Reborn in the 1980s: I made my fortune hunting wild game in Changbai Mountain

"Is the eagle thirsty?" Little Eagle Liu was slightly taken aback when he heard this, and looked at the Azure Dragon very carefully.

For the first three or even five days after being caught in a net, the common eagle will not eat or drink anything. Not only will it not eat or drink, but its wings and tail will also be spread out and drooping in a state of high stress.

Even the rabbit and tiger, known for their boldness, wouldn't ask for water as soon as they got home.

How bold must this giant blue dragon be to drink water as soon as it comes down the mountain?

Yue Feng said, "He definitely smacked his lips, I saw it very clearly!"
We haven't given it any water since we took it offline; it might really be thirsty! Maybe we should give it some water and see?

Such a fine eagle, you mustn't let it go dry!

Yue Feng's words were quite insightful. When a large eagle is caught in a net, experienced hunters will usually use a blowpipe to force-feed water into the eagle's crop while it is still wrapped in its coat to prevent it from drying out.

When eagles struggle after being caught in a net, it can easily cause electrolyte imbalances in their bodies.

Little Eagle Liu Jianyuefeng spoke very seriously, nodding: "Then let's try pouring some water on it! I reckon it'll have a hard time drinking it. If that doesn't work, I'll get a blowpipe and blow some water into its crop!"

"No rush, let's give it a try first. I think it has potential!" Yue Feng said with a smile.

Grandpa Liu immediately went to get a porcelain bowl, poured half a bowl of warm water, and brought it to the big blue dragon.

Several pairs of eyes were fixed on the Great Azure Dragon's every move, especially Yue Feng, who was particularly nervous.

If this guy dares to drink the water from the bowl as soon as he gets out of the net, then he's no less daring than a grey falcon. Among the finest eagles, there are some that are incredibly audacious.
The Great Azure Dragon's reaction next disappointed Yue Feng.

It saw the water and smacked its lips as if it wanted to drink, but noticing the gazes of the crowd, it gave up.

Grandpa Liu was holding the bowl and turned slightly to the side when this guy seized the opportunity and suddenly raised his paw as if to grab Grandpa Liu's left hand holding the bowl.

The old man has been handling eagles for half his life; how could he make such a basic mistake?

When feeding water or turning to hold the bowl, he tightly gripped the five-foot-long, two-legged tripod that tethered the hawk.

The giant blue dragon didn't even raise its claws, let alone grab anyone.

"Damn! This guy's pretty fierce! He can't get water, so he's trying to rip me out and drink my blood!" Grandpa Liu said with a chuckle.

Yue Feng also noticed the Azure Dragon's attack tendency and said, "Grandpa, could you find me a strip of cotton cloth? I'd like to try it out! This thing is quite interesting!"

There's a cotton handkerchief in the small drawer next to you, what are you doing?

Yue Feng immediately opened the drawer, took out a handkerchief, and then got up to soak the handkerchief in warm water.

"I'll give it a different way to drink water!"

After Yue Feng finished speaking, he held the soaked handkerchief about seven or eight centimeters above the eagle's head, then squeezed it slightly with his fingers. The handkerchief immediately dripped water as it felt the pressure.

Warm water dripped onto the beak of the Great Azure Dragon. At first, the creature resisted a little, but when a drop of water fell into a crevice, it visibly smacked its lips and swallowed the drop.

"Hehe, this is working! They actually drank the water!" Yue Feng continued to repeat the process.

After a few times, the big blue dragon seemed to understand that Yue Feng was feeding it water. It raised its head slightly and tilted its neck back, letting the water droplets fall next to its beak, and swallowed them with gulps.

"Tsk tsk tsk, what an eye-opener! This eagle that was just caught in the net is actually drinking water from my hand! This guy is really bold! What do you think, if we give it some fresh meat, will it eat it?" Grandpa Liu asked with a look of surprise.

Upon hearing this, Yue Feng shook his head without hesitation: "Probably not. Drinking water and eating meat are two different things. When I took the net off, I checked its condition. Its breasts were round, so it wasn't short of fat!"

"Try?"

"I'll give it a try, but I don't think it'll work!"

Sure enough, when Grandpa Liu went to get a piece of mutton, no matter how much he provoked the dragon, it didn't give him any face and even tried to attack him twice with its claws.

"He only drinks water and doesn't eat meat! This guy is really strange!" Grandpa Liu put the meat in the bowl and gave up helplessly.

"Haha, drinking water is a good thing, it makes it easier to lose weight! Grandpa, we've been so busy admiring the eagle that we haven't even weighed it or set its weight yet!" Yue Feng reminded him again.

"Yes, yes, we've got the eagle and brought it home, but we haven't weighed it yet! You wait here, I'll go get the scale!"

Grandpa Liu responded, turned around and went to the opposite room, and soon came out with a scale.

