The story of Wu Song fighting the tiger not only exists in the words of "Water Margin", but also appears in the real society.
In the 1950s, a 64-year-old tiger fighting hero named Chen Qifang appeared in Xiatang Township, Leiyang, Hunan Province. He led the tiger fighting team to kill 168 tigers and leopards in 6 years, of which 138 died at his hands, and even the 600-pound tiger king in the Shaoshan Mountains could not escape his palm.
But then, at the foot of Xuefeng Mountain, the terrifying spectacle of Baihuwei Village occurred. This not only makes people start to think, is "Wu Song" a hero?
What is going on behind The Village of Baihuwei? Why was the tiger plague so severe in those days? What are the hidden concerns behind it?
In order to avenge the blood, he swore to kill the tiger
After the founding of New China in 1949, the flames that had been burning on the land of Shenzhou for nearly a hundred years finally subsided, and people were able to live and work in peace and contentment, and the population of the mainland began to expand sharply in the 1950s.
Land reforms were also in full swing throughout the country, and a large number of wastelands were reclaimed and crops were planted. However, the grain production at that time was far less than it is now, and in order to feed more and more people, people not only reclaimed farmland to the mountains, but also hunted pheasants, wild boars and other mountain forest wild animals to "beat the teeth".
As a result, the number of animals in the mountains began to decrease sharply, and the Hunan region has many mountains and is one of the important habitats of the South China tiger on the mainland. Because people have encroached on tiger territory and there are fewer and fewer prey in the mountains, the incidents of tigers coming down the mountain to hurt people are becoming more and more frequent.
Finally, the people of Leiyang County, who were overwhelmed, also tried to think of other methods and set up a tiger fighting team, but with little success. It was not until a tragic incident that the tiger plague near Leiyang County was eliminated.
In 1952, Chen Qifang, a villager in Xiatang Township, was working at home when his young grandson, who was less than 10 years old, suddenly wanted to eat roast sweet potatoes. When she had something on her hands, Chen Qifang coaxed her little grandson to go to her sweet potato field halfway up the mountain to plane two pieces of sweet potatoes, and when he returned, she would bake sweet potatoes for him.
The little grandson happily ran toward the mountain, while Chen Qifang continued to do the work at hand. At that time, although there were also cases of tigers going down the mountain to take away domestic animals in Xiatang Township, it only happened after nightfall.
Now that the sky is blue and the sun is shining, can the tiger still appear to hurt people? However, the harsh truth gave this old hunter a blow. Seeing that the sun is about to set, the little grandson has not yet returned, so it is enough to make two trips back and forth for such a long time!
Chen Qifang's uneasiness grew stronger and greater, and he put down the tools in his hand and began to shout the name of his little grandson along the road up the mountain. However, I did not see the little grandson along the way, and the people in the village I met on the road also said that they had not seen him.
Chen Qifang was originally a hunter, and at the age of 29, she was famous for her hunting skills in ten miles and eight villages. After he was older, he no longer went into the mountains to hunt, and if the grain harvest was not good before, he would take everyone up the mountain to hunt or distribute the wild boars and wild sheep hunted to the big guys, and the reputation in the village has always been very good.
Now seeing Chen Qifang looking for his little grandson everywhere, many people in the village also came out to help find it, and a group of people carried torches up the mountain in a mighty way, and finally found one of Chen Qifang's little grandson's shoes in a bush not far from the sweet potato field, which was stained with blood, and there were some paw prints scattered nearby.
Seeing the bloodstained shoe and paw prints, Chen Qifang's eyes were broken, and his heart was full of mourning, understanding that sun tzu had touched a tiger. Although there have been ominous premonitions for a long time, it is still difficult to accept the reality of reality.
He returned home with his little grandson's only shoe left, and turned away all the comforts of the crowd. The lights in his house were on all night, and no one knew what he had thought that night. But the next day, when it was just dark, some villagers who had risen early to work as farmers saw Chen Qifang and her two sons carrying shotguns and luggage on the mountain.
Since then, tigers near Xiatang Township have suffered. In just one year, Chen Qifang and her two sons hunted and killed more than 40 tigers, and the tiger plague in Leiyang County almost disappeared this year.
It should be known that in the year that Chen Qifang's young grandson was killed, there were more than 100 incidents of vicious tigers injuring people in Leiyang County alone, and the number of deaths was nearly 100. It was recorded in the county chronicle of Leiyang County that there were once 20 or 30 evil tigers who killed people in one day. It can be said that the tiger disease is extremely serious.
The news that Chen Qifang had killed more than forty evil tigers in a year to avenge her grandson did not go away, as evidenced by the dozens of tiger skins, and all the doubts disappeared.
Chen Qifang, who had almost killed all the tigers near Xiatang Township, did not stop his tiger hunting plan, and he was still worried about the death of his little grandson, especially after learning that tigers in other parts of Leiyang County were still hurting people, he did not hesitate to accept the task of organizing a tiger team to go into the mountains to fight the evil tigers.
