Reborn in 1963: I Hunted and Stockpiled Meat During a Famine

Chapter 21 Qin Qiming finally saw it clearly

"Going right now?"

"How long are you planning to wait? My dad asked me to teach you some experience."

"Okay, let's go now."

Qin Qiming planned to take his gun up the mountain, but Qin Hao stopped him.

"No need to bring a gun, today's destination is not far from the village."

In the mountains, hunting is usually done with traps and bows and arrows, not guns.

Hunting with guns can easily damage the hides and flesh of large wild animals, affecting their selling price, while smaller animals are also easily shot and injured.

Carrying a gun up and down the mountain is mainly for self-protection.

It's winter now, and when spring comes, there's even less need to bring a gun into the mountains to hunt.

There's a rule in the mountains: guns must be put away in the spring to allow animals to breed.

When hunting, they would choose males over females, and larger ones over smaller ones.

Furthermore, if you bring a gun into the mountains, where will the bullets come from? Once a bullet is fired, there's no way to replenish it.

Qin Qiming thought about it and realized that bullets were indeed a big problem.

The village's ammunition reserves are remnants from the war, and replenishment will be difficult.

"Come on, I'll take you to practice archery. We can go set up the traps later."

The two went out and walked up the mountainside. After crossing the mountain ridge, they stood on a high slope. Before Qin Qiming's eyes was a wide valley, surrounded by high mountains.

"This valley is our village's farmland, and most of the village's grain is produced here."

Qin Hao stood on the slope, gazing at the valley covered in snow.

"You won't see much this year; the snow has covered everything. I'll take you inside to see it after the snow melts."

After saying that, he patted Qin Qiming on the shoulder.

"You've never worked in the fields before, so don't be lazy when you start farming in the future."

"I own land?"

"Of course there are, every family has them. This is a rule set in the mountains many years ago, and it didn't change even after the Japanese invaded. Your family's land was always cultivated by your mother alone. Your father was lazy and sold everything that could be sold. If your mother hadn't threatened to kill herself to stop him from selling the land, there would have been nothing left."

Qin Qiming was somewhat shocked; he had been unaware of this matter.

“In the past, the village allocated land according to households, but later it was allocated according to the number of people. Your family had four people at the time. Your grandfather was still alive, and your younger sister was not born yet. Each person was allocated three mu, for a total of twelve mu of land.”

"Does the government agree to this?"

“It wasn’t reported to the government, nor was it included in the statistics, because the land is near our village, and other villages are too far away, so they don’t get a share.”

Qin Hao hesitated slightly: "The government should be reasonable. There are no landlords here. Everyone has reclaimed the land themselves. There shouldn't be any problems."

“No problem. The situation varies from place to place. With more people, the land per capita decreases. Our area is considered to have less land. I heard that other places have more land than our village.”

"That's good. We are all poor farmers, and we reclaimed our own land. As long as we deliver the grain, there will definitely be no problem."

Qin Qiming offered a few words of comfort to reassure Qin Hao.

These hundreds of acres of land in the mountain valleys were all reclaimed from barren land. Each person has only a few acres, and the government will not interfere.

If the mountain land is taken back, what will the people living on the mountain eat?

Hunting in the mountains alone cannot support many people; in the end, they still have to rely on local assistance.

It would be more appropriate to let the people grow it themselves.

“Let’s go down. Something always visits this place every winter. Let’s see if we can catch anything today.”

The two walked down the mountainside, with Qin Qiming following behind Qin Hao, as he was not very familiar with the area.

"After the autumn harvest, people rarely come here anymore. They only come after the snow melts."

There are many wild animals here, such as pheasants and hazel grouse; we manage to hunt some every year.

Qin Hao suddenly stopped and pointed to a snowdrift beside him: "Look!"

Qin Qiming looked in the direction Qin Hao was pointing and saw several pheasants hopping around in the snow.

Then, in the distance, we saw a spotted animal with a tuft of long hair on its lower jaw. It looked like a tiger but was much smaller, and was a medium-sized animal.

Qin Hao didn't hear Qin Qiming's response for a while. Following his gaze, he vaguely saw a large cat at the boundary between the mountains and fields.

It looks like a lynx!

"Oh my, it's a lynx. I haven't seen such a rare little creature in years. These things are very rare in the mountains, and they usually keep their distance and won't come near people. If you underestimate them just because they look only a little bigger than a cat, you'll definitely suffer the consequences."

Qin Hao reminds you.

"Be careful if you encounter a lynx in the mountains, and don't provoke it. Don't be fooled by its smaller size compared to a wolf; in a one-on-one situation, you're no match for it."

Lynxes are several times the size of adult domestic cats. Although their thick fur makes it difficult to discern their exact weight, they weigh at least forty pounds.

A wolf weighs at least 60 or 70 pounds, with the alpha wolf being even heavier.

It is an exaggeration to say that a lynx can defeat a wolf in a one-on-one fight, but it is true.

Just as Qin Qiming and Qin Hao were talking, a lynx in the distance was chasing a wild rabbit that suddenly appeared in the snow, driving it toward Qin Qiming.

The rabbit ran left and right, but could not shake off the lynx. Finally, it was bitten on the neck by the lynx when it was more than ten meters away from Qin Qiming.

The lynx's fur tightened, and it bit the wild rabbit's neck. After a few minutes, the rabbit stopped moving.

Only the rabbit's constantly trembling legs indicated that it had just been killed and its nervous system had not completely stopped functioning.

Qin Qiming had no intention of paying attention to the lynx, but he was slightly more vigilant in case it suddenly attacked.

As a result, the lynx glared back at Qin Qiming and Qin Hao, then turned around, flicked its tail, and quickly left.

"Hey, it dares to glare at me! I'll just snatch the rabbit away and let it freeze!"

Qin Qiming hurriedly stopped him: "Brother Hao, you're magnanimous, don't stoop to the level of an animal. If the lynx can catch prey in this place, it means there are definitely more inside! Hurry up and search. Even if we can't catch the flying dragon, it would be good to catch some other good things to send to Brother Kang to help him recover. Nobody knows what a trap might catch, we need to be prepared."

"you're right."

As Qin Qiming walked inside, he could still see the lynx still staring at them from the edge of the field in the distance.

Seeing Qin Qiming and the other person walk into the sky, it actually ran back to them with a wild rabbit in its mouth.

"Brother Hao!"

Qin Qiming shouted.

When Qin Hao saw the lynx charging directly at him, his face immediately darkened. He drew his cleaver from his waist and stood slightly off-center in front of Qin Qiming, leaving him space to shoot arrows.

Qin Qiming drew his bow, loaded an arrow, and waited for the lynx to approach.

As Qin Qiming observed the lynx rapidly approaching, he continuously drew his bow and aimed until the distance was close enough before preparing to fire.

However, unexpectedly, the lynx suddenly stopped when it was more than 30 meters away!

By this time, the snow had completely covered the lynx, making its outline almost invisible.

As Qin Qiming was wondering, the lynx, which was almost invisible in the snow, suddenly moved.

Qin Qiming could only see it clearly after it ran back to the horizon.