Reborn in 80: Starting with hunting in the mountains to get rich

Li Ju'an quickly followed Iron Hammer's footprints with his gun, and Li Guaizi, not even bothering to stuff the gun with snow, also quickly followed.

The two men saw a pool of blood on the snow. Scattered drops of blood trailed along the ground. The crimson blood sent a chill down their spines, and the tense atmosphere quickly put them on alert, as they peered into the nearby woods.

At the entrance of a cave, they discovered an even larger pool of blood, along with the bones of wolf cubs that had been devoured. Scattered droplets of blood and crisscrossing lynx paw prints were nearby.

There were lynx footprints in the trees, on the ground, and in the caves.

He seemed to have seen a lynx squatting on the wolf cub and eating it a few minutes earlier.

Li Guaizi shouted, "That beast just ran away! Where did Iron Hammer go?"

On the shady side of the cave, a trembling Qingchuan dog cautiously poked its head out, not daring to utter a sound. The large Iron Hammer was terrified; seeing Li Ju'an and Da Hu following, it cautiously peeked out and let out a soft whimper.

Li Ju'an shouted, "Iron Hammer, come here."

Iron Hammer, who was even bigger than a tiger, finally trudged over with its tail between its legs, whimpering, clearly terrified.

Even though wolves are roughly the same size as lynxes, wolves never attack lynxes unprovoked. This is because lynxes, as wolf predators, are typically capable of single-handedly killing a wolf. Therefore, when a wolf encounters a lynx, the standard action is to turn and run.

The lynx followed the wolf closely, keeping a steady distance and pace, ensuring the wolf could neither escape nor shake off the wolf.

The litter of wolf cubs is dead.

Moreover, judging from the frozen, stiff bone fragments and bits of flesh, the wolf cub had been dead for quite some time. The wolf cub's body had been gnawed to pieces by wild animals, with no internal organs left, and it's very likely that another wolf cub was taken away to continue eating it.

He pondered the footprints on the ground and the route the mother wolf had taken.

Li Guaizi said, "The wolf cubs died before their mother. Wolves are very protective of their cubs. They are most afraid of enemies harming their cubs. So concern can cloud judgment. When this mother wolf was being followed by the lynx, she should have run somewhere else. Running around like this won't do."

The more anxious and concerned the mother wolf became about her cubs, the faster she ran back to the den. The closer the lynx got, the more desperately the mother wolf ran towards the den. She wished she could fly back to the den immediately. This played right into the lynx's trap.

The lynx chased at a leisurely pace, watching the long-haired, short-sighted mother wolf, happily sniffing the scent of her cubs in the air. Once they reached the wolf's den, the lynx stopped and lay down for a nap a short distance away.

The mother wolf waited for a while, and when she thought the lynx had left and it was safe, she went out to hunt for food.

In doing so, the mother wolf left an opening for the lynx to enter. The lynx slowly strolled into the den, stretched, and devoured the litter of defenseless wolf cubs.

The mangled corpses of the wolf cubs were a testament to the bloody scene that had just unfolded.

Li Guaizi joked, "You must be relieved now. Without your shot just now, these wolf cubs wouldn't have survived."

Li Ju'an's annoyance did lessen somewhat; it was a sudden relief from his guilt, but it didn't make him feel any better. He whistled irritably, urging Da Hu to continue tracking.

"The mountain fox is nearby, very close."

"Perhaps the mountain lynx will return to its den later and then feed the wolf cubs its meat to the lynx cubs."

Li Guaizi teased him, "Even a mountain lynx has lynx cubs. Are you going to shoot or not?"

"Hit it! That mountain weasel that bites people and cows to death, it'll bite people again next time."

Wild animals that eat human flesh will be shot. The aroma of human flesh is unmatched by other wild game; it's incredibly fragrant. Generally, wild animals that have tasted human flesh will always crave it. Therefore, wild animals that have eaten human flesh must not be allowed to live.

"Alright, let's start! Set the traps, take the fur, and divide it up!"

