Ye Huan insisted that everyone should not spare even the grass because in that era, everyone had a hard time making ends meet. Foraging for wild vegetables wasn't a task exclusive to one family; everyone participated. Some wild vegetables were dug up before they even had the chance to sprout. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that where humans had passed, not a single blade of grass remained.
This was even without keeping livestock. If there were animals to feed, they would have to be even less discriminate.
Truly starving refugees wouldn't spare even the wheat seedlings.
