Chapter 295: Night Watch Jackal
“Stop daydreaming and come over here. I want to tell you again about spending the night here!” Yue Feng was still distracted when he heard Uncle Zhao’s call from behind.

Everyone came over obediently, and Uncle Zhao fiddled with the fire and said, “There are some rules for staying overnight in a snow cave.

If you don’t bring your dog, you have to sleep in the same bed with two people, naked and hugging each other! Head to toe, one person’s clothes on top, the other person’s clothes covering you!

If you have a dog and have brought roe deer skin and bear skin mats to keep out moisture and cold, then this is unnecessary. You can each hug a dog to sleep so you don’t wake up from the cold at night!
There are five of us, and one of us has to be on duty at night!

Being on night duty means watching the fire and staying alert. Even though you can’t find anything in the forest on the mountain during the day, the true appearance of the mountain and forest will be revealed at night!
No matter whether it is a wild boar, a jackal, a tiger, a leopard, or a lynx, no matter what it is, it will be much braver when it comes out at night than during the day!
We have guns, and the requirement for staying overnight is that the guns must be loaded, and those on night watch must always pay attention to protect their hands from being frozen, and also ensure that their weapons will not be frozen!
After dark in the mountains, the temperature difference is large. The barrel, receiver and other parts are made of metal. The alternating hot and cold will produce dew. The temperature in the snow is low, and the dew will easily freeze into thin ice. If you are not careful, the bolt will be frozen and cannot fire!
One last point, those who are on night duty, no matter what noise you hear outside, don’t rush out!

This snow pit is our most advantageous terrain. Even if we have a gun in our hands, we will have no chance of winning if we can’t see clearly!

As long as we make sure the fire doesn’t go out, hands don’t freeze, and guns don’t freeze, we can ensure everyone’s safety!
That’s about all the things to pay attention to. Xiaofeng, please arrange the shifts for you guys!
The watch is for you to tell the time! The most difficult time is from 3am to 5am before daybreak. I am old and don’t sleep much, so I will take the night shift at this time! “

Yue Feng took the mechanical watch from Uncle Zhao and glanced at the time. It was currently 5:36 in the evening and it had become completely dark.

Yue Feng made some calculations and said, “From one to three, I will be on duty! From eleven to one, Xiaowen will be on duty, from nine to eleven, Xiaowu will be on duty, and before nine, Xiaotao will be on duty! Did you understand what Uncle Zhao reminded you just now?”

“I understand! But it’s not that scary, right? What kind of wild animals could be in this forest? They can’t do anything during the day, so how can they rebel at night?”

After hearing Uncle Zhao’s reminder, Xiao Tao felt a little unconvinced.

“It’s good to have a little respect for the mountains and forests! Many nocturnal animals are basically invisible during the day!

They may not threaten our safety, but they can affect our mentality when we are on duty at night. If we don’t get enough rest, how can we work the next day? “Uncle Zhao said calmly.

“Oh, that’s what you mean. Then I understand!” Xiao Tao nodded and said nothing.

“Let’s have dinner before the temperature drops! After dinner, each of you should drink a few sips of wine and go to sleep! It’s not safe to spend the night. It’s so cold, I don’t know if you can fall asleep!”

Yue Feng nodded: “Okay, let’s eat the leftover dumplings from lunch tonight. We also brought some wild boar meat buns and heated up the lunch boxes on the fire!”

Soon, all the dry food they brought with them was taken out, water was boiled in the pot, and space was left next to the fire to heat the dry food. After a while, the aroma of the heated dumplings and buns spread out.

Several people sat on the ground in the snow cave, divided the dry food they brought and ate it among themselves. After they were full, they used porcelain jars to fetch boiled snow water and drank it one by one. After they were full, they put away the lunch boxes and other things and placed them outside the snow cave with the sled and other sundries.

Everything was almost in order, and all four dogs were led into the snow den.

It was only a short while after dark, and a layer of white frost was already on the dog’s head and body. After he got into the snow cave and started a fire, the frost soon melted and turned into wet water vapor.

Because before going up the mountain, everyone had prepared to sleep on the floor in the cellar, so the objective conditions in the snow cave were much better than the normal situation that Uncle Zhao described.

A few large bear skins spread on the ground can block out most of the cold, and then add a mattress and quilt made of roe deer skin, so at least you won’t feel cold when you lie there.

It is also worth mentioning that the technique of building a heat-reflecting surface by piling a snow wall outside the fire that Uncle Zhao taught everyone is very useful.

