The whole mountain is my hunting ground.

Chapter 1917 The Seventh-Grade Ginseng King Who Brings Constant Surprises
After eating and drinking his fill, Zhao Jun tidied himself up and lay down on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Xing San, Wang Qiang, and a few others took turns drinking from two wine jugs. It was almost seven o'clock when Ma Yang started blowing his horn and making a ruckus, and the drinking party finally ended.

Xing San was responsible for cooking every day, and when the Zhao family helped carry the ginseng, the old man would wash the dishes and chopsticks.

It's evening now, so Xing San can't do any more work. Usually, Zhao Jun and the others take turns, but today it's Li Baoyu and Xie Chen's turn to wash the dishes.

But no one knows what conditions Li Baoyu promised, yet Zhao Jinhui and Li Ruhai willingly took over the dishwashing duties for him and Xie Chen.

Li Baoyu, along with Zhang Yuanmin and Xie Chen, carried their bedding, cotton-padded clothes, and guns to the watchtower.

The three of them left the hut and went uphill. After walking about 180 meters, they reached the sled track.

This sled track leads south to the old site of their shack. And to the north are the watchtower, the stone embankment, and the riverbank.

But as soon as they got onto the sled track, the three of them started arguing.

What they were arguing about wasn't anything else, but who would hold the flashlight and who would fire the gun tonight.

Three people can crouch together, with two carrying guns and the remaining person using a flashlight to illuminate the way for the others.

Everyone wants to shoot, but nobody wants to use a flashlight.

Arguing wouldn't get to any conclusion, and the three of them couldn't resort to violence, so they had to use the oldest method—rock-paper-scissors—to decide who would carry the gun and who would carry the flashlight.

It's said that men are boys until they die; these three were guessing at a rock with their feet on the mountain path.

After a minute and a half of competition, the three were decided. In the end, Zhang Yuanmin and Li Baoyu took the guns, while Xie Chen took the flashlight.

This result greatly displeased Xie Chen, but the outcome was already decided, and he had to accept his defeat. Xie Chen took a flashlight and followed Zhang Yuanmin and Li Baoyu toward the watchtower.

However, because he was not happy, Xie Chen argued with Zhang Yuanmin and Li Baoyu as he walked.

When you're with your buddies, you just laugh and joke around.

But just as Li Baoyu and Xie Chen were bickering, the smile on Zhang Yuanmin's face suddenly disappeared.

"Hey?" Zhang Yuanmin waved his hand at Li Baoyu and Xie Chen and shouted, "Stop arguing!"

Li Baoyu and Xie Chen were both taken aback, and then they saw Zhang Yuanmin take a semi-automatic rifle off his shoulder and say, "Let's go!"

After saying that, Zhang Yuanmin ran towards the watchtower, and Li Baoyu and Xie Chen quickly followed.

The three men rushed into the stone pond area after passing the watchtower. At this moment, a stench hit them. They squeezed their noses and came to the carcass of the red deer. They saw that the deer's chest had been torn open and the meat on both sides of the ribs had deteriorated due to being exposed to the sun.

Looking into the distance, Zhang Yuanmin saw that the pinkish, doughy meat had been pulled onto a nearby rock.

"What's wrong, Brother Zhang?" Jie Chen asked. Zhang Yuanmin replied, "When you two were arguing earlier, I heard a 'roaring' sound. It was probably a wild boar."

"Ah..." Hearing Zhang Yuanmin's words, Li Baoyu frowned and said, "They ran away after hearing the noise."

"Hmm." Zhang Yuanmin nodded upon hearing this, turned around, pointed towards the watchtower, and said to the two of them, "Let's go, the three of us hurry up, that pig might come back."

Normally, wild boars that are startled away won't come back, but there's plenty of food here.

The three arrived at the watchtower, and Zhang Yuanmin and Xie Chen went up first to lay out their mattresses.

Unfortunately, the space up there isn't very big. Three people can lie down, but there's not enough room for them to move around freely.

After Zhang Yuanmin and Xie Chen laid out the mattresses and lay down in their cotton-padded jackets and trousers, Li Baoyu then went upstairs wearing his own cotton-padded jacket and trousers.

