Heavy snow has been falling for several days, and the snow on the ground has reached up to the knees, making it very inconvenient to walk out.
This year's winter has been extremely cold. After the snow, the weather became even colder. Although the dripping water did not turn into ice, the pond in the Vine Tribe and the flowing stream were quickly frozen. p>
Such cold weather is not only suffering for the tribesmen of various tribes, but also for those animals that do not have the habit of hibernating.
Even the sacred vines on the stone mountain seemed to have entered a state of hibernation after being covered with ice and snow, and were as silent as ever.
On snowy days, most of the Teng tribe members stayed in their houses and relied on the food and firewood they had hoarded in the autumn.
Even the giant eagle raised by the old witch can only go out to look for food when it's not snowing, and it can't catch prey every time.
Jiang Xuan would walk around the Vine Tribe every day, observing the animals and streams in the forest, as well as the freezing conditions of the river.
On October 2, Nepeta found Jiang Xuan again.
Because the food they had stored up was almost gone, and the food provided by the Vine Tribe was far from enough to feed more than a hundred people.
"Chief, when will you take us to find food? We are almost out of food."
It is obviously a cold winter, but Nepeta is very anxious to get angry, and the tourists are also very anxious, after all, they are about to face the danger of running out of food.
This time, Jiang Xuan didn't ask him to go back and wait.
"You come with me."
Jiang Xuan first took Nepeta back to the bamboo house and gave him a pair of old animal skin boots to put on, because his feet were always so bare and could easily freeze.
This made Nepeta very grateful. In the tribal era with extremely low productivity, even a pair of animal skin boots was precious.
After Jie Jie put on the animal skin boots, Jiang Xuan brought a bundle of ropes, a large rattan basket, and some food scraps, and then took Jie Jie into the forest to the north of the tribe.
"Chief, what are we doing here?" Jing Jie looked at the vast white forest and couldn't guess what Jiang Xuan was going to do.
"Catching birds." Jiang Xuan walked forward while observing the situation around him.
Nepeta looked at the forest blankly and said: "But we didn't bring bows and arrows, and we can't set up a noose trap in this weather!"
Jiang Xuan smiled mysteriously: "Who said that only lasso and bow and arrow can catch birds?"
Ignoring the confused Nepeta, Jiang Xuan continued to search for the area where the big bird had previously been optimistic about.
In heavy snow days, not only the range of activities of people is greatly reduced, but also that of animals. They generally do not stray too far from their nests and their range of activities is relatively fixed.
It didn't take long for Jiang Xuan to discover a series of scattered footprints on the snow.
"Follow me."
Jiang Xuan followed the footprints and looked for him, followed by Jing Jie.
They didn't go too far when Jiang Xuan spotted a group of big birds in front of them, about seven or eight of them.
This kind of big bird is very big. The weight of an adult bird is more than 30 kilograms. Its legs are very thick and it can run very fast in the forest. However, its wings are very short and it cannot fly.
The most peculiar thing is that this big bird has a tuft of feathers on its head, which looks like a horn. Therefore, the tribesmen call this bird a one-horned bird.
Although the unicorn bird cannot fly, it is very vigilant and will panic and flee at the slightest disturbance, making it difficult to hunt.
Only excellent archers or setting traps in advance can catch the unicorn bird.
Nepeta whispered: "Chief, the one-horned bird is not easy to catch."
Jiang Xuan smiled mysteriously: "It's really hard to catch them normally, but now it's the cold winter when food is scarce, so they will become easy to catch."
Jiang Xuan quickly started working.
He first found a wooden stick, tied a rope to the bottom of the stick, then put down the rattan basket where the unicorn bird often moved, and supported the wooden stick on the edge of the big rattan basket.
Then, he sprinkled some food residues with a strong aroma under the big rattan basket, and carefully unfolded the bundle of ropes connected to the sticks and extended them into a bush.
Jiang Xuan and Jing Jie hid behind the bushes.
Jiang Xuan whispered: "You wait here, I will chase these unicorn birds. After the unicorn birds run here, they will definitely find the food under the cane basket."
"If a unicorn bird gets under the cane basket to eat, you should immediately pull the rope and tear off the wooden stick. If the cane basket falls, it will cover the greedy unicorn bird. At this time, you can run over and suppress it.
Basket, don’t let the unicorn bird overturn the basket and run away, remember?”
