Chapter 33: The First Day of Working Eagle's Job

Little Tao and his father, along with the Zhang brothers, split into pairs and began attempting to hunt birds using hawks on the surrounding hillsides.

Yue Feng continued to fly his large grey hawk solo, but he chose to move his hunting grounds to the ridges deeper in the mountains, leaving the well-trodden areas to the other four members of the team.

Opening new hunting grounds had both pros and cons.

The downside was that it was further from the village at the foot of the mountain and the terrain was unfamiliar, making it easy for accidents to happen while flying the hawk.

On the bright side, the populations of sand partridges and flying dragons in this area had not yet suffered much devastation from falconers. They were quite bold; sometimes, Yue Feng could even use the cover of tree trunks to approach within five or six meters. With the large grey hawk, catching such prey was almost a certainty.

It was another day of mountain hunting. At around four in the afternoon, Yue Feng returned to the village via the narrow goat paths, carrying his hawk and a bulging satchel.

The five of them had set out from Yue Feng's house together in the morning, agreeing to regroup at his place in the evening after descending the mountain.

By the time Yue Feng returned, Little Tao and his father had already arrived. Having worked all day, the two hawks were tethered in the courtyard with large, full crops. Yue Lei was in the house, keeping Little Tao and his father company.

"Uncle Li, Little Tao, how was your harvest today?" Yue Feng asked kindly as he entered the door and took off his satchel.

"Not bad! That purple goshawk caught them quite cleverly! Our duo officially went out on our own for the first time today and caught 12 flying dragons and three sand partridges! Most of the work was done by the purple goshawk. If we fly it for a couple more days and get the tethering right, it should be even more efficient!" Li Wentong responded with a smile.

"My sparrowhawk is a bit tricky. If a chick flies just a little too far, it'll chase it for dozens of meters and then just perch in a tree! It went up a tree three times today. Luckily it was tethered. Brother Feng, what should I do in this situation?" Little Tao was not as calm as his father and had some grievances regarding the hawk assigned to him.

Yue Feng said, "That's because its spirit is a bit lacking. I'll set it up a few more points tonight and we'll try again tomorrow! Did you feed the hawk at home, or did you feed it on the mountain?"

"For the last prey, I caught a white wagtail by the roadside at the foot of the mountain, so I wetted its feathers and fed it right there! As for my dad's purple goshawk, he brought it home to the perch, and my uncle hand-prepared its meal!" Little Tao answered.

The white wagtail was a small bird; feeding it with wet feathers would surely result in a molt by tomorrow morning. Once the molt was complete, it should perform much better when they went back to work tomorrow.

Yue Feng nodded. "Just let it adapt slowly for now. Work alongside Uncle Li; if the opportunities are poor, let Uncle Li use the purple goshawk to make the catches! For the one you have, only aim for catches where the distance is close and the success rate is high. The priority for the early stage is to build the hawk's confidence. Once its spirit is up, it will definitely become more efficient as it works! I wonder how the Zhang brothers did today; at this hour, they should be back!"

They waited from four-thirty until five-thirty, nearly until dark, before Xiaowen and Xiaowu returned, carrying their hawks and mountain satchels.

"Brother Feng, Uncle Li, Uncle Yue, we're back!" The brothers called out as they entered, and after greeting everyone, they tethered their hawks to the rack under the eaves.

"Why are you back so late? Did you encounter something on the mountain?" Yue Feng asked with concern.

"No, Xiaowu and I entered a new forest towards evening. There were many birds there, so we were a bit late," the older brother, Xiaowen, explained.

"How was it? What was your record today?" Little Tao was even more impatient than Yue Feng and couldn't help but ask.

"It looks like we caught seven sand partridges and 18 flying dragons! The hawk my brother has is a fierce worker. I feel it's similar to your large grey hawk, Brother Feng; it basically doesn't lose any birds. If there's an opportunity, it takes it. Most of the chickens today were caught by his hawk," the younger brother, Xiaowu, said, pointing to the hawk on the perch that lacked side-claw nails.

"This one is quite bold and catches well. Then what about the hawk you have? How did it perform?"

Yue Feng was quite surprised by their harvest. After all, it was the first day these hawks were officially working on their own, yet they had caught a total of 25 prey. Although it took a bit longer, it was already an excellent performance.

Xiaowu scratched his head and said somewhat dejectedly, "My hawk is too poor. It flies slowly and can't catch up if the prey is even slightly far away. Several times it got tangled in the bushes by its tether! When we fly it further out later, if the forest gets a bit noisy, it just likes to perch in the trees!"

Yue Feng nodded. Xiaowu's hawk was in a similar situation to Little Tao's—its spirit was low and its hunting confidence was insufficient. Combined with the hindrance of the tether, it was excusable for it to perform poorly on its first day of work.

While these issues weren't universal for newly released hawks, there were ways to handle them.

The solution was to wait for the molt to clear the throat and build up its spirit, and then, during subsequent hunts, pick "soft persimmons"—easy targets—to give the hawk opportunities to strike. Once its spirit was corrected and its confidence grew through several successful strikes, its physical strength would improve, and its performance would gradually get better.

Today, Yue Feng alone, with one hawk, had caught 22 flying dragons and 7 sand partridges, missing the 30-mark by just one bird.

Counting the Zhang brothers' 25, the Li father and son's 15, the total number of prey to be delivered tomorrow morning reached a historic high of 69!

"Since this is the harvest from us bringing our own hawks out, why don't you each keep a few for yourselves to take home? I'll take the rest to the city to sell tomorrow morning! For every hawk, I'll deduct half a sand partridge's worth of feed, and I'll pay everyone for the rest. I'll settle the accounts on-site tomorrow evening!" Yue Feng's gaze swept across everyone in the room.

Li Wentong waved his hand. "My family just ate the ones you sent the day before yesterday. We won't keep what we caught today!"

Xiaowen and Xiaowu exchanged looks. The older brother, Xiaowen, said, "Regarding our harvest, we'd like to keep two flying dragons and two sand partridges to take back. The last time our family ate sand partridge was last winter, when Old Man Zhao from the head of the village gave us some after it snowed!"

Yue Feng nodded. "Alright, then set those aside separately. The rest will be taken back after we've had our fill of dinner! I've discussed it with my parents: starting tomorrow, as long as we go up the mountain to hunt during the day, everyone should come to my house in the morning to eat breakfast before heading up. I can't provide meat every day for a while, but providing a hot meal to make sure everyone is full will definitely not be a problem!!"

"That won't do! This is a long-term thing, and grain is so precious! We are already grateful enough that you're bringing us along to make money, and now you're providing meals too!" Xiaowen was the first to shake his head in refusal.

Yue Feng curled his lip. "Between the birds you and Xiaowu caught today, if I split them into two batches, how much money could we make from selling them? If everyone works properly, how much grain can you actually eat? Are you going to eat our families into poverty? The matter of eating breakfast at my house is settled! What does it mean to be 'brothers'? It means making money together and enjoying the blessings together! We're just getting started; there's a long life ahead of us!"

Having lived two lifetimes, Yue Feng knew the importance of making true brothers. With a stable way to earn money, the daily expenses for food and drink were small change. Since he was offering them a fifty-fifty split and they wouldn't accept, he would compensate them in other ways.

In the long run, the friendship forged would be the most precious thing of all.