Chapter 1648
Self-doubt
Immediately afterwards, Wang An pulled out a piece of rope and made a noose. He grabbed a pig's left foreleg with his left hand and put the noose on the pig's hoof with his right hand. With a strong pull, he tied the pig's leg up.
Then grab the wild boar's right hind leg and forcefully bring it together with its left front leg. Wrap the other end of the rope around the hoof of the right hind leg twice and tie a knot. That completes the binding of both legs.
When tying up pig legs, it's essential to do it diagonally, meaning the left front leg and right hind leg are tied together, and the right front leg and left hind leg are tied together.
Because only by doing this can the pigs be kept from escaping, even if one of the ropes breaks, and most importantly, they won't hurt anyone when they kick.
These are all experiences and lessons learned by people over many years.
Mu Xueli and Wang Li followed almost the same actions and steps, tying up their respective blond-haired buddies at nearly the same time as Wang An.
The three men were tied up, but Huang Zhong had not yet tied up his pig.
The main problem was that the 100-plus-pound yellow-haired guy was quite strong, while Huang Zhong's strength was far inferior to that of Wang An and the others. Therefore, tying up a wild boar by himself was still a bit difficult for him.
However, after glancing at them, Wang An and the other two did not offer any assistance, but instead walked towards the three sows.
Although Huang Zhong was having some difficulty, it was only a matter of time before he tied up the wild boar.
Besides, Huang Zhong also needs training, and similar situations will definitely occur frequently in the future.
The three sows were held firmly in place by a pack of dogs and wolves, and Wang An and his two companions tied them all up with relatively little effort.
After Wang An and the other two finished tying up the sow, Huang Zhong finally tied up the yellow-haired one. Although the process was difficult and required several short ropes, Huang Zhong succeeded in the end.
After tying up the wild boar, the four of them worked for half a day before, with the help of a group of dogs and wolves, finally managed to put the more than 30 small, spiky twigs into a sack.
Looking at the wild boars that were all tied up on the ground, Wang An and his three companions felt a great sense of accomplishment.
Normally, when hunting in the mountains, one kills the prey and brings it home. However, Wang An and his three companions, relying on the strength of their dogs, captured the wild boar alive.
This feeling is much more exhilarating than knife hunting.
Suddenly, Mu Xueli said with a worried expression:
"Brother-in-law, how are we going to get these pigs home?"
Looking at the wild boars lying haphazardly on the ground, Wang Li also had a worried look on his face. Although catching wild boars alive was very exciting, transporting them down the mountain was the real challenge.
Wang Li, looking distressed, said:
"The yellow-haired ones are manageable; one horse can carry two of them. Those two old ones from the previous year are dead, and they're all offloaded, so that's manageable too. But these three old sows leading this bunch of little rascals are impossible to handle,"
Upon hearing this, Wang An clicked his tongue, pondered for a long time, but still couldn't figure it out. He then pointed to a group of dogs and wolves and said:
"Alright, stop thinking about it. Feed the dogs first, then we'll talk about it. Can't you see the dogs are all staring at us longingly?"
After Wang An finished speaking, Mu Xueli drew her dagger and walked towards the wild boar that had been stabbed to death without shedding a drop of blood. Wang Li and Huang Zhong immediately stepped forward to help. Wild boar meat like this, without being bled, certainly wouldn't taste very good, but it would be perfect for feeding dogs. Dogs and wolves actually liked the smell of blood.
Mu Xue and the other two were feeding the dogs. After Wang An finished feeding Da Hei, Xiao Hei, and Xiao Bai, he looked at the group of wild boars with a troubled expression.
Just as Wang Li said, it was no easy task to transport this 240-250 jin (120-125 kg) sow whole down the mountain from the Wild Boar Forest. In winter, it would be fine to use a sled, but now there was no snow, so the sled was useless.
Horse-drawn carriages can travel in the mountains, but once they leave the village, there are no roads. Moreover, the trees around the Wild Boar Forest are quite dense, and a narrow sled can barely make it, while a horse-drawn carriage simply cannot get through.
After thinking for a while, Wang An decided that he still had to use horses to carry the wild boar down the mountain. Although it wasn't very comfortable to carry wild boars on horses, Wang An and Wang Li had done it before when they were protecting the seedlings. It was just that the journey was a bit longer this time, and it would be more tiring for them.
Thinking of this, Wang An turned to Mu Xueli, Wang Li, and Huang Zhong, who were feeding the dogs, and said:
"Okay, Lao Wu, Xue Li, you two continue feeding the dogs. After you finish feeding the dogs, skin these two old bastards. Throw away their heads, hooves, offal, bones, and pigskin. Xiao Zhong, come with me to get the horses. Then we'll tie all the wild boars to the horses' backs and slowly walk home with the horses carrying the wild boars. It's only about 40 li in total, so we should be home before dark."
After Wang An finished speaking, Wang Li subconsciously wanted to say something more, but seeing Wang An's expression, Wang Li wisely shut his mouth.
After Wang Anding established the plan, he led Huang Zhong to the place where the horses were tethered.
When Wang An and Huang Zhong returned on horseback, each leading another five horses, Mu Xueli and Wang Li had already fed all the dogs and wolves, and the two old Chen had been butchered into small pieces of meat.
Just as Wang An was about to tie the wild boar to the horse, he heard Wang Li say:
"Fourth Brother, why don't we finish our meal before we go? We've already brought the rations, we can't just take them back! What if we get hungry halfway there?"
Wang An raised his wrist to look at his watch and found that it was already past 11 o'clock, so he said:
"Alright, we didn't expect to catch any wild boars when we went into the mountains today, and we didn't even bring a pot. Let's just make do with this."
There is a stream running through the Wild Boar Forest, and the water in the stream is fresh water that gushes from springs. However, because wild boars often visit the area, there is a lot of pig manure on both sides of the stream.
Wang An and his three companions had been busy all morning and were really thirsty, so no one complained about the dirty water. After walking a short distance upstream, they lay down in the stream and started drinking.
I have to say, I don't know if the water is clean or not, but it tastes really good. It's sweet, refreshing, and incredibly thirst-quenching.
After drinking water and washing their hands, the four of them took out cold steamed buns and ate them with pickled vegetables.
During the meal, Mu Xueli suddenly said:
"Brother-in-law, if you ask me, we should just slaughter these three sows too. It'll save us the trouble of carrying them all down the mountain. What do you say?"
Wang Li immediately chimed in:
“Yeah, Fourth Brother, I’ll kill them too to save trouble. Just like those two old ones from last year, throw away the head, hooves, offal, and bones, and just carry the meat down the mountain. That way, we can at least be half as fast. After that, those little devils can just fend for themselves.”
Before Wang An could speak, Mu Xueli continued:
"Yeah, we all raise pigs now. If we bring a wild boar home, we'll have to raise it. Besides, wild boar meat is far inferior to domestic meat. There's no need for us to go through all this trouble to bring a wild boar home."
Wang An was taken aback by what the two people said. Was what he was doing unnecessary?
Wang An couldn't help but start to doubt himself! (End of Chapter)