[The end of the dynasty - The three hundred-year-old Ming Dynasty is still not satisfied? 】
Zhang Mei's construction of the canal in Zhongyinzhou did not take the three to five years he estimated, but even ten or twenty years to complete.
It took twenty-six years and cost 44 million taels of silver!
He didn't even become the governor. He only took the title of deputy governor and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the canal project.
First of all, there was a shortage of funds. It was originally expected that 10 million taels would be enough. Unexpectedly, a messy situation emerged, causing the construction cost to more than quadruple.
What's happening?
In the tropical rainforest climate, heavy rains hit from time to time, and the project is often forced to stop, and the floods caused by heavy rains are also a headache.
Then came yellow fever and malaria. Zhang Mei was well prepared, but the diseases still raged among the workers, and tens of thousands of workers died from these two diseases.
The last question is that there is a difference in water levels between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans on both sides of the Isthmus of Panama.
Emperor Yanjia was deceived by Zhang Mei, and many investors were also deceived. Due to the firm opposition of the officials and unwillingness to invest more, the Bamo Canal project was almost abandoned halfway.
At the critical moment, it was Zhu Ci who defied public opinion and took the stand personally as emperor. The emperor made an investment from his private treasury, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Household Affairs also invested another amount, and absorbed private funds from the Ming Dynasty to fill the capital hole by issuing national bonds.
Zhu Cizheng also dispatched more than ten physics disciples from the Ming Dynasty Royal Academy to Yinzhou to redesign the plan.
The final plan is almost the same as the Panama Canal in another time and space.
Needless to say, the western section of the canal is the narrowest part of the isthmus and the lowest-lying part, so there is almost no need to consider other places. The eastern section still uses the Chagres River, not to save the amount of work, but to solve the water level problem - fear during the rainy season.
When floods occur and the water level is too low during the dry season, an artificial lake must be built to store water, which can also solve the problem of sea level differences.
Lake Gatun in another time and space is the world's largest artificial lake forcibly created based on the Chagres River.
In this time and space, an artificial lake was also created, named "Kunshan Lake" after Zhang Mei's name.
The Kunshan Dam was also built, which is more than 30 meters wide and 300 meters long. The dam foundation is made of three-component soil, and the dam body is directly poured with reinforced concrete. The design of several levels of gates adopts the traditional Chinese method, but steam power equipment is added to open the gate once.
You also have to burn coal to preheat the boiler.
Reinforced concrete has been widely used in city and water conservancy construction as early as the early years of Yanjia.
In large cities such as Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Fuzhou, due to the continuous increase in population, many four to six-story masonry and cement buildings have appeared. A large number of urban civilians live in buildings by purchasing or renting them, which seems to be two to three hundred years ahead of Europe.
If you look at the images of the United States in the 1920s, you will also feel that it is magical. China is still fighting warlords, and the United States has built skyscrapers. Even ten years before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, the United States already had 10-story buildings, and Yuan Shikai had not yet called them
Emperor, a 55-story building appeared in the United States.
This is a reflection of the leading era of technology.
When Zhang Mei returned to Beijing again, he was already 60 years old, and Zhu Cizhen had been dead for several years.
The Emperor of Yanjia, Zhu Cizhen, had the temple name Shengzong and the posthumous title Emperor Ping.
Ping: Governance without mistakes (faults), deacons in a systematic manner, and establishing guidelines and disciplines.
The Ming Dynasty left by Emperor Sheng Zongping and Zhu Cizhen had a registered population of about 230 million. This was due to successive years of natural disasters, otherwise the population would have exceeded 300 million.
Under the rule of Zhu Cizhen, Laos was officially established as a province, named "Lancang Province", with the Lancang Chief Envoy Department. Jilin was officially established as a province, named "Taining Province", with the Taining Chief Envoy Department under its jurisdiction, and Heilongjiang was under its jurisdiction.
Some areas, Hainan and Taiwan, are officially established as provinces, named "Qiongzhou Province" and "Taiwan Province".
