Chapter 4: The Drunken Country (4)
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"Stupid, this water is just warmer than snow, that's why I see smoke coming out. If you throw a wild fruit into it in the summer, you can fish it out after a while! Tao Kuo saw that Li Xu was fooled, and he was happy again, and pointed at the lake with a horsewhip.
"Great, wonderful! If you don't come to the outside world, you don't know that there is such a prosperous realm between heaven and earth! Xu Dayan closed his eyes and opened his arms on the horse's back. This trip was not worthwhile, not only did it gain insight, but also found an opportunity to practice the art of war that had been studied hard for many years. I also met a few good friends and saw scenery that I had never seen before.
Traveling thousands of miles is like reading thousands of books, and the ancients were honest and did not deceive me. Only when we see this empty field can we arouse the pride in our hearts. It is only in these thousands of miles of ice and snow that people can see their dreams more clearly. Xu Dayan waved his arms, and the smile on his body brought out a bit of youthful frivolity.
"It's even more beautiful in the summer. There are wild flowers everywhere, and even the fish in the lake want to jump out and smell the flowers. If at night, the stars in the sky and the stars in the water are almost next to each other, and if you don't look closely, you can't tell whose reflection is who! Seeing that the guests admired the grassland scenery so much, Eru introduced it with a bit of pride.
This lake once left countless fond memories for the girl, and last summer, it was on this lake that she met Ba Keruo of the Pure Silt Department. That young man was the youngest patriarch of the dozen or so tribes in the vicinity. The wind was intoxicating all summer and the stars were exceptionally bright overhead.
"When spring begins next year, he will come to marry me with wine!" The girl's eyes are full of anticipation for the future. Looking back at Xu Dayan, there was a little confusion in anticipation.
"If I had met Brother Xu by the lake last summer, whose tent would I choose?" The girl suddenly felt that her heart was in turmoil, as if a fawn was jumping, and the expression on her face became very unnatural.
"Brother Xu's arrows are no worse than Bakoruo's, and his horse is no slower than Bakoruo's. Every word that comes out of Brother Xu's mouth has a different taste! Eru secretly looked at Xu Dayan who was expressing her feelings in the wind again, and tried her best to suppress the complicated thoughts in her heart.
"I am in a good place, and you are far away. I cut the red candle, it's too late for you to come......" In the smoke in front of me, a spring scene of Muye that Aunt Qing once painted slowly emerged, and the nasturtium swaying in the wind gave people the feeling that they were always pouring out a few regrets. At the time, she didn't know what the regret was, but now, Eru knows that she understands everything.
She sighed softly, and slowly began to envy her sister and the young and ignorant of the detachment. Next summer, the starlight by the entire lake will belong to the two of them, and I will send my most sincere blessings to them, as well as Brother Xu.
"Is it hot with the dung of a wild donkey?" A loud cry interrupted everyone's dreams. When the crowd heard the rumour, they saw Dur carrying a black-green dung mass the size of an egg with two wooden sticks, and running happily towards the group. (Note 2)
"Greedy ghost Duer, if you don't wash your hands three times tonight, you are not allowed to grab meat and eat it!" Tao Kuo scolded loudly. In the cold wind, the filthy mass of Dour's hands still smoked, and no one except this greedy man could not smell the stench of donkey dung.
"I'm going to see the hoof prints!" Aslan happily ran to the location where Durr was picking manure and carefully inspected the nearby river beach. The water of Crescent Lake is constant in all seasons, and the snow near the river beach has long since melted. Where Durr had come, a few puddles of snow and mud mixed with the feces of wild beasts, as filthy as they were. But Aspan didn't have any scruples, and lay down beside the donkey dung heap and carefully observed it for a long time before straightening up and shouting to everyone: "It's a big group of wild donkeys, and they drank water by the lake about half an hour ago. We drove west around the lake and soon caught up with them! ”
The crowd cheered and immediately turned on their horses. Li Xu freed Ganro from the coat on his horse's back and let it chase after his mount. Although Ganluo's body was small, he refused to follow behind the horse's buttocks, and his four small thin legs spread out and swooped out.
"We've got it this time!" Dur dropped the donkey dung ball in his hand and screamed as he untied his bow and arrows from behind the saddle. The wild donkey is a very large creature, and the body of an adult male donkey can grow to ten feet long, seven feet wide, and weigh more than 500 catties. From a distance, it looks bigger than a domestic mule. The animal lives on water and grass, and likes to eat wild onions and strange willows, so the meat is tender but has no smell. At this point, no domestic livestock, whether a bull that has never worked or a lamb that is less than three months old, can compare with a wild donkey.
