wavenovel Chapter 78 Night Raid on the Mountain Gate
Chapter 78 Night Raid on the Mountain Gate
"Kid, go back and grab your overcoat, plenty of bullets, wine, meat, shoes, an axe, and firewood—don't forget any of them. Load them onto the sled and pull it."
Chen Tuo was eager to go up the mountain and walked in a hurry. Wu Laowai behind him also talked about the supplies that needed to be prepared before going up the mountain.
This is the Xingan Mountains. If you don't have all the necessary survival supplies, going up the mountain at night is just courting death.
"Uncle Wu, shouldn't we hurry up and hunt wolves? It would be much better to travel light. If we drag a sled, we'll really be walking until dawn..."
Chen Tuo was eager to go hunting up the mountain and didn't want to drag the sled up step by step.
Moreover, in his mind, who would drag a sled when going hunting in the mountains?
"Have you forgotten how you managed to trek through the snow? This is the Xing'an Mountains; it gets minus 30 or 40 degrees Celsius at night! Who would dare go without bringing enough life-saving gear?"
Thinking of the extreme cold of winter nights, Old Wu added:
"Take those few pieces of wolfhound leather with you. In case we get lost in the mountains, we'll need some sturdy leather to put under us for the night."
There are a lot of things to prepare when going up the mountain or running in the mountains!
Hunting was similar to the guerrilla warfare and secret camps that the Anti-Japanese United Army used to wage in the mountains.
In one's own hunting grounds, even if one doesn't build a hut, one still needs a place to store things within a half-day or full-day journey.
Without these preparations, it's easy to perish in the mountains if you encounter wind and snow.
Wu Laowai couldn't explain these principles clearly in a short time, so he could only let Chen Tuo do it first. Once he used it, he would understand.
"Also, lock those two bastards in the storeroom. We're leaving now; that fat girl might come along, so make sure she doesn't get robbed again..."
At the entrance of the educated youth settlement, Wu Laowai and I split up into two groups, with Wu leading the two mountain dogs on their way to the warehouse.
Following the footprints covered by the fresh snow, Chen Tuo finally remembered how he got there.
It seems we've underestimated the frigid winters of the Greater Khingan Mountains...
They brought the two mountain dogs into the repair shop next to the warehouse and made a nest for them in a broken basket filled with kindling in the corner.
Before leaving, Chen Tuo turned around, ignoring the snarling, baring mountain dog that had been turned over and manipulated.
After checking the milk, he tossed the puppy in his arms into the broken basket.
"Eating wolf offal and feeding puppies, and you dare to mess with the puppies, I'll make you two into hats, so stay put..."
After tapping each of their heads with his knuckles, Chen Tuo considered that he had entrusted the little red-haired puppy to Shan Gouzi to feed.
Remembering why he had come, Chen Tuo realized that his idea of going up the mountain overnight was somewhat reckless and hasty.
But hunting in the mountains is also his livelihood in the near future.
Without the wolves luring him, neither Sun Changkui, Wu Laowai, nor that annoying Chu Maolin would likely give him the opportunity to go hunting in the mountains.
As a Chinese literature major whose professional course knowledge was basically useless, Chen Tuo was quite confident in his learning ability.
The skills of cattle and horses are all learned after leaving school.
In his view, hunting is mainly about marksmanship.
After the battle on the snowy night, he was also quite confident in his talent for using a gun.
If it were someone else, they would probably have a hard time killing the Seven-Headed Wolf the second time they tried to shoot.
He boasted that he had some skills, and he also had a cold-region cotton-padded coat, a Mongolian-style sheepskin coat, and high-waisted big-toed shoes with lambskin lining provided by Xiao Kai.
There were also remnants of ginseng hanging on the chimney of the gatehouse, and five catties of loose white ginseng given by Zhang Taibao.
As Chen Tuo stepped out of the repair shop, he realized that the extreme cold of the Xingan Mountains was not so frightening after all.
Thinking about going up the mountain, Chen Tuo dragged a sled with a shaft out of the warehouse.
Although the items at Xiaoyangqi educated youth settlement were almost entirely replaced by the registered educated youth, there was still very little left.
However, the sleds were well-made, made of welded iron pipes, and Chen Tuo had never pulled one before.
The two sleds without shafts were easy to pull.
