One of the two shepherds was herding the sheep, and the other was going to sleep. Ten points for herding sheep and eight points for working at night. The two of them could work in shifts and swap jobs. One of them often worked for a day and a night or two nights and two days. If the dogs were well kept, they could still get a good night's sleep in spring. However, they were nomads in summer, autumn, and winter. Without the earth and stone sheep pen to receive lambs in spring, they could not stop the wolves at all by relying on the wind-blocking wall made of ox carts, fences, and large felt. If the wolves were serious, it would definitely be a tough job at night. They would not be able to sleep all night. They would have to walk around the sheep with a flashlight and shout at the top of their lungs with the dogs. Wu Liji said that the main purpose of working at night was to prevent wolves. Every year, the farm paid about one-third of the total work points expenditure. This was another huge expense that the ranch paid the wolves. Working at night was the main occupation of the Mongolian women in the pasturing area. Women worked at night and did heavy housework during the day. They rarely slept all year round. People walked during the day, while wolves fought at night. When people were tired, wolves were spirited. The wolves of the grassland stirred up the people of the grassland, causing them to be restless. They dragged down family after family, generation after generation of women. Thus, the housewives of yurts mostly fell ill and had short lifespans, but they had also refined some strong women who could not be dragged down and had good bodies. The grassland wolves reproduced too densely, but the grassland population could not increase by a large margin year after year. However, there had never been a large-scale reclamation of wasteland for food due to overpopulation in the ancient Mongolian grasslands. It was the grassland wolves who controlled the grassland population to develop comfortably.
Sheep were the foundation of animal husbandry in the grasslands. Raising sheep meant that they had mutton to eat, sheepskin to wear, sheep dung to burn, and two work points to earn. The basic life of the primitive nomads in the grasslands was guaranteed. However, the job of a shepherd was extremely boring and monotonous. It was tiring and tiring. From morning till night, he would be alone with the sheep in the vast green fields or snowfields. If he looked from a high place, he would not see a single person in a radius of dozens of miles. No one spoke. They did not dare to concentrate on their studies. They had to be on guard against the sneak attacks of wolves. Every day, there was always the feeling of loneliness and desolation that Su Wu had when he was herding sheep. The feeling of being like a wild grass lingered and invaded the incurable. Chen Zhen often felt that he was old, very old, even older than Su Wu. The grassland had not changed at all for thousands of years. Humans were still nomadic, still competing with wolves for food. The competition was so cruel and difficult to determine the winner. Chen Zhen often felt like he was a cave-man from Beijing who had wandered into the grasslands and met an enemy who was a wolf. If one day, in the morning fog of the grassland, Su Wu holding a scepter or an apeman wearing animal skin walked towards him, he would not be surprised. Perhaps when they met, the topic they talked about was still wolves. The time in the Eilun Grassland was like a fossil clock, not a single minute was leaked out. What was it that made the grassland's face freeze and maintain its original appearance from ancient times? Could it be another wolf?
Herding the sheep had an advantage for Chen Zhen. When he was alone on the grassland, he could always find time to think quietly and let his thoughts fly freely. He had brought two large boxes of famous works from Beijing, plus a box of selected history books and forbidden books from Yang Ke. As a shepherd, he could learn the rumination method of sheep to digest them. At night, he would swallow ancient and modern classic books like a sheep under the oil lamp. During the day, he would be like a sheep beside a flock of sheep, ruminating on the essence of Chinese and foreign cultures. He chewed the straw carefully and pondered it over and over again. He felt that the old paper was as fat and juicy as grass. During the day when he was herding sheep, Chen Zhen spent most of his time chewing and thinking. Sometimes, he could read a few pages at a glance, but he had to be sure that there were no wolves around before he dared to read. Could it be that, as the old man Billig said, to understand the grasslands and the Mongolians, one had to understand the wolves? Could it be that the reason why the grassland remained unchanged for ten thousand years and stagnated, and the grassland people had been unable to develop into a big race, was also related to wolves? He thought that it was possible. At least, the wolf pack's attack caused the pasture to suffer a calculable and incalculable loss every year, making it impossible for animal husbandry and human industry to accumulate primitive resources. It caused humans and animals to remain at the simple reproduction level, maintaining the original state and primitive state. They could not free up manpower and financial resources to develop trade, commerce, agriculture, let alone industry. The problems involved in wolves were really too extensive and profound…However, it was really too difficult to understand wolves. People were in the light, but wolves were in the dark. The wolf's howl could be heard from afar, but not from near. These days, the thought that lingered in Chen Zhen's heart had become stronger and stronger. He really wanted to catch a wolf cub and raise it next to the yurt. From night to day, from young to big, he wanted to see the wolf until he was satisfied and thoroughly.
