Li Wenzhe was sitting on a chair in the guesthouse, with an eagle on his right hand and a long-handled pipe in his left hand.

There was a warm radiator next to me, and the temperature in the room was at least 20 degrees Celsius, not cold at all.

The conditions at this air force airport guesthouse are much better than at home. Not only is the food good, but even the accommodation conditions are much better than those in the village.

“Xiao Lei, if you’re sleepy, take a nap first and take over my shift at midnight!” Li Wenzhe said to his son who was lying on the single bed next to him.

“Okay, go to sleep when you feel tired. Dad, those two guys who were very good at cleaning up this afternoon also want to learn how to train eagles. Do you really plan to teach them how to train eagles?”

His son Li Xiaolei is not sleepy yet. He is thinking about the brief conversation between his father and Yue Feng and others in the afternoon.

“You idiot, we are not honest with them, teach them a lesson! The words are just polite, I don’t know whether others believe it or not, but you take it seriously!!” Li Wenzhe exhaled a puff of smoke and said unhappily.

“Didn’t you say that the skill of falconry training was passed down from our ancestors and can’t be taught to outsiders casually? I was wondering why you made an exception!”

“Even the soldiers here, if they want to learn our falconry skills, they have to show some sincerity!

The two of us should work hard to train this big eagle as soon as possible, and try to pass the evaluation of eagle-flying and bird-repelling technology in one go!
Then ask your cousin-in-law for help, maybe he will let you stay here and serve in the army!”

“Yeah, the food here is good!”

……

As the night grew darker, the whispered conversation between the father and son gradually stopped. Li Xiaolei fell asleep on the bed, while wisps of white smoke were still wafting from Li Wenzhe’s pipe.

……

The next morning, Yue Feng was awakened on time by the morning bugle call.

There are quite a few ordinary soldiers in military airports, a small number of pilots and functional departments, and more ground crew members responsible for supporting maintenance.

Since it is the military, the standards of work and rest are naturally very strict.

Hearing the wake-up call, Yue Feng immediately sat up from the bed, then called Xiao Tao. The two brothers quickly got up, dressed, and washed their faces with water.

As soon as everything was tidy here, Ye Jianjun drove his car directly and parked it in the small square outside the guesthouse.

The three brothers went to the canteen to have breakfast, took some dry food such as bean curd, fried dough sticks and pickles, loaded all the equipment for catching eagles and pigeons into the car, and drove out of the camp gate at 6:30.

When the car left the airport station area and drove onto the national highway, Ye Jianjun, who was driving, asked, “Xiaofeng, have you decided where to go to catch eagles? How’s your study of the map I gave you yesterday?”

Yue Feng grinned and said confidently, “We’ve chosen it! According to the map, there is a Dawang Mountain less than 20 miles northwest of Yingtun. It’s a good place. Let’s go there today!”

“Is there a road? Are there any villages or national highways around?”

“Yes, take Provincial Highway 101, and then walk along a section of Shengchan Road when you reach Yingtun, and you should be able to reach the foot of the mountain!
The mountain I’m talking about is not a very high stone top, but a kind of earthen mound, with a relative altitude of only about a hundred meters at most!”

“Okay then, let me see the map. We’ll try to get there in the morning!”

“Okay, here, take this road!” Yue Feng took out the map and pointed it out briefly.

After determining the destination, Ye Jianjun started driving in high speed mode.

There were very few vehicles on the road in this era, so the car traveled very fast without any obstacles. The sky was filled with dust and sand as it rushed towards the target area on the map.

According to the scale on the map, the distance was estimated to be about 150 kilometers, but the actual route was at least more than 200 kilometers. However, with Ye Jianjun driving at full speed, the car arrived at Dawang Town, to which Yingtun belonged, near noon.

“It’s time for dinner. Let’s have a meal in town before going up the mountain?” Ye Jianjun asked.

Yue Feng shook his head: “We have come so far, let’s go up the mountain first. We have brought dry food and water, so we can just eat a bite!

We will go check out the scene today, find a suitable place, and then clear out a place to set up the trap. Then we will find a guesthouse nearby to stay, and officially start work tomorrow morning!”

“Okay, I’ll leave the professional matters to you! I’ll find a place to stay and whatever you say, we’ll do it!”

Just like that, the car did not stop in the town, but followed the path on the map, passed through the town streets and headed straight to the destination.

When the car reached the foot of Dawang Mountain and could no longer go forward, the brothers stopped and got out of the car.

Yue Feng looked up at the general ups and downs of the small hill and its surroundings and felt very good.

The mountain is full of Masson pines, and the mountain is not too steep. A faint path winds its way up the mountain from the foot of the mountain and eventually disappears under the cover of low vegetation.

“Xiao Tao, you take the pickaxe and sickle, and Jun Ge takes the three pigeons, let’s go up and take a look!”

Yue Feng called out, then walked in front along the mountain path, holding a bundle of knotted net poles for setting up self-trapping nets and carrying a hunting bag containing nets.

The mountains here are completely different from the mountains behind Xing’an Village. The surrounding terrain should have been an alluvial plain many years ago and is relatively flat.

The three of them climbed up the mountain path, panting and groaning, and it took them only about half an hour to reach the top of the mountain. “Look over there! If I’m not mistaken, that should be an old falconry hunting ground!!!”

