Wild Dogs: Strange Encounters during the Rebellion of the Seventh Month

A villager's harrowing encounter with strange creatures during the Rebellion of the Seventh Month, where wild dogs play a mysterious role.

During the suppression of the Rebellion of the Seventh Month, there was widespread killing. A villager named Li Hualong, who had been hiding in the mountains, happened to encounter government soldiers marching at night. Fearing that the soldiers might kill innocent people in the chaos, he couldn’t find a place to hide, so he lay down among the corpses, pretending to be dead. After the troops had passed by, he still didn’t dare to come out. Suddenly, he saw some headless and armless corpses standing up, like a forest of trees. One of the corpses had its severed head still attached to its shoulders and said, “The wild dogs are coming, what should we do?” The other bodies responded in a disorganized manner, “What should we do?” After a while, they suddenly all fell to the ground, and silence descended. Li Hualong was trembling with fear, thinking about getting up to escape when a strange creature approached. This creature had the head of a wild beast and the body of a human, and it was crouched there gnawing on people’s heads, sucking their brain matter one after another. Li Hualong was extremely afraid, so he hid his head under the corpses. The creature came up to Li Hualong, touched his back, and tried to find his head. Li Hualong struggled to burrow deeper under the corpses, preventing it from finding his head. The creature then pushed aside the bodies covering Li Hualong, exposing his head. Terrified, Li Hualong reached for a large stone, about the size of a bowl, and gripped it tightly in his hand. As the creature bent down, about to bite Li Hualong’s head, he suddenly jumped up, shouting loudly. He used the stone to strike the creature’s head, hitting it in the mouth. The creature screeched like an owl, clutching its mouth in pain, and fled, spitting blood on the road. Li Hualong approached and found two teeth in the blood. The teeth were curved in the middle, sharp at both ends, and over four inches long. Li Hualong put them in his pocket and brought them back to show everyone, but they had no idea what kind of creature it was.

《野狗》

于七之乱，杀人如麻。乡民李化龙，自山中窜归。值大兵宵进，恐罹炎昆之祸，急无所匿，僵卧于死人之丛，诈作尸。兵过既尽，未敢遽出。忽见阙头断臂之尸，起立如林。内一尸断首犹连肩上，口中作语曰：“野狗子来，奈何？”群尸参差而应曰：“奈何！”俄顷，蹶然尽倒，遂寂无声。李方惊颤欲起，有一物来，兽首人身，伏啮人首，遍吸其脑。李惧，匿首尸下。物来拨李肩，欲得李首。李力伏，俾不可得。物乃推覆尸而移之，首见。李大惧，手索腰下，得巨石如碗，握之。物俯身欲龁，李骤起，大呼，击其首，中嘴。物嗥如鸱，掩口负痛而奔，吐血道上。就视之，于血中得二齿，中曲而端锐，长四寸馀。怀归以示人，皆不知其何物也。