Chapter 7 Chapter 5 The Land of Famine

In addition to the urge to have children, another major cause of the suffering of Chinese people in the traditional era was natural disasters.As we all know, the reason why Zhu Yuanzhang became a monk was because of a severe drought in the fourth year of Dayuan Zhizheng (AD 1344). In fact, even if they escaped this famine, the Zhu family was doomed to be ruined in another famine.Because Fengyang, Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, is a place where disasters occur frequently.The Huaihe River is a famous harmful river.Based on a large amount of historical data, Professor Zhu Kezhen sorted out the number of years of floods and droughts in various dynasties and regions of Guangxu, and found that the Huaihe River Basin is one of the areas with the most drought and flood disasters in my country.According to the statistics of historical hydroclimatic data such as droughts and floods in Henan Province, in the 1330 years from 620 AD to 1949, there were 453 droughts and 448 floods in eastern Henan.As the saying goes, "nine years of drought in ten years", Fengyang County experiences serious drought and flood disasters every four years on average.

Zhu Wusi moved here and there, and finally moved to a place where "nine years of famine in ten years".Of course, he can't be blamed for his lack of vision.The reason is simple. Places with fewer disasters tend to have higher population densities and cannot accommodate new arrivals.Only in places where disasters are frequent and the population periodically decreases, did Zhu Wusi have a chance to do something about it.When Zhu Wusi moved to Guzhuang Village, the place had not fully recovered from the war, and there were even tigers running rampant in the village. "Fengyang New Book" records that at that time, "I arrived in Huaiyi from Dingyuan, tens of miles north and south, there were wild forests, tigers gathered, villages were terrified, and martial law was strictly enforced on the way. Later Yuan ordered General Ying Yierchi to hunt and kill them all. , its suffering begins to extinguish."It can be seen that the local population is few and far between.Of course, this kind of stitching does not come without a price. Zhu Wusi’s death in the severe drought in the fourth year was the heavy price Zhu Wusi paid for his barely full stomach in the past few years.

From this, we see another important reason for China's impoverishment: famine. China's monsoon climate is an extremely unstable climate.Just as we keep hearing news of floods and droughts in various places in the news today, in history, the vast land of China seldom had a good weather in most parts of the country, and local disasters happened all year round.Looking at the history of China's famines, there were 1,056 droughts and 1,029 floods recorded during the 2,155 years from 206 BC to 1949 AD.Other natural disasters, such as locust plagues, hailstorms, wind disasters, epidemics, earthquakes, etc., are too numerous to mention.Such frequent natural disasters are actually man-made disasters to some extent: the Yellow River Basin 3,000 years ago was full of forests and swamps, with fertile water and grass and good weather.However, due to thousands of years of over-exploitation, the forests have been cut down, the swamps have been drained, the Yellow River has become a hanging river, the water storage capacity of the soil has been seriously reduced, and small droughts often turn into severe droughts.For thousands of years, the life of northern farmers has become more and more difficult, which is not unrelated to the deterioration of the natural environment.

According to the records of the Yuan Dynasty, during the Yuan Dynasty, there were 94 major floods, 62 major droughts, 49 major locust plagues, and 72 major famines throughout the country.In other words, there are two or three major disasters every year on average.At the most serious time, there were more than ten recorded cases of cannibalism.This is the direct consequence of environmental degradation.Take the Huaihe River in Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown as an example. The reason why it is frequently harmed is mainly because human activities have changed its natural ecology and flow direction.

The climate in Europe is relatively stable. Due to the adjustment of the oceanic climate, the climate in Western Europe is much warmer than that in northern China at the same latitude. Although its precipitation is not as good as that in southern China, it is far better than that in the north, which is enough for agricultural irrigation.Therefore, there has never been such a phenomenon in the history of Europe as that of northern China.Comparing the two, as Deng Tuo said: "Our country has so many famines that it is rare in the world." Some Western scholars even directly called China "the China of famine".