Chapter 323 - 263: This Dog is Pretty Good
The seventh day of the Yongxing Brigade’s spring hunt.
This was also the last day of this year’s spring hunt. The busy spring planting season was about to begin.
Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu still got up early, and after eating breakfast, they prepared to head up the mountain again.
In the spring hunt so far, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu’s haul wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either.
Although it would be difficult to get the reward offered by the brigade, their initial goal wasn’t the money and food tickets anyway.
As for why they’d gone up the mountain two days in a row, yesterday they had been thinking about leaving and wanted to get some meat to leave for the Tao Family before they went.
Today, however, they wanted to go up the mountain to see how the Black Dog performed.
That’s right, the Black Dog they had found in the mountains yesterday.
From noon yesterday until now, no one had come looking for the dog. This got Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu’s hopes up.
So, early this morning, the two of them led the Black Dog and Xiaohua into the mountains.
Normally, a new hound should be given a few days to get familiar with its new home before being taken into the mountains. But from their interactions yesterday, especially that afternoon at Tao Xiaobao’s house, Zhao Jun had discovered that this dog was clingy.
The entire afternoon, whenever Zhao Jun or Li Baoyu went out to use the toilet, the dog would whine and wag its tail at them, acting like a total suck-up.
But it only acted this way toward Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu, not toward the Tao Family. It was probably because the two of them had fed it meat.
’No wonder this kind of dog gets lost so easily. You can lead it away with just a little food.’
There weren’t many dogs like this, but it had its advantages. You could take it into the mountains without a familiarization period. You just had to keep an eye on it and not let it run too far, so it wouldn’t get lost again.
As soon as they entered the mountains, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu were prepared. If the dog ran too far—more than five hundred meters—they would whistle for it. Zhao Jun had also cut off some roe deer meat and had Li Baoyu carry it, just in case they couldn’t call the dog back.
Once they were deep in the mountains, Zhao Jun untied the rope from the Black Dog’s neck. He then gestured forward with his hand, signaling that it could go.
The Black Dog took off running. After a few steps, it stopped by a tree, lifted its leg, and peed.
"This dog looks pretty decent, huh?" Li Baoyu said to Zhao Jun, his eyes fixed on the Black Dog. Although he wasn’t as knowledgeable as Zhao Jun, his family’s dogs were all good hunters, so he could still spot the basics.
"Mhm." Hearing this, Zhao Jun also stared intently at the Black Dog and nodded.
But as the dog ran farther, something seemed off. You could say it was like a lead dog, but it wasn’t quite one.
It would sniff around and run ahead, but after a hundred meters or so, it would stop and wait up front. It waited for Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu to catch up before running ahead again.
Even so, Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu still held some hope. After all, as long as it was willing to range out, that was good enough. If it couldn’t be a Big-headed Dog, being a second-string dog would be fine too.
But this was only at the beginning. After running for about a mile, the dog started slacking off, sticking right behind Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu, never leaving their heels.
In the dialect of the Northeast, you’d say: "This dog is stepping right on your heels."
His hope turning to disappointment, Li Baoyu said to Zhao Jun, "Brother, do you think maybe this dog is just too crummy, and that’s why someone abandoned it in the mountains?"
"Probably... not," Zhao Jun said, though he was having his own doubts.
’It might not be a good lead dog, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a good support dog, right?’
Besides, Zhao Jun’s family didn’t lack for good lead dogs.
Even with Hua Xiao’Er and Daqing gone, they still had Little Bear to take their place. And in the future, there would be Cyan Dragon and Black Dragon. So even if this Black Dog wasn’t a lead dog, it would be fine as a good support dog.
But right now, with no lead dog to guide it, it wouldn’t range out, so no one could tell what its skills were.
Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu, along with their two dogs, just stood there, looking at each other.
Finally, Zhao Jun took the rifle from his shoulder and said to Li Baoyu, "Baoyu, I’ll go on ahead. You lead the two of them and follow behind. If you hear me whistle or fire my gun, you urge the dogs on with a ’chou, chou’ and send them forward."
"Alright." Li Baoyu agreed instantly. He knew Zhao Jun was resorting to the most primitive method of "dragging" the dogs.
This primitive method of "dragging" involved a person acting as the lead dog to draw the other dogs forward when no actual lead dog was present.
Zhao Jun walked quickly ahead with his rifle at the ready. When he saw wild boar tracks, he blew a whistle.
At that moment, Li Baoyu also untied Xiaohua’s leash. He urged the dogs forward, and hearing Zhao Jun’s whistle up ahead, the two dogs shot off toward Zhao Jun like a wisp of smoke.
When Zhao Jun had whistled, he was more than three hundred meters away from Li Baoyu, and the Black Dog normally only ran about a hundred meters out.
But now, it shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring, speeding toward Zhao Jun. It left Xiaohua far behind after just the first hundred meters.
"Whoa!" Zhao Jun was amazed when the Black Dog came into view. He hadn’t expected the dog to be this fast. ’If it really could be trained as a lead dog, chasing wild boars or anything else would be no problem at all.’
The Black Dog ran up to Zhao Jun, panting with its tongue out, and started circling him. Zhao Jun bent down, took its head in his hand, and pushed its nose toward the wild boar track, trying to make it catch the scent.
But the Black Dog just shook its head, broke free from Zhao Jun’s grip, and raised its paws to scratch at his pant leg.
Just then, Xiaohua finally reached Zhao Jun. Her speed was nowhere near the Black Dog’s.
Zhao Jun then guided Xiaohua to sniff the wild boar track. Unlike the Black Dog, Xiaohua put her nose to the track and sniffed it, then lifted her head and twitched her little nose, sniffing the air.
Then, Xiaohua looked around, bewildered.
