Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 157 Frozen World, Rebels Rise Suddenly (Part 1)

During the Chongzhen era, the Little Ice Age was the most severe period of natural disasters.

According to historical records, there was not a single heavy rain in Guanzhong during the seventeen years of the Chongzhen reign. The Wei River was so dry that horses could run on it, and the cracks in the fields were so deep that you could easily get your foot stuck.

The ice-covered period north of the Yellow River also increased from two or three months to four or five months. The grain transport boats were often stuck in the Xuzhou area of ​​Southern Zhili and could not reach the capital at all. The price of grain in the capital also rose from one tael of silver per shi to five taels of silver per shi.

In the first year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign, the first snowfall in the capital began in early November, followed by a complete freeze that lasted for four months, from early November to early March of the following year.

During the Chongzhen reign in history, life was also very difficult for the people of the capital. According to historical records, in the cold winter, it was rare to see many people on the streets, and some students of the Imperial Academy even starved to death!
This time it's different. When the capital was frozen over, the soldiers and artisans of the Beijing garrison were still working hard.

Every day, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and artisans from the Beijing garrison were building the city walls on the western and northern outer walls, many of them working up a sweat. The makeshift shacks were steaming, and hot water for washing hands and bathing was always readily available.

This was just where they rested and ate. The soldiers and artisans of the Beijing garrison went back to sleep every day. The coal they burned was free, and the heated kang beds were prepared well in advance. They could sleep in just a single layer of clothing without any problem.

Zhu Juena would often brave the bitter cold to visit the place where the soldiers of the Beijing garrison were building the city wall.

This was all because the entire area north of the Yellow River was frozen over, which affected the transmission of memorials. Urgent reports delivered by courier were rarely sent to the capital. All of the hundreds of ships under his command had sailed south to transfer goods for Zheng Zhihu.

Around 9 a.m. that day, after reviewing the memorials, he led Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, and others out of Desheng Gate to the city wall where the north and west sides of the city met, and then raised his binoculars to scan the area.

Actually, it wasn't very cold during the day. After the sun came out, the temperature was only around minus ten degrees Celsius. He didn't feel cold at all, even though he was wrapped in a fur cloak and wearing gloves. Many of the soldiers building the city wall were so hot that they took off their heavy cotton-padded clothes and worked in their autumn uniforms.

However, the work is somewhat affected when the world is frozen. The bricks and stones placed on the ground are covered with ice chips, and the city walls are covered with a thick layer of solid ice after a snowfall. They need to be heated with fire before they can continue to be built.

Fortunately, the lime mortar used to build the city wall required the addition of glutinous rice juice. The boiling hot glutinous rice juice was poured in and stirred, and it was still steaming hot when it was used to lay the bricks. If the lime mortar had frozen into solid stones, the city wall would have been impossible to build.

He scanned the area with his binoculars for a while, and Lu Xiang-sheng, having heard the news, rushed over, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Jian Dou, the city wall should be completed before the Lunar New Year, right?"

Lu Xiang-sheng nodded repeatedly and said, "No problem. These two city walls are only about ten miles long. It will only take 50,000 soldiers of the Beijing Garrison to build one in a month or two. The western city wall is more than forty miles long. It will probably take 100,000 soldiers of the Beijing Garrison and more than 100,000 craftsmen to work until the end of the year."

I will not go there, because there are artisans from the Northwest there, and there is a high possibility that the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou have planted spies among them.

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, handed the binoculars to the guard beside him, rubbed his face which was a little sore from the cold, and then waved his hand and said, "It's really a bit cold standing here. Let's go sit in the shack."

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiang-sheng quickly led them into a nearby shack containing a boiler.

The soldiers on duty inside have started cooking.

Zhu Jue said he would come in and sit down, but he didn't actually sit down. He walked around the makeshift stoves and frowned, saying, "There's still too little meat. With just fish and eggs, the soldiers will hardly grow strong."

There's nothing we can do about it. These days, not many people can afford to raise pigs, especially in the north, where beef and mutton are the main meats consumed.