A large number of disaster victims and landless farmers were moved to Taiwan, Hainan, and Laos for development, which not only alleviated domestic conflicts but also increased the number of Han residents in these areas.
Zhu Cizheng reigned for 41 years. Not only did he lead the Ming Dynasty out of the quagmire of natural disasters, but the court's actual control territory became larger, the administration of officials was slightly clearer, and merchants were also suppressed.
The successor was Emperor Longyou Zhu Heyi.
Longyou, it means great blessings from God. It is true that all officials are frightened by natural disasters. I hope that a new emperor will have a good year.
Poor Emperor Longyou, the more than ten years he reigned were the coldest ten years of the Little Ice Age. Even Hainan Island could be covered with snow and turned into ice!
Emperor Longyou followed the late emperor's orders and continued to support Zhang Mei in digging the canal.
However, Zhang Mei, who successfully dug the canal, was unable to join the cabinet after returning to the court because everyone thought that he was a waste of money. However, after all, he was senior and had worked hard in Yinzhou for many years, so he was successfully appointed as Minister of the Ministry of Industry.
The first thing Zhang Mei did when she returned to Beijing was to be allowed to pay homage to the late emperor's mausoleum, and she lay down in front of Zhu Cizheng's tomb and cried loudly.
After the Barmo Canal was opened to navigation, the goods produced in Yinzhou were sold directly to Europe through the Atlantic Ocean. Han immigrants could also migrate to the east coast of northern Yinzhou for development through the canal. The development of Yinzhou was so rapid that it brought new products to the court every year.
Huge profits.
Longyou Emperor Zhu Heyi did not appear to be mediocre, he was more than adequate in keeping things in order, and he could even be called a wise monarch.
But he is really unlucky. In the more than ten years he has been in office, there have been nationwide natural disasters for more than ten years.
Land annexation became more and more serious, and the Ming Dynasty was in a frenzy of internal infighting. Landowners passed all their losses on to tenants. Official governance also gradually became corrupt. The imperial court allocated funds for disaster relief every year, but 80% of the money was withheld at all levels.
Finally, in the eleventh year of Longyou, a great uprising broke out in the northwest.
At this time, the local troops of the Ming Dynasty were starved of pay and without training for many years. They were defeated by the rebels and lost their territory. In the end, Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of War took command and led the Xiyuan New Army formed by the late emperor. Finally, the war spread to three provinces.
The uprising subsided.
One wave has not subsided, and another wave has arisen.
Uprisings occurred one after another in Shandong, Jiangxi, and Sichuan. Xiyuan's new army was exhausted, and the local governor was difficult to cope with. The more the local troops were reorganized, the worse they became.
Fortunately, we finally got through it, and Ming Dynasty did not die in the coldest period of Little Glacier.
However, the Ming Dynasty was too deeply involved. Countless people borrowed money to buy ship tickets and immigrated to Yinzhou, Luzon, and Tianzhu. Once again, a huge wave of immigrants arose.
Moreover, the Ming Dynasty's civil service almost collapsed. The reason was that the huge amounts of disaster relief funds every year made officials jealous and committed corruption. Then they quelled civil unrest and spent countless military expenditures on wars, which also attracted corruption among civil servants, military generals and eunuchs. Corruption comes and goes.
Greed has begun in every field, and it is unscrupulous greed.
As long as there are honest and loyal people in the dynasty, they will definitely be squeezed out and left idle. The era of "all the righteous people in the dynasty" has officially arrived.
What's even more frightening is that the merchant class has long since grown. Officials and businessmen colluded together to suck the blood of the court and the people. Not satisfied with sucking the blood of the country, they went to suck the blood of the Yinzhou colonies. Their greed was so greedy that the people of Yinzhou could not bear it.
The seventh year of Chongguang reign, 1687 AD.
