Xu He did not answer Tan Lun's question.
He, a newcomer to Hanlin, had no right to speak in the court. Even if he gave advice and criticized Fang Qiu, it was just talk on paper.
Xu He bowed and said to Tan Lun: "Mr. Zili reminded me."
"Do you know Xiao Glacier?" He threw out a concept that was unheard of by people in this era to attract the other person's attention.
Tan Lun frowned and said, "Xiao Binghe?"
"The world we live in will suddenly become very cold, and food production will be greatly reduced, which will cause many problems!"
"For example, in the last years of the Yin and Shang Dynasties, starting from Emperor Yi, floods, droughts, locust plagues, and earthquakes often occurred in the Yin and Shang Dynasties!"
"The Yellow Turban Army at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the Three Kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu until the Western Jin Dynasty!"
"That's because there are frequent wars!" Tan Lun refuted.
Xu He shook his head: "In the second year of Emperor Heng's longevity of the Han Dynasty, there were more than 16.07 million households in the country and a population of more than 50.06 million."
"By the end of the Three Kingdoms period, the number of households was only more than 1.49 million, and the population had become more than 5.6 million, with only a quarter remaining."
"Long-term wars and the encroachment of large households on the host population were part of the reasons, but famine and plague were the main reasons for the sharp population decline in the late Eastern Han Dynasty."
Cao Cao's poem describes: "The armor is infested with lice, and all the people are dead. The bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no rooster crow for thousands of miles. The people are still alive, and the thought of them will break people's hearts!"
Cao Zhi's "Speaking of Epidemic Qi" describes: "In the 22nd year of Jian'an, dysentery was prevalent. Every family suffered from the pain of zombies, and there were wailing and mourning in every room. Some people died after closing the door, or others were overturned and mourned."
"Why did it cause famine? It was because of the coldness of the Little Glacier, which caused a significant reduction in food production. The cold weather also caused a large increase in locusts, resulting in a large-scale locust plague!"
When Tan Lun heard this, he was suddenly shocked. By the time of the Yande Dynasty, he knew that locust plagues had broken out more than thirty times.
Could it be that what Xu He said...?
Xu He continued: "In the last years of the Tang Dynasty, the court was corrupt, eunuchs interfered with politics, courtiers fought with factions, and feudal towns were divided. Also because the people were in dire straits, man-eating demon kings like Huang Chao appeared!"
"From the end of the Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, China experienced another Little Ice Age. The population at the end of the Tang Dynasty was more than 60 million, and by the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, there were only more than 20 million left!"
It is not convenient for Xu He to provide specific evidence and historical materials before the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Because there is a saying in "Bamboo Chronicles": "In the seventh year of King Zhou Xiao, in winter, there was heavy rain and hail, Jianghan was iced, and cattle and horses froze to death!"
"In the thirteenth year of King Zhou Xiao's reign, there was heavy rain and hail in the winter, the rivers and lakes were icy, and the cattle and horses froze to death!"
Xu He in another time and space could hardly imagine that the Yangtze River and sweat would freeze in winter!
You can imagine how cold the weather is!
It's still the "Bamboo Chronicle": "In the ninth year of King You of Zhou Dynasty, in the ninth month of autumn, peach and apricots were in full bloom."
Now the season for peaches and apricots in Central Plains is in the summer, but at that time, it was actually postponed to September (according to the current calendar, it is estimated to be October!)
Let’s look at the period from the fourth year of Emperor Cheng’s founding in the Western Han Dynasty to the twenty-fourth year of Emperor Xian’s founding in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
There are only records of severe cold, heavy snow and severe drought in the history books, but no records of other natural disasters.
Xu He had a photographic memory and recited the relevant contents in the history books one by one.
In the fourth year of the founding of Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty, it rained and snowed in April in the summer, and peaches and plums were abundant in the autumn.
In the fourth year of the Han Dynasty in Yangshuo, it snowed in summer and April, and the sparrows died.
During the early years of Emperor Zhang's reign in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the summer was cold.
It was a cold spring in the second year of Yangxi, Emperor Shun of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
In the seventh year of Emperor Yanxi of the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a severe winter, which killed birds and beasts and harmed fish and turtles.
