The fish that swallowed the hook under the ice only struggled symbolically for a few seconds before Yue Feng pulled the fishing line and dragged it to the entrance of the ice cave with brute force.

In this era, the thickness of the fishing line used for fishing was not important. The white nylon line used was at least No. 10 according to later standards.

When fishing in winter with such a thick line, I dare to pull it hard even if there is a little resistance.

Soon, the fish that had swallowed the hook was pulled out of the hole with most of its head exposed.

Uncle Wu and Yue Feng both looked down at the fish emerging from the water, and both of them were slightly moved.

“Hey, I’m lucky, it’s a good start! Fine scales!” Uncle Wu said happily.

Yue Feng also nodded excitedly: “Yes! This fish is not small.

If it’s hooked to death, it can’t escape. Uncle, please move aside and stop throwing water off yourself. I’ll pull it up directly!”

Soon, Wu Keji took a few steps back, and Yue Feng pulled the fishing line with both hands and exerted a little force to pull the fish out of the ice hole.

The body length is close to 60 centimeters and the net weight is at least four or five kilograms. The slender-scaled fish has a very representative body shape, with a head that is a bit like a grass carp. The whole body is covered with dense scales, and there are spots with white circles on both sides of the spine, which makes it very recognizable.

“It’s not small! It must be about four or five pounds! The fish meat is delicious!” Uncle Wu couldn’t help but sigh.

“Hehe! Only in places like this can a fish grow this big. If it were in a crowded place, it would be considered big if it could grow to two or three kilograms!! I’ll stew it in the pot later. This fish is delicious!”

No wonder Wu Keji and Yue Feng were so happy. The scientific name of this smelt fish is Scolopendra subspinipes, and it is a very rare cold-water fish.

It grows slowly, feeding on insects, small fish and shrimps. The water temperature is low, so it grows slowly, but its meat is extremely delicate and chewy, like garlic cloves.

At that time, the silver carp was one of the most popular freshwater fish. However, a dozen years later, it became less and less common in the common freshwater rivers in Northeast China and was almost extinct.

Yue Feng pulled the fish out of the ice hole, quickly stretched out his fingers to take the fishhook out of the fish’s mouth, re-hooked a piece of grouse, and continued to repeat the dynamic fishing method of pulling the bait up and down.

I don’t know if it was because the appearance of this slender-scaled fish scared away all the fish around the ice hole, but Yue Feng tried hard for a long time, but no fish took the bait.

He took the fishing gear out of the water and tried again in another ice hole. After several small movements, the fishing line was pulled, but Yue Feng still failed to catch any fish.

Yue Feng judged that there must be some small fish attacking and pecking at the bait on the bottom of the water, but they could not swallow the size 8 fish hook, so he could only return empty-handed again and again.

Seeing this, Yue Feng no longer hesitated about continuing fishing.

There are many small fish around the fishing spot, which means there are no big fish, otherwise the small fish would have been scared away long ago. In this case, there is no point in continuing to fish.

After discussing it, the father and son decided to withdraw their troops and return to the cellar to warm up.

It took less than half an hour from catching the first silver carp to collecting the fishing gear and going back. The silver carp that came out of the water had been completely frozen into a popsicle, which shows how low the temperature on the mountain is.

The small wooden door of the cellar was pushed open, and Yue Feng and Uncle Wu entered the house carrying their “trophies”.

“How is it, Brother Feng, did you catch any fish?” Xiao Tao asked curiously.

Yue Feng shook the fish in his hand and said, “Have you ever seen such a big fish? Let’s stew it in a pot tonight and try it!”

“Wow! Such a long fine-scaled fish, it’s rare!!” The other people also knew the value of it and exclaimed immediately.

Uncle Wu put the ice pick behind the door and couldn’t help but sigh, “We just gutted the fish, so we can just melt the snow and boil water, cut the fish into pieces and cook them!

I should have brought some finer seasonings earlier. Boiling fish in snow water is a bit of a waste!”

“Hey, good ingredients, the flavor is bright even when eaten raw. We brought salt with us! It’s enough!”

……

Soon, several people got busy. They brought the fish into the house and rested it for a short while. Once it was old enough to be cut, they used a knife to cut it into small pieces of a few centimeters each. Then they put the fish into the pot and cooked it. They added some salt, waited for the water to boil, and then added other food such as rations they brought with them, which was considered a meal.

After more than half an hour, the rice in the pot was almost ready. Everyone didn’t hesitate and started cooking immediately.

Now that there is a cellar to hide for the night and people have arrived at their destination, the next thing to do is to eat and drink enough and wait patiently for the time around the full moon night.

