The absurd story of the Ming Dynasty is far beyond your imagination
Absurdity is called absurd because it is often hidden in people's hearts, and it is only when we peel back it that we find out how absurd it is.
Reading the history of the Ming Dynasty, there is a strange phenomenon, the closer to the capital, the more disasters, especially in Shandong, Zhili, and then to Henan and Shaanxi, there are generally only three kinds of disasters: drought, flood, and locust plague.
The farther away from the capital, the fewer accidents are recorded, such as in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangdong.
Was the disaster concentrated only in the provinces closest to the capital, while the farther provinces were spared? Of course not, there is reason to believe that many disasters in neighboring provinces have been artificially ignored.
Reporting a disaster usually means local inaction. The emperor sends you to solve the problem, but the places under your jurisdiction have problems every year, so in some provinces where the emperor has a spirit in the sky, the local ** often does not report disasters.
At the same time, the areas with the largest concentration of Tusi in the southwestern provinces are multi-ethnic gathering places, which have always been the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty only needs nothing to happen in these places, and it doesn't matter if there are accidents here.
Xu Xiake traveled long distances to investigate natural disasters in Guizhou and Yunnan. However, this is not important, the Ming Dynasty did not need these disaster reports, so these disasters are not recorded in the history books.
Another unusual phenomenon is that in the early days of the Chongzhen Dynasty, there were also some epidemics, but they were all irregular and local. However, in the 11 years since the beginning of the Chongzhen Dynasty, the spread of the plague has increased every year more than the previous year.
In line with the history of the Ming Dynasty:
In the eleventh year of Chongzhen), there was a great drought and locust plague in Lianggui, Shandong and Henan.
Gui, Lu, Henan, Shaanxi drought grasshopper (Chongzhen 12 years).
Chongzhen thirteen years) to a long drought without rain as a righteous statement.
Lianggui, Shandong, Henan, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangxi June drought locust (Chongzhen 14 years).
This is indeed an unusual phenomenon, because there were also some epidemics in the early days of the Chongzhen Dynasty, but they were all irregular and local. However, from the age of 11, the plague occurs year after year, and each year spreads more widely than the previous year.
Why? During the Apocalypse, Wu Yingji went to Henan, walked dozens of kilometers, and found that the fertile fields along the road were deserted and overgrown with weeds. Wu Yingji wondered, why didn't the fertile land grow crops?
As soon as Wu Yingji inquired, he learned that the entire harvest of the land here in a year was not enough to pay taxes, and he had to work hard all year round, not to mention hand over all the harvest every year, and then use the money to pay taxes. Because of this, the peasants of these lands abandoned their land and fled in all directions.
Two years ago, Minister Huang Chenggong Wu said that the frequent floods in the southeast region were caused by Chongzhen's lack of maintenance of water conservancy facilities for many years, and asked Chongzhen to renovate water conservancy facilities.
Chongzhen held a ministerial meeting, and as soon as I heard that the money was spent, I was silent for a moment, and said: Can repairing water conservancy make people uncomfortable?
After listening to Chongzhen's words, several university professors naturally understood the meaning, and they said together: The new water conservancy needs to be vigorously moved, and of course it will disturb the people, very disturbing the people! In this way, the southeast water conservancy was built"Disturb the people"It was denied for reasons.
Yes, the so-called plague is not a natural disaster, but a man-made disaster. Lack of maintenance of water facilities, high taxes, and small changes in the climate can all trigger epidemics.
We all know that the Chongzhen Dynasty was in financial difficulties, but did the Ming Dynasty really have no money? This is not the case.
During the Ming Dynasty, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were relatively rich because of the developed handicraft industry and **. Logically, these wealthy regions were supposed to provide more tax revenue for the Ming Dynasty, but this was not the case.
Before the Battle of Salhu, in order to fight against the Later Jin, Emperor Tianqi ordered an increase of nine cents per mu to the Liao State's military salary, totaling 5.2 million taels.
In response to the situation in eastern Liaoning, Chongzhen increased its income per mu by 3% in four years, totaling more than 1.4 million taels.
This shows that all tax increases come from the land, with the peasants bearing the brunt.
The handicraft industry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is developed, developed, and rich enough to be the crown of the world, so why not increase the ** tax?
According to Zhu Yongqing's book "The Problem of Liao Salary in the Ming Dynasty", in the first year of Chongzhen, the Liao salary reached 3.9 million taels, including 3 million taels of land endowment, 600,000 taels of miscellaneous taxes, 200,000 taels of salt tax, and 100,000 taels of customs duties.
It has no sales tax, or because of its small size, it is uniformly packaged and included in miscellaneous items; In conclusion, there is almost no sales tax.
The reason is actually quite simple.
Due to the developed economy of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the highest quality of education, during the Ming Dynasty, the most advanced scholars were in Suzhou, Songjiang and Hangzhou, and they took the government into their own hands, so they could not levy ** tax or handicraft tax.
No. In the Ming Dynasty, those with meritorious names were exempt from some forced labor, and Songjiang, Hangzhou, and Suzhou were the regions with the most meritorious reputations, so the wealthy in these places were exempt from some forced labor.
This has led to the strange phenomenon of paying less tax in rich areas and more tax in poor areas.
Taxes were too high for most people to survive, and peasant uprisings broke out in many places, most of which were Shaanxi.
So, the imperial court sent Yang He to Shaanxi to solve these problems.
After Yang He arrived in Shaanxi, he wrote a letter to Chongzhen, saying that these were peasants who had no food to eat, and there was no choice but to fight against the palace, and as long as the palace could provide disaster relief, these problems could be solved.
However, Yang He waited in Shaanxi for more than a year, and Chongzhen only received 100,000 taels of silver from Shaanxi. Someone wrote to Chongzhen saying that 100,000 taels was not enough and hoped that Chongzhen would collect more, but Chongzhen ignored it.
Yang Guozhong took the money and recruited some peasant rebels, wanting to settle them on the land, give them cattle to plow, and let them start farming.
But the problem is that when we plough the land, we don't get enough food to pay the rent.
As a result, the peasant rebels, who had already surrendered, reoccupied the mountains at the instigation of some people and continued to rebel against the imperial court.
Yang's pacification plan failed.