The other party had a gun and it was unknown how many people were there.
Not daring to be overconfident, Xu Qiao approached cautiously, hiding his body in the dense vegetation of the rainforest.
After walking about five or six hundred meters, gunshots rang out again. Xu Qiao squatted down and made a gesture to Daniel behind him to keep quiet.
Seeing Daniel holding his breath and hiding in the vegetation without moving, but still stubbornly holding the camera towards him, Xu Qiao twitched the corners of his mouth, turned back, pushed aside the leaves and looked forward.
What surprised him was that the poacher's target was a lone young Asian elephant, and judging from its size, the baby elephant was still far from adulthood.
He frowned and looked to the other side. There was only one poacher, who was holding a gun and fired another shot at the baby elephant's leg.
After checking around again and again and making sure that there was only this person, Xu Qiao felt relieved and turned to Daniel and said, "Stay here and don't move, lest you be discovered."
Seeing that Xu Qiao seemed to want to go over, Daniel said in surprise: "Qiao, what are you going to do? He has a gun."
"I know." Xu Qiao responded in a low voice and began to slowly approach the poacher.
The dense vegetation in the jungle provided a good hiding place, and the poachers probably didn't expect anyone would come to this place far away from the protected area. They were completely focused on the baby elephant and were not sufficiently alert to their surroundings.
When he got close enough, Xu Qiao narrowed his eyes and suddenly pounced out.
The poacher didn't react when he heard the noise, thinking it was some animal. When he saw Xu Qiao, he was shocked and pointed his gun at him.
Daniel watched this scene clearly through the camera and his heart tightened.
Who knew that Xu Qiao's footwork was strange, and the poacher was in a panic and his shooting was inaccurate. He fired several shots but Xu Qiao managed to dodge them.
Many years later, the poacher recalled this scene and still felt that Xu Qiao's unpredictable lateral movement and ghostly movements were truly a nightmare.
Xu Qiao rushed to him, grabbed his wrist and lifted it up as quickly as possible, and with a "bang", the gun in the poacher's hand fell weakly to the ground.
Xu Qiao kicked the gun away and pushed the man to the ground.
At this time Daniel also came to help, using the weight of his strong body to hold the man down.
When Xiaowen arrived, he saw Xu Qiao and Daniel had already subdued the poacher.
"You guys—" Xiao Wen opened his mouth wide and took a long time to say, "I contacted the program team. The director called the police and said that the police and staff from the Forestry and Grassland Bureau will be here soon."
However, this place is far outside the nature reserve. Although it is still within China, the roads are blocked and it is inconvenient to travel. I don’t know how long it will take for people to arrive.
Xu Qiao hummed, took out the parachute rope he brought with him and tied up the poacher tightly.
After tying him up, they searched him again and found that he was carrying an outdoor waterproof bag containing communication equipment and some food.
During Xu Qiao's search, the man kept shouting angrily.
Xu Qiao didn't understand, but judging from the man's tone and his dark and thin appearance, he should be Burmese.
Many Burmese people living at the border between the two countries understand Chinese.
"Why poach? It's just a baby elephant." Ignoring his chatter, Xu Qiao squatted down, patted his face with the back of the knife, and looked coldly.
The Asian elephant is an endangered species and a first-class protected animal in China.
Poachers mostly target ivory, so they usually only target adult Asian elephants. They are completely insane and would even target baby elephants.
The poacher really understood Chinese. When he heard Xu Qiao's question, he answered in broken Chinese: "Your Chinese market needs elephant skins to make bracelets and medicinal powders."
The demand for elephant skins has led these poachers to target not only adult Asian elephants, but also the baby elephant that Xu Qiao rescued, which is also within their hunting range.
Xiao Wen was furious and cursed: "You are simply not human beings."
Judging from its size, this surviving baby elephant would probably be just a few years old in human years.
Xu Qiao's eyes turned cold, and he told Daniel, "Keep an eye on him."
As he said this, he walked over to the little elephant.
The poacher had fired three shots at the animal, so it was unknown how badly it was injured.
Xiao Wen spat at the poacher, and when he saw Xu Qiao walking towards the baby elephant, he quickly followed with the camera.
The little elephant was the size of a calf. It seemed to know that it was saved. It stayed where it was without making any noise, and looked at Xu Qiao with wet eyes.
Xu Qiao saw that its right front leg was injured and it was curled up under its body.
Seeing Xu Qiao approaching, the baby elephant raised its drooping long trunk and touched him.
Patting its nose lightly, Xu Qiao stretched out his hand to its right front paw and said, "Let me see it."
Xiaowen: “…” How come you are talking to the elephant? How can it understand you
As a result, the baby elephant really moved and placed its curled right front leg in Xu Qiao's palm.
“…” Xiao Wen hesitated to speak and set up a camera to record the scene.
Xu Qiao checked its wound. The Burmese man's shooting skills were really bad. Even though it was such a big elephant, three shots failed to penetrate the flesh of the baby elephant. They just scraped the skin and a piece of flesh off. The area around the wound was burned.
"A master of elephant outline..." Xu Qiao sighed and glanced at the poacher who was firmly pinned down by Daniel.
I can understand why.
