Chapter 79: Feeding Pork to the Eagle, Being Smart

Some people may be confused when seeing this. Aren’t guns and hunting banned in this era? Why do we still need to join the Farmers Protection Team and go through the formalities?

To answer more accurately, in this era, the management of guns and ammunition is indeed very loose, but if the national policy is enforced, villagers who privately own guns also need to go through relevant procedures. It’s just that objective conditions make supervision somewhat difficult, and there are practical problems in the geographical environment in the Northeast. It’s just a common practice that the officials will not investigate unless the people report it.

As for the hunting ban, it is even more lax than the gun control.
These days sparrows are still one of the four pests. Every autumn before the grain harvest, farmlands near the foot of the mountain will be damaged by wild boars, bears, badgers and other wild animals that come down the mountain.

The current situation in rural areas at that time was that as long as there was a legitimate reason, village hunters could hunt the wild beasts that endangered the villagers’ production, life, and gathering outside the mountainous areas. In principle, there were no clear restrictions.

Not only is it not restricted, it is also encouraged and even organized. Before the autumn harvest every year, many larger villages will organize farmer protection teams to go into the mountains to sweep the area to ensure the safety of the autumn harvest.

As far as Yue Feng knows, around the 80s, except for the Siberian tiger, which required approval from the municipal government before being allowed to be hunted, other large and small mountain animals active in the Changbai Mountains were basically not subject to any major violations of the law if hunters shot them with guns.

Of course, the good days of doing whatever you want did not last long. At the end of 88, after the Wildlife Protection Law was promulgated, there were many more restrictions on hunting by mountain people. In 1996, the Gun Control Law was promulgated, and bringing a gun into the mountains to hunt became an illegal act that could only be carried out secretly.

“Speak up, what are you thinking about? I’m risking my old face, your uncle Wang should agree!” Yue Feng was distracted when his father’s voice brought him back to reality.

“Don’t worry about the gun. Anyway, there is still at least a month before the snow falls! During this period, let’s focus on releasing hawks. The money to buy a gun, including the 800 yuan today, should be enough. If we can’t find a gun from other hunters, we can just buy a new one!” Yue Feng said with determination.

“Don’t buy that barreled gun. You have to break the handle every time you fire a shot, and changing bullets is too slow. It’s too dangerous if you encounter a bad bullet! You’d better buy a 56 and a half. You can fire ten bullets in a row and it’s accurate!” Yue Lei clearly opposed his son buying a modified single-shot hunting rifle.

In his previous life, Yue Lei had mentioned similar remarks to Yue Feng, but Yue Feng didn’t take it seriously at the time.

But after experiencing the incident where Chouzi almost lost his life because a bear sat on his butt, Yue Feng realized how far-sighted his father was.

“Okay, I’ll listen to you!” Yue Feng nodded and agreed.

“By the way, if you come to the city again, could you help me get some radio tickets? I’m at home all day, it’s hard to go out, it’s so uncomfortable!”

Hearing his father’s request, Yue Feng felt dazed again.

This was the first time in Yue Feng’s life that he heard his father ask him to buy something for the home in a negotiating tone.

“Okay, I’ll go to the ghost market early tomorrow morning and try to get a ticket for a radio. If the supply and marketing cooperative has it in stock, I’ll buy it directly!” Yue Feng agreed without hesitation.

……

While the father and son of the Yue family were making future plans in the house, Zhou Jianjun and his son on the other side also felt that they had gotten a great deal.

A group of three people, with two eagles, signed the credentials at Yue Feng’s house. The three of them didn’t even have time to go home for lunch. They turned around and left the village, turned a corner and went up the mountain again.

Because Yue Feng’s family was selling a falcon today, Xiao Tao and his friends, including the Zhang brothers, took a day off and did not go up the mountain to release the falcon.

These bright ridges on the edge of the village became the temporary territory for Zhou Jianjun and his two companions to release their hawks.

The old people said that eagles have fire in their bodies, and they will not feel tired or hungry when they release eagles. Zhou Jianjun and his three companions were feeling this kind of excitement at the moment. Yue Feng did not take away the six preys he caught in the morning. With the prey that Zhou Jianjun and his companions caught later, the total number of prey reached 17 by pm.

This includes 13 flying dragons and four sand half chickens.

Although there is still a long way to go before the 30 prey a day that Yue Feng mentioned, Zhou Jianjun is already very satisfied.

Their hawking skills are a bit poor, and many times they can’t get close to the bird, so the hawk’s success rate is lower.

But overall, Yue Feng was able to manipulate the kite very well. Even if he failed to catch the hawk and put it on the tree, he could still call it down by walking closer, raising his hand and giving a command.

Zhou Jianjun and his two companions wandered around the mountain until around four in the afternoon before they came down the mountain. When they were near the foot of the mountain, they happened to encounter a group of chickens with three flying dragons.

Zhou Rui imitated Yue Feng’s posture and approached carefully, then he made a graceful move with the flat eagle and defeated him in one round.

“Dad, it’s time to feed the eagle at this time! Yue Feng said that an eagle can’t just work without food! From now on, this is our own eagle, we have to take good care of it!” Zhou Rui discussed with his father.

Zhou Jianjun nodded: “Okay, it’s getting dark, it’s not safe to release it anymore! Feed it!”

Just as he finished speaking, Zhou Jianjun suddenly had an idea and interrupted his son’s action of killing a sand chicken to feed the hawk: “You kid, why don’t you live a normal life at your age? This sand chicken weighs less than half a pound at most, and there are still a lot of bones. One can be sold for 70 cents in the city, which can buy a pound of pork! Keep the sand chicken and feed the hawk with the lean pork when you get home!”

When Zhou Rui heard this, he felt that his father’s calculation was correct. One sand chicken could be exchanged for nearly one pound of meat. If it was used to feed an eagle, no matter how you calculated it, it would be more appropriate to feed the eagle with lean pork.

An eagle can eat half a sand chicken and half a chicken in one meal, but it cannot eat half a pound of meat. So, it can save a lot in the process.

“Okay, let’s go back and feed the eagle! After we feed it well, we’ll go up the mountain early tomorrow morning and try to earn back the money we spent on buying the eagle!”

Zhou Jianjun shook his head and said, “You and your brother Xiaobao come tomorrow. I’m going to the city. I’m going to go to the ghost market in the city tomorrow morning to look for the birds I caught today. I’ll first find a way to sell game!”

“Okay! I’ll listen to you!”

The father and son happily returned home with two eagles and more than ten preys. Their nephew Zhou Xiaobao had been waiting for them for a whole day.

“Uncle San, Brother Rui, why did you come back just now? Didn’t you go to buy an eagle this morning?” Zhou Xiaobao muttered with some complaint.

Zhou Jianjun glanced at his nephew with gentle eyes: “Your brother and I bought a hawk and asked Yue Feng to take us to the mountains to learn how to release the hawk. Here, this is the prey we caught today!

You can pick one of these two eagles and take it away. You can also bring back two of the chicks they caught for your parents to taste!”

“Of these two eagles, my family can have either one?”

When Zhou Xiaobao heard what his uncle said, his eyes suddenly lit up.

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(End of this chapter)