When winter falls, the central heating problem in the south will become the focus of the Internet. In the winter in the south of China, although the temperature is not low, the air humidity is large, which reduces the cold tolerance of the human body and makes it difficult for northerners to adapt.
Throughout history, in ancient times, during the cold winter, although people did not have large cotton jackets and down jackets, they did not have to worry about freezing to death. For individuals, the weather becomes colder and a few more clothes are added, but for the country, the weather is unusually cooling on a large scale, which may be related to the survival of the country.
The most understandable thing is that the temperature rises, the precipitation increases, and there is more land in the north suitable for growing grain. If the peasants move north, and some people have grain, this place can be defended, and the territory of the Central Plains can be expanded to the north. Temperatures drop, causing them to shrink southward. From the changes in the territory of our country throughout the ages, we can roughly see this change.
Some people say that the fierce generals who emerged during the Han and Tang Dynasties were the heroes who opened up the territory. This is true, the defeat of the Xiongnu and turks really depended on Huo Qiyi, Li Jing and others, but it was still up to the peasants to defend the territory. Otherwise, even if you hit it, you will still lose it.
During the Ming Dynasty, in addition to Zhu Di's five expeditions to the north of the desert, more than one Ming general once went out to destroy the Mongols and beat the Mongols to the challenge. The Ming Great Wall is the southernmost of the Great Walls of the past, because it cannot be defended, there are no peasants who diligently cultivate land as soldiers, and even the most intelligent generals cannot protect a barren land for a long time.
For smallholder economies, prolonged cold temperatures can lead to reduced food, frequent disasters, and a significant weakening of social stability. The Xiaoice period, which began in the late 16th century, led to a general decrease in global temperatures, and the monsoon climate regions of China and India were more affected.
The Mughal empire of India was originally a powerful empire, Xiaoice period of drought, agricultural failures and starvation of a large number of farmers. The rulers, however, were unwilling to reduce their incomes and levied taxes on their subjects, sparking a nationwide revolt and plunging India into fragmentation. The last to benefit were the British, who conquered the South Asian subcontinent without much effort.
At this time, China was in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, and various ills had accumulated to a certain extent, no matter how diligent the emperor and the imperial court were, they could only cure headaches and foot pains. The arrival of the Xiaoice period intensified social contradictions, resulting in the Ming Dynasty finally being replaced by the Qing Dynasty.
In fact, the Ming Dynasty had a chance to survive, high-yield crops such as corn and sweet potatoes had been introduced, and the population that the Central Plains Dynasty could carry exceeded the limit of 60 million and rose to 150 million. As long as you don't make too many mistakes, you should be able to keep the south of the Great Wall. Unfortunately, by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the state had become deadly.
Judging from the official concept of governing the country, the Ming Dynasty has greatly deteriorated compared with dynasties such as the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties, and the only "legitimate" sources of wealth for the imperial court are tianfu and salt and iron, and other tax sources such as commercial taxes are said to be competing with the people for profits. In fact, the most engaged in industrial and commercial business activities are local tyrants with official backgrounds, who certainly do not want to be taxed by the imperial court.
Sea trade has always been a topic of debate in the court, obviously everyone knows that sea trade can bring rich sources of wealth, but there have always been huge forces trying to ban the sea. Except for a few nerds, it is precisely the profiteers who advocate the prohibition of the sea that smuggle at sea, and only after the sea is banned can they buy and sell at a low price and obtain greater profits.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the emperors who could amass wealth were all lifted from the sea ban or reused eunuchs to collect taxes, and a large amount of wool was extracted from the gentry. The side effect of this is that they are scolded by the history books, because the history books are written by those officials and gentry.
Even if it was a field endowment, the imperial court received less and less. It is said that the land will only be reclaimed more and more, even if the land annexation is serious, the land itself is always there, and the tax base should be larger and larger. But there is less and less land on the books that should be taxed, and the country is getting poorer. The main reasons for this are hermitage and devotion.
The hermits understand that there are obviously 10,000 mu of land, which are registered in the official government as 8,000 mu, and the 2,000 mu that is missed can be exempted from taxation. Dedication is a feature of the Ming Dynasty, simply put, Zhu Yuanzhang set the rule that readers do not pay grain, and after being distorted and enlarged, all those who take meritorious names and imperial court officials can not pay grain.
With this policy in place, the common people registered their land in the names of officials and gentry in order to evade the state's land grants. According to historical records, some prime ministers who are known for their incorruptibility have more than 400,000 acres of land under their family names. Therefore, every time the law is changed, the first thing the state does is to clear the land.
During the seventy-year-long Xiaoice period, the north was starved everywhere, and from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese mouth dropped sharply from 120 million to about 50 million people, and there were nearly 70 million people. The imperial court had no money to provide disaster relief, and had to raise taxes to fight wars. The dry wood fire was finally ignited, burning the Ming Dynasty. Natural disasters are a heavy weight that crushes the Zhu family's world, but it is certainly not the only one. The cold current can indeed freeze people to death, but if you are too poor to wear cotton clothes, you can't just blame God.