The plague overwhelmed the Ming Dynasty, and the Northeastern Great Plague also broke out in the late Qing Dynasty. Why was it successfully controlled?

In the history of human disasters, plague has always been the number one killer threatening human survival. Among the rankings of many plagues, the Black Death that occurred in Europe in the 14th century was the most terrifying. According to some scholar statistics, between 1348 and 1350 In three years, the Black Death took away 30 million people in Europe. In the next three hundred years, it ravaged Europe. Nearly half of the European population died due to the Black Death. This shows how powerful the Black Death was. .

For us, the Black Death seems to be a very distant term. In fact, the Black Death is what we know as the plague. People infected with the Black Death will have many dark spots on their skin, so , Europeans called this plague the "Black Death", we call it the plague.

According to data, the Black Death was probably spread to the Middle East and then to Europe along the trade routes between China and the West. In 1346, when the Mongolian army attacked the Black Sea port city of Kaffa, due to a long period of If the city could not be conquered, trebuchets were used to throw the corpses of people who died of the plague into the city. This was the first germ warfare recorded in human history, and it also had a major impact on the world. The plague also had a great impact on China two to three hundred years later. Li Zicheng's magical Eastern Expedition in 1644 took only one and a half months from Xi'an to Beijing?

1644 was probably the most turbulent and bizarre year in Chinese political history. In this year, Li Zicheng, who was born in the peasant uprising, proclaimed himself the emperor and founded the country with the name "Dashun", while Zhang Xianzhong named his country in Sichuan as "Dashun". , and the new emperor in the Northeast was named "Shunzhi". If we include Emperor Chongzhen who had not committed suicide at the beginning of the year, there were four emperors in China at the same time, and all three wanted "Shunzhi".

Although from the perspective of God in later generations, the Manchu regime outside the Pass will replace the Ming Dynasty. In fact, this is biased. The powerful strength of the Ming Dynasty made the rulers of Manchuria feel uncontrollable. At that time, the great leader of Manchuria, Huang Taiji, died suddenly. His successor, Emperor Shunzhi, was only six years old at the time. It is estimated that even the Manchus themselves had no plans to aspire to the Central Plains.

The person who had the most high hopes at that time should be Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng was a resolute anti-Ming peasant uprising general. During his more than ten years of uprising career, although he was suppressed, at the worst time, he was surrounded by only There were only eighteen knights left, but he survived tenaciously, and in 1643 he broke through Tongguan, defeated his old enemy Sun Chuanting, and occupied the entire province of Shaanxi with great momentum.

At the beginning of 1644, Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an, and there was a strong tendency to start a big war. On the second day of February, the Breaking Army began the Eastern Expedition. Li Zicheng's military ability was quite poor. During his military life, he rarely achieved victory. Only half a month after dispatching troops, he encountered resistance from Zhou Yuji, the commander-in-chief of Ningwu Pass. At that time, Zhou Yuji had only a few thousand soldiers, while Li Zicheng had hundreds of thousands. Army, this is a showdown with no suspense.

What is shocking is that after more than ten days of fighting between the two sides, Li Zicheng still had not captured Ningwuguan. In the end, he had to resort to the human wave tactic and paid the price of tens of thousands of people. He did not capture it until the first day of March. Ningwu, the garrison commander Zhou Yuji died on the battlefield. This battle directly destroyed all the self-confidence that Li Zicheng had built up over the past two years. At that time, Li Zicheng had already begun to intend to quit.

However, what people didn’t expect was that before Li Zicheng had time to retreat, the Chuang Army received a reduction in rank from the General Soldiers of Datong and the General Soldiers of Xuanfu, so Li Zicheng continued the Eastern Expedition with the attitude of giving it a try. .

It is estimated that if you look back at history, you will rarely find that a war that changed dynasties actually reached Beijing in such a devastating way. After setting off from Ningwuguan, Li Zicheng often landed in places where Li Zicheng had not yet reached. The watch had already arrived, and everywhere it went, and everywhere it didn't go, there was news of surrender.

When they arrived at Juyongguan on March 15th, what was unexpected was that Tang Tong, who had been summoned by King Chongzhen Qin, also surrendered to Li Zicheng in front of the battle line, and within one day the entire city of Beijing was He opened the city gate and surrendered. It can be said that after Ningwuguan, Li Zicheng won the war with his momentum.

The one-and-a-half-month history of Li Zicheng’s Eastern Expedition is really full of magic. Sometimes it even makes people doubt how the Ming Dynasty could be so vulnerable. The soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were really Are you so cowardly that you just surrender to the wind?

If people blindly look for the reasons from political and military history, it is probably difficult to find the plague that occurred in the late Ming Dynasty. Many historians later proved that the plague that occurred in the late Ming Dynasty was the plague. The rampant plague was probably the fundamental reason why the Ming Dynasty's official army was vulnerable. The plague was the last straw that broke the Ming Dynasty. Can rats also destroy the country?

