mtlumby2d Chapter 389 Unconventional Eagle Taming: The Great Golden Eagle
Chapter 389 Unconventional Eagle Taming: The Great Golden Eagle
Last year, Lu Zhiqiang and Song Desheng discussed raising black bears. They planned to raise the young black bears to adulthood and extract their bile in three years, instead of going through the hard work of cleaning up the bear enclosures, which was also dangerous.
It was Lu Jinyang and Li Ju'an who stopped the two of them, preventing them from acting impulsively.
Lu Zhiqiang was still unconvinced and said, "Why can't we raise argali? These things are just like sheep being herded; you can just drive them out to eat some grass and they'll grow."
Chen Xiangqian thought for a moment and said, "They don't produce meat. The sheep that produce meat have already been raised by people, haven't they?"
Lu Zhiqiang slapped his forehead, suddenly realizing, and said, "Oh yeah, they don't produce meat. Otherwise, why don't Old Zhang and the others raise wild boars, or even the mixed-breed wild boars? Wild boars don't produce meat."
There are many breeds of domestic pigs, and without exception, the best breeds are all for producing meat. The amount of meat and fat produced from these feeds is what determines the profit after slaughter.
But wild boars, even mixed breeds, won't grow tall or gain weight if fed the same feed. They're like muddy fish in the sea, eating who-knows-what, and they're slow to market, wasting feed. So when farmers in the village encounter wild boars charging into their sow pens, they drive them away fiercely, fearing that wild boars might harm a herd of healthy sows.
So the two of them felt that what Li Ju'an said made sense. Lu Zhiqiang gave a big thumbs up and said, "It's always you, Li Ju'an, you're right!"
Li Ju'an glanced at him sideways and sighed.
That's not how he sees things! It's clearly because raising argali sheep in later generations is very difficult! You're being difficult, kid.
Lu Zhiqiang muttered, "If they don't want to sell, they don't want to sell. Anyway, I don't really want to raise them. I might as well raise snow frogs."
Li Ju'an thought for a moment and said, "Snow frog is good. There is a market for it and it can be profitable. It's more profitable than raising earthworms or something like that."
"earthworm?"
Lu Jinyang was full of doubts, but Lu Zhiqiang patted his chest and assured him, "I, General Lu, will make money no matter what I raise! Just you wait and see, I'm going to open a breeding farm with Song Desheng, and then you'll all call me President Lu, and I'll dazzle you."
Li Ju'an and Lu Jinyang echoed with laughter, "Yes, yes, yes, hello President Lu. When you make a lot of money, don't forget to help your brothers out and hire a few more beautiful female secretaries."
"Absolutely. And it has to be a hot female secretary!"
The Lu brothers asked how the golden eagle was doing.
Li Ju'an went to the backyard to show the two the giant golden eagle.
The golden eagle stood on a thin hemp rope, its feet chained with thin iron chains, just like the chains used by the two eagles before it, and its face was covered with a cowhide blindfold.
The golden eagle was drooping its head, listless and wanting to sleep, but when the tiger on the ground saw it, it kicked its hind legs.
A rope was tied to the tiger's hind leg and then to a thin hemp rope on the golden eagle's foot, tied in a knot. Two much larger eagles stood nearby.
There was a large eagle and a small one; the smaller one hadn't caught up yet, and it seemed its skeleton couldn't possibly catch up with its brother. The two eagles had nothing better to do, so they spent their time watching the golden eagle.
As soon as the golden eagle's head droops, looking sleepy, the two eagles immediately start crying out and making noise.
At first, the golden eagle was wary and alert to the cries of other eagles and falcons. But when provoked, it would open its beak wide and respond with a loud, high-pitched cry in retaliation.
But as the days went by, the golden eagle grew numb and lost all its restlessness, wanting only to sleep.
I'm so sleepy, tired, and hungry, and I don't even have any water to drink. I just want to sleep.
Gradually, the golden eagle stopped reacting to the eagle's provocations and got used to it, while the hen squatted there with an indifferent, do-nothing attitude.
Then Da Hu took the stage. Da Hu had helped Li Ju'an tame eagles, so he was quite adept at torturing flat-feathered birds.
Big Tiger kicked his leg into the rope. Seeing that the golden eagle was sleepy, he kicked his leg, making the rope under the golden eagle's feet sway.
The eagle, fearing it would be thrown off, instinctively tried to grip the rope tightly and extend its wings to maintain its balance as the swing became too large.
But after a few days, the golden eagle couldn't take it anymore and simply lay down to sleep. No matter how much the tiger kicked its legs, it simply flipped itself upside down, leaving its body chained by the feet and hanging upside down on the hemp rope. It closed its eyes and fell asleep.
Even this nap didn't bring the golden eagle a good night's sleep.