After filling their stomachs with a luxurious meal of rice soaked in fish soup, everyone’s fatigue was restored. They sat by the fire and chatted in the somewhat cramped cellar, and the sky gradually darkened.

Before dark, Grandpa Wu directed Yue Feng and several of his friends to come out of the cellar, and then they used the tools at hand to build a snow wall that was more than half a meter high.

Afterwards, all the tied horses and hunting dogs were moved to the lower windward position of the snow wall.

Although this temporary artificial windbreak may look inconspicuous, it is very effective for livestock.

These horses are not afraid of cold because of their thick fur. After being blocked by the snow wall, the temperature will be higher at night.

After everyone had eaten their fill, they prepared food for the horses and dogs, fed them, and then returned to the cellar to start resting in advance.

It must be said that spending the night in a cellar is much more comfortable than in a tent.

When a fire is lit, the temperature in the room can reach over 25 degrees. Pine wood is durable and not much wood can be burned even if the fire is not extinguished at night. For five or six strong laborers who go into the mountains, getting this amount of wood is a piece of cake.

According to the rules, we still need to stand guard at night, but without the threat of wolves, the initial adjustment was to just watch the fire and not be required to stand guard at all times.

That night, before going to bed, Wu Keji came out of the cellar as usual, but this time he called Yue Feng, and the two of them went out of the house in the north wind.

“Uncle, where are we going?” Yue Feng had a gun on his shoulder and an ice pick in his hand. He was curious as to why the old man called him out when it was already dark.

Wu Keji did not answer immediately, but took out a few tin cans from his pocket.

“Today’s job of setting up the cordon is up to you. I want to see how well you’ve learned these past few days! Be quick and efficient. After you’re done, we’ll take a walk around the lake before heading back!”

“Ah? No one comes to the vicinity of Holy Maiden Lake, yet a cordon is still set up?” Yue Feng was slightly stunned when he heard this.

“Whether someone comes or not is not up to you or me, but we get to decide the cordon! Just do it if I tell you to!”

“Oh! Okay, I’ll do it. Give me the tire line!”

Yue Feng didn’t argue. He took the tire line and picked up the cans from the ground.

After a rough observation, he chose the appropriate distance and position, adjusted his mindset to that of an attacker, and set up two far and one near simple warning devices in the most likely directions and positions.

Wu Keji didn’t say a word from beginning to end. He just watched Yue Feng arrange things quietly with a flashlight. After he finished, he couldn’t help but nodded.

“Not bad. It was not in vain that I taught you a few days ago at the foot of the mountain! You learned well!” Wu Keji said with satisfaction.

“Hey, of course, I don’t care who you learned it from! Uncle, shall we set off?” “Let’s go! Follow me closely and don’t mess up your footprints!”

Wu Keji called out, took the ice pick from Yue Feng’s hand, and walked along the edge of the lake.

They say that if you look at the mountain, you will die. In fact, the lakeside does not look very large, and the distance is not close at all when you walk there.

Wu Keji held an ice pick in his hand and used it to test every few steps, taking every step very carefully.

At first Yue Feng thought that the old man was making a fuss out of nothing, but when he walked around the northwest corner and came to the other side, he lightly stabbed with the ice pick, and the feedback sound and force were obviously abnormal.

“Be careful, there’s an ice crevasse here!”

Wu Keji stood still and reminded Yue Feng, then shone the flashlight around and memorized all the terrain features in his mind.

“Logically speaking, this shouldn’t happen! How come there are still places that haven’t frozen solid in such a cold day?” Yue Feng asked curiously.

“It’s hard to tell the reason, there are many possibilities for the formation of ice cracks!
For example, there are already debris such as dead wood underwater.

For example, there are warm springs underwater, or in special circumstances, the ice does not freeze solid, and the snow on top prevents the ice from getting thicker!
You should also remember that about 130 meters south of the place where there is no snow, there is an ice crevice under the snow!
Be extra careful when you walk near it! Don’t think that the water is shallow and it’s okay to fall in!

The underwater terrain is complex, the gentlest slope is near the cellar where we are staying, and there may be steep terrain here, with a depth of more than ten meters!”

“Yeah, I remember it!”

Yue Feng nodded and took Wu Keji’s instructions to heart.

The father and son avoided the area with ice cracks and continued to move forward tentatively with ice picks. Then they discovered two more areas where there were problematic sounds from underneath.

Generally speaking, the suspected problematic areas are all on the southwest side of the opposite bank.

After discovering the problem, Grandpa Wu tentatively tested it with an ice pick. There was only a few centimeters of ice under the thinnest snow shell. After knocking open the ice shell, he actually began to see faint heat rising that was visible to the naked eye.

