Chapter 1 Hunting
The hot breath continued to decline, and the remaining blood of the sunset shook out the last trace of its afterglow.
Zhang Xuezhou looked out of the window at the beginning of night and realized that the difficult day was finally over.
This kind of hot weather makes it difficult to feel comfortable. There is no cooling device, no icy cold water, and no high-rise buildings to block the layers of sunlight.
Even the house where he lives can still see a little bit of dim light.
The world is like a steamer, and he is the poor worm in the steamer.
In this weather, Zhang Xuezhou just wanted to lie down in a bucket and wait for the day to pass quietly.
“Fortunately, I don’t have to practice martial arts with those wild bulls!”
Zhang Xuezhou stretched his head and looked towards the center of the village more than two hundred meters away.
That is a favorite gathering place for young people in the village, and it is also a place for young people to practice martial arts.
The young people's practice is not advanced, it is nothing more than archery, and they continue to hone their muscle memory and eyesight.
If you want to fill your stomach in this era, archery hunting is an essential skill.
Only by constantly hunting wild beasts can people continue to obtain meat to strengthen their bodies.
Survival skills are a necessity for everyone. Not only young people need to take the initiative to practice, parents, clan leaders, elders and other respected people will also urge them to practice.
The reason why Zhang Xuezhou is lazy is not because he has a pivotal position in the village, nor is he a second-generation villager. He is just physically weak.
Almost an adult, Zhang Xuezhou can only lift a hundred kilograms of stone millstone.
Compared to Zhang Changgong, the leader of the young people, who could easily lift an iron pier weighing more than 400 kilograms with outstretched arms, Zhang Xuezhou's strength was a bit unmanageable, and he was somewhat lacking in pulling an ordinary bow and arrow.
If the village does not support idle people, it will not be possible to practice martial arts. Zhang Xuezhou’s livelihood activities are based on counting and calculating.
Besides learning Chinese characters, his most important thing to learn is calculation.
Hunting wild beasts, good and bad crops after harvest...
In villages, various harvests must be counted, and each household's contribution must be calculated to distribute the harvest.
Equilibrium calculation is extremely easy for Zhang Xuezhou. It is nothing more than addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. However, it is a technical job to do things properly without causing imbalance in distribution and to convince everyone without any resentment.
No one in the village who does this job is lovable, and they will always offend some people.
Even the patriarchs and respected elders will have a headache from distributing food, and they can only constantly introduce some scapegoats to share the pressure.
Whoever can no longer do the job will be assigned by the elders to another person.
There is constant rotation, and a different newcomer takes over every three to five years.
In turn, Zhang Xuezhou, who was following him as an apprentice, was pushed to the front of the stage.
"Zhou Zaizi, the hunting group is coming back soon. Get the scales and weights and get ready!"
More than a hundred meters away, the second elder Zhang Houtu, who was supervising the young people's martial arts training, shouted There was a sound.
This made Zhang Xuezhou respond quickly and jump out of the large wooden barrel filled with water.
He threw on a coarse cloth haphazardly, and then raised the big scale that symbolized fairness and justice in the village.
This is a large scale that can weigh a thousand catties. The scale's beam is more than two meters long and its weight weighs ten catties.
The size of the large scale is not surprising. Zhang Xuezhou has weighed more than 800 kilograms of wild boars in the past.
The more than 300 people in the village depend on the hunting group's harvest for 70% of their food rations.
Eating grass or eating meat depends on the ability of the village team.
Zhang Xuezhou picked up the big scale and strode out of the yellow mud-walled house.
At the entrance of the village, the cheerful barking of hounds and the sound of people gradually approached.
When the hunting group returned, the village was as lively as a festival.
Whether young people practicing martial arts, old people and children, farmers in the fields, or women busy with needlework all gathered in the center of the village.
“Brother Xuezhou, share some more meat with me later, my mother hasn’t eaten meat for half a month!”
