The road is hard! In ancient times, how did Sichuan often have a sharp decline in population?

Sichuan area (including Chongqing), as a relatively closed geographical unit, has become a unique humanities plate in China with its unique Sichuan-Chongqing culture. Surprisingly,

This self-sufficient and rich country has not only been affected by external forces for a long time in history, but also suffered a sharp decline in population because of war, so it has absorbed a large number of immigrants from the two lakes in history.

Why is Sichuan so unlucky?

0 1 unique geographical conditions

Geographically, the whole Sichuan Basin is bordered by Hengduan Mountains in the west, facing Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau across the Yangtze River in the southeast, and crossing the Three Gorges along the main stream of the Yangtze River in the east to enter the plain area in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. However, the most important boundary of Sichuan Basin comes from the mountains in the north. From Sichuan Basin to the north, through Daba Mountain and Qinling Mountains (with Hanzhong Basin as the transitional zone), you can directly reach Guanzhong area, the core area of ancient China.

After the unified forces from the north gain a foothold in Guanzhong, they will look forward to Sichuan and covet it. However, due to the closed geographical environment, the Bashu region in the south often produces independent separatist regimes and strives to expand outward to expand their living space and create buffer space. The strategic objectives of both sides determine that the Qinling-Daba Mountain area will always be an important war battlefield.

Figure/Xiaoshan Village in Sichuan Basin

02 Sichuan historical worries

For Sichuan Basin, this unique geographical block is always facing a very embarrassing historical situation. Because of its relative closeness, since the pre-Qin era, there has been a completely different cultural form from the Central Plains Dynasty.

Since the Qin and Han Dynasties, once the central dynasty was in crisis, the local forces in Bashu area would be linked with the local representatives of the Central Plains forces, forming a separatist regime with strong centrifugal force.

(Gongsun Shu at the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bei at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and Han Cheng regime at the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, to name a few).

Figure/Sanxingdui culture is considered to be related to alien civilization

After occupying the fertile Chengdu Plain near Jinguancheng, this separatist regime often expanded to the edge of the whole Sichuan Basin, with the Three Gorges in the east, Qinling in the north, Zhu Rong in the west and Yunnan-Guizhou in the south, forming a powerful administrative system, which can completely rival or even surpass any independent economic sector such as Guanzhong or Jingxiang in the Central Plains in terms of material strength, and has a complete strategic defense line on all sides, which can be described as the land of Wang Ba, a separatist party.

But it is this geographical and economic atmosphere that makes the rulers who occupy Sichuan often have the illusion of long-term separation (the southern dynasties who occupy Sichuan will also regard Sichuan and Sichuan as a tenacious war zone that can independently consume the northern forces). Therefore, as an independent plate, Bashu is not only difficult to form a reasonable judgment on the general trend of the Central Plains because of its geographical closeness, but also fantasizes about relying on natural disasters to compete with the soon-to-be-unified central government.

Therefore, during most of China's history, Sichuan rarely succumbed to the central dynasty, mostly because of Enemy at the Gates's tenacious resistance.

03 bloody land

Although Bashu is rich, it is more reflected in the economic and cultural level, but it lacks strength in the military level. Even though Bashu army is surrounded by natural disasters in Qinling and Daba Mountains, it lacks cavalry strength and strategic awareness to expand northward, so it is difficult to fight back because it is a solid guard. Therefore, in the long-term strategic confrontation of the northern army, once there is a flaw above a certain pass, which leads the northern army to enter the Hanzhong Basin, the threat to Sichuan will be fatal.

Because after the first line of defense of Qinling Daba Mountain was breached, Ma Pingchuan was the Sichuan Basin. Conquerors from the Central Plains could plunder the rich Chengdu Plain with their own cavalry, which was bound to be accompanied by a large number of killings of local families.

On the other hand, because the attackers experienced a long-term battle before entering Sichuan, they must have a very strong revenge on the defenders in Sichuan, which will intensify in the looting of civilians and eventually evolve into a large-scale war killing.

In addition, due to the long-term role of Sichuan in changing the dynasty, it was brutally baptized by the catastrophe of war many times, and the population also showed a periodic sharp decline.