Zhang Xinyue looked at the bleeding owl and gray bird and said, "Mom, they are both injured. Let's take them back."
Zhang Hulan took a look at the condition of the two birds. Their wings were injured and a lot of their feathers had fallen off. They probably couldn't fly now.
Zhang Hulan was a little hesitant. These two birds were ferocious. What if they hurt the child when she took them back?
Zhang Xinyao and Zhang Xinyi also said, "Mom, take them back. They are all injured. If you don't take care of them, they will definitely die."
"You all want to raise one?"
The three sisters all nodded, "Yes, we want to raise one."
If you want to raise a daughter, then go ahead and raise her.
Zhang Hulan pointed at the two birds with a branch and said, "Don't move, or I'll hit you."
Zhang Hulan tried to catch the owl first. When the owl saw Zhang Hulan approaching, it spread its wings and backed away, and tried to bite Zhang Hulan's hand with its mouth.
Zhang Hulan pressed the owl with a branch and grabbed it from behind.
Put the owl in the backpack and then go to catch the gray bird.
The gray bird also spread its wings and retreated. Zhang Hulan grabbed the gray bird from behind and took a closer look in her hand. It looked a bit like an eagle, but not quite.
Considering the speed of the gray bird, Zhang Hulan thought that it should be a peregrine falcon.
It also put the peregrine falcon into the backpack, and the two birds immediately became hostile to each other again.
The owls kept hooting, and the peregrine falcons kept calling.
Zhang Hulan immediately caught the peregrine falcon again and put them together. The two creatures were bound to fight again.
Wang, Li, and Xiang Chunhua all came over. Xiang Chunhua's eyes sparkled as she said, "These two birds are quite large. We can have them for dinner tonight."
Zhang Xinyue hurriedly said: "Aunt, you can't eat it. I want to feed it."
Xiang Chunhua smiled awkwardly, "No, no, I'll let you feed me."
Zhang Hulan took a few children and went back first. Both birds were injured, so they went back to check on them and bandage them.
After returning home, Zhang Hulan checked the wounds of the two birds.
It's okay, the wound is not big.
They were scratched by each other's claws, and the wounds were on their necks and wings.
Zhang Hulan picked some leaves of black wind grass, washed them, mashed them, and used cloth strips to bandage the two birds.
Then bows were tied around the necks and wings of both birds.
Zhang Xinyue particularly likes the owl, she finds it so cute.
Zhang Xinyi asked: "Mom, how do we feed them? What do they eat?"
Zhang Hulan said to Shanzi and Zhang Xiaobing, "You two go to the fields and catch some grasshoppers."
Shanzi and Zhang Xiaobing ran out immediately and soon came back with a handful of grasshoppers each.
Zhang Hulan caught a grasshopper and fed it to the owl. The owl looked at Zhang Hulan with its cute big eyes.
"What are you looking at me for? Eat!"
The owl blinked its eyes, as if it understood what Zhang Hulan said, and snatched the grasshopper away in one bite.
"Mom, it ate it!" Zhang Xinyue clapped her hands happily.
Zhang Hulan fed grasshoppers to the peregrine falcon.
The peregrine falcon looked a little aloof, and even tilted its head to one side.
Zhang Hulan said, "You don't want to eat, right? If you don't eat, then you'll be hungry."
Zhang Hulan then continued to feed the owl. The owl was not very afraid of people. Zhang Hulan fed one and the owl ate it.
The owl ate and the peregrine falcon watched.
After Zhang Hulan fed the owl a few grasshoppers, she fed the peregrine falcon some, which the falcon snatched away in one gulp.
The grasshoppers caught by Shanzi and Zhang Xiaobing were quickly eaten up, so they went to catch some more.
After the two little ones were full, Zhang Hulan put them into the basket separately.
Zhang Hulan said to Zhang Xinyao and the others, "Okay, you can raise them if you want. But you have to raise them yourself. Go to the fields and catch grasshoppers to feed them every day."
"Okay, mom!"
Zhang Hulan no longer took care of the children at home. She asked them to stay at home and not touch the two birds at will to prevent them from getting scratched.
In the next few days, the villagers were busy making compost every day.
Zhang Hujun and Zhang Hubing also dug two large pits and fermented the fertilizer in the two pits.
After the composting work was done, the millet in the fields could be harvested.
Shanzi's family also has a few acres of millet. Now Shanzi lives and eats at Zhang Hulan's house, so naturally Zhang Hulan also harvests the millet.
Zhang Hujun and Zhang Hubing first helped to harvest Shanzi's millet before starting to harvest their own.
Shanzi's family's land will be taken back after the harvest this season. When a person dies, the land will be taken back by the government, but Shanzi is not yet fifteen years old, so he cannot get any land.
This is also the reason why Zhang Hulan wanted to take Shanzi in. If she didn't take him in, he would have to beg for food in the future.
After Shanzi's family had harvested the millet, Zhang Hulan also helped Zhang Hujun and Zhang Hubing to harvest. The two brothers Zhang Hujun and Zhang Hubing each harvested nearly two thousand kilograms of raw millet, which sounded like a lot, but after drying it was only fourteen to five hundred kilograms.
If they only eat it themselves, the more than 1,000 kilograms of millet can be sold and exchanged for brown rice, which will be enough for their family to eat.
But ordinary people cannot eat only rice all the time. They also have to buy oil, salt, and cloth. The money for seeing a doctor and getting medicine when they are sick is all earned from selling grain.
A bushel of millet was only worth a little over ten coins, and a thousand kilograms of millet could only be sold for a little over one or two taels of silver. If someone in the family got seriously ill, that little money would be gone.
The villagers were still optimistic. At least they had food and they would not starve to death.
Many ordinary people don’t have such high demands, they just want to stay alive.
…
Zhang Xinyao and her two sisters, Zhang Xiaobing and Shanzi were picking up fallen rice ears in the fields and catching grasshoppers to feed owls and peregrine falcons.
They not only caught grasshoppers, but also caught frogs to feed them. Compared with grasshoppers, the two birds preferred frogs. I guess they had more meat.
After seven or eight days of keeping the owl and the peregrine falcon, their wounds had almost healed. The two birds did not fly away, but stayed at home every day waiting for Shanzi and Zhang Xiaobing to catch food and bring it back to feed them. However, the two birds still could not meet each other. Once they met, they would fight. It was unknown whether the two birds were enemies.
Zhang Xinyue also imitated Zhang Hulan and pointed a wooden stick at the two birds to warn them not to fight or she would beat them. But it didn't work, they still got beaten.
Hearing shouting and cursing in the distance, Zhang Hulan looked in the direction of the sound and saw a field full of people.
"I'm going to see what's happening over there..." Zhang Xiaobing said, and ran over there.
Soon he ran back.
Zhang Hubing asked: "What happened over there?"
Zhang Xiaobing replied, "Zhao Heigou wanted to harvest the millet in that field, but the villagers didn't let him, so they started a quarrel."
Zhang Hubing said, "Isn't that field Zhao Heigou owns?"
Zhang Xiaobing added, "It's not his. The farmer who owned that piece of land went out to escape famine and never came back. So Zhao Heigou wanted to take the grain from that family's field for himself."
Zhang Hubing said, "He's dreaming. Those fields are being taken care of by the people who stayed in the village. Since that family didn't come back, the grain should be divided equally among the villagers. Why should he take it?"
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