Tracing China: Through history, dialogue between ancient and modern

Chapter 161 The Chinese Nation Troubled by Disasters

The capital of Qi is Linzi.

The host Lin Feng and Bai Lu sat in the VIP seats.

Princess Qi Huan, the overlord of the Spring and Autumn Period.

Guan Zhong, known as "Father Zhong", is under the king.

The four of them used tea instead of wine to talk about the past and the present.

With a cup of strong tea in his throat, the aftertaste is endless, Lin Feng cupped his hands, and asked respectfully: "Senior Guanzi, do you know that future generations still have the most respectful title for you?"

Guan Zhong smiled, "What's your name?"

Lin Feng said, "Guardian of Chinese Civilization."

Uh……

Both Duke Huan of Qi and Guan Zhong couldn't help being stunned. Why does this title sound a bit "deified"?
Lin Feng explained, "Because you advocate the strategy of "respecting the king and fighting against the barbarians", until the threat from the north, you are the biggest enemy of the Central Plains of China. The princes defeated the barbarian slaves, defeated the nomadic regimes in the north time and time again, and preserved the Chinese civilization."

Guan Zhong frowned and said in doubt:

"But for these reasons, it won't be possible for future generations to pass on the title of "Guardian of Civilization", right?"

Lin Feng continued, "However, if you are the first to realize that the northern nomadic regime is the greatest threat to the Central Plains, you are worthy of the admiration of future generations."

Later Chinese history.

Many heroes emerged to resist the invasion of the nomadic regime.

For example, Meng Tian, ​​the number one warrior in China, swept away the Xiongnu, beating them so hard that the Xiongnu dared not go south and graze their horses.

For example, Li Mu, a famous general in the Warring States Period, defeated the strong with the weak, and beat the Huns far away.

For example, Wei Qinghuo went to the disease and went deep into the desert, beating the Huns to doubt their lives, and finally sealed the wolf as a xu, strengthening the prestige of the Han.

For example, Cao Cao, the hero, beat up the small countries in the north and couldn't take care of themselves.

For example, Zhuge Liang captured Meng Huo seven times.

……

However, as the first person who advocated "respecting the king and fighting the barbarians", Guan Zhong was a pioneer and the first person to eat crabs, and he deserves the title of guardian of civilization.

Hearing this, Guan Zhong was quite excited, and said, "In the northern land, there is a lack of material, and everyone is barbarian. They are a group of wild beasts in human skin. Once these ambitious people become strong, they will definitely invade the Central Plains and plunder the Central Plains." Civilization, it seems that Guan Zhong's step is really right."

Duke Huan of Qi asked curiously, "Feng, as you said, in the later years, a large number of brave and famous generals emerged and swept away the barbarians. Has the threat from the north been completely contained?"

"cannot!"

"The barbarian threat from the nomadic regime cannot be completely wiped out."

"Qi Jun, didn't you give the order to cast the Great Wall on the border? And the major princes also erected high walls."

Regarding Lin Feng's words, Duke Huan of Qi and Guan Zhong, who were sitting in the main seat, looked at each other in blank dismay, lost in thought.

It was Lin Feng's turn to be at a loss, "Did the junior say something wrong?"

The atmosphere was awkward for a while.

The partner Bailu opened his mouth to make a rescue, "Brother Feng, in the beginning of the Spring and Autumn Period, building the Great Wall was not about defending against threats from the north."

What?
Wasn't the original intention of building the Great Wall to deal with the nomadic regime?
Regarding this point, Lin Feng really didn't know clearly. Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Bailu Scarf refused to give in, and continued to explain:
"During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period, various countries fought for hegemony. In order to defend each other and protect the territories of their vassal states from being invaded, they built Great Walls for mutual defense on their respective territories. "Defense" Later, as the war continued to expand, Wei, Yan, Qin and other countries also built the Great Wall one after another. However, these Great Walls were all section by section, and were not connected. We call it the "Great Wall"..."

The Great Wall built by these vassal states later became the foundation of the Great Wall of Qin Shihuang.

