He was betrayed at the beginning, from a cake seller to a wealthy person

After searching Squirrel's house, it was almost noon. A few people took out the dry food they brought and ate together, sat against the tree and rested for a while, and continued to patrol the mountains in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, several people walked to a spring. The entire spring was covered with thick ice and was frozen solid. Lu Yan took one look and wanted to leave. Unexpectedly, several people went to the sled to dig out tools for a long time and were ready to dig directly.

Lu Yan asked from behind: "Are you going fishing?"

Wu San responded: "The mountain catfish in this mountain is very delicious. It's a good time to freeze over. It's easier to catch than when it melts."

Mountain catfish, also called burbot, likes to live in clear waters and eat small fish and shrimps. It can often be seen in clear springs in the mountains. Carnivorous fish are very fatty and have a unique aroma. Mountain catfish is very popular because of its plump and delicious taste and few spines.

The first point of ice fishing is to find a place, find fish first, and then make holes. Generally, choose a place with a water depth of two to three meters, facing the sun and leeward, where the water temperature is relatively stable. After the hole was dug, a few people took out the prepared fish food, mixed with rice noodles, earthworms and fish worms, and made a nest in the ice hole.

Why is ice fishing more advantageous than ordinary fishing to a certain extent? It is because after the water surface freezes, the entire water area is deprived of oxygen. Digging an ice hole allows sunlight to shine in while also absorbing some oxygen, which is equivalent to creating a sunny and oxygen-rich area. Moreover, there are prepared fish and insects in this place, and many fish will slowly move closer here.

They were all veterans of ice fishing. After waiting for a while, the fish jumped out one after another, including some small miscellaneous fish that Lu Yan didn't recognize, and a lot of mountain catfish. The last few people caught a sleigh's worth of fish.

It was almost evening, and they hurriedly drove the sled back to the cabin before it got dark. Lu Yan picked up a few small miscellaneous fish, and then went to deal with the mountain catfish.

She went to the back of the house and spread out the fish one by one in the snow, but soon they were all frozen. The frozen fish are then packed in bags and buried together in the snow. I put the fish in bags because I am afraid that the smell of fish will attract small animals to steal it. I freeze the fish separately first because I am afraid that if they are put together while wet, they will freeze together. When cooking, if I want to use one or two, I need to defrost the whole bag.

Another good thing about winter is that you can harvest as many prey as you want without fear of spoilage. There is ice and snow outside the house, and there is a natural big refrigerator.

The mountain catfish was frozen, and Lu Yan came back to stew the small fish. I have to lament that Lu Yan brought a lot of seasonings, and she even carried a jar of sauce with her. The sauce was made by Lu Yan at Princess Fushun. The taste was between sweet noodle sauce and soybean sauce. It could be eaten directly with dry food. Lu Yan thought it was very convenient and brought it with her.

The problem of lack of oil had already been solved by Lu Yan. Lu Yan cut off all the fat parts of the pheasant and rabbit meat and made the oil. Although the taste was a bit strange and not as good as lard, it was still oil.

Lu Yan fried the small fish in oil, then stewed the fish with sauce. After taking it out of the pan, she soaked the dry biscuits in the soup and ate them as usual.

As always, they ate all the food in the pot, wishing they could pour the soup into their mouths and drink it. Wu San was so exhausted that he couldn't speak and kept hiccupping.

Jiang Li, who usually talks so little that he sounds like a mute, couldn't help but express that this was the happiest time he had ever been on a mountain patrol.

Several people still went to bed early in the evening.

Not long after nightfall, I heard several loud noises coming from outside the house, first the sound of something breaking, then the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground, and then the sound of yelling in an incomprehensible language.

The reason why I knew it was a curse was because Lu Sheng could understand it. Lu Sheng listened for a few times: "Beidi dialect! He is swearing in Beidi dialect!"

Several soldiers jumped out of their sleeping bags as fast as the wind, opened the door and ran out. Lu Yan followed them and took two steps. Only then did she realize that they had dug traps in front of and behind the house. They originally wanted to guard against big beasts, but unexpectedly they guarded against a Beidi man.

There are no animal traps or anything like that in the trap, but once you fall in, you can't get out easily. The Beidi man was sitting in the pit in a miserable state, cursing, and holding a white fox in his hand. He probably chased the fox to this area and accidentally fell in.

The soldiers communicated with Lu Sheng and asked Lu Sheng to communicate first.

Lu Sheng shouted to the bottom of the pit in Beidi dialect: "What are you here for? Be honest, if you dare to lie we will not pull you up."

The man finally calmed down when he heard the familiar language and replied in Beidi: "I have no malice. I came after this fox and accidentally fell into your trap. Pull me up. Thank you." .”

Several people looked at each other and felt that it was barely credible. Moreover, he is only one person, and we have a group of people, so I forgive him for not daring to make any mistakes. So he threw a hemp rope down and a few people pulled it up. The man was quite agile and climbed up holding the fox in his arms.

The man came up and thanked several people first. Lu Sheng asked him about his identity, and then he found out that the man was called Zhe Mu, and he was originally a soldier under the general of the Yi tribe. After the death of the general, the Yi tribe was in chaos, and it was a mess. Not wanting to sacrifice his life for the nobles, he left the tribe and came out to live. So he would sometimes do odd jobs, and sometimes go hunting in the mountains to sell money. Occasionally, I would encounter the Northern Xinjiang Army patrolling the mountains. I didn't want to cause trouble, so I would usually hide my tracks so as not to be discovered.

When Lu Sheng was talking to Zhe Mu, Lu Yan kept looking at the white fox he was holding. The fox struggled desperately and made a grunting sound. The more Lu Yan looked at it, the more familiar it looked, and she called tentatively: "Money?"

The fox squeaked louder and struggled to find Lu Yan. Zhe Mu finally noticed something was wrong with it, and looked down. As soon as his arm relaxed, the fox jumped out and crawled up Lu Yan's pants. Lu Yan picked it up and lifted its tail to look at its hind legs. Sure enough, there were still scars left by the arrow.

Good boy, I feel sorry for you because your legs were fine, but I didn’t take you out when you went up the mountain, and you ended up running out to die on your own.

Lu Yan was a little embarrassed, and said to Zhe Mu with a smile: "I'm sorry, I raised this fox, and I can't let you take it away. After we go down the mountain, you can go to the princess mansion to find me, and I can compensate you for whatever you want. .”

Lu Sheng translated it to Zhe Mu as he said, and Zhe Mu waved his hand. The fox is a prey to begin with. Once it is gone, it is gone, and you just have to hunt for new ones. However, Zhe Mu was still a little curious about what Lu Yan said: "Go to the princess mansion to find you. Are you the princess of the Dali Dynasty?"

Lu Yan waved her hands quickly: "No, no, no, I'll stay there temporarily."

Zhe Mu nodded and said nothing more.