In the last years of the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters and man-made disasters continued, there was a threat of Houjin outside the Ming Dynasty, treachery was rampant inside, and it coincided with the natural disaster of the Xiaoice River, and the common people could not survive, so they had to take risks, rise up, and launch an uprising.

There were many reasons for the peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and the main causes were nothing more than natural disasters and man-made disasters, but in the end, whether it was natural disasters or man-made disasters that led to the peasant uprisings has always been disputed.

Some people believe that it is mainly because of the natural disasters of the Xiaoice River, the increasing winds and sands in the north, the increasing number of droughts year by year, the sharp decline in farmland harvests, and the starvation and cold of the common people.

This view is inevitably biased, natural disasters are not only at the end of the Ming Dynasty, all dynasties, have experienced natural disasters, if a natural disaster breaks out the common people will rebel, then I am afraid that the rise and fall of dynasties will be frequent, each dynasty to maintain a hundred years is difficult, because natural disasters can not be avoided at all, although it cannot be said that natural disasters break out every year in history, but a small disaster every few years, a major disaster every few decades is quite normal, really because of natural disasters lead to peasant uprisings, history is still rare.

The reason why the peasant uprising broke out at the end of the Ming Dynasty was, in the final analysis, because of man-made disasters.

Among them, the most serious is the land annexation, the royal family and the landlords and gentry unscrupulously annexed land is the main reason for the unsustainable life of the common people.

In the Ming Dynasty, in fact, there was no shortage of land, according to the official statistics of the Ming Dynasty, the cultivated land exceeded one billion mu at the most, but did not exceed 100 million when the population was the largest, that is, the average person had at least ten acres of arable land.

In this way, a family of five is 50 acres of cultivated land, calculated according to the yield of two stones per mu a year, a family has 100 stone of grain every year, men, women and children of five, can eat 50 stone of grain a year, and the remaining 50 stones, according to the tax rate of 20 tax 1, pay 10 stone of grain as a tax, and the remaining 40 stones, 40 stone grain is worth at least 20 taels of silver, that is to say, even if the common people do nothing else, they can live a very nourishing life just by farming.

However, the actual situation is not like this at all, maybe it was the case at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, but by the end of the Ming Dynasty, the land annexation has been very serious, more than sixty percent of the land in the Ming Dynasty has been annexed by the royal family, in addition to the princes and nobles, landlords and gentry, and even favored eunuchs, the land they annexed is also more than two percent, and there are more than two million Tunwei military households that occupy more than one percent, and even one percent of the real people are not even one percent!

In this way, a family of five has less than five acres of cultivated land, and the grain harvested in a year is less than ten stones.

Of course, this kind of thing is also impossible, the royal family, the princes and nobles, the landlords and gentry they annexed the land can not be planted by themselves, the land is still planted by the common people, however, these ordinary people who give people to farm land can no longer be called peasant households, can only be called tenant farmers, the grain that has been planted hard is not distributed by them, most of them have to be handed over, and it is very good to be able to eat a full meal.

This is the status quo of the common people at the end of the Ming Dynasty, more than eighty percent of them are tenant farmers who have been exploited by the royal family, princes and nobles, landlords and gentry, and the remaining two percent have their own land, but the amount of land is very small, and an average family of five is at most more than ten acres of land, which can barely be mixed with a stomach.

This makes the ability of the common people to resist natural disasters quite weak, because once natural disasters break out, grain production is reduced, tenant farmers simply cannot pay rent and land endowments, and ordinary people are also hungry.

If it is just like this, if there is a natural disaster, the imperial court can reduce taxes, the royal family, princes and nobles, and landlords and gentry can collect less rent and land endowments, and even take out some food for disaster relief, and the common people can barely survive.

However, the imperial court not only did not reduce or reduce taxes, but also levy additional salaries, not to mention the royal family, princes and nobles, landlords and gentry, not to mention taking out grain for disaster relief, and even refusing to reduce rents and land endowments, where can the common people still have a way to live!

Among them, the most shameful is the Fu King Zhu Changxun, the Wanli Emperor is precisely because he loves Zhu Changxun and wants to make him the crown prince, which causes the dispute of the country, so that the monarch and the minister are opposed, and the Ming Dynasty is declining.

If this is the case, it will be enough, Wanli finally couldn't withstand the pressure and made his eldest son Zhu Changluo the crown prince, even if this matter is over.

However, the blessed king Zhu Changxun on the domain of Luoyang, Wanli in order to show grace, gave it 40,000 hectares of fertile land, more than one million taels of gold and silver, the back of the household really can not make up so much good land, Wanli to Sichuan, Shaanxi, Henan and other places of salt, tea tax, commercial tax to replace, at that time the people are spreading, the first emperor spent the world's wealth to fat the king, Luoyang's wealth is far better than the palace!

