20. Distress
Early in the morning of the third day, a group of young adults gathered at the door of Geng Qiu Ahao's house. "Geng Qiu, are you ready?" Ah Qing asked.
"You can go." Geng Qiu replied. Pick up the things and follow Ah Hao to leave here with everyone.
This time, Geng Qiu handed over Ah Niu to Ah Qing's sister-in-law, he didn't worry that Ah Hao would take so much hunting alone, if he didn't do it, he would be in trouble if something happened. The village chief's family also meant the same, they must let Geng Qiu follow, of course, their family also sent A-Qing to go, whether they can hit the prey or not, they must not let these people clash with Ahao Gengqiu.
Ah Qing is usually a steady person and very experienced in doing things, sooner or later he will be the village chief of Heiyan Village, and the village chief also wants him to learn to deal with some things first. There is also a Mu and A Zhu in the crowd, the Amu family usually gets a lot of benefits from the Geng Qiu family, and his daughter-in-law has almost raised her body, and the child also has milk to eat. Ah Zhu is also a person who can carry it clearly, so Ah Mu and Ah Zhu are very grateful to Geng Qiu and Ah Hao, and they went with them, which is also the same purpose as Ah Qing, for fear of accidents, they are ready to be lubricants. Besides, the three of them are also young adults, and their bodies are very good, so they can help somewhat.
Geng Qiu made up his mind to teach these people a lesson this time, so he and Ah Hao only brought more than 20 thick noodle flatbreads with a lot of dishes, and put two robes in the basket, a machete, a bag of salt, and an earthen sand pot for boiling water. I also brought two bamboo tubes for water. He could have had more equipment, which would have made their life in the mountains and forests more comfortable, but he didn't want to make himself different from others, so he didn't bring anything else.
The whole village can make coarse noodle cakes, so everyone brought them, anyway, everyone didn't bring much, only six or seven at the least, and only ten at the most. They all felt that they wouldn't go hungry if they followed Ah Hao. Of course, they also brought bamboo tubes, this is common sense, they will also bring when they go up the mountain to work, some will be loaded with tea, and some will directly look for water to drink on the mountain, and everyone knows where to find water in the place where they work normally. But no one brought the salt. Ah Qing also brought an extra machete in his back basket, and Ah Mu brought an extra axe. Ah Zhu also brought a knife, and the rest of the people carried only food, thick jackets and ropes in their baskets.
Together with Geng Qiu and Ah Hao, a total of ten big men set off together. Along the way, the big guys were very excited, and some even said that they couldn't stop laughing. But Ah Hao and Geng Qiu were silent together, and it wasn't until they approached the inaccessible primeval forest that Ah Hao signaled everyone to stop making trouble. Under his gaze, even the two dogs who made the most trouble didn't dare to make a sound. Ah Hao's gaze was like a knife, everyone was startled, and they didn't dare to make trouble anymore.
Looking at the sun in the west, Ah Hao said: "I'm about to enter the mountain, so let's rest here for one night first, eat and drink enough." When you enter the mountain, you don't know where to find water to drink, so everyone tries to fill the bamboo tube with water. In addition, everyone is looking for some weapons to take advantage of here, and you may not be able to meet anything in the mountains, at least you have to find something to defend yourself. "It was the first time he had said so much.
Since he brought these people into the mountain, he still hopes that these people will not have accidents, and they will not drag their feet, and they will gain something to some extent. Otherwise, wouldn't it be a waste of his trip into the mountains, this time he and Geng Qiu handed over Ah Niu to Ah Qing's sister-in-law, not to mention anything else, he must be worthy of himself.
Listening to his words, the unarmed people searched around, and only found some thick and sturdy sticks, and Ah Hao instructed them to sharpen one end and make it into a sharp โกโก.
Early the next morning, Ah Hao took the lead into the mountain. This time, he deliberately took this group of people to go deeper, instead of taking the old road last time, he also took advantage of the large number of people, opened more roads, and also looked more in this mountain forest to see if he could have more gains, and at the same time, he could be regarded as doing some pioneering work for the next time he entered the mountain.
Since there was no road at all, they had to cut down branches, weeds and bushes that stood in their way as they went. In total, only Geng Qiu, Ah Qing, Ah Zhu, and Ah Mu had knives, so the four of them kept opening the way. But it didn't take long for Ah Qing to let the others take over the tools in the hands of the four of them to open the way, and everyone had to change jobs.
