Chapter 58: From Falling into a Trap to Being Dragged into a Net

Old wild shrikes are indeed temperamental, but this fellow has a weakness: he is terrified of water.

Yue Feng held the pole to which the shrike was tethered and placed it over a basin of water. The shrike, which just a second ago had been struggling frantically as if trying to "hang" itself, suddenly became docile.

He either had to fall into the water basin and end up like a drowned rat, or obediently stand still on the pole—it was a simple choice between two options.

Once the shrike stood steadily on the pole, Yue Feng moved the water basin away. Gradually, Hu Bula became accustomed to moving on the pole and grew less fearful of humans.

Hu Bula was much smaller than a raptor, after all. In less than a morning, Yue Feng had successfully tamed him. With people coming and going at home during the day, Hu Bula quickly adapted to the presence of those around him. After a few failed attempts to struggle, he slowly resigned himself to his fate.

Near noon, Yue Feng took some lean meat from the storehouse, moistened it with water, and fed it to Hu Bula. Having had nothing in his stomach all morning, Hu Bula took a tentative bite before soon feasting voraciously.

Once his belly was full, Hu Bula stood on the pole, preening his feathers and stretching, having already adapted to his new life.

With a lookout bird like this, once he showed his face in crowds during the afternoons and evenings, he would basically be ready for use.

While Yue Feng was busy with Hu Bula during the day, his father, Yue Lei, was not idle either. For his son's trip up the mountain this time, five full sets of netting equipment needed to be prepared, all of which the "logistics minister" was responsible for making.

Fortunately, the eagle nets, which were five fingers wide, required only a few knots per mesh, so the weaving went very quickly.

By the end of the day and after working a bit into the night, Yue Lei had finished making all the mesh panels.

With the lookout bird and the mesh panels, all that was missing were the decoys.

To catch small hawks, decoys like sparrows were sufficient, but to hunt large eagles, the best decoys were pigeons with small raindrop-patterned feathers.

The Qian family in the village raised pigeons. Yue Feng went to their house after dark and, at the high price of one yuan per bird, bought ten pigeons.

At night, the pigeons roosted in their coop. The ten pigeons arrived quickly, and after Yue Feng paid in full, he carried them home.

Early the next morning, Yue Feng packed food and fresh water in his bag and headed up the mountain with his hunting knife.

This time, the mountain peak Yue Feng was heading to was not the usual ridge where he released hawks to catch chicks or gray dogs.

To hunt large eagles, the best hawk field around was Hutou Ridge, located an hour and a half's journey from Xing'an Village. The terrain there was quite steep, and its altitude was over a hundred meters higher than the surrounding peaks, making it a high point among the local ridges.

During the autumn eagle-passing season, raptors utilize updrafts to fly, thereby conserving energy.

Hutou Ridge faced southeast; whether the wind blew from the southwest or the northeast, it was an excellent spot for catching eagles. In his past life, Yue Feng had caught many eagles here.

One year, during the peak of the migration, Yue Feng even held a glorious record of catching four large eagles in a single day. On average, as long as the season arrived and the wind direction was right, catching one or two large eagles a year was not a problem.

Moreover, it was now 1980, a time when raptor resources were much more abundant than in his previous life. Yue Feng had already assessed these factors in his mind when he promised Nu Fusheng.

Yue Feng's main task upon ascending the mountain today was to clear the sites.

"Clearing a site" meant bringing wood-cutting tools to tidy up the selected netting areas.

There weren't many large ancient trees on Hutou Mountain; it mostly consisted of small pines and shrubs.

After leaving home, Yue Feng sprinted toward Hutou Mountain. After an hour and a half of walking, he arrived at the peak from his memories of his past life.

He selected the netting areas, cleared the weeds and shrubs from the ground, and then buried thin wooden sticks about two fingers thick in the ground in a square formation.

These few sites were set up as "self-falling nets," which only required patrolling three times a day—morning, noon, and night—rather than constant human supervision.

The so-called self-falling net was actually an improved and upgraded version of a cage net. Four sticks were buried in the ground to form a square, and four mesh panels were hung on adjacent sticks to form an airtight cube. The upper ends of the mesh were secured with slip knots, the bottoms were tied down, and a pigeon was tied in the middle of the four sides to serve as bait.

When an eagle flies overhead and spots the self-falling net, it will dive down to attack the pigeon, causing it to plunge headlong into the net and become trapped and unable to move.

The advantage of this type of net is that it doesn't require constant supervision, but it also has a drawback: it is said that large eagles that have learned from past mistakes can see through this human trap. Upon discovering the bait, they will merely circle above to observe without launching an attack.

While self-falling nets can catch large eagles, their success rate is much lower than the second type of net.

The second method for catching large eagles is called a "pull net."

An eagle hunter uses bamboo poles or thin wood to create a frame for a single-sided pull net. The pull net is either propped up at a slight angle or laid directly on the ground, with a pigeon tied in the center area beneath the net.

When the lookout bird in the shelter notices an eagle passing overhead, it will exhibit certain fearful behavioral reactions, signaling the hunter to grab the ropes of the pull net.

Once the raptor locks onto the pigeon in the middle of the net and dives to attack, the hunter, with quick eyes and hands, pulls the net to trap the large eagle inside.

Normally, preparing just one of these two methods would be sufficient, as raptors are not as common as radishes or cabbages; even during the peak days, their total numbers remain relatively small.

However, to minimize the time spent hunting, Yue Feng decided to use both methods simultaneously.

In a single day, Yue Feng cleared a total of five sites: four small ones and one large one.

By the time Yue Feng finished setting up the shelter for the pull net site, it was already 4:30 PM.

Early the next morning, Yue Feng carried the decoys, eagle nets, and various other tools on his back and headed straight for Hutou Mountain.

At this time, the "Cold Dew" solar term had arrived. Cold air currents were gradually moving south, and the north wind showed signs of picking up.

Although the weather had been crisp and clear for several consecutive days, the temperatures in the early morning and evening had already dropped into single digits.

The reason for mentioning the solar term and wind direction is that these factors directly affect the harvest of hunting eagles.

While traveling in the morning, Yue Feng looked up at the sky from time to time. Occasionally, a fleeting glimpse of a raptor would boost his confidence even further.

Upon reaching Hutou Mountain, Yue Feng first set up the four self-falling nets in sequence, then brought his gear to the final pull net site.

Hanging the mesh, tying the ropes, driving in stakes, and securing the bait—after a bout of busywork, Yue Feng completed the initial preparations.

He used several pine branches to simply rake over the traces on the ground, then crawled into the constructed shelter with the lookout bird.

Once inside the shelter, he placed the pole holding the lookout bird at the entrance. He then dug a shallow pit about seven or eight centimeters in diameter and twenty centimeters deep near the base of the pole. Everything was ready; all that was needed was the right moment.