Chapter 296: Driving the tiger away from the mountain
Yue Feng walked around the temporary snow cave where he spent the night, shivered after draining the water, and strolled back to the snow cave.

It must be said that this temporary snow camp with a fire is much more comfortable than the open air.

Yue Feng crouched down and crawled back into the snow cave. The porridge made of batter and meat that was cooking in the pot had already boiled.

Uncle Zhao moved the pot aside and put it aside temporarily, then took out some dry food and roasted it over the fire. After a while, breakfast was ready.

In the deep mountains and forests, you can eat hot porridge with tender meat and hot buns stuffed with white flour and wild boar meat. The quality of life is impeccable.

Breakfast was ready, and Yue Feng called out to the guys who were still in bed.

“Everyone, get up and eat. The sun is scorching outside!”

Hearing the call, the three of them quickly got out of bed.

I slept okay last night. It wasn’t as warm as sleeping in the cellar, but I managed to fall asleep.

Uncle Zhao took out the iron lunch boxes he brought with him and gave them to everyone, then filled each of them with porridge and rice. The young men then sat around the fire, gulping down the porridge and eating buns to fill their stomachs.

While eating, Yue Feng said to Uncle Zhao, “When I went out to drain the water just now, I took a quick walk and saw that there were quite a few red dogs last night. From the footprints I could see, there were at least four or five of them!”

Uncle Zhao said: “We saw four or five dogs. They may not be the main force of the pack. They are probably just doing odd jobs and exploring the way!

The social division of labor among the Red Dogs is quite clear! The old, weak, sick and disabled in the group are all consumables, but also the vanguard! “

“Ah? The old wolf in the wolf pack was at best driven away from the pack to fend for itself. Are these jackals worse than wolves?”

When Xiaowen heard this, he stopped drinking porridge, looked up curiously and asked.

“It’s not evil, it’s just a survival strategy of a group of people! The older generation called the old, weak, sick and disabled in the jackal pack “bitter jackals”, who specialize in doing dirty and tiring work!
Those old jackals know that they are no longer at their peak, so they are willing to give back to the group! Don’t underestimate these things, they are actually very smart!”

Xiao Tao gulped down the rotten meat porridge and said while chewing on a bun, “It doesn’t matter whether they are good or bad, we just want to kill a female jackal leader! Gou will chase them and shoot them with guns! No matter how bitter it is, they are just harmful wild animals anyway, if they dare to show their teeth, we will kill them!”

Uncle Zhao smiled and looked at Xiao Tao and nodded: “That’s what happened, but I personally don’t recommend letting the dog go!

Jackals are small, with the smaller ones weighing about 30 kilograms and the larger ones just over 40 kilograms, but they are very fast, and their one-on-one combat capability is no worse than that of hounds!
Let the dog go to fight with the jackal. If the number is not advantageous, the dog will get hurt if you are unlucky!

I know more about this thing than you do. Its bite force is much greater than that of an ordinary hound. A wild boar weighing more than 200 pounds is covered with pig skin. Except for the thick skin on the back that cannot be bitten open, other parts of the body can be torn open!

Let’s tie the three dogs here in the snow to guard the house, and take Black Wolf or Big Yellow dog out to search!

We have found the area where the jackals are active, so we will just shoot them! The longer we delay dealing with such cunning creatures, the more trouble we will suffer! “

“Then take the black wolf and track down their lair?” Yue Feng nodded after listening to Uncle Zhao’s suggestion and continued to ask.

“Isn’t rhubarb the best for cooking? Let’s use rhubarb!
“The black wolf is left to guard the house with the other two dogs! This dog is smart, and if there is any emergency, he will react quickly!”

“That’s fine, then I’ll follow your arrangements!”

Yue Feng nodded, and the specific arrangements for searching the mountain for the jackal’s den were finalized.

Yue Feng finished his breakfast, then thawed the meat prepared for the big black eagle, cut it into slices with a knife, and fed the eagle until it was half full. He then divided the dog food among the four dogs, and the preparations before departure in the morning were complete.

Five men came out of their snow den fully armed, and then led the big yellow dog, the black wolf, Dahei and Xiaohua, three dogs, and made a simple hitch with hemp rope, and tied them to the stakes at the entrance of the temporary camp.

“Dahuang, smell the surroundings! Take everyone to find the jackal’s lair!” Yue Feng gave a command while holding the dog, and Dahuang immediately lowered his head and started working.

They were all fresh footprints and smells left last night. Dahuang quickly found an obvious urine mark and tracked it very quickly, almost in a straight line.

This kind of tracking with a clear target is the most efficient state. Five people followed the dog at full speed.

The area chosen last night is a transitional terrain area adjacent to the meadow and the woodland. Dahuang tracked in the southeast direction. After coming out of the col, he quickly chased into the woods.

