Chapter 64: The Annihilated Jackals

Dhole pack refers to the dhole, a highly gregarious, fierce, and combative canid species named for its dog-like appearance, though its ecological status far surpasses that of ordinary dogs. Their group collaboration skills and aggression make them apex predators in the mountain forests, akin to wolf packs, and they can be considered a type of wolf, also known as red dogs.

"Brother, what's that sound?"

Tiezhu heard it too.

"A pack of dholes. It seems they are not hunters hunting, but rather treating the hunters as their prey."

Zhang Hacheng quickened his pace.

A sharp, continuous howl echoed endlessly; this was the dhole alpha issuing commands. The presence of an alpha indicated a large dhole pack.

"Just use the box cannons. These creatures are small, so box cannons are the right fit."

Zhang Hacheng drew the two Mauser C96 pistols from his body.

The heaviest dhole weighed at most around forty catties, with normal ones hovering around thirty catties. He wouldn't be afraid of them even in close combat, but dholes hunted in packs, and their bite force could reach over four hundred catties, so carelessness was out of the question.

Dhole meat was also good stuff, and their pelts were little different from wolf pelts.

Soon, they spotted a dhole running through the snow. Less than a meter long, resembling a large dog, it had a short muzzle, broad head, short and round ears, a tail similar to a fox's, and an overall reddish-brown coat with black-tipped hairs.

"Are these things worth anything?"

Ergou watched the continuously appearing dholes, eager to try.

"Valuable, no different from wolves. The meat tastes pretty good too, rumored to be similar to dog meat." Zhang Hacheng spotted the target of the dholes' encirclement, which indeed turned out to be two hunters.

Both hunters had climbed up into trees, while dhole after dhole kept leaping and climbing upwards. Two of them had already been shot dead.

"Bang!"

Zhang Hacheng raised his hand and fired, and a dhole dropped to the ground instantly.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

Three shots in rapid succession brought down three nearby dholes, causing the dhole pack to scatter in all directions.

Ergou and Tiezhu also raised their rifles and began firing.

"Dad, it's the forest rangers!" exclaimed a hunter hiding in a tree with pleasant surprise, at which point Zhang Hacheng and the others noticed that this person was actually a girl.

"Three brothers, you must be careful! There are over thirty dholes here, and there's an alpha hiding in the back just howling!"

Before she could finish, her father had already shouted a warning. They had encountered a large dhole pack, complete with an alpha calling the shots from afar.

Yet, to Zhang Hacheng and his companions, caution was entirely unnecessary; their firepower was terrifyingly strong.

"Steady breathing, even pulls on the trigger, don't get distracted by external disturbances, aim with intent, snap-shoot without overthinking, rely on your instincts." Having an abundance of ammunition breeds indulgence; Zhang Hacheng stopped shooting altogether and began teaching Tiezhu and Ergou on the spot.

He only fired a couple of rounds whenever Tiezhu and Ergou were reloading their magazines.

"Hacheng, the dhole alpha is hiding over there!"

Ergou located the alpha's position. It was quite far away. Unlike a wolf pack's alpha, which was usually huge and stood out in a conspicuous spot, this dhole alpha was actually hiding behind a tree to issue commands.

"Don't hit it yet. Dholes are different from wolf packs; it won't run until there are only a few of them left alive. We're going to wipe out this entire pack."

The difference between dholes and wolf packs lay in their extreme cruelty. Even if they couldn't finish eating, they would bite and kill whatever they could. With them in the vicinity, once they set their sights on a herd of red deer, the herd would either be completely wiped out or forced to migrate.

Wolf packs would only select one or two targets at a time.

For the sake of the nearby red deer herd, Zhang Hacheng had no intention of letting this pack of dholes go. He drew his Springfield rifle and began picking off dholes running in the distance. Soon, dead dholes littered the ground.

"Almost done. Your turn."