More than a hundred tigers were killed, and the tiger king suffered
Under the leadership of Chen Qifang's organization, the Leiyang County Tiger Fighting Team quickly gathered a tiger fighting team of more than fifty people and began to enter the mountains to fight tigers.
Even Chen Qifang did not dare to say that he could escape from the hands of the tiger 100%, but there must be brave men under the heavy reward, and the Leiyang County government set a three-hundred-kilogram food subsidy for each member of the tiger team, and there was an additional reward for hitting the tiger. What's more, the tigers in Leiyang County are plagued by disasters, and everyone cannot live peacefully except for tigers.
Chen Qifang has a wealth of experience in hunting from primary school, and last year she had experience in killing tigers in Xiatang Township. He rarely used a shotgun to hunt, first, because the shotgun was not accurate enough at that time, and it was easy to get inaccurate. The second is that the sound is too loud, and if a blow is not successful, it will hit the grass and startle the snake, and it is easy to attract other animals.
His best hunting method is drugging! The secret poison of the family is applied to the knife and bow and arrow, as well as the bamboo arrow in the trap and the trap, as long as the tiger is injured by these things, it will not be long before the movement is restricted, and slowly die in the predetermined trap under the action of the medicine.
Under the leadership of Chen Qifang, the tiger fighting team in Leiyang County "harvested a full harvest", killing a total of 168 tigers in six years, of which 138 were the credit of Chen Qifang.
Such an astonishing number of tigers killed made Chen Qifang, a hero of fighting tigers, famous throughout the country, and people from Yanling County near Leiyang County came to ask him for advice on tiger fighting experience.
The weight of the South China tiger is generally 120-150 kg, and the 150 kg South China tiger is already a behemoth. However, in the mountain forest in Shaoshan, there is a 500-pound "tiger king" who often goes down the mountain to be a disaster.
The Shaoshan government's tiger fighting team could not take this tiger and had been deeply affected by it. It wasn't until Chen Qifang's tiger fighting deeds spread that they saw hope and hurriedly sent someone to invite Chen Qifang to shaoshan to fight the tiger king.
After learning that the Tiger King often went down the mountain to hurt people, and many people had already been killed under its tiger's mouth, Chen Qifang did not hesitate to go to Shaoshan and lead the local tiger fighting team to fight the Tiger King!
Chen Qifang searched through the mountain and forest areas where the Tiger King often haunted, and after becoming familiar with the Habits of the Tiger King, he began to create traps. With years of hunting experience, he could see that this tiger was indeed extraordinary, and the paw prints left behind were much larger than those of ordinary tigers.
However, Chen Qifang's heart not only did not have a trace of fear, but was also very excited. Because he only had in his heart the idea of eliminating harm for the people and the pleasure of avenging his grandson.
In order to deal with this extraordinary Tiger King, Chen Qifang carefully designed a trap and smeared a large amount of secret poison in it. As long as the Tiger King stepped into this area, he could guarantee that it would never leave alive!
After a few days of squatting, the Tiger King finally appeared, and sure enough, as Chen Qifang expected, the Tiger King stepped into the trap he designed, and under the interlocking links, the Tiger King made a roaring sound that resounded through the mountains and forests, and finally he died without withstanding the effect of the secret medicine.
When there was no movement at the trap, Chen Qifang and the other members of the tiger team dared to go forward to check it out, and when they couldn't see it, this tiger king had at least 600 pounds! Looking at the Tiger King's huge mountain-like corpse, Chen Qifang couldn't help but be glad that the secret medicine in his trap had fallen a lot.
The Tiger King had all died at the hands of Chen Qifang, and Shaoshan was naturally very happy to have solved a major problem. Chen Qifang is also more famous, and even received by Premier Zhou, praising him as a life-saving tiger fighting hero.
Under the influence of Chen Qifang, the tiger fighting operation in central and southern Hunan intensified, the number of tigers decreased sharply, and within a few years, the tiger plague had disappeared in the local area.
By 1957, when the people of central and southern Hunan province were cheering for the absence of tiger plagues, a small village under the Xuefeng Mountain in southwestern Hunan Province was hit by tigers.
Hundred tigers surround the village, the lesson is heavy
Because of the reduction of territory and food, coupled with the large number of tigers hunted, the living environment became more and more harsh, and the remaining tigers began to migrate to the southwest of Hunan.
Xuefeng Mountain, known as Meishan Mountain in ancient times, is located in the southwest of Hunan Province, with an altitude of less than 2,000 meters, and the environment is more suitable for tigers to live, and many tigers migrating from central and southern China have chosen to settle here.
The peaceful lives of dozens of villagers living at the foot of Xuefeng Mountain were shattered by these tigers who came from afar.
Although there are only 180 families in this small village, the atmosphere is still relatively lively in the morning just in time for the market. But the shouts of the vendors, the haggling of the villagers, and the laughter of the children were interrupted by the roar of a tiger full of anger.