Once on the lookout tower, Li Baoyu lay prone on the far right, Zhang Yuanmin on the far left, and Xie Chen in the middle.

Then, the three men, one holding a gun and the other a flashlight, remained silent and waited quietly for their prey to arrive.

Around 9:20 p.m., the three of them had been lying on the lookout tower for two hours.

You don't know how bad it is until you lie down here.

When a person lies down here, they can move slightly, but the range of motion cannot be too large, and they absolutely cannot make a sound.

Sitting up or standing up is impossible.

As for speaking, that's even more impossible. Besides, smoking is also prohibited.

Lying down like that, how could I not be sleepy? But the problem is I can't sleep yet, I can only tough it out.

And at night there are mosquitoes in the mountains and forests, one mosquito buzzing back and forth between three heads.

Zhang Yuanmin and his two companions dared not make any big movements when they wanted to swat mosquitoes; they could only fan their faces with their hands.

The mosquitoes were quite persistent, circling around the three of them, which annoyed them quite a bit.

Just then, a "tap-tap" sound came with the wind.

Hearing the commotion, Zhang Yuanmin, Li Baoyu, and Xie Chen immediately perked up. Ignoring the mosquito bites, the three of them focused their attention and waited for the right moment.

The sound of hooves clattering on the stone path continued, accompanied by the roaring and whooshing sounds of wild boars.

Whether listening to the sound of hooves or the noises coming from the mouth, Zhang Yuanmin and his two companions could tell that there was more than one wild boar.

Under the cover of night, two sows, along with two young calves and three small calves, headed straight for the dead deer.

Wild boars are omnivorous, eating both meat and vegetables.

Every year during the rainy season, the ditches and ponds are filled with water. When the water recedes in late autumn, revealing fish, shrimp, and toads, you can see groups of wild boars rooting in the mud to eat the fish, shrimp, and toads.

Wild boars especially love to eat frogs. In the mountains of Northeast China, many frog farms that raise forest frogs often encounter wild boars jumping into ponds to eat frogs.

Right now, the fresh and dried fruits in the mountains haven't ripened yet, and there's no fish or shrimp to catch. Wild boars are rooting up grass and eating grass roots every day, so they're definitely not getting enough to eat.

The wild boars that came to drink water by the river today were drawn by the stench and found so much food in the stone pond area. These wild boars were having a real treat.

The little bastard, who was only two months old and weighed just over ten pounds, was already eating large mouthfuls of rotten venison.

The old sow ran away with her piglets after hearing Li Baoyu and Xie Chen's laughter. But after running about two miles, they wandered back.

As the saying goes, "Man dies for wealth, birds die for food," and wild boars are no exception; they live for a meal.

"Finger, fener." The two-hundred-pound sow lowered its head, sniffed, and approached the dead deer. It was quite pleased with the stench emanating from the dead deer.

Upon reaching the dead deer, the family began to feast.

The three little flower sticks were willing to come closer to the big pig, but the big pig, who was eating, would sometimes be possessive of its food and would nudge the little flower sticks with its snout from time to time.

Just as the family of seven was eating meat with their mouths full of rotten meat, a beam of light swept across from not far away.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" With the beam of light, four gunshots rang out, and four bullets were fired.

"Aww... Aww..." Sharp howls rang out on the stone pond. A sow and a year-old swan immediately died. Another year-old swan had its spine broken by a bullet, and it was unable to function from the waist down.

Driven by a powerful will to survive, this man dragged his crippled body and desperately tried to escape by kicking his two front legs.

"Bang!" As the flashlight beam shone on it, a bullet delivered a swift and deadly blow to the old man.

Zhang Yuanmin, Li Baoyu, and Xie Chen came down from the watchtower and went to Shitan to check the results of the battle.

"Brother Zhang, Baoyu." Jie Chen looked at the sow and then at the two old, chubby boars, and said, "It seems like the biggest one ran away."

"Let them run!" Zhang Yuanmin laughed and waved his hand, then kicked the heavy object in front of him and said, "Isn't this better than that big pig? If we take these two little ones back, Auntie will be overjoyed."

The three men hunted three wild boars. The sow weighed a little over 200 jin (approximately 100 kg), while the two older boars weighed around 100 jin (approximately 50 kg) each.

