Zhang Xianzhong
By the late Ming Dynasty era, the government had been weakened financially, and struggled to deal with the economic issues, environmental problems, and widespread disease (smallpox and possibly the plague) that afflicted peasant populations. In 1639, an epidemic that would later become known as the Chongzhen Slough hit the Yangzi region and spread across the north. Famine and drought compounded the social discontent caused by the epidemic. Environmental disaster, disease, and the failure of the Chongzhen government to protect its people led to major peasant uprisings across Northern China beginning in 1628, with the Shaanxi province as an epicenter of rebellion. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, also from Shaanxi province, were two of the major leaders in the peasant rebellions under the late Ming dynasty.