In this regard, I can only say, don't worry, because the historical story of this article is related to rats, specifically plague. Plague is an infectious disease, which is a class A infectious disease among the legal infectious diseases in China. Among the 39 legal infectious diseases, it ranks first, which can be said to be unusually "fierce". It is highly contagious and has a high mortality rate. But now the plague has rarely happened, but in ancient times, the plague can be crazy for a while, and the plague has swept the world. The demise of the Ming Dynasty was related to a great plague. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, a great plague occurred in northern China. Many people think it is the last straw to overwhelm the Ming Dynasty, and even a history professor put forward the view that "the mouse killed the Ming Dynasty". Can a plague still destroy a dynasty?
Although extremely incredible, at least the demise of the Ming Dynasty was related to this plague. There is no doubt about it. So, how harmful was the great plague in the late Ming Dynasty and how terrible was that disaster? Please let the flying fish type slowly for you with trembling hands, but before that, you have to talk about the current situation in the late Ming Dynasty. Chongzhen is a good emperor. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the situation changed suddenly. During the Chongzhen period, he was diligent and frugal, with ideals and ambitions. He wants to rise to the occasion and support Daming's country in the name of the king of a country, but this is just daydreaming. At that time, the Daming system was decadent and politics was extremely dark. All Chongzhen can do is worry.
Therefore, how difficult it was for Emperor Chongzhen at that time, in fact, it was very difficult, not only domestic troubles and foreign invasion, but also natural disasters. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the civil service group headed by Lindong Party firmly controlled the state affairs, with internal and external troubles. The quietly rising post-Jin regime constantly attacked Daming's fragile border defense, which was a foreign invasion and a natural disaster.
In addition, there are peasant uprisings whose crimes can not be ignored, especially the uprising led by Li Zicheng, which is even larger. These four aspects make Chongzhen tea and rice think. He made great efforts to fight against the Lindong Party Group, but the result was fruitless. Chongzhen was helpless, but he was chosen by fate as the king of national subjugation and could not shirk it. Chongzhen was a good emperor, but he was born at a bad time, so he hated the incompetence of his officials. When he was desperate, he had to hang himself. But before hanging himself, he looked back on his life and was full of regrets. He once shouted: you are not the king of national subjugation, and my ministers are all ministers of national subjugation. This may be the unwillingness of Chongzhen, but it also tells him at that time.
Natural disasters and dangers abound in the late Ming Dynasty. As Fei Yu said above, the Ming Dynasty faced a crisis during the Chongzhen period, so what natural disasters were there at that time? The first is drought, and the second is plague. There were frequent droughts in the late Ming Dynasty, and there were three droughts recorded in history in the Wanli period alone. For the ancients who depended on the weather for food, the drought was terrible, because it meant no crops, but more seriously, every drought would cause a plague. The drought that occurred in North China in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen lasted for four years. What is the result of four years of drought? There is no doubt that it is hungry.
Having said that, many people think that ordinary people should have surplus grain, and it should not be so miserable to raise it slowly. Actually, it is not. Because of the Li Zicheng Uprising, the army he led needed food as support, so wherever Li Zicheng went, the people's surplus food would be looted, and then these people had to join the insurgents in Li Zicheng. In this way, Li Zicheng's army is getting bigger and bigger, and it needs more and more food. After years of drought, no one has any extra food, so the number of refugees has increased by spurt, and all edible food will be spared by refugees, including mice who fled with the refugees. As a result, the plague spread quietly among the refugees. Plague, the last straw that crushed the Ming Dynasty.
During the Chongzhen period, the plague has never stopped, but the plagues induced by previous natural disasters can still be controlled. After all, it is small-scale. However, with the movement of Li Zicheng's army and the flight of refugees, the plague began to spread everywhere and showed an uncontrollable scene. Let's look at some records about how terrible the plague was at that time.
Conclusion:
Readers have already made their own judgments about how harmful and terrible the great plague was in the late Ming Dynasty. But it also explains why the imperial court in the late Ming Dynasty was so fragile, with ten rooms and nine empty rooms, many soldiers guarding the capital died and their combat effectiveness declined. Nature is also reasonable. Two or three years after the plague spread to the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng broke the capital easily with rebels packed with refugees, and Chongzhen was cornered and forced to hang himself. Before he dies, he may never understand how a plague made him lose his country.
Chongzhen in film and television
Li Zicheng certainly has a hard time. The insurgents he led were also plagued by the plague, and a large number of soldiers died every day. However, due to the large base of insurgents at that time, Li Zicheng's fighting capacity was still stronger than Chongzhen's. So why did Li Zicheng perish the Ming Dynasty, but did not establish state power? Instead, it was picked up by the Qing dynasty. Aren't people in the Qing Dynasty worried about this plague? It is said that fleas, the media of plague, don't like the smell of horses. The Qing army is mainly cavalry, and with sufficient food, they don't eat mice, so they are naturally rarely infected.