Zhang Hacheng raised his Springfield rifle and took aim at the dhole alpha hiding behind the tree. At a distance of over a hundred paces, it was exposing only a tiny head while howling, completely oblivious to how many of its underlings had died, or perhaps stubbornly determined to fight to the bitter end.

"Bang!"

With a single gunshot, the alpha's howling was cut short. Chaos ensued among the dholes, and a few managed to escape.

"Stop shooting. Let a few live so they can lead the pups."

Zhang Hacheng signaled Ergou and Tiezhu.

There were a few dhole pups hiding in the distance. If every last one of these dholes were killed, those pups wouldn't survive either.

Ergou lowered his rifle, looking with lingering regret at the fleeing dholes.

In less than a minute, almost the entire dhole pack had been wiped out by them, and the alpha had been killed with a headshot. The smell of blood hung heavy everywhere.

"Two brothers, you can come down now."

Zhang Hacheng did not put away his rifle; in the deep mountains and old forests, vigilance was always necessary.

"Thank you, three brothers! Thank you!" The older hunter climbed down first, hesitated for a moment as he placed his Arisaka rifle against the tree, and then stepped forward to express his gratitude.

He could perceive Zhang Hacheng's guard and naturally understood it.

"Where are you folks from? Forest rangers or hunters? How did you end up out here?"

Zhang Hacheng asked with curiosity.

"My name is Li Laosi, and that's my eldest girl up there. We're hunters from the Heishan Production Brigade. With hardly any grain left at home, we had no choice but to venture into the mountains to take our chances. Good thing we ran into you three, or we'd have ended up as food for these dholes."

Li Laosi was dark-skinned and lean, looking every bit like a weathered veteran hunter.

"So you're from the Heishan Brigade. We're from the Chentang Sanliqu Brigade." Zhang Hacheng knew the Heishan Brigade; it was the brigade with the smallest population in their Shicheng Commune, numbering seemingly only three or four hundred members.

At Zhang Hacheng's signal, Tiezhu and Ergou went to gather the dholes. Carcasses were dragged together, and any that weren't quite dead yet received a swift kick.

"Ah, Chentang Sanliqu! Your brigade is quite well-off. How come you're out here in the mountains?" Li Laosi asked, slightly surprised.

Well-off?

Compared to the Heishan Brigade, they certainly could be considered well-off.

After chatting for a bit, Zhang Hacheng looked up at the girl still lingering in the tree and gestured, "You might as well come down. It's pretty cold up there; be careful not to freeze."

The tree was covered in ice, and trying to climb down in that state could result in freezing to death.

"She sprained her ankle while running earlier," Li Laosi explained awkwardly.

Once Li Laosi helped the girl down, Zhang Hacheng estimated she was around seventeen or eighteen. She was quite pretty, despite her tanned skin and the frostbite covering her face and hands. Standing at least one meter seventy-five tall, she wore her hair in a thick braid, and her large, dark eyes kept staring fixedly at the dholes on the ground.

Ergou and Tiezhu had already drawn their bayonets and were gutting the dholes.

Turning around, Zhang Hacheng saw Li Laosi about to drink the blood of a dhole and quickly intervened, "Don't drink that! There are bacteria and viruses in the blood. Tiezhu, Tiezhu, hand me the canteen inside your coat."

Li Laosi froze, looking somewhat embarrassed.

For a hunter, drinking the blood of prey was standard practice. Bacteria and viruses were entirely foreign concepts to him.

Tiezhu wiped his hands, handed over the military-green canteen he had been keeping warm against his chest, and also pulled out a cloth-wrapped bundle from inside his jacket. Scratching his head, he said, "Mom made these pancakes for me. They're good."

Well, would you look at that—he even brought field rations.

Zhang Hacheng didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Have a sip of water, it's still a bit warm, and eat some pancakes. I could hear your stomachs growling from here." To keep it from freezing, Tiezhu always carried the canteen pressed against his body; otherwise, hanging outside, it would have turned to ice in no time.

Zhang Hacheng shoved the canteen and the pancakes into Li Laosi's hands.

