In the long course of history, the plague has been an inevitable disaster, and its impact has been both far-reaching and heavy. Since ancient times, the haze of plague has always lingered, leaving a deep trace in human history countless times. However, there was such a plague, its influence lasted for more than fifty years, and the death toll reached a staggering tens of millions. The plague not only changed the fate of several countries, but also had a profound impact on the entire society. 
The plague was preceded by a decades-long period of peace and prosperity in the Eastern Han Empire. In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the population of the country was about 20 million, and by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the population had reached an astonishing 50 million, forming a population peak. "As for filial piety, it is quite much higher than before. In the second year of Yongshou, there were 1,670,906 households and 566,850 people. ”Behind the prosperity, however, lies a huge storm. With the explosive growth of population, land resources have become more and more strained, and social pressure is like an invisible mountain pressing on people's hearts. At the same time, the deterioration of the natural environment, war and political instability have added fuel to the storm. It is against this backdrop that the plague spreads its terrible fangs into the world like a terrible monster. Since the end of Emperor Huan of the Eastern Han Dynasty, a plague of unprecedented scale has swept through the whole of China, causing a large number of people to die of disease. The plague was so powerful that it continued to rage for decades to come. The spread of the plague caused social unrest, people lived in hardship, countless families were shattered, and the shadow of death loomed over the entire country. It is estimated that the plague killed tens of millions of people and greatly accelerated the collapse of the Eastern Han Empire. 
So just how serious is this plague?"The onset is acute, the mortality rate is high, patients often have high fever and wheezing, and death from exhaustion, and some patients have blood spots and bruises. ”Zhang Zhongjing, a famous medical scientist at that time, recorded"The Yu clan is a lot of people, more than 200, since the establishment of An, it has not been ten years, two-thirds of its dead, typhoid fever is seven out of ten. ”The plague killed nearly half of Zhang Zhongjing's family, and his "Treatise on Typhoid Fever and Miscellaneous Diseases" was created during this period. 
The epidemic is getting worse, and the political environment during the Eastern Han Dynasty is also worrying. The dictatorship of eunuchs, political corruption, and frequent wars prevented the state from concentrating on the plague, resulting in a dire life for the people. Due to limited access to medical care, the spread of the plague left countless people dead. In this difficult time, the people could not rely on the imperial court and could only seek refuge in their faith. So, in such a social environment, the three Zhang Jiao brothers, who held three volumes of "Taiping Yaoshu" and could "charm water and spells" to cure diseases and continue their lives, founded Taiping Taoism, and announced the end of the Han dynasty with the phrase "years in Jiazi", and launched the Yellow Turban Uprising. Under the spread of the epidemic, the power of the imperial court became weaker and weaker, and it was impossible to resist. In desperation, the imperial court could only delegate power to various localities and let them organize resistance on their own. Warlords and magnates from all over the country launched a fierce turf battle under the pretext of "begging for yellow turbans and leveling the world". The war spread, and the north became the main battlefield, and it was a mess. 
Refugees have been tormented by the war and the pandemic, and have had to flee their homes and flee the north. They flocked to the rich lands of the south in search of a ray of life. However, this also allowed the epidemic to spread further, with a nationwide outbreak and the plague intensifying. According to records, Cao Cao's army may have suffered a severe plague during the Battle of Red Cliffs, which led to Cao Cao's defeat without a fight. It is recorded in the "Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms":Cao Cao's army had many dead in the epidemic, and he led the army back. Afterwards, Cao Cao said in his reply to Sun Quan's letter"The battle of Chibi was worth the disease, and the lonely burning ship retreated, which made Zhou Yu get this name in vain." In order not to leave Zhou Yu with a warship, Cao Cao had to burn the warship and retreat to the north. 
Not only did Cao Cao's army suffer from the plague, but even Sima Yi's brother Sima Lang was not spared when the plague spread among Cao Cao's army. He went to the army to make rounds, pacify them, and even deliver medicine himself, but in the end he contracted the plague and unfortunately died. At the same time, Sun Quan was also almost killed by the plague during the battle against Jingzhou. For example, the premature deaths of Lu Su and Lu Meng were more or less related to the plague. The seven sons of Jian'an, who are like thunder, except for Kong Rong and Ruan Yu, who died early, the other five talented people could not escape the clutches of the plague. Cao Zhi wrote in "Speaking of Epidemic Gas":"In the twenty-second year of Jian'an, anger was prevalent, every family had the pain of zombies, and the clan had the sorrow of crying. or die with the door closed, or lose the family. or think that the plague is the work of demons and gods. Whoever suffers from this is the son of the brown weed, and the ear of the man of the thorn room. Ruofu Hall is in the home of Ding Shi, the door of heavy mink, if it is, it is fresh. This is the misalignment of yin and yang, and the wrong time for cold and heat is the cause of the epidemic. And the foolish people are disgusted with it, and it is ridiculous. ”During the continuous wars of the Three Kingdoms era, the spread of plague became more and more serious, and even continued until the era of Sima Yan of the Western Jin Dynasty. Sima Yan himself was infected with the plague and almost died in this long catastrophe that lasted for more than half a century. This shows how powerful this plague is. Due to the decades-long duration of the epidemic and the frequent wars between countries, China's population has fallen to freezing point by the end of the Three Kingdoms. In just a few decades, the country's population plummeted from more than 50 million to only 10 million. Therefore, in that era, the fight was the body, whoever lived the longest, who could persist to the end, could become the biggest winner, such as Sima Yi, whose life span was equivalent to that of the three generations of monarchs of Cao Wei. 