Short video spoiler history: The beginning of modern warfare

Chapter 41 Little Ice Age
After just a moment of excitement, everyone looked sad again.

Liaodong is a bitterly cold place with dense jungles and crisscrossing rivers. It is unknown how much manpower and resources it would take to develop it into the flat land of later generations in Tianmu.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at the large plain surrounded by several mountains, a treasure land that was extremely cherished even by later generations, and was hesitant for a moment.

People's labor is not like crops that can be harvested twice a year. The manpower and material resources required to develop such a cold and bitter place are incalculable. It is definitely not a task that can be accomplished by one or two generations.

To incorporate this area into the territory, we need to expand the borders to the vicinity of these mountain ranges and defend them by relying on the mountains. This is similar to the borders of later generations.

[I am dying of laughter. Wu Chengen’s coffin lid really can’t hold it down anymore#吴承恩#Journey to the West]

[This is the first time I've seen official history being wilder than unofficial history]

[Wu Chengen, a Ming Dynasty writer, is the author of Journey to the West]

[The process of his tomb being found makes me laugh every time I watch it]

[In 1974, after a middle school teacher in Huai'an finished teaching Journey to the West, he gave his students a topic, saying]

[In history, Wu Chengen's tomb has never been found. You can look for evidence or information that Wu Chengen is our fellow villager.]

Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City.

Li Shimin held his forehead, feeling a little headache and helpless. Why do these idiots in later generations like to dig up people's graves everywhere?

Don’t you all understand what it means that the dead are the greatest and should be buried in peace?

As an emperor of a country, I would probably be the first person to be visited by future generations.

I am now in my prime, and I am afraid that one day I will be able to see myself more than a thousand years later?
Isn't this bullshit? Li Shimin was so angry that he wanted to hit someone.

It’s all Cao’s fault!
Not only Li Shimin, all the ministers were speechless. After looking at each other awkwardly, they cursed in their hearts, wondering if there would be no tombstone or a simple burial after a hundred years?
But what would it be like not to erect a tombstone?

So annoying! ! !
[Thus began the most dramatic tomb excavation in history]

[A few days later, a student found the tombstone of Wu Chengen in his own pigpen]

[This student was later confirmed to be a descendant of Wu Chengen]

[Following this clue, it was discovered that the tomb robbers sold Wu Chengen's coffin to the school where this student attended]

[Archaeologists also confirmed that this is Wu Chengen’s coffin]

[Lying on Wu Chengen's coffin and listening to Journey to the West, what a hellish joke]

During the Hongwu period, in Jinling City, inside the Hexing Tea Shop.

"This process is indeed full of twists and turns. Could it be that there is a destiny in all of this?"

"I control my own life!"

"go away!"

"Journey to the West? Never heard of it!" Many people frowned and thought, having no impression at all.

According to later generations, the novels of our Ming Dynasty were extremely prosperous and could even be compared with Tang poetry and Song lyrics. Wow, what a height that was.

The "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" mentioned later also began to be published. At first, everyone thought it was another pirated version, like the Luo Guanshen version.

Because of this, a novel craze swept across Jinling City, and it gradually spread to the general public, and the people of Jinling City also knew quite a few novels.

Of course, the main way of spreading the knowledge among the people is through storytelling, after all, most people can only read a few words.

"Maybe it's a novel that hasn't been published yet?" The short and fat Mr. Su pinched the mole on his chin and was also very interested.

"I think so. However, this novel has been passed down for hundreds of years, and later generations have confirmed its identity. I think the content must be very exciting."

"What you said makes me itchy!" Several people talked about it.

"The ancestral grave was dug up, and the descendants lay on the ancestor's coffin and listened to the devil novel written by the old man"

"I should be very happy that I didn't write it in vain. There are still children listening to it after so many years."

"I am happy, but I am speechless [covering my face]"

Wu Chengen said: When the teacher assigned the task, I thought he saw me [covering face]

[How cold was winter in ancient times? ]

[Ancient China experienced a total of four small ice ages, namely the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Song Dynasty, and the Ming and Qing Dynasties]

[In fact, from here you can see why the Han and Tang dynasties were the pinnacle of Chinese feudal civilization]

[Because ancient China was an agricultural society that was highly dependent on the weather, the Han and Tang dynasties were in a warm period that was the opposite of the Little Ice Age.]

[The temperature difference between the warm period and the small glacier area is between 2-3°. Don't underestimate this 2-3 degree temperature difference. You must know that this is a temperature rise in units of the earth.]

[During the warm period, the heat brought by the rising temperature is enough to turn Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei and other places into subtropical areas, just like Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and other places in my country today, where crops are harvested twice a year and grain production increases greatly]

[For example, pre-Qin documents recorded that the army of the Shang Dynasty used "elephant soldiers" to fight against the Dongyi tribe, so Henan is also abbreviated as Yu, which means a person leading an elephant. Can you imagine that there are elephants in Henan today? ]

[For example, during the Tang Dynasty, oranges could be grown in Guanzhong, and orange trees were planted every year in the capital Chang'an. The well-known saying "Oranges grown in the south of the Huai River are oranges, while those grown in the north of the Huai River are bitter oranges" comes from "Yanzi's Mission to Chu". Yanzi was born in the cold Spring and Autumn Period when he said this, which shows the temperature difference between the Spring and Autumn Period and the Tang Dynasty.]

