The year 1942 was a crucial year for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression at home, and the Chinese people in this year could be said to have suffered from war and hunger. Especially in this part of Henan, not only wars are frequent, but there are also serious phenomena such as drought, flood, locust plague and man-made disaster.
Henan, as a major province of soldiers and grain in the national War of Resistance, has long been overwhelmed by natural disasters and man-made oppression, and some of them cannot be "supported."
Thus, beginning in July 1942, a widespread, widespread, long-lasting, and rare famine broke out in Henan.
This rare famine has forced 30 million people into a desperate situation, and they have been forced to go into exile in order to survive. In the process of exile, there were countless starving deaths on Renmin Road in Henan, and for a time, in the Central Plains, hunger was everywhere and shocking.
If we look at it historically, the causes of famine are nothing more than the following: floods, droughts, locust plagues, man-made disasters, and so on. However, the Great Famine in Henan in 1942 concentrated all these reasons together, and it can be said that it is rare not only in Chinese history, but also in the history of the world.
Before 1942, Henan was China's large province of military origin and grain, and both China and Japan set their sights on Henan.
After the defeat at the Battle of Xuzhou in 1938, the Japanese army advanced west along the Longhai Road in an attempt to take Zhengzhou, an important town in Henan. In this way, it drove south from Zhengzhou and attacked Wuhan together with the east China army.
At that time, the Military Commission of the National Government decided to "replace the soldiers with water", and when the residents of Henan were notified in advance to evacuate the Yellow River, the yellow river embankment was blown up, so that most of Henan was flooded by the Yellow River.
Due to the lack of good implementation of evacuation orders, the land and people of Henan after the Yellow River burst its banks basically did not escape the Yellow River floods. Large tracts of farmland were destroyed and more than 800,000 people were flooded.
In addition to floods, Henan has also experienced drought and locust plagues. After being devastated by the floods, the people of Henan began to rebuild their homes. They began farming in the vast agricultural areas and wanted to return to the period of the big grain provinces.
But from the spring of 1942, the land in Henan began to drip rain, and it was still a long period of high temperature and heat. The people of Henan watched as thousands of crops were exposed and withered under the scorching sun, but they had no choice.
At this time, locusts were attacking everywhere, and the desperate people of Henan could only kneel on the ground and say to the locusts: "Lord Locust, let us go!" Unfortunately, such a plea did not receive the sympathy of the so-called "locust lord", who ate all the crops that were already small, and for a time the harvest in Henan was almost zero.
In addition to floods, droughts, and locust plagues, the people of Henan have also experienced man-made disasters, that is, the National Government's forced conscription of military food.
Although defeated again and again on the domestic battlefield, the Nationalist government did not completely abandon its determination to fight against the Japanese. They continued to increase their troops and grain in an attempt to fight a protracted war with the Japanese army invading China.
Unfortunately, their plan did not take into account the actual situation, and in the most severely affected area of Henan, they still forcibly conscripted military grain and confiscated the only surplus grain in the hands of the common people, thus aggravating the famine in Henan.
Among the proverbs of the people of Henan, there is such a sentence, called: "Water drought locust soup, Henan four wilderness." Among them, "Tang" refers to the nationalist general Tang Enbo, who connived at his men's forced conscription of military food and militia, causing the people of Henan to complain and speed up the pace of their escape.
According to incomplete statistics, the Great Famine in Henan in 1942 affected at least 30 million people, and nearly 3 million people died of starvation or diseases caused by famine. This figure is very frightening, because the total number of military and civilian casualties during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was about 50 million, and the famine in Henan alone caused 3 million casualties.
In addition to the huge number of casualties, the tragic scenes that appeared in the process of fleeing the wilderness were truly shocking.
At that time, people ate vegetable leaves in order to survive. After the leaves were eaten, everyone ran to the field to dig up wild vegetables. Soon the wild vegetables were eaten, so people began to nibble on the bark again.
But the bark of the tree, not only difficult to swallow, low nutrients, but also the human digestive system can not digest, therefore, in the process of nibbling on the bark, there are many people because they can not digest and live to die.
However, it is more gratifying for the people who gnaw on the bark, at least they have a food that can be wrapped in their stomachs. For the rest of the hungry, they were not so lucky. They didn't even have to nibble on the bark, they just walked on the road and died suddenly, their bodies exposed to the wilderness, and let the wild dogs grab food.
Other hungry people, in order to wrap their stomachs, even snatched weeds in the woods and fields. It doesn't matter whether this weed can wrap its belly or not, but many of them are toxic. Therefore, the hungry people who were unfortunate enough to eat poisonous weeds could only lie on the ground in full view of everyone, and finally die in the crowd.
And some hungry people who drag their families and mouths, when they can't stand hunger, have to sell their children cheaply to the distant "human meat market". There, the flesh and bones of the parents could only be bought and sold as commodities in exchange for meager grain to feed the hungry.
It can be said that the tragedy of the Great Famine in Henan in 1942 has long exceeded that of previous generations. After this famine, grain production in Henan did not slow down until after the founding of New China, when there was a saying of "nine famines in ten years".
Faced with such a famine by the Henan government, it was impossible for the Nationalist government in Chongqing not to respond. In fact, as early as Jiang Dingwen, commander of the First Theater, the Nationalist government learned about the great famine in Henan, but did not expect how serious it was.
At that time, there were also nearly 1 million nationalist troops in Henan, and the military food of these 1 million people also needed to be solved by the Nationalist government.
However, considering the deterioration of the tense, the victims continue to die. Chiang Kai-shek, who was then the supreme commander of the Nationalist government, still decided to open the granary and transport all the grain to the Henan region, and to reduce the amount of military grain collected in the Henan region from 5 million to 2.5 million stones.
Although this measure is a drop in the bucket, it has at least alleviated the disaster problem in Henan to a certain extent.
By October 1942, the number of starving people dying of starvation in Henan continued to rise and had been made known to the international community. As a result, the National Government allocated 500 million Francs for disaster relief.
According to the plan of the National Government, 200 million yuan will be used to open a porridge shack to give porridge to the hungry, and 300 million yuan will be used to purchase disaster relief grain.
However, this beautiful plan, when it is executed below, has completely changed its flavor. The legal tender of 300 million yuan used to purchase disaster relief grain was not only not well converted into grain in the process of use, but also most of it was engulfed by corrupt officials, so the actual disaster relief effect was not optimistic.
However, it is better than nothing, and the disaster relief measures made by the National Government can only be said to be good in terms of starting point, but the actual effect and investment intensity are still far from enough.
However, there is no obstacle in the world that cannot be overcome. With the first wheat harvest in 1943, the terrible famine that had never been seen in a thousand years finally turned a new page.