Back to the original poster, the records about Shihu’s killing of people are true, but the records of cannibalism in Yecheng are wrong. The history books do not record that these palace ladies were “cooked by soldiers”, but most of them should be For what the hungry people in Yecheng ate, please refer to the following historical textual research article:
A textual research on the problem of "There is a great famine in Yecheng and people eat each other"
Cai Dongfan's romantic novel " There was a sentence in "The Romance of the Two Jin Dynasties": "There was a great famine in Ye, and the people were eating each other. The defenders had no way to find food, so they cooked the people of the Zhao Palace to satisfy their hunger. How good is it?"
In addition, a certain "master" on the Internet once said this famously: "His (Ran Min) army was extremely cruel. The only clearly recorded case of cannibalism by the army was actually committed by his son's army." , this view has become popular on the Internet. Obviously, it was misled by Cai Dongfan's "Romance of the Two Jin Dynasties".
Then let’s look back at the history books to see if the facts are what they say.
"The Spring and Autumn Period of the Sixteen Kingdoms" records: "There is hunger in Yezhong, and people eat each other. In the time of tiger, all the palace people are eaten."
"Book of Jin" records: "Yezhong When people are hungry, people eat each other, and the people in the palace in the Jilong period are all eaten."
"Zizhi Tongjian" also records: "There is a great famine in Yezhong, and people eat each other, so the people in the palace in the Zhao period are eaten. All these original historical materials show without exception that "cannibalism" is a collective behavior of the whole city. That is to say, Yecheng was besieged for more than 100 days to a desperate situation, and the whole city was starved. People are hungry, have no food, and have no choice but to "cannibalize each other." Where is there any "clear record of military cannibalism"? It can be seen from this that there is no specific so-called "ran Wei army cannibalizing people", but it is just a common occurrence in ancient history of "the city is besieged and people eat each other". What's more, even if they are really forced to "eat each other", Ran Zhi and others are different from others. They may still be able to enjoy a little bit of pitiful surplus food, and they may not necessarily join the ranks of "eating each other". They are really forced to "eat each other". Those who "eat each other" are probably ordinary soldiers and civilians.
In addition, considering the military-civilian ratio, most of these palace ladies should be eaten by the hungry people in the city. However, Cai Dongfan deliberately excluded the hungry people and tampered with the historical records, so it suddenly became the food of Ran Zhi's army alone. This is also the fundamental reason why the fallacy that "Ran Wei's army cannibalizes people" is widely circulated. If this is called cruelty, then what do the people of Yecheng count? If you take quotes out of context, tamper with historical data, and want to incriminate yourself, why bother?
Furthermore, according to records in the Jin Dynasty, Ran Zhi was still young at that time, and ministers such as Jiang Qian were fully responsible for political affairs, including the custody of the jade seal. What right could a child like Ran Zhi have to say? What's more, even if Ran Zhi can control the power, can he control the stomachs of so many hungry people? When people are hungry, all kinds of tragedies will naturally happen. If they don’t eat people, how can they eat the land?
At that time, Yecheng was besieged, and the whole city was starving. The soldiers and civilians were hungry and had no food, so they had to "eat each other." This is a tragedy in history. If we insist on responsibility, it is for creating this situation. The siege troops of the Yan army blocked Yecheng and single-handedly caused the famine and "cannibalism" in Yecheng. They should "take the main responsibility"!
Similar "cannibalism" "The incident also happened when Hao Lianding's Xiongnu army besieged Nan'an City, Murong Chong's Xianbei army besieged Chang'an City, and Liu Yao's Xiongnu army besieged Luoyang City and Chang'an City. This was a very common thing in ancient history. Why didn't anyone go there? Say that the soldiers and civilians of the Western Qin Dynasty were extremely cruel, Fu Jian was extremely cruel, Emperor Huai of the Jin Dynasty was extremely cruel, and Emperor Huai of the Jin Dynasty was extremely cruel, and the soldiers and civilians of the Jin Dynasty in Luoyang and Chang'an were also extremely cruel? Isn't this a strange thing?
So, the author believes that this is not a question of responsibility. If we want to talk about responsibility, whether it is Ran Zhi, ministers, the army, or ordinary people, they themselves have nothing. Yecheng was heavily besieged by the Xianbei army for more than 100 days. Famine occurred naturally, so much so that "there was a great famine in Ye, and people ate each other." They were completely pitiful victims. When a tragedy happened, they did not blame the besiegers who caused the tragedy ( Xianbei Army), but blamed the Han victims in the city who were forced to "cannibalize each other". Is this the "justice" of some people?