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

Chapter 122 Mergen

Only after Wu Laowai spoke up did Guan Tianpeng have the opportunity to pass on his wrestling techniques.

Along the way, Guan Tianpeng talked about the basic techniques of official wrestling, and Chen Tuo followed his movements to practice.

That night, he and Wu Laowai went up the mountain and faced a life-or-death situation. With Zhang Taibao's horse-drawn sled, they only traveled for a little over two hours and arrived at the mountain in the middle of the morning.

These days, Bailong and Sudao haven't come down the mountain because they're busy building deer enclosures and herding deer.

Sun Changkui led a rescue team into the mountains, but they were almost wiped out by a newly formed wolf pack. If the Forestry Bureau wants to hunt wolves again, it will have to call up its elite frontline personnel.

However, winter production is at its peak, and if the Forestry Bureau wants to organize a team of skilled hunters to hunt wolves, they will either have to wait a month or two, or the wolf packs will continue to attack the horse stables.

If it affects forestry production, not only will wolf packs be wiped out, but even Siberian tiger packs will be exterminated.

After Sun Changkui and his group got into trouble, Bai Long also led the hunters from the settlement to track down the wolf.

Unlike the previous hundred or so wolves, this new pack consists of between one hundred and two hundred wolves.

Moreover, after ambushing the forestry bureau's rescue team, the wolf pack had scattered.

A normal wolf pack of a dozen or so is already quite large, as prey from just a few hilltops can only sustain a dozen or so wolves.

The wolf pack has scattered, and more wolves from the north have entered the mountains. Organizing the mountain hunters to hunt wolves will not be a matter of a short time.

Unlike the grasslands and the Xingan Mountains, the number of wolves in the Far East is too large. According to what Xiao Kai heard, there are at least tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of wolves.

With such a large population, it's perfectly normal for hundreds of herds to cross the river and migrate to Songling in winter.

This is similar to the herds of gazelles that come from the grasslands, and they burn the grasslands every winter.

Tens of thousands of gazelles, along with hundreds or thousands of wolves, will migrate to the Inner Mongolian grasslands to spend the winter.

Some of them will also travel along the Hetao region to the Songling area.

Including the native wolves of the Greater Khingan Mountains, the wolf packs have at least three sources.

Unable to deal with the wolf packs, the hunters in the Dobukur settlement could only reinforce their deer and horse enclosures to protect their property and food.

In addition to the deer enclosure and horse enclosure, the hunters have also built several tent-style wooden houses, as Chen Tuo mentioned when he went up the mountain last time.

Although it is a bit small in scale and the craftsmanship is a bit primitive, it is still an improvement compared to deerskin tents or the "cuoluozi" that hunters talk about.

Moreover, the tent-like wooden houses made of birch trees as thick as a bowl blend in well with the surrounding environment.

At first glance, this is the kind of building that should have been placed here.

I went up and looked at the structure of the wooden house. It was made of double-layered birch wood with a thick layer of moss in between, and the doors and windows were covered with thick reindeer hides.

Instead of using materials from nearby areas, the hunters made use of the existing birch forest in the settlement.

The hunters used seven or eight birch trees, each about the thickness of a bowl, as pillars for their wooden huts.

This is probably one of the reasons why the wooden house blends in with the mountain environment.

The patchwork reindeer hide curtain still speaks volumes about the scarcity of resources in the mountains.

Although they transitioned from primitive fishing and hunting tribes to nomadic fishing and hunting tribes.

However, whether it's reindeer farming or hunting and fishing in the mountains, the income is unstable.

The interaction with people living down the mountain also increased the expenses for the mountain people.

Lifting the reindeer-skin curtain, you can see that the wooden cabin floor is made of birch wood as thick as a wrist, with a stone-built hearth in the middle.

The shaman Najiwu of Dobukuer, along with a white dragon and a dozen girls and women, was singing shamanic tunes while sewing wolf-skin coats.

When Chen Tuo went up the mountain for the second time, the person who reacted the most strongly was not Bai Long, but Najiwu, who was wearing a five-pronged roe deer horn hat and humming a shamanic tune.

