a dream, Li Baoyu rushed over to White Dragon and Xiaohua. The two dogs were working together; White Dragon had its jaws clamped on the badger’s neck, while Xiaohua was biting one of its front legs.

Li Baoyu ran up, grabbed each of the badger’s hind legs, and together with the two dogs, hauled the animal into the air.

Seeing their chance, Zhao Jun and Zhang Laibao rushed in, swinging their clubs and beating the suspended badger. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

After a few dull thuds, the badger went still. Zhao Jun grabbed the scruff of its neck and pretended he was about to kick the two dogs.

He wasn’t actually going to kick them, but at the gesture, both White Dragon and Xiaohua let go, leaving the dead badger for Zhao Jun.

Li Baoyu waved a hand and shouted, "HUT! HUT...!"

White Dragon and Xiaohua turned and took off. White Dragon ran to help Daqing, while Xiaohua went to help Da Huang.

"Quick!" Zhao Jun tossed the dead badger to the ground and waved Li Baoyu on.

Li Baoyu ran toward Xiaohua and Da Huang. They were each pulling on one of the badger’s front legs. Li Baoyu grabbed both hind legs, and once again, they hauled a badger into the air.

Zhang Laibao started to move in to strike the badger, but Zhao Jun stopped him. He pointed toward Daqing and White Dragon. "You go over there!"

"Uh, right!" Zhang Laibao was so excited he had completely lost himself in the moment. This was far more thrilling than any badger hunt he’d ever experienced.

The adrenaline rush had already made Zhang Laibao forget his grievances and drop his guard. Besides, he didn’t think one little badger could do anything to him.

’Besides,’ he thought, ’I’m wearing padded cotton mittens, so it’s fine even if it scratches me. And that Li Baoyu kid already grabbed two of them bare-handed.’

The badger pinned by Daqing and White Dragon was a big one, a good twenty-five or twenty-six pounds. It had just raked its claws across White Dragon’s face, leaving several gashes and forcing the dog to briefly let go.

It thrashed on the ground, trying to escape, but its left forepaw was clamped tightly in Daqing’s jaws.

Just then, White Dragon latched back onto the badger’s right foreleg, leaving both hind legs perfectly exposed for Zhang Laibao.

Zhang Laibao approached, intending to bring his Fraxinus mandschurica stick down on the badger. But the animal was twisting and struggling, arching its body forward. He couldn’t get a clear downward strike, and a horizontal swing would certainly hit the dogs, whether or not it connected with the badger.

’I’m still counting on Zhao Jun to take me hunting in the future,’ Zhang Laibao thought. ’I can’t hit his dogs and piss him off. Besides, I already got a beating from Li Baoyu for trying to kick Hua Xiao’Er the other day. My face is still swollen from that.’

With this in mind, Zhang Laibao tossed aside the Fraxinus mandschurica Stick, and copying what Li Baoyu had done, he reached out and grabbed the badger’s two hind legs.

Then, he heaved the badger upward, stretching it out in mid-air between himself and the two dogs.

"Brother Jun, I’ve got it!" Zhang Laibao felt no apprehension, no fear—only pure excitement.

But to his utter shock, the moment he grabbed the badger, Daqing and White Dragon both glared at him. Even with their jaws clamped on the badger, they curled their lips and let out a low growl from between their teeth, directed right at him.

Zhang Laibao was momentarily stunned, unsure what was going on.

Daqing and White Dragon weren’t as fiercely loyal to a single master as Huang Gui’s dogs, but they also weren’t as indiscriminate as the dogs Zhang Laibao and his friends had bought from Lingnan.

The dogs they’d bought would follow anyone into the mountains and take food from any hand.

But Daqing and his pack were different. Furthermore, once they brought down prey, they would guard it fiercely. Unless Zhao Jun or Li Baoyu were present, no one else was allowed to touch it.

In the eyes of Daqing and White Dragon, Zhang Laibao wasn’t helping; he was trying to steal their kill.

’And that was unacceptable.’

If their mouths weren’t full of badger, they would have bitten Zhang Laibao without a second thought.

Even so, Daqing and White Dragon joined forces, pulling on the badger in a game of tug-of-war against him.

Daqing and White Dragon weighed nearly two hundred pounds combined. Zhang Laibao found himself being dragged forward, sliding in the snow.

With his mind consumed by the hunt, Zhang Laibao caught sight of Zhao Jun running toward them, club raised. ’I can’t let go,’ he thought. ’Otherwise, I’ll mess up Zhao Jun’s strike.’

In his panic, Zhang Laibao suddenly recalled what Zhao Jun had done earlier. He raised his right foot in a gesture toward White Dragon, then lowered it and raised his left foot, motioning toward Daqing.

Just as Zhao Jun arrived behind Zhang Laibao, he saw this and froze in his tracks.

Zhao Jun thought, ’How did this kid know what I was about to do?’

At that exact moment, White Dragon and Daqing both let go of the badger and started barking furiously at Zhang Laibao. But with Zhao Jun standing right behind him, the two dogs didn’t lunge.

’Oh no!’ Seeing the dogs’ aggression, Zhang Laibao thought, ’They’re going to bite me!’ He whipped his head around, looking for Zhao Jun.

But he had completely forgotten he was still holding onto the badger.

The large badger, held upside down by Zhang Laibao, was terrified and desperate. Its belly was facing Zhang Laibao’s. With a sudden abdominal crunch, it whipped its head up, reached Zhang Laibao’s crotch, and clamped down with its jaw!

"AAAAHH—!"

A piercing scream tore through the heavens.

The shriek startled even Daqing and White Dragon, making them flinch. Not far away, Li Baoyu heard it and felt a sudden phantom chill in his own groin.