What happened to Huguang filling up Sichuan? How many outsiders are there in Sichuan?

Many people may not know that Sichuan has a population of more than 200 million. As a province with a large population, why are there so many people in Sichuan? In fact, this is related to an immigration in the Qing Dynasty. The population of Sichuan dropped sharply due to the war, so the Qing government mobilized more than a dozen provinces to immigrate to Sichuan. Among them, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, and Guangxi had the largest number of immigrants. This was the filling of Sichuan by Huguang. Therefore, Sichuan is also a province with a good atmosphere. After all, it incorporates the customs of many provinces.

As we all know, Sichuan is a land of abundance. For most of its history, Sichuan has been the most densely populated area in China. Today, there are 280 million people in Sichuan, but 99 of them are All the people here immigrated. What is going on?

The history of immigration in Sichuan can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty. After Qin Shihuang unified Bashu, in order to rule the Bashu region more effectively, 40,000 people were transferred to the Qin Dynasty. The Qin people moved to Shu; during the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang led more than 100,000 troops into Shu. By the Tang Dynasty, Sichuan was like a paradise compared to the war-torn northern regions, and a large number of northerners came to Sichuan.

In the late Southern Song Dynasty, the population of Sichuan exceeded 12 million, and Chengdu alone had more than one million. At this time, the Mongols controlled the north of China. They led their troops to invade the peaceful Southern Song Dynasty. When the Mongols finally destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, the entire population of Sichuan was only 120,000 households, about 500,000 to 600,000 people. It was less than its peak period. of 5.

After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, in order to balance the population in various places, he moved many people from Macheng and Xiaogan in Huainan to Sichuan. This is what people often say that Sichuan people "passed over from Macheng". Since then, due to the high sky in Sichuan The emperor was far away, the land was vast and sparsely populated, and a large number of refugees immigrated here.

What caused a major population change in Sichuan and still has a far-reaching impact today is what people often say "Huguang fills Sichuan". What is going on? It turns out that in the late Ming Dynasty, Sichuan once again encountered history. First, Zhang Xianzhong fought fiercely with the Ming Dynasty army in Sichuan, and then the Qing army entered Sichuan. Decades of war made the people of Sichuan miserable, and the population dropped sharply, with only more than 90,000 people left.

During the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, Sichuan finally calmed down. When officials took office, they were surprised to find that the land of abundance in their minds was so riddled with holes and sparsely populated, so they submitted a memorial to recommend that Kangxi start from Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong and other places have massively immigrated to Sichuan. This is what we often call Huguang filling Sichuan.

Legend has it that the Qing government forced people from the Huguang area to immigrate and escorted them to Sichuan with their hands tied behind their backs. They had to untie their hands when they needed to go to the toilet on the way, hence the term "relieving one's hands". What's more, it is said that the dents on the wrists of Sichuan people are caused by binding.

To this day, although many people from Sichuan and Huguang are strangers, they always have an inexplicable sense of closeness. This is precisely because of the great immigration of the Qing Dynasty - Huguang filled Sichuan.