Chapter 260: The Deer Herd
The three of them drove the sled to their destination. Without even stepping off the sled, they began checking their sable trap lines one by one.
In the first two trap lines, they caught nothing except for several mountain voles and three yellow-throated martens; furthermore, the voles had been eaten away until only half of them remained.
Overall, it was a negligible harvest.
However, the third trap line yielded a sable, and in that same line, they also caught five yellow-throated martens and a few mountain voles.
It was clear that these five yellow-throated martens had wanted to eat the sable that had been snapped dead.
Unfortunately for those five unlucky creatures, not only did they fail to get a taste of the meat, but they ended up getting trapped and killed themselves.
Sable meat is quite delicious, even better than the meat of the "big-eyed thieves," and similar to badger meat.
This was because Wang An's family had eaten the sable they had snatched back from those three men last time.
However, while this creature tasted good, it was too small. After skinning it and removing the organs, there was only a little over a pound of meat.
Seeing this sable, the three of them were very happy; at around 350 yuan, it was a significant income.
After packing away the sable and collecting all the traps in that area, the three of them headed toward the fourth trap line.
The reason they collected all the traps in that spot was that a trap line that had already caught a sable became useless.
In a short period of time, a second sable would absolutely not appear in the same location.
It had to be said that with sable trapping, one had to set many traps and possess sufficient patience.
Consequently, both the fourth and fifth trap lines caught sables.
The only regret was that the sable in the fifth trap line had been half-eaten by something unknown, leaving only half a pelt.
Although half a pelt wasn't worth as much, for fur that was inherently expensive, even a piece the size of half a palm still had value, so it certainly couldn't be thrown away.
On their first trip into the mountains after the New Year, the three of them had harvested two and a half sable pelts. It had to be said, the feeling was truly exhilarating.
This was money!
Many people felt that sable fur wasn't as valuable as lynx fur, but this was completely wrong.
The two were simply not on the same level.
The lynx only won out in terms of rarity. If one compared the quality of the fur, lynx fur and fox fur were essentially not that different.
Only sable fur was invincible!
Even the fur of the blue sheep—the goral—was far less expensive than that of the sable.
If calculated by the supply and marketing cooperative's purchase price, a lynx pelt started at 600 yuan, while a sable pelt started at 350 yuan.
But one had to be careful: an adult lynx weighed around 50 pounds.
The largest sable weighed only a bit over 2 pounds, and that was assuming the sable was male. If it were a female, even while pregnant, it would absolutely not reach 2 pounds.
In other words, it would take more than ten sables' worth of fur combined to equal the size of one lynx pelt.
The reason it was "more than ten" was that the fur from the sable's tail was counted along with the fur from its body.
Yet, the value of more than ten sable pelts, even by the cooperative's purchase price, would be over four thousand yuan!
Therefore, sable fur was the most valuable of all furs!
After packing the traps and the sables, the three drove the sled away from the trap lines and released all the dogs.
As he released the three black dogs, Wang An pointed to the five puppies and instructed the three adult dogs one by one: "Take good care of these five. Teach them more, understand?"
Wang An felt that these three black dogs could understand his speech, because the three of them had been the ringleaders the last two times he had been scolded.
Regardless, once Wang An finished speaking, Da Hei certainly understood. Da Hei glanced at the five puppies, then nodded at Wang An and gave two "woofs."
Hearing Da Hei's bark, Wang An patted Da Hei's head with satisfaction and added, "If they need a lesson, give it to them. You don't have to save face for me."
As soon as Wang An finished, he discovered that the look Da Hei gave the five puppies actually looked like a smile.
Although Wang An didn't know why a dog could make human-like expressions, with Da Hei squinting his eyes and curling his mouth, he was indeed smiling.
When at home, the five puppies were quite afraid of Da Hei, yet they still loved to huddle around him.
Although Xiao Hei was the largest and quite sturdy, he was the most afraid of Da Hei among the five puppies.
So, when they saw Da Hei smile, the five puppies, who had been quite excited, suddenly wilted.
To be honest, seeing this scene, Wang An was genuinely stunned. Da Hei's authority was truly imposing!
However, Wang An trusted Da Hei, believing that having dogs lead dogs was the best method. Thus, Wang An patted Da Hei's head as encouragement and released him.
Then, after Da Hei barked a few times, the five puppies obediently followed behind the three black dogs, being exceptionally well-behaved.
This scene reminded Wang An of when he first started school; back then, he and his classmates were very obedient to the teacher.
It was only as they grew older that they began to treat the teacher's words as wind passing by their ears.
With fifteen dogs running, the rushing sound was truly a grand sight.
Perhaps because many of the wolf packs and red dog packs had been wiped out, the prey that had fled far away had returned, and Da Hei soon sounded the alarm.
After Da Hei flared his nostrils to pinpoint the location, he barked a few times and bolted forward.
After running a few steps, he seemed to remember something and looked back at the five puppies. Seeing that they were all following behind, he barked a few more times and sped off again.
When the dogs ran, the humans had to chase, so the three of them also started running.
"Brother-in-law, have you noticed? Da Hei is just like a person now," Mu Xueli exclaimed while running.
"Yeah, I feel—" Wang Li's words were halfway out before he quickly corrected himself
"I think so too. Look at how he manages those five puppies; it's exactly like a teacher managing students."
Hearing this, Wang An was very pleased and laughed boastfully, "Of course! The dogs I raise must be badass."
Hearing this, Mu Xueli and Wang Li fell silent at the same time.
The three stopped talking and began to run with all their might. This time, they couldn't stop, because they could no longer see the dogs' tracks.
But humans cannot outrun dogs. Exhausted to the point of death, the three of them panted heavily, walking a few steps and then running a few more, yet none dared to stop.
In a place where the three could not see, the pack of dogs was also rushing forward.
Of course, the pack wasn't running blindly; they were chasing prey.
Suddenly, Da Hei barked a few times while running, and then three green dogs and four yellow dogs split off to the sides.
Meanwhile, Da Hei led Er Hei, San Hei, and the five puppies to continue the pursuit.
Directly in front of Da Hei, several large sika deer and several small sika deer were sprinting for their lives.
In truth, dogs cannot outrun deer, and a deer's nose is even more sensitive than a dog's.
After chasing for so long, a normal hunting dog should have given up.
But perhaps because Da Hei wanted to set an example for the five puppies, although the distance grew, he never once gave up.