Chapter 54 Section 7: Those who scrape human flesh are like dogs butchering pigs

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, what kind of corner were the peasants forced into? There are already too many records and descriptions about the social crisis at that time, and here we only need to quote the following two examples: In the seventh year of the Apocalypse (1627 A.D.), Wu Yingji, an official, wrote in a letter about what he had seen and heard when passing by Zhenyang, Henan: "Today, I walked forty miles, and these forty miles are all fields of abandoned cultivation, and everything is yellow as far as the eye can see. Thatch and white grass, the villages on both sides are in ruins. I asked the locals why they didn’t cultivate. Several people said at the same time: “The work is too heavy and I can’t bear it, so I had to flee. When people leave, the land will naturally be deserted.” Planted it.” The local people said that when a family fled, the tax of his family would be attributed to his family or relatives. After a long time, the family or relatives had no choice but to escape. The fewer people left, each family should bear the burden The heavier the tax, the more people come and go, and the whole village escapes, resulting in the current situation."

Under the excessive extraction by the government, the peasants could not bear the heavy pressure of agricultural tax and had to embark on the road of exile.This is still seen in the Taiping years.When the famine came, the peasants had nowhere to go. In the forty-fourth year of Wanli (AD 1616), Chen Qiyou (you), a Juren from Zhucheng County, Shandong Province, went to Beijing for a test. He passed through the famine area. Based on his own experience, he wrote a letter to the emperor: "I left home in the first month and went north. Those who scrape human flesh by the roadside are like slaughtering pigs and dogs. Many (slightly) avoid people, and people don't think it's strange. So the hair and bones are stunned. After walking for half a day, I saw an old woman holding a dead child, cooking and crying. Because I asked "If you want to eat it, why cry?" The woman said: "My son, I will abandon it and eat it for others, so I would rather fill my stomach and ears." Therefore, I can't eat and drink for several days."