In the third year of Zhengzheng (1343), a severe drought occurred in Haozhou.
The following spring there was a severe plague of locusts and plagues.
Locusts that cover the sky
In just over ten days, Zhu Yuanzhang's father, mother and eldest brother died one after another.
In the face of such a major life change, the best way to soothe the soul is to rely on each other with the rest of the family to tide over the difficulties.
But under a severe famine, staying together is likely to be destroyed by the group!
In order to survive, Zhu Yuanzhang, then 15 years old, had to be separated from his eldest sister-in-law, second brother and nephew and escape from each other.
After escaping to the temple as a monk, in order to survive, Zhu Yuanzhang began to beg for food.
The benefactor who was close to the temple and was relatively rich could not take the turn of the lonely Zhu Yuanzhang to fast.
So Zhu Yuanzhang, who was excluded, could only take a broken bowl and run to a poor area farther away to try his luck in order to survive.
This is probably the saddest thing in the world.
Therefore, after becoming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang attached great importance to family affection and also spoiled his descendants.
He set a very high standard for his children and grandchildren, fearing that his children and grandchildren would not have enough to eat.
Moreover, it is also stipulated that the Zhu family has a noble status, cannot engage in any social occupation, and there is only one way to increase income, that is, to have children.
If you have one more child, the imperial court will issue an extra salary according to the rank.
For example, one of Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants was a Zhenguo general when he was first enthroned, so every time his family gave birth to a male, he would give his family a copy of the Zhenguo general's Feng Lu.
Therefore, the main task of the Ming Dynasty royal family is to have children, very desperate kind.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Shanxi Qingcheng became king
Zhu Zhongyi
A total of 94 children have been born!
However, this record was soon refreshed by another king of the clan.
The king of the clan gave birth to more than 100 sons alone.
Every time there is a holiday family gathering, the brothers sitting at a table don't know each other.
Of course, this is only a microcosm of the explosive growth of the imperial population in the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yuanzhang's prince and general at the beginning of the founding of the country were only 49 people.
A hundred or two hundred years later, the number of royal populations everywhere had become staggering.
During the Zhu Yuanzhang period, there was only one Jin king in Shanxi Province, and by the time of Zhu Houxi of Jiajing more than 170 years later, there were 1851 royal descendants with knighthoods.
During the same Zhu Yuanzhang period, there was only one King of Zhou in Henan, and by the time of Zhu Yijun of Wanli more than 210 years later, there were more than 5,000 royal descendants with knighthoods!
According to population history experts, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's descendants had multiplied to nearly 1 million people!
To feed so many royal people, it is difficult to avoid the state's financial income is not enough.
In the forty years of Jiajing, the imperial court once calculated that the annual supply of grain to the capital was 4 million stones, while the expenditure of Lu rice in the palaces of the kings needed more than 8.5 million stones, and the gap was more than 4.5 million stones!