If you open the history of the Ming Dynasty, you will find that the number of large-scale disasters in the history of the Ming Dynasty is actually not much, that is, more than 1,000 times, even less than the Qing Dynasty.
Curiously, however, the natural disasters of the Ming Dynasty were different from other dynasties, and the Hail Disasters and Cold Disasters of the Ming Dynasty were much more than other dynasties, accounting for more than half of the total disasters of the Ming Dynasty.
This shows that the Ming Dynasty has always been in a very cold state, otherwise why hail disasters would be so frequent.
Later scholars have studied it in detail and found that from the early years of the Yuan Dynasty to the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the land of China suffered from the extremely cold "Xiaoice River Period".
However, the Ming Dynasty was even more unlucky, just in the middle position, and was the coldest stage of the entire "Xiaoice River Period".
So how cold was China three hundred years ago?
We may wish to open the records of the history books to study them, believing that the shocking numbers in the history books will make people feel afraid.
As we all know, there are four major furnace cities in China, and Nanjing is one of them. Presumably, modern Nanjing people have seen the dry heat of Nanjing in the summer, and it is indeed like being stuffed into the furnace, which is a bit unbearable.
According to the "Ming History and Five Elements Chronicle", the normal situation in Nanjing is that there is little wind and snow in winter, but during the Ming Dynasty, it was "strangely cold in winter, and the river froze for several days."
Just as the so-called "freezing three feet is not a day's cold", the river freeze is actually in a state of incomprehension for several days, I am afraid that it is even colder than the northeast region today.
In addition, the "Reading Of the World" records the winter weather conditions in Anhui, and the book states that "heavy snow for several days, flat land accumulation of three feet." ”
Converted according to modern units of length, three feet is equivalent to about one meter.
These figures in the history books are indeed shocking, and the flat ground can make the snow thick to about one meter, and if a child of eight or nine years old is among them, I am afraid that he will not be able to show his head.
East China is so cold, so what is the situation in the south, which has always been warm?
The "Guangdong Tongzhi" records that in 1506 AD, guangzhou Qiongzhou drifted snow for thousands of miles, and the snow in the territory reached several feet thick. At its coldest, the snow line even covered the northern part of Hainan Island, which cannot be described as a thousand miles of ice.
Northerners are fortunate, they are accustomed to preparing clothes for winter before winter, and they have accumulated a lot of winter clothes for a long time, barely surviving this extremely cold weather.
Southerners have been accustomed to the life of spring in all seasons, never thought that they would encounter such a cold and lasting extremely cold weather, and naturally did not have to prepare cold clothes.
But when the national extreme cold weather swept in, it was too late for them to buy warm clothing.
Although cotton at that time was not rare under the impetus of Zhu Yuanzhang, in the face of a national disaster, not only did the demand for cotton soar, but also after the cold disaster was often accompanied by drought, cotton production was repeatedly reduced, which led to cotton prices all the way up, comparable to gold, ordinary people have been unable to bear.
As a result, tens of thousands of people in Guangdong alone have been frozen to death.
It is hard to imagine what kind of helplessness and despair it is to wear only thin clothes and no quilts to keep warm at night in the midst of ice and snow.
Through the above historical records, it is not difficult to see that in China more than 300 years ago, winter was extremely cold and protracted, and the temperature from south to north was gradually cold, and the cold disaster was always accompanied by drought, which also aggravated the demise of the Ming Dynasty.
Although I have seen the cold of the Ming Dynasty from the historical records, how harmful is such extremely cold weather? What difficulties do people face in addition to the cold?
The first is the massive reduction in grain production.
This is not only because of the devastating blow that extremely cold weather can inflict on crops, but also because drought usually occurs after cold disasters.
It can be found from the ancient book "Reading the World" that the rain and snow at that time showed a serious southward shift, which led to successive major droughts in Important grain-producing areas such as Heluo, Qilu, Wuyue, Jingchu, and Sanfu.
As we all know, the Jingchu region has always been known as the granary of the world, which has been very prominent in the Three Kingdoms era. If there is a drought here, life will be difficult for the whole country.
Secondly, livestock were frozen to death in large numbers.
In ancient times, the price of livestock used for farming was originally expensive, and in the long cold weather, livestock were continuously frozen to death, so this undoubtedly cut off the livelihood of ordinary people.
In addition to this there is traffic.
In many historical materials, such as the Records of the Journey to the North, the Compilation of The Reading of the World, the History of the Five Elements of the Ming Dynasty, and the Notes on Yong Xianzhai, the transportation situation at that time was recorded. According to the records of these historical records, it can be said that almost all the rivers in the country were frozen at that time.
Waterways are impassable, but the same is true overland. The three-foot-thick snow was really difficult to walk, let alone the carriage could not move forward, or it was quite difficult to walk, which led to the slow flow of goods and the obstruction of the time for transmission, so many orders issued by the emperor could not be conveyed for a long time, especially in the south and other remote areas.
With so many conundrums, the immediate consequence is a sharp decline in population and even a change of dynasties.
In fact, the "Xiaoice River Period" has appeared many times in Chinese history, and each time it appears, there will be a change of dynasties.
The earliest records of this are found in the last year of the Shang Dynasty, followed by the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, then the last year of the Tang Dynasty, and finally the last year of the Ming Dynasty.
Have you found a pattern? As long as this extremely cold weather occurs and the imperial court mishandles it, it is likely to cause a peasant uprising and eventually lead to a change of dynasty.
Not only that, but every time there is an extremely cold weather, there will also be a sharp decline in population.
Although the Shang Dynasty did not know the exact number due to the lack of historical materials, the history books record that the population had plummeted to more than seven million in the period from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the beginning of the Western Jin Dynasty.
If it is said that the population has decreased sharply because of the war, then there are not many chaotic times in history like the Three Kingdoms, why did the population during the Three Kingdoms period decrease so much?
Even in the Ming Dynasty, the population was reduced by at least half.
Although the weather is extremely cold and there are many problems, people are not helpless, and the ancients still thought of some ways to resist the cold.
For example, it was mentioned in the "Qi Min Zhi Shu" that in order to resist such extreme weather, the ancients would use methods such as smoking, cultivating soil, and wrapping.
For example, the smoking method is used for warmth. This method mainly uses the smoke released after combustion of flammables such as defoliants, dried dung and firewood to weaken the cold air radiation on the ground and increase the temperature.
For crops, the soil cultivation method is used. That is, the use of soft soil to increase the soil layer of the crop and thicken it, and cover the soil above the rhizome to achieve the effect of keeping warm.
As for trees such as fruit trees, the wrapping method is used. As the name suggests, it is to wrap the outside of the tree with a layer of warmth. This method has been used ever since.
However, artificial defense has always been used only for a momentary emergency, in the long-term extreme cold weather, manpower has been unstoppable, so at that time many plants and fruit trees were unable to be planted due to weather reasons.
For example, lychees, coconuts and betel nuts have all moved south, so that Fujian and Guangxi, where these fruits were once abundant, have not been seen for a long time. It wasn't until the "Xiaoice River" had completely passed that the trees re-sprouted.
Of course, it also indicates that a new chapter is about to begin.
References: "History of the Ming Dynasty", "Qi Min Zhi Shu", "Northern Travels", "Reading the World", etc