Hardman cigarettes were founded in 1902 by the British American Tobacco Company. Daji cigarettes were founded on May 18, 1943.

The founder of "Hardman" cigarettes is the British American Tobacco Company China. The British American Tobacco Company was established in 1902. Since it had long coveted China's huge cake, it immediately launched a large-scale attack on the Chinese market. In 1903, British American Tobacco Company acquired the assets of an American tobacco company in Shanghai and established the first branch in mainland China. Six years later, the asset was resold to British Tobacco, a newly established investment company from British American Tobacco. On May 18, 1943, "Big Chicken" cigarettes were founded in Liujiabianshan Village, Shizilu Town, Junan County, the "Red Capital of Qilu". They ceased production in 2006 and existed for more than 60 years.

After the production of Big Chicken cigarettes, a small part was supplied to the military and civilians in the base areas, and most of them were used for export. Big Chicken cigarettes are low-priced and of good quality. Not only ordinary people like to smoke them, but also the Japanese and puppet troops, officials and military officers in Japanese-occupied areas. Some Japanese and puppet troops even provide Big Chicken cigarettes as gifts to their superiors. The areas occupied by the Japanese army There are sales points of Big Chicken cigarettes in many places. As one of the early foreign cigarette trademarks, the earliest "Hardman" trademark basically had no Chinese characters. It was only marked with "large" and "small", with "small" containing ten sticks and "large" containing twenty. Support installation. Smoking large cigarettes was also a status symbol at that time.