But this very action made Zhao Jun’s heart leap with joy. Compared to the Black Dog, Xiaohua seemed to have the makings of a lead dog.
At this thought, Zhao Jun whistled for Li Baoyu to hurry over and meet him.
"How’d it go?" Li Baoyu asked as soon as he got close, wanting to know about the Black Dog.
Zhao Jun pursed his lips and shook his head. "Not great. It seems this dog we found will be hard to train as a lead dog." Then he stroked Xiaohua’s head and added, "Xiaohua, on the other hand, shows the right stuff."
"Really?" Hearing that Xiaohua could become a lead dog, Li Baoyu was overjoyed. He came up to Xiaohua, squatted down, and wrapped his arms around her neck. Xiaohua took the opportunity to rub her head against Li Baoyu’s face.
Just then, the Black Dog also sidled up to Li Baoyu, tilting its head and rubbing against his arm.
"Damn, this thing is clingy."
Zhao Jun grumbled, but Li Baoyu didn’t seem to mind. He reached out, pulled the Black Dog in too, and started petting its head.
While fussing over the two dogs, Li Baoyu looked around. Seeing the wild boar tracks, he turned to Zhao Jun and asked, "Brother, these aren’t fresh tracks, are they?"
"Nope." Zhao Jun looked at the tracks and said to Li Baoyu, "These are probably three or four days old." He then pointed uphill. "Baoyu, you stay here with the two of them for now. I’m going to push up a bit higher."
With that, Zhao Jun started walking up the ridge. After about four hundred meters, he stood at the top and whistled.
Hearing the whistle, Li Baoyu quickly urged the two dogs forward. Watching them dash off one after the other, he muttered to himself, "I’ll be damned, that dog runs like a pouncing cat."
When the two dogs reached Zhao Jun, he led them on a slow circle of the area.
The mountains were covered in animal tracks, but many of them were several days old.
You couldn’t follow tracks like these, especially during the spring hunt. A boar or roe deer from three or four days ago might have already been killed by someone else.
When Li Baoyu caught up from behind, Zhao Jun once again left the two dogs with him and pushed higher up the ridge.
This time, he went quite far, putting a distance of over five hundred meters between himself and Li Baoyu.
Zhao Jun whistled again, and this time, without even needing a push from Li Baoyu, the two dogs ran toward him.
But Li Baoyu still made the "chou, chou" sound from behind them.
This was "human-powered dragging"!
Zhao Jun’s whistle was equivalent to a lead dog giving cry. Once the lead dog calls, the support dogs must come, and at top speed.
As for the fact that Zhao Jun’s whistle sounded different from a lead dog’s bark, that didn’t matter. Don’t forget, they had Li Baoyu.
The next time a lead dog gave cry, with Li Baoyu urging them on from behind, even a dog new to the mountains would still go out.
The key, however, was whether they could bag any game today.
It all came down to the same principle: dogs weren’t afraid of getting hurt or tired. The crucial thing was whether there was meat to eat.
No matter how hard or tiring it was, as long as they brought down some meat, the dogs wouldn’t mind. But if they worked hard all day, got injured, and still didn’t get any meat, after three or four times, the dog would become "slick."
Once a dog becomes slick, it will slack off. As a result, the hunt is more likely to fail. Over time, the dog just gets slicker and slicker.
Just then, Li Baoyu caught up to Zhao Jun. Seeing Zhao Jun wave him over, Li Baoyu quickly shook his head and pointed uphill, saying, "Any higher and we’ll be too high up. What if we run into a Black Bear or something?"
It was early April, and spring had returned to the land. When the sun came out in the morning, the snow on the sun-facing slopes began to melt.
Around this time, the Black Bears were about to emerge from hibernation, so they wouldn’t be staying put so reliably. Moreover, after so many days of spring hunting, many Black Bears in this hundred-li mountain range had already been killed.
Of course, some had slipped through the net and become "wanderers." And they specifically headed for the high mountains.
"It’s fine." Zhao Jun, bold because of his skill, started walking uphill with his rifle. As he moved, however, he was on high alert, carefully scanning his surroundings.
RUSTLE...
Suddenly, a large Ma Lu burst out of the woods ahead, its hooves flying as it galloped down the southern slope.
"WOOF... WOOF..."
Before Zhao Jun could even whistle, Xiaohua barked twice toward the commotion. At this point, Zhao Jun hadn’t gone much farther up from Li Baoyu and the two dogs, so when the large animal charged downhill, Xiaohua spotted it.
Xiaohua barked twice, leaped right over the ridge, and chased after it downhill. The Black Dog glanced back at Li Baoyu, then followed her down.
Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu also scrambled down the slope in pursuit. After all, of these two dogs, one was just starting its first year in the mountains, and the other had just arrived yesterday. Neither was very reliable.
With Xiaohua chasing it from behind, the Ma Lu panicked. But it was extremely fast; with its four long legs at a full stride, there was no way Xiaohua could catch up.
But then they saw the Black Dog cut down diagonally from the east, heading straight for the large Ma Lu. At that moment, Zhao Jun slid down, sat on the snowy ground, and raised his rifle.
He aimed at the Ma Lu, but he still wanted to see if the Black Dog could actually pull it off.
In the end, the deer was faster. The Black Dog couldn’t intercept it head-on, but it did catch up to the big animal’s tail.
Seeing this, Li Baoyu instinctively wanted to say something to Zhao Jun, but seeing him taking aim, he didn’t dare make a sound and disturb him. But in his mind, he was thinking, ’This dog is really good...’
Just as Li Baoyu was thinking this, the Black Dog leaped up and sank its teeth into the Ma Lu’s left hind leg.
At the same time, the smiles on the faces of Zhao Jun and Li Baoyu, not far away, instantly froze.