According to the Chronicle of Henan Province, in 1940, the population of Henan was 30.67 million, in 1942 it was 27.89 million, and by 1944, the population had dropped to 24.71 million, in other words, during these four years, the population had decreased by 5.96 million.
Considering that it was the period of the War of Resistance, the war caused a large number of casualties, coupled with the normal population increase or decrease, the number of people who were starved to death in 1942 was about 3 million.
This figure is only in the national unification area, because northern Henan and eastern Henan have been occupied by the Japanese army, and the number of deaths there is unknown. In the third year of Guangxu, Henan lost 1.82 million people due to three consecutive years of drought, so why was the death toll so terrible in just one year in 1942? To a certain extent, the inaction of the National Government and the ineffectiveness of disaster relief are one of the main reasons for the tragedy.
Henan in 1942 belonged to the First Theater of Operations, and the commander of the theater was Jiang Dingwen, and the deputy commander was Tang Enbo. At that time, Henan was besieged by the Japanese army on three sides, and there were 500,000-1 million troops stationed here, and all the supplies of these armies had to be paid by the people of Henan.
Tang Enbo is known as one of the four evils, juxtaposed with floods, droughts, and locust plagues, and the extent to which the people hate him can be seen.
Tang Enbo built fortifications and built barracks in the Guotong District, and requisitioned a large number of labor requisitions on the pretext of harnessing the Yellow River, which we will leave aside, but the military discipline of Tang Enbo's troops was the worst.
In the year of the disaster, there should be no grain expropriation, and the grain to be supplied in Henan is the same as usual, and it will be finished after the official grain is handed over? No, the common people also have to face robbery and extortion by soldiers and bandits.
The peasants' livestock were plundered by Tonnbo's soldiers, and of course, this was not the worst outcome, but also the capture of Zhuang Ding. Even if there is only one man left in the family, he will be arrested, and secondly, after the arrest of Zhuang Ding, the family will be extorted by the soldiers and demanded for ransom.
In other words, if the family has money and grain, it may be able to exchange it for the man at home, if not, it can only be resigned to fate, but in fact, it does not rain, there is no grain in the field, coupled with the locust plague, the poor people do not even have to eat, where there is anything to give.
At that time, the chairman of Henan Province was named Li Peiji, did he truthfully report the disaster?
According to Liu Mao'en, He Yingqin had asked about "Henan's failure to see local government reports, and where the disaster situation came from, So Liu Mao'en determined that Li Peiji had not truthfully reported the disaster at all.
In addition, Yang Yifeng, the representative of the Henan Disaster Petition Group at that time, found that Li Peiji's report to Chongqing also had the words "the harvest is still good."
Yu Zhenzhou, then secretary of the Henan Provincial Grain Administration Bureau, also mentioned the disaster in Henan:
"The provincial authorities deliberately lied about the disaster situation with wheat seedlings, sent official documents back and forth, delayed the investigation, and refused to relay the truth to the central authorities."
Although Jiang Dingwen truthfully reported the disaster, because the data he reported was very different from the data of the Henan Provincial Government, it did not attract enough attention from the authorities; at the same time, although the price of grain rose countless times at that time, the price reported by the officials was still the price of the government's limit price, so the central authorities took this as the basis and determined that the disaster in Henan was not very serious.
Let's see how many times the price of food rose at that time. Before the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, wheat was 6 jiao per kilogram, and millet was a little more than 6 jiao, and by 1942, wheat was 22 yuan per kilogram, up 36 times, and millet was more than 23 yuan, up nearly 40 times. By the spring of 1943, the price of wheat per kilogram was 300 yuan, and millet was also more than 300 yuan, which was 500 times higher than before the War of Resistance.
This was what the Henan Nationalist government did at that time, abandoning the lives of hundreds of people, and at that time, 4,000 people were starved to death every day, and it was not an exaggeration to say that they were starving everywhere.
Why did Li Peiji conceal the disaster? Later, some people speculated that Li Peiji was to a certain extent for the sake of his official position, no matter what Li Peiji's purpose was, but there was no doubt that the people of Henan at that time could not count on the government's rescue.
By October 1942, more and more people were starving to death, and about millions of people had been starved to death, while Li Peiji reported 1602 people.
Why 1602? This fraction can roughly show that their statistics are accurate and can be more convincing. Although the National Government has done nothing, there are also many people who have asked for the people's lives.
Guo Zhongkui, who was a suffragan of the Nationalist government at the time, saw the tragic situation in Henan and wept bitterly in front of all senior officials at the Chongqing Suffrage Conference on October 30, and demanded disaster relief for the people of Henan.
At the time of the meeting, Guo Zhongkui took out the "food" that the people of Henan at that time ate, including more than a dozen kinds of elm bark, grass roots, and goose dung. In addition, Chiang Kai-shek refused to receive Yang Yifeng, a representative of the Henan Relief Society, and banned propaganda about such disasters.
The disaster in Henan is so serious, is it really unclear to chiang kai-shek? Still not convinced? Presumably everyone has a number in mind. Again, no matter how cunning the officials are, the most unfortunate thing is the people of Henan.
It is almost the New Year, and the victims are still looking forward to the government's relief food, but in fact, there is no news of the disaster relief. With 4,000 people starving to death every day, henan's grain collection is still in full swing.
A villager in Suiping County, Li Mou, was asked to pay the grain as soon as possible, he promised the baochang to hand over the grain the next day, and when he came back, he asked the family to quickly grind the noodles and eat a full meal at night, but he added poison to the meal, and the next day when the baochang came to the door, the family died. In the view of villager Li Mou, instead of starving to death, it is better for a family to have a good time and die together.
In such a tragic environment, officials reported the grain collection as follows:
"The people of Henan are well aware of the great righteousness and are willing to exhaust all the contributing countries, and the requisition and purchase have exceeded the quota."
Because the peasants had no more grain to come up with, the grain collection teams had to forcibly expropriate and extort them, and the seeds and fodder of the people were looted, so that countless people starved to death.
In Xuchang County alone, 50,000 people were starved to death, and some grain collectors forced people to die every day, some could not stand the pressure and went crazy, some committed suicide, and some fled.
Henan in 1942 was already like a purgatory on earth, selling children and daughters, forcing good people to become prostitutes, and cannibalism abounding, and those most terrible nightmares are actually happening here. We cannot keep the disaster secretive because of its cruelty and bloodshed, and only by facing it squarely can we prevent it from repeating the mistakes of the past! (Text/Nine Fish Pavilion)