Most of the temperature outside the fire, after being reflected by the snow wall, returned to the snow nest, making the temperature of the space inside the snow nest significantly higher.

The five people who were on night duty wrapped themselves up tightly and sat cross-legged beside the fire. The other four people sat side by side. The temperature in the snow cave was not as high as that in the cellar, but with hats on, they did not feel too cold.

As it was almost time to go to bed, Uncle Zhao gave everyone a sip of white wine, and taking advantage of the warmth from the wine, everyone lay down to rest early.

The first half of the night was fine. Yue Feng slept for a few naps in a daze. Although he felt uneasy, nothing happened. After midnight, all kinds of strange noises began to appear in the forest.

The calls of night owls, foxes, and other unknown animals can really scare you if you are not mentally prepared to spend the night in the mountains.

Xiao Tao was the youngest, so Yue Feng took care of him and assigned him the first night shift. Before nine o’clock, it passed quickly. He took out his watch and called Xiaowu.

Yue Feng was almost half asleep and half awake during this half of the night. He could hear clearly when others changed shifts. There was a lot of wood prepared, the fire was burning brightly, and he had a warm dog in his arms, so it was not too unbearable.

The only drawback was that the snow in the snow pit, even though Grandpa Zhao had compacted it with water in advance, would still melt slowly because the temperature in the house was higher than the melting point of snow. The leather under his body and the hat next to him were somewhat stained with water and were a little wet.

After the three companions in front finished their night duty, it was Yue Feng’s turn to work the night shift from one to three o’clock. Xiaowen looked at his watch and patted Yue Feng’s side gently.

Yue Feng immediately opened his eyes and climbed out of the bed. Xiaohua, who was in his arms, also woke up. When she saw her master get up, she hummed a few times, waking up the big black hawk who was squatting next to the door with his hat on.

The big black eagle changed to squatting on one leg, and soon put its head under its wing again and continued to sleep.

Yue Feng grabbed some snow and wiped his eyes to feel a little more alert. Then Xiaowen took over his warm quilt and quickly lay down with his clothes on.

Yue Feng held the 56 in his hand and habitually touched the gun body with his fingertips.

Fortunately, the weapon was always within the warm coverage of the fire and did not freeze, but the cold touch of the gun barrel still made Yue Feng shudder.

There are a lot of strange noises in the wilderness and forests outside, which can even be described as one after another.

The wind blew in the middle of the night. The whistling northeast wind mixed with the noises in the woods, giving a feeling of watching Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio playing in the background.

Yue Feng had experience of spending the night in the woods, so he was not bothered by the noise. He wrapped his coat tightly, added a few more pieces of firewood to the fire, and stared blankly at the dark night outside.

The two-hour night watch was neither long nor short. His companions behind him fell into a deep sleep and snored, and Yue Feng’s thoughts drifted further and further away.

Before he knew it, Yue Feng was a little confused. At this moment, the cries of several animals very close outside made him open his eyes instantly.

Oh~oh~oh~~~~
A special sound similar to the bray of a donkey, but a little sharper than that, was heard just a few dozen meters away from the entrance of the snow cave.

Yue Feng immediately opened the safety of the 56.

I listened patiently for a few minutes, and the sound of the wind was mixed with the rustling sound of animals moving.

In addition to this high-pitched donkey-like sound, there were also some whimpering sounds mixed in. This immersive sound, ringing not far from his ears, made Yue Feng nervous.

At this time, Uncle Zhao, who had been sleeping next to him, also heard the noise outside and sat up from his bed. He grabbed the other 56-and-a-half beside him and moved to the entrance of the cave.

“Uncle!” Yue Feng greeted him in a low voice.

“There are red dogs outside! And there are quite a lot of them!” Uncle Zhao said very confidently.

“We haven’t even gone out to look for them yet, and this bunch of red dogs actually showed up at our doorstep! Should we take action?” Yue Feng asked, holding a gun in his hand.

Uncle Zhao shook his head: “If we can’t see clearly when we go out at night, we’ll suffer! If we get hurt, it won’t be worth it!”

As they were talking, the black wolf who was cuddled in the quilt beside them heard the noise and growled a few times to warn them. The people who were sleeping soundly woke up, rubbing their eyes.

“What’s wrong, brother?” Xiaowu asked.

“It’s okay, just go back to sleep, it’s still early for dawn! Black Wolf, be good!”

After being scolded by its owner, the black wolf lowered its ears, arched its back, and crawled back into the quilt.

“These red dogs don’t dare to enter our snow den, right?” Yue Feng asked Uncle Zhao.

