Zhu Cixuan still underestimated the power of the Little Ice Age. He thought that everything would be fine if he solved the disaster in Shanxi and Henan.

In fact, this is not the case. The Ming Dynasty should not have died or cannot die. But when it came to Chongzhen, it was dead. Of course, there are many reasons for this, and the Little Ice Age is one of them.

The Little Ice Age began in the 13th century, reached its peak in the 17th century, and eventually slowed down the activity trend about two hundred years ago. That is to say, the Little Ice Age hit by Emperor Chongzhen. At its peak, famine raged in the Nordic region. Some people believe that half of Norway and Sweden's population died in the famine. At the same time, ice and snow spread around the world. Parts of Ethiopia are covered with snow, and China's crops are under harvest, and the surface of Lake Superior begins to freeze.

From the data of Chinese meteorological history, we can know that several of the largest social unrest in Chinese history are indeed closely related to the four Little Ice Ages, not entirely caused by the failure of the administration. The late Yin and Shang Dynasties to the early Western Zhou Dynasty were the first Little Ice Age, the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms, and the Western Jin Dynasty were the second Little Ice Age, the late Tang Dynasty, the Five Dynasties, and the early Northern Song Dynasty were the third Little Ice Age.

The late Ming and early Qing dynasties were the fourth Little Ice Age. At that time, the temperature dropped sharply, causing drought in the north and large-scale grain production, resulting in decades of severe social turmoil and war. The long-term famine was the fundamental reason for the unlimited expansion of war. The first three "Little Ice Ages" China's population dropped sharply by more than four-fifths, and the last time the population dropped sharply by only half in the late Ming Dynasty was due to the lives saved by potatoes, corn and sweet potatoes, which were reported from the Americas.

However, for the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters occurred frequently. Emperor Chongzhen told the Ministry of Revenue and the Censorate: the province directly reported hunger, while the people in the capital, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi also had local food and vegetables, but they had no vegetables. They also cut out meat and bones, and burned them to make them cry.

Among them, the disaster in Shanxi, Henan and Shanxi were extinguished. However, there were disasters in the surrounding areas of the capital, in all provinces in Zhili, and in Shanxi. The people ate wild vegetables and used Guanyin soil to fill their hunger. The food was gone and the firewood was completely implicated. Chongzhen said, and he all left tears.

Such an emperor also ruined the Ming Dynasty. What is placed in front of Daming is internal and external disasters and man-made disasters.

However, there is one thing that everyone unexpected is that after being famined in Henan, Li Weiwen, after being rescued by the disaster, the thief Li Zicheng heard the news and wanted to send troops to Henan. At this time, Li Zicheng occupied Hubei with hundreds of thousands of troops. Zhang Xianzhong walked west to Baiyang Mountain and joined Luo Ru. At this time, Cao Wei crossed the Tianxing and wanted to cross the river, but was blocked by Ming officers and soldiers. Zhang Xianzhong arrived and joined him.

As Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong continued to grow, Emperor Chongzhen felt an unprecedented chill. Chongzhen was a little worried about how to deal with these bandits.

There were many famous generals in the Ming Dynasty, but Hong Chengchou and others had to guard Liaodong. Chongzhen had no suitable candidate for whom to stop the bandits. He thought of many people, but everyone had their strengths and weaknesses. It was not easy to destroy bandits. In the past few days, Chongzhen has been worried about this.

On this day, Emperor Chongzhen went to Empress Zhou, and he still looked frowning.

When Empress Zhou saw her husband working so hard, she couldn't help but be very concerned: "Long live, you still need to take care of your dragon body. I saw that you were not worried about food and food these days, not only did you encounter any difficult things."

Emperor Chongzhen didn't want to tell his wife about the matter in the court. But he had a deep relationship with Empress Zhou and could not bear his wife's concern, so he had to say, "It's nothing. The bandits in the south are raging. I heard that Li Zicheng's team has grown a lot, and he even claimed to have hundreds of thousands of troops. Zhang Xianzhong is even more difficult to control. I have only been worried about the bandits these days. All the officials in the court are confused, and I don't know who should send to suppress the bandits."

This kind of thing has never stopped since Chongzhen ascended the throne. Bandits and rebellions occur frequently. These rebellious bandits usually have "battalions" units. Each battalion has a leader, and each battalion is relatively independent, time is divided and time is combined, and each fights. The leaders of each battalion are uncontrollable and have no leadership relationship. Later, it appeared as "family" as the organizational form, which is composed of relatively stable mergers of each battalion.

The peasant army operates in the form of a large number of stocks, and one large number of stocks often has one battalion or several battalions. At first, there was a saying of the thirteen battalions. When it captured Fengyang, there was a saying of "thirteen families and seventy-two battalions", which was later collectively called the thirteen families, and finally formed the two main forces of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. The officers and soldiers who participated in the encirclement and suppression in the late Ming Dynasty did not understand how many peasant army had, so they could not fundamentally say how many peasant army had in the late Ming Dynasty.

These bandits caused immeasurable losses to the people in the Central Plains. Of course, there were natural disasters and man-made disasters and officials forced the people to rebel. But more of them were bandits burning, killing and looting everywhere, causing the people in many places to fall into dire straits.

The people's lives were unsustainable in the looted areas, so they joined these bandits. As a result, they became bigger and bigger like snowballs.

Just like, Li Zicheng now claims to have hundreds of thousands of troops. In fact, Li Zicheng has not yet reached the point of great difficulty, and the combat effectiveness of the Ming army is still there. These people are just a group of mobs, and as long as there is a famous general, there is still great hope to defeat them.

Once they continue to grow and rush into the Central Plains, the officers and soldiers will be afraid that they will never be their opponents. Even if the officers and soldiers can fight, they will only have the fate of defeating the peasant army that is dozens or hundreds of times.

In the 13th year of Chongzhen, the general who could fight was the leader and then died of illness. If he wanted to film who would lead the troops, Chongzhen had no idea for a moment.

Empress Zhou could not interfere in government affairs. Besides, she, a woman, could not think of any good way. But seeing her husband worried about this, Empress Zhou felt depressed.

At this time, in Kunning Palace, Princess Kunxing suddenly spoke: "Father, my daughter heard that my brother Ciyang is very powerful. Why don't you ask him? Maybe my brother will have any good solutions."

Chongzhen and Empress Zhou were shocked. How could his daughter suddenly say something like this? Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but ask: "How did you know that your brother is very powerful?"

Princess Kunxing flashed with clear big eyes: "Everyone in the palace says that, and now everyone outside is rumoring it. My brother has been very good at rectifying the soldiers of the three camps. Now the soldiers in our capital are not as easy to bully as before. My daughter also heard that more than 30 stone throwing cars were installed on the walls of the four cities. My daughter has always wanted to go and see it, but her mother refused to accompany me."

Looking at Princess Kunxing's pouting mouth, the couple looked at each other, and Queen Zhou said, "Long live, what our prince said is not unreasonable. You might as well ask Ci Yang for this."
Chapter completed!