It is really impossible to be pragmatic and not angry, because in his thinking, although there are many factors that led to the death of the Ming Dynasty, the huge disaster and the inability of the Ming Dynasty to deal with disasters must occupy a very important position in it.

Originally, the Ming Dynasty was a dynasty where natural disasters occurred frequently. Later, Mr. Deng Yunte once had statistics, saying: "The Ming Dynasty lasted for 276 years, and the troubles of disasters reached as many as 1,011 times, which is an unprecedented record in ancient times." At that time, the most disaster was the flood, which was seen 196 times; the second was drought, which was seen 174 times; another earthquake, 165 times; and again hailstorms, a hundred and twelve times; The second is the typhoon disaster, which has been seen 97 times; The second was a plague of locusts, which was seen ninety-four times. In addition, ninety-three times of hunger; 64 plagues; Sixteen times of frost and snow disasters are especially inferior. ”

Gao Shishi also once read an academic article, which said: If the Ming Dynasty's two capitals and the thirteen political divisions are taken as statistical units, and the number of floods, droughts, earthquakes, hailstorms, locust plagues, sandstorms, epidemics, and frost and snow disasters in the Ming Dynasty is counted, the total number of eight disasters in the country is 6,199, including the situation that one disaster involves two or more provinces and regions, so this number will inevitably expand somewhat.

If we subtract the number of disasters counted by these double counts, the number of these eight disasters in the Ming Dynasty was no less than 5,700 to 5,800, and this number far exceeded the 1,011 times that Mr. Deng Yunte derived.

In terms of various types of disasters, there are more than 1,000 floods, droughts, and earthquakes, and as many as 2,000 flood disasters, with an average of 7 flood disasters per year.

As far as the provinces and autonomous regions are concerned, the provinces and regions of Beizhili, Nanzhili, Shanxi, Shandong, Shaanxi, Huguang, Zhejiang, Henan and other provinces and regions have frequent disasters, of which the Beizhili has reached an astonishing 1092 times, with an average of nearly 4 disasters per year. However, some single disasters have a very wide impact and the damage is very serious.

For example, the epidemic in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen (1641) affected 217 counties, and the total mortality rate of the population in the North China Plain ranged from 50~90%, and the Jiangnan region was 20~30%, and its situation was simply miserable.

Of course, it is very difficult to make statistics on natural disasters in ancient times, and the author of that article also said that he did not dare to say that the statistics he made were completely in line with the actual situation of natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty, but at least they could roughly reflect the basic situation of natural disasters in the Ming Dynasty.

Just imagine, such frequent and serious disasters, more than any other dynasty in Chinese history, but the Ming Dynasty from the imperial court to the locality, for disaster relief and relief work is very ineffective, you do not destroy who will perish, you do not perish, who will perish?

However, since Gao Pragmatic is aimed at saving the Ming, he will criticize without solving the problem, which is meaningless, and to solve the problem, we must not have a headache and a headache, and the first thing to do is to understand the crux of the problem.

Is it because of the ineffectiveness of disaster relief in the Ming Dynasty that they are unwilling to do it? Definitely not, from the Son of Heaven to the ministers, everyone reads the books of sages, whether they are stupid or not, at least they know that the people are the foundation of society, and at least they know that "benevolence" is one of the core ideas of Confucianism, so how can they not be willing to provide disaster relief?

So there must be a reason for this, which leads to them not making too many disaster relief measures.

Either you don't want to, you can't.

If you can't, you can't do it.

When Gao Pragmatic suggested to Su Yonglu in Kaifeng Mansion that work for relief and work for care, he had already discovered the reason why they couldn't reach - without him, there was no money.

In the Ming Dynasty, whether it is the center of the imperial court or the local yamen, compared with other dynasties in China, there is one of the most significant characteristics, that is, poverty, and it is so poor that it is called a shocking vulgar! was so poor that he had no ability to provide disaster relief and relief, and later there was no way, and the imperial court even took the initiative to withdraw from the main body of disaster relief and relief.

