Phi-Fic Chapter 307 Old Zhang and His Falconry Past
Chapter 307 Old Zhang and His Falconry Past
Old Zhang from the security department and Li Guaizi's casual conversation inadvertently drifted to the amusing anecdotes of Li Ju'an's recent deep-mountain adventure. Old Zhang's eyes gleamed with curiosity as he probed with interest. Li Ju'an casually replied, "Actually, there wasn't much new happening. Just a few days of venturing into the mountains, setting up a few traps. Seriously, Uncle Zhang, I've heard Brother Qin mention that your ventriloquism is absolutely amazing. Could you give me a pointer?"
Old Zhang and Old Qian are skilled in ventriloquism, a secret known to almost everyone in Wangxing Village.
Old Qian was particularly adept at imitating the sounds of animals. When he called to the mules, his lifelike brays would make even the leisurely mules at the gate turn around, appearing somewhat restless. When he imitated a dog's bark, the sound was magical, attracting guard dogs from all directions of the village to gather around, creating a lively and astonishing scene.
He could also make the sound of a green weasel, and it was so lifelike that it was impossible to tell whether it was a real green weasel or a human imitating the whistle.
Last time, in the deep and unpredictable Changbai Mountain forest, Old Qin was silently setting up a trap, calculating his haul for the day, when he was startled by a sudden noise. He instinctively raised his hunting rifle, his finger trembling slightly, and was about to pull the trigger when a yellow shadow darted out from the bushes. It was Old Qian's loyal hunting dog.
Old Qian himself followed behind it with a smile, looking completely innocent.
Old Qin, his hunting rifle already half-raised, saw Old Qian appear and a surge of anger rushed to his head. He couldn't help but curse, "Old Qian, what are you playing at? Are you trying to scare me half to death? If this goes off, who will be responsible?"
Upon hearing this, Old Qian's smile didn't fade; instead, it turned into a hint of grievance. He said, "Old Qin, you've wronged me. You were moving so quietly, like a ghost in the forest. How could our General Huang tell you apart? He thought it was some cunning weasel crouching and sneaking around. Otherwise, how could he have followed you here? It's just a misunderstanding, a loyal act of protecting his master."
Old Qian treasured the yellow dog in his hand. This yellow dog was named General Huang. It was very clever and intelligent, loyal and obedient, but its nose wasn't very good.
Old Qin threw his head back and laughed heartily. This mountain was teeming with juvenile takins, and also with lone weasels. He had indeed found some burnt remains left by a weasel, and smeared them on his clothes along with some droppings to mask the smell, hoping to catch a weasel himself. And wouldn't you know it, another hunter had the same idea.
The two men pretended to be thugs, but they bumped into each other.
When Old Zhang from the security department talked about the funny stories of Old Qian and Old Qin, he laughed and said, "Little Li, if you learn bird calls from me, I guarantee that when the pheasants in the mountains come to 'date,' you'll be able to shoot them one by one. Don't even mention you going to look for them; just by making that call, hey, a pheasant will fly over and run right into your gun."
Li Ju'an laughed and said, "That's amazing, then I'll have to have some fun. I've never encountered pheasants lining up like they're at a supply and marketing cooperative, rushing into my gun barrel before."
Old Zhang grinned at the thought of the long queues at the supply and marketing cooperative. The two chatted and agreed to go back later to get some dry food and then go into the mountains to hunt dragons together.
Old Zhang said with some regret, "It has to be spring. If you come into the mountains with me in the summer, you can hunt birds really fast. It's September now, and the birds aren't as easy to hunt as in the spring."
Bird breeding always unfolds gently along the seasonal lines, concentrated in spring and summer, roughly between March and August. During this period, temperatures gradually warm and food resources are abundant, providing a favorable environment for bird breeding and making it the most active breeding season for birds in the Greater Khingan Mountains.
