The location of Wanggong Factory in Beijing during the Ming Dynasty

Wang Gong factory explosion, history known as "apocalyptic explosion" or "Wang Gong factory disaster", for May 30, 1626 (Ming Dynasty apocalypse six years on the sixth day of May), the Dragon Boat Festival the next day at 9 am, the southwest corner of Beijing Wang Gong factory gunpowder depot near the area of the bizarre explosion, resulting in a radius of 750 meters, an area of 2.25 square kilometers of the explosion range and more than 20,000 people's huge casualties.

Since the ancient books that mention the Wang Gongchang incident all record bizarre phenomena such as loud sounds spread for hundreds of miles, the sky was dark as night, houses were turbulent, and Ganoderma lucidum smoke clouds that were suspected to be caused by strong earthquakes, tornadoes, meteorites, and even supernatural forces. The explosion of the powder magazine alone was not enough to cause it. In addition, after the incident, the injured and bodies near the explosion range were all naked and naked. It also cast a layer of mystery on this catastrophe.

The original appearance of Wanggong Factory

There are records of the explosion of Wang Gongchang in "Mingshi Lu ¡¤ Xizong Record", "Guoxuan", "Zhuozhongzhi" written by the eunuch Liu Ruoyu, "A Brief Introduction to the Scenery of the Imperial Capital" and "A Brief Introduction to Chen Yuan", and even the 40th chapter of the Anonymous Ming Dynasty novel "A Commentary on the Internet of Things" also describes the plot of this event. Among them, it belongs to the official and equivalent to the nature of the government news bulletin. The Anonymous Copy of "Tianchangdi" has the most detailed account of the disaster of Wang Gongchang.

"Tianbian Di Copy" records: At Si o'clock on the sixth day of the fifth month of the Tianqi Bingyin, the sky was bright and suddenly there was a sound like a roar. It gradually moved from the northeast to the southwest corner of the capital. Gray gas surged and the houses were in turmoil. In a moment, there was a loud earthquake, and the sky collapsed. It was as dark as night, and thousands of rooms were flat and heavy. It runs from Shuncheng Gate Street in the east to Benyi Street in the north (now West Chang 'an Street). It is three or four miles long, and the surrounding thirteen miles are completely pulverized. There are tens of thousands of houses and tens of thousands of people. In the Wanggongchang area, the erosion is particularly serious, with stacked zombies, filthy air, rubble filling the sky, and street doors cannot be distinguished below. It is hard to describe what I am sad and sad. The sound of earthquakes originated from Hexiwu in the south, Tongzhou in the east, and Miyun and Changping in the north, turning into the same city. Even if those who were not killed, all the houses were shattered and the whole country was like a maniac. The elephant house collapsed, and the elephants escaped. Looking at the clouds, there are things like messy silk, things like five-color, and things like ganoderma lucidum black. They rise into the sky and disperse after time. There was a fire at the gunpowder bureau in Heke Road, and the spies were arrested and reported many injuries. This is because the truth has become bigger and scarier.

Volume 71 of the "Ming Record¡¤Xizong Record" records: (Wushen in May of the sixth year of Tianqi), the change in Wang Gongchang caused endless sounds from the ground, gunpowder self-immolation, smoke and dust covered the sky, rafters and tiles floated on the ground, and the day was dark. The northwest area connected four or five miles of houses were completely destroyed. At that time, more than 30 gunpowder workers in the factory were burned to death, leaving only one Wu Er alive. The emperor ordered Li Canran, the censor of Xicheng City, to investigate and report. According to the report: More than 1,930 houses were collapsed, killing 537 men and women.

