Chinese Farmer Fights Developers with Homemade Cannon

Land grabs by property developers in league with local governments are common in China. Yang Youye's solution isn't. The 56-year-old farmer has been using a homemade cannon fashioned from pipes, a wheelbarrow, and fireworks to fend off teams of thugs sent by developers, the Telegraph reports. "I only shot over their heads to frighten them,” he says. “I didn’t want to cause any injuries.”

Yang says he managed to scare off an eviction team of 30 people trying to force him off his land and demolish his home earlier this year with the cannon. Last month, a team of 100 arrived and Yang kept them at bay from a makeshift watchtower until police arrived. Yang says the officials trying to requisition his fields for development have offered him only a fifth of their value. "I only want a price that is in accordance with government policy," he says. (More China stories.)