[During the Little Ice Age, the most direct factor for the drop in temperature was the decrease in rainfall. Insufficient rainfall led to consecutive years of poor harvests, and poor harvests led to famine.]

[After that, there was a series of chain reactions, famine, death, plague, and the northern nomadic people were also greatly affected. In order to survive, they had to move south to fight for living space, and thus disasters and chaos broke out.]

[During the Tang Dynasty, it was easier for the people to survive under such natural conditions, and the country naturally became strong. The only glory of Tubo, located on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, happened to be during the warm period of the Tang Dynasty.]

[Later, in the late Tang Dynasty, the Little Ice Age came again, and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was not suitable for the growth of crops, so Tubo never recovered from that.]

Ming Dynasty, Jinling City, in front of Wuying Palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang and a group of ministers all turned pale, their scalps went numb, a shudder rushed to their foreheads, and they almost couldn't stand!
This is an important reason for the rise and fall of dynasties for thousands of years, yet it is also the most overlooked point. Countless wise men throughout the ages have summarized the laws of the rise and fall of dynasties, but no one has been able to decipher the mystery behind it.

temperature!

A temperature difference of only two degrees leads to worlds of difference in the consequences.

According to later generations, the Ming and Qing dynasties were the Little Ice Age in history.
Zhu Yuanzhang felt a chill running down his spine.

In Jinling City, many ordinary people understood what was said and their faces changed drastically.

At the Hexing Tea Shop, Mr. Su dropped his chopsticks in shock. His mouth was so big that he could fit an egg in it. Next to him was the same young man from last time, and he was also so scared that his face turned pale.

Did the Ming Dynasty start off so badly?
Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City.

Li Shimin's face was also filled with horror. Under such a powerful force of nature, human power was so insignificant.

The secret of rise and fall that every dynasty has been searching for is hidden in the climate, right under our noses!
Dark under the lamp!
"If I hear the truth in the morning, I can die in the evening!" Some people sighed. Others were confused. How should people fight against this natural law?

Fang Xuanling hurriedly woke up a group of frightened clerks and started copying down relevant information. Among them was a summary of the temperatures throughout the dynasties. It can be seen that the temperatures were relatively high during the Xia and Shang, Spring and Autumn Period, Han and Tang dynasties, while they were basically relatively low at other times, especially during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

[How cold was the winter in ancient China during the Little Ice Age?]

[The Ming and Qing dynasties are the coldest periods with the most extreme climate. The Little Ice Age of the Ming and Qing dynasties began in the middle of the Ming Dynasty and lasted intermittently until 1900, the eve of the demise of the Qing Dynasty.]

[Snowstorms during the Ming and Qing dynasties were more frequent than in any previous era. According to the "China Meteorological Comprehensive Dictionary", 17 of the 13 severe cold and tide disasters before the founding of the People's Republic of China occurred during the Ming and Qing dynasties.]

[In the fourth year of the reign of Emperor Ming Dynasty Emperor Zhu Qiyu, a rare heavy snow fell throughout the Ming Dynasty. That year, even Guangxi Province had heavy snow for a full month.]

[Just think about it, Guangxi, located in the southernmost part of China, has been snowing for a month, so you can imagine how serious the snowstorms in other places are.]

[During the snowstorm in the fourth year of the Jingtai reign, tens of thousands of people froze to death in Suzhou, Jiangsu alone. The rivers stopped flowing, and the surface of Taihu Lake was covered with a thick layer of ice. The snow on the ground was three feet thick, or one meter deep. If a person walked outside, half of his body would be buried in the snow.]

[The whole country is ravaged by snowstorms, with no difference between the north and the south. The frozen bodies of poor people can be seen everywhere on the road.]

[Heavy snow in Anhui and other places blocked the doors and people were trapped to death in their houses, but do you think this is the end?]

Nanjun in the late Han Dynasty.

Just by listening to the description, Liu Bei felt as if he was in a world of white ice and snow. It was white everywhere. The rivers were frozen and there were no traces of fish. The villages were deserted and there was no one living for thousands of miles.

With such a large-scale snowstorm, the number of people who froze to death must be countless.

Crops and crops in the fields were probably not spared from the disaster, and large numbers of them froze to death.
"Is there a worse situation?" Zhang Fei felt a little reluctant and his tone became much more sad.

However, no one could answer him and there was silence.

The sky continued to tell the story, completely revealing the picture of the troubled times.

Just as Tianmu said, all this was just the beginning. Soon afterwards, East China was hit by another snowstorm, and both Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake were frozen. Not to mention pedestrians, even horse-drawn carriages would not fall off when passing over them.

