In November 2010, I interviewed in the grassland of Xilin Gol League in Inner Mongolia. On the 17th day and night, he stayed at the house of the Bilig brothers. In the middle of the night, the wind howls and the snow howls, and the horses neighing and the dogs bark. Bilig shouted, "The wolf is coming," and the three of us opened the door and tried to rush to the sheepfold, but were killed by the wolf guarding the door and returned to the herd's house.
★ Dahanl's worries
A sudden snowstorm isolated me from Hanyang Beach. Looking around, there are only two or three herdsmen who are three or two miles apart. The snow was white, not up to the ankles. There is no one in the four fields. Fortunately, the two herdsmen, who had just returned to the field, warmly took me in.
In order to entertain me, my elder brother Bilig slaughtered the sheep, and my younger brother Dahaner personally made the hand-grilled mutton. Over dinner, we drank spirits and talked about the wolves that had been getting worse lately.
Bilig said with a wry smile that now the ecological environment is getting better and better, and he sees that there are more and more steppe wolves year by year. The wolves began to attack the sheep in broad daylight, but we had no guns in our hands, so we couldn't restrain the wolves at all.
The younger brother Dahaner said worriedly: "The wolf has to be an inch. I'm afraid the wolves will find an opportunity to take revenge on us.
It turned out that during the day, when the brothers received a "heavy snow warning" and were about to turn back to the sheepfold from the pasture, they found a wolf spying on their flock. While Bilig was leading the shepherd dogs to drive away the wolves, five other wolves burst into the flock from the other side.
Fortunately, Dahan was vigilant and hurriedly drove his horse and led another sheepdog towards the five wolves. The five wolves scattered and fled, and Dahanel saw the head wolf with a strong physique chasing after him, and smashed it on his head with a wolf stick. The head wolf was hurt and howled while leading the wolves to flee for their lives.
Dahanl feared that the head wolf would lead the wolves to retaliate. But Bilig said to his brother: The wolf does not dare to come. Don't scare our press guests.
★ Why does the dog only bark twice?
The cottage was warm. After I had my fill of food and drink, I fell asleep soundly. Suddenly, I was pushed awake by Dahaner, and his warning that "there was a situation" sounded in my ears.
I'm afraid of steppenwolves. After sunset I heard a long wolf howl in the wilderness. At supper, another terrible wolf howl came into the hut. I can't imagine what it would be like for wolves to sneak up on the sheepfold at night.
Suddenly, two dogs barked outside the house, hurried and hoarse. As we continued to listen, the barking of the dog stopped abruptly.
Brother Bilig, who was pushed awake by Dahaner, said indifferently: Even the dog doesn't bark anymore, why are you two stupid? Go to bed. Wolves would never dare to come here. This is the herdsmen's enclosure in winter.
I couldn't sleep anymore. Listening closely, only the faint, intermittent howl of wolves could be heard in the distance. Bilig said: Listen, the wolf is far away from us! Sleep, sleep. Stop snoring again.
★ The wolf's blocking door kills
Suddenly, two high-pitched horses neighed. It was the mount of Billig and Dahanl. Then there were two more rapid neighings, followed by the impatient sound of horses stomping on the ground.
Dahaner didn't sleep at all, and muttered as he got up: Horses have no night grass and no fat. Is this what the horses want to eat? I reminded Dahaner: Listening to the neighing of the horse, he seems to be in a hurry, did he notice that the wolf is coming?
Although Dahaner was vigilant, he was confident in the sheepdog's ability to protect his family, and said: If the wolf comes, the dog will bark until it wakes up its owner. Now that he does not bark, it means that the wolf has not yet come.
I pushed the door open and walked out of the house with Dahanl, and as soon as I closed the door behind me, Dahanel in front of me suddenly fell to the ground. I thought he had accidentally fallen down with a disabled leg, and I just bent down to help him, but I heard him shout: It was the wolf who pounced on me, be careful.
Before he could finish his sentence, a force threw me to the ground from behind. Dahanel shouted as he crawled: The wolf is coming, fight the wolf!
★ Bilig's fierceness
I bounced to my feet and hurriedly picked up Dahal, and was met with another strong pounce behind me, and I fell again. The sky was overcast, the stars and the moon were dark, and I could only see two black shadows scurrying around us. The trouble was that Dahanel was not able to move his legs and feet, and was once again thrown to the ground by the black shadow.