In the sixth year of Emperor Guanghe's reign in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there was a severe winter, and the ice in Donglai and Langya wells in Beihai was more than a foot thick.
In the fourth year of Emperor Xian's reign in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it was summer and June when the wind was as cold as winter.
"Mr. Zili, I remember these all in my mind, but I can't remember the time clearly. If you don't believe it, I can find Hanshu, Houhanshu, and Tongjian to verify them one by one for you."
At this time, Tan Lun was already stupid.
Xu He didn't look like he was talking nonsense.
But Xu He wasn't over yet.
Beginning in the second year of Emperor Yongxi's reign in the Northern Song Dynasty, the third Little Ice Age entered.
Beginning in the second year of Yongxi's reign, the climate took a turn for the worse, and the strangely cold scene of wind and snow in the Jianghuai area reappeared.
In Chang'an and Luoyang, all the citrus and other fruit trees that could be planted in the early Tang Dynasty froze to death.
The Huaihe River, Jiangnan, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and Taihu Lake are all frozen...
Speaking of this, Tan Lun suddenly interjected: "Last year and the year before last, Taihu Lake also froze in winter, and carriages can be driven on the ice!"
Xu He nodded. He was on his way to the capital, let alone the Grand Canal.
If Mao Yi hadn't organized his men to cut the ice and open the waterway in advance, the official ship he was on would not have known how long it would have taken to arrive in Beijing.
However, Xu He could not see these scenes. Mao Yi had already arranged for people to do all the work along the way.
Thinking of this, Xu He sighed in his heart.
Are you considered a member of the ruling class?
Before he became an official, he had already lost sight of many things.
Tan Lun said: "During the Northern Song Dynasty, I knew one thing, which seems to be related to Xiao Bing mentioned by Zhuang Yuan Gong..."
"Little Glacier!"
"It has something to do with Little Glacier."
"Please tell me, Mr. Zili."
"I heard from the old man in my hometown that during the Yuan Dynasty, there were elephants in Yihuang!"
"However, later these elephants seemed to be afraid of the cold and moved south to Guangxi, Yunnan and Guangxi!"
Xu He nodded: "There is also rice. By the Song Dynasty, the north produced less rice. Except for upland rice, which can be grown, rice is rarely seen in books!"
"But Zhu Shengren said in his annotation of "The Book of Songs·Tang Feng·Bustard Yu" that rice, the rice eaten in the south, is born from water and is white in color!"
Tan Lun is a scholar. For him, this example is the most direct evidence. When he heard this example, he suddenly frowned and thought deeply.
After a while, he was surprised and said: "There is no rice in the north now. Isn't it going to get warmer?"
"I don't know!" Xu He told the truth. There were no thermometers in this era, so he could not give a detailed comparison of climate data.
but……
"Mr. Zili, from the first year of Yande to the winter of the thirty-sixth year of Zhizheng, there were only two records of winters without snow!"
When Xu He said there is no snow in winter, he does not mean that there is no snow in winter, but that there is no snow disaster in winter.
Moreover, from the first year of Yande to the present, there have been seven records of rain and snowfall reaching a depth of several feet in Wanzhou, Qiongzhou Prefecture, Guangdong.
Qiongzhou!
Hainan Island!
A foot is about thirty or forty centimeters.
It’s snowing in Hainan Island, with 30 to 40 centimeters of snow!
My scalp feels numb just thinking about it!
Tan Lun said with a heavy heart: "So Zhuangyuan Gong thinks that this is a natural disaster and man-made disasters are just minor causes?"
Xu He shook his head: "I just want to tell Mr. Zili that there are Tartars and Japanese pirates raging outside, and there are frequent natural disasters inside. We scholars are taking advantage of the situation to make a living for the world, and we can no longer fight. Got it!"
Tan Lun smiled bitterly and said, "According to Mr. Xu, if the natural disaster is so severe, do we still have hope?"
Xu He nodded firmly: "It may be difficult to consolidate the country, or it may be difficult to enlighten the sage!"
"How difficult it is to build a country! Mr. Zili!"
When Tan Lun heard these four words, his whole body couldn't help but tremble slightly.
"This chapter is written to the unfortunate compatriots affected by the earthquake!
Also written to all the mourning Chinese people! "
