"Over the years, the Ming Dynasty has lived a prosperous life, and I almost forgot about the Little Ice Age."
Liu Jin was thinking hard about this matter in his mind.
The demise of the Ming Dynasty is actually most directly related to the Little Ice Age.
During the Hongzhi and Zhengde dynasties, the situation was relatively better. It was only during the brewing period of the Little Ice Age that there were only occasional years when it was particularly cold and droughty.
But there will not be consecutive years of cold or drought.
As long as the court's disaster relief efforts are effective, there is usually no big problem. After all, this land has been subject to various disasters since ancient times, including droughts, floods, and locust plagues, even in the prosperous and prosperous times.
"It is now the thirty-seventh year of Hongzhi. According to the timeline, this is already the Jiajing Dynasty in history. The power of the Little Ice Age has slowly begun to deepen and become more prominent."
Liu Jin calculated the time carefully.
Because he traveled back in time, Emperor Hongzhi has lived until now. The historical Emperor Hongzhi died in the eighteenth year of Hongzhi. Then Emperor Zhengde only served as emperor for sixteen years, which is thirty-four years in total.
It's time for the Jiajing Dynasty.
However, it has been thirty-seven years since Hongzhi, and Emperor Hongzhi is still doing well. As for Zhu Houzhao, he is still a happy Crown Prince. Neither of them died and are living well.
"With such heavy snow and such cold weather, I am afraid that various disasters will continue one after another."
"The most terrifying things about the Little Ice Age were drought and plague!"
Liu Jin frowned. The entire period of the Little Ice Age lasted for a long time, but it did not mean that the entire period was extremely cold.
Even in the worst of times, some years are smooth.
The most terrifying impact of the Little Ice Age was the impact on agricultural production. Suddenly there was a frost in the summer, and the harvest basically stopped in a year.
Then the next year, there was a widespread drought. There was no rainfall in more than a dozen provinces, causing drought for a whole year and no harvest.
This is not the scariest thing. The scariest thing is that it will be like this for the next few years, which will be really scary.
For farmers who depend on the weather for their livelihood, this is undoubtedly a road to death.
In addition to drought, plague is also a very scary thing.
Because the weather was too dry, even the vegetation withered, and rats gathered one after another, leading to the spread of the plague, according to historical records.
Beginning in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the entire land of China began to enter a period of unprecedented lack of rain and drought, and major droughts occurred nationwide. The Wanli and Chongzhen periods were especially serious. Droughts were extremely frequent and lasted for several years. The number of years of severe droughts is also increasing.
, affecting the entire northern region.
Along with the drought, plague occurred on an unprecedented scale.
The first place where the plague broke out was Shanxi. Along with the movement of refugees and hungry people, the plague quickly spread to the entire northern region.
It spread to the capital in the 14th year of Chongzhen, causing the death of a large number of people in the capital at that time, so much so that there were hundreds of thousands of people dead. Even in big cities like Beijing, only a small number of people died under the plague.
It accounted for one-fifth of the capital's population at that time.
Abnormally cold weather frequently triggered floods, droughts, locust plagues, plague, etc., which became a terrifying plague that affected the entire Ming Dynasty, forming a vicious cycle of "floods and droughts-famine-plague", which directly led to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.
"Come here, please send telegrams to various places in the Ming Dynasty immediately, and ask them to sort out the current weather and climate conditions in the land immediately."
Thinking of this, Liu Jin became worried and immediately gave instructions to his men.
Although the Ming Dynasty has gradually developed towards industrialization and capitalism, agriculture still occupies a very important position.
Extreme natural disasters can have a huge impact on agricultural production and have associated impacts on industry.
In the textile industry, the raw materials for the textile industry are cotton and wool.
In extremely short periods of weather, the output of cotton and wool will inevitably drop sharply. Needless to say, cotton is directly affected by the weather. If the weather is extremely abnormal, the cotton harvest will be the same as that of food crops.
There is an inevitable connection between wool production and sheep, and extremely short-term conditions will also affect the grassland, leading to a sharp decrease in aquatic grass in the grassland area, which in turn affects the feeding of herdsmen, resulting in a sharp decrease in the number of sheep herds.
Especially in winter, once the terrible weather of white hair wind occurs on the grassland, a large number of cattle and sheep will freeze to death, and the wool will naturally decrease sharply in the coming year.
How can a textile factory operate without raw materials?
In addition, the Ming Dynasty had a large number of immigrants in Liaodong, Black Earth, Western Regions, Central Asia, Henan and other regions. Almost all immigrants in these places were engaged in agricultural production. Extreme climate conditions would inevitably have a huge impact on immigrants in these places.
"It seems that we need to focus on the development of several provinces in Nanyang, Guangdong and Guangxi, Australia and Golden Island. The most important thing is food."
