Reborn in the 1980s: I made my fortune hunting wild game in Changbai Mountain

In response to Yue Feng's question, Xiao Weimin nodded repeatedly.

"That eagle is beautiful! Look at its stance, look at its eyes!"

"I have a hard feeling to describe. Although this eagle is also afraid of people, it's not quite the same as the chicken eagles and hawks we saw before!" Xiao Weimin praised repeatedly.

Yue Feng nodded. Although Xiao Weimin wasn't a professional, he had a good eye and could see the subtle differences.

“That’s right, the way this white eagle looks at people after it leaves the net isn’t that obviously fearful!” Yue Feng confirmed Xiao Weimin’s assessment.

"Starting tonight, we're going to be training the hawks? Is there any particular custom or significance to this? Should our film crew join in too?"

The term "keeping an eagle awake" is familiar to many, even those who have never seen an eagle. For example, if a child doesn't go to sleep at a certain time, the parents might scold them, "Why aren't you sleeping at this time? Are you keeping an eagle awake?"
However, very few people outside the industry have actually experienced the process of training hawks firsthand.

When asked, Yue Feng nodded: "Actually, training eagles is a slow process. It involves only a few techniques and procedures. From the perspective of shooting footage, it doesn't require much filming!"

However, if you'd like to try it out, that's fine too. We don't have anything else to do anyway, so let's just rest when we're tired!

Xiao Weimin nodded: "Then let's try it out and see what it's really like!"

"Haha, no problem!"

Yue Feng responded and reached out to touch the eagle's tail.

At this moment, the white eagle was perched on Yue Feng's arm, still in a state of stress. When it saw Yue Feng touch it, it immediately opened its mouth and adopted a highly stressed defensive posture.

"What's going on? Its mouth is open and its wings are drooping. Is it injured?" Xiao Weimin asked curiously.

Yue Feng shook his head: "This is normal! This eagle is bolder than other live eagles. It dared to stand on a person's hand as soon as its feet were tied up!"

However, being captured is still frightening! This mouth, drooping arms, and small, tentative movements are all normal reactions!
The so-called "training the eagle" is actually the process of digesting all of its stress responses to humans through continuous close and friendly interaction!

During the process of training the eagle, touching the eagle, turning the handle, spraying water, and even blowing smoke when smoking are all normal techniques.

When a live eagle can sit steadily in a person's hand and show no resistance when touched or handled, then the skill of training the eagle is basically complete!
"No rush, we can take our time after dinner!"

"Alright, let's take advantage of this filming opportunity to learn how to train eagles!" Xiao Weimin exclaimed.

"Haha, if you follow my procedure exactly, you really can train an ordinary eagle!"

……

Yue Feng put on his newly caught white hawk and chatted with Xiao Weimin and the others in the living room for a while. Before they knew it, it was dark outside.

The stewed meat in the kitchen is ready, and the food tonight is pretty good. Although there aren't as many different dishes as usual, there is a Northeastern specialty: pork stew.

The wild boar meat, freshly killed during the day, is stewed with blood sausage, sauerkraut, and pork belly until it's cooked to perfection.

Ever since the eagle was placed on his arm, Yue Feng has become a one-armed hero who can only use his left hand. He eats with the eagle on his arm, drinks tea with the eagle on his arm, and even goes to the toilet with the white eagle on his arm.

Xiao Weimin's film crew was quite surprised by Yue Feng's performance, but Yue Feng's wife, mother, and other relatives were used to it.

Loving a falcon is not just a matter of words. In the falconry profession, when a falconer encounters a falcon that he truly cherishes, he will serve it with utmost care and devotion.

After finishing a hot and fragrant meal of stewed pork, Mom cleaned up the dishes, said goodbye to the kitchen, and went back to the old house. Wang Xiaona, carrying the child, also went back to her own room.

In the living room, only Yue Feng and his five friends, including Xiao Weimin, remained.

Five people, three of whom were heavy smokers, and in no time the room was filled with smoke.

Xiao Weimin asked Yue Feng about the specific arrangements and plans for the eagle training. Yue Feng said, "The four of us will turn on the fill lights in the first half of the night to shoot some footage, and then you can go to sleep. When it gets to 2 a.m., you will arrange for someone to take my place!"

I stayed up all night by myself, and I was so tired the next day that I probably only needed about four hours of sleep!

Upon hearing this, Xiao Weimin exclaimed, "That's easy! Tonight, Xiao Zhang and I will take over for you during the second half of the night! Tomorrow night, Xiao Li and Xiao Tian will take over!"

