My 1995 Small Farm.

Chapter 269 A Rare Sight

Badgers may look clumsy and harmless, like little piglets, but they can be quite fierce.

While they may not be as ferocious as wild boars, it's still best to avoid them if you encounter them alone in the wild.

The main problem is that this thing has a violent temper. Once it feels threatened, it will attack people like a madman. Its teeth and claws are extremely powerful. If it gets angry, it can bite through a shovel. An ordinary person can't withstand it in one bite.

Even ordinary stray dogs can't withstand their biting.

When we arrived at Wang Lixian's earthen greenhouse, it was almost noon. The children, including Liu Ni'er, had also finished school and were standing by the greenhouse with bamboo poles and wooden sticks in hand, their eyes peering out at the earthen wall outside.

When they saw Chen Ling arrive with the dog, their eyes lit up, and they jumped and swarmed around Heiwa and the little yellow dog, waving sticks and shouting, "Hit the badger! Hit the badger!"

"Stop yelling and go home for dinner."

Wang Lixian frowned and scolded the group of mischievous monkeys.

Ignoring the commotion of the mischievous monkeys, Chen Ling walked to the outside of the earthen wall and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "Good heavens, this badger's den is so big that even a small adult could squeeze in."

Upon closer inspection, the badger's den appears to be straight up and down, like an earthen well, but it becomes horizontal at the bottom.

Moreover, the soil dug out by the badgers inside the earthen shed resembled mounds of earth, indicating the size of the hole.

"Yes, this is a hog badger's burrow, much bigger than a regular badger's burrow. A single burrow can house up to twenty or thirty badgers..."

Wang Lixian spat, parted the corn stalks, and pointed out what was inside to him.

It turns out there's more to this place than meets the eye. Hidden among the lush grass and corn stalks, this is a cave even deeper than the one in the earthen shed.

"This hole is horizontal, the hole over there is vertical..."

Chen Ling looked closely and saw a lot of black droppings in the grass nearby. "Is this a badger's burrow?"

Badgers are very clean animals and won't defecate or urinate inside their burrows. If they do, they'll do it outside the burrow, usually in the back.

It's like the outhouses that some people build in their backyards.

This ensures hygiene inside the cave and also allows them to assert their territory to other wild creatures.

"Yes, it's the back cave. I'll have Heiwa keep an eye on this side later."

Wang Lixian gritted his teeth and said, "That son of a bitch almost dug down my shed. He has to be taught a lesson."

As the two were talking, the little yellow dog became restless, sniffing around and wagging its tail wildly, trying to bark, but Heiwa stopped it.

The little yellow dog stood at the entrance of the badger's den, wagging its tail and standing up and squatting down, looking restless.

Badgers have a pungent odor that humans can't smell, but dogs have a keen sense of smell and can detect it.

Therefore, the little yellow dog was restless and wanted to immediately crawl into the hole to catch its prey.

Unfortunately, Chen Ling didn't give the order, and Heiwa didn't let it act rashly; it just waited anxiously.

"Heiwa, quickly take your little brothers and wait over there. We don't need you right now."

Chen Ling got annoyed by the little yellow dog's whining and said to Heiwa.

Heiwa is quite reliable when it comes to serious matters, especially when it smells prey; it won't bark randomly.

At this moment, their obedience to Chen Ling's orders was at its highest. They quickly left with the little yellow dog and stood with Liu Nier and the other children, watching from a distance.

"Blackie can't get into this hole, Little Gold can't get in, but Little Yellow Dog can squeeze in. It's just that this guy has never been on a hunt before, so he's unreliable. If there are a lot of badgers living inside, he probably won't last long."

Chen Ling clicked his tongue. Badgers are fierce. Their claws are like excavators in the biological world when they dig holes. They are hard and sharp. Unless you are a dog that has been hunting, it is hard to say whether you can beat them if you encounter them outside the hole.

"But looking at the soil here, and these two big holes, I guess they weren't recently dug. I wonder what the badgers have done to them. If the holes below are deep and numerous, it will be a lot of work to smoke them out. Who knows how long it will take."

In the past, the village elders would go up the mountain to catch badgers. In those days, oil and food were scarce, and the badgers were plump and meaty, which looked very tempting.

But catching badgers is not easy. If you encounter a badger's burrow, a new burrow is fine, as badgers are afraid of smoke and smoke can force them out. But if it's an old burrow, the badgers have occupied it for a long time and have dug out countless burrows inside. Sometimes you can smoke for an hour or two and there will be no movement.

