Chapter Thirty-One: Catching Otters on the Riverbank

  Yu Songyuan thoroughly cleaned the general's uniform and rinsed it with clean water one last time. As the sun was shining brightly, the dormitory was located below a large embankment, and in front of the door, it was sheltered from the wind, warm and cozy. After wiping it dry, it dried quickly.

  People rely on clothes, dogs rely on baths, absolutely right.

  After a bath, the big general's back to both sides of his body was covered in black fur, only from under the chin to below the belly did it turn yellowish-brown. On the belly there was also a streak of white hair. He looked spirited and energetic, making Yu Songyuan love him so much that he couldn't bear to let go. He even used old tables and chairs to build a nest for it indoors, lining it with old newspapers, old clothes, and torn cotton batting.

  "General, go in and try."

  The general heard the order and with a very beautiful jump action, he jumped into the air and directly flipped into the nest, lying comfortably inside.

  With General Yu by his side, even living in a "ghost house" was no longer lonely and desolate, but instead became rich and colorful, full of wonder. Sometimes, it would even bring him unexpected surprises, and the quality of his food also improved.

  That evening, when he returned to the dormitory for dinner with his lunchbox, Da Jiang rushed out to greet him, eagerly biting at his pant legs and urging him to enter. On the floor lay a stout grey wild rabbit, its long ears drooping, quietly lying there. Apparently, Da Jiang had gone hunting while he was in school.

  Yu Songyuan immediately smiled, it seems that he is a king, following him to eat coarse grains and drink thin soup. This is a silent protest or a proposal to improve the quality of life.

  After finishing the evening self-study, Yu Songyuan hurried back, cleaned up the rabbit, washed its skin and hung it in a high place to dry. Then, on the open space near the edge of the forest by the pool, he set up a fire and started roasting. Soon, the fragrance of meat filled the air, and more than a dozen green bean-like bright spots appeared in the dark surroundings, circling around the bonfire from afar. All the wild cats and dogs on the riverbank were attracted over.

  Yu Songyuan and the general returned to the room to start their meal, soon finishing off a rabbit. Then, they threw the bones into the woods, letting the wild cats and dogs continue to enjoy them.

  The next day was Saturday, a self-study day for the whole day, and the supplementary class still had teachers guiding students who did not rest. But Yu Songyuan decided to go out and buy some highland barley and dried sweet potatoes as provisions. In the past, it was always his elder brother who regularly sent him provisions, but now that he had this big belly, the food supply was running low ahead of time, so he could only think of a way himself.

  After breakfast, he locked the door and took Da Jiang out. He rode his bicycle along the embankment, with Da Jiang jumping onto the back seat, and they walked upstream for about two or three kilometers before reaching the confluence of the Tangxiang River and the Guanhe River. Yu Songyuan had originally planned to take a detour around the school from another direction before going downtown, so that he could take Da Jiang to more places and let it get some exercise.

  This is an alluvial plain, with luxuriant reeds and thickets of shrubs, making it even more desolate. On both sides are rivers, and on the other two sides, there are no signs of human habitation within several kilometers. Only a few kilometers away, there is an abandoned warehouse of the People's Liberation Army, on top of which still stand several disused green antennas.

  Suddenly, Da Jiang "Wang Wang" barked twice and jumped off the car, rushing down to the dam. Yu Songyuan followed closely behind, walking for about 200 meters before entering a dense thicket of shrubs. Da Jiang stopped beside a pile of newly dug soil that was half as tall as a person, and when he saw Yu Songyuan approaching, he rushed over and bit his pant leg, pulling him towards the soil.

  Yu Songyuan walked near and took a closer look, suddenly enlightened.

  When I was a child, my grandfather Yu Xinmin took them to the wild to smoke badgers. My grandfather smoked out four badgers from a den with smoke, the largest weighing over 20 kilograms and the smallest also around 17 or 18 kilograms, allowing several families to have a happy new year. This thing is now hard to find due to the increasing number of people, unexpectedly in this desolate place, there are still signs of it.

