Wild 1979: From Fishing and Hunting to Becoming a Literary Master

Chapter 82 Last-minute preparation

Wu Laowai shouted for a fight, and Chen Tuo didn't hesitate. He shouldered his gun and fired directly at the spot where he felt the smell of dog was strongest.

After the gunshot, Chen Tuo remained focused.

Break the gun, reload, and then shoot at the spot where the wolf king might be crouching.

But Wu Laowai, standing to the side, fired three shots at the wolf king's position before he could stop the wolf pack from escaping to the other side of the ditch.

Wu Laowai only fired three shots because Chen Tuo finished him off in time.

Chen Tuo glanced at Wu Laowai with surprise, but his hands didn't stop. He chased after the wolf pack that was fleeing amidst the howling and fired more than a dozen buckshot.

"Kid, switch to the lone wolf. Don't stop shooting, and don't stop shooting either. Go up the promontory and push the wolf pack up the snowy slope..."

After saying that, Wu Laowai turned around, picked up the gas lamp behind him, lit it, and followed Chen Tuo up the promontory.

"Hey you over there, make way for the wolves to cover the snowdrift..."

Amidst the deafening gunfire, Wu Laowai shouted three perfunctorily, which he considered his warning to the hunters.

Hanging the gas lamp behind Chen Tuo, Wu Laowai pointed to the gap where the wolves might escape and roared:

"Don't rush to press it down. First, pull it inwards, and once it's enclosed, then press it onto the snow slope..."

The two men, each armed with a gun, stood on the promontory, pushing the wolves as they climbed up the snow slope.

The white dragon in the ditch also began to lead its people to disperse the reindeer herd, making way for the wolf pack to go up the mountain.

Chen Tuo and Wu Laowai closed the gate, and Bai Long led the hunters from the Dobukuer settlement to flank them from both sides.

The only path left for the wolves was to climb the mountain.

"Kid, we'll have to hold out for a while. The wolf king knows the dangers of the snow slope better than we do. You keep fighting, I'll go and start a fire..."

Although the wolf pack had been pushed towards the snow-covered slope, the white wind in the ditch and pond was still blowing fiercely.

Aside from the sounds of gunfire, shouts, and wolf howls, there was noise from Chen Tuo and Wu Laowai on the promontory, as well as from Bailong and her people in the ditch.

Neither reinforcements nor wolves could be seen roaming freely in the ditches and meadows.

The gas lamp that Wu Laowai hung behind Chen Tuo could only illuminate less than ten meters before being swallowed up by the wind and snow.

Wu Laowai, who was lighting a campfire, raised an eyebrow when he saw the coal on the sled, thinking to himself that Chen Tuo was sharper than a pack of wolves.

A campfire on a snowy night will be extinguished by the snow, but a campfire with large chunks of coal added will not be extinguished unless it rains heavily.

Don't underestimate the dozens of kilograms of coal on the sled. As long as it can be lit, even if the two of them are trapped in the thick smoke, they certainly won't freeze to death.

After lighting the campfire, Wu Laowai didn't sit idle either. He picked up an axe and started chopping down the small trees around him.

They felled more than a dozen saplings, dragged them one by one into the ditch, and used the waste diesel fuel that Chen Tuo had brought to start a larger bonfire, blocking the wolf pack's retreat.

Wu Laowai, breathless, came to Chen Tuo's side.

"Kid, you keep chopping down trees, I'll hold off the wolves. Slowly move the campfire towards the center of the ravine, watch out for stray bullets from the other side..."

When he heard the hunters' gunfire shifting to both sides while the trees were being felled, Wu Laowai knew that he wouldn't be accidentally injured if he went down into the ditch.

The reason for reminding Chen Tuo was to test his courage.

If he backs down now, he won't be much better than that blind little Chu Maolin.

If Chen Tuo can follow his instructions and lead the campfire step by step toward the center of the ravine, completely blocking the wolf pack's retreat, then he will be qualified to run the mountain.

Thinking you can survive in the mountains just because you're bold is wishful thinking.

To successfully place an object, one must be both bold and meticulous.

When it's time to be bold, you must never back down; when it's time to be careful, you can't afford to be negligent.

Just like the Evenki hunters in the ditches and ponds.

In Wu Laowai's view, if they don't know how to cooperate, they deserve to die.

He and Chen Tuo went into the mountains not for rescue, but to extinguish the feud with the wolf pack.

Saving the herd of reindeer belonging to the hunters was just a side effect.

