The process of taming cheetahs was full of hardships for both humans and beasts. Accidents such as cheetahs being tortured to death and animal trainers being bitten often happened. After the taming was completed, the carefully selected cheetahs would be offered as a tribute to the Tang Dynasty, a big country. They would travel thousands of miles to Chang 'an for the royal family and aristocrats to hunt and play.
When the aristocrats of the Tang Dynasty led cheetahs for a ride on the streets, they might not have thought about the pain and torture the tame cheetahs in their hands had gone through, and how many animal trainers had died in order to tame these mighty cheetahs.
There was a saying that no trade, no harm. The cheetahs were not hurt by the animal trainers at all, but by the aristocrats who liked to take cheetahs for a ride and hunt with cheetahs.
For example, many people in the later generations who loved to wear fur clothes were very fond of wearing fur clothes. However, because they liked to wear fur clothes, many wild animals were directly harmed. Many wild animals were even skinned alive and then slowly died in pain.
There was also the very popular ivory. Because many people liked ivory, the price of ivory was very high. Therefore, many people who wanted to get rich would go to the prairie to hunt elephants for ivory. This directly led to the sharp decline of the wild elephant population. After a long time, many elephants even began to stop growing ivory. This might be the result of biological evolution! In the face of poachers who wanted to take ivory, elephants instinctively wanted to lose their ivory. As a result, their tusks became smaller and smaller, and they even began to stop growing ivory.
From Li An's point of view, whether it was for money or for entertainment, hunting in the wild was something that people yearned for. Even the great poet Su Dongpo had written a poem about hunting. It could be seen how popular hunting was.
In actual activities, hunting was divided into professional hunting and amateur hunting.
Professional hunting was also called productive hunting. Hunters who specialized in hunting production were called professional hunters. During the period of hunting production, professional hunters did not engage in other work. However, due to the different situations in different places, there were different kinds of flexibility and changes. Therefore, professional hunters were divided into two types: perennial and seasonal. Perennial hunting meant that they hunted all year round, while seasonal hunting meant that they only hunted during a certain season of the year and engaged in other activities during other seasons. For example, many places had the habit of hunting in autumn. When autumn was the season when the game was abundant, the people of a village would go out to hunt to get meat for the winter. The extra game could be exchanged for grain, oil, and flour, so that they could live better.
Amateur hunting was also called sports hunting. It was a special kind of amateur activity. Amateur hunting could satisfy the special interests of amateur hunters. They could exercise their bodies and get some hunting products such as wild rabbits, pheasants, wild ducks, and improve the life of hunters. It was a very meaningful activity. However, amateur hunters should also have a license to hunt. They could not hunt indiscriminately without organization or leadership. For example, royal hunting and aristocratic hunting must be amateur hunting. After all, they never lacked food. The purpose of hunting was completely for entertainment.
For example, in the seventeenth century, during the Stuart Dynasty, people thought that hunting could make people stay away from the hypocrisy and treachery of the city and have close contact with nature to cultivate noble sentiments. Therefore, hunting was highly regarded and people domesticated a large number of hunting horses and foxhounds. During that period, organized fox hunting gradually became a favorite leisure activity of the British upper class. Fox hunting was regarded as an ancient British tradition, forming a kind of hereditary culture of the gentlemen. Until hundreds of years later, the biggest hobbies of the British gentlemen were still hunting, shooting, and fishing.
The origin of hunting in Hua Xia was also very early. As early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, there was a record of it in the Book of Songs. "One day, with the raccoon, take the fox for the prince's coat. Two days, with the raccoon's martial arts, speak elegantly in private, offer the xiu to the public. "It was talking about hunting.
During the Great Han Dynasty, due to the large number of beasts in the Guanzhong area, it caused a lot of harm to people and animals. Therefore, the imperial court issued a reward for hunting tigers and wolves. The reward was a hundred coins for hunting a wolf and three thousand coins for hunting a tiger.