  The large pile of floating soil in front of us is obviously a new residence for a family of moles or badgers. Moreover, judging from the scale of the soil pile, this must be a huge family, not just three to five individuals. This thing has strong digging ability and lives under the embankment, having an immeasurable impact on the safety of the embankment.

  Yu Songyuan put his index finger to his lips, signaling the general not to make a sound. The general seemed to understand and quietly followed Yu Songyuan with his tail tucked in. After carefully checking the surroundings, Yu Songyuan confirmed that this badger den was quite unusual - it had three exits, which were far apart and at different heights, making it extremely safe. Whether encountering floods or being smoked out by humans, the badgers could easily escape from other exits.

  He quietly left here, carrying the big general and flying back to school. First go to the cafeteria, want to borrow a few sacks. The result is predictable, was refused by the school worker, and was also ridiculed for a while. In those years, sacks were also scarce resources, you are a poor student who wants to borrow several with one mouth, the tone is too big.

  Yu Songyuan didn't know anyone else, so he could only go ask Teacher Zhang again.

  Liu Gong and Teacher Zhang were both at home. Teacher Zhang was afraid of dogs, and when he saw Yu Songyuan bring in a big black dog, he jumped in fright. "You're a student who's supposed to be studying hard, but instead you're always wandering around with this dog - what kind of behavior is that?"

  Yu Songyuan didn't explain, but instead said to the general: "General, you scared Teacher Zhang, quickly bow and apologize to her." The general sat down properly, solemnly knocked his head three times against the ground, then tilted his head, looking at her in a friendly manner. The implication was clear: "Are you satisfied? If not, I'll do more."

  "Wow, this dog is so human-like."

  Miss Zhang still had a playful girl's nature, seeing the majestic and refreshing appearance of Da Jiang, she couldn't help but stretch out her hand to touch its head. Generally, it's not easy to touch a dog's head casually, but Da Jiang was different, it had a natural ability to distinguish danger levels.

  Yu Songyuan said, "Don't worry, Teacher Zhang, be bolder." The big dog looked at Teacher Zhang with a clever expression. When she stroked its head, it closed its eyes comfortably and wagged its tail back and forth, looking very pleased and content.

  "My goodness! It's so obedient!" Teacher Zhang exclaimed with surprise, and then asked, "It can't be that it understands human language? How come it seems to understand everything you say?"

  Yu Songyuan said: "Of course, I can understand. I've checked in the library, this should be a purebred German Shepherd dog, definitely higher than the police level. It has good controllable attack ability, extremely intelligent, absolutely loyal, absolutely disciplined, and can understand human language. From its performance, it can only be a well-trained high-level military dog, and its age will not exceed one and a half years."

  "Police dog?!" exclaimed Mr. and Mrs. Zhang in unison.

  Yu Songyuan said: "Right, it can only be a military dog. Teacher Zhang, I came to you today with an urgent matter that needs your help."

  Mr. Zhang said, what's up, you say. Yu Songyuan then told him about the discovery of the badger hole and the plan to borrow sacks to catch the badgers.

  "Really? Now it's crowded with people, where can the raccoon dog hide? It has been extinct for over a decade. If it really exists, I'll go catch it with you." Liu Gong said in surprise.

  Teacher Zhang's childlike innocence was also evident as he cheered and jumped up and down, "I'll go too! I've never seen a raccoon dog before. Besides, with one more person to help, the chances of success are even greater."

  Yu Songyuan also said: "You'd better not go, catching a raccoon dog sounds romantic, but in fact it's very terrifying, very cruel and very bloody when you catch and clean it, it will scare you."

  Teacher Zhang said, "You should think this way, the otter poses a great potential threat to the dam. Even if we don't catch it, we should report it to the Irrigation and Flood Control Committee, they will go and kill it too. As for being afraid, aren't there two big men here?"

  Yu Songyuan couldn't dissuade her, so they all went together.