With a helping hand, Grandpa Liu placed the eagle on the special stand, and carefully adjusted the weight on the scale until it was balanced.

With all its eagle gear on, the Great Azure Dragon weighed 2.62 jin (approximately 1.3 kg).

If we deduct the small parts such as the five-foot rotating bell, the actual weight of this eagle is basically consistent with Yue Feng's estimate, around two and a half pounds.

For a hawk that hunts rabbits, a weight of two and a half pounds is definitely not light.

Keep in mind that this was after a heavy snowfall in early winter, when the outdoor temperature was below -10 degrees Celsius.

"Tsk tsk, a two-and-a-half-pound eagle, and not even a grass-white eagle! That's a good weight! It'll be incredibly strong to work in the fields!" Li Fulin exclaimed, looking at the weight he had just measured.

Grandpa Liu put down the scale, casually touched the eagle's tail, and said, "A two-and-a-half-pound fat eagle, even with 80% fat, would still weigh two pounds before it can be put on the ground!"
"Old Li, if we switch the rider but not the hawk, how long do you think it will take to fatten it up?"

Li Fulin said, “A normal eagle, if it has the right skills, will be about seven fast and eight slow!”
This eagle has a tough body; give it two more days, ten days at most, and it should be able to land soon!
Xiaofeng, why don't you stay in Beijing a few more days, until Yingcheng gets promoted before you leave?

According to the original plan, Yue Feng was supposed to stay in Beijing for half a month before returning home, and now there is very little time left.

When asked by Uncle Li, Yue Feng shook his head: "I won't stay here. I've been away from home for almost half a month. If I go back late, my wife will worry!"

I originally planned to leave tomorrow, but I'll postpone it for two days to see how things go after the Eagle Lantern Flower blooms. I'll return to Northeast China in three days!
Handling a giant eagle is a piece of cake for you and my uncle—it's like Zhang Fei eating bean sprouts!

"Three days it is! Such a fine eagle, we should at least see what its temperament is like!"

"Row!"

In just a few words, the group reached a consensus: they wouldn't drink alcohol with dinner that night, and the two old buddies would take turns driving the eagles, staying up all night tonight!

The eagle's lack of fear earlier gave everyone the illusion that it was a bold creature and that raising and training it wouldn't be too difficult.

But after a whole night of keeping the hawk up, when they weighed it the next day at noon, the big blue dragon gave Grandpa Liu and Uncle Li a real shock.

For nearly 24 hours straight, without stopping or closing his eyes, Da Qinglong only had one bowel movement, and his weight dropped by just over two qian (a unit of weight).

A good eagle has a tough physique. Even when Yue Feng's Ironback Red eagle was training at home, it didn't take this long to gain weight.

Putting everything else aside, just the speed at which it's losing weight means it'll be a long and arduous process to train the eagle! It won't obey unless it gets its weight reduced.

After weighing himself, when Yue Feng went to Grandpa Liu's house in the afternoon, Little Eagle Liu asked Yue Feng about losing weight.

"Xiao Feng, this big blue dragon is strange! I've never seen such a tough eagle. I weighed it at noon, and it's only lost two and a half qian of weight since yesterday. It only lost one strip in a whole day and night!" Upon hearing this, Yue Feng grinned and said, "An eagle loses weight slowly, that's a good thing! A tough physique means it loses weight slowly!"

“At this rate, let alone seven or ten days, I’m afraid we won’t even lose 80% of our weight in half a month! I’ve never seen an eagle like this before! Do you have any other ideas?” Little Eagle Liu asked, looking into Yue Feng’s eyes.

"Yes, it started losing weight later, and it'll definitely lose weight faster and faster! To speed up the weight loss, give it plenty of water every day! Hydration will naturally help it lose weight! You can try it!"

Grandpa Liu: "Alright, I'll give it a try! But you can't leave just yet if you can't solve the problem of gaining weight!"

This thing has made things a bit unsettling for Lao Li and me. We finally got a top-of-the-line Eagle; don't let us two ruin it!

"Haha, it's not that bad! Let's try it first!"

After Yue Feng gave him some advice, he served him warm water that very day. Sure enough, when he weighed himself the next day, he had lost half an ounce of weight, which was much more efficient.

Seeing that the eagle had been shining two lights and its weight was starting to drop, Yue Feng's tense nerves gradually relaxed.

Another day passed, and it was time for Yue Feng to leave.

Jinlong arranged a sleeper berth for Yue Feng to return home and even asked an acquaintance at the train station to help with the procedures for transporting live poultry. Yue Feng gave the house key to Uncle Li Fulin to look after it, then said goodbye to his friends in Beijing and boarded the train back to Northeast China.

Yue Feng really had a great time in Beijing this time.

Leaving aside the top-tier connections I made through running the club and the gains from club shares, etc.

