frightfiction Chapter 400: Not even as fast as the villagers.
Chapter 400: Not even as fast as the villagers.
Li Ju'an asked Sun Quande how many people were in his team.
Qin Pao counted them out for him: 28 people, leading 24 hunting dogs. Li Ju'an calculated that the forest farm would give them 500 yuan for rat catching, plus four Type 56 rifles and two boxes of ammunition. Sun Quande's team, including Qin Pao, would receive 17 yuan and 2 mao per person.
For Qin Pao, there was naturally no profit to be made.
His team now has 8 people, and even if you add Lao Qin, there are 9 people. If you divide the money among them, each person will get at least 55.5 yuan.
This is a considerable income for someone working in a unit with an average salary of 37.5 yuan. It all depends on how long the rat-catching work takes and how well it can clean up the rat populations of several nearby villages.
Qin Pao, seeing Li Ju'an deep in thought, understood what he was thinking and said, "It'll take a long time. The wild sheep are not easy to hunt; it's not like simply hunting wild boars, bears, or tigers."
Seeing his dejected state, Li Ju'an realized that he had suffered many defeats at the hands of the wild sheep these past few days, and had only managed to catch four or five broods after a lot of effort.
He chuckled and said, "How many nests has Qin Pao been swarming these past two days?"
Old Qin sighed and held up a number: three.
Three nests, oh ho, he even overcalculated.
Da Hu was very interested in the small animal kept in the iron cage, and Li Ju'an asked him what it was.
"Big Skin, alive."
It turned out that Qin Pao had gotten tired of shooting at the sheep and, unable to bear it any longer, took his gun and went to explore the back mountain. Unexpectedly, he stumbled upon a series of large, hideous footprints. An idea struck him, and he set a trap, determined to ambush the sheep. He managed to trap the large sheep in three days.
Thinking of the rat-catching teams and the cat-catching patrol teams of later generations, Li Ju'an stared at the iron cage and grinned. He tried to suppress his excitement and said restrainedly, "Qin Pao, how much do you want for this big hide?"
At this moment, Lu Zhiqiang, Lu Jinyang, and Chen Xiangqian entered the office building looking disheveled. Lu Zhiqiang opened his mouth and cried out, "Li Ju'an, we went through so much trouble to finally catch one of these sheep. But it turned out to be a small one. The big one is hiding at the bottom of the cave. No matter how much we smoked it or poured water on it, it wouldn't come out. It wouldn't come out even if it drowned. Who knows if it's dead or alive?"
This little goat looks very weak, probably because it was poisoned by rat poison a few days ago, and it wasn't really killed by Zhao Pao and his men.
Li Ju'an glanced at it, which further dampened Lu Zhiqiang's confidence.
Lu Zhiqiang plopped down on the sofa and cursed, "Damn it! Let whoever wants to do this job take it. Sun Weimin should have followed his father to the mountains to take on this kind of thankless and arduous work. I think this job is quite suitable for Sun Weimin."
Li Ju'an asked him, "Why?"
"Need I say more? Sun Weimin is stupid. Just put traps outside, and you're bound to catch a few sheep."
Qin Pao suddenly said, "The Earth Sheep Cave is different from the Jumping Cat Cave. The Earth Sheep's front paws can grab the soil at any time, and the mounds that rise up may not be from the same cave entrance."
This is what frustrates Qin Pao. If there's a single entrance or multiple entrances, setting traps is easy; a few people can make them day and night. But the goats don't necessarily come out from a fixed entrance; they might dig halfway out and then emerge from a shallower opening to dig up the roots nearby.
Just as the group was at their wits' end, Lu Zhiqiang noticed Da Pi and exclaimed in surprise, "Qin Pao shot down a sable! The little thing is quite handsome!"
Qin Pao sighed, both amused and exasperated: "Little Li just asked me if I wanted to buy some. What's wrong? You're not hunting ground sheep anymore, and you're here to buy hides? Hides are good, everyone knows they're good stuff."
