The prosperous Luoyang has been the capital of the empire since the prosperous Tang Dynasty. It also served as the capital and is now the western capital of the Later Jin Dynasty. A beautiful land, a gentle and prosperous town... 5,387 families fled, and thousands of them starved to death.
——February, "There are 7,759 people who have fled from the river. At this time, the world is hungry, the price of grain is soaring, and many people are dying of hunger."
Another 7,759 families in the Hezhong area fled. Food prices increased rapidly, and too many people died of starvation to count.
——April 1, solar eclipse.
"Dry locusts in Henan, Hebei, and Guanxi states."
"Locusts in all states in the world have destroyed the fields, eating all the grass, trees and leaves. The county magistrates of Zhaozhou hunted the locusts, and Yang Yanxun, the military governor of Huazhou, and Zhao Ying, the military governor of Yongzhou, ordered the people to catch a fight of locusts and pay for them with a fight of grain. . At that time, drought and locusts came one after another, the people moved away, and the hungry people filled the road. Starvation was especially severe in Guanxi, and seventeen or eighteen people died."
Shocking! In the Kansai region, which was the most severely affected, nearly 80% of the people starved to death! Former prime minister Zhao Ying offered a bounty of one bushel of locusts in exchange for one bushel of grain to encourage people to hunt and kill locusts. However, the effect was still minimal. Human beings seemed so insignificant when faced with the power of nature.
Later, we will also mention that even though this rare and almost catastrophic disaster broke out in the Kansai region, the imperial court still ordered the forcible confiscation of grain from the people. As a result, "Jinzuo has declined since then", and the later Jin imperial court dug for itself. Well done tomb.
——In May, "Migratory locusts come from the northern sky to the south."
The locusts were overwhelming, covering up the sky and the sun, eating up no grass in the north, and then moved to the south.
--June
Beizhou reported, "There are thirty-seven hundred people who have escaped from their households."
Bianzhou reported, "Locusts swarmed over the mountains and fields, eating all the grass, seedlings, trees and leaves, and many people starved to death."
Shaanzhou reports, "Locusts flew into the country, damaging crops and eating leaves of bamboo and trees, and 8,100 households fled."
"In this month, there are huge locusts in all states and counties, and they have wiped out all the grass and trees wherever they go."
Faced with the ongoing drought and the subsequent terrible locust plague, Shi Chonggui issued edicts one after another, requiring officials at the central and local levels to go to various temples and Taoist temples to pray for rain. Shi Chonggui himself also went to Xiangguo Temple to pray for rain. So... God suddenly realized that he forgot to water the water, so he quickly made up for his homework frantically, and then...
——In July, “The rain in the capital was three feet deep.”
——In August, Jing, Qing, Ci, and Wei reported a total of 5,890 fugitive households. The county magistrates assisted in the natural disasters and the people were hungry, and there were five of them who carried seals and seals. "
Not to mention the people who fled, even the county officials ran away.
——In September, "Twenty-seven locusts in prefectures and counties killed hundreds of thousands of people from starvation."
Thousands of people starved to death before, but now there are hundreds of thousands.
——In December, Huazhou reported, "There were 12,300 households that fled... It was a severe famine in winter, and more than 26,000 people died of starvation in Henan provinces."
Disasters have occurred since spring this year, seriously affecting agricultural production. At the end of the year, where will there be food stored for the winter? For the first time, the number of people who have escaped from their households exceeded 10,000. "Henan" here should refer to "Henan Prefecture", that is, Luoyang, and "Zhuzhou" should refer to the Heyang area where Luoyang is located, that is, the jurisdiction of the "Heyang Jiedushi", that is to say, in a festival Nearly 30,000 people died of starvation within the jurisdiction of the envoy.
The first year of good luck (944)
——In the first month of the year, "It's the new year, and hundreds of thousands of people are starving to death in the world..."