During the Yuan Dynasty, due to the chaos of war, the population dropped rapidly. Wild beasts ran rampant in the Guanzhong area. After the world stabilized, such an environment became a very good hunting ground. Therefore, the Mongol nobles could wantonly hunt in the forest and enjoy the fun of hunting.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, many places eliminated the threat of tigers as an important reference for the promotion of local officials. For example, Sun Yingshi of the Ming Dynasty was promoted to the position of Garrison Officer because he killed 99 tigers. During the Qing Dynasty, Han Liangfu killed 99 tigers and was promoted to the position of General.
However, later on, due to the continuous increase in population, the environment and forests were considered to be destroyed. The number of tigers began to drop rapidly. During the Republic of China, not a single tiger could be seen in the Guanzhong Plains.
It was said that the rarer something was, the more valuable it was. During the era when tigers ran rampant, killing tigers was a good thing for the people. For example, Wu Song was seen as a hero when he killed a tiger. However, during the era when tigers were extremely rare, killing tigers was a serious crime against the law.
For example, in the future, a rich businessman had too much money to spend, so he killed a tiger to eat. In the end, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the great people's court and was fined 1.55 million coins. It was a huge sum of money!
Therefore, in the civilized society of his previous life, even if Ang Lee had ten times the courage, he would not dare to eat tiger meat because the price of eating tiger meat was too high. However, during the Tang Dynasty, it was possible to eat tiger meat. However, with the gradual prosperity of the Tang Dynasty, the number of wild tigers began to decrease. In the future, not to mention eating tiger meat, if there were no certain restrictions, it would be a problem to even see a tiger.
Ang Lee was also a person who loved to hunt and often participated in hunting. However, Ang Lee's hunting had a limit. Everything needed to have a limit. If a few people occasionally hunted, it would not have a big impact on the animals in the wild. However, if a large number of people liked to hunt, then the situation would be worse. The number of animals in the wild would decrease, and many animals would gradually become extinct due to human hunting. They would disappear from this planet forever. If that happened, it would be a huge loss for the human race.
Since ancient times, species were going extinct at every moment. Some were caused by changes in the natural environment, and some were caused by excessive hunting by humans. Although the reasons were different, the extinction of these wild animals was always heartbreaking. It was also necessary to protect them.
Ang Lee was already working hard in this regard. By breeding wild animals, he could satisfy the people's demand for game. Thus, to a certain extent, he could protect the wild animals that lived in the wild.
The lynx that was caught alive in front of him made Ang Lee feel troubled. What should he do with such a fierce beast? Should he send it to another place to set it free? Should he send it to the Imperial Beast Park? Or should he bring it home to play with?
Considering the ferocity and cunning of the lynx, Ang Lee did not dare to bring it home. It would not be good if it accidentally hurt someone. Although Ang Lee's courtyard had many animals, there were definitely no dangerous animals like fierce beasts. They were all domesticated by humans, such as pigs, rabbits, sheep, chickens, ducks, and geese. There were also some wild herbivorous animals like wild rabbits and hamsters. These animals were less dangerous and would not take the initiative to hurt people. However, a fierce beast like the lynx was really too dangerous. Ang Lee had no choice but to consider its danger.
As for sending it to the Imperial Beast Park, Ang Lee felt that there was no need to do so. After all, there were already such animals in the Imperial Beast Park. Moreover, these wild beasts were not the favorite of the Emperor and the nobles. They still preferred the cheetahs from the African continent.
The last situation was to send the ferocious lynx to another valley and let it continue to live in a wild environment, thus increasing the number of wild lynx. This would be beneficial to increasing the number of wild lynx population. However, there were more and more hunters now. If the lynx was killed by hunters after being released, it would be a waste of effort. If the lynx was hurt after being released, it would be even worse.
In fact, there was another way, and that was to cook on the spot and barbecue the lynx that was caught with great difficulty. The taste of this wild animal would definitely not be too bad. It must be an excellent delicacy. It was estimated that these guards also thought so. They would not think too much about it. Being able to eat wild animals was what they wanted the most.
"What do you all think is the best way to deal with this lynx?"
