On July 22, 2023, in Longjitun, Xi'an Village, Dongquan Town, Liucheng County, Liuzhou City, Guangxi Province, villagers Hu Quanshou and Zhou Yuxiu's mother and son killed their neighbor Hu Tuqiang's grandfather and grandson, and their daughter-in-law Lu Yan was also seriously injured. The two families are only 100 meters apart, and they are still related. Behind the murder case, there are not only accumulated grievances, but also a struggle for limited homestead resources in rural areas.
Damage
For nearly 6 months, Lu Yan has been sleeping on sleeping pills. She didn't dare to stop taking the medicine, and a sudden awakening in the middle of the night always brought her back to the morning of July 22, when a neighbor's mother and son broke into her home and killed one of her sons and daughters and her father-in-law. She was also seriously injured, with more than two dozen scars on her body, distributed on her head, hands, and feet, and the scars on her face extended from the corners of her mouth to the sides of her ears. Until now, her injured hand still suddenly throbs, and sometimes she can't even hold a pen and paper, let alone drive.
Ms. Lu Yan and her husband, Hu Yaowen, both work in a factory in Liudong New District, Liuzhou City, less than 20 kilometers from their home, and they usually live in dormitories. On July 22, Lu Yan, who finished the morning shift, went home to see the child. She remembered that it was around 10 o'clock when she got home, her mother-in-law went to do odd jobs, and her father-in-law Hu Tuqiang shoveled cement at the gate of the courtyard. Their yard is higher than the road, and the car always scratches the chassis when it enters the yard, and the father-in-law tries to make a gentle slope. Two children, a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old, were watching cartoons in the living room with loud voices. Lu Yan turned around and went to the toilet.
Stills from "Country Love Story".
About a minute or two later, Lu Yan in the toilet heard a quarrel coming from the door of his house. The TV was so loud that she couldn't hear what was being argued, but then her son's frightened, mournful cry of "sister" was heard. She rushed out and saw her daughter lying in the kitchen doorway, covered in blood. She didn't bother to take a closer look, and rushed to the second bedroom where her son was, where a middle-aged man slashed at him with a kitchen knife. Lu Yan turned around and picked up the kitchen knife at home, rushed towards the man, the two scuffled together, from the second bedroom to the kitchen, Lu Yan shouted for help, and the hands of the two were tightly opposed to the stalemate. At this time, Lu Yan saw the man's face clearly, with a rectangular face and a thin body, and she didn't recognize who it was. Lu Yan, who was struggling, shouted loudly for help, and begged the man bitterly, "Let me go, my daughter may still be saved." The man was agitated and kept shouting "I killed someone!"
At this moment, a gray-haired woman who looked at her sixty or seventy years old suddenly rushed in front of the two of them, came up and took the knife from the man's hand. "Help is coming", Lu Yan breathed a sigh of relief. But the woman didn't save her, she slashed at Lu Yan with a knife. Before losing consciousness, Lu Yan recognized that the other party had come to the house to quarrel before. Later, she learned that the two were Zhou Yuxiu and Hu Quanshou's mother and son, and they lived very close to her own family, no more than 100 meters apart.
Lu Yan was hospitalized after being injured (photo provided by the interviewee)
When Lu Yan opened her eyes, she had stab wounds on her head, hands, and feet. The man and the woman are gone. Lu Yan struggled to crawl to the second bedroom, wanting to call the police and ask for help, her fingers were full of blood, and she wiped it several times before opening the mobile phone interface. After contacting her husband and sister, she ran out of energy. The son was lying behind her, humming in pain all the time, she couldn't turn over, she could only keep saying, "Brother, don't move, you can save us when the doctor comes." The ambulance arrived quickly, and the doctor said that the daughter had no vital signs, and they rescued Lu Yan's son, but it was too late. Hu Tuqiang, the father-in-law who was the first to be cut, died on the way to the hospital.