There were many jackal footprints on the ground, and the smell was in the right direction. Everyone felt that this hunt was too easy. At this rate, it wouldn’t take long to catch up with the jackals and find their lair. At first, Yue Feng was still holding the big black hawk when tracking. It was difficult to walk over the mountains and hills, so Yue Feng thought about letting the hawk go, took off his hat, and let the big black hawk fly up and follow in the sky.

Dahuang led the main force of the hunting team across four ridges in a row. In about an hour, they walked a distance of nearly three kilometers in a straight line.

The area where this group of jackals were active was really not very good. There were no decent roads in many places, but their presence was always very stable. Dahuang discovered several traces of jackals’ urination on the road.

If they continue chasing at this rate, it will only be a matter of time before they find the jackals’ lair. Yue Feng and the others were very calm and chatted while they were on the road. Xiao Tao and Xiao Wu even asked Uncle Zhao for more details about the red dogs’ habits.

After more than an hour’s journey, it was already nine o’clock in the morning. Da Huang was still leading the way, but Uncle Zhao, who was walking at the end of the team, frowned slightly.

“Xiao Feng, I don’t think something is right. Don’t chase me for now!”

“Ah? What’s wrong?” Yue Feng held Dahuang’s hand, walked back a few steps and asked.

“We are following the smell, footprints and urine traces left by the jackals and circling around these mountain ridges!” Uncle Zhao said in a very confident tone.

“Going in circles? It must be a coincidence, right? These jackals don’t know that we are hunting them, so how could they set a trap for us deliberately?” Yue Feng scratched his head and asked in confusion.

“No! I feel something is wrong! Look at these footprints, they don’t look like the normal walking habits of a red dog!” Uncle Zhao said, pointing to the strides on the snow that had become noticeably wider.

“I don’t quite understand. If you understand, just tell me! The stride of these footprints is a bit wide. What’s wrong with that?”

“Jackals can run very fast and have very strong jumping abilities. An ordinary jackal can jump up to two meters high!
However, when they are not hunting, they usually walk in small steps! This is not a terrain that requires jumping to pass through, so this obviously increased stride is not right!”

Uncle Zhao observed several traces of jackal footprints and said.

“The long strides mean it’s chasing something or deliberately distancing itself from us?” Yue Feng understood a little and asked doubtfully.

“Yes! That’s exactly how I feel! I’ve seen this kind of stride several times along the way. Every time this kind of stride appears, there is a mountain ridge ahead!
I suspect that the jackal here is deliberately leading us to chase it!
When they reached the top of the mountain ridge, they had the advantage of height and could see clearly the distance between us and them. Then they would consciously increase their stride and keep a safe distance. We kept chasing after them but could never catch up with them!

These mountain ridges are not in a standard east-west direction. We feel as if we are always heading southeast, but if you look at the position of the sun, it has deviated a lot!”

The old hunter’s intuition is still unique. After Uncle Zhao’s analysis, Yue Feng also felt that something was wrong.

“But why are they doing this? There are five of us and we have guns. Even if we are led into the encirclement of a pack of jackals, three guns can kill dozens of jackals in just one round!” Yue Feng scratched his head, pondering the other party’s motives.

Yue Feng slapped his head and instantly thought of the possibility.

“No! Their target is not us, but the three dogs guarding the camp! They are trying to lure the tiger away from the mountain!”

“Shit! Has this red dog become a spirit? He even knows how to lure the tiger away from the mountain? What should we do? Go back? If the jackals are really targeting the three dogs in the temporary camp, then the dogs will suffer a great loss!”

After hearing Yue Feng’s analysis, Xiaowen couldn’t hold it anymore.

“It’s very likely! Jackals are very cunning. When hunting big prey such as red deer and moose, they may even spend several days planning, driving away individual deer, and then expending their energy to split the herd!

Before we set out in the morning, most of them might not have gone far from our campsite!
They found out that we had a dog with us, so they left three dogs to guard the house, and then had members deliberately lead us away! Theoretically, there is room for maneuver!”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go back! If we go back too late, the dog might be killed by a pack of jackals!” Xiao Tao couldn’t sit still any longer, and was about to run back while holding his knife.

Uncle Zhao was very calm. “We have come so far. We can’t go back immediately. Let’s chase them a little further and verify our guess! After all, everything is just guesswork. We don’t have any evidence!”

“Okay! Let’s chase them a little further. If it’s still the same later, then we’ll go back!” Yue Feng nodded and accepted Uncle Zhao’s advice.

Da Huang led everyone to continue moving forward. When they approached the next ridge, as expected, the pace of the footprints on the ground became noticeably larger.

There seemed to be nothing unusual when Uncle Zhao was walking, but he suddenly stopped, put the gun to his face in less than a second, and fired a shot at the distant ridge.

3000 Chapter

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(End of this chapter)