He slapped his thigh, feeling utterly bored. He was glad Li Ju'an had taken on the job; if he had been asked to work with Sun Weimin, he would have been so angry he would have vomited blood, and all his patience would have been exhausted.
Lu Zhiqiang laughed and said, "How could I afford that? A large piece of leather costs more than eight hundred yuan, and this job is even more expensive."
Chen Xiangqian said, "The price should be about the same for a live one. Brother Li, do you want to buy it?"
Li Ju'an wrote an IOU, and Qin Pao's lips twitched as he looked at it. He said, "You really want to buy it?"
Buying it is one thing, but writing an IOU shows a lack of sincerity.
Li Ju'an looked up and said, "Brother Qin, I'll give you 900 yuan to buy him alive, right now."
Qin Pao was filled with doubt and truly didn't understand. Why would a mere sable be worth the effort and money of a cannon fodder? Was he not doing anything worthwhile?
He earnestly advised, "Xiao Li, catching the rats is the priority now. Everything else has to wait. So many villagers are waiting for the rat-catching team. You're the leader, you can't let us down."
He sighed inwardly. The young man was still too young, inexperienced and naive, his attention completely absorbed by one thing. Why couldn't they have taken over now?
Li Ju'an was very determined. He firmly wrote down the IOU, rummaged through his pockets, wiped his hands, and handed over 20 yuan. He said somewhat embarrassedly, "Qin Pao, this is all I brought with me when I left home. I can pawn my mule here as collateral. I'll pay you back when I get the money in town, or you can transfer the money directly from the credit union."
Qin Pao stared intently at Da Hu, a smile spreading across his face.
Big Tiger tilted its head, looking at him with a blank expression, and retracted its paws.
Qin Pao grinned and pointed at Da Hu, saying, "Forget about that big animal, let's use Da Hu as collateral. You don't have to pay back the money."
Li Ju'an jumped up and cursed, "Pah!"
……
Li Ju'an led Da Hu and gave the mule to Qin Pao. He carried a cage with a sable inside, teased the sable, and walked into the field.
He whistled and released the two eagles into the air.
After three months of training, the two eagles have become excellent hunters. They have grown considerably from sub-adults and, with their excellent eyesight, can see clearly any moving object within a ten-kilometer radius. In any situation, they can swoop down like lightning and grab the prey with their sharp talons.
However, during the three months of training for the eagle, Li Ju'an focused on training it to catch live prey.
Whether it was Zhao Pao's instruction or Uncle Zhao's instruction in the barley field, the whistles used to train the falcons were always commands to live animals. He had only one requirement for the hawks and falcons: they must not damage their fur and must be alive.
The golden eagle, its head turned sharply, surveyed the field, perched on his right arm. He glanced at the eagle, then sighed.
Zhao Pao asked him, "Has the golden eagle been tamed yet?"
"No, it's still a long way off. Adults are hard to tame."
Zhao Pao, with his pipe dangling from his mouth, coughed twice as he smoked out smoke from the sheepfold, saying, "That's right. Adults learn slowly, not as fast as eaglets. Sometimes, it's not that the eaglets don't want to learn, it's just that they really can't."
He spoke for a while, and then the falconer next to him shouted, "Zhao Pao, I feel like you're insulting me indirectly."
Zhao Pao kicked the man in the butt and cursed, "Don't think I'm talking about you. You've been fuming for ages, you've really choked us up, and what kind of mess have you made?"
The ground was spotless; not a single sheep had escaped.
The villagers of Xiaoling Village waited expectantly for a long time, their hands tucked in their sleeves, their hearts filled with hope. They discovered, however, that the rat-catching team's efficiency in catching the ground sheep was about the same as theirs.
Aunt Zhao pointed at the many hunting dogs and falcons and said, "These dogs and falcons look impressive, but they're not very useful. We can hunt them ourselves much faster."
Upon hearing this, Zhao Pao immediately lost his composure and shouted angrily, "Hey, how dare you talk like that, you woman?"