Chapter Sixteen: The Foraging Boar

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The wild boars in the Changbai Mountains were Manchurian wild boars, a subspecies of the Eurasian wild boar known as the Ussuri wild boar. They were among the largest wild boar subspecies in existence. In China, they could be found only in the Changbai Mountains and the Greater and Lesser Khingan ranges.

It looked as though this one was gnawing on frozen mushrooms growing on a shrub. For wild boars struggling to find food in winter, frozen mushrooms in the snow were a rare delicacy.

“I’ll go over and shoot it. Tiezhu, stay here and don’t move.” Zhang Huacheng gestured to Tiezhu, then raised his rifle and quietly approached the boar.

He needed to get close enough for a clean kill—a single shot to the head.

Manchurian wild boars were extremely aggressive and astonishingly large, becoming even more dangerous when food was scarce in winter. Their sharp tusks, powerful charges, thick hides, and agility made them one of the most dangerous animals in the Northeast.

This one must weigh at least three hundred pounds.

As he drew closer, Zhang Huacheng held his breath. Wild boars were highly vigilant, but he had now reached effective shooting range.

He could see the boar’s head as it continued devouring the hard-won delicacy.

Taking aim, Zhang Huacheng raised his Type 38 rifle.

“Bang!”

At the crack of the rifle, the boar staggered. Then it let out a shrill, agonized squeal and charged forward at terrifying speed.

After rushing more than a dozen yards, however, it plunged headfirst into the snow.

Zhang Huacheng quickly worked another round into the chamber and was about to fire again when he let out a breath of relief. He drew his bayonet and ran over.

The boar had taken a bullet through the head. Blood poured from the wound as its body twitched and struggled in the snow. Without hesitation, Zhang Huacheng drove his bayonet deep into its belly.

Tiezhu hurried over, delighted. “We got it!”

Zhang Huacheng stabbed it several more times. Only after he was certain it had stopped breathing did he relax. He took out his Swiss Army knife and said to Tiezhu, “Keep watch. If you notice anything, call me immediately.”

The smell of blood would attract wolves.

But if he did not process the carcass quickly, the blood would seep into the meat and ruin its flavor.

“Right!” Tiezhu nodded, constantly sweeping his gaze across the surroundings.

Zhang Huacheng expertly bled the boar, then slit open its belly and gutted it.

This was a full-grown Manchurian wild boar weighing more than three hundred pounds. If the bullet had not gone straight into its head, killing it would have been extremely difficult.

The snow beneath the carcass had turned bright red. Zhang Huacheng pulled out the steaming entrails one by one, washing the edible organs with clean snow.

“Tiezhu, there’s an ax in the basket. Bring it here and split the boar so we can carry it back!”

Once he had nearly finished processing the carcass, he called Tiezhu over.

Tiezhu brought the ax and, at Zhang Huacheng’s signal, brought it down with all his strength.

In only a few minutes, the adult wild boar—several hundred pounds in total—had been split into two massive halves. The head and the less desirable organs were abandoned where they lay.

“Brother, we’re throwing away the head too? I can carry it back.”

Tiezhu could not bear to leave the head behind.

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He kept looking back, clearly wanting to take it with them.

Zhang Huacheng had also filled a basket with the boar’s entrails. Holding his rifle, he urged him on. “Keep moving. Even if you can carry it, we have to leave it here. This will slow the wolves down.”

The wolves were coming.

He had heard their howls gradually drawing closer. If the wind was blowing toward them, a wolf’s keen sense of smell could detect blood from more than ten miles away.

Their sense of smell was especially sharp in winter.

Sure enough, not long after they left, the sound of wolves tearing into flesh and growling rose from behind them.

It was already the middle of the night when Zhang Huacheng and Tiezhu returned. Wang Lin had not slept at all. She had been pacing anxiously inside the house and only let out a sigh of relief when she heard the knock and the familiar voice.

When she saw the wild boar Tiezhu had carried back, she was stunned. The wild boars in the mountains were terrifying—even the mountain patrol guards did not dare approach them.

They had actually killed one?

After closing the door, she hurried inside. Each of the two halves of the carcass on the floor appeared to weigh more than a hundred pounds.

