Four hundred years later, it is difficult for the descendants of China to imagine what happened to the natural and man-made disasters that occurred on the land of China during the Apocalypse and Chongzhen years, and why all the disasters suddenly befell this land. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The frost fell early, the winter became longer, the repeated earthquakes and tsunamis, the drought and locust plague that lasted for many years, and in the last years of Chongzhen, there was a plague that spread to several northern provinces and spread to the city of Jingshi.

And this plague, which spread almost all over northern China, was the plague that had no solution at all in this era.

This is an act of God.

In addition to the natural disasters that have not occurred every year, the Chinese in this period also faced various other internal and external troubles, such as the Mongols in the north, the Jurchens in the northeast, the thieves in northern Shaanxi, the Tusi in the southwest, and the Dutch and Spaniards who were constantly peeping at the southeast sea.

This is a man-made disaster.

These natural and man-made disasters, sometimes one by one, sometimes in groups together, made the two young emperors of the Ming Dynasty tired of coping, and finally they were all defeated.

Whether it is the Emperor of the Apocalypse or the Emperor Chongzhen, they are not faint monarchs in the traditional sense, and it can even be said that they are all good people.

They did not have any vices that the common people could not bear, and they did not engage in any tyranny that was indignant to the common people when they were in power.

If you are born in an ordinary wealthy family, there should be no problem for people like this to keep their family business.

But they were pushed to the throne of the emperor by fate, and they were also pushed to the throne of the emperor in this stormy and crisis era.

Later generations said that this period was a rare so-called Xiaoice Age in human history, and the whole world was affected.

However, it was also in this so-called Xiaoice Age that the Portuguese, Spaniards, Dutch and British almost divided the world.

Moreover, in the same era of the Xiaoice River, the Rakshasa people who were originally far away on the west side of the Ural Mountains were not afraid of the cold, and expanded eastward at an average rate of four to five hundred li per year, all the way eastward, and finally appeared in the northernmost part of the Chinese land in the last years of Chongzhen, becoming the most dangerous enemy of the Chinese nation after the Xiongnu, Turkic, Khitan, Mongol, and Jurchen.

What are these natural and man-made disasters all about, and why are they suddenly rushing towards the last Han dynasty in Chinese history?

Is there really a so-called destiny in the dark? Could it be that the destiny of the Ming Dynasty has been transferred, and the Ming Dynasty is really exhausted?

When Emperor Chongzhen insisted on driving away everyone around him, standing alone in the main hall of Wuying Palace, staring at the complete map of Kunyu Wanguo hanging on the wall, while pondering these annoying questions, Li Banghua, who was far away on the front line of the suppression of thieves in Lu'an Mansion in Shanxi, finally waited for news from several other officials and soldiers.

Sun Chuanting, the governor of Yansui, when he learned that there was a riot in Jia County on the edge of the Yellow River, and finally arrived with troops, Wang Ziyong, Gao Yingxiang, and Lao Huihui had already crossed the Yellow River eastward and disappeared.

A few days later, a sentinel sent to cross the river to reconnoiter returned, saying that the bandits from northern Shaanxi had captured Fort Wu on the other side of the Yellow River and continued to flow eastward.

Sun Chuanting, who encountered this situation for the first time, was a little unsure whether he should follow him across the river and chase him to Shanxi to continue to exterminate this group of thieves.

First, he is the governor of Yansui, this is his jurisdiction, and if he wants to enter Shanxi to chase the thieves, he must report to the imperial court, otherwise he will be impeached by the imperial historian.

Of course, if Sun Chuanting is such a person who only considers his official reputation and status, then he can't afford the title of the last handsome talent in the late Ming Dynasty.

The main problem he was worried about was that Chen Qiyu, who he relied on as his arm, together with the general Huang Tingzheng, took away 3,000 of the 5,000 cavalry of the official army in Yansui Town, and escorted nearly 10,000 rebels to Ningxia to reclaim the land.

Besides, although the officers and troops of Yansui Town are strong, the scale of the cavalry is not large, there are only 5,000 people in total, Chen Qiyu took away 3,000, and the rest is only 2,000.