"Your Mergen has arrived..."

Upon seeing Chen Tuo standing at the door of the wooden house, Najiwu stopped humming and, with a smile, introduced him to the girls around Bailong.

Listening to the girls' cheerful laughter in the wooden house and seeing their inquisitive eyes, Chen Tuo felt a little embarrassed.

The primitive fishing and hunting lifestyle in the mountains fostered a straightforward and direct character in the hunters.

This contrasts sharply with the understated elegance of the area below the mountain.

"Najiwu'ao, Bailong..."

After a brief greeting, Chen Tuo wanted to leave the wooden house full of women; he had clearly gone to the wrong place.

"Chen Zhiqing, this is Su Mo, he came here especially to wait for you..."

Chen Tuo was about to leave, but Bai Long beat him to it, grabbed his arm, and pulled him directly into the wooden house.

Although a campfire was burning in the hearth, the roof of the wooden house had a large skylight about a meter wide, wasting too much heat.

This is similar to the conical structure of the Evenki houses, which lack a skylight at the top, so the interior would be filled with smoke and fire.

"White Dragon, we need to add a cover to the skylight..."

The Su Mo that Bai Long introduced had the same wheat-colored skin as her, but she had a slight white mark on her face.

This must be a scar left after being scratched.

On his thin, oval face, a bright white knife scar about an inch long added a touch of wildness and arrogance to Su Mo.

Having had a previous experience, Chen Tuo didn't greet anyone or ask Bai Long to give a random introduction. Instead, he went straight to talking about the structure of the wooden house.

Picking up a carbonized branch from the hearth, Chen Tuo quickly drew a windshield and, after explaining how he did it, began to comment on the newly built wooden houses in the settlement.

"Najiwu'ao, Bailong, the wooden house is well made, but it can only be used in winter. You can make some modifications after the winter thaws in spring."

Fearing that Najiwu and Bailong, who were in charge of the settlement, wouldn't understand, Chen Tuo still took a simple charcoal pencil and started drawing on the birch branch floor.

"Dig a big pit, build a wooden house on top of it, and the space underneath can serve as a deer pen, providing insulation and warmth in winter..."

Chen Tuo was about to continue speaking when Su Mo grabbed and pinched his arm.

"Najiwu'ao, are you a little timid about Mergen, whom you introduced to us?"

Looking at his slender hand with many white scratches on his forearm, Chen Tuo felt a little helpless; it was just too cool.

"Chen Zhiqing, Mergen is a man skilled in riding and archery, a title that we all agree on."

Unlike the straightforward and dashing Su Mo, Bai Long had learned a lot from the female educated youth from the foot of the mountain.

If she had also grown up in a hunter's camp, she probably would have crawled right into Chen Tuo's reindeer skin sleeping bag last time.

Although Su Dao had a lot of contact with the outside world, his daughter Su Mo was a female hunter who grew up in the mountains.

Fearing that Su Mo might offend Chen Tuo, Bai Long offered an explanation from the side.

"Sumo, this isn't how you talk to Mergen. Put your hand down!"

Unlike the White Dragon's reaction.

The shaman Najiu of the Dobukur settlement picked up a birch branch with sparks and knocked away Sumo's mischievous hand.

Chen Tuo understood. Mergen was a title recognized by all three Soren tribes, and it was a higher status than Su Mo.

After being hit by the shaman Najiu, Su Mo was not angry or scared. Instead, he raised his eyebrows and teased Chen Tuo.

Sensing that Mergen's status was different, Chen Tuo simply brought up the matter of having Wu Laowai, Guan Dunzi, and Guan Tianpeng go up the mountain to become hunters.

"Shaman Najiu, may I recommend a few people to join the Dobukur settlement?"

By changing the term "elder" to "shaman," Chen Tuo also wanted to guide the hunters.

In today's context, terms like clan chief, chieftain, and headman are not appropriate to use.

The roles of person in charge, village head, and hamlet head are too unrealistic.

Changing the title to "shaman" will also help promote the hunters' fishing and hunting practices in the future...