Chen Tairen, the commander of Shengzhou, rebelled, raised tens of thousands of troops and proclaimed himself king, establishing the country "Dasheng". The territory includes: southern Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua
The governor of Yinzhou led troops to quell the rebellion, but was poisoned before he went out to fight. The commander-in-chief Yue Chenglong declared independence and founded the country "Great Yin". Local merchants supported him in becoming king, but the government system was similar to a constitutional monarch, with a parliament in the cabinet. Land and territory
Including: Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela.
An Gui, the navy commander in charge of the treasure transport fleet, successfully entered Bamo Port, but was not allowed to disembark. This guy had a concubine in Yinzhou, so he simply ignored his wife, children and children at home and directly led the fleet north to declare the founding of the country in Mozhou Prefecture.
The country's name is "Da Mo", and the fleet generals have become the founding heroes. The territory includes: northern and central Mexico.
This caused a series of chain reactions. Civil servants in the northern and southern Sulong Prefectures were all killed by local merchants, and the "Sulong Republic" was actually announced. The territory includes: Ecuador, Peru and Chile.
The Kingdom of Jin, established by the descendants of Shandong bandits, immediately sent troops to attack Yuezhou Prefecture after learning of this news, hoping to eat up Yuezhou, a place of wealth.
The officials and people of Yuezhou Prefecture were unprepared and were occupied within half a month. The Kingdom of Jin then went to attack Hong County and swallowed up the highest quality cotton-producing area in Yinzhou.
The Dongyang Navy of the Ming Dynasty came out almost in full force, bringing tens of thousands of officers and soldiers to Yinzhou to quell the rebellion.
As a result, when they arrived at Lizhou Port, the Kingdom of Jin refused to let them carry out supplies, let alone repair their ships.
The two sides started fighting, and the Dongyang Navy won the naval battle, and won very easily because they had steam ironclads. They were not sail-steam hybrid ships, but pure steam ships. Only twelve ships were built in the entire Ming Dynasty.
The Dongyang Navy also won the landing operation and took advantage of the situation to recapture Yuezhou Prefecture and Hong County.
By the way, due to the lack of fierce external wars, gun technology has not developed very fast in the past hundred years and has only been slightly improved.
After communicating with the surviving merchants of Yuezhou Prefecture, the Dongyang Navy learned that Mozhou Prefecture and most of Yinzhou to the south have declared independence. They will definitely win the naval battle, but there are too many enemies in the land battle, and it is impossible to calm down.
rebellion.
The navy generals discussed privately and directly killed the leading civil servants and eunuchs.
Li Zhenzong, the admiral of the Oriental Navy, established himself as king in Yuezhou Prefecture and founded the "Tang Dynasty". He claimed to be a descendant of the Li Tang royal family, and then annexed Xinquan Prefecture. The territory included: the western coast of the United States.
After Li Zhenzong repaired the ships, he immediately sent his confidants and fleets to visit the southern countries and reached tacit understandings with those emerging countries. Then he took a boat back to Ryukyu and picked up the families of the officers and soldiers of the Oriental Navy to avoid being invaded by the imperial court and questioning their families.
After learning of the collective rebellion of the Eastern Navy, the imperial court indeed sent troops and sent the Nanyang Navy to conquer Ryukyu.
The Nanyang Navy has long received a secret report from the Dongyang Navy. They are all navy, and their own people will not attack their own people. Moreover, the brothers of the Dongyang Navy have established a country, so what are we still doing?
Song Wang, the admiral of the Nanyang Navy, killed the civil servants and eunuchs, and established the country directly on the spot. The capital was Johor, and the country was named "Johor". The territory includes: Malay Peninsula, Singapore, and Sumatra Island.
The emperors and ministers of the Ming Dynasty were all confused and asked King Toungoo to send troops to help kill those bastards of the Nanyang Navy.
The king of Toungoo at this time was named Wang Dan, and he was the eighth generation grandson of Wang Yuan.
Wang Dan indeed sent troops, but not to attack the Nanyang Navy, but to attack Lancang Province (Laos) of the Ming Dynasty. Instead of resisting, the people of Lancang formed a rebel army to help Wang Dan fight against the official army.
