#255 - Ming 39: It's the End of the World As We Know It
The History of China
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The Last Days of the Tongsmen Empire
The Chong-Jun Sloth was the most prolonged series of disasters since the tidying sloth in the 1320s. Crops withered, food supplies dwindled, and the commercial economy shut down. The once rich countryside had become a no man's land where only armed men dared to enter. By 1644, 80% of the counties had stopped forwarding any taxes at all. When that proved insufficient, the Ming state was forced to play its final card - raising taxes.
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