"Be careful, don't touch their fronts!" Aslan didn't forget to remind everyone during the gallop. Although wild asses are inferior to herbivore, they are much more irritable than horses. If you are alarmed, you will rush towards you, and your strong body and bones will not be able to prevent the donkeys from colliding.
"Got it, everyone, work harder, shoot the strongest head to nourish Padella's body!" Calyx's excited reply was heard far away in the wind.
A quarter of an hour later, the donkeys appeared directly in front of the group. It is a small family of more than 50 wild donkeys, all of which have an earthy yellow back and a blue-black hair. Hearing the sound of the hunter's hooves, the male wild donkey in charge of the guard immediately neighed to warn. The donkeys, who were gnawing on the grass roots, heard the warning and immediately spread their four milky white legs under the leadership of the first donkey.
"Speed up, follow the pursuit, and scatter the donkeys!" Aslan commanded loudly. The horse rushed towards the donkey herd first, and Dur was unwilling to be pulled out by his partner, so he clamped the horse's belly fiercely, and chased after Aslan with a loud howl.
"Ganluo, chase the one who reported the news!" Li Xu bent his bow and commanded. The little wolf Ganluo ignored his shouts, doubled his running speed in an instant, and swooped down diagonally towards the middle of the donkey.
Hunting is its innate instinct, much more savvy than any experienced hunter. When wild donkeys flee for their lives, the adult males are in the front, and the adult females are dead, and in the middle of the line are often young donkeys that are less than a year old and have not yet been fully weaned. They are not as experienced and brave as adult donkeys, and if they are attacked by an enemy, they will definitely break away from the group.
Despite their large size, wild asses have a natural fear of wolves. Seeing Ganro approaching, two young donkeys the size of a colt with a brown dividing line from the base of their front legs to the tip of their tail fled the group. Ganro sprang from the crowd and leaped away from the herd before the she-donkey's hooves stepped on her. Then he turned around sideways for half an arc and forced the two little donkeys towards Li Xu's mount.
Li Xu, Xu Dayan, Tao Kuotuosi, and E Ru immediately formed a small circle and trapped the two young donkeys in the center. After a few feathered arrows fell, the battered young wild ass screamed and fell into the mud by the lake. Ganro cast a disdainful glance at his prey and then chased after the donkeys again.
"Ahh Xu jumped off the horse with big eyes and laughter. Each young donkey was hit by three or four arrows, so it was impossible to tell who the prey belonged to. It's just that some people are opportunistic, and every arrow is inserted through the donkey's belly partially.
"Brother Mao Gong collects prey, I'll help Ah Silan and them!" Li Xu had a weak heart, secretly stuck out his tongue, pulled out the horse and left. He could already see clearly that without his two arrows, after cutting off the neck part, the four of them could harvest two intact donkey skins. With the two more arrows of his own, there will be two more big holes in the donkey's skin, and it will no longer be worth anything.
Before he could catch up with the donkeys again, Ah Silan and the others had already ridden their horses back. Beside them, Dur and Bachiami, who walked side by side, struggled to carry a wild donkey, which looked about the size of a calf. On the other hand, Ah Si Lan and Cao Falltai rode together, and the other horse completely gave up to the prey. The wild donkey on the horseback looked the size of the blue and white mule that Li Xu rode when he was studying, and the war horse kept snorting in protest.
"Whew--" The little wolf Gan Luo let out a long howl in the wind. A few drops of donkey blood dripped from its mouth and landed on the snow, blooming two dazzling reds.
"A holy wolf is a holy wolf, and I and Certai forced this beast out of the ranks, and before we could shoot it with an arrow. The holy wolf has already pounced on it and bitten it by the throat! Aslan praised Ganro's bravery. It is said in the prairie that where the silver wolf appears, it brings harvest and good luck, and today he has seen it with his own eyes. If it weren't for Ganro, the wild asses wouldn't have been scattered so quickly. Although the life of the prey was eventually ended by its own arrow, the newly grown wolf cub has dared to attack a wild donkey ten times its size, which is a courage that no shepherd dog can have.
"Isn't it relying on the Aslan brothers' hunting skills, isn't it ......?" Li Xu glanced at Gan Luo with a smile, and wanted to evaluate it with a dog fighting human power. Suddenly, he remembered that the little thing was a holy object in the eyes of the tribe, and he swallowed the second half of the sentence back into his stomach.
The smart Gan Luo seemed to have guessed what he wanted to say from Li Xu's eyes, whimpered a few times, and rubbed Li Xu's mount with his nose reluctantly. When the mount saw the little wolf's bloody mouth, he was so frightened that he jumped and jumped, and almost threw Li Xu off the horse.