During the Ming Dynasty, pork was more expensive than beef and mutton. Beef and mutton cost around 15 wen per jin (500 grams), while pork cost 20 wen per jin. This was because there wasn't much grain to feed pigs at that time, and cattle and sheep ate grass, hence the lower price. The problem was that there were no grasslands in the capital region, and not many people raised cattle and sheep. It was really difficult for hundreds of thousands of people to have meat to eat.

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiang-sheng looked north and sighed softly, "If only the Beiping Regional Military Command hadn't been lost, at least we could still buy beef and mutton in the capital region. Now that the Beiping Regional Military Command has been lost, beef and mutton in the capital region are pitifully scarce."

Beiping Commandery was the former residence of Prince Ning, Zhu Quan, and is now the Chahar Grassland.

That grassland was truly vast, covering two or three hundred million acres. Such a large grassland was not seized by the northern barbarians, but rather voluntarily abandoned by the Ming Dynasty!
All because those civil officials kept saying it was a waste of money and grain. Every year, a million bushels of grain had to be transported to the border garrisons as food, which was too wasteful!

Those civil officials, I don't know if they're brainless or have ulterior motives.

It's a waste of grain. How much is a million shi of grain worth? Including transportation costs, it's worth at most two million taels.

How many cattle and sheep can two or three hundred million acres of grassland support?
Even if it's purely free-range, with one sheep on ten acres and one cow on one hundred acres, each acre of grassland can yield at least five pounds of meat. Two or three hundred million acres of grassland can yield at least a billion pounds of meat!
The beef and mutton alone are worth nearly 20 million taels, not to mention that both cattle and sheep can produce milk.

Those civil servants have no business sense.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then sighed and said, "Let's wait a few more years. We have to take it one step at a time. First, we'll recover Liaodong, then we'll recover Beiping Commandery. Then our soldiers will have enough beef and mutton to eat."

Upon hearing this, Lu Xiang-sheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Your Majesty is wise. I was a little anxious. The soldiers are actually living quite well right now."

The soldiers' lives were not good enough, especially their families, who would suffer from the cold if they left their warm beds.

The Little Ice Age disaster is getting more and more serious, and the freezing period is getting longer and longer. He still needs to find a way to ensure that the common people in the capital have heating during the freezing period.

Otherwise, millions of ordinary people in the capital would have to spend four months of the year cooped up in their heated beds, unable to do much work, which would have a huge impact on productivity.

The problem is that the small boilers available nowadays can only power one household or one factory. If each household were to be equipped with one, the cost would be too high, and they wouldn't be able to manufacture that many boilers.

Next year, with rubber available, we should consider building large boilers. Rubber seals are convenient and cheap. If all else fails, we can cast the boiler into four or even eight pieces and splice them together. We can eventually build a large boiler that can heat many households at the same time.

While he was still thinking about providing heating for the common people in the capital, the disaster victims in the Northwest were shivering as if they had fallen into an ice cave.

The capital city has coal, and if all else fails, one can go outside the city to cut some firewood. But the northwest is a barren wasteland; all the flowers, grass, and trees have long since died of drought. Let alone firewood, you can't even find withered grass.

Coal hadn't been widely adopted in the Northwest yet. Corrupt officials and local tyrants could at least use their money to buy firewood and even charcoal from other places to burn. Even if the disaster victims had heated beds, they had nothing to burn. In addition, with the crop failure and no food to eat, the disaster victims were cold and hungry, as if they were being tortured in purgatory. Many disaster victims even froze to death!

Meanwhile, the rebels took advantage of the frozen river to run around everywhere, fleeing back to Shanxi and even Shaanxi, where they recruited troops.

All the rebels knew that the colder the weather, the less likely the disaster victims would survive. If people couldn't survive, what did they care about? So what if joining the rebellion was a capital offense? It was still better than starving or freezing to death, right?

This is the perfect time to recruit men. Just say, "Follow us to fight corrupt officials and rob local tyrants," and everyone will have food, firewood, and even charcoal to roast. Countless people will follow them in rebellion.

(End of this chapter)