This has been actually tested by someone; it's not a lie. After working hard for most of the day, they gained nothing.

"Yeah, that's true."

Wang Lixian nodded and looked at him, "Then what do you suggest? If you don't have any good ideas, let's have lunch first, and then dig this place up in the afternoon. We'll take out this whole nest of badgers then."

"Brother Xian, don't worry, I've come up with a plan. Let's try it and see if it works."

Chen Ling waved to stop Wang Lixian from speaking, then turned and instructed Heiwa, "You two go and catch a few rats, live ones."

After saying that, he turned to Liu Nier and the other children and said, "Liu Nier, go back and get the kerosene."

"As for the rest, Heiwa and the other two caught the mouse, you guys help carry it away."

"Understood, Uncle Fugui."

As soon as the children heard that they needed help, they perked up immediately and scattered in all directions.

Wang Lixian was a seasoned hunter, and after listening to Chen Ling's arrangement, he thought about it carefully and realized what was going on. "Fugui, you're trying to let the rats into the hole."

"Hehe, Brother Xian, you're right. Badgers dig deep burrows with many interconnected holes. If we try to smoke them out or flood them with water, it's too much trouble and we might not even be able to force them out. It's better to just dig this place up."

Chen Ling clapped his hands and chuckled, "Fire rats are easy to deal with. We don't have to exert any effort or let the dogs into the hole. I don't believe the badgers inside won't come out."

Badgers build nests underground, and to make them comfortable, they like to carry things like hay, cotton, and feathers.

Letting fire rats go in—just thinking about it is exciting enough.

Wang Lixian gave a thumbs up: "Great, that's a brilliant move."

There's a rule in the mountains: no hunting in summer and early autumn, because that's when wild animals reproduce.

But if wild animals injure people or damage their property in the village, there's nothing that can be done. At best, they'll be driven away; at worst, they'll end up in a boiling pot and lose their lives.

Since the earthen shed was destroyed and nearly collapsed and injured someone, Wang Lixian couldn't worry about anything else.

The only thing they could do was try to drive them away and teach them a lesson, otherwise they wouldn't give up such a good hole so easily. So when Liu Nier and the others came back with kerosene bottles, catching rats one by one and leading the dog, Chen Ling told Wang Lixian to go to the earthen shed and fill the vertical hole with soil. He himself stayed in the cornfield and led a group of children to pour some kerosene on each of the squeaking rats.

He struck another match and threw it at the rat. The moment the flame appeared, Chen Ling shouted, "Let go!"

The children quickly put the mouse into the hole.

In an instant, rats, their bodies ablaze with fire, squeaked and scurried into the hole.

The group of mischievous children burst into excited laughter upon seeing this.

"No wonder my grandpa said that you used to be the most mischievous Uncle Fugui, and we've never played with this fire rat before."

"Ahem, I had no other choice but to come up with this terrible idea. Don't do this again. Getting beaten up for starting a fire is a minor issue. But if the rats run wild and start a wildfire that burns down the mountain, the crops, and people, that would be a much bigger problem."

"We know, we know. Besides water, we mountain people are most afraid of fire. If a big fire starts, we can't even run away in time."

As Chen Ling talked with the children, Wang Lixian simply filled and blocked the vertical entrance to the front hole with soil and stones, then walked over, stuck a shovel in the ground, and waited quietly.

At the same time, he repeated Chen Ling's words to Liu Nier and the others, repeatedly warning them not to think that the fire rats were fun and to go and mess around, because if something went wrong, there would be no place to regret it.

He also recounted the incident last year when Er Maolu's youngest son went into the mountains to smoke out a beehive. Er Maolu's youngest son was in his early twenties and had just started a family. That's how he was. Er Maolu even gave him a good beating with a belt.

Not to mention those ignorant brats.

While Wang Lixian gave instructions and tried to scare Chen Ling, his mind was already wandering to the mountains. He wondered if he should go down into the mountains to raid some beehives and collect some honey.
If all else fails and you find it too troublesome, you can also take out some honey produced by the native bees in the cave.

That honey is a really good thing, let's try it first and see if it has any special effects.

As Chen Ling was lost in thought, a few moments later, a series of anxious and panicked howls came from the cave, like the squeals of a pig being slaughtered. Chen Ling's keen sense of smell also detected a faint wisp of smoke from the cave. This was not the smell of kerosene burning on rats, but the smell of something like dry grass being burned.