The air was thick with the scent of wildcats. Li Ju'an guessed that the wildcat's den wasn't far away, but this creature was incredibly clever, agile, and even cunning.

If you use the usual method, you'll damage the fur and can't shoot; you can only use snares and traps.

To get the whole mountain fox pelt, you can't damage it. The way he did when he was hunting black bears last time won't work. If you damage the black bear pelt, you can't sell it for a good price and you can only make the pelts for yourself.

Li Ju'an rummaged through his cloth bag and took out six clips, a bundle of rope snares, and more than ten wire snares.

The traps were sold at the market, but the hunters in the family village usually made them themselves. He first struck a match and burned the wire loops until they changed color and turned black, then took out two thick wires.

The reason for burning the iron wire is that if the wire doesn't turn blackish-gray, it will reflect light very noticeably through the snow. Burning it also removes any odor from the wire.

He bent the wire into two semicircles, then bent it into a small loop at the junction of the semicircles, added a straight, thick wire to connect them in the middle, wrapped a spring around it two or three times, and left the ends to be tied to the middle of the thick wire in the semicircles.

Finally, use a stick to prop it up, and the small piece that holds the stick is a one-centimeter-long wooden hook. Then, tie cornmeal, grass seeds, or sorghum as bait to the hook, and you can use it to trap small prey, such as pheasants, mountain chickens, or half-pound chickens.

The sound of the gunshot must have startled the mountain fox. Now it dares not show itself easily.

Big Tiger led a pack of dogs, sniffing around the area. Nine hunting dogs with exceptional senses of smell roamed the hillside, tracking the scent. Li Guaizi, fearing some dogs might fall behind, shouted at the others to keep up with the lead dog.

"Iron Hammer! I'm talking to you! What are you dawdling about, so slippery?"

"If I don't perform well this time, I'll talk to Lao Tao about it later."

In winter, food is scarce for predators, and the mountain weasels are so hungry that they can even hunt wolves. Predators fight each other, which is extremely dangerous. He uses traps to catch pheasants to lure the mountain weasels out of their burrows.

The civet had just finished eating wolf cubs and could hold out for a while. Old Qin, the local guerrilla leader, hadn't caught up yet; they should be the first to arrive. If the civet could be attracted by the smell of the pheasant, they had a chance.

Li Ju'an began to set the trap.

After breaking off the traps used to snare the pheasants, he started looking for a place to set them. He found large bushes, the bigger the better, especially those with grass seeds at their base, so he could place the traps there without any need for concealment.

After setting up four or five pheasant traps, Li Guaizi laughed and said, "The traps are really well made. We still need to find a thin hemp rope to tie the traps to the bushes to prevent them from being dragged away."

His plan was for the civet cat to come over, catch the pheasant, bite it, and then run away.

"They even brought a guillotine, huh?"

Besides the guillotine, Li Ju'an also pulled a large guillotine from his cloth pocket. The guillotine served the same purpose as a mousetrap, but was slightly larger, a medium size, and was maliciously used to trap weasels, sables, and foxes. The guillotine wouldn't damage the fur, making it very effective for trapping wild animals whose fur could be sold.

The "big guillotine" is a wolf trap, weighing up to 20 kilograms, and it's very expensive.

Li Guaizi stared in surprise, then whispered, "You stole it from that hillside just now? If Old Qin finds out, he'll beat you up."

Li Ju'an laughed and scolded, "I can't steal from him, no matter who I steal from. He's so stingy, he even made his own guillotine from Changbai Mountain."

The two looked at each other and laughed.

Old Qin, the formidable hunter, disdained buying snares and traps, so he made them all himself. As for wooden traps, the success rate of those made by other hunters was extremely low. If you could manage to catch a large hide with a wooden trap, even just one a year, it was considered incredibly lucky.

The snares and clamps that Lao Qin made were indeed good, but the guillotine, in terms of both weight and material, was still best bought from the market.

He searched for footprints nearby and used a large chopper to cut down the footprints left by the mountain fox.

Suddenly, a very fresh cat footprint appeared right next to his left foot.

Isn't this bait delivered to our door for free?