If that's all there is, it's okay, when the blessed king Zhu Changxun became a vassal, there were tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land, more than one million taels of gold and silver, and various taxes in the three provinces as expenses, even if he didn't do anything, he could be prosperous and rich, and live a life of luxury.

However, he was not satisfied, and instigated his subordinates to collude with the landlords and gentry, frantically annexed land, bullied men and women, and ran rampant.

In the two dynasties of Tianqi and Chongzhen, natural disasters continued, and the people were not able to make a living, not only did he not help the victims, but also took the lead in declaring that the good land under his name would not be reduced by a penny!

He is the uncle of Tianqi and Chongzhen, and his status is extremely respectful, it is precisely because he took the lead that the royal clansmen in Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan and other places competed to follow suit, not only did not provide disaster relief, but also desperately squeezed and frantically collected rent.

Natural disasters continue, life is unsustainable, and the court and local governments are so oppressed, how can the common people not rebel!

In July of the seventh year of the Apocalypse, in Shaanxi, where the famine was most severe, a peasant uprising finally broke out.

Wang Er, Chongguang Dao, etc., gathered hundreds of victims, planted flags and revolted in Baishui County, opening the prelude to the peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The reason for Wang Er's uprising is very simple, because of the drought for many years, not to mention the grain, even the local grass and trees are eaten, but Zhang Douyao, the magistrate of Chengcheng, still searched hard, urging the levy even more!

Zhang Douyao's method of urging is particularly vicious, if you don't pay taxes, he will send someone to beat you until you pay.

Wang Er's family was beaten because of this, but no money is no money, there is still no money to kill, there is no grass bark to eat, where is there money to pay taxes, he was forced to have no choice, he could only gather the victims who were also urged and beaten, rushed to the county seat together, killed Zhang Douyao, the magistrate, and opened a warehouse to help the people!

After Wang Er unveiled the banner of the uprising, the peasant uprising became a prairie fire, and there was no other reason than to survive, honestly accepting the exploitation of corrupt officials and landlords and gentry, and even the bark of grass roots and trees had nothing to eat.

When the hungry people are hungry, it is quite terrifying, Wang Er ascended to the top and shouted, and suddenly the responders gathered, first Wang Jiayin, a farmer in Fugu, responded, gathered the hungry people to revolt, Wang Er immediately led a team to the north to join it, and the rebel army soon expanded to five or six thousand people.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Yingxiang of Ansai, Wang Zuohang of Yichuan, Feishan Tiger, Big Red Wolf, Black God of Luochuan, Wang Monk of Yanchuan, Wang Daliang of Hanzhong, etc., have risen up, from the seventh year of the Apocalypse to the first year of Chongzhen, in just over a year, the peasant uprising spread throughout the whole territory of Shaanxi and eastern Gansu.

Wherever the rebel army passed, they killed corrupt officials, broke prisons, opened granaries, and helped the hungry.

If this is the case, it is nothing, because the peasant uprising is nothing more than the extreme famine and cannot survive, they have no other ideas, they just want to eat well, they have no combat effectiveness, and they are not vulnerable in front of the Ming army at all.

No, Shaanxi was in turmoil, Chongzhen immediately activated Yang He's governor of Shaanxi's trilateral military affairs, Yang He casually made a move to "appease first, chase and suppress secondary", capture and kill Wang Er, appease other rebel armies, and soon, almost all the rebel armies in Shaanxi accepted Zhao'an.

However, in the Apocalypse Dynasty, it was not only the common people who were oppressed, but also the border troops and guards.

Why is it miserable?

Because they had no money, the court did not pay them, and they also had no food.

The taxes of the Apocalypse Dynasty are only more than five million taels a year, and more than four million taels at other times, and Wei Zhongxian's relatives alone will be rewarded with no less than four million taels of silver, and the tax for a year is gone, and then, he built a mausoleum for himself, spending more than three million taels plus Guangzong's mausoleum cost one and a half million taels, and another year's taxes are gone, as well as the tens of thousands of armored guards and tens of thousands of slaves he raised, which also consumes more than one million taels a year, plus those big corrupt officials under him who are so greedy that they are terrible, such as Cui Chengxiu, Xu Dahua and the like, up and down their hands, where is there still military spending!

According to the reports of the border towns in the northwest in the first year of Chongzhen, the border army was generally in arrears for more than 20 months, and the most serious arrears were 36 months, that is to say, in the fifth year of the Apocalypse, after Wei Zhongxian covered the sky with one hand, he never paid them food and salary at all!

As a result, the soldiers of the border army have no clothes and food, and in order to survive, there are many people who sell armor and weapons, and even their wives and children.

The armor and weapons are all sold, and the wives and children are also sold, what should I do?

In order to survive, the only way to do this was to rise up and join the ranks of the peasant rebel army, and it was precisely because of the addition of the border army and the tunwei that the peasant rebel army became stronger and stronger, and it was out of control.