The two eagles, no longer chained, turned against the hunter.
Whenever the eagle spotted the golden eagle hanging upside down and pecked at it, Li Ju'an would reward the eagle with a small piece of pig's heart, lungs, and liver.
Eagles love pig offal; they adore its pungent smell. They eagerly wait by the golden eagle's side, hoping it will hang upside down so they can peck at it.
The golden eagle was on the verge of a breakdown after repeated attempts.
You guys are all such bastards!
Is the one on the ground a dog, or are you two the dogs?
It's been eight days already. Even the fiercest eagles can't withstand it. They're wild and untamed. In Zhao Pao's words from Eagle Village, it's like saying, "Don't waste your time and energy. If you can't tame them, you might as well release them and train the eaglets next year."
Li Ju'an insisted on taming the golden eagle, saying, "This golden eagle is doomed to die if it's released. It keeps flying over the barley field, and Zhang, the head of the barley field, has hated this eagle for a long time. He'll have to organize the hunters to kill it. Whether it's stewing soup or simmering, it's all the same."
After receiving the phone call, Zhao Pao from Yingtun came over to take a look out of curiosity.
Zhao Pao was truly delighted to see the majestic golden eagle. He secretly tried to slip some money to Li Ju'an, saying in a low voice, "If it's not ready in seven days, sell it to me. I'll take it to Eagle Village to train it later."
Li Ju'an knew exactly what Zhao Pao was up to, and laughed and scolded, "You just told me to release it so you could train eaglets next year. What's wrong? Zhao Pao didn't want to train this eagle, he just locked up its cubs for a while so he could raise eaglets later. You're just keeping it in a cage anyway, so you might as well let it stand on my rope."
Zhao Pao, having his thoughts exposed, wasn't embarrassed at all and said, "That's right. What good can come of a golden eagle that has offended someone? Being locked in a cage is already a good outcome. Or it'll end up in a cage at the city zoo. Either way, it can forget about flying out."
At this time, the news spread throughout the village that the division commander's son had come to see Li Ju'an in a car.
Zhao Pao from Yingtun was drinking and playing cards with Li Guaizi. When he heard about this, Li Guaizi said he wanted to visit Li Ju'an to see how the young man's injuries were, and also chat with Li Ju'an about how easy it was to hunt in the barley fields.
Li Guaizi said, "There are many barley fields in the Gobi Desert, and many pangolins. You can make money selling them. There are also many plateau moles. Their fur is worth a lot of money. If you find a good merchant, the price you can get is no less than that of a large pelt."
Li Guaizi was in a hurry to find Li Ju'an, and Zhao Pao, having nothing else to do, also came along to see how well Li Ju'an's golden eagle was being tamed.
Another group of people arrived at the entrance of the Li family's self-built house.
Zhao Pao stopped pretending and didn't even glance at the APS Stechkin that Li Ju'an was carefully wiping as he entered the room. In his eyes, a gun was nothing compared to an eagle.
A good eagle is more important than anything else in the world.
Zhao Pao raised his voice and shouted, "Li Ju'an, how's your golden eagle?"
He really wanted to ask if it had died yet; it would be such a pity if it had. But he sighed inwardly. Even if he were to endure it, the golden eagle wouldn't survive. It was an explosive creature, a wild adult golden eagle that wouldn't submit to humans. It would only starve itself to death.
Li Ju'an picked up a piece of leaping cat meat with his chopsticks and took off the golden eagle blindfold.
The bloody meat of the leaping catfish dangled around the beak of a golden eagle, exuding the aroma of leaping catfish blood and the savory fragrance of meat.
The golden eagle had been starving for eight days, and was exhausted and tired. After being hung upside down, its claws were almost broken by the rope, and it was in so much pain that it had given up on living.
Suddenly, a piece of fragrant catfish meat appeared.
The golden eagle didn't even try to struggle; it closed its beak and fell silent, as if it hadn't smelled anything.
Watching the spectacle, Li Guaizi laughed and said, "Unyielding to the death, it's been eight or nine days and it still hasn't made it. This eagle is probably going to die."
Zhao Pao remained silent, and Li Ju'an was also filled with despair.
Little did he know that there really were animals with fine hair that weren't afraid of death.
He suddenly remembered something: learned helplessness he had learned in the South in his previous life. This attitude applied perfectly to this flat-feathered eagle. In other words, no matter how much it struggled, there would be no good outcome, so it simply gave up and wallowed in despair, lacking any will to live. This is also why eagles that are trained to survive will eventually die.
Li Ju'an looked at the new golden eagle on Zhao Pao's shoulder and suddenly said, "Zhao Pao, is this a male eagle? And a handsome young one at that?"
Zhao Pao's heart skipped a beat. He knew that this kid's smiling face meant he was cunning and definitely hadn't done anything right.