Free Web NovelChapter 270: Chapter 232: An Ingenious Plan to Snare the Black Bear
Although the workers didn’t quite understand Zhang Yuanmin’s poem, it was enough to stun them into silence.
Looking at Zhang Yuanmin sitting in the glow of the kerosene lamp and recalling the exploits he’d described, the workers all came to the same conclusion. ’This man is one to befriend, not to make an enemy of.’
Seeing everyone staring blankly at him from the doorway, Zhang Yuanmin gave a self-satisfied smile, swung his legs off the heated platform bed, and said to Jiang Jinyou and the others, "Elder Jiang, you few, come over here."
The "few" Zhang Yuanmin was referring to were, of course, the men who would be joining him to raid the Black Bear’s Den.
Jiang Jinyou, Ma Xiaoguang, Li Yuan, and Li Wei stepped forward. Under the envious gazes of the other workers, they followed Zhang Yuanmin to one side and gathered around him.
The rest of the men were tactful enough not to crowd them.
From the small huddle, one could hear Zhang Yuanmin’s low murmurs, punctuated by gasps of amazement from the other four.
This only made the onlookers more curious. ’We must have been blind!’ they thought, regretting not having tried to curry favor with Zhang Yuanmin sooner.
As the four men surrounded him, Zhang Yuanmin was inwardly pleased. ’This whole act is just to win over a few people,’ he thought. ’Later, they can help me carry out my brilliant plans, and we can make money by raiding that Black Bear’s Den together.’
Zhang Yuanmin said to the four, "Alright, brothers, let’s get this straight. We can consider this a group hunt, which makes me the Leader. If you go with me, you all have to listen to me."
The four men readily agreed.
Zhang Yuanmin continued, "Since this whole plan is my idea, if we manage to get the Bear Gall, I get an extra share."
The four still agreed.
Seeing no objections, Zhang Yuanmin smiled. "We’ll take this morning off. We’ll head over, kill it, and come right back. It won’t get in the way of our afternoon work."
The four were even more agreeable to this. Their logging and hauling work didn’t have strict quotas. Missing a morning wasn’t a big deal; it just meant losing a morning’s pay.
But when they thought about the Black Bear Gall, what was one morning’s wage in comparison?
Zhang Yuanmin continued, "In a bit, I’ll go to the Log Pile Yard and borrow a length of Oil Silk Rope from Liu Hanshan of my village. Then we’ll set a snare outside the Black Bear’s Den. We’ll lure it out, and once it’s caught in the snare and can’t escape, the five of us will stab it to death!"
"What?" Li Yuan immediately retorted. "A snare for a Black Bear? You think that can hold it?"
Back then, snares were the drag-log type. They were like the snares used for bobcats, just infinitely larger.
But a snare like that couldn’t hold a large wild boar, let alone a Black Bear.
Even with a strong Oil Silk Rope, it couldn’t withstand the constant struggling of a large wild boar or a Black Bear. They would snap one strand after another until the entire rope gave way.
Seeing Li Yuan question him again, Zhang Yuanmin shot him an annoyed glare. "Just listen to me first," he said. "Once we snare the Black Bear, it won’t be able to break free right away."
"But what if it runs off dragging the log?" The question this time came not from Li Yuan, but from Li Wei. The two were cousins.
As soon as Li Wei spoke, the other three men all looked at Zhang Yuanmin doubtfully.
So why was it called a drag-log snare?
One end of the snare was a loop, while the other was tied to a thick log found nearby.
This way, even if the animal could run through the mountains dragging the log, the mountains were full of trees and rocks. The horizontal log would eventually get snagged on something, trapping the prey.
But a Black Bear was a different story. What if it dragged the log and charged someone? That person would be a goner.
Zhang Yuanmin smiled faintly and pointed at Li Wei. "I anticipated that concern." He then turned to Jiang Jinyou. "We’ll split up. Elder Jiang, you take the sled to our work site and drag over that log we left behind yesterday. We’ll tie the snare to that. Let’s see if the bear can move it then."
"That’ll work!" Ma Xiaoguang exclaimed. "A log like that must weigh three to five hundred pounds! There’s no way a Black Bear could move it."
"Damn right, that’s a brilliant move!" This time, even Li Yuan, who had repeatedly questioned Zhang Yuanmin, was completely won over.
’Zhang Yuanmin’s plan is ingenious,’ he thought. ’The Oil Silk Rope won’t break immediately, and with a three- to five-hundred-pound log dragging behind it, the Black Bear won’t be able to charge. It’ll have a hard time even hurting anyone.’
