The significant impact of the Little Ice Age on the Ming Dynasty can be divided into two parts: internally, it was the decline in productivity and the shortage of means of production; externally, it was social unrest and frequent wars.
Judging from the duration of the disaster and the impact it caused, the harm caused by the peak of the Little Ice Age was even worse than that of the Jiannu Dynasty.
In this regard, Zhu Youxiao could only sigh that he was born at the wrong time and had to be an emperor who had to worry and work hard.
Externally, he can climb the technology tree, improve the level of weapons and equipment, strengthen military strength, and resist looting from the north.
Internally, he needed more officials like Li Jingbai who cared about the people. At the very least, the more corrupt and shameless bastards who were likely to cause rebellion against the government, the less harm they would cause to the country and the people.
Kill a group of corrupt officials and replace them with another group. Even if they are not like Li Jingbai, they will be better than the original ones. Even their families have been exiled, and there is no chance for revenge.
There were fewer and fewer enemies, and more and more obedient and useful ones. Zhu Youxiao felt that his situation was safer.
Moreover, beheading or exiling corrupt officials would be a boon for many. If positions weren't vacated, how could there be so many opportunities? Those selected by the Ministry of Personnel, those entering the civil service through the imperial examinations, and those seeking promotion from clerks—everyone was eagerly awaiting their turn!
To put it bluntly, there are many who mourn the death of the rabbit, many who gloat over the misfortune of the fox, and many who hate and despise the official, but few who stand up for the punished officials. Or perhaps there are none, or even dare not.
Regardless of whether they dare or not, and regardless of what evil they are plotting in secret, Zhu Youxiao will not stop, nor will he be polite.
This was not something to be tolerated, nor was it something to be discussed in terms of noble national goals. This was a matter of vital importance, affecting the stability of his throne and the well-being of his wife and children.
To put it bluntly, Zhu Youxiao had already regarded this as a life-and-death struggle. His determination was the same as his determination to destroy the Jiannu, and it was equally unshakable.
No one understood the emperor's ruthlessness and urgency, because no one knew the tragic scenes in history. Only the emperor knew that if he did not change, he would die.
To achieve this, the emperor didn't hesitate to kill ten times as many people. If you do the math, it's only tens of thousands, and at most, no more than a hundred thousand. And compared to the tragedies in history, a hundred thousand people is nothing.
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The Jiannu had suffered repeated defeats and had been suppressed, and it seemed that it would not take long for them to succeed in pacifying the Liao.
At home, the emperor launched wave after wave of purges of officials, from the court to the local level, from corruption to collusion between officials and businessmen. Either the entire family was exiled or beheaded and exiled. The tense atmosphere shrouded the officialdom and seemed to never dissipate.
Under such circumstances, the fact that the Ming navy, with more than a hundred warships and thousands of officers and soldiers, set out from Guangzhou and easily occupied Chaigun was not a very eye-catching news, and not many people realized the importance of this overseas land.
Whether it was Chaigun today, Jiadingfu, Saigon, or even named after someone, only the emperor knew that this place was a flat, fertile, and well-watered plain. If fully developed, it would become a great granary.
However, in the early stages of development, it still required investment of funds and manpower. To this end, Zhu Youxiao could only take out hundreds of thousands of yuan from the treasury as the cost of this expedition and to use it to resettle the immigrants.
Fortunately, the climate and land here are suitable for farming, and with three harvests a year, it doesn't take long for the immigrants and garrisons to become self-sufficient.
According to Zhu Youxiao's plan, people from Fujian, Anhui and Guangxi would be mobilized to migrate, with 3,000 people this year, 10,000 next year, and 50,000 the year after.
By recruiting soldiers from the immigrants, building ports, and stationing a permanent navy, this overseas land became the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and it was defended very firmly.
Anhui often suffers from floods, and Fujian is mountainous and has little land. The people cannot bear the hardship, so most of them engage in seafaring careers. Immigrant farming provides them with another way to make a living.
As for Guangxi, let me tell you a fact that not many people know: throughout the Ming Dynasty, rebellions by chieftains in Guangxi, as well as uprisings by Miao, Yao, and Zhuang peoples broke out continuously.
Among them, there were three Datengxia uprisings, spanning more than 200 years. They were led by Han Yong, the Right Censor-in-Chief in the first year of the Chenghua reign, Wang Shouren, the Minister of War and the Earl of Xinjian in the seventh year of the Jiajing reign, and Cai Jing, the Assistant Minister of War in the eighteenth year of the Jiajing reign.
That’s right, the master of the School of Mind, Mr. Wang Yangming, led his troops into battle again and suppressed the second Datongxia Uprising.
Zhu Youxiao was also quite puzzled by this. How could Mr. Wang, who was passionate about war and never defeated, be portrayed as a philosopher by later generations?
But this was just a minor matter. Zhu Youxiao was more concerned about why Guangxi was in constant rebellion. What was the reason? Why was Yunnan much more stable when it also had many native officials?
After reviewing documents and questioning officials, the emperor finally discovered the reason. It was simple, and unsurprisingly, a land issue.
Guangxi has many mountains and little land, and the land is barren and the people are poor. This characteristic was not unfamiliar to Zhu Youxiao, but he did not expect that it was so acute in the Ming Dynasty.
In fact, before the Ming Dynasty, most of the land in Guangxi had been occupied by local officials and chiefs, while farmers from ethnic minorities such as Miao, Yao, Dong, Zhuang, and even Han farmers had very little land or even no land.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the native officials in remote areas were basically not touched. This was certainly conducive to rapid stability, but social contradictions also remained.
With the growth of population, land annexation in Guangxi became increasingly serious in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, gradually intensifying social contradictions.
In feudal society, land was the most important means of production and the foundation of farmers' survival. If farmers lost their land, it was equivalent to cutting off their livelihood.
Therefore, the poor peasants in Guangxi were forced to revolt for their livelihoods, and this rebellion never stopped from the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty basically adopted tough measures to suppress rebellions in various places. They believed that if they showed weakness, more chieftains would follow suit, resulting in a worse situation.
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