  Mr. Zhang went to borrow gunny sacks, and Liu Gong was with Yu Songyuan, preparing chili powder, fire paper, wood shavings, a sharp knife for cutting fruit, an iron shovel, etc., then under the leadership of Da Jiang, they rushed to the thicket in the delta along the embankment.

  Yu Songyuan made everyone be quiet, then carefully observed. Since it was daytime, he was certain that no badgers had escaped. Then, using an iron shovel, each hole was dug open. For the two holes higher up, sacks were set up and secured with wooden sticks.

  During the excavation of the cave entrance, the iron shovel occasionally scooped up metal objects in the soil, making a sharp sound. Yu Song reached out and picked up a rusty oil mud ball from the muddy soil, and when he pinched it with his hand, it turned out to be an old shell casing.

  Liu Gong also found a few with his hands: "Heaven, someone once said that the riverbank used to be an execution ground, it seems true." Teacher Zhang immediately looked around nervously and grabbed Liu Gong's clothes.

  Yu Songyuan said, "It's been many years since all this happened. Besides, it's daytime and both Liu Gong and I are here." As he spoke, he dug a hole at the bottom of the lower cave entrance to start a fire, and behind the hole, he propped up a sack with wooden sticks. Then they divided their tasks: Liu Gong and Zhang Laoshi were in charge of one cave entrance, Da Jiang was in charge of another, and Yu Songyuan himself was responsible for starting the fire and smoking out the snakes.

  To increase the tension and interest of their husband, Yu Songyuan deliberately said, "Although the badger is small, it has a fierce temperament and strong attacking power. Judging from the size of the hole, these large badgers may weigh 26 or 27 kilograms, with great strength, capable of biting off several human fingers at once. As long as we let it rush into the sack, there will be no problem."

  Teacher Zhang immediately became a bit nervous, and Liu Gong grasped the iron shovel, comforting her in a very masculine way, "Don't worry, don't be afraid, I'm here."

  Everyone got into position, Yu Songyuan poured wood shavings into the pit and started a fire. As soon as the flames rose, he immediately sprinkled chili powder on them and kept blowing smoke into the hole. After a few minutes, the badger really couldn't bear it anymore. A grown badger suddenly rushed out of the hole, jumped over the fire pit, and dove headfirst into the sack.

  Yu Songyuan continued to puff smoke vigorously inside.

  At this time, Teacher Zhang kept letting out shrill cries, obviously more than one had entered the sack. After a while, when there was no movement inside, Yu Songyuan finally extinguished the fire. Carrying the sack towards Teacher Zhang and the others, Liu Gong was firmly pressing down on the mouth of the sack, afraid that the badger would run back into its hole, while Teacher Zhang was excitedly shrieking with glee.

  Yu Songyuan picked up the three burlap sacks, weighing around 60-70 kilograms in total. He tied the mouths of the sacks together and had Liu Gong carry them by hand.

  Liu Gong didn't dare to mention it, but Yu Songyuan told him: "Raccoon dogs have poor eyesight from birth, there is no light in the sack, as long as they can't see, they think it's safe and won't attack." Only then did Liu Gong tentatively lift up the sack.

  Arriving at the cave entrance guarded by General, only to see that the sacks had accidentally fallen over. General sat quietly on one side, while the four large raccoon dogs were already dead. Yu Song carefully approached to inspect and found that all the raccoon dogs were intact except for two round fatal wounds in the same position under their necks. It was as if they had been killed by a sharp knife thrust into their throat from the neck, striking them dead with one blow.

  All three of them were amazed, and Teacher Zhang couldn't stop praising Da Jiang. Yu Songyuan patted Da Jiang's head and praised him, saying: "Well done, you're really awesome!" But Da Jiang didn't get excited like he usually did, instead he sat quietly, listening carefully to something.

  Yu Songyuan hastily grabbed the excited Zhang teacher's hand, while Zhang and Liu looked at him in confusion. Yu Songyuan pointed to Da Jiang, then raised his index finger to his mouth, signaling them not to make a sound.

  "What danger has been discovered?" Everyone quickly quieted down and stared at the general with tension.