The whole bazaar seemed to have been pressed the pause button, and all the sounds stopped abruptly.
"The tiger is coming! Everyone quickly hid—" It wasn't until the livestock fed by the villagers began to bang on the fence door to escape that a sharp sound pierced everyone's ears.
The whole market was suddenly covered in chaos, and people hurriedly hid in the houses nearby, while some people who came from far away from home to catch the market were not so lucky, and those who were too late to hide were quickly buried in the tiger's mouth. The organic spirit and agile man climbed up to the roof, and before he could congratulate himself on his escape, he saw a jaw-dropping scene that he would never forget.
There were hundreds of tigers rushing in the direction of the village, except for a dozen or so tigers that rushed into the village to hurt people, most of them just surrounded the village, and a few also rushed into the villagers' homes to take out the livestock raised in their homes.
One of them, a family of three, hid in their own home, trembling and trembling, waiting for the tiger to leave. At that time, most of the houses in the village were earthen houses, many people still lived in thatched houses, and there were very few people who could afford to live in brick houses, and the doors and windows were sometimes made by themselves, so the houses were naturally not strong enough.
The door of the house can still withstand the impact of the tiger, but the paper-paste window is vulnerable. Within two clicks, a tiger broke through the window, and the family of three screamed in fright, and the sound was terrifying.
Soon, the little girl's parents died tragically under the tiger's claws, and just when the little girl thought that she would be caught by the tiger in the chest like her parents, she was thrown on the back by the tiger with the collar of her clothes and ran wildly towards the mountain.
The other villagers looked at this absurd scene and felt incredible. There are not no hunters in the village, and some people try to deal with these tigers with the usual method of driving tigers when they come down the mountain, but the other party is "many tigers", and in the end, there is no choice, can only listen to the little girl's cries gradually drift away, until they disappear.
But the tigers did not give up after taking all the poultry away, and they surrounded the village for 3 days before gradually dispersing, but the strange thing is that in addition to the first rush into the market to hurt people, the tigers only surrounded the village.
After the tigers dispersed, the villagers who survived the disaster were relieved and rushed to report the horrific incident to the local government. The government was shocked to hear about this and hurriedly sent someone to investigate.
The result of this time in Baihuwei Village was that more than thirty villagers were killed, almost all the livestock were bitten to death and snatched away, and the little girl who was taken away by the tiger could not find any trace and was no longer found.
The reason why more than a hundred tigers besieged the village was because a hunter in the village captured a litter of tiger cubs. When the hunters were hunting in the mountains, they accidentally found a litter of tiger cubs and took them all down the mountain.
After returning from foraging, the tiger found that his child was missing, and followed the smell left by the tiger cub along the road to the village, and then the tragedy of the Baihuwei Village occurred.
It is often said that a mountain does not allow two tigers, which is caused by the habit of tigers living alone, but why can more than a hundred tigers besiege the village together this time? The reason for this is that many tigers had to temporarily gather together in the process of migrating to the southwest, and the nest of tiger cubs taken away by the hunters was more than one tiger cub.
Some people say that it was because the hunter returned the tiger cub to the tiger, they found the child before retreating, and later only surrounding the village without hurting people was also a warning and reminder.
In short, there are many opinions on the Baihuwei Village incident. But all things have animism, and it is not wise to kill other creatures.
The number of mainland South China tigers has decreased sharply in those years, and the South China tigers that caused tiger infestation are now difficult to find in the wild, because wild South China tigers have long been extinct.
In 1989, the South China Tiger was listed as a national first-class protected animal by the Mainland Animal Protection Law. In 1996, the United Nations listed the South China tiger as the number one endangered species, the first of the world's top ten endangered species.
Known as the "Chinese tiger", the South China tiger eventually went extinct under the unbridled hunting of people. The original tiger infestation actually stemmed from people's endless reclamation and development of mountains and forests.
The South China Tiger Incident is not accidental, in the process of modernization and development of the mainland, too many organisms are endangered or even extinct because of the unreasonable development of people at the beginning. The events in Baihuwei Village make people think deeply about how to live in harmony between people and creatures.
epilogue
The issue of harmonious coexistence between man and nature has been frequently raised in recent decades, and although the number of endangered species is still increasing year by year, it has undoubtedly made people pay more and more attention to the protection of wild animals and plants.
Thousands of years ago, Mencius had already written "Exhausting the Zee and Fishing" to warn the world that since ancient times, the mainland has also had such a saying as "things must be reversed", why is it still pursuing the style of exterminating the Tiger of South China?
Once the biological chain is destroyed, it is ultimately the human beings themselves who suffer. Just like it is not so much to protect the environment and love the earth, but to love oneself, after all, it does not matter how the earth is, and whether it is suitable for human habitation is the biggest problem.
Baihuwei Village was not only a warning to the tiger killers at that time, but also a heavy warning to humans in the way they treated other creatures.