After Wang Dan captured Lancang, he took advantage of the situation and captured Khmer.
If not for the fear of indigestion, Wang Dan would have even wanted to attack Jiaozhi and Yunnan.
So far, Xia Chan, the descendant of the maid, has become the little overlord of Southeast Asia. The territory includes: central and southern Myanmar, central and northern Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.
Such drastic changes occurred within three years. The Ming court had clearly become alienated from its moral principles, and the central government was unable to control overseas territories at all.
Wang Ce's descendants also took the opportunity to send troops to capture Taiwan and Ryukyu. The territory includes: Taiwan, Ryukyu, Philippines, Indonesia (except Sumatra), East Timor, Papua New Guinea, Australia, and New Zealand.
At this moment, Xiyuan's new army was no longer available, so the imperial court sent 200,000 troops south to conquer the Toungu Kingdom in an attempt to recapture Lancang (Laos).
Wang Dan lured the enemy deep into the country, but before the war even started, the Ming Dynasty's officers and soldiers suffered serious non-combat attrition due to climate problems.
The Ming Dynasty was defeated miserably.
When the news spread back to China, farmers in Yunnan took the lead in uprising. The imperial court urgently dispatched troops from Sichuan and Guizhou to suppress the uprising. Unexpectedly, uprisings also appeared in Guizhou, and then uprisings occurred in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan.
The entire Ming Dynasty has come to an end.
What's ridiculous is that the imperial court is still financially wealthy and has enough money to send troops to put down the rebellion.
Emperor Chongguang promoted military and civilian officials and ordered them to go out on an expedition. It took two years to pacify the northwest and Henan. Then, it took another three years to pacify Guizhou and Yunnan, and finally exhausted the national treasury.
The Northeast is in chaos again!
This time, they were military generals from the Northeast. They could not bear the humiliation of civil servants and did not want to serve the damn eunuchs. They had participated in quelling the rebellion in Henan and had made great contributions, but their reward money was withheld and they had to pay tribute to the eunuchs and civil servants in order to realize their military merits. Soldiers
There were heavy casualties, and they started to make trouble without receiving rewards. The generals simply took advantage of the situation and went against it.
This phenomenon is very interesting. If Wang Yuan did not reform the military system, the generals would definitely not rebel because they were vested interests.
But the military generals have become unemployed and have no base of their own. They can only make money by embezzling military salaries. They have been embezzled by civilian officials and eunuchs, and there are not many of them left. They will have to be transferred to other places in a few years. What does this military general have to do in front of him?
mean?
The military generals in the Northeast quickly became a mess. Some rebelled and became independent, while others stayed loyal to the imperial court.
There are more people loyal to the imperial court, and logically speaking, they can quickly put down the rebellion. But they just can't put down the rebels. They constantly report their successes and ask for rewards, request the imperial court to allocate funds, and treat the rebel generals as task monsters repeatedly.
After fighting for several years, the rebellion in the Northeast was still not over. Instead, Emperor Chongguang was killed first and finally did not become the last monarch.
In 1695 AD, Emperor Pingning ascended the throne.
There is a little emperor, the queen mother listens to the affairs, and the cabinet holds power.
Civil unrest broke out in Jiangxi, which the imperial court was unable to suppress, and soon spread to Guizhou and Yunnan, followed by sporadic uprisings in Sichuan and Huguang.
The imperial court had no money, so it did not levy additional business taxes or take action against the big landowners. Instead, it asked the common people to increase "suppression". The poll tax, which had been abolished for more than a hundred years, returned. This decree instantly restored hundreds of lives to the imperial court.
Ten thousand taels of silver will cause civil unrest in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan.
The officers and soldiers were completely helpless, so the imperial court ordered the local gentry to form a "rebel army" at their own expense to quell the local civil unrest on their own.
This move is really awesome. What was originally a peasant uprising turned into a local separatist regime in an instant.
However, the noble gentry and wealthy merchants still don't know how to restrain themselves, as if the uprising everywhere has nothing to do with them.