The reason they are so light is because they were called "Yellow Hairy" two months ago, and they were only one year and one month old, so they are not very big.

But it is precisely this kind of wild boar that is Wang Meilan, the person in charge of several families, likes the most.

"Oink... oink..." Suddenly, a sharp, panicked squeal came from not far away. Without saying a word, the three of them grabbed flashlights and guns and rushed over.

Not far along, a small creature was seen struggling in the rocky embankment. It turned out that a little pheasant had gotten its leg stuck in a crevice in the rocks while fleeing in panic. It lunged forward, but its hoofprint got stuck, and it couldn't get out at all.

Li Baoyu stepped forward, grabbed Xiaohuabangzi by the scruff of its neck, and Jiechen squatted down to help it remove its hooves.

Then, Li Baoyu lifted and tossed it, saying, "Run for your life!" and the little flower stick landed on the ground and darted away.

As the three walked back, they discussed how to deal with the three pigs.

Things are different now; we can't just take the thighs from the three pigs anymore. Besides, the two little ones have plenty of good meat; throwing them away would be a real waste.

Zhang Yuanmin was the most qualified to speak on this matter. After thinking for a moment, he said to Li Baoyu, "Baoyu, you're fast. Hurry back to the shack to get the lantern and the burlap sack."

Xiao Chen and I just used our bare hands to pull out the flesh from these two little ones. We took all the meat out, put it in sacks, and then put them in the river to pull more.

"Yes!" Li Baoyu replied, then nudged Xie Chen's arm with the back of his hand and asked, "Don't you still have a flashlight in your pocket? Give it to me!"

“I’ll go get that watchtower with you,” Xie Chen said, and then went to the watchtower with Li Baoyu, leaving Zhang Yuanmin to wait in the dark by the river.

Half an hour later, Li Baoyu hurriedly returned. By then, Zhang Yuanmin had almost finished digging up a piece of land that had been buried for the previous year.

Li Baoyu went closer and began stuffing pieces of meat from the stone into a sack.

“Baoyu,” Zhang Yuanmin said to Li Baoyu, “put your heart, liver, stomach, kidneys and all that in a separate sack.”

"You still want it?" Li Baoyu blurted out, "To take it back and feed it to the dogs?"

Ever since he followed Zhao Jun up the mountain, Li Baoyu had never considered the meat of the mountain animals as a good thing.

Hearing Li Baoyu's words, Zhang Yuanmin laughed and said, "Why feed it to the dog? Let's take it back and stir-fry it and eat it."

"Ah..." Li Baoyu didn't say anything upon hearing this, but then immediately asked, "What about the intestines? Are we still going to remove them?"

"Don't pick them yet," Zhang Yuanmin said. "Put them in the water first, and put them on a stone to weigh them down and let them soak."

"And then what?" Li Baoyu asked. Zhang Yuanmin replied, "After that, take it back, clean it, and let the old ladies make sausages."

After saying that, Zhang Yuanmin added with a smile, "These past few days have been filled with deer and black bears, so our three refrigerators are probably almost full. We can't eat all the meat from these two piglets in a short time, but we can make some sausages to keep it for a while longer."

“That works, Brother Zhang,” Jie Chen interjected. “A good quality dried sausage can last quite a while.”

“Yeah, right.” Zhang Yuanmin had just replied when Li Baoyu said, “You two are kidding me. These two pigs can only yield eighty catties of meat? Let’s keep seven or eight catties in our shack, and take the rest back. With my aunt’s personality, she’ll be furious and have a feast that very day.”

After that, you still need to prepare the filling in a big basin, and every family makes dumplings. With all that, how much is left over?

"And what about the other one?" Zhang Yuanmin turned around and pointed to the sow, saying, "Take off all four legs, remove the tenderloin, and discard the ribs. We can take the rib meat back, chop it up, and make sausages or dried sausages, right?"

After saying this, seeing that Li Baoyu remained silent, Zhang Yuanmin added, "When there's meat, you don't feel anything. But when there isn't, you can't even buy it at the market."

