On Shan Erlie, there was a patch of wild grapevines. The snow had bent the vines over a fallen log, forming a small, natural shelter.

A Black Bear was hiding here. It had been shot in the right shoulder—the very one Hu Guangmin had hit the morning before last.

With its shoulder injured, it didn’t dare put weight on one of its paws as it walked.

So, although the bear had been out of its den for two days, it hadn’t gone far. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

It was gritting its teeth against the cold, huddled under the grapevines, when it heard a bark. A black dog squeezed through a gap in the vines and lunged, sinking its teeth into the Black Bear.

The Black Bear swiped back with a paw. The black dog tried to dodge, but it was surrounded by vines. As it turned to escape, it slammed right into them.

The black dog quickly ducked to scramble out, but not before the Black Bear’s claws caught its rump.

The Black Bear’s claws were like hooks. With a single raking motion, it tore a chunk of hide from the dog’s backside.

The black dog YELPED, shot out from under the vines, and began barking from a safe distance.

Just then, Hua Gou and a white dog arrived. They joined the black dog, surrounding the bear but not attacking, barking but not biting.

With a CRASH and a SNAP, the Black Bear burst through the grapevines and made a run for it.

The dogs’ barking became a continuous roar as all three converged on the Black Bear. The bear hadn’t run two steps before it whipped around. As it happened, the end of the fallen log was hollow, and the bear dove headfirst into it.

But that was a huge mistake!

The Black Bear was now inside, head-in and rear-out. Hua Gou immediately scrambled in after it and bit down on its backside.

The Black Bear cried out in pain, but trapped inside the log, it couldn’t get up to swipe at the dog. It couldn’t even turn around!

Just then, the black dog squeezed in as well. The two dogs began tearing furiously at the Black Bear’s rear.

The Black Bear howled in rage from inside the log and began to force its body around.

Not far away, Zhao Jun and the others had a clear view. Yang Mantang said to Zhao Jun, "Brother, you stay here and keep an eye out. If I fail, I’ll run back toward you. You put a bullet in it."

Hearing this, Zhao Jun understood what Yang Mantang was planning and nodded. "Alright, brother. I understand."

Once Zhao Jun agreed, Yang Mantang gripped his gun and ran toward the fallen log.

"Baoyu," Zhao Jun suddenly called out to Li Baoyu.

Li Baoyu was all psyched up to watch the show. Hearing Zhao Jun call his name, he quickly asked, "Yeah, brother? What’s up?"

Zhao Jun frowned. "You should go find a place to hide off to the side," he told Li Baoyu.

At these words, Li Baoyu shot a doubtful glance toward Yang Mantang.

But just then, with two sharp barks, the two dogs backed out of the log, followed immediately by the charging Black Bear.

The Black Bear went after Hua Gou. The dog had just been scratched inside the log, and now, with the bear hot on its heels, it panicked and ran blindly.

Hua Gou bolted straight toward Yang Mantang, with the Black Bear right behind it.

Yang Mantang raised his gun and fired!

BANG!

The shot went high.

The Black Bear let out a ROAR and charged straight at Yang Mantang.

Yang Mantang quickly broke open his shotgun to reload, then raised it and fired again!

BANG!

Another shot, and again, it was too high.

Yang Mantang tried to break the gun open again, but it was too late.

The Black Bear was only two meters away from him.

Yang Mantang turned and ran, breaking his gun open as he went. While running, he tried to yank the spent shell casing from the chamber.

Trying to reload while being chased by a bear and running for your life was no easy task.

Pulling the old shell out was easy enough, but shoving a new one in was much harder.

Even though the Black Bear was running on three legs, it was surprisingly fast and closing in on Yang Mantang.

At that moment, Yang Mantang’s three dogs went berserk, fearlessly leaping at the Black Bear, biting and pulling at it with all their might.

But once the Black Bear was charging, three dogs weren’t nearly enough to hold it back.

The sounds of the bear’s roars and the dogs’ barking grew closer and closer behind him. Yang Mantang grew more anxious, and his fumbling hands made it even harder to load the shell.

