Chapter 252 A rising tide lifts all boats
“In recent years, the price of big leather has been rising!” In response to Yue Feng’s inquiry, the second uncle said something without any context.

“Hmm? And then?” Yue Feng was a little confused and didn’t react to what it meant for a moment.

“The price of large leather is getting more and more expensive, so some people have set their sights on the places where more large leather is produced every year!
Over at Jindingzi, I know of at least two mountain dogs who have dug a cellar there and are stalking around to catch big fish every day!
As for the Blind Tuozi Mountain, it just had its first snow this year, and several groups of people there were fighting for territory, even firing their guns!”

“Is it so fierce?” Yue Feng felt his heart skip a beat after hearing this.

Before coming here, I heard from Uncle Zhao that the people here are tough and the hunters are especially fierce. Yue Feng was a little mentally prepared, but he didn’t expect them to be so fierce.

The mountains belong to the country and there is no individual contracting them. The livestock and other products on the mountains belong to whoever gets them.

Even if there is occasionally a dispute over the ownership of the prey, how much benefit is worth firing a gun?

My second uncle explained helplessly, “There aren’t many ways to make money here. Wild animals like wild boars and roe deer are hard to sell.

At the township purchasing station, there are only a few relatively valuable and common items, such as bear bile, sable fur, and at best, tiger cub skin!
There are too many wolves and too little meat. If you want to eat your fill, don’t you have to rely on robbing?
If we resort to violence, it won’t be so perfect. You use a knife and I use a gun. We both have guns, so we’ll compete to see whose hands are darker and whose gun is harder.

Whoever has the greater power has the final say!

Let me tell you, you finally come to stay at home for a few days, it’s not worth risking your life for that little bit of profit! This year the rains are frequent, and there are many livestock in the mountains. I will take you to hunt wild boars, roe deer and so on, and we can have a good harvest! “

“Then according to what you said, hunters outside are not allowed to go to Blind Camel Mountain?”

After listening to his second uncle’s words, Yue Feng was somewhat unwilling to give up, so he wanted to learn more about it.

“It’s not that we are not allowed to go, but wouldn’t that make us bandits? The mountains belong to the government, why should ordinary people not be allowed to go into the mountains to hunt?
To be more precise, other hunters are not allowed to set traps for sables in places where traps have already been set!
This thing is valuable. A large skin is worth hundreds of dollars. There are only so many places suitable for setting traps. If others set traps and you also try to set them, what if you hit the prey and carry it down the mountain with you in your arms, no one will know!

So later on conflicts arose over these trivial matters, and then escalated into fights!
You can go hunting, but it’s taboo to wander around where people set traps. If you go near where traps are set, there will definitely be trouble, and maybe even a fight!”

“Is that so? That’s all right! Let’s go catch the sable, and use a hawk to catch it alive! We won’t want the dead marten that others catch even if we don’t set traps!” Yue Feng’s tense nerves relaxed a lot after hearing this.

In the final analysis, it can be summed up in one sentence: money can move people’s hearts.

“If you say so, and you are willing to give it a try, I can show you around! We are all familiar faces who have been hiking in the mountains for years, so we might have some connections with you!” said the second uncle after hearing Yue Feng’s detailed explanation.

“That’s all! Come on, Grandpa, Uncle, Second Uncle, I’ll toast you a glass!”

Yue Feng’s anxious thoughts were finally put to rest, and he now focused on eating and drinking.

The family was very happy to see the eldest nephew coming. The grandfather was over 70 years old, and he drank a jar (a term used in the Northeast region, a jar of wine is roughly equivalent to a glass of wine, about 3 taels) of highly liquefied liquor in the evening.

After eating and drinking, the whole family sat around the table and talked a lot about Yue Feng’s family. After learning that Yue Feng’s family had bought a bicycle, a sewing machine, and a semiconductor, both the uncle and the grandparents smiled and lamented that their daughter’s family was living a good life.

After chatting for a while, time unknowingly reached nine o’clock in the evening. The guys had been traveling for two days. It would be a lie to say they were not tired. After drinking, Xiao Tao was the first to nod and doze off.

Seeing this, Uncle Yue Feng immediately started to arrange for the children to go to bed.

There are only three rooms in the house. My parents and my eldest uncle and his wife sleep in one room each. Now there are suddenly four more people in the family and it’s a bit too little room for them.

But this kind of problem is not difficult to solve. After a few people discussed it, they came up with an idea.

My second uncle’s cousin was in junior high school and lived in the school dormitory. Usually no one slept on the kang in the west room, so my grandma and grandpa went to sleep on the kang in the east room of my second uncle’s house. My second uncle and my second aunt slept in their son’s room, and the kang in the east room of my eldest uncle’s house was given to my brother Yuefeng and his four children. My second aunt took out two beddings from home, and the four children could sleep.

Living conditions in this era were limited, and there was no such thing as privacy taboos. With a simple adjustment, the four brothers settled down at home.

That night, my aunt-in-law boiled some hot water for the four children to soak their feet. After they had eaten and drunk their fill, they soaked their feet again. The brothers felt tired and soon went into bed and fell asleep.

Yue Feng is a light sleeper and is very attached to his bed. Even though he could hardly open his eyelids, he still couldn’t fall asleep.