According to the local chronicles of North China in the late Ming Dynasty and some records of Ming Dynasty people, historian Cao Shuji concluded that in his 1997 paper "Plague Epidemic and Social Changes in North China", he first proposed the idea that the plague swept across the country in the late Ming Dynasty. The plague in North China was actually bubonic plague, which caused great shock in the historical circles.

In 2006, he co-authored "Plague: War and Peace" with Li Yushang, further improving the previous research and putting forward the idea that "rats will kill the world", which once again attracted people's attention.

People call this epidemic "Pimple Plague". Infected people usually present with severe chest pain, coughing, and vomiting blood. Most of the people infected with plague in the early stages are bubonic plague transmitted by fleas. The drainage area of ??rat flea bites The lymph nodes become swollen, painful, and rapidly enlarging, usually reaching a peak within two to four days, and death within three to five days.

Compared with bubonic plague, pneumonic plague infection is more terrifying. It can be infected through the respiratory tract. Patients will develop symptoms within a few hours after infection. In severe cases, shock and death will occur in two to three days. .

In this plague, both plagues existed, and there was even cross-infection. Bubonic plague often transformed into plague after an outbreak, so it was extremely difficult to control.

The reason why this happened was that the Ming Dynasty authorities ignored the plague, because most of the plague came from rats living on the grasslands, and the Ming Dynasty often resorted to seclusion after overthrowing the Yuan Dynasty. This strategy greatly reduced the contact between the Central Plains and the northern nomads, which made the rulers after the mid-Ming Dynasty always not pay enough attention to the plague.

During the Wanli period, due to the increase in population, farmers began to reclaim the grasslands, which increased the opportunities for people to come into contact with prairie rats, causing the plague to gradually break out. At first it was an isolated case, but later it became a large scale.

In the eighth year of Wanli (1580), a plague broke out in Datong. Nine out of ten households were affected by the disease. The infected people died one after another. Once a family of several people was infected with the epidemic, ten or ten of them could not even close their doors. Who?.

The great plague in the late Ming Dynasty actually broke out in Shanxi as early as the sixth year of Chongzhen, and reached Hebei. When it was introduced to Beijing, it was the sixteenth year of Chongzhen (1644), when the Ming Dynasty was overthrown. the year before.

According to Gu Yingtai's "The Chronicles of Ming Dynasty", in August of the 16th year of Chongzhen (1643), pneumonic plague broke out in Gyeonggi Province: "God sent a disaster, and the plague spread from August to the present (September 15th) , the infection is at its peak. People died in one or two days, and some died in the morning and in the evening. There were no fewer than hundreds of people every day. There were even cases where the whole family was dead and no one was left alive. They were going from house to house, and no one was saved. ?

Qiu Zhonglin, an expert on Ming history in Taiwan, wrote in the article "Plague in Beijing in the Ming Dynasty and the Response of the Imperial Medical System" that in 1643, a large-scale plague outbreak began in Beijing, and hundreds of thousands of Beijingers died. for this plague.

By 1644, it evolved into: "Death is everywhere, nine out of ten houses are empty, and even all households are gone, and no one can stop them." ?

It can be seen that as the plague spread, officers and soldiers were not spared, and the entire national defense system of the Ming Dynasty was paralyzed. This is why, during Li Zicheng’s Eastern Expedition, a large number of Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers surrendered. In fact, They had no choice but to fight and had no fighting capacity. This is why Li Zicheng did not lead the Ming Dynasty's surrender troops to continue fighting after taking over the city.

Although the Ming Dynasty was at the end of its strength and was suffering from internal and external troubles, the outbreak of the plague did eventually crush the overwhelmed Ming Dynasty.

There is a striking similarity in history. The plague that broke out in the late Ming Dynasty happened again in the late Qing Dynasty!

History is always strikingly similar. The Ming Dynasty lasted from its founding in 1368 to its overthrow in 1644, with the reign of Zuo in 276. The Qing Dynasty lasted from the founding of the Qing Dynasty by Huang Taiji in 1636 to the abdication of Puyi in 1912. It was Guo Zuo in 276.

What is even more similar is that the plague that occurred when the Ming Dynasty collapsed coincided with the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. From 1910 to 1911, a large-scale pneumonic plague broke out in the northeastern region of the Qing Dynasty, which was called the worst epidemic in modern history. The largest plague broke out in Northeast China and spread throughout North China.

However, what is unexpected is that the plague broke out with "prehistoric power" and was so violent that it only caused 60,000 deaths and was eliminated within eight months. It is really shocking Surprisingly, it was only 10 months since Puyi announced his abdication in February 1912.

Let us now review the course of this plague.

In the late Qing Dynasty, due to the international situation of Japan and Russia eyeing the Northeast, the situation of prohibiting the development of the Northeast in the early Qing Dynasty was changed, and the population began to be encouraged to immigrate to the Northeast. Especially since the Sino-Japanese War of 1898,? ?Population migration has increased significantly, and a large number of people have reclaimed land, which has greatly changed the original natural environment of Northeast China, which is quite similar to the development of Shanxi in the late Ming Dynasty.