He remembered the female wolf that had taken the lamb away a few days ago and the wolf cubs that were hiding in some unknown hole.
That day, he had just observed the situation around the sheep and felt that it was safe. He lay on the grass and stared at the grassland eagle circling in the blue sky. Suddenly, he heard a slight commotion in the flock of sheep. He hurriedly sat up and saw a big wolf rush into the flock of sheep. It bit the back of a lamb's neck, then tilted its head and threw the lamb on its back. With its head tilted, it carried the lamb on its back and ran along the ravine in the direction of Black Stone Mountain. With a whoosh, it disappeared. Lambs loved to bleat. Their voices were bright and crisp. The cry of a lamb would often cause a chain reaction among hundreds of lambs and ewe, causing the grassland to shake. However, the wolf's mouth held the back of the lamb's neck tightly, so that the lamb's throat could not make a sound. The mother wolf slipped away silently, and the flock of sheep was as calm as ever. Most of the sheep did not know what had happened. Perhaps even the mother lamb did not know that she had lost her child. If Chen Zhen's hearing and alertness were not high, he would be like that silly ewe, waiting until the afternoon to find out that the sheep was missing. Chen Zhen was shocked as if he had encountered a cat burglar with special skills. He watched helplessly as the thief snatched the wallet away from under his eyes.
After catching his breath, Chen Zhen rode his horse to the place where the wolf had attacked the lamb. He found a pit in the grass there, and the grass in the pit was all flattened. Obviously, the female wolf did not approach the flock of sheep from afar. If that was the case, Chen Zhen might have been able to discover it. The mother wolf had been lying in ambush in the grass pit for a long time. It waited until the sheep approached the grass pit before suddenly jumping out. Chen Zhen looked at the sun and calculated that this wolf had been lying in ambush for more than three hours. In this season, the only wolves that caught live lambs were the female wolves. This was a living teaching material for the wolf cubs to catch live animals. It was also an ideal meat for the wolf cubs that had not yet opened their eyes and weaned. It was fresh and easily digested.
Chen Zhen was filled with anger, but he was also secretly glad. These days, he and Yang Ke often threw lambs away from time to time. The two of them had always suspected that eagles or prairie eagles had stolen them. The Snitches moved so fast that they could swoop down and grab the lambs into the sky when no one was looking. However, an eagle catching a lamb was a very threatening low-altitude dive. It would scare the entire flock of sheep into running and shouting, and it was impossible for the people guarding the flock not to notice. The two of them could not figure out the mystery. It was not until Chen Zhen saw the she-wolf's technique of catching lambs and the grass pit that he finally solved the case. Otherwise, the she-wolf would continue to make them throw lambs.
No matter how the herdsmen reminded and warned him, Chen Zhen could not guarantee that he would not make any mistakes. Soldiers had no fixed tactics, and the grassland wolves would use all tactics according to local conditions. Wolves did not have the wings of prairie eagles, but the real cat burglars on the prairie were wolves. It would make you dumbstruck again and again, and it would also make you pay more attention and grow your mind.
Chen Zhen gently scratched Erlang's neck, but it still did not show much gratitude.
As the snow drifted in the air, Chen Zhen entered the bag. He, Yang Ke, and Liang Jianzhong surrounded the iron cylinder dry dung stove, drinking morning tea, eating meat and milk tofu sent by Gasmai. Taking advantage of this moment of leisure, Chen Zhen began to persuade the two of them to dig out the wolf's den with him. He thought that his reason was very strong. In the future, we will have to fight with wolves. Only by raising a small wolf can we truly understand the wolf's temper and know ourselves and the enemy.
Liang Jianzhong was grilling meat on the stove and said with a troubled expression," Picking up wolf pups was not a joke. A few days ago, Lanmu Zhabu and the others dug out a female wolf from the wolf hole. The female wolf played with his life and almost bit off his arm. There were three cowherds and seven or eight big dogs. It took them a lot of effort to kill the she-wolf. The wolf cave was too deep. They changed two groups of people and dug for two days before they dug out the wolf cubs. If a sheep protecting a lamb dared to attack people, wouldn't a mother wolf protecting her cub fight to the death with people? We don't even have guns. Can we deal with them with shovels and horses? Digging a wolf hole is not a light job. The last time I helped Sanjie dig a wolf hole, I dug for two days but didn't reach the end. In the end, I had to light a fire, fill it with smoke, and seal the hole. Who knows if I could smoke the wolf cubs to death? Sanjie said that the female wolf would block the smoke, and there was a vent in the cave... It was even more difficult to find a cave with wolf cubs. The herdsman said that the wolf cave was empty and often moved. It's so difficult for the herdsmen to dig up a nest of wolf cubs. Can we do it?
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