What happened to the catastrophe in Qing Dynasty and the strange famine in Ding Wu?

Speaking of the Qing Dynasty, there were indeed prosperous times, but there were also times when people were in poverty. Especially in the late Qing Dynasty, a disaster almost made the Qing Dynasty really hurt. The already turbulent reality has become more unstable. Then what kind of disaster is this? We will return the time to Guangxu period.

It never rains but it pours. In the year of Ding Wu, the plague of locusts came before the drought was over.

1907, during the Guangxu period, there was no rain in the sky of the Great Qing Dynasty for some reason. People can't watch crops die like this, so some people propose to borrow water from the Yangtze River and the Yellow River to water the land.

It's nothing special. The so-called farmers who live by water and eat by water have thus found a way to continue farming. However, where there is no water and there is no way to irrigate? People have to let crops wither and die, and then sigh for life.

But no one thought that watering was not the ultimate solution to the problem, because the drought continued until the next year and it was still not over. At this time, the river couldn't hold on, the water dried up, the land cracked, and the earth smoked everyone who sighed.

For farmers, this is a year without income and rations, and their food and drink have become problems. But it is also not good news for the country, because reduced food and hungry people mean empty treasury.

In addition, farmers have long predicted that there will be locusts in drought. When the field is dry for a long time, the probability of locust plague is very high. Therefore, before the drought that lasted for more than a year is over, locusts will pounce on their faces, and they will be like a tornado, leaving only a grayish yellow.

It is conceivable that in the face of such a result, farmers didn't even have a chance to eat wild vegetables. However, the court has been reluctant to take action. After all, this is a big test. No one knows how much stock the national treasury has. Of course, some people may know, but they dare not let the outside world know.

Moreover, since ancient times, the wine and meat of various dynasties have stinked, and the roads have frozen bones, and the Qing Dynasty is no exception. The people deserve to suffer from them. When there is no harvest, they must find their own way.

Therefore, in that more than a year, superstition prevailed everywhere. They prayed for rain, good harvest and a good weather, and they pinned all their hopes on God. Unfortunately, the gods did not intend to help them. On the contrary, the drought continues. Not to mention food, there are fewer and fewer things to eat in the field. Especially after the locust attack, the earth has become cleaner.

In order to survive, there was a great migration from one place to another. People who are married and have children want to find a place where there is rain, wind and income. But the reality is that the whole world in Qing Dynasty almost fell into a unified drought. People who have left their homes will never find a suitable place to live. As they walk, their relatives around them gradually decrease.

I thought that the disaster would return to normal in the past, but another disaster followed.

Just as people were leaving home looking for a place with water, suddenly a heavy rain drenched the thirsty people. People think they are saved and they can settle down again. But who would have thought that the heavy rain would not stop at the beginning. It washed away many dry dams and abandoned houses.

Then, after entering the winter, people who have no food and shelter have suffered from overwhelming snow again. The snow was several feet thick, houses collapsed, and the earth was covered with snow and lifeless. Too many people didn't survive the heavy snow and suffered heavy casualties at once.

And this kind of rain disaster, snow disaster one after another, is a disaster that people can't bear. As soon as it gets warmer, the rain is abundant, the river overflows, and mountain torrents devour one life after another like beasts. How many people were washed away and drowned is incalculable.

In this way, there was a flood and then a snowstorm. Then, on the day when the flash floods broke out, the people survived day after day and year after year. People have suspected that there is no end to such days, and nature is carrying out the survival of the fittest in its own way. Many places don't have frozen bones on the road, but freeze to death in winter, drown in summer and starve to death in spring and autumn.

You can persist for one year and endure for two years, but what about three years? What about four years? People can't farm or house. They walked on, trying to find a safe place. I started to eat my savings, then begged for food, and then I could only eat everything I could see. Weeds, leaves, bark and even roots have to be dug up to satisfy the hunger.

According to records, in the end, people really had nothing to eat. They can only eat loess and clods. Because they think they can eat such things without being hungry. But in fact, not being hungry is not a good phenomenon, but the stomach can't move after eating. Before long, they will start to die.

The most puzzling thing is that someone actually picked up pebbles to eat. Because these pebbles can't be digested, they eventually become a sharp weapon to pierce people's stomach.

Only then did the Qing government squeeze out some food to help these poor people. However, when people rushed to grab food, they died directly on the spot because of physical exhaustion and excessive force.

Fortunately, this disaster has finally passed. It lasted for four years and claimed the lives of more than one million people in China. The Qing dynasty was already very weak, and after these four years of natural disasters, it was even weaker. It can be said that it seems that the Qing government did not pay much in this disaster, but it did hurt the foundation. The so-called life at that time was also the life of the Qing Dynasty.