"Something's wrong."

Chen Ling suddenly heard a noisy sound from inside the cave.

Wang Lixian also sensed something was amiss. Heiwa suddenly stood up straight, fully alert, his fur bristling and emitting a low growl, like a black lion.

It immediately gave him a chill, and he quickly grabbed Chen Ling's wrist: "Fugui, let's stay away."

"Six girls, you all need to run away quickly, don't stand around here."

Wang Lixian remembered seeing Heiwa looking this serious last year when they encountered wild beasts like jackals and wolves; both Heiwa and Xiaojin had shown this frightening expression.

At this moment, they didn't look like two dogs, but rather like ferocious wild beasts baring their fangs.

Chen Ling first sensed something was wrong based on his instincts and intuition. Now, seeing Heiwa's appearance, he was also a little flustered and quickly followed Wang Lixian to retreat.

They retreated more than ten meters, then led the children up the newly built earthen shed along the earthen wall. The shed was intact and very sturdy.

Just as they had steadied themselves and before they could say a word, twenty or thirty badgers burst out of the badger burrow in the cornfield, like ants on a hot pan, howling like pigs being slaughtered, and scattering in all directions.

As soon as it ran out of the cave, it bit the shovel that Wang Lixian hadn't had time to take into five, six, seven, or eight pieces, which were scattered all over the ground.

These badgers were like madmen, biting anything and anyone they saw.

At this moment, it rushed towards Heiwa and the little yellow dog, ready to fight them to the death. Heiwa, who was guarding outside the cave, remained calm despite the sudden turn of events.

It even seized an opportunity, suddenly pinning down a raging badger and preparing to bite it, but unfortunately, the pack of badgers, in their frenzy, surrounded and attacked it.

Blackie had no choice but to bark loudly and retreat with the little yellow dog, while the frenzied badger pack was still chasing after them.

Fortunately, they were not as fast as the two dogs. After a frantic chase, they disappeared into the depths of the cornfield.

Only the children and Chen Ling, the two adults, were left dumbfounded, unable to recover for a long time.

Good heavens, this is truly a scene that will be unforgettable for a lifetime.

Wang Lixian murmured, "The badgers must have been startled and caused the herd to break apart."

Chen Ling was also stunned and said, "What a terrible thing! I will never do such a thing again, even if it takes a little effort to dig the hole for them."

He only knew that rats would cause a disturbance, but he never imagined that badgers would do the same. They were so frenzied that they chewed shovels into pieces. He couldn't even imagine what it would be like for a person to stand in front of them.

Wang Lixian shook his head: "It's not your fault. Nobody expected there to be so many badgers down there. The hole is so big that smoke can't reach them and water can't flood them. Given their temperamental nature, even if we dig the hole open, they'll still swarm together without using fire rats."

"Sigh, there's nothing we can do about it. Less is fine, but more easily leads to this."

As they talked, they approached the badger's den. The shovel was completely broken, and wisps of smoke were slowly rising from the den. Sure enough, the large amount of dry grass and cotton piled up in the badger's den had been ignited.

"Let's go. After this, those badgers definitely won't dare to come back."

Wang Lixian peered deeper into the cornfield and picked up a broken shovel: "It's better to drive these things into the mountains. If they keep running into the village, they'll cause a lot of trouble."

He sighed, and the little children, having recovered from their daze, began whispering amongst themselves.

But after this incident, they probably won't dare to mess around in the wild anymore; it's really too scary for wild animals to be startled and cause a stampede.

At this moment, because of the commotion, the badgers, who had been screaming like pigs being slaughtered, were barking loudly as Heiwa and the little yellow dog dodged the charge of the badger pack.

Many villagers were attracted to come.

Upon asking, they were all quite surprised, as none of them had ever heard of badgers causing a disturbance in their nests.

Upon hearing that it was a large burrow inhabited by twenty or thirty badgers, they all rushed over to look, and soon a lively discussion ensued.

It was past noon by then. Seeing that more and more people were gathering, Wang Lixian said a few words and invited Chen Ling to his home for lunch. However, Chen Ling did not go. Now that he had a child at home, Wang Lixian did not insist that he stay.

On the way back, while I was urinating in a cornfield, I suddenly encountered a badger sneakily stealing corn.

This greatly surprised Chen Ling.

"Good heavens, what's going on today? Are the badgers celebrating a holiday? Why are badgers popping up everywhere?"

(End of this chapter)