Chapter 696 - 213: Shelter on the Mountain Summit (Part 2)
He named this mountain range the Baihar Mountain Range.
Baikhar is the name of Lake Baikal before the Qing Dynasty. Since the mid to late Qing period, Lake Baikal has fallen under the control of Tsarist Russia, a pain in the hearts of every Huaxia Person—
Lake Baikal is the world’s deepest lake and the largest freshwater lake on the entire Eurasian continent. Its absolute fresh water reserves account for 20% of the world’s surface liquid freshwater, supporting Russia’s freshwater fishery, and it is also the place where Su Wu grazed sheep.
As a true Chinese person, even in a Prehistoric World, when faced with a partner from the more powerful Soviet Republic, Chen Zhou would still unhesitatingly "sneak in his own goods," embedding his expectations into the naming—
If the east side of the mountain range were truly Lake Baikal, he hoped that one day this "North Sea," which has belonged to the Huaxia people since ancient times, could soon return to Hua Xia.
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The shelter is located above the mountainside, still some distance from the summit, mostly built with stone and wood.
Chen Zhou initially intended, like those American soldiers, to dig down half a meter to create a sunken shelter.
But the Baihar Mountain Range was almost entirely rocky, and a simple wooden spade could barely find any loose soil. Except for large stones, there were only small stones or tree roots, making it impossible to dig very deep in a short time.
Helpless, he could only choose a naturally formed irregular depression, starting construction close to its edges.
To dig this hard land faster, Chen Zhou abandoned the wooden spade and started picking up stones to chisel, gradually refining the contour of the depression’s edges.
Paul was responsible for preparing the stones and timber needed for the next stage of construction.
The area was littered with pines and spruces, and the mountains were full of rocks, so these two materials were most abundant.
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During the work, the two flattened the land in front of the depression and built a simple stove with mud and stones—
About 2 kilometers down the mountain, one could find a small river from which to obtain water for daily use.
Or they could climb up the mountain where there is snow cover that never melts year-round, with a layer of ice beneath. Once melted, it could be used for drinking.
By setting the camp pot on the stove and collecting pine and cypress branches, they could cook or roast food on the spot.
However, being too close to the snow layer, the only advantage here was the great view.
Firstly, animals were scarce. Except for a few native Eurasian animals, like a herbivore resembling an antelope and a small type of deer, there were hardly any other medium or large animals.
Even these two types of animals were not often seen. Even if Chen Zhou was more than ninety percent confident in hunting them, encountering them depended on luck.
Therefore, during the construction of the shelter, Chen Zhou and Paul’s hunting targets shifted from medium and large animals to small-sized animals, like a type of squirrel living in rock crevices, which liked to hoard pine nuts as reserve grain, and a kind of large rat full of fat.
There were plenty of these two animals. Although squirrels had little meat, catching them allowed for the opportunity to empty their nests and obtain a large number of pine nuts—
Squirrels had poor memories, and like most rodents, suffered from a severe fear of food scarcity. Even with nests full of pine nuts, they would continue to diligently collect.
Since this year’s pine nuts hadn’t matured in large numbers, hardly any fresh pine nuts were found in the squirrels’ nests; they were all from previous years. If not for the dryness of the rock crevices, these old pine nuts might have sprouted into pine seedlings.
Pine nuts, once roasted, could be eaten. They were rich in sugars, protein, and carbohydrates, serving as a staple food.
The only drawback was that old pine nuts didn’t taste as good as fresh ones, with poor oiliness, making them taste a bit astringent and unremarkable.
As for the large rat, it was an omnivore, particularly fond of gnawing on tree roots and eating insects. There was no grain in its hole, but it was full of fat.
Worried about contracting the plague from this creature, Chen Zhou wouldn’t even skin the large rat after capturing it. He would just throw it directly into the fire to roast. After the hair was burnt off, he would use a knife to cut open the skin to extract the fat.
This fat wouldn’t be eaten but stored in a carved-out "stone bowl" depression for future use as fire starter or lamp fuel.
Don’t think that squirrels and these giant rats, both being rodents, were the same; there were differences among rodents.
According to Chen Zhou, squirrels were much less dangerous compared to rats.
Although theoretically, all rodents could carry the plague bacillus, historical research showed that squirrels were never the main source of plague. Their incubation period was very short after infection, dying quickly in a day or two, and they weren’t capable of spreading the plague.
As for squirrels carrying the rabies virus, one could infer from their abnormal behavior, making eating squirrels relatively safe.
Of course, since squirrel meat was really minimal and bony, Chen Zhou and Paul typically still used pine nuts and some berries as their staple foods. Occasionally, when they managed to capture an antelope or a small deer, with conservation, it would last two days, basically bridging the gap to the next medium or large game.
The only ones who suffered were the three Serrated Tiger Cubs, who were used to enjoying more abundant feasts. Up in the mountains, not only did the climate get colder, but the menu also downgraded by more than one level. Now, even roasted squirrels had to be fought over.
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Apart from the scarcity of animals and the low temperatures, the mountain’s strong winds were another disadvantage.