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

Chapter 49 Braised meat

"Who can argue with that? Brother-in-law Sun, if there were even the slightest chance of survival, who would crawl through a thick snowdrift, and who would go hunting with a gun?"

After briefly explaining his predicament in life, Chen Tuo did not delve into the details with Sun Changkui.

No matter how clearly it was explained, it couldn't make Brother-in-law Sun feel more and more guilty.

The more guilty Sun Changkui felt, the greater his chances of obtaining standard firearms.

"Lingzi, take the eldest and second eldest sons and go home to get a few larger jars."

Sun Changkui doesn't have time to feel guilty now. If a family wants to overwinter in the Xing'an Mountains, they need at least two vats and more than ten jars.

A jar of sauerkraut, a jar of soybean paste, and a dozen or so jars of salted vegetables—that's where people's strength comes from when they work.

If possible, have at least three large vats, plus another large vat of pickled vegetables.

Otherwise, there would be no vegetables to eat during the seven-month-long winter...

"Brother-in-law Sun, I'll go! It's not safe at night, and I still have a gun, don't I?"

Chen Tuo spoke with every word circling back to the gun.

Under Sun Changkui's orders, Hu Yuling directly lifted her clothes, revealing the leather gun holster on her belt.

"I have a gun! The forestry bureau specially issued me a pistol because I was going to a hut in the mountains to cut logs!"

The pistol on Hu Yuling's waist was not just for show; it was a proper Type 54 pistol.

In addition to the area where the Forestry Bureau is located, Songling Town, and several settlements in the forest farms.

The entire Songling area is a vast uninhabited zone.

Although there are still Evenki, Oroqen, and Daur hunters in the mountains, their settlements do not overlap with the logging areas.

When Hu Yuling, the pretty doctor from the forest area, went out to make house calls, she not only carried a gun, but also often brought along several security guards from the security department.

This is the harsh living environment in the Xinganling forest area.

If you don't bring anything, let alone wolves, bears, or wild boars, you might not even make it back if you encounter a big wolverine.

Besides these ferocious beasts, herbivores such as minks, lynxes, and even deer in the mountains can also pose a life-threatening danger to people.

A guy like Chen Tuo, who isn't afraid of a Ussuri brown bear standing right in front of him, is really hard to find even with a lantern.

"Wow! Sis, you can carry a gun? What am I missing?"

"I'm an expert at training militiamen, aren't you?"

After restraining Wu Laowai, Hu Yuling's mood brightened, and she even started joking with Chen Tuo.

"Sister, when you go home to get the jar, please also take some salt with you. I don't have much salt left, maybe ten or so pounds..."

Chen Tuo asked for salt, and Hu Yuling didn't ask him why he wanted so much.

They took their eldest and second eldest children with them, and pulled a sled out of the educated youth settlement.

"Brother-in-law Sun, you wash the pot and heat the oil; I'll stew the bear offal and smoke the bear meat; Uncle Wu, could you also braise a pot of small mixed fish?"

Although they had only known each other for a few days, Wu Laowai could tell that Chen Tuo, besides being a scoundrel, was also a spendthrift.

In the past two days, he has caught at least five or six hundred catties of live fish, and some say as much as a thousand catties.

The results of it?

All the big fish have been given away, and all the small fish have been replaced.

Judging from this, he's going to cook the big brown bear he caught tonight in one pot too.

"It's your stuff, so you get to decide what to do with it?"

Next, Sun Changkui went to the kitchen of the educated youth settlement to wash pots and heat oil.

Old Wu was cleaning up the small, miscellaneous fish he had just brought back.

Chen Tuo set up a field cooking pot.

Just like Wu Laowai had thought, he stewed all the offal except for the bear lungs into the army pot.

The scraps of meat and tendons that Hu Yuling separated, except for the whole piece of tendon, were stuffed into bear intestines and made into sausages.

A bucket of water, a handful of salt, a schisandra vine, and two large handfuls of chili peppers are the seasonings for Chen Tuo's stewed bear offal.

After seeing Chen Tuo's rough approach, Wu Laowai had no temper at all.

"If you prepare it like this, all that's left is spiciness. What kind of unpleasant flavor could it possibly have?"

"That's right! If the meat isn't good, then we'll just use the seasonings."

Wu Laowai remained silent as he listened to Chen Tuo's wasteful words.

Stewing bear offal with two handfuls of chili peppers—who would eat it like that?

The chili peppers he sells are not cheap at all; these two big bunches would cost at least a dime.