Ang Lee looked at everyone and asked.
"Let's steam it! I haven't eaten this kind of big cat meat yet. "
"Braising it in soy sauce would be better!"
"Let's roast it! It would be more convenient this way. "
Although the answers of the guards were somewhat different, their overall opinion was surprisingly consistent. That was to eat the lynx.
The wild beasts that they hunted previously, other than those that were caught alive, some of the wild beasts that were shot to death had already been eaten by them. However, there were not many guards. They could only eat a few in three days.
"You all only know how to eat. Nowadays, big cats like this are not commonly seen. Let's just release it! Send it to a valley further away and release it! "
Ang Lee said.
"Release it? It was not easy to catch it, why should we release it? What a pity. "
The butler said.
"What a pity. What do you think? Should we steam it or braise it?"
Ang Lee asked.
"Alang, why don't we keep this big cat in this valley? Anyway, it is trapped in a big cage. It can't hurt people. Didn't Alang say that he wants to build a zoo? This lynx will definitely be useful in the future. "
The butler's words reminded Ang Lee. Although the Tang Dynasty had the Imperial Beast Park, it was not open to ordinary people. Therefore, ordinary people would not be able to see rare wild animals. It was imperative to build a zoo open to ordinary people. The lynx in front of them was a good resource. Although many people in the Tang Dynasty had seen lynx before, most of them had never seen it. After all, not everyone had the opportunity to go hunting in the mountains, especially the ordinary people in the cities. Not many of them had seen wild animals before.
"Okay! Then let's leave it here first. You all have a good rest. You must be tired after a day. We will continue the search tomorrow. Remember to bring the guard dog. "
Ang Lee said.
After which, Li An went back. The supply of land wasn't a big problem for the construction of a zoo. Even though land was becoming more and more expensive in Tang Dynasty, the size of a zoo wouldn't be too big, and it wouldn't cost much.
The biggest problem was the acquisition of rare animals. Lynx was now available, but it was not very precious. Even if wild boars, pheasants, and hares were added, it was still too little. If there were some shops, at least some very rare animals, such as tigers, lions, cheetahs, giraffes, ostriches, and so on, would be necessary. Without these animals, ordinary people would not be interested, let alone spend money to visit the zoo. There was nothing to see, so what was the point of visiting the zoo?
It was also unrealistic to buy them from the market. After all, not all wild animals were sold. Wild boars and pheasants could be bought, but wild animals like cheetahs and lions were tributes from foreign countries to the Tang Dynasty. It was impossible to find them in ordinary markets. No matter how much money one had, they would not be able to buy them.
Although hunting in the wild could bring a lot of wild animals, the species would be very limited, especially in the vicinity of Chang 'an City. The species of wild animals were limited, so there would not be much of a harvest.
After thinking about it, Li An still set his sights on the Imperial Beast Garden near the capital. There were so many rare wild beasts there, it would be a waste to keep them there for nothing. If he could temporarily rent some wild beasts, it would be a good idea. However, even if that was the case, he still needed the Emperor's approval.
At this time, Ang Lee's Ten Thousand Miles Telepathy Plan had not succeeded yet. If he told the Emperor about his request for no reason, Li Longji might not agree. As long as the Emperor did not agree, Ang Lee would not be able to achieve his goal. After that, it would be even more impossible to mention it again.
Although Ang Lee had his eyes on the Imperial Beast Garden, in order to ensure success, he still had to wait for the right time to make his request. Only when the time was right would he be able to make his request. At that time, the Emperor would be happy and agree to it.
Now, he was even looking forward to such a scene. However, after he researched the phone, Li Longji would be happy and would definitely reward Ang Lee greatly. He would ask Ang Lee what kind of reward he wanted. Ang Lee took the opportunity to suggest building a large zoo. He would need to rent the rare animals in the Imperial Beast Garden for the common people to enjoy. Presumably, Li Longji would be happy and agree to it. He might even change the Imperial Beast Garden into a zoo for the common people to enjoy.
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