Rancour
Longjitun is located in the northeast hilly area of Liuzhou City, with a population of more than 1,000 people, consisting of the three surnames Luo, Hu, Chen and a number of small surnames. The houses lie densely in front of the mountain, backed by a mountain ridge several hundred meters high, verdant and verdant. Two village roads run through the village horizontally, and every house is a small two- or three-story building, and there is a large courtyard in front of the door, where cars are parked. Lu Yan's house is located at the head of the village, there are two rows of houses, the back row is a two-story small building, the front is pasted with white tiles, the other side is gray cement, and Lu Yan's grandparents and two unmarried uncles live. There are two two-story buildings in front of you, the left side of the house was built more than 20 years ago, and the right side is the new house completed this year, with beige exterior walls and yellow glazed tile roofs. The two buildings share a 100-square-meter courtyard, and the courtyard gate opens on the east side.
The courtyard gate is facing a stone road more than 3 meters wide, more than 100 meters long, walking from south to north to the end of the road, I saw a two-story old building with a white front, and the roof was built of prefabricated panels, which was the murderer Hu Quanshou's house. Hu Quanshou brothers, father Hu Jinwang died of a stroke in 2016, and in 2018, his eldest brother Hu Quanfu died of throat cancer, and then the sister-in-law left home with the child, leaving only Hu Quanshou's mother and son in the family. A villager told this magazine that Hu Tuqiang's father, Hu Yaer, and Hu Quanshou's grandfather, Hu Yasong, were brothers, and they originally lived together in several mud-tiled houses, but later separated. The two brothers were already at odds, plus Hu Yaer's daughter-in-law Ah Kui Po and Hu Yasong's daughter-in-law Zhou Yuxiu were both "competitive", and the two families always quarreled over various trivial matters, "The two in-laws fought, Hu Tuqiang's brothers came out to help again, Hu Yaer's wife was evil, Zhou Yuxiu was stingy, and the more noisy the more fierce." Jiang Hongying, 62 years old this year, is Hu Tuqiang's daughter-in-law, she remembers that when the old house was built, Zhou Yuxiu came to the house to burn incense and kowtow and curse, and Jiang Hongying poured feces on the other party for this.
The stone road next door to Lu Yan's house (interviewee)
Many times, quarrels are because of the road between the two families. Hu Rusheng, a villager, told this reporter that the homestead in Longjitun was divided according to population in the 80s of the last century, and a family had about two or three acres of land at that time. In the beginning, after the new population of the village was added, the houses would be expanded along the edge of the village to the fields. However, after 2020, the autonomous regional government began to impose strict restrictions on homesteads, not allowing the occupation of cultivated land and permanent basic farmland, and the process of applying for new homesteads is complex and strict, requiring the preliminary review and publicity of the villagers' group, the review of the village-level organization, and the approval of the township government. In Longjitun specifically, one villager said that new houses can only be built on existing homesteads.
Hu Tuqiang's new house was built in the courtyard of his father, Hu Yaer. After the new house was completed, Hu Tuqiang's father could not enter the house directly from the village road, so he could only take the stone road on the east side. For this reason, Hu Quanshou's family has repeatedly proposed that the road is their own family, and Hu Tuqiang's father's family is not allowed to pass. But Hu Tuqiang's father still insisted on traveling along the gravel road. Lu Yan said that the gate of the new house originally faced the main road, but because the villagers on the opposite side occupied some of the road, the road became narrower, and the passing car always drove from the wrong yard.
Stills from "Loess High Heaven".
Quarrels have become more frequent as a result. Lu Yanbui has seen two families quarrel. Once happened last year, when Lu Yan came home from work in the evening, he saw two families standing on the road arguing, and their words were ugly, and the other party even threatened to "hack you to death". In Jiang Hongying's impression, Hu Quanshou rarely participated in quarrels, only once, in March and April this year - one evening, it was almost dark, she was cooking in the kitchen, and suddenly heard her husband Hu Tuqiang and Hu Quanshou arguing at the gate of the courtyard. The two didn't quarrel a few words, Hu Quanshou took a hoe and wanted to fight, but he was dissuaded by others before stopping.
Rich
It was only more than 10 years ago that the villagers of Longjitun began to re-value the land. Longjitun is located in a hilly area, and the villagers have always been poor. Liu Dajun, a villager, remembers that before 2008, the village was still dominated by mud houses, and the villagers joked that the main road in the village was a "cement road", that is, when it rained, it was full of water and mud, and the door of the house was full of rain boots. At that time, Jiang Hongying's family of five people only had 2 acres of paddy fields, 9 points of dry land, and planted some rice, and the annual income did not exceed 2,000 yuan. In order to subsidize the family, Jiang Hongying and Hu Tuqiang raised forty or fifty sheep and more than ten pigs. Jiang Hongying said that Hu Tuqiang was diligent, and when he used to raise sheep, Hu Tuqiang would go to the ground at dawn, go to the mountains to graze sheep at noon, and not return until evening.