As the autumn winds begin to blow, wild birds such as geese and mallards, carrying their fledglings with their still-developing feathers, reluctantly bid farewell to their warm nests and embark on their journeys in search of food. May to July is the peak breeding season for birds; those heron chicks that hatched earlier are now nearly fully feathered and ready to take flight and leave the nest.
As September arrives, the mountains and forests are no longer filled with the chirping of birds as they were in spring, but the vitality within that tranquility attracts a large number of hunters who hunt pheasants and other birds to come into the mountains in search of opportunities.
At this moment, Old Zhang from the security department and Li Guaizi were sitting around, curiously asking Li Ju'an about his recent trip into the mountains.
Li Ju'an and Lao Zhang had a brief chat about Zhao Bashi from Yingtun.
Old Zhang had known Zhao Pao for over a decade. When he heard that Li Ju'an planned to learn eagle training from Zhao Pao, he took some tobacco from his pocket, stuffed it into his pipe, lit it, squinted, took a puff, and exhaled a smoke ring. He said, "Training eagles? That's not easy. Not everyone can do it."
Li Ju'an asked Old Zhang, "Uncle Zhang, you're so good at bird whistling, have you ever thought about raiding an eagle's nest and training an eagle with Zhao Pao? If you could train one, you wouldn't even need to whistle to hunt birds, the hunting eagle could catch them."
A well-trained falcon can identify the direction of a run and can also attack birds such as pheasants. Its eyesight can see objects within a 10-kilometer radius. If a rabbit swoops low overhead, the falcon can pinpoint its location. This is called "not releasing the hawk until it sees the rabbit," and it catches the rabbit in just a couple of swift movements.
If they encounter a pheasant, it's a sure thing; a falcon can catch it with ease. It's much faster than hunting prey by gathering incense sticks around dogs.
They also train large falcons, which can capture small green shrews and small blue sheep alive.
Old Zhang sighed helplessly and said, "We've tried, of course we've tried. Several hunters in the village, including your Uncle Sun and Old Man Lu, have all tried. That year, we each caught an eagle, thinking of taking it back to train. Everyone knows how good eagles are, but how many of us can actually train them?"
Li Ju'an asked, "What if we can't tame it?"
Old Zhang's eyes widened, and he shouted, "What else can we do? Kill them! Just think about whether we can raise sparrows."
Sparrows are considered one of the four pests and should be killed. However, some hunters caught sparrows to practice their marksmanship. As a result, the hunters discovered that these little sparrows were very tough and proud, and they couldn't be kept alive at all. They would stop eating and drinking and kill themselves within a few days.
Back then, a few old hunters in the village thought about learning from Yingtun to train eagles, but the result was the same. After a group of eagles died while being trained, no one in the village mentioned eagle training again.
Li Ju'an also lit a cigarette, took a puff, and blew smoke rings, thinking about his trip into the mountains last week.
He went for a walk in the mountains last week and glanced at the eagle's nest on the big red pine tree.
The open nest was very high, and only two eaglets remained inside. For the past few days, every five or six days, he would stroll to the foot of the big red pine, take a shortcut up the high slope, climb behind the open cliff, and look down to see if the eaglets in the eagle's nest had grown any bigger. He had seen three chicks before, how come after several weeks there were only two left?
He couldn't get too close, lest his scent taint the surrounding area and disturb the eagles. He observed from a distance and noticed that the two eaglets were very perceptive; they seemed to sense movement from a great distance and mistook it for their mother. Each one opened its large beak, tilted its head back, and let out a loud, piercing cry.
Its little mouth was open way too wide, as if it could swallow a child whole.
Li Ju'an found it amusing. After a short while, the mother eagle circled twice in the air and landed. The mother eagle had excellent eyesight, able to spot open terrain and hills within a 10-kilometer radius, and it was a hunting eagle trained by Zhao Pao of Eagle Village. The eagle tilted its head, stared at him for a moment, and then angrily issued a warning.
Li Ju'an cursed, "You little brat, I haven't even started arguing with you yet, and you're already getting aggressive."