Disasters and the loss of population in the Jianghuai disaster area: the people are poor, there are many flights, and the villages are empty

In historical documents, the most common words used when mentioning natural disasters are "starving all over the wilderness", "looking at each other", "starving people congested", etc., these adjectives often do not think carefully about the specific content contained in the words due to their high degree of abstraction and generalization, so it is difficult to have a direct understanding of the blood, tears and bitterness of the victims behind the words.

Due to the combined effect of its geographical environment and agricultural social environment, the Jianghuai region is a disaster-prone area. Floods and floods occur from time to time, drought and locusts occur one after another, epidemic treatment occurs from time to time, and tidal disasters occur one after another, and every major disaster will cause a large number of deaths in the population. For example, the tidal disaster in the twenty-third year of Hongwu (1390) caused more than 30,000 deaths in the two Huai salt fields. In the seventh year of Chenghua (1471), the tide changed, and more than 300 people died. In the eighteenth year of Jiajing (1539), the tide changed, and "there was no population, but there were many people". In the thirty-second year of Jiajing, Yancheng County apologized, the deceased was pillowed, and the righteous Gao Long buried 1,000 men and women alone. On July 18 and 19 of the second year of Yongzheng (1724), the two Huai salt fields encountered a storm, and 29 fields such as Fengli, which belonged to the three divisions of Tong, Tai and Huai, were flooded by the tide, and only one was spared. Tongzhou belongs to Fengli, Digang, Xiting 3, Taizhou belongs to Pincha, Jiaoxi, Fu'an, Anfeng, Liangduo, Dongtai, Heduo, Dingxi, Xiaohai, Caoyan 10, Huai'an belongs to Baiju, Liuzhuang, Miaowan, Wuyou, Xinxing, Banpu 6, a total of 49,558 drowning men and women. That year, Wang Shidong of Fengli Field collected more than 3,500 floating corpses, Xu Shiyun, a supervisor at the same scene, collected nearly 1,000 floating corpses, and Hong Chengyi of the Excavation Field collected more than 10,000 floating corpses.

Sometimes, disasters and wars are combined, making the disaster victims even worse. There are very few people who can survive such a double blow of natural and man-made disasters. For example, after Qianshan was burned and robbed by Kou in the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), "the people are incomplete, the drought and locust plague treatment have been frequent year after year, and there are eight or nine deaths, and the household registration is almost extinct." In the Yingshan and Huoshan areas of the thirteenth and fourteenth years of Chongzhen, due to the continuous drought of locusts, "the people starved to death were not counted, and the natural disasters were epidemic, and the corpses were everywhere", and at this time, "Kong Tingxun, the general of Shucheng County, was very hungry and starved, and fought with the people with wheat", and its tragic situation can be imagined. In the sixth year of Chongzhen, the number of households in Tianchang County was 6,246 households, and the number of households was 19,408, but after the end of the Ming Dynasty, "the people were exiled due to floods and droughts, and the people swallowed the bark, soil and stones, and then reverted to the rest", and finally stopped 7048 ding.

After a major disaster occurs, if the government and society do not provide timely or effective disaster relief and relief, it will often cause a large number of people to flee. Whenever a disaster strikes, the psychological activity of "the official fasting is sleepless all night, and the escape of the hut is afraid of relapse" reflects the mutual relationship between the Jianghuai disaster and the flight of the people from the other side. This can also be divided into two specific situations:

First, the direct impact of the disaster on the social economy of the disaster area has made it impossible for the local social economy to support a large number of hungry people, prompting the hungry people to sell their wives and children, or go out to earn a living. In the eleventh year of orthodoxy (1446), when Zhou Ji became the prefect of Anqing, he saw that "the age is not great, the children of the people are full of food and clothing, and those who go from the ark are connected". In the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing (1559), there was a great hunger in Tianchang County, and "there were many children of the people", and Xuyi County was also a great county in that year, "there were more than 10,000 men and women in the four townships". Fleeing the famine is the most common to go out to make a living, in the Jianghuai region of the Ming and Qing dynasties, historical records of disasters and famine escapes abound, such as Zhang Han, who served as the prefect of Luzhou during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, concluded: "The land in the north of the Yangtze River is vast and sparsely populated, and the agriculture is lazy and the harvest is thin. In case of drought and flood, it is easy to migrate. Xinghua County in the eastern part of the Jianghuai River also numbered tens of thousands of people during the Ming Dynasty, but in the early Qing Dynasty, due to continuous floods and droughts, "many people died and migrated into exile."