Yue Feng smiled and nodded: "No problem! I can sleep four hours a day, and I can handle it until the eagle comes down! This eagle is bold and has a steady temper. Let's try to get it out of there in a week or two!"

"You can train him in a week?" Upon hearing this answer, Xiao Weimin was slightly unsure.

In the eagle training process he was familiar with, it usually took ten days or even half a month to train the eagles properly, but Yue Feng managed to shorten it to a week.

"This is just a preliminary plan. Whether we can complete the training in a week depends on our progress in the next few days! But we have a lot of people, so if we change the personnel but not the eagles, it shouldn't be a big problem!"

"Okay, for the next few days, we'll do whatever you say!"

"Alright! Now, let's film some techniques for the first night with a live eagle! Get your equipment ready, and I'll explain it to you!"

"OK!"

With the supplementary lights in place and the equipment turned on, Yue Feng began the on-site demonstration.

"When a live eagle is caught in a net, the worst thing is not hunger, but lack of water. If the eagle handler sees the eagle catch the fish in the net, this step can be ignored."

If an eagle is caught using a net that traps itself, and the eagle is not present at the scene, it is very likely to become dehydrated and dry-out because it struggles violently in the net!

So, the first step is to hydrate!

Actually, this operation is quite simple. Just find a clean piece of gauze or cotton cloth, wet it, and drip water around its beak. If the eagle is thirsty, it will drink water immediately to replenish its fluids!
If there's enough water, like with the eagles we have now, we can spray water on their feathers to calm them down a bit! Protect the cameras, I'm going to spray water now!

As he spoke, Yue Feng picked up the tea in front of him and then sprayed it all over Ying's head.

The body sprayer instantly enveloped the grass-white eagle in a mist of water.

After several sprays, the feathers on the white eagle's body were wet from the spray, and the feathers were slightly matted.

Strangely enough, the white eagle that was perched on my arm with its arms drooping and its mouth open in fear, quickly closed its mouth after its feathers got wet, and even folded its drooping wings down to about a third of their original size.

"An eagle that has been sprayed with water will be calmer! Take this opportunity to tentatively touch its talons!"

Here's a detail to note: when doing this step, you must hold on tightly to the tripod, otherwise, if you're not careful, you might get caught in the eagle's claws and end up with a bloody mess!

While giving reminders, Yue Feng demonstrated on camera, quickly touching the eagle claw several times.

Although Cao Baiying showed some resistance, he was tied up and unable to lift his feet, so he had no choice but to let Yue Feng make contact with him.

"The eagle has succeeded in its claws; next comes the tail, the breast, the back, and finally the top of the head!"

These parts are all important to eagles, so there is a specific order to them!

The back and top of the head are the most resistant areas; we should wait one or two days before trying again! Let's touch the tail first!

Next, Yue Feng gave another on-site demonstration.

At this moment, Yue Feng resembled a thug who would grope and harass the eagle. Whenever the eagle relaxed even slightly, Yue Feng would seize the opportunity to make intimate physical contact with it. After several rounds of harassment, the eagle's resistance noticeably weakened.

Over the next few hours, Yue Feng and Xiao Weimin's film crew finished shooting all the footage of the techniques used in the early stages.

Around 10 o'clock, Yue Feng told everyone to wash up and go back to their rooms to rest.

After the four of them returned to their rooms, Yue Feng was left alone in the large living room.

He seemed like a very calm and composed old man, holding the eagle steadily, his eyes vacant, as if lost in thought.

Every now and then, Yue Feng would turn his wrist to let the white eagle stretch its legs.

Slowly, the night deepened.

At two o'clock, Yue Feng heard the clock chime.

He yawned, then got up from his seat and knocked on Xiao Weimin's door.

Soon, Xiao Weimin came out of the house wearing a jacket.

He only slept for a little over three hours and didn't sleep well, but after lighting a special cigarette and taking a few puffs, he quickly felt refreshed.

"Are you sure you can manage on your own?" Yue Feng asked, a little worried.

"It's only two hours, no problem at all! Xiao Zhang will take over for me later!" Xiao Weimin said with certainty.

"Alright! Let me tell you the precautions for handling an eagle! You must wrap this five-foot rod tightly around your fingers, without the slightest mistake! Even if the eagle suddenly pounces, it won't slip from your grasp!"

As Yue Feng explained, he personally tied the five-foot rope to Xiao Weimin's hand, and then put another large eagle cage sleeve on Xiao Weimin.