Zhang Huacheng spread two burlap sacks across the floor, threw the frozen carcass halves onto them, and began removing the boar’s hide by the most primitive method.

“There’s quite a bit of fat. Linlin, bring me a basin!”

After the hide was peeled away, he found a layer of fat about half an inch thick beneath it. Zhang Huacheng was very pleased. For a wild boar in winter to have that much fat was already fortunate.

Wang Lin hurried off and brought back a basin.

Using his knife, Zhang Huacheng sliced away the layer of fat and dropped it into the basin. He stripped the fat from both halves of the carcass, even scraping away every last bit clinging to the hide. Before long, he had managed to collect half a basin.

“Put it away for now. We’ll render it into lard tomorrow,” Zhang Huacheng said with a smile.

The lard would be rendered with water, which would yield a substantial amount.

“Mm-hmm!” Wang Lin nodded repeatedly, delighted.

Zhang Huacheng briefly boiled the two hides, then lifted them out and scraped away the stiff bristles. Wild boar hide was thick and durable—valuable stuff.

Should he sell the hides to the purchasing station or keep them?

After thinking it over, he decided to sell them. Anything he needed could be exchanged for money and bought later. But if he kept wild boar hides, someone with ulterior motives might report him, forcing him to explain himself. If he could not explain the matter properly, it would cause trouble.

“Tiezhu, go home and get some sleep. Head to the county town early in the morning.”

What they had to sell today was far more than what they had sold the day before.

Still, meat was definitely easier to sell than fish and crabs.

Tiezhu nodded, then scratched his head and began mumbling, unable to get the words out.

“Don’t tell me you want to sleep here? There aren’t any quilts or bedding on the spare kang in my house. Still, I can give you my military greatcoat to use as a blanket. The kang will stay heated all night, so you won’t be too cold.”

Seeing Tiezhu’s hesitation, Zhang Huacheng guessed that he was afraid he would not wake up in the morning. After all, they had no way of knowing the exact time.

“I…I want to go to my mother’s place now…”

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Tiezhu lowered his head, mumbling awkwardly.

Zhang Huacheng understood. He smiled and said, “All right. You can take some wild boar meat with you.”

He realized that Tiezhu wanted to bring some meat to his mother, so he did not refuse. He cut off roughly four or five pounds of meat and several bones.

“Be careful tonight. I don’t know whether there’ll be patrols in Fuzhuang Brigade. Just make sure you don’t get caught.”

“And tell your mother that the wild boar meat is for your own family. She must not take it out and give it away.”

Zhang Huacheng handed him the meat and offered one last warning.

Getting caught poaching would cause serious trouble.

“Thank you, Brother!”

Tiezhu happily took the meat and ran off.

Only after Tiezhu disappeared from sight did Zhang Huacheng close the door and return inside. There were still roughly two hundred pounds of wild boar meat that could be sold, and he planned to take all of it to the county town.

“What if Tiezhu gets caught?” Wang Lin asked anxiously.

Poaching was a serious offense.

“It’ll be fine. Even if they catch him, he won’t say anything. And even if he does, he’ll say his father, Chen Youde, told him to deliver it. I taught him that when I took him to the coast to gather seafood.”

“Even if he is caught, it won’t be a disaster—just a little troublesome. Everyone knows Tiezhu is simple-minded.”

“The person who’ll really have a headache if he gets caught is Chen Youde. Tiezhu may be simple, but does that mean Chen Youde is?”

Wang Lin could not help laughing at that.

“I’m going to bury the meat and organs in the snow to freeze them. The smell is filling the whole house.”

Wild boar meat had a slightly gamey odor, and burying it in the snow would help. It would also keep the meat fresh.

Zhang Huacheng carried the meat out into the yard.

Wang Lin brought out a shovel to help.

A long, mournful wolf howl drifted from the mountains.

“Wolves,” Wang Lin said, frightened.

“It’s all right.”

But Zhang Huacheng’s heart stirred. As expected, the kill had drawn the wolves into the nearby mountains. Wolf pelts were valuable; a single one could sell for several dozen yuan.

Wolf meat was valuable too.

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