Volume 87 of "National Monopoly" records: Ding Wei. There was a disaster in Wang Gongchang. It runs from Shuncheng Gate in the east and ends at Punyi Street in the north, where more than 10,000 residential areas have been damaged. More than 530 men and women died, and a gunpowder explosion broke out. The gatekeeper of the Huoshen Temple at Xuanwu Gate (now Shenwu Gate) heard three stacks of music coming from the temple. When he saw a fireball rolling out, he flew into the sky. Everyone belongs to the eye. The sound of Odong City was like a bolt of thunder, and the world was dark. In the Qianqing Palace, we fled Jianji Hall, and the royal seats were all tilted. More than 2,000 workers in the hall fell and died. All the casualties were exposed, and their clothes were hanging on the trees in the Western Hills. There are piles of clothes in Changping teaching ground. The naked woman in the sedan chair on Yuanhong Temple Street is safe and sound. The big stone lion on Shifu Street flew out of Shuncheng Gate.

The 40th chapter of the "Commentary on the Idle" records: By the end of May 6th, the capital was also acting in a strange way - the capital also started from the northwest, shaking the earth like the sound of thunderbolts, black gas soaring into the sky, and they could not distinguish each other. First, Xiaojiayan, in the west to Pingze Gate, the Temple of the City God, and in the south to Shun City Gate, the fallen houses were shaken for six or seven miles, and the bricks and tiles on the city walls flew down like rain. People first saw that before the smoke was full, they could not distinguish the road, and then they were disturbed by the noise of the walls and houses, which made it impossible for people to enter. There were more than 10,000 people who were crushed to death and shocked to death on the road. All were naked, distressed, and their limbs were incomplete. In the area from the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry to Shifuma Street, in the five or six hutongs, there were officials, and many of them died. The elephant house in the gate of Shuncheng was shaken down, and the elephant was also shocked and went crazy. He ran around, not knowing how many people were killed, and the city was so shocked that ghosts were crying. At this time, there were many officials and people killed and injured. It was not until two or three days later.

The scale of the disaster in Wanggong Factory was so large that it is said that even the east corner of Suzhou City was shaken, and hundreds of houses collapsed. At the time of the incident, the Ming Dynasty was in a time of internal and external difficulties and ups and downs. The national politics were corrupt, the eunuchs were dictatorship, and there was no distinction between loyalty and traitors. After the news of the disaster quickly spread throughout the country, the government and the people were shocked, both at home and abroad, and the people were panicked. During the apocalypse years, all kinds of natural and man-made disasters could not compare to the degree of damage caused by the big explosion in Wanggong Factory. Therefore, Shen Guoyuan called the disaster "an unprecedented change in ancient and modern times" in the "Letters from the Two Dynasties". Many ministers believed that the big explosion was a warning from God to the emperor, and they wrote letters one The emperor had to issue an "edict of guilt", expressing his desire to wake up from the pain, and admonishing the small and large ministers to "do your best to cleanse your heart and reflect on the pain", hoping that this would make the Ming Dynasty a long-term peace and stability, and all things would be eliminated. He also issued a decree to issue the government's treasury of ten thousand gold taels for disaster relief. This matter was also recorded in the official history of the Ming Dynasty by the imperial pen eunuchs.

For hundreds of years, there have been different opinions about the explosion of Wanggong Factory. Some people think that it was caused by an earthquake, some people say that gunpowder exploded, some people think that a meteorite fell, that a cryptovolcanic thermonuclear explosion occurred, that it was caused by an earthquake, gunpowder and combustible gas electrostatic explosion at the same time, and even more, that it was an alien invasion, UFO advent, etc. But none of the opinions presented irrefutable evidence that was completely convincing.

Regarding the causes of the Wanggongchang disaster, there are four most commonly accepted explanations:

Tornado says

Tornadoes are sudden and destructive. The Wanggongchang disaster on the sixth day of the fifth day of the sixth year of Tianqi seemed to be caused by a tornado based on its scope. "It runs to Shunchengmen Street in the east and Punyi Street in the north. It is three to four miles long and thirteen miles around it, all of which are turned into dust. "The range of tornadoes is often calm 100 meters away from the affected area, even though the boundaries between the affected area and the non-disaster area are clear, while the earthquake is not obvious. As for the large stone lion on Shifuma Street flying out of Xuanwumen, there are historical records. Moreover, the stone lion, a heavy object of thousands of kilograms north of Wanggongchang, was thrown outside the southern city wall, but the city wall did not collapse. Throwing the stone lion far away is the great force of a tornado. The Wanggongchang disaster was caused by a tornado, which often broke out suddenly. However, before this disaster, there were many signs before and after the earthquake: from the southwest, there was a sound like thunder; chickens and dogs were startled, and there was a sound from the shaking; on the ninth day of the first lunar month (three days after the change), loud sounds came from the west, and doors and windows rang; the sound of the earthquake spread from Hexiwu in the south, Tongzhou in the east, and Miyun in the north. Tornadoes are difficult to explain these phenomena.