The Northeast is an important fur production area. During the Jurchen period, people were still a fishing and hunting people. Hunting itself is an important way of life in the Northeast. However, with the influx of population, the number of hunters has also increased. Maybe the former hunters liked Mink is caught, but when the number of minks decreases, only other animals with fur can be caught, such as marmots (marmots), which are a type of prairie rat and carry plague bacteria.

Some immigrated hunters cannot tell which kind of marmot is healthy or unhealthy, or due to the trend of profit, they hunt no matter what kind of marmot they are. As a result, hunters who lack common knowledge about plague treat the plague as When brought back to the town, sometimes not only the otter skins are left behind, but even the otter meat is eaten. I don’t know exactly which link caused the problem.

On October 12, 1910, the first plague patient was diagnosed in a small town in Manzhouli. After that, the outbreak began, and there were a large number of plague patients. However, it was the eve of the Spring Festival, and the Northeast region was plagued by plague. Many businessmen or workers from Gyeonggi and Shandong areas returned to their hometowns, and the plague began to spread along the railways. The plague spread like a river flowing thousands of miles away, with an unstoppable trend.

According to statistics, the plague killed nearly 60,000 people. The plague was the last straw that broke the Ming Dynasty. Why was the plague in Northeast China successfully controlled in the late Qing Dynasty?

In a normal view of history, people believe that the Qing government around 1910 was on its deathbed and had no political appeal. However, in this plague prevention and control, the Qing government still handed over a Very good answer.

At that time, the Northeast was already a sphere of influence contested by Japan and Russia. Both Japan and Russia wanted to seize the opportunity to seize the power of epidemic prevention and then engulf the Northeast. The Qing government was under tremendous pressure and actively carried out epidemic prevention.

The Qing government first isolated Northeast China as an epidemic area. On December 13, it ordered the Shanhaiguan area to strictly prevent the introduction of plague into the customs. Secondly, it asked the central ministries to actively cooperate with Xiliang, the governor of the three eastern provinces at the time, to All efforts were devoted to the prevention and control of plague.

Especially in the economy, although the Qing government's finances were already stretched at that time, it still allocated a part of the silver for epidemic prevention funds. When funds were tight, it also borrowed money from banks specifically for epidemic prevention.

In terms of medical treatment, since traditional Chinese medicine did not make much difference in epidemic prevention and control, the Qing government turned to Western medicine and hired Wu Liande, a doctor from abroad, as the chief medical officer of the Epidemic Prevention Department.

When Wu Liande presided over the epidemic prevention, he adopted some measures that are of great reference to this day, such as traffic control and patient isolation, which achieved good results, especially the policy of cremating the corpses of the deceased. It showed the determination of the Chinese people at that time to control the plague.

With the support of the Qing government, Wu Liande quickly achieved results, and the number of infected people began to decrease. By April 24, 1911, the plague was completely eliminated in the three eastern provinces, and the Qing government achieved the final victory in preventing and controlling the plague.

Although the Qing government declared its collapse in the second year, during this plague, the Qing government acted vigorously and focused on the overall situation, and still controlled the great plague of the century.

Then the question is, why did the plague become the last straw that broke the Ming Dynasty, but now people are praising the Qing government's performance in this epidemic?

Quite a few historians believe that the Ming government was in the midst of internal and external troubles at that time and had no energy to control the epidemic. In fact, in my opinion, the late Qing government's internal and external troubles were not necessarily any better than those of the Ming Dynasty!

The situation faced by the late Qing Dynasty was even more unprecedented. From 1840 to 1900, when Western powers invaded China continuously, and in 1900 when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, China had become a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. , in the internal environment, there were constant natural and man-made disasters, and various peasant uprisings occurred one after another. However, none of them overthrew the rule of the Qing Dynasty. This is a puzzling thing to think about.

For example, from 1876 to 1878, a drought that had never happened in two hundred years occurred in North China, with tens of millions of people affected. Li Hongzhang, then governor of Zhili, adopted a series of extraordinary measures to finally successfully control the disaster, many of which The measures are still highly controversial. For example, Li Hongzhang publicly sold government positions in order to raise money and food for disaster relief. This was unimaginable in modern history.

Compared with the measures taken by the Qing Dynasty to deal with disasters, the Ming Dynasty government headed by Chongzhen never realized that the foundation of governing the country lies in "people-oriented". The war ahead was tense, so it stepped up the imposition of exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes on the society. Stirring up greater civil unrest will only further deepen the disaster. After the war expands, exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes will be imposed again, forming a vicious circle that will eventually be unstoppable.

I always believe that it is never viruses that can defeat mankind in the end, but ignorance! Although the Qing government's feudal rule was criticized a lot, it always responded actively to various natural disasters, which is worthy of recognition.