While stewing the bear offal, Chen Tuo was also busy.

Using the strips of bamboo cut by Wu Laowai, more than ten kilograms of meat were skewered. They were just waiting for charcoal to be lit in the stove pit of the smoking room before they were hung up to roast the meat.

After finishing the large skewers, Chen Tuo took out the Eighteen Chopsticks from his waist and chopped all the fat and fatty meat that Hu Yuling had divided into palm-sized pieces.

"Are you not planning to live a stable life anymore? You're never going to have enough to eat?"

Wu Laowai couldn't stand Chen Tuo's wasteful behavior any longer, so he started spouting nonsense.

Although his traps yielded results every now and then, his daily meals consisted of coarse cornmeal with pickled vegetables.

One rabbit, he would need to eat for at least a week.

Unlike Chen Tuo, who can eat three or four pounds of pure meat in one meal.

"Uncle Wu, we have guns and cannons now. Whatever we're lacking, why don't we go into the mountains and get it?"

"Is that mountain god or the old man your father? He gives you whatever you want, what? Is he afraid you won't send him off?"

Chen Tuo's words lightly overshadowed the hardships and exhaustion he had endured over thirty years of running in the mountains, and Wu Laowai was immediately displeased.

That's like saying he's incompetent but still acts tough.

"No way! Since we're on the move, we have to seize the opportunity, right?"

After finishing chopping the meat while bickering, Chen Tuo stopped arguing with Wu Laowai.

Just by listening to him announce his number, you can tell this old geezer isn't very eloquent, and you're likely to get taken advantage of if you try to talk nonsense with him.

After washing the pot, Sun Changkui watched as Chen Tuo put most of the bear meat into the two large twelve-seal pots and exclaimed the same thing as Wu Laowai.

"Xiao Chen, what's wrong? Not going to make it? This meat, once coated with wax, can last until May next year."

"Brother-in-law Sun, I'll teach you how to make a Central Plains-style braised pork in a jar. Just add plenty of salt, and put the meat and oil together in the jar. It won't spoil for three or four years!"

"Braised pork in a pot? That's made with pork, right?"

"Brother-in-law Sun, what kind of meat is different? Pork has three layers of fat and lean meat, and so does bear meat. Pork can be stored for three or four years, so why can't bear meat be stored?"

Chen Tuo didn't need to explain to Sun Changkui how to cook braised pork in a pot.

Add a spoonful of this to stew, and what dish won't taste good?

When Hu Yuling returned to the educated youth settlement with her eldest and second eldest sons, dragging a jar, she was also taken aback by the grand scene Chen Tuo had created.

On the way, she was still thinking about how to help Chen Tuo sell the bear meat!

As a result, after the round trip, Wu Laowai's miscellaneous fish filled half a cooking pot.

Chen Tuo's braised bear offal filled an entire marching pot.

My husband, Sun Changkui, is the worst at managing money.

More than 100 kilograms of bear meat and dozens of kilograms of lard were stewed in two large pots.

"Old Sun, do you even know how to manage a household?"

Standing at the kitchen doorway, amidst the fragrant fumes, Hu Yuling's voice suddenly rose eight octaves.

"Sis, I made this. Did you bring the salt? Sprinkle plenty..."

"Xiao Chen, are you not going to live your life anymore?"

"Sister, I don't like eating fatty meat. I'm afraid of getting obesity and diabetes."

Chen Tuo's words were a bit like someone who was talking without understanding the situation.

However, the research groups on obesity and diabetes were indeed established in the three northeastern provinces.

The reason is that people in the three northeastern provinces are living better lives than in other places.

Without giving Hu Yuling a chance to speak and suppressing her words about being wasteful, Chen Tuo started to order the dishes to be served.

A dozen kilograms of roasted meat and half a pot of stewed fish.

Even though Sun Changkui and Hu Yuling tried to excuse themselves by saying they would eat at home, they couldn't stop their five sons from feasting.

If Lao Liu weren't still young and unable to eat and drink so much, he would definitely have a seat at the banquet outside the educated youth settlement.

After we finished eating and drinking, the braised pork in the pot in the kitchen was ready.

Wu Laowai has one jar, the Sun family has one jar, and Chen Tuo has four jars left.

He had also tried the freshly fried braised pork, and it was similar to what he said: apart from being salty and fragrant, it wasn't very tasty on its own.

The taste is nowhere near as good as grilled meat skewers sprinkled with chili paste...