My life skills in Daming Liver

Chen Yiqin didn't know either. He personally watched Ming Dynasty fall into decline step by step and was completely unable to save it.

When he took office in Henan, Chen Yiqin was very satisfied. He even went to Xinzheng, Henan to meet his old boss Gao Gong.

The collapse of the Ming Dynasty was different from the collapse of any dynasty in history. It can indeed be regarded as a major change unprecedented in history.

Because the time when the Ming Dynasty collapsed completely broke out of the law of historical cycles.

After Gao Gong returned to his hometown, he began to imitate Sima Guang and began to compile history. While compiling history, Gao Gong also proposed the concept of the law of historical cycles.

At the beginning of a dynasty, there was usually a lot of land and a relatively small population. The economy suffered major war damage in the last years of the previous dynasty. The careerists were also weeded out like weeds. At this time, the army and generals were all about conquering the world. This group of people has relatively strong combat effectiveness and can easily deal with foreign invaders.

During this period, as long as the country is normal and doesn't mess around like Emperor Sui Yang, basically the country will not perish.

In the middle of the dynasty, after reaching the peak of prosperity, land was annexed, corruption abounded, the military's combat effectiveness was low, external nomads threatened, and internal border turmoil occurred.

However, at this time, the entire empire's bureaucracy can generally still function, and it can be repaired. If it meets one or two emperors and politicians who are willing to reform, its life can be extended.

By the late dynasty, it was hard to recover from the accumulated problems. Various social issues were sharply opposed and conflicts could not be adjusted and alleviated. All kinds of problems broke out completely. There was a big hole in the finances that could not be filled. The emperor had no choice but to increase taxes, which in turn led to the loss of life of the people. If the peasant uprising started, the financial hole would become even bigger. In the end, the economy would completely collapse and the dynasty would be destroyed.

After Gao Gong proposed this theory, Su Ze also proposed a similar theory. This rule can be applied to almost all previous dynasties.

But this rule does not apply to today’s Ming Dynasty.

No matter how you look at it, the Ming Dynasty of the Jiajing Dynasty is not considered to be the end of a dynasty that is about to collapse.

Although the people of the Ming Dynasty were also suffering, the court had not yet reached that point. Hu Zongxian was on the verge of quelling the Japanese rebellion in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. During the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty, the country was able to generally balance its balance of payments, and the tax increase did not affect the people. The point where you can’t survive.

Several natural disasters did not result in many peasant uprisings. After Yan Song's fall, the political climate of the Ming Dynasty improved somewhat.

It can be considered a balance of power in the northern grasslands. An Dahan attacked the capital several times, but the Mongols came to rob. They didn't even mean to seek hegemony. They just blackmailed some money and asked to open a tribute market. In the end, they accepted Emperor Longqing's offer. Canonization.

It can even be said that the Ming Dynasty in the north is now the last force to exert pressure on the foreign races on the frontier.

Today's Mongols are very respectful to the Ming Dynasty and exchange a large number of cattle, sheep and war horses for goods from the Central Plains every year.

The Jurchens in Liaodong were as obedient as dogs, bringing their own dry food to serve the governor of Liaodong.

The leader of North Korea and his whole family ran to the Ming Dynasty, begging the Ming Dynasty to send troops to help him restore his country.

The Ming Dynasty lost more than half of its land, and the land tax was more than half less than before. However, other taxes far exceeded the land tax, and the burden of the clan was removed, and the army had a lot more food.

It can be said that if Ming Yingzong had led Li Chengliang on the expedition, there would have been no earthen forts, and the Oara people could have been driven out of the grassland in advance.

But at such an irregular node, Ming Dynasty is about to die.

Mainly because Su Ze rose too quickly.

The rise of the southeast almost instantly occupied the most important Jiangnan area of ​​the Ming Dynasty, and then quickly occupied the coastal areas and began to develop crazily.

He also landed in Tianjin and defeated the emperor, completely destroying the authority of the imperial court and directly tearing the Ming Dynasty into pieces.

This time it can no longer be summarized by the law of historical cycles, and it completely escapes the normal rise and fall of dynasties.

Gao Gong summarized the laws of history, but they have failed in the current era. He stayed behind closed doors to study why all this happened.

When Chen Yiqin arrived in Henan, he discussed this issue after meeting with Gao Gong.

At that time, Gao Gong asked Chen Yiqin this question, but Chen Yiqin could not answer it at all. He could only say that Su Ze was born a rebel, and he was lucky enough to take advantage of the chaos, which was an anomaly throughout the ages.

But now Chen Yiqin might be able to answer Gao Gong's question.

Because this era is completely different from any other cycle in history, Su Ze is also different from any rebel in history.

The old system of the Ming Dynasty was completely unable to adapt to the development of the entire era. Whether it was the bureaucracy or the army, Chen Yiqin almost copied many policy settings in the southeast to control Henan.

And Henan is still just an inland province. Chen Yiqin can't imagine how many problems those rapidly developing coastal provinces in the southeast will encounter in their development, and how many unprecedented things they will encounter.

Facing such a world, Ming Ting has only two ways.

One is to continue to be a coward, continue to close your eyes to the world, implement the policy of seclusion, prohibit communication with the outside world, destroy all kinds of new weapons and textile machines, and return to the era of small peasant economy designed by Zhu Yuanzhang.

Either we must reform and establish a system that can adapt to the new era.

Both of these paths are doomed to be unreachable.

The former road to the southeast did not give the Ming court this opportunity at all. If a new army had not been formed, the Ming Dynasty would have died long ago.

Gao Gong and Zhang Juzheng tried to take the latter path, but under the corrupt political framework of the Ming Dynasty and the constraints of all forces, how could the speed of reform be as fast as that of Southeast China, which was starting anew?

This is a dead end.

After understanding this, Chen Yiqin suddenly felt relieved.

The fact that he was able to resist in Henan for so long is worthy of the Confucian classics he studied in his childhood, and worthy of the Jiajing and Longqing emperors who promoted and appointed him.

The Ming Dynasty has already accumulated a lot of trouble, and he has already done his loyalty to the Ming Dynasty. There is no need to delay his son anymore.

His son Chen Yubi had never received any kindness from the Ming court.

The day after the order was issued in the southeast, Chen Yiqin in Kaifeng City suddenly ordered all Henan New Army troops to lay down their weapons and surrender, and issued a "Message to the Henan Army and People" to all Henan soldiers and civilians, explaining the reasons for their surrender.

The Fifth Southeast Brigade immediately entered Kaifeng City and took over the new army under Chen Yiqin.

Chen Yiqin's "Letter to the Soldiers and People of Henan" Along with the Southeast New Army, the Fifth Brigade occupied the entire Henan Province without encountering any decent resistance.

When Li Chengliang received the news, he was shocked. While he denounced Chen Yiqin as a national traitor and failed the imperial court, he also ordered the Ming army in Shandong to "wait for opportunities."