1942, I lived on hunting

Seeing Li Hao observing them, Lao Yang took the initiative to introduce them to Li Hao. Each of them was a veteran who survived the battlefield. Although they smiled kindly at Li Hao, each of them had at least a few lives of the Japanese invaders and traitors in his hands.

The oldest one, who was older than the captain, was said to be the captain's superior. A shell exploded next to him, and he was the only one alive among a group of people. He lost half of his hand, and there were still a lot of shrapnel in his body that had not been removed. He felt excruciating pain when it rained.

His surname is Li, and he is also known as Li Lahu. He is a member of the Lahu ethnic minority. His small tribe migrated to the border of Sichuan and Xikang in the late Qing Dynasty. The Lahu people take pride in hunting tigers. Men wear swords and are good at using spears and bows and arrows to hunt. They retained the slash-and-burn farming method until before the Republic of China.

Li Lahu was good at using swords and crossbows. When he grew up, he always followed the caravans on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road to do business. Later, when he was doing business, he accepted the red ideology and joined the revolutionary team. When the Red Army climbed the snow-capped mountains, he was one of the guides.

Li Hao became interested when he heard about tiger hunting. He didn't know how many points the system would give for hunting a tiger. He had been busy with the guerrillas' affairs recently and had no time to hunt and earn points.

He immediately stopped talking about anything else and pulled the old soldier over to ask him to tell him the story of hunting a tiger.

The old soldier asked me if I was Wu Song, and I was hunting tigers. The last time our tribe hunted a tiger was in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. I was only in my teens at that time, not yet an adult. The adults didn't let me go with them. When I saw the tiger, it had already been killed and carried back from the mountains!

Li Hao: "Oh? Tell me about it. I've never seen a dead tiger before. I'm so curious!"

Veteran: "Then let me tell you about it!"

"It was the end of the Qing Dynasty. The rule of the Qing Dynasty was in jeopardy. Various warlords had begun to emerge. The Qing government was powerless to rule the lower classes, and the right to collect taxes was reluctantly handed over to local forces. In order to expand themselves, various forces adopted more severe oppression and plunder against the people. At that time, the minority ethnic groups in western Sichuan had become a dangerous area and were in chaos. An evil tiger appeared in the area at some point. At first, the livestock raised by some mountain people were always attacked and dragged away by tigers at night. The livestock of the mountain people were the lives of the mountain people! So in order to avoid being attacked by wild beasts, they lit bonfires all night long to guard them, and then it was fine for a while.

After a while, the livestock started to be attacked again, and the villagers had to light bonfires and watch over them all night. But this time it was different. Not only were the livestock attacked, but the villagers who were watching over them were also killed. Then it was endless and there was no end in sight! The villagers had no choice but to appeal to the government. The officials in the government only collected taxes and didn't care whether they lived or died. Anyway, they had to pay the taxes and not a penny less!

Later, the mountain people had no choice but to cry and beg everywhere, and they heard from somewhere that our tribe specialized in tiger hunting, so a group of people exchanged money for gifts, brought them to the village, and begged us for help.

My people usually make a living by hunting. When they heard that a tiger had injured someone, they were so excited! They prepared their weapons overnight and sent a team of people to follow the mountain people back to the mountains to hunt tigers.

When I saw the tiger for the first time, it had been killed, and three hunters from the same tribe were also carried back. In the past, when we caught prey, we would gather together to share barbecue, drink together, sing and dance around the campfire, and even invite people from nearby villages to come. But that time, our village did not celebrate. Although everyone still felt very honored, they were not happy!

So don't dream of hunting tigers without adequate preparation, especially a hungry tiger that is used to eating people. You can't just take a gun and deal with it. Their cunningness is far beyond your imagination!

They never appear during the day, but only quietly come at night. If they see anything unusual, they will immediately drop their food and flee far away, and will not appear nearby for a long time. They carefully select the old, weak, sick and disabled, and only pick those who have no ability to resist. Once they encounter a threat, they will not confront it head-on, but turn around and run away.

When I was a kid, there were many tigers in Sichuan. When I was young and doing business in the hilly areas, I often heard tiger roars in the wild at night. Do you know what kind of sound that is? "

Li Hao: "I don't know."

Veteran: "The roar of a tiger is deep and powerful. You can hear it clearly from across the hills. It scares you so much that your legs go weak and your heart beats wildly."

Li Hao: "So scary?"

Veteran: "You'll know when you hear it. It's very scary. The old hunters in our village always told us kids that there are three most terrifying types of tigers."

Li Hao: "Which three?"

Veteran: "The first type is a male tiger in estrus. It attacks people without reason, as if it is just venting its anger. The second type is a mother tiger with cubs, who will fight to the death to protect her children. The third type is the kind our tribe fights. For various reasons, they can no longer hunt in the wild, so they can only turn their targets to livestock or humans. They are either tigers with injured or broken fangs, or they are old and slow and can't catch up with their prey. Once they start eating humans, human flesh becomes salty and delicious to them, and from then on they will never eat anything else if possible. You have to kill it as soon as possible, otherwise it will never stop killing."

Li Hao: "How many people did the tiger you killed eat?"

Veteran: "Who knows? No one could count the number of victims at that time! But when my people went to that mountain, more than 30 people, including the elderly and children, were killed or injured! I don't know if there were any other places."

Li Hao: "It's really scary."

Veteran: "What's the big deal? No matter how terrible they are, they are not as terrible as corrupt officials and bullies. The people in the mountains are so miserable. The yamen officials did not reduce taxes at all, forcing so many people to sell their children. The number of deaths is many times more than what tigers eat! Didn't the instructor say that? Those are more ferocious than tigers!"

Li Hao "........."

"Isn't it that a harsh government is more ferocious than a tiger?

"Yes, yes, yes! That's the sentence. I can't believe you've been to school."

Li Hao: "........."

How come they can't see it? I'm a fair-skinned and good-looking boy. Although I didn't study much and my grades weren't good, why do people always say that I have never been to school?

Li Lahu: "Shall I tell you the story of our hunting of spotted bears?"

Li Hao: "Stop! Stop! You can't tell me that! You can't tell me that! If you continue to tell our story, it will end!"

Sichuan? Flower bear? It's not what I thought, is it? You ignorant and fearless human beings!

Li Lahu: "Forget it. You kids are all using guns now. We didn't have many guns back then, so we all used bows and crossbows. I was very good at using bows and crossbows before I was injured. I was able to join the caravan because the leader of the caravan thought I was good at using bows and arrows and was a good protector of merchants, so I joined the caravan!"