Reborn in 80: Starting with hunting in the mountains to get rich

Chapter 161 Zhao Pao from Yingtun Comes to the Rescue

Under the dim light of dawn, Zhao Pao of Yingtun, with a hawk perched on his shoulder, led the hunters toward the ridge where wolves howled.

The sky was still dark at six o'clock, but the first rays of dawn appeared on the horizon.

Zhao Pao and the hunters of Yingtun each had a majestic eagle perched on their shoulder. The black falcons were all wearing leather blindfolds, and their talons were secured with leather ropes. The falconers wore thick, long gloves on their right hands, the long leather gloves protecting half of their arms.

The falconers grabbed the leather ropes, removed the blindfolds from the falcons, and the falcons stood spiritedly on their right forearms.

Zhao Pao looked up and whistled, his right forearm rising with it. The eagle, its eyes gleaming brightly after removing its blindfold, flapped its wings and soared into the air, circling in the vast sky.

Chen Xiangqian thought to himself: Damn, that's cool! The falcon looks more imposing than the hound.

Zhao Pao grew up among the Kazakh people. Every winter when they went hunting, he would follow the strong Kazakh hunters, riding swift horses and holding fierce falcons. Accompanied by hunting dogs, they would gallop through the mountains and grasslands.

The falcons he trained had powerful wings, exceptional eyesight, and were swift and fierce. Whether they encountered foxes, wolves, gazelles, pheasants, or rabbits, as soon as the falcon cried out and swooped down, every hunt was guaranteed to be successful. As a falconer, he could raise "Hashkh" falcons to catch small prey, including rabbits and pheasants.

His eagle was specially trained into a precious "Borgut eagle" to catch medium to large prey, such as foxes, gazelles, wolves, and even bear cubs.

The falcon circled in the air, the sun had not yet shone on the earth, and in the dim light of dawn, the morning mist obscured its vision, preventing it from seeing the ridge as clearly as it would during the day.

Zhao Pao led the team briskly for two or three miles, rounding a ditch and climbing over a hill. A series of wild animal footprints appeared on the ground.

Seven or eight hunters stood in a line about 20 meters apart, warily pointing their gun barrels at their surroundings, all of them loaded with bullets.

"Zhao Pao'er, something doesn't look right here."

Zhao Pao scolded him: "If it were right, it wouldn't be right. Didn't you see the eagles flying up there?"

Beyond this ridge lies a depression, where the morning mist obscures visibility, making it very low. The hunters of Eagle Village can only find their way by following the long cries of their eagles. The ridge is quite quiet; besides the paw prints of the green-skinned eagle, there are also the paw prints of the tiger king and human footprints on the ground.

The bloodstains, forming patches, were a stark and glaring sight on the snow.

Zhao Pao cocked his rifle with a "click" and whispered, "Keep up close, or some animals might be hiding in this area."

Suddenly, the falcons swooped down to the west side of the depression and cried out towards the snowdrift on the west side.

The eagle's cry must mean that something has been discovered.

Zhao Pao and the hunters quickly moved their guns, following the direction of the falcon's cry, and slid down the snow slope on their wild boar-skin snowboards.

Before the group even got close, they heard a series of chewing sounds. Besides fresh sika deer paw prints, there were also signs of a fierce fight on the ground. Eight red deer, their bodies frozen stiff, lay on the edge of the snow slope, their heads down, tearing open the bellies of two younger deer, their faces bloodied as they chewed on their tender entrails.

"Oh shit!"

Chen Xiangqian froze, his eyes wide with fright, and he took a step back, just in time to meet the gaze of the largest green-haired stag.

As soon as Qingpizi raised his head and let out a low growl, the entire wolf pack raised their eyes and stared intently at Zhao Pao's group.

Zhao Pao and the other hunters raised their guns, but the wolf pack was far larger than seven or eight; there were more than 20 of them. In addition, the morning fog limited the visibility of the falcons, so they could only circle around at varying distances, occasionally letting out a cry.

Zhao Pao's eyes sharpened, and he aimed his gun at the nearest thug and fired a shot.

Amidst the fierce gunfire, the thug moved with incredible speed, dodging to the side. The bullet missed his head, hitting his hind leg instead.

The green-skinned wolf, shot in the hind leg, howled angrily, led its pack, and vanished into the morning mist in a couple of quick movements.

The ground was splattered with the blood of the wounded wolves, and the surrounding area was overgrown with waist-high weeds. With visibility reduced due to the obstructed view, Zhao Pao and his men dared not be careless. The group cautiously set up their guns, aiming at the weeds and the woods behind them, carefully watching for any movement.

Chen Xiangqian knew he had messed things up and took the initiative to apologize. He wanted to apologize but was too embarrassed to do so, so he could only look down and shine his flashlight on the footprints in the snow, saying, "There are still many tiger footprints on this ground."

Hunter Zhou glanced down and saw that there were indeed quite a few tiger footprints.

But the footprints looked wrong; there was only the path they came from, not the path they went out of. There was also a pool of blood on the ground, and sled tracks. Several sled tracks stretched into the distance.

Old Zhou said, "Zhao Pao'er, there are dead tigers, and more than one of them."

There were at least two tiger paw prints and drag marks.

Zhao Pao and several other veteran hunters frowned, their hearts pounding with apprehension.

They had originally been hired by the ranch at a high price to hunt tigers. But they didn't manage to kill or even encounter a tiger, and it seemed to have already been driven away. Instead, they were surrounded by a group of menacing shrews, and now they couldn't go anywhere. Even if they went back, such a large group of shrews would probably surround them as prey.

"That kid surnamed Li isn't going to die here, is he?"

"It's strange that there are so many wolves. There aren't usually such large packs of wolves in the mountains."

"The tiger probably isn't here either; finding someone is the priority."

They came to rescue people, but instead of finding them, they got trapped by the thugs.

Zhao Pao glimpsed a dugout about 180 meters west of the waist-high weeds. There were bloodstains on the ground that led to the dugout.

He shouted, "Let's go check out the dugout first. Maybe that brat surnamed Li is hiding there."

Several veteran hunters envisioned this scene: a hot-blooded young gunner, fearfully leading a group of security personnel, while the ranch workers huddled in their dugouts, trembling and waiting for their rescue.

The group smiled and exchanged glances. With wolves in front and tigers behind, Li Ju'an was naturally anxiously waiting for their rescue.

There were indeed dense footprints in the dugout, which looked to be the number of people in Li Ju'an's team, as well as footprints jumping over window frames and snow particles that had melted into ice.

Unfazed by the wolves' watchful eyes, Zhao Pao waved and shouted, "They're climbing out the window, follow them!"

A group of hunters from Eagle Village peered out of a window and saw a fallen tree. Beside the snowdrift beneath the tree lay a severed arm and a blood-stained, tattered piece of cotton. Chen Xiangqian gasped in shock, and the other hunters were also startled.

"Brother Li, this can't be done."

Chen Xiangqian mustered his courage and took a step forward. He looked down into the snowdrift under the fallen tree and saw a mangled corpse, covered in marks from the sharp teeth and claws of the swarming weasel.

He slapped his thigh hard and cried out in anguish, "Brother Li! It must be someone from Brother Li's team!"

Suddenly, a shadow swept past from behind.

Zhao Pao reacted extremely quickly, turning around and firing a shot.

boom!

The hunter's gunshot echoed through the forest, carrying for a considerable distance. The falcon overhead also let out a long cry.

The commotion quickly reached the ears of Li Ju'an's team in the distance.