Stills from "Blossoming Mountain Township".
In order to survive, since the 90s of the last century, the young people in the village have squeezed into various toy factories and electronics factories in Guangdong in the tide of working in Guangdong, and the village is basically the elderly and children. It wasn't until around 2010 that that changed. Since 2002, under the background of a huge gap in timber demand, Guangxi has started the construction of Sufeng Forest Base, which includes a variety of forest trees such as fast-growing eucalyptus and fast-growing Acacia. In 2011, the Guangxi government issued a policy to explicitly encourage the cultivation of fast-growing eucalyptus in southern Guizhou and hilly areas. Since 2010, Longjitun and nearby villages have been planting eucalyptus trees on a large scale, and the once abandoned mountain forest has been reused. Li Wei, a villager in the next neighborhood, called it a "green bank": "After planting it, you go to the neighborhood to do odd jobs, and after a few years, your savings will go up." His family has thirty or forty acres of mountain forests, one acre of three-year-old eucalyptus, the poor can earn 4,000 yuan, five-year-old eucalyptus, carefully cared for, he has sold more than 20,000 acres.
Because of the eucalyptus planting, the conditions of the villagers in Longjitun have improved significantly. Every family built a two-story bungalow, decorated the interior and exterior, and bought a car. New opportunities have also come to the village. After 2007, as Liuzhou City focused on the development of Liudong New Area, several car companies, including SAIC-GM-Wuling and Dongfeng Motor, successively built production bases in Liudong New Area, generating many employment opportunities. Longjitun is only 20 kilometers away from Liudong New District, and young people who used to work abroad have also returned to work.
Before the accident, Lu Yan and her husband Hu Yaowen were both working in a factory in Liudong New District, Liuzhou City, her husband worked as a technician in the workshop, and she worked in the office. Jiang Hongying and his wife continued to work hard, and they planted all 11 acres of mountain forests with eucalyptus trees. Eucalyptus trees don't require much energy to cook, and there is a drying factory near the village. Usually they go to work in the drying factory, and they can earn about 150 yuan a day for more work. It's hard to dry the board, get up before dawn, get off work when it's dark, a bundle of forty or fifty pounds, move back and forth, and come back with a sore body. But as long as it doesn't rain, the couple is reluctant to take a day off.
Lu Yan was hospitalized after being injured (photo provided by the interviewee)
For Hu Tuqiang and his wife, who are over 60 years old, there are still many things that they still need to consider. The two had two sons, the younger of whom first worked in Nanning after graduating from junior college, and later returned to his hometown to work. Before building a new house, the couple was crammed into a small two-story building built 20 years ago with their youngest son and their eldest son, an unmarried family. Last year, I built a new house, on the one hand, for the younger son's family to live more comfortably, and on the other hand, for the eldest son, the old house was reserved for him to get married. Jiang Hongying said that the floor of the courtyard was paved by Hu Tuqiang picking stones in the mountains, and the bricks on the upper floors were also hung by him and others one by one. The new house cost three or four hundred thousand, which emptied the couple's savings.
At about 9 o'clock in the evening of December 27, when she was interviewed by this reporter, Jiang Hongying sat alone in the dark bedroom, her face turned into a bitter melon, and she kept wiping her tears. She said that before the incident, the new house had been renovated, and she was just waiting for water and furniture to be bought. After the accident, his son and daughter-in-law lived in the factory and did not dare to go home because they were afraid of touching the scene. Jiang Hongying originally slept in the second bedroom on the first floor, and her grandchildren asked her to sleep every night. Now that she has moved to the second floor, there are drawings drawn by two children, one of whom is a beautiful white cat, next to the bed. Except for these, everything else was thrown away, and "it was sad to see it".
mother and child
In the eyes of the villagers, compared with the prosperous life of Hu Tuqiang's family, Hu Quanshou's family seems to be a little withered. A villager told this magazine that Hu Tuqiang has six brothers and sisters, Hu Tuqiang himself has two sons and a daughter, and his son Hu Yaowen gave birth to a son and a daughter. And Hu Quanshou's father has died, and he has no brothers, only three sisters. Hu Quanshou has a brother who died of illness a few years ago, and his sister-in-law left home and took away his niece, leaving Hu Quanshou and his mother Zhou Yuxiu at home.