The same principle applies to hunters: if they don't eliminate the wolves in the ditches and ponds, their reindeer herds will only become food for the wolves.

Once the wolves escape.

Whether it's hunters, militia, or guards from the foot of the mountain, the chances of surrounding the wolf pack are slim.

Moreover, the manpower and resources invested will definitely exceed the value of several reindeer herds.

Seeing Chen Tuo's fierce and clumsy felling of the saplings, and then carefully dragging them into the ditch, I watched as he felled them one by one.

Chen Tuo in the ditch is different from Wu Laowai from before.

They gathered enough saplings before lighting a large bonfire.

Then, they felled other trees to fill the gaps between the campfires.

There are promontoryes extending outwards, and the bottom of the ditch is only a couple hundred meters wide, enough for five or six bonfires.

After Chen Tuo lit the campfire and went up the mountain cape, the white, smoke-like wind turned into even smaller, snow-like shapes.

"Uncle Wu, I can roughly see the dark shadows in the ditch. Can you teach me how to shoot?"

Standing on the promontory, Chen Tuo saw the shadowy traces of wolves in the ditch and picked up the water bead he didn't know how to use.

The promontory is about 200 meters away from the bottom of the ravine.

The Tula's single-barreled missile, with a range of forty to fifty meters, can only serve as a deterrent and cannot actually kill wolf packs.

Chen Tuo wanted to learn his unorthodox marksmanship, and Wu Laowai didn't hold back, directly sharing his marksmanship secrets.

"That's simple, just put the gun to his face and shoot with your eyes open! You can try shooting with one eye closed, but it's easy to miss at close range..."

After saying that, Wu Laowai also picked up a string of beads and demonstrated it to Chen Tuo, just like Sun Changkui at the shooting range.

Wu Laowai's marksmanship was different from both the infantry drill manual and the techniques of the hunters on the other side.

Instead, it evolved from the beard style of that time, taking a pure gun-like approach.

"Once you've practiced enough! Just raise your gun and fire, whether it's a couple hundred meters or three or four hundred meters, you can do whatever you want..."

When Wu Laowai said this, there was a lot of boasting involved.

When hunting in dense forests and mountains, let alone a hundred or two hundred meters, the distance at which a gun is fired is often less than fifty meters.

The gun he used for running through the mountains was also a double-barreled, open-fire gun from the Russians, with an effective range of only within 100 meters.

"Is it that amazing? I'll give it a try..."

Although he praised Wu Laowai's marksmanship, Chen Tuo was still using the four-in-one rapid-fire technique that Sun Changkui had taught him at the Armed Forces Department shooting range.

The four actions of raising the gun, controlling the recoil, aiming, and firing are all done simultaneously, followed by a somewhat clumsy cocking to chamber the round and continue firing.

"Your aim is good, but you can't quite pull the bolt properly. You'll have to practice when you get back!"

Wu Laowai didn't care what moves Chen Tuo used. It was all about gun feel; he wasn't practicing marksmanship, but rather familiarity with the gun in his hand.

It's so familiar, what's there to call?

Once you've mastered one gun, learning to use other guns becomes much easier.

Pointing to the old-fashioned 1.2-1.3-meter-tall water beaded boat, how could there be so many big fish to catch?

For the employees of Songling Forestry Bureau, hunting a roe deer or a wild boar is enough to keep them happy for months.

Hunting deer isn't just a matter of luck; those people have a hard time even seeing a deer in the forest, let alone hunting one.

To hunt deer, you either need a fast gun or fast legs.

Most prey are chased to death, not shot to death.

Chen Tuo, who is practicing quick-fire shooting, has chosen the right path.

If you really try to emulate the militia by aiming at the target for ages, even if you're a great shooter, you won't get a chance to fire once you're in the mountains.

"Uncle Wu, you keep an eye on things down there while I learn how to cock the rifle."

"No need for that, the wolves' ears are all perked up now! Pulling the latch is the same as firing a gun, go practice!"

Chen Tuo wanted to cram for the battle at the last minute, and Wu Laowai didn't stop him.

Thanks to the cover provided by the white-haired wind, the two of them were able to reach the top of the wolf pack.

Now all the wolves are lurking on the mountain cape!

The metallic clang of the bolt could not be drowned out, no matter how strong the wind was.

One more thing, wiping out the wolf pack in the ditch and pond can't be done at night; the standoff between humans and wolves has only just begun...