Yue Feng stood on a high place and pointed to the southeast direction at the mountainside about two-thirds of the mountain’s height. A relatively flat mountain area without weeds or vegetation appeared in front of everyone.

Ye Jianjun: “It’s in the southeast. Let’s go around and take a look?”

“go!”

Soon the three of them made a small circle and came to the area that seemed to be a mountain field.

It was indeed a place for hunting hawks. The weeds and shrubs on the ground had been cleared away. The poles for supporting the nets and the hawk hooks for tying lures were all left in place. Only the baits, nets, ropes, etc. had been taken away.

On the north side of the site, a dugout built with pine branches has not been demolished. Judging from the traces on the ground and the state of the dugout, this falconry hunting site should have been used recently, no more than half a month ago.

“Haha, this place is ready, so we don’t need to open a new one, right?” Brother Jun was very excited after taking a walk around.

Yue Feng raised his head and looked around, then pondered for a while without saying a word, and finally shook his head.

“We can’t just use other people’s places without asking for permission. This is against the rules!
Another thing is that this kind of place is good for hunting big eagles, but it is not the best option for catching peregrine falcons! ! “

“Ah? So we have to open a new place? Where? There’s nothing good around here!”

After listening to this, Xiao Tao scratched his head. If the elder brother said no, it definitely means no.

“We don’t need to use the dragnet system, so the area we set up doesn’t need to be too large. We can just go to the top of the mountain and clear out a place in the east, south and west to set up the self-trapping nets!”

“Let’s go! Go to work first!”

Soon, Yue Feng and the other two returned to the top of the mountain. Yue Feng selected three relatively better locations and began to clean up the area.

With the right tools, this job is actually easy to do. Just knock down a few small horsetail pines that are in the way and drag them aside, and then clear out the weeds and shrubs on the ground.

Afterwards, Yue Feng fixed the knotted net poles he brought with him on the ground, hung four nets on the four poles, and used double strands of copper wire bolts wrapped into an S shape to hook the upper edge of the self-falling net.

After the arrangement is completed, tie a pigeon in the middle of the net and scatter some corn kernels, and a self-trapping net for catching eagles is ready.

Using the same method, a self-falling net was set up in three directions at a distance of less than 100 meters.

All the felled Masson pines were collected together and a simple hut was built in the center of the mountain top. People hid in the hut, and if there was a hawk moving around and hitting the net, the hawk’s cry of struggling could be heard from inside the hut.

After more than three hours of work, by about 3:30 in the afternoon, all the traps and the Tibetans’ shacks had been cleared.

The three brothers had not eaten lunch since they got off the car and went up the mountain. They had worked for several hours and were already starving. They took out the dry food and water bottles they had carried up the mountain and ate the dry food and pickles in the shack. After a few bites of the dry food, their hungry stomachs were finally relieved.

During the entire process of setting up the trap and selecting the location, Jun Ge seldom asked questions and basically just kept his head down to work.

After he had filled his stomach, he spoke slowly, “Is there any story about the eagle-catching place on this mountain?
No one is using it now, so it should be okay for us to use it, right? After all, this mountain is not privately owned by anyone!”

Yue Feng explained: “Indeed, from a legal point of view, the place where eagles are caught on the mountain does not belong to any one person.

But other people’s net poles and eagle hooks were not taken away. Generally, in this situation, other people would not occupy the place without permission. It is easy to explain to unreasonable people!
A good falconry site is like the underground cellars on the mountain over there. It is assumed to have an owner, and it is inappropriate to occupy it without asking!
Besides, catching a peregrine falcon is not like catching a large eagle!
The eagle’s ability to hover is different from that of falcons. The eagle’s wings are short and wide, giving it greater lift and allowing it to make use of a little airflow. Therefore, they like to fly along the airflow on the side of the mountainside to search for prey, which is more efficient.

Falcons like the peregrine falcon have pointed wings, and their ability to fly with the help of air currents is less effective. If they want to save energy, they usually fly to higher places where the air currents are stronger!

Based on this difference, we think that catching falcons and other birds of prey may be more likely to land on the top of a mountain than on the mountainside!”

“Hehe, there is such a saying!! There is knowledge everywhere in life!” Brother Jun nodded repeatedly after listening to Yue Feng’s explanation, and his useful knowledge increased.

“Brother, I have a question. If you use a dragnet to catch hawks, you can also use the hawk hook to tease the hawk hanging in the air above your head. Now we have set up three self-falling nets, and we don’t even have a hook tied to it, let alone a rope. Can the hawk in the sky see the pigeon?”

Xiao Tao had previously learned some details about catching eagles with a net. Now, seeing that Yue Feng arranged the nets differently from before, he became a little curious.

“Dragnets are good for catching eagles, but they are much worse for catching falcons!
The reason is actually very simple. The diving speed of a falcon is much faster than that of an eagle!

It dives down at high speed, and it is difficult to react unless you spot it in advance and pull the net in advance!

As for the eagle’s eyesight, you don’t have to worry about it. Let’s put it this way, it can see the bait tied in the net from several kilometers away!”

“Hiss…how many kilometers?” Xiao Tao took a breath.

Just as the three brothers were sitting in their den chatting and gossiping, suddenly there was a chirping sound coming from the self-trapping net on the east side of the mountain top.

Hearing the noise, Yue Feng was stunned and immediately came out of the shack.

I was a bit lucky, and after just a short while, an eagle actually came down from the net. (End of this chapter)