The "is Sui" here should be a summary of the previous year, that is, hundreds of thousands of people starved to death across the country last year. If we insist on being literal and say "this year" means "this year", and it is the first year of good luck, then it would be terrible. Hundreds of thousands of people died before the first lunar month... I think it should be the former, last year.
--April
Tongzhou and Huazhou reported, "The people eat each other."
Longzhou reports, "Fifty-six thousand people died of starvation."
At this point, the tragedy of man-cannibalism finally took place. Longzhou is located at the junction of Guanxi and Bashu. It is a remote place with a relatively sparse population. In this place where birds do not poop, 56,000 people starved to death. .
——In May, Luzhou reported, “More than 5,000 people died of starvation.”
——In June, the Yellow River burst in Huazhou, and the raging floods roared eastward, causing harm to Cao, Dan, Pu, Yun and other prefectures along the way. They rushed from today's Henan Province to Shandong Province, "Huan Liang Mountain merged with Wen and Ji ." Surrounded Liangshan into small islands in the water, and finally merged into Wenhe River and Jishui River.
I personally guess that the "eight hundred miles of water in Liangshan" during the Northern Song Dynasty may be related to this flood.
--July
This time is special. We will talk about it later. This is the end of the first of the "three major battles" of Jin and Liao. It ended with the victory of the Later Jin. Shi Chonggui was very happy and specially issued an edict to change the Yuan Dynasty, amnesty, and change the Yuan Dynasty. "The Ninth Year of Tianfu" is the "First Year of Good Luck". I am about to change my fortune. Calling it "The First Year of Good Luck" is a bit vulgar and too vulgar, so I changed it to the more formal "Good Luck".
There was a general amnesty in the Yuan Dynasty, rewards were given to soldiers, tax exemptions were given to the people, and officials were given to those who donated money to the court during the war... In short, everyone was celebrating.
On that day, Shi Chonggui personally went to the Mingde Gate and announced to the people the edict of the Yuan Dynasty Amnesty. Before the edict was read out, there was a sudden strong wind, thunder and lightning, and heavy rain...
"On that day, before the amnesty was announced, there was a heavy thunderstorm, which stopped in a hurry. Hundreds of people were killed in the thunderstorm..."
Hundreds of people were killed by lightning!
At that time, there was a well pavilion inside Mingde Gate. There was a stone basin in the pavilion, a sink beside the stone basin, and a stone dragon statue in the sink. It was both practical and ornamental. On that day, this stone dragon was blown by the strong wind and "floated dozens of steps", which was simply amazing. Then, there was a "click" of thunder, and the dragon's head was broken off by the thunder (but the dragon's head was broken off).
At that time, some people discussed that Shi is the surname of the country, dragon represents the emperor, the movement of the stone dragon indicates that the Shi family will move, and the cutting off of the dragon's head indicates that the Shi family will perish. "It's very ominous."
Later, Shi Chonggui was taken captive to the Northern Kingdom and eventually died in a foreign country.
——September 1, solar eclipse.
As mentioned earlier, a solar eclipse is not a natural disaster, but a normal natural phenomenon. But in the feudal period, solar eclipses were given more factors and were regarded as a kind of natural disaster by people at that time. If they occurred at the beginning of the month, they were even more unlucky, and if they happened at the beginning of the year, they were the most unlucky.
Lucky second year (945)
——In May, Dingzhou reported, "The strong wind and hail destroyed all the trees in the Beiyue Temple."
——In June, "Two capitals and prefectures and counties reported drought on the 15th day of the year."
——August 1, solar eclipse.
Lucky three years (946)
——February 1, solar eclipse.
——In March, Mizhou reported, "1,500 people perished due to hunger."
——In April, Caozhou reported, "Three thousand people died of hunger one after another. At that time, there was a severe famine in Henan and Hebei, and many people died. Bandits from Yi, Mi, Yan, and Yun gathered in groups and robbed counties and cities. , the officials could not restrain them. An Shenqi, the envoy of Yanzhou Jiedu, sent troops to capture and chase him, but he was defeated by the thieves."
The hungry people revolted, and even General An Shenqi was defeated.