“That’s right.” As soon as Zhang Yuanmin finished speaking, Xie Chen chimed in, “Alright, Baoyu, let’s get to work quickly, and then go back to sleep.”

……

By the time the three of them finished processing the three pigs, it was already past one o'clock. The meat that the two younger ones had dug out was put into sacks and soaked in the river water to be pulled out.

The sow's tenderloin and ribs were removed, her four thighs were chopped off, and the remaining parts were dragged by the three men to the black bear's carcass to continue feeding the kennel.

Finally, the three men, carrying guns, lanterns, and wild boar meat for Erhei and Bailong, returned to their hut to rest.

The next morning, Zhao Jiabang still got up at 4:30. After washing up by the river, he pulled out the meat and wild boar intestines that were soaking in the river and carried them to the jeep.

Then, Li Baoyu pulled Zhang Yuanmin down the mountain, while the others went back to their hut for a meal.

After resting for a while after the meal, Zhao Jun continued carrying ginseng.

Two hours later, the first ginseng root of this seventh-grade ginseng king appeared completely before everyone.

Wang Qiang used an elm wood level to measure it, and the fibrous root was found to be 2.8 meters long.

After resting for a while, Zhao Jun used a deer antler spoon to remove the soil, and then the ginseng king's other leg appeared.

Zhao Jun had previously determined that this ginseng king was an extremely rare transoceanic specimen among high-aged wild ginseng.

The two legs of the cross-sea body are of different lengths, just like the three-leaf seedling from before.

The day before yesterday, the first leg of this ginseng king with seven leaves was unearthed. Zhao Jun personally measured it, and the leg was seventeen centimeters long.

Because of its length, Zhao Jun concluded that the other leg of this ginseng king was short.

But as Zhao Jun used the antler-shaped spade to dig into the soil, he discovered that the 17-centimeter-long leg was actually the short one. The leg he had lifted today was a full 20 centimeters long.

The body spans the sea, with the length of its two legs in a nearly 1:1 ratio, something Zhao Jun had never heard of before.

These two legs, paired with the ginseng king's 30-centimeter-long rhizome, are not only so harmonious, but also exude an extraordinary domineering and wild aura!
The wild ginseng straddles the sea, its legs spanning across with an imposing presence. This ginseng king's legs are nearly equal, making it even more majestic and aesthetically pleasing than those with one long and one short straddling the sea.

Zhao Jun stopped what he was doing and examined the ginseng seedling of the seventh grade. The ginseng seedling brought Zhao Jun one surprise after another.

Zhao Jun had seen a lot about wild ginseng, but the quality of this seventh-grade ginseng king was better than any ginseng king he had ever seen in his previous life.

"We've got it! We've got it this time!" Zhao Jun picked up the deer antler spoon and continued lifting the ginseng, becoming increasingly cautious. Such a treasure must be kept intact.

This isn't just about money; if this treasure were to break its whiskers, Zhao Jun himself wouldn't be able to forgive himself.

Wang Qiang, Xie Chen, and the others stood by, watching Zhao Jun carry the ginseng, not daring to utter a sound.

Suddenly, Zhao Jun stopped what he was doing and turned to look behind him.

Seeing this, Li Ruhai quickly stepped forward and supported Zhao Jun's right arm.

Ma Yang was still not very skilled and fell behind Li Ruhai by a step, then he supported Zhao Jun's left arm.

At the same time, Wang Qiang held a fan made of pheasant wing leaves, while Jie Chen unscrewed the military water bottle.

"I'm not getting up." Zhao Jun pushed away Li Ruhai and Ma Yang's hands, then pointed in a direction and said to Ma Yang, "Xiao Yang, hurry up and look in this direction."

At this moment, Zhao Jun pointed to the direction that the 17-centimeter-long leg of the seventh-rank ginseng king was pointing to.

"What's wrong, brother-in-law?" Ma Yang asked. Zhao Jun replied, "There must be some sixth-grade leaves in this grove that we just haven't found!"

"There are also sixth-grade ginseng leaves?" Hearing Zhao Jun's words, Ma Yang immediately perked up. He might not be good at carrying ginseng, but he was the boss when it came to finding ginseng.

“It definitely has six leaves!” Zhao Jun said confidently, “and there’s more than one seedling!”