Among them, the most famous are Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

Li Zicheng, Mizhi people, during the Apocalypse, Shaanxi drought, the imperial court taxes were not reduced, and the family life was difficult, so he became a monk for a period of time, and then his parents died in hunger and cold, so he had to borrow money from the local gentry Ai Juren, bury his parents, and enlist to be a post man at Yinchuan Post Station, wanting to make money to pay off debts.

However, the imperial court did not pay food and wages at all, and he was unable to repay his debts, so he was often tortured in shackles, and in the end, he killed the creditor Ai Zhao and fled to Gansu as a border soldier.

He was quite appreciated by the generals in the army, and was promoted from the small flag to the general step by step, but, the good times did not last long, in the second year of Chongzhen, Jiannu entered the Kou, and the imperial court urgently transferred soldiers and horses from all over the country into the king of Jingqin, and the soldiers and horses in Ganzhou also received an order, but when they went to Yuzhong, the soldiers asked for the payment of arrears of food, and the kingdom was greedy, and where was there so much money to distribute food, so the Gansu army launched a mutiny, and the kingdom and Yuzhong County were killed.

Zhang Xianzhong, a native of Dingbian, studied when he was young, served as a fast catcher in Yan'an Mansion, was dismissed because of the incident, and then joined the border army of Yansui Town, and was beheaded for breaking the law, the main general Chen Hongfan looked at his strange appearance, and pleaded with Wang Wei, the chief soldier, and beat a hundred military sticks to remove the name, so he returned to his hometown.

In the last years of the Apocalypse, the whole territory of Shaanxi was plagued by famine, the seedlings were scorched, and the starvation was all over the field, Wang Er, Wang Jiayin, Wang Zuohang, Gao Yingxiang, etc. revolted one after another, Zhang Xianzhong gathered eighteen village farmers in his hometown and organized a team to respond to Wang Jiayin and other uprisings, calling himself "Eight Kings", at first he belonged to Wang Jiayin and Wang for his own use, and then slowly became an army of his own.

Because he had read and received military training, he was resourceful, courageous, and soon showed his command skills, and his men became the strongest of the thirty-six battalions of the time with the king himself as the leader.

With the addition of these border troops and tunwei with military talents, the peasant army gradually possessed a certain military quality, and the official army in Shaanxi was strong, and the governor of the three sides, Yang He, was like kraft candy, and they were endless, and the peasant army gradually advanced eastward in order to avoid the main force of the Ming army.

During this period, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong and other generals from the border army and Tunwei gradually showed their prominence and became the think tank and main general of the peasant army.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen, the peasant army Gao Yingxiang, Luo Rucai, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and others gathered in Shanxi, and attacked Daning, Luzhou, Zezhou, and Shouyang Zhuzhou counties in four ways.

He didn't notice that from Luzhou and Zezhou through the Taihang Mountains is Henan Zhangde Mansion, and beyond the narrow Zhangde Mansion is the North Zhili Daimyo Mansion!

A crisis is slowly coming, and the capital will face another crisis.

At this time, the governor of Fukuhiro, Zhang Bin, won a great victory in the Ryukyus, not only overshadowing the main force of the Satsuma domain in one fell swoop, but also forcing the lord of the Satsuma domain, Shimazu Tadashi, to cede Senoshima, Nakanoshima, Kuchinoshima, Yakushima, and Tanegashima for 20 years, and compensated 1 million taels of silver.

He even asked Toei to open Kagoshima, Kochi and Osaka as treaty ports, of course, Kochi and Osaka Satsuma Domain lord Shimazu Tadashi had no right to open it, so Zhang Bin ordered Lu Xiangsheng to take Shimazu Tadashi and forty Weiyuan battleships to Edo, and ask the Tokugawa shogunate to see if they agreed to open Kochi and Osaka.

During this period, he also ordered people to recruit Zheng Zhiju, the great treasurer of Dongsheng Tang Dongying, and Chen Hao, the leader of the secret agents stationed in Dongying, so that they could start to open up the trade route from Dongfan Guard to Dongying, and at the same time ordered the Qi family army to take more than 20,000 Satsuma Clan captives to build a city, fort and fortress in Naha, thinking that it was a transit place for trade routes.

Will the Tokugawa shogunate agree to open up Kochi and Osaka?

In history, they were also forced by the great powers to sign a lot of unequal treaties and open a lot of ports, not to mention that Zhang Bin did not ask them to sign unequal treaties this time, but only let them open two treaty ports.

Tokugawa Iemitsu listened to Shimazu Tadashi's report, and ran to the city wall to look at the Ming army's Weiyuan battleship, and immediately coaxed, just open two ports, and don't die, if you don't agree, people will come down with a few rounds of shells, and the good Edo Castle will be destroyed, and I don't know how many people will die!