earthquake theory

The Beijing area has always had frequent earthquakes, with more than a hundred large and small earthquakes in the Ming Dynasty alone. Although the cataclysm on the sixth day of May in the sixth year of the apocalypse is not officially an earthquake, there are many coincidences between the signs before and after the cataclysm and the phenomena before and after the earthquake. And there are also many records related to earthquakes in historical documents, such as: "A Great Earthquake", "Diancheng", "Shaking the World", "Time Break Earthquake", and "After the Earthquake". Therefore, it can be inferred that the Wang Gong Factory disaster was caused by the earthquake directly trigg If this inference is true, then the earthquake has the characteristics of large intensity and small earthquake area, such as the destructive force of the earthquake disaster center (west of Xuanwumennei Street and south of Xingbu Street) almost reached the level of destruction; however, the buildings closer to the earthquake disaster center, such as Zhenru Temple and Chengen Temple, have not suffered much damage, which is unprecedented in the world; furthermore, mushroom-like smoke clouds are not a phenomenon of earthquakes; and the phenomenon of "no matter men or women, they are all naked", "not hanging an inch", and "clothes" is not the result of earthquakes; as for the huge shock wave generated in the disaster, there are probably few precedents in the history of earthquakes.

The Big Bang is the equivalent of a nuclear bomb.

Meteorite theory

When a star in the universe bursts into the Earth's atmosphere, the air in front of it is strongly pressurized and the temperature suddenly rises to thousands of degrees or even tens of thousands of degrees. This causes the meteor-the surface material of the meteorite to melt and vaporize, and collide with atmospheric molecules to shine, forming sparks and fireballs. When the sparks and fireballs disappear, people may hear thunderbolts, thunder, and explosions. The meteorite landed, forming a crater. When a meteorite collides with the ground, it will give off vibrations and sounds, just as recorded in the literature: "The sound is like a roar","There is a surge of light, and there is a large light inside","Suddenly a loud earthquake breaks through the emergency","The deep pit is several feet long","The smoke rises straight up","Huge rocks fly in the air like rain","Smoke and dust block the sky, and the day is dark","The area around Xi'an Gate is full of iron slag, like bran like rice", etc., which is completely consistent with this. Falling down may also cause houses to 'suddenly topple','all big trees to be uprooted and unearthed', and 'big trees to fly to Miyun', turning them into dust 'for miles in the disaster area. However, the fall theory cannot explain the various earthquake signs before and after the disaster.

gunpowder explosion theory

The center of this disaster was the Wanggong Factory Medicine Warehouse. Therefore, after the disaster, someone once said: "Wang Gongchang did not abstain from self-immolation, causing disturbance to the capital." "Wang Gongchang is a huge powder magazine. According to documentary records: every five days, the three battalions received a total of more than 3,000 kilograms of gunpowder. If so much gunpowder explodes, it can form a high-temperature and high-pressure air flow in an instant and quickly spread around. It can rush down to form a pit on the ground, dump obstacles around, and carry objects into the air, making the ground sound constant, even a "big earthquake","breaking beyond the emergency." But at that time, ordinary gunpowder could have such great power: it could make a thousand-pound stone lion fly outside the street; sink the ground into a huge pit for more than twenty feet; and it would take away clothes, leaving both men and women naked without a trace. These phenomena are also difficult to explain in terms of gunpowder explosion. Moreover, as a precursor to the explosion, the appearance of ground sounds and fireballs seems to be difficult for the gunpowder itself to be directed by it.