"All we hunted this month were crows and sparrows. There was only a few taels of meat and a pile of bones. It couldn't fill our stomachs at all."
"Zhang Cigong, your mother hasn't eaten meat for half a month. Isn't it because of all the meat?" I’ll give it to you. If you take a few bites, you’ll have some meat, so why should you share more meat?” Yes, there is also some irony.
Food is the most important thing, and even the best friendship will deteriorate in the face of hunger.
If he hadn't been in contact for a long time, it would be difficult for Zhang Xuezhou to understand the emotional changes of humans when they lack food.
He jogged, following behind the lame second elder, muttering "Everyone has meat to eat" and keeping a close eye on the young men who were pulling the village gate.
Whether he can eat meat or whether he can share more meat does not depend on his allocation, but more on the harvest of the hunting group today.
The heavy wooden door was opened with great effort by four young men.
After the big wooden door opened, the hound happily turned its tail and entered the village.
The heavy footsteps of many tall men and women carrying bows, arrows and scimitars echoed in their ears.
This made Zhang Xuezhou happy, and many people's faces also showed joy.
There is obviously a difference between carrying heavy objects and walking with light objects.
The lighter the step, the less harvest.
The heavier the steps, the greater the gains.
This is the heaviness of the harvest.
But when the village gate was fully opened, many villagers who greeted the hunting group took two steps back.
Zhang Xuezhou, who prided himself on being bold, could not help but feel a chill in his heart.
They are used to seeing jackals, tigers, leopards and ferocious beasts, but they rarely see pythons, and they are huge and poisonous pythons.
This kind of python has even grown a single horn, so it must be very old. Zhang Xuezhou glanced at the disgustingly colorful color of the python, and his pupils shrank slightly.
Even if some vicious creatures are dead and maimed, they still exude the aura of keeping strangers away, making them intimidating.
Two scimitars were inserted into the side of the python's head, and the blades were driven in simultaneously.
One knife is the head knife of the Zhang Bao family. It is sharp enough to pierce a tortoise shell and has extremely strong penetrating power. The Zhang Bao family usually regards it as life.
One knife is the Broken Wind Knife.
As the name suggests, the Wind-Breaking Knife can cut through even the wind. Although it is a bit exaggerated, the Wind-Breaking Knife is also a rare good knife.
The most important thing is that the owner of this knife is Zhang Xuezhou’s father, Zhang Zhong.
Zhang Zhong’s strength is at the upper-middle level in the village, but with this sword, Zhang Zhong has become the deputy of the hunting group.
At this time, two knives were inserted into the python's head. Zhang Xuezhou knew clearly that this python only had a trace of ferocious power left without looking at it, and it was difficult for him to hurt anyone.
“This snake’s skin is poisonous, don’t touch it you melon!”
There were more than forty people in the hunting group, all of whom were extremely powerful. However, this python, which was more than three feet long, forced the hunting group to use half of its manpower for transportation.
Zhang Baojia cursed at Zhang Changgong, who was eager to touch the beast, and the bold Zhang Changgong immediately retracted his hand.
“Can this poisonous python be eaten?”
Zhang Changgong couldn’t help but ask.
“When you are hungry, you can even chew the bark of a tree, and I can’t even eat meat if I give it to you.” Zhang Baojia scolded: “Don’t be picky at a young age. There is such a vicious beast near us. I can’t see any big beasts for hundreds of miles. I don’t know when the next time I’ll eat meat will be!”
"Xuezhou, please give me two more pounds, and I will carry ten buckets of water for your family tomorrow!"
Zhang Bao's words made Zhang Changgong no longer picky, and he started to build relationships, which immediately caused a lot of yelling and scolding. .
“Remove the venomous fangs, drain the venomous blood, peel off the snake skin, and remove all the venomous veins. The rest of this python is full of good meat!” Zhang Zhong said solemnly.
