literally: 'to brave the journey to Guandong', describes the rush of the Han Chinese population into Manchuria, especially from the Shandong Peninsula and Zhili, during the hundred-year period starting in the last half of the 19th century
Definitions (Wiktionary)
verb, of Han Chinese
to migrate to Northeast China (Manchuria) from North China, during the hundred-year period beginning in the last half of the 19th century