Only Ergouzi muttered: "Didn't Ah Hao go into the mountains last time, why did he have to open the road again in a few days?" Everyone understands what he means, that is, Ah Hao deliberately took them around.
"I didn't go this far at all last time, and when I first entered the mountain, didn't you walk the same road I opened last time?" Ah Hao glanced at everyone with a sword-like gaze and said coldly. Swept away by his gaze, everyone couldn't help but feel a chill, now, even the two dogs honestly cut down the branches, and no one dared to object, after all, they had to rely on Ah Hao to eat meat.
"Quiet." Suddenly, Ah Hao ordered in a low voice. Everyone immediately held their breath and remained motionless, Ah Hao drew an arrow and shot it out quickly, with a cooing and screaming, startling the birds in the forest. Taking advantage of the flock of birds flying and screaming, Ah Hao fired arrows again and again, and when the forest was quiet, everyone picked up three pheasants and five wild pigeons. In fact, Ah Hao's arrows, there are only three real sharp arrows, and the others are all made of bamboo, mixed together, and everyone has not found them. Sharp arrows are ready to deal with large beasts, while bamboo arrows are perfectly fine against pheasants, birds, and rabbits.
This kind of harvest made everyone immediately a little excited, they felt that Ah Hao only needed to shoot indiscriminately, they could get five birds, although the wild pigeon is not big, almost a pound or so, but the size is also meat. As long as there are many, three or five can be stewed together. And then there are three fat pheasants.
But after that, they walked a long way, and did not find any prey, but they still picked up a lot of wild mountain treasures, such as wild fruits, wild birds, wild eggs, wild mushrooms, and so on. In the evening, everyone found a place to rest near the waterhole. There are a lot of big trees near the waterhole, and there is a vacant lot formed by a few relatively flat big stones in the middle, which is about nearly 100 square meters, which is more suitable for everyone to sleep in the open. This pool is relatively large, like a waterfall and a stream washed by the mountain, but the pool is so deep that you can vaguely swim around. Their arrival frightened away a group of wild critters that were drinking water.
Seeing this scene, everyone was excited, and they all enthusiastically said, "There must be something big to be found around here." โ
Because everyone didn't bring much food, the past two days and one night to eat the vegetable cakes are almost eaten, Ah Hao simply took out all the pheasants and wild pigeons, cleaned up, Geng Qiu hit a pot of water, everyone also took out the wild vegetables and mushrooms picked along the way, and cooked a pot full of soup with meat, because everyone did not bring dishes and chopsticks, so this broth can only be distributed to everyone, packed in a bamboo tube with water, boiled three pots in a row, everyone got a bamboo tube broth water. The remaining two pheasants were left uncooked, smeared with a little salt, and prepared to be left for tomorrow's breakfast. It was rare to eat food with meat once, and the two dogs ate it as if it were extremely ugly, which made Ah Hao lose his taste at all, but under Geng Qiu's eyes, he still endured his unhappiness and didn't say a word. One person and one bamboo tube soup, plus coarse vegetable cakes, this dinner, everyone ate very well.
After eating, everyone washed their faces in the pool water, fetched water to drink, Geng Qiu did not drink raw water, washed the pot and bamboo tube, and made another pot of water to boil water. Everyone was washing the bamboo tube, and the bamboo tube that had just been filled with broth water was somewhat oily and watery, attracting a large group of fish to swim over.
"That's a lot of fish." Someone laughed.
Geng Qiu remembered the more than 100 catties of fish they used to catch with a basket last time, so he smiled and said, "Throw the basket in the water and see if you can catch a fish tomorrow." After saying that, he found some vines and tied the mouth of the basket a few times horizontally, and then tied the basket to the tree with a rope at one end and the other end, and threw the basket far into the water. Then he threw all the small bones that everyone had eaten into the basket, and everyone followed his example and threw the basket into the waterhole.
It was very cold in the mountains at night, and although it was only autumn, the temperature was almost ten degrees lower than that at home, so everyone still lit a fire, wrapped the clothes they brought, snuggled together in twos and threes, and slept on the fire. Saying that, Ah Qing and Uncle Dashi kept watch in the first half of the night, and Amu and Azhu guarded in the second half of the night. Others soon fell asleep.