I was unarmed, but I could only swing my fists and kicks to save Dahanel. However, the punches and kicks did not touch the black shadow at all. Then I saw clearly, it was a wolf, it was two wolves. This is a "door-blocking kill" with a wolf blocking the door.
In past interviews, I have heard from herders that in order to prevent herdsmen from leaving their houses and preventing them from killing sheep, wolves often send wolves to block in front of herdsmen's houses.
The wolf's trick is very insidious, and many herders have suffered this loss.
The attack ability of the two wolves became stronger and stronger, so that we could not guard against it with our bare hands, and after a while, the sleeves and pants were torn by the wolves. I covered Dahanl as he was about to retreat to the lodge when Bilig broke through the door.
As soon as he went out, he slammed again and again, and the kitchen knife in his hand slashed left and right, whistling in the wind, and the cold light flashed.
The wolf is afraid of kitchen knives, and he is even more afraid of Bilige's bravery. I took Dahanel back to the lodge and looked for the guy in the house.
★ No shotgun embarrassment
Bilig fought two wolves by himself, but he was not afraid, but the night was the world of wolves, let alone two against one.
I grabbed Dahanl's shepherd's stick, ran out and swung it, and on several occasions struck the wolf, and whipped it off his head.
Bilig's kitchen knife is powerful, but the wolf deftly dodges the kitchen knife. While one wolf feinted in front, another wolf took the opportunity to sneak up from behind, and in a few moments, he tore his trouser leg from behind.
Thanks to my support, Bilig was relieved of his worries.
However, although we fought hard, the two wolves did not retreat but advanced. Each wolf entangled one of us, and I had to shout: Bilig, we are back to back. So after the two of us were back to back, we no longer had to worry about being attacked by wolves on our backs.
But the wolf still didn't go. Afraid that other wolves were coming, Bilig hurriedly told me: Fight and retreat, and hurry into the house!
After entering the house, we looked at the clothes and pants torn by the two wolves, and couldn't help but smile bitterly. I understand the grievances of the herders: without shotguns, we can only be bullied by wolves.
Dahanl, worried about the sheepfold, thought that the wolf had retreated, and gently pushed open the door, and saw that a wolf was about to run into the house with a loud roar, and he was so frightened that he hurriedly closed the door.
Then there was the clatter of hungry wolves' claws and the terrifying roar of a hungry wolf.
Bilig sighed: It's over, my sheepfold.
★118 ewes were slaughtered by wolves
In order to avoid being hurt by the wolves, it was not until two hours later that we raised our flashlights, and the three of us slowly went out in a triangular formation back to back. Thankfully, there were no wolves at the door.
The three of them walked cautiously on their backs. The two horses were unharmed. When we saw us holding flashlights, we just snorted loudly and shaved our hooves, which was regarded as greeting the owner.
The two sheepdogs heard us and came out of nowhere. However, under the flashlight, the two dogs drooped their tails and looked very depressed.
Bilig said happily: The shepherd dog is fine, which means that the wolf did not make trouble in the sheepfold.
The three of us relaxed and walked briskly to the sheepfold. But the scene before me was horrible. The barbed wire fence fell on one side, and the nearly 500 sheep in the entire sheepfold were of course gone.
On the floor of the sheepfold was a piece of the carcass of a sheep. The smell of blood came to my nose. Dahanel sat down on the ground in distress and cried out loudly: My sheep.
We carefully checked that a total of 118 ewes were killed, and all of them were pregnant ewes! What about the other 300 or so?
★ It was really a revenge killing of the six wolves
After Bilig called the police, the border police department mobilized herders to help find all the escaped sheep.
On-site investigation: The sheep that were bitten to death were all pregnant ewes, all of them had their throats bitten off, and only two of the 118 dead sheep were eaten.
After checking the footprints: a total of six wolves did the case. (About the author: Wang Tianxiang, a senior journalist and writer, has published 42 novels and other monographs, written more than 200 episodes of TV dramas, created dozens of TV films on history, culture, scenery, documentaries and other topics, published hundreds of articles in various newspapers and periodicals, and published more than 1,000 online articles.) ）