The rat poison trademarks of "Mantun" and "Qiu Wang" have become household names, but few people know the story behind the rat poison king Qiu Mantun. As a farmer inventor, he once eliminated 35 rats at a time. Thousands of pieces, the patented formula became popular abroad, but they refused to buy it for US$2.7 million. But most legendary of all was the national scientific controversy he sparked.
Enmity with rats
The name "Mancun" shows his parents' blessing to him: "The warehouse is full of food", but rats also like to hide in the warehouse and steal food. This seems to indicate that Qiu Mantun will fight against rats for the rest of his life.
Qiu Mantun's family was very poor when he was a child. He dropped out of school after two and a half months of studying. He began to wander when he was young, and he competed with rats for food since he was a child. He joined the army in 1953 and recovered four years later, just in time to catch up with the Four Pests Campaign. He targeted rats and determined to invent a way to eliminate these nasty things.
He raised dozens of mice and squatted in the mouse nest every day to study. The production team rarely saw him working. He also fed the only food in the house to rats, which made his wife yell, "Qiu Mantun, you rat spirit, I want to divorce you!" The lonely Qiu Mantun had no choice but to wander around, selling food on the street. He used rat poison to earn some money to make ends meet, while also figuring out how to prepare rat attractant.
Famous
In 1981, 48-year-old Qiu Mandun spent more than ten years screening out 9 rat attractant formulas, and was appreciated by local leaders in Shaanxi Dali County and other places have been engaged in rodent eradication, and the results have been remarkable. The news officer of Dali County wrote an article titled "You won't believe it until you see it with your own eyes," vividly describing the strange incident of Qiu Mantun's rodent eradication. The article attracted widespread attention across the country, with people calling Qiu Mantun the "rat killer king" and "rat nemesis."
In 1987, Qiu Mantun returned to his hometown of Wuji County with his remarried wife. The county gave him extremely high courtesy and arranged accommodation for him. The leader asked him to concentrate on production, and the government would take care of him. Technical appraisal. Two years later, the Hebei Provincial Science and Technology Commission’s technical appraisal results announced that his rodent attractant was the first in the country and very effective. As soon as the news spread, the farmer won various scientific and technological and economic awards and was invited to guide the eradication of rats across the country. So Qiu Mandun wore rubber shoes that leaked air everywhere and traveled all over the country to catch rats.
In the anti-rat campaign organized by Nanning, Guangxi, Qiu Mandun killed 350,000 rats in one operation, and the rat carcasses weighed 82.6 tons. In Bozhou, Anhui, he used 10 tons of pesticides to eliminate rats. The rate is as high as 91.9. In this farmer, he calls himself the rat king, "because all rats obey me."
In 1990, the largest rat drug factory in the country was built in Wuji County with a government investment of 1.9 million yuan, and Qiu Mandun was the director of the factory. As his fame grew. His deeds of rodent control have spread abroad. Many countries and manufacturers are willing to pay millions of dollars to purchase Qiu's rat poison formula or ask Qiu Mandun to go abroad to guide rodent control. The highest price paid is 2.7 million US dollars. He refused them all.
He also hung the collection of papers given to him by the technical consultant in his hut, but he did not think that he was complacent. "I haven't read many books, I don't know how to make a living, and the opinions outside have nothing to do with me. I only care about what the people in the village think of me. I am very useful if I am a good person," Qiu Mandun said.
The good times did not last long
Just two years after establishing the rat poison factory, Qiu Mandun, who became famous because of an article, fell down again because of an article. Wang Chengcheng, a technical consultant at his factory, and four other technical experts published an article called "Calling the News Media to Scientifically Promote Rodent Control." He said that when he was a consultant at Qiu's Rat Poison Factory, he discovered that fluoroacetamide was found in rat poison, which was terrible. No, at that time it was a highly toxic substance that was explicitly prohibited by the state. He also said that the poisoning of more than 7,000 cows in a certain place in Anhui at that time was related to "Qiu's poison".
One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and all parts of the country began to ban the use of Qiu's rat poison. Qiu Mantun refused to accept it, "I killed the rat but didn't kill anyone. Am I still breaking the law?" Wang Chengxin and others were brought to court for defamation. The court heard the case in public. The Second Institute of the Ministry of Public Security and Beijing Agricultural University conducted rat poison identifications. Neither fluoroacetamide was found, and Qiu Mandun won the case.
But Qiu Mantun is an uneducated farmer, and he actually defeated scientific experts. Isn’t this a joke about ignorance defeating science? Therefore, at the 1994 National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, more than 290 members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference called for a retrial of the case and the restoration of the dignity of science.
The arm could not twist the thigh, so Qiu Mandun naturally lost the subsequent lawsuit, although this time no highly toxic substances were detected. Sitting in the dock, Qiu Mandun put his head in his hands. It was obvious that he was not interested in the legal provisions. "Today is the day of the rat," he told the reporters who came after the verdict. "I will die unjustly and will not complain."
Where did the theory of cofluoracetamide come from? According to reporters who later visited Wuji County for investigation, it was actually Qiu Mantun who talked about whatever came to mind when he was being investigated. He said that he had used fluoroacetamide when begging for food in the past, and there should be something more to the phenomenon. As a result, it was written that he had purchased fluoroacetamide from a Jinan chemical plant and that he had a large amount of poisonous substances at home. After losing the lawsuit, Qiu Mandun's products were destroyed and the factory was closed, but he did not suffer from it. He came from nothing, so what more could he ask for?
Returning to the world
In 2004, Liu Bin, now the chairman of Hebei Qiu's Technology and Trading Company, made an appointment with Qiu Mandun. When he saw this 70-year-old man, he was also surprised: Qiu Mancun was wearing a bright red shirt, his hair was combed shiny, and he was meticulous. Qiu Mandun did not regard the trial more than 10 years ago as a misfortune. Instead, he laughed at himself and said, "I am a dangerous person with a grenade tied to my butt."
In this meeting, the two talked about the broad prospects of sticky mouse boards and determined to cooperate. Soon after, Qiu Mandun showed him the sticky mouse board he had made. Seven or eight mice were stuck on it within a few dozen minutes. Liu Bin was both stunned and filled with admiration. He immediately signed a contract to buy out the invention technology.
Qiu Mandun was confident enough about the newly established Qiu's sticky mouse board factory. At a rodent control demonstration, he tore open a pack of rodenticide on the spot, grabbed a handful and used it. He stuffed it into his mouth and said: "Who can say that what I made is poison? The sticky rat board uses physical rodent control, so I won't have to suffer the pain of rat poison anymore.
He also Detached enough, the newly established factory announced that he would not be an official, not in management, not in marketing. He would only invest in technology, and his son would only be responsible for the technical part. When he was young, he was determined to get rid of the rats, so he spent all his money on it. Even in his 70s, there are still new results. Not only that, but the mosquito, cockroach, and fly insecticides he and his company later developed were also well received.
He also knows how to be satisfied. He has been used to a hard life since he was a child, and after becoming famous, he has not fallen into the eyes of money. He knows how much he has, and he will not accept invitations from foreign countries or sell Chinese patents. "As long as you can live your life," he also knows how to take things easy when he returns to the world. It is this down-to-earth and indifferent rat exterminator whose legendary story is worth savoring.