In the early morning, the early birds in the forest began to make a noisy cooing noise, and everyone woke up. Geng Qiu was the first to run over to lift the basket, and sure enough, there were most of the basket fish, there were white scales, there were big-headed fish, and there were carp, all of which were not small, the big ones were three or five catties, and the small ones were more than one catty. He and A Hao's baskets add up to more than 100 catties of fish, and the others also have their own harvests, more than seventy or eighty catties of fish, and less than forty or fifty catties. This makes everyone very happy, and although they usually eat fish, they are all small fish, and it is impossible to catch so many fish at once. Everyone killed a few fish on the spot, ate wild vegetables and mushrooms, and cooked soup for breakfast.
After eating the delicious fish soup, everyone was packing up their things and preparing to set off again.
"Ahh Suddenly, the second dog suddenly let out an extremely terrifying scream.
Shocked, everyone looked over and saw a huge python wrapped around the two dogs. Ah Hao didn't have time to take the bow and arrow, he took out the whip and whipped it over, whip after whip, each whip went down, the snake swung its tail violently, and the power was so great that the earth and rocks on the ground flew wildly, and everyone exclaimed again and again, and they didn't dare to approach at all.
Geng Qiu was so frightened that his heart was pounding, but as soon as he saw that the snake's tail almost rolled up to Ah Hao, he subconsciously smashed the knife in his hand into the snake body, but he didn't expect that his knife actually slashed at the snake accurately, and the power was so great that even the blade of the knife was almost submerged into the snake's body. The big snake was in pain, and it struggled even more. However, when he moved, the other people also reacted, and they smashed the things at hand at the snake, everyone is young and middle-aged, and the strength is not small, so the snake is smashed indiscriminately, and the number of times the snake is hit is also a lot, and the more damage the snake receives.
Seeing that the snake was struggling not so strongly, Ah Hao picked up two sharp sticks and took the opportunity to stab the snake seven inches. "Plop" twice, the stick submerged into the snake's body, and was tightly nailed to the snake's body, the big snake was furious, struggling with its last strength, but Ah Hao held the stick and didn't let go. Seeing that he couldn't support it anymore, Geng Qiu also followed his example, picked up two sharp sticks, and pounced on them, he didn't know in the chaos that he had stabbed the snake, anyway, he knew that he had been stabbed, so he didn't let go. The others didn't stop, they just slashed and smashed the weapons they could find.
In short, in the end, the big snake was killed by everyone. The scene was a mess, in this chaos, there were many injured people, some were injured by the stones and debris rolled up by the big snake, some were swept by the tail of the big snake, and some were accidentally injured by their own people, fortunately, they were all skin injuries, only the two dogs were unconscious.
The big guys were too frightened, and they tried their best, and they all fell to the ground and gasped for breath, where could they take care of others, even Geng Qiu was pale, and his hands trembled. Ah Hao put the second dog aside, checked it carefully, only to find that he was just scared and fainted, then he breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately the second dog was holding a big basket, and behind him was someone else's big basket, the basket resisted for him a little, the snake did not completely wrap him tightly, and everyone rescued him in time, he was not hurt much, but he was frightened a lot, and his pants were wet.
Ah Hao slapped him a few times and shouted, "Two dogs, two dogs." โ
"Ah, the snake." The second dog woke up, looked at everyone blankly, and suddenly screamed in horror.
"It's okay, the snake has been killed by us." Ah Qing hurriedly came over to appease him. After a long time, the second dog quieted down from the crying, and now everyone is still interested in hunting. And everyone was injured, although it was a small injury, but it was impossible to have the strength to go hunting again.
However, this giant python weighed at least 100 catties, and everyone disemboweled it, Geng Qiu asked everyone to divide more than a dozen pieces of meat weighing about ten catties and distributed them to everyone. This python meat is also extremely delicious, so everyone has such a large piece of meat, and they want to go home even more.
"Then go home. With these fish and snake meat, it's enough for everyone to eat a few good meals. A-Qing made the final decision. Geng Qiu also gave some of the fish in his basket to others, trying to make the fish that everyone get about the same weight, anyway, he and Ah Hao can't eat so many fish, and their family has a small population. And the snake meat they only took a piece. The extra piece and the remaining two pickled pheasants were redivided among the people.