Second, in order to pay taxes, the local government implemented a policy of urging the victims to collect taxes, and natural and man-made disasters were superimposed, and the victims had to flee. In Jingjiang County, the collapse of the river occurred many times in the early Ming Dynasty, "those whose fields are confined to the river will still be levied by the officials, and the people will not complain, so they will go and become thieves, and their household registration will be depleted day by day." Chen Lian of Tianchang County in the Jiajing period mentioned that Tianchang County "should be rushed, the people dye and water, the fertile soil is returned to Jizhuang, and the difference is similar to the soil dwelling", that is to say, the fertile land falls into the hands of foreign gentry and wealthy merchants, and they do not bear the heavy labor, and the indigenous people not only have to deal with the poor, but also the only barren land is also "repeatedly drought", and the harvest is meager, so it is "a family that lacks a solid home, and a household that has fled from the country". Taizhou "since the flood in the third year of Longqing and the construction of the Gao, Bao, Shao Bo lakes to reduce the sluice, the front of the field sank to the bottom of the water every year, and the former Fu years were levied as the amount, so the people of this state are all poor and fleeing one after another, and they have not been as lazy as the people who have lost their food." During the Wanli period, Geng Suilong of Baoyingzhi County reviewed the changes in the county's household registration caused by frequent famine and daily annoyance caused by the superposition of the daily annoyance of the errand in the east of the county Yimen:

Bao should be between Chenghua and Zhengde, and the soil is fertile and stable, and it is Jianghuai Wang County, with a household registration of 80,000. Jiajing Xinhai, Huai decided Liu Lingtai, since the years are flooded, hunger is frequent, to Long, ten thousand extreme. The chief of the village covered the family with compensation, and the people abandoned their jobs with forced labor, the poor days were troubled, the fields were short, the people were poor, the lawsuits were surplus, the flow carried the road, the miles were tired, the city was depressed, and the household registration was less than 20,000.

This material shows that Baoying's household registration was still relatively prosperous during the Chenghua and Zhengde years, reaching 80,000, but in the 30th year of Jiajing (1551), after the Huai decided Liu Lingtai, the household registration fell to less than 20,000.

After a disaster, if there are many deaths and migrations, it will cause a large number of people to be lost, which will cause the hukou in the disaster area to wither, the population will fluctuate greatly due to the disaster, and social and economic development will often be hindered. Here are the most flooded areas of the Huang, Huai, and Yun confluences and the Li Canal area as examples:

Yancheng: In the early Ming Dynasty, the household registration was still widowed, and after the recuperation in the early Ming Dynasty, "to the Jiajing season, the number of households has more than doubled, and the mouth has increased by one-third, and it is also Yinshu." However, since the third year of Longqing (1569), Yancheng has been "flooded frequently, and the displaced people eat other counties, all the walls are empty, and the household registration is withering". Later, due to Pan Jitao and Lingyunyi, who successively pacified the two rivers, coupled with Yang Ruiyun, the magistrate of Wanli seven years (1579) to ten years, "tried his best to appease and pay taxes, so the displaced people returned", where the household was 3461, and the mouth was 9696. In general, since the Yancheng in the Ming Dynasty was "washed before the flood, the fertile ones were barren, the people were poor and flooded, and the people were depleted". In the Qing Dynasty, Yancheng still suffered from floods from time to time, so people fled without stopping. History, "Since the seventh year of Kangxi, Qingshuitan has been broken, the fields have been flooded, and the people have died and migrated." In the eighteenth year of Kangxi (1679), Feng Yu, the magistrate of Yancheng, found out that 39,570 people had fled due to the disaster.

Xinghua: Xinghua is located in the Xiahe area, low-lying, resembling the bottom of a kettle, and the water of Huai, Huang and Shanghe often floods the place, so the flood of the Ming and Qing dynasties has the most severe impact on the change of Xinghua's household registration. In the eleventh year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1583), the number of households in Xinghua reached its peak, with 15,861 households and 129,740 households. After that, the compilation and examination of the approved people, according to the Ding Nayin, do not count the number of mouths. In the fourteenth year of Shunzhi (1657), 2,037 new people were added to the review, totaling 32,918. After the sixth year of Kangxi (1667), "the river embankment was decided and the people migrated". In the fifteenth year of Kangxi, "half of the city was flooded, there were many drowning people, the epidemic was epidemic, and the death of the disease was not counted". In the sixteenth year of Kangxi, Zheng Zheng, the county officer, escaped 4,406 ding, died 8,866 ding, and stopped 19,726 ding. In just 21 years from the 14th year of Shunzhi to the 16th year of Kangxi, the loss of Xinghua people due to disasters and deaths caused "no less than five out of ten". Therefore, the author of Kangxi's "Xinghua County Chronicles" said: "Xingyi is in Youming, and there are tens of thousands of household registrations. Since the Ding Revolution, although the soldiers are scarce, and the floods and droughts are frequent, the people are many dead and migrated, and the exile is almost like a rebellion. From this, we can see more clearly that flooding was the main reason for the large population shortage in Xinghua County in the early Qing Dynasty.

Baoying: At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the household registration was prosperous, but since the time of Jiajing and Longqing to catch Wanli, floods are still frequent, "the people are poor, and the household registration is consumed". At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, there were 25,814 people, and in the fourteenth year of Shunzhi (1657), 430 Ding was added, and 71 Ding was added in the sixth year of Kangxi (1667), totaling 26,315 Ding. However, in the seventh year of the Kangxi flood, the victims fled one after another, and only 7,787 mouths remained. In the eleventh year of Kangxi, there were floods, and more people fled, and only 1,892 ripe Ding remained, "the number of Ding is the saddest".