There is a warm spring below, and the gold content of this speculation is still rising.

It took the father and son more than an hour to roughly circle the edge of the frozen Holy Maiden Lake.

The north wind was howling, and except for the ice cracks, everything else was normal. The cold wind took away a lot of heat from my body.

When they returned to their residence, both of them were shivering with frost on their brows and eyes, but there was no trace of the legendary golden thread snow frog at all.

After returning to his cellar residence, Yue Feng followed Grandpa Wu’s method and made one final inspection. He then shook off the snow and went into the house, where he warmed himself by the fire for a while, and his body slowly warmed up.

There was no conversation that night. We spent the night in the cellar. Apart from the howling north wind all night, we could hear nothing in the wilderness.

In the mountainous forest area outside the Holy Maiden Lake, there is no trace of large animal activities, as if it is an ice field in the world with no life.

There was no need to continue traveling in the short term, so the pace of life for the Yuefeng Hunting Team suddenly slowed down over the next two days.

I chopped wood to store for the fire, added fuel to the fire to keep the stove in the house burning, and when the wind died down, I went to dig the two ice holes I made yesterday and go fishing in the snow. Apart from the unbearable cold, there was no other pressure at all.

Just as Yue Feng’s team entered the Holy Maiden Lake ahead of schedule and waited for the full moon night to arrive.

On the other side, Qiao Muzhou’s hunting team that entered the mountains split into two and embarked on different subsequent development trajectories.

Master Xi continued to move forward with Qiao Muzhou and several of his core followers. After camping for a night, they began their final sprint along another hidden mountain path. They were less than five kilometers away from the ridgeline outside the Holy Maiden Lake.

On the other hand, life was not so easy in the original camp.

Without the dog to sound the alarm at night, we can only arrange for people to stand guard at night.

The wolves that succeeded on the first night came back again on the second night!
The horse meat that was buried in the snow outside the camp was dug out by the wolves. The people on duty heard the noise and called for people to check. Outside the hide was a field of bright eyes that looked like small lanterns.

Without a backbone, these half-baked people who stayed behind were frightened and hastily raised their shotguns and pulled the trigger.

At the first moment, two wolves were hit by bullets and fell to the ground. The other wolves turned around and fled the moment they heard the gunshots, and soon disappeared into the darkness.

“The wolves were chased away, and it seems two of them were killed! Don’t be afraid, come out with your guns and take a look! No matter how powerful this thing is, it can’t withstand bullets!”

The leading gunner named Zhao Wu gave a shout, and soon all the people in the remaining two camps came out with their weapons.

Holding flashlights and carrying guns, they arrived at the place where the wolf was killed, but saw only two bloodstains on the ground from bullet wounds.

The injured wolf also ran away after it recovered.

From here, we can see the difference in the performance of the weapons in the hands of the two groups of people entering the mountains.

The six members of the Yuefeng hunting team went into the mountains. Except for Uncle Wu who was used to his barreled rifle, the other five were all equipped with 56 semi-automatic rifles.

The 7.62mm bullet is very powerful and can basically knock a wolf down with one shot if it hits its torso.

Only if you touch the edges and corners will there be a certain probability of surviving with injuries.

In comparison, the weapons in the hands of the hunters brought by Qiao Muzhou were not so neat.

The only few 56 rifles were all taken away by Qiao Muzhou. In the hands of the remaining personnel, the best performing one was the modified No. 16 barreled rifle.

Most of them are hunting rifles that fire 16-gauge shotgun shells, or even homemade single-shot rifles without rifling.

These weapons are usually effective in bullying rabbits, pheasants, roe deer, etc., but when the firepower needs to be increased, they are not enough.

So, although the wolf was hit, it was not killed. The good opportunity to weaken the wolf pack by firing the first shot was wasted.

Zhao Wu held the gun in one hand and glanced at the blood on the ground: “Damn! The shotgun is not powerful enough and missed the vital part! The wolf just ran away!!”

“Fifth brother, what should we do next? All the good guns were taken away by Third Master, and the ones we have are not good enough!
Just now outside, there were so many eyes like small lanterns, there must be 20 or 30 wolves!”

One of the timid companions asked in a timid voice.

Zhao Wuqiang pretended to be calm and said, “Don’t panic! No matter how many wolves there are, they are still afraid of guns!

Our night watchers, please shoot them every time they come. They dare not jump out of their hides and bite people!”

The wolves certainly didn’t dare to go directly into the den to bite people, but Zhao Wu overestimated the intelligence of the wolves.

At midnight, something happened again! (End of this chapter)