"These places have lower dimensions and are less affected. Agricultural production and food planting can be guaranteed to a certain extent. As long as there are no problems with food planting in these places, they will be able to meet the current food needs of the Ming Dynasty."
"Secondly, we need to build granaries in various provinces of the Ming Dynasty and stockpile food. We must at least stockpile enough food for the Ming Dynasty for four or five years at a time. If there is an extreme drought for several consecutive years, there will be no famine.
.”
"Well, Tianzhu is also an important granary. We need the Western United Trading Company to grow more cotton and grain. If there is a shortage of grain, grain can be transported back to the Ming Dynasty from overseas."
"It's just that during this Little Ice Age, not only the Ming Dynasty was in the Little Ice Age, but also the whole world. Only regions with lower dimensions were less affected."
Returning to his study, Liu Jin quickly thought about relevant countermeasures in his mind.
Fortunately, after more than 20 years of golden development of capitalism and colonialism, the Ming Dynasty has enough confidence to face the disasters of the Little Ice Age that will become more and more frequent.
First of all, the population of the Ming Dynasty became more dispersed. A large number of people migrated overseas and outside the customs, and the distribution became more scattered. At the same time, mechanized farming has gradually become popular. The amount of cultivated land owned is many times that of before, and the productivity is higher.
This means that even if there are natural disasters for several consecutive years, we are not afraid. As long as there is good weather for one year during the period, with the current cultivated land and farming methods of the Ming Dynasty, the food produced in one year is enough to feed the entire Ming Dynasty for ten years.
Secondly, transportation is more convenient. Even Sichuan has built railways. Except for Yunnan, Guizhou, and Chongqing, almost all provinces in Ming Dynasty have railways and trains. Transportation is very convenient, and there are a lot of
roads, as well as convenient sea and river transportation.
Convenient transportation means that food from major production areas can be quickly transported to provide relief to victims and support famine-stricken areas, which is conducive to quickly mobilizing a country's power.
The most important thing is that Daming also has a large number of tropical and subtropical areas, which are less affected by the Little Ice Age. If rice and grain are grown in Nanyang, it can completely meet the needs of the entire Daming.
If it were like the Ming Dynasty in history, even if the time traveler reaches the Ming Dynasty, he may not be able to return to heaven.
Because of this extreme natural weather, it does not affect one or two provinces, but the entire Ming Dynasty. Even the south of the Ming Dynasty is also affected.
If you get a frost in the summer, all the rice seedlings will freeze to death. This is an extremely weird ice age climate.
What's more, the conflict between man and land in the Ming Dynasty was acute in history. Under the traditional farming methods, after several consecutive years of drought, no one could do anything.
"Sir, this is the climate and weather conditions reported from various places!"
With the telegraph, the efficiency was very fast. Liu Jin only had to wait for less than an hour for the weather conditions in various places to be reported.
The Ming Telegraph Trading Company is an industry under Liu Jin's command. In addition, other industries under his command are spread across the Ming Dynasty and all over the world, so they can grasp the situation around the world in real time.
"It actually snowed in Qiongzhou, and the temperature in Guangdong has reached minus ten degrees!"
"Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, and Taihu Lake are all frozen."
"The entire Bohai Sea is frozen, and the Tianjin port has been greatly affected. Commercial trade has been greatly affected, and ships cannot travel."
“Even the Yellow Sea has been frozen for dozens of miles!”
"Grasslands, Western Regions, Black Soil, Central Asia, and several provinces in Liaodong suffered heavy snowstorms. A large number of houses were crushed, and many people were crushed to death in their sleep."
"It snowed heavily in Korea and Japan, and even this side of the Whale Sea has frozen."
"The Great Plains in the central part of Huanghuangzhou suffered from a snowstorm, and a large number of Yin and Shang tribes froze to death."
“There was a severe cold in Black Earth Province, and countless cattle and sheep froze to death.”
"There is a severe drought in Australia, severe drought in the South African colonies, and frost in the midsummer on the South African savannah."
"..."
Liu Jin couldn't help but frown as he looked at the weather information from Daming and even around the world.
Not only the Ming Dynasty suffered heavy snow and extreme cold weather, but also the whole world.
Europe and the Golden Continent are also extremely cold. At this time, the Southern Hemisphere is also experiencing extreme drought. Australia, the Southern Golden Continent, the South African Colonies and other places are experiencing droughts.
You must know that it is winter in the northern hemisphere, and it is summer in the southern hemisphere. As expected, as recorded in historical records, during the Little Ice Age, winter was extremely cold, and summer was extremely dry, with constant famines.
"The Little Ice Age was really scary!"
"Food prices will definitely rise next year in Daming, and at the same time, various raw materials will also rise."
"The Ming Dynasty must establish a complete response mechanism."