In 221 BC, Qin Shihuang unified the six countries. In order to ensure the stability of the Central Plains and not be threatened by the Huns in the north, Qin Shihuang sent General Meng Tian to expel the Huns from the north. At the same time, he built the Great Wall with huge manpower, material and financial resources. Based on the Northern Great Wall of the Three Kingdoms of Qin Dynasty, many parts were expanded, and a Great Wall stretching thousands of miles from Lintao in the west to Liaodong in the east was built.

Since then, the world's most ambitious construction project in ancient times has stood firm on the land in northern my country.

Lin Feng looked not far away and asked, "Qi Jun, Senior Guan Zi, is what Bai Lu said true?"

"Bailu, you are very smart."

Duke Huan of Qi appreciated it, and continued, "The reason for building a tall city wall is mainly to guard against other powerful princes."

Guan Zhong also said, "At this time, the terrain in the north is high with high mountains, dense forests, severe snakes, rats and insects, impassable roads, and difficulty for cattle and horses. It took a lot of manpower and material resources to build the Great Wall."

It turned out to be the case.

In Lin Feng's perception, when the great princes built the Great Wall, they should have defended against threats from the north from the very beginning.

I am afraid that many people in modern times have the same idea as Lin Feng.

"The junior punishes himself with a drink."

Lin Feng looked at Bai Lu, gave his beautiful partner a thumbs up, and silently praised him.

Guan Zhong said, "With such a majestic and majestic Great Wall to block the threat from the north, I believe that the land of China in the future will surely prosper and live and work in peace and contentment."

but.

Is the truth really as beautiful as Guan Zhong imagined?

Lin Feng shook his head, feeling a little heavy, and said, "Huaxia stands proudly on top of the world and has inherited thousands of years of glorious history. At the same time, it is also a nation full of disasters!"

Duke Huan of Qi asked, "How many disasters?"

Guan Zhong also asked, "Although our Huaxia land is not perfect, it is fertile and full of species, enough to support all the people on this land!"

Lin Feng said:
"Since the birth of Huaxia, the road every week has been accompanied by countless disasters, natural disasters, man-made disasters, diseases, wild animals, foreign enemies..."

Subsequently.

Lin Feng turned his head towards the outside of the court, and in an instant, the door that welcomes and recruits wise men began to dance with brilliance.

It gradually evolved into a light curtain, and a picture flew out.

"Look."

"This is a natural disaster."

Lin Feng opened his mouth, and a picture of the ancient times appeared on the portal. Guan Zhong couldn't help standing up, and said in horror, "This... this is... the ancient... Great Yu... water control..."

Duke Huan of Qi couldn't help getting up, "History repeats itself? Feng, there are really tricks from the gods in the sky!"

The first natural disaster is flood:

On the screen of the portal, a flooded Yellow River appeared. It was like a proud and savage angry dragon, rampaging and rushing wantonly in the ancient land. Wherever it passed, mountains collapsed, trees were destroyed, and houses collapsed.

A group of ancient people, carrying primitive utensils, are dredging the river and moving forward in suffering.

The scene of the natural disaster continued:

The second is fire:

In the famous "Yongning Temple Fire" in history, ancient buildings were made of wood. Yongning Temple is a very magical wooden tower with a height of 136 meters. Even today it is considered a skyscraper.This pagoda is a product of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In 534 A.D., lightning caused the pagoda to catch fire, and it burned for three months. Not only was the pagoda burned, but the surrounding people also suffered.

The third is severe cold:

The picture of the late Ming Dynasty appeared, Chongzhen was the king of subjugation, but who knows how many terrible natural disasters occurred on the earth during his reign?
The first is the severe cold, which was during the "Little Ice Age", and the most direct feature was the severe cold, and that kind of cold may be hard for us to imagine.According to historical data and literature records, even Taihu Lake, Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, and Huaihe River were frozen at that time, and extreme weather such as "cold summer" and "snow and frost in summer" were not uncommon.

