Text/Old Hedgehog
"Fighting Tiger Hero" Riding a Tiger Souvenir (Not a Real Tiger)
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Tigers from the walled villages have arrived one after another,
The more they gathered, the more they reached, and finally reached hundreds.
Someone knocks a gong, sets a gun, lights a fire,
None of this helped.
After three days and three nights of confrontation,
The tiger attacked like a wild horse...
Wu Song beat the tiger, Li Kui killed the tiger, Lu You stabbed the tiger, Yang Zirong beat the tiger up the mountain...
These are just scenes in the story of the evolution.
More than 60 years ago, an unprecedented human-tiger war really and tragically occurred on the land of Hunan.
01
In the 1950s, peasants liberated themselves and owned their own land, but also began to reclaim the land on a large scale, asking for more land from deep mountains and wild mountains.
With the expansion of cultivated land, the range of wild animals is naturally continuously compressed, and they can only compete with humans for living space.
As a result, mountain cattle and wild boars, which had been driven to no place to live, began to invade farmland in large numbers, trampling and destroying crops, resulting in many farmers not harvesting grain.
Since the beasts are evil, get rid of them cleanly and thoroughly!
Clean, thoroughly.
From today's environmental perspective, it is undoubtedly a wrong decision.
The fact is also that the government decree has been issued, and hunters from all over the world have gone up the mountain and competed to hunt wild animals.
Kill a wild boar and reward a bucket of millet; kill a mountain cow, reward two buckets of millet...
Under the heavy prizes, the warriors are repeated; the beast hunting movement is in full swing.
Soon, the forest food chain was torn apart and torn apart by the enthusiastic human life.
Two years later, the hungry South China tiger came out of the mountains.
02
In ancient Chinese history, the mighty and brave tiger was known as the "king of the hundred beasts" and was also regarded as a totem by many tribes. In addition, there are also tiger army and tiger runes.
But on the other hand, it is fierce and bloodthirsty.
According to historical records, during the Ming and Qing dynasties, fierce tigers repeatedly went out of the forest to hurt people:
It happened about 205 times in the Ming Dynasty and 309 times in the Qing Dynasty. In the 1950s, tiger plagues intensified, even to the point where the sun did not go down and the tigers slammed the door.
In general, the survival territory of a South China tiger requires at least 70 square kilometers of forest.
On this territory, 150 wild boars, 200 wild deer and other animals need to survive.
However, the performance of the local hunters was so outstanding that they almost hunted down the mountain cattle, wild boars, hares, etc. that destroyed the crops, so that the South China tiger could not eat.
Hungry, the South China Tiger targeted humans.
February 3, 1956, Hunan Daily. On a palm-sized page, 5 reports were published in a concentrated manner, telling about the incidents of hungry tigers and injuring people and animals in 5 counties and cities.
In the Hunan Forestry Chronicle, tiger infestations are also recorded:
"As close as the Yuelu Mountains in Changsha, as far as the Yuanling Guanzhuang, Xinhua, Anren, Leiyang and even the passageway, dozens of counties and cities in Hunan have sent urgent reports of tiger plagues."
Tigers are collectively mad!
Gruesomely, in just 10 years, about 2,000 lives have been lost; one day, tigers have eaten 32 people; and tens of thousands of livestock have been lost.
The villagers of Hunan, who were deeply affected by the tiger, gave the hungry and fierce South China tiger a bad name:
"Four-legged bandit".
03
A man-tiger war inevitably began.
In the 1950s, tiger fighting teams were set up in various parts of Hunan to carry out tiger hunting operations and commend models of pest eradication, and the province hunted and killed more than 170 South China tigers;
By the 1960s, the province had killed 647 South China tigers, accounting for 88.1% of the historical hunting.
Yanling, formerly known as Yi (pronounced líng) County, is located in the southeastern border of Hunan Province, in the western foothills of Jinggang Mountain, and belongs to Jingdi in ancient times, and is the peaceful and blessed place of the Shennong clan of the yan emperor of the Chinese nation.
In Yanling, there has always been a tradition of hunting culture. In 1954, there were as many as 425 hunting teams spontaneously formed by the people.
On October 9, 1962, the "Hunan Daily" published the amazing deeds of Zhong Yongtai, a hunting expert in Yanling County.
Captured 11 South China tigers alive;
More than 40,000 wild animals such as wild boars and mountain cattle have been hunted!
The number of hunting beasts he alone accounted for almost two-thirds of Yanling's total hunting at that time.
Another legendary figure, named Chen Changkui, is the third generation of the Yanling Hunting Sect Qingcaotang.
In 1953, at the age of 33, Chen Changkui was already a well-known local hunter. When the tigers descended the mountain en masse, Chen Changkui, who lived in the deep mountains, became the first person to confront the tigers.
With the hunting ability taught by the division, coupled with a pair of crossbows, Chen Chang kuibro netted, set traps, and spread poison, and successfully hunted 12 adult tigers.
Tiger hunting tools such as crossbows, guns, and traps used by the tiger team
It is rumored that on the day of the birth of his eldest son, he carried back three tigers in one breath.
Moreover, the "Tiger King", who weighed 150 kilograms across the Yanling Tomb, was planted in his hands. He pulled out a tiger tooth about 5 inches long and kept it as a souvenir.
Later, whenever he talked about the dangerous years of tiger hunting, the old man Chen Changkui's face was full of pride that could not be concealed:
"Oh, this is the Tiger King's teeth!"
04
In this rare human-tiger war, the story of Chen Qifang, the "hero who fights the tiger", is particularly legendary.