’That way, the five of us can rush in with our knives, aim for its heart from behind, and finish it off in a few stabs.’
Li Yuan looked at Zhang Yuanmin with pure admiration. "Brother Zhang, I’ve worked in these mountains for years, and I’ve never heard of anyone setting a snare like this. You’re incredible! How does your mind even work?"
The truth was, most hunters would use a drag-log weighing only a few dozen pounds. They were content with snaring a roe deer or a wild boar of one or two hundred pounds.
After all, the meat from an oversized boar wasn’t very tasty, so it wasn’t worth the trouble. As for a Black Bear, even if snared, it might just drag the log up a tree. The trapper who set the snare wouldn’t dare approach it without a gun.
And if you had a gun, why would you bother with snares in the first place?
That was why, from ancient times to the present day, no one in these mountains had ever set a snare in such a way.
"Elder Zhang, you’re really something else!" Jiang Jinyou gave a thumbs-up, nearly poking Zhang Yuanmin in the face with it.
"Exactly," Li Yuan chimed in, laying on the flattery. "Brother Zhang, your brain is one of a kind. There’s no one as smart as you in any of the villages around here."
"Heh heh..." Zhang Yuanmin chuckled, addressing not only the four men before him but also the crowd of workers nearby. "You brothers are out felling trees in the mountains every day. If any of you spot a Bear Den, you come find me. Doesn’t matter if it’s a Celestial Granary or an Earth Granary—you just leave it to your Brother Zhang!"
Seeing how Zhang Yuanmin had won over Li Yuan’s group with just a few words, the onlookers were now utterly convinced that he was no ordinary man. They all began to hope that Zhang Yuanmin might take them along to hunt a Black Bear someday.
Before long, it was time for the workers’ meal. When the old cook brought over the food, one of them picked out the largest cornbread bun for "his" Brother Zhang, yelling, "From now on, the biggest cornbread bun is for our Brother Zhang!"
Another worker was stirring the large basin with a ladle, determined to scoop up the thickest part of the porridge for his Brother Zhang, even though it was cornmeal porridge and stirring it didn’t make much of a difference.
Amid the workers’ fawning, Zhang Yuanmin finished his breakfast. He wiped his mouth, glanced at the four men who had stayed behind, and finally let his gaze rest on Jiang Jinyou.
"Elder Zhang, should I head out now?" Jiang Jinyou asked, taking the hint when he saw Zhang Yuanmin looking at him.
Zhang Yuanmin slowly got off the heated bed, picked up the horsewhip leaning against it, and handed it to Jiang Jinyou. "Elder Jiang," he said, "haul the log towards Logging Site 3, and then to the area near the Black Bear’s Den that Ma Xiaoguang mentioned. Don’t get the location wrong."
"What kind of thing is that to say?" Jiang Jinyou snatched the whip back, annoyed. "I drive a sled every single day. You think I’m going to get lost?"
He paused, then added, "But I’ll give you this, Elder Zhang, that’s a good head on your shoulders. We have to haul this log to the Logging Camp anyway. After we get the Black Bear, we can just take it straight there. It’s not far."
"Exactly."
"Alright, I’m off then!" Jiang Jinyou said and turned to leave, but Zhang Yuanmin grabbed his arm.
"Wait," Zhang Yuanmin said. "Take the Oil Silk Rope with you, too."
Jiang Jinyou frowned. "What about the four of you? Just carry it. You’re not going that far."
Zhang Yuanmin shook his head. "We can’t be carrying that thing. Stop with the pointless talk and come with us."
With that, Zhang Yuanmin personally led Jiang Jinyou and the other three men to the Log Pile Yard to find Liu Hanshan and borrow an Oil Silk Rope.
Since they were from the same village and Zhang Yuanmin promised to return it by the afternoon, Liu Hanshan gave him a length of Oil Silk Rope, just under ten meters, without a second thought.
Once the Oil Silk Rope was tied to the sled, Jiang Jinyou cracked his whip and rode off. Zhang Yuanmin then led the other three men out of the Logging Camp on foot.
The moment they were clear of the Logging Camp, Zhang Yuanmin ordered the men, "Find some sturdy branches. I want all of you to mount your knives on them!"
They had agreed that morning to follow Zhang Yuanmin’s orders once they were out. Though they didn’t know why he wanted them to prepare their pole-knives so early, Ma Xiaoguang and the other two obeyed, cutting branches and mounting their Invasion Blades.
Once all four had their knives mounted, they spread out in a line with Zhang Yuanmin in the center and the other three flanking him, and proceeded up the path.
At that same moment, a truck could be seen slowly approaching in the distance.
