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Don't mess with Yang Youde. That's the lesson being learnt by property developers in Wuhan, China, who want Youde's land. But the one man A-Team is having none of it using every day implements at his disposal to create a war machine capable of fighting them off. He claims to have already fended off two eviction attempts.
The ingenious, yet slightly war hungry farmer, who lives in the Hubei province, is firing rockets from a homemade cannon made out of a wheelbarrow and pipes, at his tormentors. Fireworks, sold locally, provide his ammunition.
"I shot only over their heads to frighten them," he told the China Daily of his attacks on demolition workers. "I didn't want to cause any injuries." It is not known whether anyone has been harmed yet.
Mr Yang said the local government had offered him 130,000 yuan (about £13,000) for his fields, on which they want to erect department buildings. He said the land is worth five times that amount and as such is launching rockets that fire some 100 metres from his DIY cannon.
A first eviction team of 30 people made a move on Yang in February after his rockets ran out but, brilliantly, local police came to his rescue. In May the People's Commando held off a reinforced 100-strong siege by firing from a makeshift watchtower (as pictured).
Land seizures have been a problem for years in China, and have given rise to the term "nail house" to describe a holdout tenant or occupant, likening them to a nail refusing to be hammered down.
The term 'come and have a go if you think your hard enough' springs to mind, for us.