This terrible cold did not disappear with the demise of the Ming Dynasty, but instead became more and more severe.

Later in the Qing Dynasty, Hunan experienced heavy snow for more than 40 days, freezing countless people to death.

The situation was so desperate south of the Yangtze River, and it was even more desperate north of the Yangtze River. Many people hid in caves and never came out again.

Every sentence on the sky curtain, every fragment from all over the world, no family feuds or national hatreds, no dramatic twists, but what they tell is the distant future.

This is the cruel reality, the cruel snow disaster.

Tang Dynasty, Chang'an City.

In the spring garden, girls like Gan Tang and Qing Sha could not help wiping away their tears. Most of these prostitutes had a life that they could not bear to look back on, so they could empathize with the miserable experiences of ordinary people better than ordinary people.

Not only them, many people in Chang'an City were heartbroken about this, and even the joy of the peak of the Han and Tang Dynasties mentioned by Tianmu faded a lot.

During the peak of the Han and Tang dynasties, many people were very grateful.

[In fact, not to mention the common people, even the emperor had a hard time in winter in ancient times]

[Everyone who has been to the Forbidden City knows that Emperor Qianlong's bedroom is only 10 square meters. Why did the old man Shiquan, who was a great leader of the Qing Empire, live in such a small house?]

[Because it was cold in winter, in order to keep warm, he didn’t dare to make the room too big for fear of not being able to retain heat. After Qianlong entered old age, he stayed in his own 10-square-meter hut almost every winter and never went out unless there was something to do.]

[Also, the demise of the Ming Dynasty may not be entirely blamed on the Little Ice Age, but in the harsh environment of the Little Ice Age, the imperial court still imposed heavy taxes and forced the people into a desperate situation, which was definitely the main reason for its demise.]

[It can be said that ancient China during the Little Ice Age was full of snow villages and villages where auroras appeared everywhere]

[But if you were just an ordinary citizen at that time, you would definitely not have the interest to enjoy the sightseeing. I am afraid that what you would think about most is how to save your life.]

Ming, Jinling City.

"Is that all?" Zhu Yuanzhang had adjusted his mentality, but still couldn't help asking.

But it was gone, the sky screen had started to repeat.

"How come there is no relevant solution?" Zhu Yuanzhang covered his chest with his hands, feeling very tight in his chest for a moment.

"Dad, are you okay?" Zhu Biao saw that something was wrong and hurriedly said, "Call the imperial physician!"

"No need!" Zhu Yuanzhang refused with all his strength. His family knew their own business, and the most important thing right now was to see if there was any solution.

Zhu Qiyu Zhu Qizhen, Zhu Qizhen was also called the "Emperor of Calling the Gate" by later generations.

He silently recited the two names, thinking of Gao Zhan and Qi Jianyou in his heart, and calculated the approximate time.

Only five generations had passed by then, and the Ming Dynasty was in ruins.
He could only place his hopes in the comments section to see if there was any solution.

Food and warmth.

The last Little Ice Age ended in 1980

"When I was a kid in the 1960s, there was ice on the small rivers in Shanghai. I would walk on it, but it was very dangerous."

"Before 1980, it was really cold. If you went out in the Northeast without a cotton hat, your ears would freeze off. After 1980, an expert on CCTV said that the Little Ice Age of the Ming and Qing Dynasties was over!"

"In the 1990s, the fields in Sichuan were full of ice, but now there is none"

"My cousin was born in 84. He said that when he was a kid, the pond would freeze in the winter. It was one or two inches thick and he could run and jump on it. He is from Hunan, but I only saw very thin ice that broke when I scratched it with my fingers."

When I was a child in the 80s, almost every child in my hometown of Anhui had frostbite on their hands and feet.

"When I read Dream of the Red Chamber, I was surprised by the heavy snow in Jinling. It turned out to be the Little Ice Age."

A group of ministers looked at Tianmu's testimony and guessed that future generations would most likely be in a warm period.

Zhu Yuanzhang watched intently, but still couldn't find any useful suggestions. Are future generations also helpless in this regard?
"The various descriptions of the Little Ice Age are mainly derived from county annals and local annals. I can guarantee that it is very difficult to forge this kind of information."

"The descriptions in different places are consistent, it is impossible to fake them, and the credibility is extremely high"

"It snowed in Danzhou, Hainan Province, in the late Ming Dynasty. I can't imagine how low the temperature would drop in the Yangtze River Delta."

It snowed in Danzhou
Zhu Biao was terrified, that was Danzhou!!!

Needless to say, everyone in the Ming Dynasty was terrified, and everyone in the Tang Dynasty's Chang'an City had their hair standing on end.

Living in the Zhenguan period, they could not imagine that it would snow in Danzhou!

Danzhou, the hot and scorching city, has snow. How cold must other places be?

Not to mention Chang'an in the north? What about Luoyang?
(End of this chapter)