"I couldn't possibly! No, no, you saved our lives, how could we take your food?" Li Laosi repeatedly waved his hands, though his throat bobbed as he swallowed hard.

His daughter was also constantly swallowing, clearly ravenous.

"Just eat it, line your stomachs."

Zhang Hacheng pressed the pancakes firmly into his hands.

Father and daughter must have been in the mountains for quite some time. After offering profuse thanks, they began to drink the water. After a few sips, Li Laosi broke off a piece of the flatbread, tore it in half, shared it with his daughter, and they began eating in tiny, appreciative bites.

"What do we do with all these?"

Ergou's hands were growing numb from eviscerating the carcasses.

Once hollowed out, each carcass weighed around twenty-some catties, but with twenty-four dholes here, the total meat amounted to well over six hundred catties.

"If you can't carry it all, could... could you share a few with us? We don't want the pelts, just a bit of meat to take back and eat." After hesitating for a moment, Li Laosi approached Zhang Hacheng, having realized that Zhang Hacheng was the one calling the shots among the three.

"Of course you can, but how are you going to get back?" Li Laosi's daughter's ankle was swollen like a steamed bun; just making the journey back was questionable, let alone hauling meat. Zhang Hacheng was pondering this very problem.

"That's simple. Have Tiezhu carry her on his back, and we can carry the meat behind them."

Just as Li Laosi wore a troubled expression, Ergou chimed in with a grin.

Hearing this, Tiezhu looked up in bewilderment.

What?

He hadn't quite understood, but Zhang Hacheng had. He glanced at Li Laosi's daughter. She looked about seventeen or eighteen, tall and good-looking. If she were to become Tiezhu's wife, it actually seemed like a pretty good match. Tiezhu was already twenty, right at the age for marriage.

Only, he didn't know if Tiezhu would be willing, nor if the girl was already betrothed.

"Brother Li, is your daughter married?" Zhang Hacheng thought better of beating around the bush and decided to be direct.

The girl, right in the middle of eating her pancake, instantly blushed, her ears turning fiery red.

Li Laosi was no fool; how could he miss the implication? Far from being displeased, he was overjoyed and replied, "My girl isn't married! She's exceptionally hardworking—she does all the chores at home and volunteers for the heavy work in the production team too. It's just that our family is too poor, so nobody dared ask for her hand. If she could marry into a good life, thank the heavens above!"

The first part of his sentence was addressed to Zhang Hacheng, while the latter part was directed straight at Tiezhu.

His meaning couldn't have been more straightforward.

Tiezhu looked honest and sturdy, stood tall and strong, wore a leather jacket that must have cost a pretty penny, and carried flour pancakes as trail rations. Li Laosi would be more than thrilled to secure such a life for his daughter, sparing her from starving to death at home with him.

Hearing this, Zhang Hacheng sighed inwardly. Finding a wife in this era was remarkably simple—this practically amounted to picking up a bride in the mountains.

Though nothing was explicitly finalized, both parties were instantly on the same page. The blushing girl remained completely silent, while Tiezhu silently went right back to gutting his dhole.

"I know how to set bones. Let me look at your foot." Zhang Hacheng walked over to the girl and squatted down.

The girl lowered her head and extended her foot.

"What's your name? I'm Zhang Hacheng, that's Ergou, and the one who gave you the pancake is Tiezhu—Chen Tiezhu." As Zhang Hacheng introduced everyone, he gently pressed her swollen ankle. It was indeed a dislocation, but nothing too serious.

"My name is Li Youniang." Clearly understanding the unspoken intent between Zhang Hacheng and her father, Li Youniang cast a shy, fleeting glance at Tiezhu, her face turning even redder.

*Crack!*

With a quick flick of his wrist, Zhang Hacheng set the bone, then stood up and said, "There. Still, you should avoid walking on it too much for the next couple of days, and it'll be back to normal soon."

Bone-setting was a required skill for special forces operatives; after all, it could save a life or facilitate a kill.

"Ah?"

Li Youniang hadn't even processed what happened.