Since they were dealing in elephant skin trade, they had to keep the skin on the front and back as intact as possible, so this man shot at the four legs of the baby elephant, and his accuracy was much lower.
I don’t know when the staff from the nature reserve will arrive, and the baby elephant’s wound needs to be treated as soon as possible.
There are many plants with medicinal value in the tropical rain forest. Xu Qiao looked around and instructed Xiao Wen, "Pick me two of that grass with small white flowers over there."
Xiaowen responded, put the camera aside, and went to pick it up as Xu Qiao requested.
When Xiaowen went to pick them, Xu Qiao used a knife to clean the burned and necrotic skin of the elephant.
The little elephant felt pain and cried out twice, but knowing that Xu Qiao was not harming it anymore, it stopped struggling.
Xu Qiao kept his body tense and alert, so that he could subdue the baby elephant in time if it became wild and wanted to hurt people.
After all, they are not the docile baby elephants tamed in the zoo. Wild Asian elephants are still wild.
At this time, Xiaowen brought the picked plants over. Xu Qiao picked off the flowers and roots, and put the leaves and stems into his mouth and chewed them. The bitter juice seeped out, making his tongue numb.
After chewing for a while, Xu Qiao spit it out and applied it to the elephant's wound. Then he took out the parachute he was carrying and bandaged the elephant.
Xiaowen saw that the baby elephant was very well behaved and muttered to himself, "It's amazing!"
After the bandage was done, Xu Qiao patted its nose and said, "Okay, I'll take you back for treatment when the police come."
Returning to Daniel, in front of the poachers, Xu Qiao took out the beef jerky from his bag, opened it and shared it with Xiaowen and Daniel.
The poacher saw several men munching on their beef jerky and gnashed his teeth in anger.
Xu Qiao thought that the baby elephant was injured and was afraid of people, so it should leave and return to the herd soon. But it lay down next to him and sniffed the beef jerky in his hand.
Xu Qiao pushed its nose away: "You can't eat this."
The few people didn't wait too long there. The program crew was very anxious, worried that Xu Qiao and the others were in danger. After contacting the police, they directly picked them up by helicopter.
A black dot appeared on the horizon, and it grew bigger and bigger until it took on the shape of a helicopter.
The loud noise of the propeller and the force of the wind made the little elephant a little anxious. Seeing this, Xu Qiao touched its head.
Soon, police officers from the local police station and staff from the Forestry and Grassland Bureau got off the helicopter and hurried over to Xu Qiao and his companions.
The poachers panicked when they saw people in police uniforms and shouted, "I am Burmese, you Chinese government—"
Before he could finish, Xu Qiao pressed his chin and removed it cleanly and expressionlessly, and he instantly fell silent.
Several people present felt a pain in their jaws.
The policeman, who was walking in a hurry, also paused and felt a chill on his back.
This technique is professional, it doesn't look like it's only been done once or twice...
Seeing this, Daniel exclaimed in amazement: "Wow, Chinese Kung Fu!"
“…” You may have some misunderstanding about Chinese Kung Fu.
The policeman coughed lightly and said seriously: "This is within Chinese territory and is under Chinese jurisdiction."
On the other side, staff from the Forestry and Grassland Bureau approached the baby elephant cautiously, trying to find out how badly it was injured.
The police handcuffed the man, questioned Xu Qiao and the other two for details, then took the poacher and his backpack and prepared to leave.
Staff from the Forestry and Grassland Bureau used instruments to check the baby elephant's injuries and discussed whether to take it back to the rescue center for treatment.
But the baby elephant refused to follow the humans. It curled up its right front leg and paced back and forth angrily.
Just as the staff were thinking about how to take the injured baby Asian elephant back, the baby elephant hid behind Xu Qiao and touched his shoulder with its long and thick trunk.
This wild Asian elephant has an IQ of about seven-year-old human child, and it showed its affection so obviously that the staff present looked at each other in bewilderment.
After a moment, the staff looked at Xu Qiao.
"This is no longer within the protected area. There are no roads, so it's difficult for vehicles to get in. So it's also quite troublesome to bring it back."
"Mr. Xu Qiao, the injury of this young Asian elephant is not serious. If nothing goes wrong, it should be able to heal on its own. If conditions permit, can you keep an eye on its condition in the next few days?"
"If it can return to the herd, it should be able to recover quickly with the care of female elephants, but now we don't know if it can find the herd."
"It seems that it is quite close to you, and you have some experience in treating wounds. So, we will leave a medical kit. If you can still see it in the next few days, can you help apply medicine to it? And if there is any problem, you can contact us again."
Xu Qiao glanced at the baby elephant, thinking that it should be safe once the female elephant found it and returned to the herd, so he nodded.
"Thank you so much Mr. Xu and your program team. We will deal with this poaching crime seriously."
The group escorted the poachers onto the helicopter. As the helicopter flew away with its propeller whirring, Xu Qiao threw the beef jerky in his hand to Xiaowen.
After the incident, the struggle for survival has to start all over again. Getting this bag of beef jerky again would be like cheating.
He still had to continue looking for food in the rainforest and struggle to survive.
What Xu Qiao didn’t know was that this poaching case was reported on the evening news that very night.