Isn't this a high-level pragmatic alarmist, and the imperial court actually withdrew from the main body of disaster relief? But this is the case, when he used to argue with people on the keyboard, he had found a lot of information, at least from the perspective of the disaster relief of the Wanli and Chongzhen dynasties, it was mainly based on private self-help, among which the donations of rich merchants and wealthy households have replaced the imperial court and become the main force.

For example, during the famine in Zhejiang in the 14th year of Chongzhen, Qi Biaojia saw that "the number of displaced beggars and the dead was counted as five or six people a day, and he took pity on them and urgently wanted to rescue them." And the only thing the local government did was to show support for his actions, and of course made a small donation - and the funny thing is that this donation was still in his own name: Zhixian and others raised funds to donate 30 stone of rice, which is equivalent to about 4,000 catties of grain. And the imperial history Chen Gongzu read the "love of a township" and donated 15 stones. In addition, the constitutional lord in charge of salt administration, who was not under the jurisdiction of the local government, donated 150 taels of silver.

Most of the other grain and money were also donated by wealthy businessmen and wealthy households, and in addition, wealthy businessmen and wealthy households also funded and organized more than 6,800 acres of land reclamation. However, after all, the ability of rich businessmen and wealthy households is limited, and it is impossible for them to bankrupt their families to donate to disaster relief, so general relief is limited to the local area, and "it is difficult for flowers for a hundred miles not to grow poisonous weeds", there are rich businessmen and rich households with good intentions, and there are bound to be rich businessmen and rich households with bad hearts, and there are not a few people who take the opportunity to make a fortune in the country.

And who is the culprit who makes the imperial court so embarrassed? Is it a corrupt official?

Corrupt officials and corrupt officials are indispensable in any dynasty and generation, is it that there are many in the Ming Dynasty? Obviously, at least the corrupt officials at the end of the Qing Dynasty were better than those at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Is it because the emperor exploits the people too ruthlessly and is extremely poor and luxurious? This is even funnier, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty only ate a few dishes in one meal? Long Qingye likes to eat donkey intestines, but if you eat donkey intestines, the inner government needs to buy them in advance and kill them now, and there is a suspicion of waste, so he was scolded by the imperial historian, and as a result, Emperor Longqing honestly ordered the inner government to reduce the purchase of donkeys, which was recorded!

In contrast, Cixi put one hundred and eight dishes on a meal and said that there was no place to put chopsticks, how to count?

Not to mention, the Ming Dynasty was damaged more than once due to lightning strikes, and every time even the restoration of the palace had to be delayed and delayed, a few years have passed, the palace is still in a damaged state, and the emperor does not dare to urge casually, for fear of being sprayed by the officials, this can also be called poor luxury?

On the other hand, in the Qing Dynasty, not to mention the palace, just talking about repairing gardens, how many gardens were built? How much did it cost?

Therefore, it is not that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were too extravagant, nor that the courtiers were too corrupt, although these factors cannot be said to be absent, they are certainly not the root cause, nor the main cause.

What is the main reason? The main reason is Zhu Yuanzhang.

If it weren't for the fact that Zhu Yuanzhang's financial system was too out of tune, how could such a deformed financial situation be created?

In Gao Shishi's previous life, his own uncle worked in the tax system all his life and liked to read, and once told him: Zhu Yuanzhang did not understand the real reason for the fall of the Yuan Dynasty at all, but only thought that the Yuan Dynasty court was tyrannical and tyrannical, which led to the rebellion of the whole world and the destruction of the country.

As a result, after Zhu Yuanzhang won the world, he blindly lowered the tax rate, and even drastically reduced the salaries of court officials and officials, thinking that in this way he would be able to make the world live a good life. But he didn't know that the state tax itself is the foundation of the country's administrative power, and if there is not enough tax revenue, once the country has problems, whether it is internal or external troubles, the country can only stare dryly, and it can't do it at all - it's not that it doesn't want to make force, it's really powerless!

The tax-payer, take it from the people and use it for the people, and you don't even take it, so what use it will take when you should use it?