Three top-quality raptors were acquired.

One rare Altai falcon, and one exquisite white grey-backed falcon (male and female).

In addition, Yue Feng also had a share in the training of the Great Azure Dragon, which was temporarily handed over to the two Eagle Masters for practice.

After boarding the train, there was another long wait of dozens of hours.

At 2:30 pm on the third day, the train home arrived at the station. Yue Feng carried large bags and small packages, plus three cages specifically for holding eagles, and walked out of the train station exit.

"Brother! Over here!"

Xiao Tao and his two brothers, Xiao Wen and Xiao Wu, who had already received a call in advance, were waiting outside the station on their motorcycles.

Upon seeing Yue Feng emerge, Xiao Tao immediately dismounted from the back of the motorcycle and strode over to greet him.

"Have you been waiting long? Look at your face, it's all red from the cold, and you didn't even wear a scarf?!" Yue Feng glanced at Xiao Tao and asked with a smile.

"No, I just arrived a little while ago! What's this thing? Let me carry it for you!" Xiao Tao took the luggage and cage from Yue Feng's hands.

"Give me the cage, these are hawks I brought back from Beijing! One grey falcon, two tassels! You take the luggage!"

"Go to Beijing and catch so many eagles? Dare to open them and take a look?" Xiao Tao perked up immediately when he heard that there were eagles in the cages.

"We'll talk about it when we get back! Xiaowen and Xiaowu, you two keep an eye on Xiaotao! Is everything alright at home?" Yue Feng didn't let go of the cage in his hand, but hugged it to his chest, and then got on the back of the motorcycle.

Xiaowen took the bag and put it away, saying calmly, "Everything is fine at home! We're keeping an eye on things! It's just up in the mountains..."

Hearing that something was amiss, Yue Feng's heart skipped a beat.

He hurriedly asked, "What happened on the mountain?"

Xiaowen quickly explained, "Don't be nervous, the livestock on the mountain are all fine, nothing's wrong! It's just that Zhang Wenhui... caused a little trouble!"

"What happened to Zhang Wenhui?" Hearing this, Yue Feng breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhang Wenhui was the vagrant that Yue Feng and his master Zhao Dashan rescued from the mountain. Before Yue Feng went to Beijing, she had been recuperating on the mountain.

Judging from the timeline, his injuries should be almost healed.

“Zhang Wenhui is almost recovered, so she uses Grandpa Zhao’s hunting rifle to hunt in the mountains to earn money. She’s started working with the lure pullers at the forest farm!” Xiaowen continued.

"and then?"

"Nothing much, I just shot him. Luckily, he wasn't seriously injured, just shot through his calf!"

People from the forest farm came to our breeding farm, and Uncle Zhao paid for the medical expenses! My uncle talked to the forest farm leaders, and they settled the matter with compensation! No officials were involved!

"What about Zhang Wenhui? What's the situation?" Yue Feng asked again.

"His injuries had just healed when he got hurt again in the fight. He cracked his skull and needed eight stitches! He's still recovering on the mountain!"

Hearing this, Yue Feng felt relieved.

Most of the workers on the mountain are locals, and they are known for their tough and friendly nature. It's not uncommon for them to bully outsiders.

Now that things have been taken care of, I'll make time to go up the mountain and take a look when I get back.

Zhang Wenhui is a bit of a troublemaker!

After asking a few more questions about the situation at home and the restaurant, and finding everything else peaceful, Xiao Tao and Xiao Wen started their motorcycles, and the four of them sped off towards Xing'an Village.

An hour and a half later, the motorcycle drove into the village and stopped directly in front of the new house with Yue Feng in tow.

Upon hearing the sound of a motorcycle at the gate, Wang Xiaona, holding her child, immediately came out to greet them.

"Wife!!" Yue Feng got out of the back seat and called out to Wang Xiaona.

"You finally know to come back! If you stay in Beijing any longer, you'll almost forget you have a wife and kids at home!" Wang Xiaona complained, her brows furrowed.

When Yue Feng saw that his boss was getting impatient, he immediately shamelessly went over and hugged his wife and child tightly.

"What are you saying? Going to Beijing isn't just for fun; we've finalized a lot of important things this time! Honey, did you miss your dad?"

Yue Feng responded softly, then reached out to tease his son.

The little guy was happy, but when he felt the cold touch of his dad's fingers, he pouted and burst into tears.

Now that's even worse, Wang Xiaona got even angrier and reached out to pinch Yue Feng's butt.

"Hey, hey, don't do it! So many people are watching, give me some face!" Yue Feng realized something was wrong and ran into the house.

When the younger brothers saw that their sister-in-law was about to "set rules" for their older brother, they all laughed and didn't say a word. They carried the luggage from the car and the eagle cage into the house, exchanged a glance, and then scattered like birds. (End of Chapter)