"Yi Zhou Shu Wen Chuan" has a saying: "Man is determined to overcome the heavens", describing manpower can overcome nature, this is actually just a good wish, we do not want to deny the role of human subjective initiative, but in the face of the great power of nature, human ability is really minimal, like ants!
In 1939, the "Soviet-Finnish War" broke out, the Soviet Union sent 700,000 troops to attack the small country of "Finland", but finally lost 200,000 Soviet soldiers, one of the important reasons is that the climate in Europe that year was exceptionally cold, the minimum temperature reached minus forty-three degrees Celsius! Many Soviet soldiers were frozen to death!
Coincidentally, there was also an extremely cold period in Chinese history, which directly accelerated the collapse of a dynasty!
This dynasty is the Ming Dynasty!
Throughout the ages, people have always been full of sympathy for the demise of the Ming Dynasty, painting this huge empire with a layer of "sadness".
Although the Ming Dynasty died in the Qing Dynasty, but the invasion of the Forbidden City, forcing the Chongzhen Emperor to kill his wife and hang himself was the "King of Chuang" Li Zicheng and his peasant rebel army, at that time the Qing Dynasty was still Houjin, the Houjin army was looking at the tiger outside Shanhaiguan, but it was never able to break through the Ming Dynasty's Ningyuan defense line, but instead suffered heavy losses under the Ming Dynasty's artillery, and even Nurhaci was seriously injured by Yuan Chonghuan with cannons, and soon died of his wounds!
Therefore, the rebellion in various places at the end of the Ming Dynasty was the direct cause of the demise of the Ming Dynasty, but the Chongzhen Emperor was not a faint and incompetent emperor, but he was diligent in government affairs, young and promising, so why did so many people rebel?
The reason is very simple: the common people can not survive, the reason for this is caused by natural disasters, and the Chongzhen Emperor is also "sad and urgent", not only to clean up the mess left by his father, but also to deal with various natural disasters.
According to the "History of Ming", the natural disasters that occurred during the Chongzhen Dynasty during the seventeen years mainly included drought, locusts, waterlogging, wind, hail, earthquake, snow and so on, of which drought had the highest frequency.
The root cause of such a high frequency of droughts is that the late Ming dynasty was in the "Ming and Qing Xiaoice period"
This "Xiaoice period" spanned the Ming and Qing dynasties and lasted for three hundred years, and its main feature was that the winter was extremely cold! How cold is it?
Cold to Jiangnan, central China, South China and other places have appeared in the spectacle of ice and snow, cold to Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake are frozen three feet! This was true in the south, not to mention the north, and according to records, during the Chongzhen period, the minimum temperature in the north was even lower than minus forty degrees Celsius!
What is this concept? Now the popular "splashing water into ice" on the vibrato, the required temperature is only about minus thirty degrees! If the temperature reaches minus forty degrees, it is difficult for humans to survive in the outside world, and if there are not enough warm measures, they will soon be frozen into "ice sculptures"!
So how harmful is such low temperatures?
The extremely cold temperature caused the rebels everywhere to rise, and the continuous flow of rebels eventually caused the demise of the Ming Dynasty, for the peasants, there is still a glimmer of life in the rebellion, and if you do not rebel, you can only die!
Because the extremely cold temperature brought about a severe drought, according to the "Drought in Chinese History", "Except for the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the rainfall was particularly low in the Ming Dynasty, when the total number of droughts was the highest in all centuries"!
This is also why the Chongzhen Emperor is diligent and capable, and the rebel armies everywhere are still like the secretaries of the river, a steady stream, no way, how can manpower compete with the mighty power of nature?
The severe drought also brought a series of disasters such as locust plagues and earthquakes, and under the "combined force" of these disasters, the strength of the Ming Dynasty was constantly weakened, and finally it came to an end, and the huge empire collapsed!
According to statistics, by the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the population of the whole country was reduced by half! This is also the reason why the Qing Dynasty was able to spend the "Xiaoice period": there are fewer people, and food is naturally enough!
brief summary:
Although the root cause of the demise of the Ming Dynasty is that it is difficult to return and is entangled, but the extremely cold temperature is also one of the reasons that cannot be ignored, if there is no rebel army everywhere, whether the Houjin army can break through the Ming's Ningyuan defense line is still two words!
This also shows that human strength is really insignificant in the face of nature, and as soon as nature shows its "fangs", it is difficult for us to resist!
In recent years, the phenomenon of extreme weather in various parts of the world has become more and more frequent, and the reason is that human beings ignore the laws of nature and constantly challenge the "bottom line" of nature.
Here, I also warn everyone not to wantonly destroy the ecological balance under the guise of "man will triumph over heaven", we can't afford the anger of nature!
References: Yi Zhou Shu Wen Chuan, Drought in Chinese History, History of the Ming Dynasty