Yang Mantang finally gave up on reloading and just focused on running, glancing up toward Zhao Jun as he fled.

At that point, Zhao Jun was about two hundred meters away.

According to their plan, if Yang Mantang failed to kill the bear, he was to lead it toward Zhao Jun.

When they got close to Zhao Jun, Yang Mantang would dodge to the side, exposing the Black Bear behind him, and Zhao Jun would hit it with his muzzleloader.

And that muzzleloader packed an astonishing punch.

But the weapon also had its drawbacks: a very short range and poor accuracy.

Although Yang Mantang had led the Black Bear to within two hundred meters, that still wasn’t enough. He had to bring it within fifty meters of Zhao Jun.

Yang Mantang looked toward Zhao Jun, gritted his teeth, and kept running. But this side of the mountain was covered in wild grapevines. Some climbed up trees, while others crept along the ground.

As luck would have it, Yang Mantang’s padded cotton shoe sank into the snow and snagged on a thicket of grapevines.

You could call it eating dirt or taking a nosedive—either way, Yang Mantang went down flat on his face.

The Black Bear wasn’t about to play by any rules of honor. Seeing Yang Mantang on the ground, it pounced.

That was too much for Yang Mantang’s three dogs.

A good dog protects its master. The three of them tore at the Black Bear, dragging and biting it frantically, but it was no use.

Yang Mantang rolled over to face the Black Bear, his heart turning to ice. ’I can’t believe it. Instead of avenging Hu Guangmin, I’m going to get myself killed.’

At the critical moment, a deafening BOOM echoed out. The Black Bear staggered as a spray of blood erupted from its body.

It was Zhao Jun, who had fired his muzzleloader from a distance. The weapon was truly inaccurate at range; Zhao Jun had been aiming for the bear’s heart but hit one of its front legs instead.

As the gun fired, one of the Black Bear’s front legs was torn clean off at the base. Its paw, still connected to half of the lower leg, fell to the ground.

The Black Bear shrieked in agony and charged murderously toward Zhao Jun, the one who had wounded it.

The moment he fired, Zhao Jun grabbed the gunpowder pouch from his satchel, opened it, and poured a handful down the muzzle.

The Black Bear charged furiously after him. Startled, Zhao Jun ducked behind a nearby tree and then took off, circling it. As he ran, he grabbed a handful of lead pellets from his satchel and tried to stuff them into the muzzle.

In truth, reloading this muzzleloader was even more work than reloading Yang Mantang’s 16-gauge.

But Zhao Jun was resourceful. He held the gun in one hand and stuck his other hand into his satchel.

Inside the satchel were the gunpowder pouch and a good number of loose lead pellets.

He had already poured the gunpowder into the muzzleloader; all that was left was the shot.

But since he was running nonstop, it was impossible to load the loose pellets into the muzzle.

Just then, Li Baoyu sprinted to Yang Mantang’s side and helped him up from the snow. Yang Mantang staggered to his feet, dazed and his face covered in blood.

Yang Mantang groggily raised his gun and aimed at the Black Bear, but Li Baoyu stopped him. "Brother, your gun isn’t loaded, is it?"

"Damn!" Yang Mantang seemed completely dazed. Li Baoyu’s reminder made him realize that the shell he’d been about to load had slipped from his grasp when he fell.

Now he was fumbling in his pockets again, which made Li Baoyu frantic with worry.

Thankfully, Yang Mantang’s three dogs grew bolder the more they chased and bit the Black Bear, finally enraging it. The bear whirled around, reared up on its hind legs like a man, and began swiping repeatedly with its one remaining front paw.

The three dogs dodged to the side, and as soon as the Black Bear turned, they closed in on it again.

Meanwhile, while the Black Bear was occupied with the hounds, Zhao Jun had managed to load the lead shot.

Zhao Jun was less than thirty meters from the bear. He raised the muzzleloader again, aimed for the Black Bear’s head, and fired.