Daming Military Empire

Chapter 57 Unprecedented
Just as Zhu Cijiong was rejoicing at the opening of Rixinglong Company and the "invention" of the flying shuttle loom, the unprecedented super drought in the entire North China finally broke out.

The super drought in the late Ming Dynasty was the longest-lasting, widest-reaching, and most destructive natural disaster ever recorded in historical records. This drought lasted for nearly 50 years, covering an area of ​​several million square kilometers in four provinces and one capital. Except for a few areas along the coast, almost all of them were affected, which directly led to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty in North China!
Later historians and meteorologists analyzed that this severe drought was mainly caused by the once-in-a-thousand-year "Little Ice Age". The period at the end of Ming Dynasty happened to be the peak of the Little Ice Age. The severe cold in winter caused the rainfall area to move southward. , the drought in North China became more and more serious, grain production dropped sharply, and tens of millions of people became hungry.

Zhu Cijiong came across and successfully ascended the throne. He could rewrite history and change Chongzhen to Chongzheng, but he could not avoid this drought, because this drought was not caused by man-made, but a natural disaster.

In February of the third year of Chongzheng, droughts broke out in Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan one after another. When the news came back to the capital, Zhu Cijiong suddenly felt dizzy.Although he was mentally prepared, the sudden outbreak of such a large-scale drought caught him by surprise.Rixinglong is still in its infancy, and it would be good to be able to produce benefits after a year; the flying shuttle loom has just been "invented", and it is not a matter of a day or two to generate economic benefits. 2000 million taels of silver.

Whether to provide disaster relief or not is a question.

For disaster relief, 2000 million taels of silver will be thrown into nearly 3000 million people, and each person will get less than one tael. Not counting the exploitation of officials at all levels and the cost of food transportation, 2000 million taels will be thrown into the disaster victims who can’t even have enough porridge!
If there is no disaster relief, the starving people in the five provinces will definitely rise up, and the peasant uprising army will blossom everywhere. Our Chongzheng Emperor Zhu Cijiong hates that he may follow the old path of Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian and become the king of subjugation!
The severe drought at the end of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be an eternal problem. Whether it is Qin Huang, Han Wu or Tang Zong and Song Zu, they still have to stop cooking when encountering such a severe drought.What about our Chongzheng Emperor Zhu Cijiong?Will he give up?
Of course not, the [-] days of hesitation between life and death when he traveled here had already forged his will as hard as iron, indomitable, and of course he would not give up lightly in the face of such a life-and-death event.But, how to do it, this is really a problem!
While Zhu Cijiong was still thinking hard about countermeasures, the peasant uprising had become like a spark and spread suddenly.

As early as the first month of the third year of Chongzheng, there were three or four thousand peasant rebels from Shaanxi, Wang Zishun and Miao Mei, who went south to besiege Hancheng.

On the [-]th day of the first lunar month, Yang He, governor of Shaanxi Province, led an army to Hancheng to appease Wang Zishun and relieve the siege of Hancheng.But Miao Mei refused to be appeased and led the army to the north. In April, she was killed in Hejiawan by Qingjian scholar Li Panlong.

On April 28, Wang Zishun thought that Miao Mei's revenge was an excuse to revive. He was afraid that Yang He, the governor of Shaanxi, would lead an army to appease him again, so he crossed the Yellow River from Shenmu and went straight to Shanxi. Attack Zhaocheng and Hongdong; attack Shilou, Yonghe, etc. in the west, and start calling himself the king of Hengtian.

Afterwards, many peasant rebels in Shaanxi imitated Wang Zishun and crossed the Yellow River from Shenmu to attack Xiangling, Jizhou, Taiping, Quwo and other counties.

At this time, the Peasant Rebel Army already had a certain charter. They usually took "battalions" as units, each battalion had a leader, and each battalion was relatively independent. , Sometimes they disperse and fight on their own.