Chen Qifang, a native of Xiatang Township, Leiyang, Hunan, made a living hunting at a young age, but did not specialize in hunting tigers.
One day in the late autumn of 1952, Chen Qifang asked her grandson Chen Qingnai, who was only 14 years old at the time, to dig sweet potatoes in his own field.
Until the sun sets, the sky is getting dark, and I still don't see my grandson coming home. Chen Qifang felt ominous and hurriedly summoned the whole family to look for it.
After some searching, only a shoe was found on the ground, and there was a terrible stain of blood.
Judging from the messy traces left at the scene, the grandson has been unfortunately killed. Chen Qifang couldn't help but cry bitterly, resentful, and secretly swore in her heart:
Don't kill this tiger, don't give up!
Do what you say you will do.
That night, Chen Qifang concocted a poison. As soon as he finished dealing with his grandson's affairs, he took his two sons and plunged into the mountains.
Hunted in the jungle, Chen Qifang killed the killer with hatred.
In just one year, more than 40 tigers were killed in traps under his poison and guns.
For a time, Chen Qifang was praised as the "Fighting Tiger King".
Hunters from nearby counties and towns admired his name and flocked to him. Chen Qifang's tiger hunting team also grew rapidly from the original father and son to more than 50 people.
This team has a variety of hunting methods, including traps, crossbows, shotguns, traps, explosives, etc. Chen Qifang often divided the team members into 6 groups, with the county seat of Leiyang as the center, spanning hundreds of miles of deep mountains, and comprehensively encircling and suppressing the South China tigers.
As the fame became more and more popular, more and more people came to invite the "Tiger King" to help in the lake.
On the other side of Shaoshan Mountain, there was a tiger weighing 300 kilograms, and no one in the local area could destroy it.
This heavy responsibility naturally fell on Chen Qifang's shoulders.
One day in December 1955, at noon, in the middle of the mountains, the tiger fighting team led by Chen Qifang finally found the tiger tracks.
Don't move, let me come!
Chen Qifang first followed the tiger's trail and set a trap for poisonous arrows; then led his team to surround the mountain and wait for the best time to strike.
About an hour later, the tiger roared and stopped, and Chen Qifang touched it to take a look——
Well, a big tiger that is more than 200 kilograms long and weighs more than 200 kilograms has been poisoned and killed!
In 1953, Chen Qifang, the "Tiger King", set a record of hunting an average of one tiger every 10 days;
At the end of 1957, Chen Qifang was invited to Beijing to receive commendations because of the amazing number of tiger hunts;
In 7 years, he killed a total of 138 tigers.
The Tigers took a group photo
05
The most bizarre and sensational incident occurred in 1957 in gaoping village at the southern foot of Xuefeng Mountain.
At that time, it was called "Baihuwei Village".
Xuefeng Mountain, stretching across the central and western parts of Hunan, was called Meishan In ancient times. Stretching for thousands of miles, the mountains are deep and densely forested. During the Republic of China period, Meishan was replaced by the name of Xuefeng Mountain.
After several years of siege and hunting by chen Qifang's team of "Fighting Tiger King", the number of tigers in South China has dropped sharply, and it has to move deeper and more remote and inaccessible areas.
In September 1957, one afternoon, a freight man, about 30 years old, walked into the small village of Gaoping.
Gaoping Village is really small, with less than 80 people.
This cargo man's surname is Xie. As soon as he entered the village on his front foot, the back foot had a big thing that made people cold and hairy.
First of all, the cattle raised by the villagers, no matter how you reprimand and whip, do not listen to the call, and rush to the village like crazy;
Then, the watchdog stopped barking, curled up in a corner in horror, trembling;
At the head of the village, some people are desperately banging gongs, some people are crying and screaming...
On the afternoon of this day, Gaoping, which has been established for 223 years, experienced the most terrifying day in history.
A large number of tigers came one after another, and gathered more and more, and finally reached hundreds, besieging the entire village.
Someone knocked on a gong, set off a gun, or lit a fire, all to no avail.
The tiger gathered fear and confronted each other, which lasted for three days and three nights.
Gao Zhanjie Part of "Hundred Tiger Diagrams"
In the end, the tigers ignored the burning fire and launched an attack, rushed to the village, killed all the livestock and dragged them away, washed away the blood, and incidentally took away a little girl who accidentally walked out of the house...
The person who witnessed baihuwei village, surnamed Xie, died in 1986. In 2006, his son wrote the book "The Hunting God and the Tiger King".
According to his speculation, at that time, there should be a tiger king who led this group of tigers around the village and attacked.
As for why such a horrific thing occurred, there are still many opinions on the part of the Central Committee, and there is no consensus.
"(The tiger) eats people miserably." Someone recalled, "Carry one on your back, one in your stomach, and three with your mother, and when you carry it to the mountain, you are still crying..."
Since then, humans have hunted more fiercely.
Countless guns, arrows and poison poured into the mountains...
By the end of the 1960s, this terrifying battle of the human tigers had finally ended with the crushing defeat of the South China Tiger and the near extinction of the species.
Popular Science Supplement:
The South China tiger, a tiger subspecies of the genus Leopard in the family Catidae, is a tiger subspecies endemic to China, also known as the "Chinese tiger". Extinct in the wild.
In 1981, it was included in the list of protection in Appendix I of the CITES Convention; in 1989, the Wildlife Protection Law of the People's Republic of China listed it as a national protected animal.
In 1996, the United Nations promulgated the International Convention on Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which listed the South China tiger as the number one endangered species, ranking first among the top ten endangered species in the world.