Chapter 378 Chase

If you are not from Northeast China, you may not know what soft jujube is. It is a close relative of kiwi fruit, or the original version of wild kiwi fruit.

The fruit is small and grows on a vine. It is very sweet when ripe and grows in large bunches. It has a high sugar content and is a good way to fatten mountain livestock in the fall.

When autumn comes and jujubes mature, many mountain people like to come up to collect them. In the early years, many people would encounter bears and wild boars that were gaining weight.

Now, a large number of hunters have been arranged to conduct a siege search of the several-mile-long Ruanzaozigou in front, behind, left and right. As the commander-in-chief, Mr. Qiao Sanye, with four skilled hunters armed with 56-and-a-half rifles, ambushed near the pass with the best view, waiting for the tiger to fall into the trap.

After the personnel were assigned and deployed, a signal gun sounded and many hunters began to move in the predetermined direction.

For a while, there would be one or several hunters with guns and dogs every few hundred meters, gradually narrowing the encirclement and gathering towards the pass.

Although Zhang Junhong and Zhou Yuanchao are from the same village, they are not on good terms with each other. They greet each other on weekdays, but are always competing with each other secretly.

Zhang Junhong has a close relationship with Mr. Qiao Sanye. After they greeted each other yesterday, when they were assigned responsibilities today, Zhang Junhong was obviously much closer to the final encirclement pass.

Zhu Erhai was a little confused, but he took Wang Xiaonian with him. When it was their turn to divide the areas, Wang Xiaonian took the initiative to say that he had little experience and wanted to follow uncle Zhang Junhong.

Thus, the three waves of Xing’an Village hunting team became two waves. Zhou Yuanchao did not act with the Zhang family hunting team, but instead moved with the troops of several other families.

As the signal gun sounded in the distance, the large force began to move and shrink in the preset direction. Zhu Erhai looked up at Zhang Junhong and said, “Uncle Zhang, do we need to move faster? What if the tiger is right in front of us and we are too late to miss it?”

Zhang Junhong looked at Zhu Erhai like he was a fool and chuckled, “Don’t worry, Erhai, when the gunshots rang out, the troops on the farthest side just started to move!

Even if the tiger is in front and the people chasing it don’t notice it, it will not run away in advance!
You should have been to Ruanzaozigou before, right? Just counting the north and south ridges, the depth is at least seven or eight miles!”

Wang Xiaonian pulled Zhu Erhai, and Zhu Erhai wanted to ask something, but immediately shut up.

Wang Xiaonian asked, “Uncle Zhang, I heard from the elders that when a tiger enters the forest, it can jump up to ten meters. Is that really exaggerated?”

“Almost! The old people say that dragons come from rain and tigers come from wind. When this tiger runs, it brings the wind with it!

We are not in a hurry to advance. It is better to find a suitable shooting position and wait for the opportunity!
Of course, this is my personal suggestion. If you two want to go forward and try your luck, I have no objection!”

Before Wang Xiaonian could continue speaking, Zhu Erhai said, “Then Xiaonian and I will walk forward!
There is no one in the large space ahead. If the tiger escapes from here, our efforts will be in vain!”

“Haha, what Erhai said makes sense. Then you and Xiaonian should walk a little further forward! Be careful and don’t go too far!”

When Zhang Junhong heard Zhu Erhai say this, he had no intention of dissuading him.

Whose son is it that matters whether he dies or not? The Zhu family didn’t have a good reputation in the village to begin with. Zhang Junhong just said that he didn’t recommend him to leave, but he still wanted to leave. So he definitely won’t continue to persuade him.

Folks from one village have a basic sense of trust with people from other villages, but this trust is extremely limited.

There is a saying that goes, good words cannot persuade a damned ghost. We are all adults now, and we should pay for our own actions.

“Okay, Uncle Zhang, let’s just take a walk and not go far!” Zhu Erhai responded and signaled Wang Xiaonian to close the encirclement together.

At this moment, Wang Xiaonian had a thousand alpacas in his heart and didn’t know whether to say it or not.

This Zhu Erhai is such an idiot. The hunting team went up the mountain to form a circle, but there was no quantified specific task. So what does it matter if they take a few more steps or a few less steps?

He finally got on Zhang Junhong’s good side, and should have just stayed with him obediently, but he insisted on imagining the tiger escaping from his defense line.

It was as if if a tiger really ran out from here, he could kill it with one shot with the modified shotgun in his hand.

In the past, Wang Xiaonian would have definitely complained to Zhu Erhai for being so aggressive, but this time, he said nothing and just followed with a spear in his hand and two dogs on a leash.

After they walked away, Zhu Erhai muttered, “Uncle Zhang is a hunting team of four people after all, but he is so conservative! He was lazy when he went up the mountain to hunt tigers, and he didn’t even notice that the tiger had run away from him!”

Wang Xiaomin said: “The field of vision of people in the forest is fixed. If we take a few more steps, the probability of encountering a tiger will be the same!”

“That’s different. I always feel that this tiger is coming for me! Today, I shot the tiger to death. I will be famous in the surrounding villages!”

Zhu Erhai has an indescribable self-confidence.