“They wouldn’t dare to come in even if they had eight guts. The dog peed outside, and they smelled the odor and are wandering around outside!

Before I came here, I was worried that the red puppies would die and the population would disperse, but I didn’t expect them to be doing well. From the noise outside, there are at least seven or eight of them in this group!”

“Since they don’t dare to come in, you can continue to sleep! There is still more than an hour before the shift change!”

“Okay! If there’s any other emergency, just call me!”

“it is good!”

Uncle Zhao quickly moved back to his own bedding and lay down with his clothes on.

Ever since he heard the noise of the red dogs outside, Yue Feng was obviously no longer sleepy. In the silent winter night, listening to the noise of the red dogs outside the snow den was quite interesting.

The barking sounds of these red dogs are quite diverse. The most common one is a donkey-like sound, and there are a few humming sounds. In addition, there is a half-water-dropping sound similar to the call of an oriole.

Yue Feng had not studied this thing in depth, and did not know what the different calls meant. Anyway, there was a fire at the entrance of the snow den, and there was not much space outside. If any red dog dared to show its head in Yue Feng’s sight, Yue Feng would not be stingy with bullets and would definitely pick up his gun and shoot it.

In this slightly noisy environment, two hours passed unknowingly. At 3:05, Yue Feng patted Uncle Zhao, and the old man quickly got up from the bed and took the watch that Yue Feng handed to him.

The best part of night duty is the beginning of the first half of the night, and the most uncomfortable part is the middle of the second half of the night or the period before dawn.

Uncle Zhao chose the time before dawn when he would be most sleepy. Yue Feng was slightly better than him, but it wasn’t a good job either.

The old man went back to the warm bed, hugged the dog, wrapped the corners of the quilt, and fell asleep again in a daze.

The red dogs kept making noises for half the night. When Yue Feng opened his eyes again, it was already bright outside and the random animal noises had disappeared.

Uncle Zhao used the iron pot on the sled to melt the snow water, and then used the white flour and cooked meat he brought with him to cook a pot of white flour and meat porridge for everyone. A few of the guys who were sleeping soundly were still snoring there, and Yue Feng opened his eyes when he smelled the fragrance.

“Uncle, what time is it!”

“It’s half past five, the day has just begun, and you can still take a nap! Breakfast will be ready soon!” the old man said softly.

Yue Feng couldn’t sleep. He was lazy and didn’t go to the toilet before going to bed last night. He had been holding his urine for several hours in the middle of the night. Now that he was awake, he simply decided not to sleep any longer.

“I have to pee, go outside and pee!” Yue Feng put his hat on straight, then, holding his arms and kneeling down, he crawled out of the snow den in front of Uncle Zhao.

He didn’t feel anything when he was inside, but when he came out, he felt a chill in his face and Yue Feng shivered subconsciously.

It wasn’t very warm in the snow nest, but it was acceptable. In comparison, it was really cold outside!

Taking a deep breath and standing up straight, Yue Feng stretched his arms and roughly moved his body, then strolled towards the snow cave about seven or eight meters away.

As we walked, we could see footprints on the snow left by the red dogs from last night’s activities.

There were quite a lot of footprints, and they looked quite messy. Yue Feng roughly counted the footprints in different locations in one direction and was sure there were about four or five of them.

Uncle Zhao’s judgment last night was correct. Not only did the number of these red dogs here not decrease, but it showed an increasing trend. They did not decline or disappear due to the death of the previous red dog queen.

Many people may have been brainwashed by movies, TV shows or literary works, and think that there may be dozens or even hundreds of wolves or jackals in the mountains. In fact, this is a completely wrong perception.

The ecological positions of wolf packs or jackal packs are actually similar, and the population sizes are also similar.

Generally, jackal or wolf packs exist in family units, with most of them consisting of three to five individuals. A group with seven or eight adult individuals is not considered small.

Only when the climate is extremely extreme and severe, so severe that small populations can hardly survive, will it affect the hunting strategies of jackals or wolves, causing small and medium-sized groups to gather into large groups of dozens or even more, hunting large and medium-sized prey together, or resisting the hunting of top predators.

In available literature or video materials, there have been examples of dozens of jackals forming a large group to fight against tiger hunting. They paid the price of the lives of seven or eight individuals of the same kind and successfully surrounded and killed the smaller Bengal tiger.

It is not difficult for this single-digit group of red dogs to hunt down their jackal queen!

Chapter 4000 , and more in the afternoon

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(End of this chapter)