Jiang Xuan's words finally made Jingjie, who was confused, understand what was going on. He nodded hurriedly to indicate that he had remembered.
"Then I'll go chase the birds."
Jiang Xuan left the bush, then made a circle and went behind the group of unicorn birds.
After becoming a two-color warrior, his body seemed to be more adapted to the mountains and forests. Even the snow that covered his knees could not stop his movements, and he only made a very light sound.
Jiang Xuan hid behind the unicorn bird and did not show up, because the unicorn bird was too timid and would probably run around when he showed up.
"Click..."
Jiang Xuan broke a branch wrapped in ice and snow, making a crisp cracking sound.
The group of unicorn birds that were looking for food in the snow immediately raised their heads, looked in this direction warily, and were ready to escape at any time.
"Kacha kacha..."
Jiang Xuan broke the branches one after another, and the extremely vigilant unicorn bird immediately ran away, but because it did not see the predator, it was not frightened, and it did not reach the point of panicking.
Jiang Xuan watched the group of unicorn birds running towards the rattan basket trap with a smile on his lips.
These unicorn birds were the same as what he had known before. If they were not overly frightened, they would just run around in familiar places.
"Next, we'll just wait for them to fall into the trap."
Jiang Xuan made another circle and ran towards Jie Jie.
As for Nepeta, he was hiding in the bushes. In fact, he didn’t have much hope for such a simple trap.
Because the tribesmen are all aware of the vigilance of the unicorn bird, how could the unicorn bird be so stupid as to get under the vine basket by itself?
But since Jiang Xuan asked him to wait here, he could only wait patiently and pray that he would gain something if he braved the severe cold today.
Not long after, those one-horned birds were indeed driven over by Jiang Xuan.
They were more cautious about the newly appeared rattan basket. They did not approach it at first, but looked at it from a distance.
But it didn't take long before one of the unicorn birds discovered the food under the vine basket.
Since it snowed, it has been difficult for these unicorn birds to find food in the forest. They have been hungry for several days.
The temptation of food made this one-horned bird involuntarily walk towards the rattan basket, but it still stared at its surroundings vigilantly, and would run away if there was any sign of trouble.
However, until it walked to the rattan basket, there was still no movement around, and the food under the rattan basket was right in front of it.
The Nepeta behind the bush became nervous, and he kept praying in his heart: Go in, go in quickly...
The unicorn bird first tentatively pecked a piece of food on the edge of the cane basket, and found that there was no danger. Then, it took a second bite.
Gradually, other unicorn birds also discovered the situation here and came over.
The one-horned bird that was pecking became anxious. It stopped raising its head and pecked faster, and unknowingly walked under the cane basket.
"Whoosh!"
At this moment, Nepeta suddenly pulled the rope and tore off the wooden stick supporting the rattan basket. The big rattan basket immediately captured the unicorn bird.
"Cuckoo..."
The unicorn bird in the big rattan basket panicked and wanted to escape, but couldn't see the way.
Nepeta immediately rushed forward and pounced directly on the rattan basket, firmly suppressing the one-horned bird to prevent it from having another chance to fly away.
Scared by Nepeta, the other unicorn birds immediately fled in panic, running very fast on the snow.
After a while, Jiang Xuan also came over.
Jie Jie shouted excitedly: "Leader, I got it, I really got it!"
Jiang Xuan smiled and said: "Catch it, you almost squashed the bird in the rattan basket."
"Okay!"
Nepeta stood up, opened a little of the cane basket, then reached in and grabbed one of the wings of the unicorn bird, then pulled it out and pressed it on the snow.
Later, Jiang Xuan tied the two long legs of the one-horned bird together so that it could not escape.
"Let's go back to the tribe first."
Jiang Xuan and Jingjie returned to the tribe with the rattan basket, rope, and the unlucky one-horned bird.
Nepeta was particularly happy because he knew that if he could catch one bird this way, he could catch more birds. This was a very important source of food.
Of course, Jiang Xuan knew very well that catching birds alone would still not be able to feed the more than one hundred tourists.
But it doesn’t matter, he still has a way to help these tourists get more food in the cold winter!
***The author has something to say***
Thanks to the book friend "Seven Seas Haoqi" for the 1,500 book coins.
Thanks to book friend "Senior Brother Chenyuan" for the 1,000 book coins.
Thanks to the book friend "The Third Star of Beidou is so beautiful" for the reward.