Wang An and his companion had led the pack of dogs barely three li when they heard heart-wrenching screams coming from not far ahead.
"Ah! Help!"
"Big brother... ah!"
"Get up the tree! Quick, get up the tree!"
"...Ah!"
It was clear there were three people.
Wang An and Wang Li instinctively pulled their reins, but the dogs, led by Da Hei, had already bolted forward, barking frantically.
To put it plainly, twelve dogs charging at once was a truly spectacular sight; there was even a faint feeling of a thousand horses and ten thousand soldiers.
Wang Li's expression tightened, and he instinctively asked Wang An
"Fourth Brother, did someone run into something?"
Wang An said with a solemn face
"Might be that black bear. Let's go take a look."
As he spoke, Wang An took the Type 56 semi-automatic rifle from his back, chambered a round, and flipped the safety off.
Wang Li hurriedly agreed and performed nearly the same actions as Wang An.
It had to be said that while people at home found the frantic barking of a pack of dogs annoying, when encountering danger in the mountains, hearing the sound of dogs was absolutely a heavenly melody.
Because as long as you heard dogs barking, a hunter was surely nearby.
Thus, when Wang An and Wang Li rode their horses up a small hill, they saw one person supporting another—or rather, two people supporting each other—scrambling and crawling toward them.
At this moment, the clothes and pants of these two hung on them like rags, and the exposed parts of their faces and bodies were covered in blood. It was obvious these two had been clawed by a black bear.
There was another person hanging from a tree—to be precise, clinging desperately to the trunk—shaking all over and looking down with a face full of terror.
To be honest, when Wang An saw this person in the tree, he felt utterly speechless.
If it were a brown bear, climbing a tree might be somewhat useful; after all, if a brown bear didn't attack the tree, a person could be safer up there.
But if you encounter a black bear and try to hide in a tree, that is pure, unadulterated stupidity.
For a black bear, climbing a tree is as simple as walking; they are far faster at it than humans.
However, this person was lucky. Because he had two companions below the tree attracting the black bear's attention, the bear hadn't climbed up to attack him.
Most importantly, the dogs arrived just in time, once again drawing the attention of the two black bears, leaving them no time to bother him.
So, while the act of climbing the tree was stupid, he was the only one among the three who remained unscathed.
Not far away, the pack of dogs had already engaged in a fight with a large and a small black bear. To be precise, the dogs were constantly probing, while the two bears didn't seem to care much about them.
Perhaps they had been waiting too long, or perhaps catching small animals previously hadn't satisfied them; regardless, these twelve dogs were behaving very bravely.
It was perfectly normal for the three large black dogs and four large yellow dogs to be brave, as these seven were very mature mountain dogs.
Currently, these seven dogs had surrounded a large black bear weighing roughly two hundred and seventy or eighty jin.
Their tactic was simple: bark incessantly and run in circles around the large black bear.
Occasionally, taking advantage of the bear's lapse in attention, they would deliver a lightning-fast bite and retreat immediately, never lingering for a second.
It was clear that Da Hei had directed them to do this, as only Da Hei's bark was different from the others, shifting tones from time to time.
One had to admit that Da Hei, as the lead dog, was absolutely an exceptional lead.
However, this tactic was essentially a series of hit-and-runs. So, even though these seven dogs looked fierce, they caused zero damage to the black bear; it was like they were merely scratching an itch.
This was evident from the black bear's behavior.
No matter which dog was biting, the black bear acted as if it didn't see them, focusing only on staying close to the smaller black bear.
Of course, for a hunter, this is the most perfect kind of hunting dog.
Whether it's a black bear or a wild boar, as long as it's over two hundred jin, a dog's bite strength cannot kill them in a short amount of time.
Therefore, the practical role of a hunting dog is to locate and pin down the prey, then wait for the master to arrive.
Aside from the seven large dogs, what pleased Wang An most was the performance of Xiao Hei and the four spotted dogs.
Xiao Hei's performance had always been good, but the change in the four spotted dogs was significant.
Now, Xiao Hei was barking from time to time just like Da Hei, leading the four spotted dogs to surround the smaller black bear, which weighed about a hundred jin.
Although the tactics of these five small dogs were basically the same as the large ones, their coordination was not yet seamless. They couldn't completely trap the small black bear and were mostly just running wildly around it.
But the dogs were still young; there was no rush regarding coordination.
After all this time, perhaps because he was a single-puppy litter, Xiao Hei's size was now basically equal to the female dog Da Huang, around eighty or ninety jin.
The four spotted dogs were clearly smaller than Xiao Hei, each weighing about sixty or seventy jin; they were still adolescent dogs.
Perhaps because they were always together, or perhaps because Da Hei had given the order, the four spotted dogs all listened to Xiao Hei.
Unfortunately, although Xiao Hei was very fierce and his physique didn't look much worse than the small black bear's, to be perfectly honest, the small black bear didn't take Xiao Hei and the four spotted dogs seriously at all.
Naturally, the large black bear didn't take Da Hei and the other six dogs seriously either.
It was only that the large black bear was worried about the small one, which is why it kept trying to stay close to it.
Truthfully, this was actually quite strange. Whether it's a black bear or a brown bear, when facing packs of wolves, dholes, or dogs, they usually don't take them seriously.
To put it bluntly, they basically ignore them.
Soon, the two people supporting each other ran up to Wang An and Wang Li, pleading directly
"Young masters, please, quickly save my brother! Kill those two black bears!"
Wang An didn't fire immediately; instead, he sized the two men up.
Based on their dress, Wang An felt these two were ordinary villagers, and from their accents, he could tell they were locals.
However, based on the flower baskets and probing poles at the scene, Wang An concluded that these three had entered the mountains to dig for ginseng—a small ginseng-hunting party.
Hearing this, Wang An said with a smile
"It's alright, don't worry. Your brother is clinging to that tree pretty tightly, isn't he?"
(End of Chapter)