The three guys next to him were already fast asleep. Yue Feng tossed and turned until midnight when he finally fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, before dawn outside, I heard the sound of my aunt preparing breakfast in the kitchen.

Last night, Yue Feng had discussed with his second uncle that they would go hunting in the mountains early this morning. The women in the family could do all these tasks, such as making breakfast and forking dog food. Yue Feng sat up from the bed, and then started to put on his clothes with his eyes wide open. After tidying up, he rolled up his bedding and got off the kang, quietly left the house, and strolled around the yard.

The chestnut horse tied in a sheltered place beside the warehouse was quite well behaved all night. Yue Feng brought a bundle of corn stalks and it ate a lot of them. Lao Li explained to Yue Feng in detail how to take care of the horse, how to feed the horse with roughage and how to give it fine grains. Yue Feng only needed to follow the procedures.

The chestnut horse was in good condition. The hunting dogs tied to the warehouse also stood up when they heard Yue Feng’s movement. There was no doghouse in grandma’s house, so these four dogs suffered a little and could only huddle under the eaves of the warehouse to keep warm.

However, thanks to the fact that the dogs are usually fed a good standard of food, the four dogs are all fat and strong, and they can survive being tied up in the yard for a few days.

Compared to the dog and the chestnut horse, the one that was least adaptable was the big black eagle that came with them.

It was the first time for Big Black Hawk to come to an unfamiliar environment. He had never seen his uncle, aunt, grandparents, and others before, so he was a little wary.

After dinner last night, my second uncle asked Yue Feng to take off the eagle’s hat to show it some love. However, the big black eagle didn’t recognize these distant relatives and became quite nervous when they got too close. Yue Feng had to comfort it and feed it a few pieces of meat before it finally calmed down.

There was no falcon stand for the Black Hawk to stand in the sleeping room, so a stool covered with a towel could only be used as a temporary substitute. As a result, this guy was not honest during the rest time at night. He jumped down from the temporary falcon stand twice with his hat on, which made Yue Feng’s sleep quality particularly poor.

In order to let Big Black Hawk recognize its new relatives, Yue Feng got up and took a walk, then took off Big Black Hawk’s hat when he entered the house. He then sat on a small stool next to the stove where his aunt was burning fire and watched Big Black Hawk with the hawk on his head, in order to desensitize Big Black Hawk.

After spending a morning together, the big black eagle behaved a little more steadily. It sat close to my uncle and aunt during meals and no longer barked nervously. My uncle tried to touch it and the eagle no longer hid.

The breakfast at my uncle’s house is quite simple, corn grits porridge, leftovers from last night, and some shredded pickles, mixed with soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil and other condiments, and that’s it.

Yue Feng and his friends had all been through hard times, so no one complained about the food. They all held their bowls and slurped down the porridge. In a short while, they had finished half the pot of corn porridge.

By the time Yue Feng had fed the dog and prepared all the equipment for going up the mountain, his second uncle also arrived at his eldest uncle’s house on time.

I saw that my second uncle was wearing a gray-white cotton coat and trousers inside, a thick sheepskin coat outside, leggings on his legs, a pair of cowhide shoes on his feet, and a dog-skin hat on his head. He looked like a very professional mountain hunter.

“Are you ready? Shall we set off now?”

The second uncle looked at Yue Feng and his brothers. Seeing that they were all carrying hunting bags, guns, and had their leggings tied, he nodded repeatedly.

Whether he is an amateur or an expert can be easily identified from his outfit and equipment.

With just one glance, the second uncle could tell from some details that his nephews all had a lot of experience in climbing mountains.

“Okay, second uncle, can you take us for a walk around the surrounding mountains first?” Yue Feng asked while nodding.

The second uncle shook his head and said, “There are no decent wild animals on the mountain near our home. I will take you to Lao Muzhugou! A group of wild boars came there a few days ago. I think no one has gone to hunt them yet. I will take you there this time. If we are lucky, we can bring back a few. A small fight would be a disservice to the big animals you are carrying!”

“Okay! Then let’s drag the sled!” Yue Feng responded and immediately started to drag the sled.

Two detachable wild boar skin sleds and two fixed sleds were soon in place. The brothers divided the work according to the normal division of labor, and then, leading the dog and the eagle, the group of five people left the village in a mighty manner.

On the way out of the village, the second uncle led Yue Feng and his group with great confidence. Whenever he met villagers from the same village, the second uncle would always proudly say, “This is my nephew! Today we are going to the mountains to hunt. When we come back after killing some animals, whoever sees it will get a share!”

On weekdays, my second uncle followed the hunting team up the mountain, and played a marginal role as a driver.

Although he had accumulated a lot of experience in hunting in the mountains, he never had the courage to go alone because he had no gun or dog.

It’s different now. The nephew has come with his men, a dog and three guns. Naturally, the second uncle’s status has risen and he has gained confidence among the villagers.

Yue Feng could understand this mentality and thoughts. He saw through it but didn’t say it out loud. He was holding back on his feelings deep down.

The Yue family has become proud in Xing’an Village. Now that they have come to my grandmother’s house, they naturally have to help their eldest and second uncles’ families live a good life!

Chapter 3000 was completed with 11000 words, total words!
Who said I was short? Who said I was bad at updating?

The fatter little prince is coming!

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(End of this chapter)