“Okay, hold the gun steady and shoot when you see a tiger! If you really shoot it to death, I can also benefit from following you! Let’s make it clear in advance, I will get a share of the benefits!!”

Wang Xiaonian didn’t continue preaching to him. He just took the dog and carefully observed the surrounding situation.

“Don’t worry, what’s mine will be yours!” The two brothers talked as they strolled along the ridge. The cold wind was biting, and it felt like a knife blowing on their faces. On the ridge covered with ice and snow, there was no other meaningful movement except for the faint sounds of wind and people’s voices in the distance.

At this moment, on a terrain called Bojiwaizi, about two kilometers away from the bushes where the yellow cattle carcass was hidden yesterday, a gorgeous tiger was taking a nap in a sheltered place.

Last night it went to the place where the meat was hidden and had a big meal. Its belly was full and some of the meat had been digested.

When returning to eat at night, the male tiger discovered traces of people and hunting dogs passing by, but he only observed from a distance for a while to make sure there was no danger, then boldly returned to the cow carcass and ate it.

After eating a few meals of beef, most of the fat reserves consumed by the body were replenished, and the gunshot wound on the shoulder was completely healed and almost invisible.

The male tiger who was dozing off suddenly heard the barking of a hunting dog in the distance and immediately stood up from his crouching position.

Just as Grandpa Chen analyzed, a tiger that has been shot by a human has become a real bullet hole. Being shot is not a pleasant feeling.

The male tiger raised its head and listened to the movement in the forest, then immediately moved in the opposite direction.

The thick and broad tiger paws moved very smoothly on the snow crust. After leaving the resting place, the speed was consciously increased from walking to jogging.

The pursuers behind did not realize that the tiger had discovered them in advance and escaped, so they continued to advance and tighten the encirclement step by step. Half an hour later, the hunter with the dog found fresh tiger footprints.

Soon, all the hunters in the encirclement heard three consecutive gunshots.

This is the alarm sound of discovering tiger traces. Upon hearing this sound, all personnel will tighten the encirclement towards the alarm location according to the predetermined plan.

Soon, people from the nearest hunting teams rushed over. After they gathered together, they continued chasing the tiger along the direction of its footprints.

The siege turned into a pursuit, which meant that the tiger hunting in the mountains entered the second stage. The tiger was running in front, and more and more hunters were closing the encirclement, blocking the tiger in front and chasing it from behind.

At this time, it was clear that the mountain god had shown his dominant fighting power in the old forest. Even though he was not running at full speed, he could jump and leap a distance of six or seven meters. He could run across all kinds of small terrain gullies as if they were walking on flat ground.

There were more and more people chasing behind, and the encirclement in front was getting smaller and smaller. If the tiger could not cross the ridge on the side of Ruanzaozigou, there would always be a critical point where it would be approached and witnessed by the nearest hunter.

Just then, at 10:30 in the morning, three hunters from a hunting team heard the gunshots and gathered around. They saw a tiger running fast at the bottom of a ditch from a distance.

Bang bang bang!
Three consecutive gunshots were heard, and unsurprisingly all missed the target. At a speed faster than that of a 100-meter runner, the shooting skills of an ordinary hunter were simply not enough to lock onto the tiger’s movement trajectory and accurately hit the target.

Hearing the close-range gunshots, the running Siberian tiger suddenly fell into a higher level of stress state. It was this damn thing that injured it last time.

I can’t stay here any longer, I have to run as fast as I can!!

The speed soared again, and when the tiger reached the bottom of a ditch nearly ten meters away, it jumped from a high place and leaped over.

Hearing the close-range gunshots, more hunters around quickened their pace, and some bolder hunters even let go of the hunting dogs they were holding.

With so many people around, the hunting dogs seemed to become much bolder. In the atmosphere of tracking and hunting, threatening dog barkings could be heard one after another.

The brief contact instantly widened the distance, and by the time the three hunters who had fired blanks reloaded their bullets and looked for their targets, the tiger had already disappeared.

At this time, Zhu Erhai, who was at least one kilometer away, also heard the gunshots.

“Listen, Xiaonian! There’s gunfire coming from the front! They must have spotted a tiger! Let the dogs go!”

Zhu Erhai’s eyes were red, and he seemed to be in an excited state. He held a hunting rifle and stared at the forest in front of him.

“We can’t let the dog go, the dog can’t stop the tiger! Wouldn’t that be a waste?” Wang Xiaonian said.

“Just let it go if I tell you to. I just need one chance to shoot you! It’s worth it to trade a dog for one chance!”

“Okay!” Having said this, Wang Xiaonian decisively let go of the dog.

Without the dog, Wang Xiaonian felt extremely insecure. He looked around, hoping to find a suitable branch to hide in.

Although he hasn’t seen the tiger yet, he is already feeling nervous. The fear of facing a top-level beast head-on is something that cannot be imagined unless you are there in person. At least, this is the case for Wang Xiaonian, who values ​​his life very much.

The two dogs were quite calm at first, but after walking a few dozen meters, they immediately came forward with alert barking.

I saw a figure running wildly in the woods at an extremely fast speed, and in the blink of an eye it was in front of me.

(End of this chapter)