Liu Dajun had a hard time believing that Hu Quanshou would kill someone. In Liu Dajun's impression, Hu Quanshou has always been an honest and introverted person. When he was in elementary school, he was small and sitting, sitting in the second or third row in front of him. The brain turns slower than others, the grades are always counted down, and the multiplication formulas can't be memorized. Although he is "a little stupid", Hu Quanshou has good hands-on ability, and he can sharpen the top with wood, and he can hit accurately and ruthlessly. But Hu Quanshou doesn't like to play with Liu Dajun and them, "He thinks that he is not as smart as us, so he doesn't play with us, and he is always afraid of losing." In Liu Dajun's eyes, Hu Quanshou always seems to have an inferiority complex and does not like to talk, "The grades are poor, the family is relatively poor, and my mother often quarrels with others, and I always feel that others are bullying their family." ”
Photo: Visual China
For Hu Quanshou's father, Liu Dajun still has the impression that the other party is a big grinning person, and there are stories about him in the village, more than 30 years ago, his cattle were lost, he said, "I can't find it, it doesn't matter", so he got a nickname, "It doesn't matter". Her wife Zhou Yuxiu is very spicy, that is, the chickens of the next door fly to her vegetable field to eat vegetables, she can quarrel with the other party for a long time, "the heart is smaller than a needle". Liu Dajun and Hu Quanshou's family have fields next to each other, once Liu Dajun ploughed the field between the two families, Zhou Yuxiu scolded in front of Liu Dajun, and scolded until he finished his work and went home.
Because there are few men and many sisters, Hu Quanshou's family is a family with a lot of land in the village, with more than 10 acres of paddy fields and dry land, and dozens of acres of mountains and forests. Hu Quanshou dropped out of junior high school after only one year, followed his mother to farm the land, and sometimes did odd jobs around the village, still rarely speaking. Liu Dajun remembered that more than 10 years ago, Hu Quanshou followed the unloading of feed, Hu Quanshou could endure hardships, a bag of 80 kg of pig feed, a car of 20 tons, 4 people carried, and it could be unloaded in 2-3 hours. When he is not working, Hu Quanshou stays at home and rarely goes out. Liu Dajun said that a few years ago, a primary school group was established in the class, and in a class of 33 people, only he did not join the group, and no one had any contact information about him.
Hu Quanshou's nephew Li Yilei told this reporter that his uncle did not go to work in other places until 2008, and he worked in a mobile phone factory, earning five or six thousand yuan a month. In 2016, my grandfather died of a stroke, and my uncle had throat cancer, so Hu Quanshou went home to take care of him. Li Yilei said that his uncle was treated for two years and emptied the family's savings. At that time, Zhou Yuxiu was 64 years old, and the burden of the family fell on Hu Quanshou, who planted eucalyptus, sugarcane, and rice, and never had any money, nor did he get married. Mother and son still live in an old house built fifteen or sixteen years ago. The house is still a rough house, and there is only a little cement in it.
The newly repaired gentle slope at the entrance of Lu Yan's house (photo provided by the interviewee)
Li Yilei also rarely saw Hu Quanshou, he only went to his grandmother's house during the Chinese New Year, but Hu Quanshou would hide out to fish when he saw people, and only went home when he ate. In his impression, the only person in the family who can talk to his uncle is his grandmother Zhou Yuxiu. Hu Quanshou listened to Zhou Yuxiu's words very much, and it was his mother's decision to decide which field to plant corn or rice.
After the incident, Lu Yan called up the surveillance at the door of his grandparents' house. The surveillance could not capture Hu Tuqiang's house, and only some sounds and part of the pictures were recorded. Initially, Zhou Yuxiu and Hu Tuqiang could be heard arguing in the surveillance, saying that the gentle cement slope at the entrance of their yard occupied her road and was bullying her. Then her scream was heard, calling her son to "take the knife down", and the surveillance captured Hu Quanshou holding the knife behind his back and rushing down along the road.