According to historical records, in the winter of 1453, Shandong, Henan, Zhejiang, Zhili, Huai, and Xu were snowed heavily, and the sea ice in Huaidong was more than [-] miles, and thousands of people and animals froze to death.In the second year, the Jiangnan prefectures snowed heavily for forty days, and Su and Changdong starved to death. "

Several feet of snow accumulated in the Yellow River, Huaihe River, and Yangtze River basins, and heavy snow fell for more than 40 days in various places in the south of the Yangtze River, which shows that the weather was cold at that time.

Among various historical materials, such as "25 hoofs of cattle and livestock froze to death", "heavy rain and snow in Kaiyuan, many livestock froze to death", "snow stopped, more than three feet of flat ground, many people and livestock froze to death", " The rain and hail were very heavy, hurting crops for [-] miles, and many people and horses were killed", "the hail was handed over, and more than ten thousand houses were destroyed, and more than a thousand people died." More kills" and other records can be seen everywhere.

In the "Little Ice Age" that lasted for more than [-] years, in addition to the direct impact of severe cold weather, the secondary disasters brought about by climate change were even more deadly, not only causing a large number of deaths of people, but also directly A fatal blow was dealt to the Ming Dynasty, whose building was about to collapse.

The fourth is drought:

During the reign of Chongzhen, there was a rare ten-year drought.In the continuous drought, the lakes dried up, the main stream and tributaries of the Yellow River were cut off, the precipitation in North China dropped by 11% to 47%, and as many as 23 areas experienced more than four consecutive years of drought. severe drought.

China is a traditional large agricultural country, and the continuous drought is simply a disaster for the people.

For example, in Henan, "a severe drought spread across the whole province, grasses were all withered, Luo's water was not enough to fill a foot, vegetation, animal skins, insects and flies were all eaten up, many people died of hunger, starvation destroyed roads, and the land was barren."

Another example is in Shaanxi "Jie Tiao rice market, the wood skin and stone noodles are all eaten, and the father and son couples eat each other, and ten deaths are likely to occur."

The fifth is the plague of locusts:

The resulting scene can be described as extremely terrifying.

In "Ming History", the word "locust" appeared as many as 129. According to statistics, there were 967 locust plagues in the Ming Dynasty, and the entire Ming Dynasty was only 276 years. That is to say, three locust plagues broke out every year on average. If it is concentrated in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, this frequency will be even higher.

In June of the 14th year of Chongzhen—"two Beijings, Shandong, Henan, and Zhejiang suffered severe drought...there was no grass in the wild, and ten rooms were empty." Just as the people were about to harvest, the crops were wiped out by locusts.At that time, Xu Guangqi, the second assistant of the cabinet and the Minister of Rites, said, "Only when the drought is extreme and locusts, for thousands of miles, all the vegetation, or the hair of cattle and horses, and the banners are all gone, the damage is even worse than the flood."

The sixth is the plague:
Due to frequent droughts and locust plagues, resulting in reduced food production and dead vegetation, various animals lacking food sources began to flock into human settlements frequently, and brought a series of fatal disasters.

"Records of Chongzhen" records: "The great epidemic in the capital caused tens of thousands of deaths. The sick vomited blood like a watermelon and died immediately. The pillows of death were scattered, ten rooms were empty, and even the households were completely wiped out, and no one restrained them."

In ancient Shanxi, "Datong was plagued by a great plague, ten households and nine diseases, and the infected died one after another. If a family of several people was infected with the epidemic, one out of ten people could not afford to close their doors."

This plague caused more than 1000 million deaths, so that when Li Zicheng attacked the capital, he did not encounter large-scale resistance along the way, and BJ City, where even beggars could not be found, even sent eunuchs to the city wall , there is still an average of five battlements with one soldier.

……

"A series of natural disasters have destroyed the unified dynasty!" Guan Zhong was deeply touched, and tears flickered in his eyes.

The scene on the screen, the dead people are all their descendants!

Children and grandchildren suffer so.

As an ancestor, how not to grieve?

(End of this chapter)