Lányáng

Lanyang lay beside the shifting Yellow River on the eastern Henan plain. Its county seat moved in 1357 and again in the first year of the Ming, settling at the site later known as Lankao. The river remained a constant danger. A local gazetteer records a breach at the county town in 1491 and floodwater surrounding it in 1510, followed by further episodes in the Qing. The inhabitants had to contend with land submerged by the river and newly exposed ground left as its waters receded.