Why do people from Shandong want to break through Guandong?
is very simple. There are too many people in Shandong and there are few land. The people can't live anymore. They can only die for a lifetime, risking to leave and looking for a new foothold.
The Northeast was chosen because the Northeast was the land of Longxing for the Manchurians. It was blocked by the Qing court for one or two hundred years and no immigration was allowed. Therefore, the population was sparse and the land was abundant and fertile, which grew like locusts. A great place for Shandong people.
Then, why don’t Shandong people go to Jiangnan?
Because the south of the Yangtze River is the opposite of the northeast, the northeast has less people and more land, and the south of the Yangtze has more people and less land. As China's economic center of gravity since the Tang and Song Dynasties, the Jiangnan region has not only developed economically, but also has a rapid population growth. So by the Qing Dynasty, there was basically not much land in the Jiangnan region for later development.
In addition, the clan power in the Jiangnan area is strong, and the sense of locality and autonomy is strong. Once outsiders appear, they will definitely try to guard the country and try to avoid external forces.
For example, Ding Wuqihuang in the early years of Guangxu in the late Qing Dynasty suffered severe drought in several provinces in North China. When the government was unable to provide relief, the gentry began to take the lead in helping themselves. For example, Zhili and Shandong were severely affected, but the local gentry remained unmoved. On the contrary, the gentry of Jiangsu took the initiative to go to Shandong and Zhili to help the victims. The initiative of the Jiangsu gentry was largely because they feared that the disaster victims in Shandong and Zhili would flee to Jiangsu, and they used a more active way to resist the famine of outsiders.
Therefore, if Shandong people really break into the south of the Yangtze River, they will not only have no land to occupy, but they will be beaten out by the group of locals, and they will still be hard to escape. If you grit your teeth and persist, you will have a place to stand.
