Yellow River floods devastate northern China

1236

Catastrophic flooding along the Yellow River, worsened by the collapse of irrigation systems during the Mongol-Jin wars, drowned vast tracts of farmland in Henan and Shandong. Famine followed flood, and the population of northern China, already ravaged by war, fell further. Recovery would take generations under Mongol rule. The floods shifted the river's course, permanently altering the geography of the North China Plain.