Due to the large number of peasant uprisings, the officers and soldiers who participated in the encirclement and suppression at the end of the Ming Dynasty did not know how many battalions the peasant army had. At the beginning, there were 36 battalions, and then 72 battalions and [-] battalions appeared. Calculated, there are about thirteen people who can be ranked:

The first one is Fugu King Wang Jiayin. This Wang Jiayin mentioned earlier. He was the first one to stand up to respond to the uprising after Wang Ershouyi. .Later, it grew to more than 3 people and moved to Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu and other places. It was a well-deserved leader of the Peasant Army in the early stage. Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Wang Ziyong, etc. were all his subordinates.But this Wang Jiayin was quite unlucky. He was assassinated by his subordinates in the fourth year of Chongzheng. Otherwise, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong might not have anything to do later. It must be Wang Jiayin who established the peasant regime.

The second place is for Zijin Liangwang's own use, the number one general under Fugu King Wang Jiayin, and the leader of the 36th Battalion of the Peasant Rebel Army.He followed Wang Jiayin in the early stage, and died of illness not long after becoming the leader, otherwise he would definitely be more famous than Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the future.

The third is Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang, he was the first Chuang Wang, Li Zicheng's uncle, he used to trade horses, was good at riding and shooting, and had excellent arm strength. One of the oldest leaders is also the subordinate of Fugu King Wang Jiayin at the moment.

The fourth is Chuangjiang Li Zicheng, the second Chuangwang and the founder of the Dashun regime. The cheating wife was killed, and two lives were lost. He had to flee to Gansu to join the army. As a result, the generals in the army withheld food and did not pay him. He organized a mutiny and killed all the generals and the local county magistrate!If you want to put it in modern times, this is a murderous maniac!Fortunately, there was no Internet in the Ming Dynasty, otherwise, how could he have escaped sanctions time and time again!Probably because too many people were killed, he didn't dare to join the army anymore, so he simply turned around and joined the Peasant Rebel Army. He is still a small captain at the moment.

The fifth is Zhang Xianzhong, the Eight Great Kings, the founder of the Daxi regime. He was originally a policeman in Yan'an Prefecture. At this moment, the peasants in the Shibazhai villages in their hometown have just begun to organize an uprising.

The sixth place is Sai Cao Cao Luo Rucai, the think tank of the peasant uprising army. He is very strategic and good at mediating the relationship between the battalions.

The seventh and eighth places are Chuangtatian Liu Guoneng and Shetatian Li Wanqing, both of whom were sworn brothers of Li Zicheng and later surrendered to the court.

The ninth to No. 13th places are Laohuihui Ma Yingshou, Geliyan He Yilong, Zuojin Wang Hejin, Zhishiwang Liu Xiyao, and Zhengshiwang Lin Chengcheng. These are the leaders of the fifth battalion of Gezuo. The Left Fifth Battalion was a force second only to Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the later period of the Peasant Army.

In addition, there are other Kings of Chuangtian, King of Sweeping, King of Neatness, King of Changshi, King of Xingshi, King of Hunshi, King of Whole World, King of Shuntian, King of Climbing, King of Taiping, King of Wabei, King of Great Heaven, King of Four Heavens, King of Qi, etc. Wait, I don't know if it's Wang originally surnamed Wang or Wang Ye, but they are all Wang anyway.

Those with the word Wang can at least guess the meaning. Anyway, they are either surnamed Wang or they want to be king, and there are some strange nicknames, so I don’t know what they want to do.

There is a man named Shang Tian Hou. I don’t know if he has read too much "Journey to the West".

There is someone called Sky Prime, this guy probably hasn't watched "Transformers", otherwise he should be called Optimus Prime.

There is azalea, which seems to be a kind of wild flower.

There is a tiger that destroys mountains, can this tiger destroy mountains?

There are scorpion pieces, non-sticky mud, lamps, maids, etc. I don't know what to say.

Anyway, there is a lot of mess, the number is countless, and the suppression is endless.

(End of this chapter)