Gaoyou: In the first year of Kangxi, Gaoyou was really in 31136, and in the tenth year of Kangxi, "due to repeated floods, many people were in exile", the governor Shuai Gongyan was ordered to check and reduce, and Wang Haoqing, the governor of the state, subtracted 10332 people, and 20804 people. Nearly 1/3 of the population will be lost in 10 years, and the people are the main labor force of the family, and their exile will be more than their families, so the population loss base will be larger. Among them, Gaoyou's mill households are more representative due to the lack of floods. There were more than 3,000 households in Gaoyou Mill in Qianlong, and then gradually declined. In the fifth year of Tongzhi (1866), Dongxiang was killed by the river, and "the milling households fled, and the milling houses drifted in most of them". By the fifteenth year of Guangxu (1889), there were only 259 households, and in the second year of Xuantong (1910), only 9 households were reported.

Huai'an: During the Qianlong period, Huai'an Mansion "due to the Huanghuai and urgency, the more exiles there were, the more people gathered together, and the Huai'an household was more than a big deal." The government belongs to Qinghe County, from the third year of Ming Jingtai (1452) to the Qianlong period, Guangxu's "Qinghe County Chronicles" contains "more than 6,300 households, as little as 4,444; as many as 45,567 mouths, as little as 11,122." There are more than Jiajing, the mouth is more than Jingtai, and the decay is more than Wanli". A very important reason is the flood caused by the combined rise of the Huanghuai River.

Taizhou: "Since Longqing, Tai has warned the police in Hongdong, and the people have been fainted, so as to prevent hunger and run to the Quartet." The reason is that Taizhou Tianduo belongs to the lower river, "in the Gao, Bao, Shao Bo Lake embankment, the terrain is like a kettle, every time the embankment bursts and reduces the sluice water irrigation, it is flooded as much as possible, and Xinghua looks at it to form an ocean." For example, the human body, high and treasure are the throat of human water, and Xing and Tai are the belly of water. Since the third year of Longqing, the embankment has not been decided, the sluice has not been reduced, the fields have sunk to the bottom, the people are poor, the death is thrown, and the ten rooms are empty."

Huainan Salt Farm: The tea field was "repeatedly flooded by the tide and many fled". Lu Sichang originally ran a salt stove Ding, except for being fled by the tide, 346 Ding. Due to the large number of exodus, some salt farms were abandoned, or there were too few stoves and returned to other fields. When Xuduchang was merged with Banpuchang, the original amount of 850 Ding, in addition to exile, successively recruited and resumed business, and 134 Dings were saved. The original amount of the Guandu field was 1500 Ding, and the Yellow River embankment broke in the seventh year of Kangxi (1668), and after all the field stoves fled, they successively recruited and resumed business, and 456 Dings were saved. In the fifth year of Kangxi, Lu Si collapsed most of the ground, and there was also a tidal disaster, and the men and women were submerged, and only more than 100 dings remained.

The many fledgies often left villages empty, and thriving clans may have been in decline due to catastrophes. In the fourth year of Daoguang (1824), Hongze Lake broke down, and there were many dead people in Shanyang Xixiang, and they were exiled to Buye, and the village was empty. After the eighth year of Chongzhen (1635), Tongcheng suffered several starvation and epidemic soldiers, and more than half of them died, of which there were only dozens of survivors of the Xiang family. The village where the famous scholar Jiao Xun lived in the north lake of Yangzhou was half a mile southwest of the Huangjue Bridge, which was originally two villages up and down, "the people live together, the roof tiles are connected, the bamboo is planted behind the village, there are more than 1,000 old trees outside the bamboo, there are buildings between the trees, and they are seen several miles away, and they are called Jiaojialou", but in the Qianlong period, "the years are suffering from the water, the clan gradually migrates, the industry is scattered, the Dingkou is also scarce, and the houses of the two villages are only two or three out of ten." Even after the disaster, towns and villages have recovered, many of them are no longer indigenous people, such as Baoying County during the Kangxi period, because of the floods, "many households migrated, and they were not indigenous people".

The lack of hukou, especially the large number of deaths and migrations of adults, often leads to the disorder of the service system in the disaster area. Shanyang County, which belongs to Huai'an Prefecture, was actually a messenger in the first year of Shunzhi (1644) as a 157798, but when it was edited and reviewed in the 40th year of Kangxi (1701), it was missing 14,913 Ding, and 6,417 taels of silver were missing. Chen Pengnian explained in "Yin Huai Rixiang Exemption from Increasing Ding Wen": "The floods in Chashanyi over the years, and the people fled, because there was a lot of lack of Ding", and when Kangxi was compiling and reviewing in the 30th year, he thought that the aborigines had no Ding to increase, but the sojourners in Huaicheng North and the people living in Shanxi and Huizhou were organized into a group attached to Anren. Thirty-five years after Kangxi, "the Tongjiaying River burst, the six dams in Xixiang rushed to the water, and the escape was even worse." The people who lived in Xiqiao returned to their homes, and the neighboring families fled one after another. So people go to Ding Hanging, and they are tired of compensating for the burden", so when Kangxi was compiling and reviewing in the 40th year, the county order included all the young Ding with the lack of escape, which was not enough, and there was still the burden of compensation.