"While it's still fresh, let's all try our best," Zhang Baojia shouted: "Get the big bucket of bloodletting from the village and get a few basins of water!"
Giant Python! Entering the village, the eyes of many people who have been waiting for meat for a long time are shining, and everyone is helping.
Zhang Xuezhou put the scale down, and Zhang Zhong and others began to measure the gross weight.
"The scale pole is not enough. This giant python must be at least two thousand..."
Looking at the scale weight that was placed at the end of the scale pole and still hanging high, Zhang Xuezhou made a rough estimate. .
He blurted out the guessed number, and saw a glimmer of light flying out of the giant python's eyes that almost turned white.
Cruelty, cruelty, killing, ruthlessness...
Being noticed by the giant python, Zhang Xuezhou felt that the python's eyes were filled with too many negative emotions.
If it can be done, Zhang Xuezhou has no doubt that the giant python wants to kill everyone in the village.
“It doesn’t make sense, this piece of shit is so heavy!” Zhang Baojia cursed.
Zhang Xuezhou has a very good estimation ability as he weighs things all the time.
Zhang Baojia felt that there was a big difference between his estimated weight and Zhang Xuezhou's estimate.
Of course, everything depends on what Zhang Xuezhou said. After all, he only knows white knives and red knives, and he is not professional in calculating things.
But the weight of this giant python was indeed far beyond Zhang Bao’s expectations.
Although his estimate of the weight was low, he was not wrong by hundreds of kilograms.
"This figure, this body shape, this...forget it, cut it into two pieces and weigh it and it will be clear!"
He just felt that it was difficult to figure out why his estimation ability was so low. When the big wooden barrel for bleeding was brought in, he quickly took out the cow-ear knife inserted in the python's head and cut off the snake seven inches away.
The bull-ear knife was struck down hard, and the python's body swung weakly before being pinned down by many people.
When Zhang Zhong's wind-splitting knife was relayed, the blood from the python's body suddenly shot out like a fountain.
Zhang Xuezhou felt a slight explosion of air in the air, and faintly, waves of fruity aroma overflowed.
The air seems to have some sweetness.
“The dog farts before it dies!”
Zhang Baojia cursed and thrust the bull-eared knife into it, and a white snake tendon was immediately picked out by the bull-eared knife.
“The tendons are so good that they can be used as top-notch bowstrings...why is there still a chicken head?”
As soon as the snake tendons were pulled upward, the python’s wriggling body immediately swallowed the food in its belly. Welled up.
The Zhang Bao family saw a huge golden pheasant's head being pulled out from the snake's belly.
Like the python they captured, this colorful golden pheasant also had a breath of life left, its head was swollen to the size of a pig's head, and there was a trace of happiness and confusion in its eyes.
Zhang Baojia instantly understood the biggest reason why everyone was able to hunt this ferocious beast, and also understood why his estimate of the weight was so wrong.
“You can’t eat the poisoned parts!”
He stretched out his hand to pull the tendon of the snake, and the bull-ear knife in his hand quickly slashed across it.
But when the cow-eared knife pierced the head of the colorful golden pheasant, a knife flew across it lightly, faster than his cow-eared knife.
The head of this colorful golden pheasant suddenly flew high.
Able to fight fiercely with pythons, and even fight against pythons all the time, and still have a breath left to this day. The colorful golden pheasant seems to have an auspicious name, but it is obviously not a good thing.
This is a thing that far surpasses the beasts of wolves, tigers, leopards, and the consequences once it recovers are unpredictable.
The Zhang Bao family is quick to strike, and so is Zhang Zhong.
With one slash of the knife, the chicken head flew out, and the sound of gas explosion sounded in the air again.
The sweet air before suddenly condensed into a small area of mist.
The work is still in the style of the past. Because the framework has been set, it is difficult to escape when writing a long article, so the writing is a little more logical. Please read on, the cheerful story will not disappoint you!
(End of this chapter)