Chapter 84 Chapter 84: The Butterfly That Caused the Destruction of the Ming Dynasty

In December 1979, Lorenz, an American meteorologist, proposed in a lecture given by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil might cause a tornado in Texas, USA.His speeches and conclusions left an extremely deep impression on people.Since then, the so-called "butterfly effect" theory has spread like wildfire, and its reputation has spread far and wide. Interestingly, it is also meaningful to use the theory of "butterfly effect" to interpret history.Today, we will look for the butterfly that led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

In 1644 AD, on March 19th, the year of Jiashen, which is the calendar year of the Chinese Ganzhi, Li Zicheng's rebel army marched into Beijing, the capital of the Ming Empire. He hanged himself on a tree with a crooked neck, and the Ming Dynasty, which had enjoyed the country for nearly three hundred years, finally came to an end and was buried in peace. Undoubtedly, Chuang Wang Li Zicheng took on the historical role of the gravedigger of the Ming Dynasty. If Zhang Xianzhong or Gao Yingxiang were replaced, they might not be able to complete this great and arduous task.So, we can't help asking: Why did Li Zicheng rebel?What drove Li Zicheng to Liangshan?

Li Zicheng's joining the rebel army was actually a historical accident, which was closely related to a small post reform in the early years of Chongzhen. The post station is a communication institution in ancient my country, which is equivalent to the current post office and also functions as a government guest house.During the Ming Dynasty, the post station organization was quite complete, which can be called the first in the world.At that time, post stations were densely packed all over the country, and there were tens of thousands of post station staff.It is indeed very convenient for the government to transmit information, but the wages of the postmen became a big burden for the government in the late Ming Dynasty, because the Zhu Ming Dynasty was already riddled with holes and dying.

In the third year after he came to the throne, in order to save financial expenses, Emperor Chongzhen adopted an official's suggestion and issued an imperial decree announcing the abolition of post stations across the country.As soon as the upper lip of the emperor's old man touched his lower lip, thousands of small civil servants in post stations were laid off and lost their livelihoods, and Li Zicheng was one of them.Between starvation and rebellion, he finally chose the latter.From a historical point of view, for Li Zicheng, the dismantling of the post station was unfortunate and even more fortunate, but for the Ming Dynasty, it could only be the beginning of eternal doom.

So, which official gave Emperor Chongzhen this desperate suggestion that eventually led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty? The public's name is Mao Yujian, a good name, but it's a pity that he is not very good. At that time, Mao Yujian served as the censor in the court, responsible for supervising all officials and advising the emperor.Why do you say that this Mao Yushi is not very good?Because his proposal to abolish the post station was not out of the common heart of being loyal to the emperor and patriotism and relieving difficulties for the country, but out of great selfishness, out of anger caused by a romantic case.

This romantic case is very exciting! Mao Yushi is a first-class "wife-management", but he really can't bear the lust for stealing, so he secretly hired a "mistress" in Beijing while his wife was returning home to visit relatives.As the saying goes, "Fire can't be contained in paper", "If you want others to know, you can't do anything unless you can do nothing yourself", this affair finally reached the ears of the eldest wife. Just when Mao Yushi and "Little San" were like glue and inseparable, his wife suddenly fell from the sky, and several big mouths fell down, hitting "Little San"'s pink face, twisting Lao Mao's nose, and smashing the two of them. a spring dream.

The reason why the Hedong lion was able to fly from the distant hometown to the capital to show off its female power is because she "arrived by transmission". The stage horses take turns to go on the road, and the horses don't stop when they stop). Mao Yushi, who was beaten by his wife because of stealing, was so useless that he could spit out a rotten duck egg, but he dared not speak out when facing the Hedong lion.Since Mao Yushi didn't have enough courage to challenge the top leaders in the family, he had to vent his anger on the post station, so he wrote a book to the top leader of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen, exaggerating the harm of the post station, and suggested abolishing it. In post stations all over the country, Emperor Chongzhen, whose head was swollen and had a headache because of financial difficulties, immediately decided to pass, so Li Zicheng lost his job, starved, and rebelled. In the end, the Ming Dynasty was wiped out by this angry former post station staff up.

It is obvious that this romantic case is the butterfly that led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty. Our search so far has revealed the truth. If Mao Yujian, the cat, hadn’t been stealing or he was not afraid of guilt, he wouldn’t have hated the station so much and wanted to get rid of it quickly; if there hadn’t been a move to abolish the station, Li Zicheng wouldn’t have joined the rebels out of unemployment If Li Zicheng had not been forced to go to Liangshan, there would not have been Chuang generals and Chuang kings, Li Chuangwang would not have entered Beijing, and Emperor Chongzhen would have hanged himself.However, history cannot assume that a romantic incident eventually ruined the Ming Dynasty.