Chapter 1643
Hard work pays off
The area of Wild Boar Forest is much smaller than that of Wild Boar Ridge.
Because Wild Boar Forest is just a mixed forest containing various dried fruits, wild fruits, shrubs, and wild vegetables that wild boars like to eat, but once you leave this mixed forest, it can no longer be considered part of Wild Boar Forest.
Wild Boar Ridge, however, spans several ridges and valleys, making it a small mountain range.
However, Wild Boar Forest is relatively close to the village, making it a very suitable place for Wang An and his group to visit now.
After discussing their destination, Wang An patted the horse's rump and shouted "Giddy up!" The Oroqen horse then started running.
Seeing this, Wang Li, Mu Xueli, and Huang Zhong also spurred their horses and galloped away, instantly increasing their speed.
On this trip into the mountains, Wang An, Mu Xueli, and Wang Li each rode two horses, one on horseback and the other on horseback, while Huang Zhong rode a single horse.
However, the horse Huang Zhong was riding this time was no longer Wang An's, but Huang Zhong's own.
In order to help his son catch up with Wang An, Comrade Huang Baoguo would go to the livestock market in Xing'an Township every year on market day before spring plowing, all in order to buy Huang Zhong a good horse.
Of course, besides Huang Zhong riding it into the mountains, they also used it to pull carts, plows, millstones, and so on. After all, their family had settled in Kaoshantun, and having a horse for hard labor and transportation was very necessary.
Persistence pays off. After Huang Baoguo went several times, he actually found an Oroqen horse that was only 7 years old.
Huang Baoguo successfully won it over with just 450 yuan.
The reason this Oroqen horse was so cheap was mainly because its coat color wasn't very attractive; it had a two-toned face.
The so-called "yin-yang face" means that the hair on this horse's head is not the same color; the hair on the left side of its face is blackish-gray, while the hair on the right side is grayish-white.
The horse's coat was the same, patchy with gray and white, patchy with black and gray, and occasionally a patch of pure black. Overall, it was asymmetrical and irregular, and looked rather uncoordinated.
However, horses and people are actually the same. Once you get used to them, no one cares about beauty or ugliness anymore. Besides, in these mountains, practicality is the priority, and aesthetics are secondary.
On the first day Huang Baoguo bought the Oroqen horse, Wang An helped him ride it to test it out. In the end, Wang An concluded that apart from being a bit ugly, the horse was fine.
Then today, Huang Zhong rode it into the mountains with Wang An and others.
About an hour later, four men, seven horses, and 24 dogs arrived at the outskirts of Wild Boar Ridge.
After each of them tied their horse reins to a tree with a reverse hook, the four men led a pack of dogs and wolves into the depths of the wild boar forest.
Wang An and his two companions were quite familiar with the Wild Boar Forest. They knew roughly where the water was, where the ditches were, and where the sun was shining and the wind was blowing, which were the most likely places for wild boars to appear.
However, before Wang An and his three companions even arrived at their destination, Dahei, Xiaohei, and Xiaobai all spoke up at once.
Immediately afterwards, the two dogs and the wolf raised their noses and sniffed the sky, then together they led the way and ran southeast.
Wang Li's four and a half-grown Oroqen dogs and Mu Xueli's five and a half-grown yellow dogs naturally followed suit and ran off as well.
Perhaps because it was their first day up the mountain, the nine half-grown dogs seemed very excited and disobedient.
On the way here, they ran around happily, trying to run home, but each time they were forcibly dragged and bitten back by a group of old dogs, including Big Black, Little Black, Big Green, and Big Yellow. That's right, it was a group of old dogs who chased them back by dragging and biting them.
Of course, Xiao Hei can't be considered an old dog, as it's only 4 years old this year. However, compared to the other 9 half-grown dogs, it is indeed an old dog in the dog gang.
With a group of old dogs watching over and disciplining them, these nine half-grown dogs couldn't cause much trouble. After being pinched and bitten by the old dogs a few times, they all obediently followed the old dogs and became well-behaved.
It was impossible for him to disobey; he really pinched and bit me, and it really hurt.
This is the advantage of experienced dogs leading new dogs. Without much worry or intervention from the owner, the new dogs naturally know what they should do and gradually learn how to hunt.
What made Wang An and the others quite helpless and saddened was that after the New Year, the ten old dogs that had first followed Wang An and his two companions into the mountains to hunt, including Dahei, Daqing, and Dahuang, looked even older.
Their whiskers and back fur have turned even whiter, their lips have drooped a bit, and even their once full and plump fur has become somewhat loose.
There's no way around it; mountain dogs age very quickly. Once they start aging, they really do get worse day by day.
Next year, when they are 10 years old, the situation will definitely be worse, and whether they will be able to go into the mountains with Wang An and the others is unknown.
It remains to be seen whether they can break the 12-year lifespan limit for hunting dogs.
The main problem is that very few wild dogs can live past 12 years old.
Fortunately, as they age, a new generation of mountain-chasing dogs will soon take over, and their owners will only experience a period of melancholy and discomfort.
After all, it has been by my side for several years, and it will definitely feel a bit strange if it suddenly stops following me.
As soon as the dogs ran, Wang An and his three companions instinctively gave chase. And so, the spectacle of people chasing dogs was once again played out in the woods.
However, no matter how skilled Wang An and his companions were in martial arts or how fast they ran, they could never outrun dogs. So, the dogs quickly disappeared from their sight.
Fortunately, the dogs' barking could reach Wang An and his companions' ears, so the four of them didn't lose track of them.
A few minutes later, the barking of the dogs could no longer be heard, and Wang An and the other three could only run in the general direction.
But out of Wang An's and the others' sight, a pack of dogs and wolves, led by Dahei, had already startled a group of wild boars out of their warm burrow.
At this time of day, wild boars won't be out of their burrows; they usually don't come out to find food until after noon.
This group of wild boars is quite large, numbering over 40.
However, more than 30 of them were newborn baby calves, weighing only a little over three pounds, so they were probably only about 20 days old.
April and May are the time when wild boars in the mountains give birth, so it's normal to see small, spotted piglets.
Only three sows weighing 240-250 jin each, two older wild boars weighing around 200 jin each, and four yellow-haired boars weighing just over 100 jin each, could be considered proper meat. (End of Chapter)