To be fair, it was not all poor planning so that the Ming Empire used up all suitable woods for the new palace. In their original plan, there was some allowance - sufficient wood would remain after the Forbidden City was completed, and the country could continue her exploration of the world.
The real bad luck came when the Ancestral Temple (太廟) - one of the major buildings in this gigantic complex - was completely demolished in a fire soon after the opening ceremony. (Apparently it was secondary to a thunderstorm, exactly 100 days following the opening ceremony.) That accident left the empire no choice but to use the reserve material and build the Temple again.
The rest, alas, has become history.
PS. Lightning rod (避雷針) was invented in 1750 - nearly a hundred years later, ironically for the protection of European churches.
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