By briefly stopping Xiao Weimin's arm on the chest of the white eagle, the bird's climbing instincts were automatically activated, and the white eagle easily climbed onto Xiao Weimin's arm.

After the eagle was in Xiao Weimin's hands, Yue Feng didn't rush to sleep. Instead, he observed it for another ten minutes or so to make sure that Xiao Weimin was holding the eagle without any problems. Only then did he go back to his room to get a pillow and a thin quilt.

"Aren't you going back to your room to sleep?" Xiao Weimin asked.

Yue Feng placed the pillow on the chair and lay down without even taking off his shoes.

"I'll just take a nap in this chair. I can wake up anytime if there's any noise! ​​My wife and kids are asleep inside, so please don't wake them up!"

"Okay, go to sleep!"

……

That night, Yue Feng did not sleep well.

Xiao Weimin had no experience with hawking and lighting lamps, so he was relatively stable for a short time. However, as drowsiness crept in, the white hawk became restless in his hands, struggling and flying away several times.

Every time Yue Feng heard the sound of an eagle flapping its wings, he would open his eyes to check, and then go back to sleep after confirming that everything was alright.

And so, Xiao Weimin and Xiao Zhang each carried him for two hours, while Yue Feng managed to catch up on some sleep.

At four o'clock in the morning, Yue Feng opened his eyes and sat up on time. After taking the eagle from Xiao Zhang, he took a stool and went to the courtyard outside.

It was four o'clock in the morning, and it was almost dawn.

The sky was dotted with stars, and the morning air was a bit damp and chilly.

Yue Feng adjusted the thick coat he was wearing and casually touched the white eagle on his arm.

The man and the eagle remained there quietly. Gradually, the sky brightened and turned whiter until the sun rose.

After a whole night of training the hawk and watching the sunrise together this morning, the white hawk felt much more stable on my hand than it did last night.

When Yue Feng touched it again, it still reacted, but not as intensely as yesterday.

Once the big black eagle and the little white spear in the eagle house started cawing, Yue Feng then carried the eagle into the house.

Xiao Weimin had already woken up. He had been on an eagle stand for two hours in between, but it didn't affect his sleep too much. He woke up feeling quite refreshed.

Yue Feng handed the white eagle to Xiao Weimin, who held it inside the house. Then, following his usual routine, he went outside to the eagle house to attend to the big black eagle and the little white spear.

After getting up close and observing, Xiao Weimin gained new insights into Yue Feng, a seasoned but young eagle handler.

This young man treated his eagle with utmost seriousness and without the slightest carelessness.

After Yue Feng had taken care of the big black eagle and the little white spear in the yard for their daily exercise, the rest of the film crew got up.

The group looked at the white eagle, who hadn't slept all night, and felt that his condition was different from the previous night, but they couldn't quite put their finger on why.

Breakfast time arrived quickly. This morning, Yue Feng's mother-in-law made him scallion pancakes.

Scallion pancakes, tomato and dumpling soup, and some refreshing pickled vegetables made for a very pleasant breakfast.

After breakfast, Yue Feng took out the scale he had used to weigh the eagle the day before and weighed the eagle on camera.

After a night of eagle-raising exercises, the white eagle lost about half an ounce of fat.

My current weight is 3.6 pounds.

There's no need to go up the mountain to catch eagles today, so the film crew has significantly less work to do.

In the morning, Yue Feng had a brief conversation with Xiao Weimin and filmed several shots of the eagles roaming around the yard and then heading out onto the street. Afterward, the group returned home to rest.

For the next few days, the film crew lived a very comfortable life at Yue Feng's home.

There were basically no filming tasks during the day, but we would switch shifts at night to help Yue Feng stay up for a few hours.

Before we knew it, three days had passed.

Grass White Eagle's weight dropped to about three pounds and three ounces, losing an average of one ounce of fat per day.

When the eagle had fallen to a weight of three jin and three liang, Yue Feng prepared a portion of processed meat.

It's time to feed the white eagles!
For the first three days, the white eagle only provided adequate water and did not give the bird any meat.

On the morning of the fourth day, Yue Feng put the eagle in the yard and took the fresh meat that was ready to be served from the meat bowl.

After three days and four nights of holding the eagle up, it was no longer so afraid of people. Upon seeing the fresh meat, it visibly smacked its lips.

Seeing this, Yue Feng grinned and reminded him, "The camera is ready. The next technique is called 'opening the food'!" (End of Chapter)