Wuhan Nail House Owner Fights Forced Demolition with Home-Made Cannon

A recent post about one really tough nail house has been going around on internet. It was popular enough to warrant an article on Hong Kong newspaper Ming Pao (明报).

Here is what the original forum post said:

Translation: 武汉超牛钉子户自制火炮对抗拆迁（原创猛图）

The high profile Chongqing nail house looks like nothing compared to this. Here is one super guy I met when visiting a classmate in Dongxihu District (东西湖).

I spent an afternoon locating the farmer whose name is Yang Youde (杨有德).

Some background: Mr. Yang has a house and a vegetable patch near Jinyinhu part of Dongxihu District, where some developer wanted to start a project a few months earlier. However, before the two sides could agree on compensation, the developer hired security guards to tear down Yang's house. In this one vs. many fight, Yang was at a distinct disadvantage. Each time he called the police, the officers only urged both sides to refrain from violence but failed to solve the problem.

Yang was mad after seeing his buildings being torn down little by little, so he built a "cannon cart" using super-sized firecrackers and a hand trolley.


The homemade cannon was astonishing. The first time it was used, chaos broke out among the guards. But because only one shot can be fired at a time, Yang still got beat up. Luckily the police arrived and pulled the guards away. Yang then thought up another idea. This time he built a blockhouse on top of his house.



A wiser Yang improved upon the original design by constructing his rocket launcher out of iron sleeve and fireworks. He stockpiled ammunition in the blockhouse.


Yang owns a dog that barks whenever the demolition personnel approached, and Yang fired his cannon whenever these people came within range.

Because the projectiles are made from fireworks, they won't kill anybody, but they can definitely cause damage. Yang successfully fought off several waves of demolition squads.

Yang also has a backup plan for anyone who dodged the projectiles: Beer bottles tied onto giant firecrackers (now this is a bit much)

Yang said that he is only doing this out of desperation. Regardless of what happens, he will defend his rights till the end.