The only sled with a shaft, similar to a wheelbarrow, was either an animal-powered sled or a purely human-powered sled.
The shafts were made of mountain vines, the frame of hardwood was made of hardwood, and the ice skates were made of small angle iron.
Those who weren't replaced were mostly assigned by the Forestry Bureau, and they couldn't or dared not replace them.
They pulled up the sled and loaded it with some pine branches.
Fearing it might not be safe, Chen Tuo picked out a few large pieces from the coal pile that Zhang Taibao had brought.
With firewood and coal, even if trapped in the mountains, they should be able to survive the night.
Thinking that it might be difficult to start a fire, he took a bottle of waste diesel oil from the ammonia tank in the warehouse.
Two gas lamps were brought along, along with an axe, a clearing knife, and a shovel.
They loaded their luggage and fur coats onto the sled, and brought over ten kilograms of smoked bear meat.
Still worried about not being safe, Chen Tuo filled another military mess kit with a full box of semi-solidified braised meat.
After preparing everything, he also put two boxes of matches in the inner pocket and one in the outer pocket.
Chen Tuo then left a note for Hong Ye and pulled the sled out of the educated youth settlement.
Outside the educated youth settlement, the firearms were inspected first.
The satchel containing more than two hundred bullets was tied to the water-beaded shoulder strap.
Tula carried a single-barreled gun on his shoulder, and a ration bag filled with bear-hunting sluice bullets was also tied to his waist.
Sun Changkui gave me two boxes of deer bullets, one in each of the two pockets of my overcoat.
He carried a dagger, a military knife, a hunting knife, and a set of eighteen kinds of weapons with him.
The only things missing are a leather belt, a weapon belt, and accessories for hanging a knife and a bullet pouch.
He checked his belongings and the supplies on the sled over and over again.
Chen Tuo, who was preparing to break into the mountain gate at night, was not as reckless and ignorant as Wu Laowai imagined.
"Are you planning to live in the mountains?"
Wu Laowai, carrying two guns and a bag, was momentarily stunned when he saw the sleds packed full of sleds behind Chen Tuo.
When he said to prepare, he didn't mean bringing all his belongings.
It snowed last night, and dragging a sled weighing at least 100 or 200 pounds up the mountain is more than just a burden.
There's no town on the mountain, so there's no smooth, straight road there.
When the mountain wind blows, snowdrifts form on the ground. If the sled can't pull it across, it has to be carried across.
If someone is arrogant, they have to pretend and then dispose of themselves repeatedly.
In that time, you could have gone up and down eight times already...
"It's cold and windy up in the mountains, so bring extra supplies for safety!"
Wu Laowai glanced at Chen Tuo, who was unaware of the treacherous nature of the mountain, and didn't say anything more.
He simply put the two guns he was carrying on his back and his rolled-up fur coat on the sled, and headed straight for the North Mountain.
"Uncle Wu, shall we take the main road?"
Wu Laowai's route up the mountain was to wade through the snow from the educated youth settlement and head straight up the North Mountain.
But the untouched snow was not very friendly to Chen Tuo, who was pulling the sled, and it provided a lot of resistance.
"If we just go straight up, we can get to the top in two hours. But if we take the main road and then the sled trail, it might take another two hours and we still might not make it to the top."
The Dobukuer settlement on the north side of Songling Mountain is not a settlement in the primeval forest.
Instead, it was a designated settlement for hunters, and the trees on the mountain had not been felled.
However, when the site was being built, the Forestry Bureau also provided a sled track.
In winter, hunters go up and down the mountain along that path.
But the hunters went up and down the mountains, either on horseback or by reindeer sleds.
People have to walk up the mountain on the sled trail, which is not only a long detour but also extremely tiring.
Whether it's Wu Laowai running in the mountains or other mountain runners, they all rely on their strong legs and feet to take shortcuts; no one would take the long and winding mountain roads.
"Uncle Wu, safety comes first. If there's a right path, let's take the right path..."
When it came time to sneak into the mountain gate at night, Chen Tuo's caution earned him Wu Laowai's respect.
Beginners are most afraid of being reckless when climbing mountains, let alone beginners, let alone those in the deeper primeval forests.
Even now, Wu Laowai still occasionally gets lost in the nearby Beishan Mountain.
The true danger of the mountains lies in the stark contrast between the world inside and outside the mountains...