In this way, Sun Chuanting took He Shiyu to the court to petition for guilt, and at the same time asked for permission to chase across the Yellow River and enter Shanxi.

At the same time, he also seized the time to let the officials and soldiers of Yansui Town, who had followed the thieves all over several state capitals in northern Shaanxi and fought hard for several months, rest and recuperate.

In late February, the will of the imperial court arrived, and the responsibility of Yansui Town was not investigated, and the meritorious soldiers were rewarded, and the military salaries from January to June of the second year of Chongzhen were issued in time.

These measures taken by Emperor Chongzhen made Sun Chuanting, He Shiyu and others immediately put their minds at ease, and while sitting in Yan'an, the supervising army Yu Shi Mamao contacted him, he sent people to Xi'an to get military salaries and rewards, and on the other hand, he replenished the soldiers, strengthened the troops and horses, and prepared to cross the Yellow River eastward.

At the end of February, Chen Qiyu finally led the vital 3,000 cavalry back from Ningxia.

Chen Qiyu escorted nearly 10,000 rebels in northern Shaanxi to Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of the three sides, which really helped Yuan Chonghuan a lot.

The wilderness to the west and north of Huamachi, where the trilateral governors were stationed, was truly vast and sparsely populated, and the limited population was mostly Hui people from the northwest and a few other alien races.

These Hui and other minority alien races, because they have lived on both sides of the Yellow River in Ningxia for generations, occupy the most convenient and fertile land along the river, and at the same time they constantly command, resist the cultivation and promotion of new crops that are very suitable for the northwest, and always clash with the Han people who come to settle the land.

Of course, these are not Yuan Chonghuan's biggest headaches, the most helpless thing is that in the name of the trilateral governor's department of Shaanxi, he recruited displaced people in Shaanxi, Yansui, Lintao, Guyuan and other places, gave land for free, and gave grain and seeds.

To the west of Huamachi, a large area of fertile land on both sides of the river in Ningxia is still mostly barren grass and beach that has not been reclaimed, let alone the Hetao land north of Huamachi.

Since there are still tribal herdsmen from the Ordos and Tumut tribes driving their flocks from time to time, there are even fewer displaced people who dare to go to the wasteland to cultivate land and reclaim the frontiers.

The root of all these problems is that the Han people in Ningxia and Gansu are too small, and those non-Han people are always free or semi-free from the control of the government.

Yuan Chonghuan thought about it and finally realized that there was only one way to properly solve these problems, and that was to transplant Han people in large quantities to Ningxia, Gansu, and Hetao in the far northwest.

Only when the Han people account for the vast majority can these good places in the northwest really stabilize and become the big granary of the officials and troops in the northwest.

Fortunately, the yamen of the trilateral governor's ministry has moved to Huamachi and controls the largest salt production area in the entire northwest, whether it is Huihui or the party, or the captives outside the Huamachi Pass, and even the Tibetans and Mongolians in Qinghai, all need the salt produced in Huamachi, as well as the increasingly prosperous tea and horse trade in the northwest under the control of the trilateral tea and horse division.

It is precisely because of salt and tea, two things that are in short supply in the northwest aliens, that Yuan Chonghuan's reclamation in Ningxia, Hetao and other places did not arouse fierce resistance from a small number of alien races.

And now, what Yuan Chonghuan lacks most is the population, a large Han population.

Therefore, Chen Qiyu's arrival, as well as the nearly 10,000 rebels in northern Shaanxi, made Yuan Chonghuan very happy.

Yuan Chonghuan, as the governor of the three sides, also had the responsibility of exterminating the thieves in Yansui Town, so taking advantage of this opportunity, Chen Qiyu took nearly 10,000 rebels in northern Shaanxi in exchange for 2,000 war horses from Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of the three sides, and Yang Qi, the chief military officer of Dinglu Town.

If it weren't for the two thousand war horses that had been handed over from Dingyu Town, Chen Qiyu would have come back long ago.

It was not until Chen Qiyu rushed back to Yulin City at the end of February with 3,000 cavalry and another 2,000 war horses that Sun Chuanting and He Shiyu finally met with the 5,000 cavalry under their command.