The Liaodong war, which happened in the first half of the seventh year of the Tianqi period, involved the military and people of the entire Ming Empire, and it was at least victorious. When the horses who had won the victory rushed into the capital, the capital was in full swing, and every household was decorated with lights and set off firecrackers. People went to the streets to celebrate, and the business in the wine shop was booming, and people drank and had fun and sang loudly. However, there was another open and secret struggle within the court. Because Yuan Chonghuan did not listen to Wei Zhongxian's control, Wei Zhongxian instructed the left minister of the Ministry of War Huo Weihua to impeach Yuan Chonghuan to support himself and to save Jinzhou without division during the Ningjin battle. As a result, Zhao Shujiao, Man Gui, Zu Dashou and others were all promoted to the position of a second-rank governor of Liaodong, and they were promoted to the second-rank governor, and even the title of a prince Shaobao.

All the generals under Yuan Chonghuan were indignant, but Wei Zhongxian was powerful, and their voices could not be reported to the court at all. Yuan Chonghuan himself was calm. After analyzing the pros and cons, Yuan Chonghuan wrote to the court to resign and return to his hometown. This was actually Yuan Chonghuan's way of protecting himself. Yuan Chonghuan was a pragmatic man. He knew very well that only by retaining a useful body could he serve the country. If a person died, the government would not stop as long as he was in power. Since Wei Zhongxian is powerful now, he would not compete with him for the time being. Resigning from his official position and returning to his hometown to avoid his brilliance. So when Yuan Chonghuan's memorial was handed over, Wei Zhongxian instructed the six ministries to use seals the next day and agreed to his request. Yuan Chonghuan packed his luggage, took only one servant, and took the capital to go south from now on the Grand Canal. He hoped to return to his hometown in Guangdong as soon as possible.

(Fisherman's note, this book still uses official history to establish Yuan Chonghuan as a positive person. In recent years, many books and articles have listed Yuan Chonghuan and Yue Fei and other heroes that we have known since childhood as negative persons. It is true that from some aspects, their characters do have various shortcomings in their personalities. For example, Yue Fei, his death was entirely caused by himself. Soldiers should not get involved in politics and insist on welcoming the two emperors. What would Zhao Gou think? Isn't this just a stubborn mind and killing himself? But we cannot deny his historical achievements. If he and other patriotic generals had not resisted the Jin soldiers, then the Chinese country would have been destroyed more than a hundred years ahead of schedule, and there would be no later prosperity of the Southern Song Dynasty.

Although we cannot now identify him as a hero of the Chinese nation, for the people of the Southern Song Dynasty, he was a national hero of the Song Dynasty. Just like the Mongolians commemorating Genghis Khan, Yue Fei should also be fairly evaluated.

The same is true for Yuan Chonghuan. For a pragmatist like Yuan Chonghuan, what he dislikes about the people's hearts. He understands that his task is to restore Liaodong, curb the Later Jin, and even one day he can destroy the Later Jin. However, in the environment of party struggles in the late Ming Dynasty, especially when Chongzhen was very suspicious, some of Yuan Chonghuan's methods did touch the emperor's taboo. Now people mainly criticize Yuan Chonghuan for killing Mao Wenlong without authorization. Many historical books believe that Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong to destroy the Great Wall by himself.

Yuan Chonghuan really wanted to make meritorious and wanted to keep his name in history, so he dared to boast about his Haikou in front of Chongzhen, saying that he had the ability to restore Liao in five years, which made Chongzhen very happy. After being reminded by others, he realized that Yuan Chonghuan was a young emperor and liked to pursue his affairs. So Yuan Chonghuan also felt that he had lost his words, so he submitted a memorial saying: "The plan to restore Liao in five years is not easy to complete. Since Your Majesty has entrusted it to me, how dare I refuse this difficult task. However, within five years, the Ministry of Revenue transferred military pay, the Ministry of Works supplies equipment, the Ministry of Personnel employs personnel, and the Ministry of War transfers troops to select generals.

Only by cooperating inside and outside the court can success." This puts a prerequisite for restoring Liao for five years, which is equivalent to not saying anything. If it fails, it can be said that other departments are not in good cooperation. However, he did not think of another aspect of human nature. Since Chongzhen was the young emperor, it means that Chongzhen had just ascended the throne and did things with a temporary passion. You just told him that he had pacified Liao for five years, and then he said this and that conditions. Then, no one in the court could slander him, so that the emperor would believe him wholeheartedly, which would make Chongzhen feel that you are not reliable in doing things.

Moreover, Chongzhen was extremely suspicious. The more you emphasized that he believed you, the more he felt that there was a ghost. Therefore, Chongzhen only lasted for only seventeen years, but he changed dozens of prime ministers and countless civil officials and military officials lost their heads. This was certainly because the war ruined Chongzhen's anger, but it was more caused by Emperor Chongzhen's suspicion.

Let’s talk about Yuan Chonghuan’s killing Mao Wenlong. Why Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong. In fact, the fundamental reason is that he wanted to leave a name in history and wanted to make achievements too much. Although Mao Wenlong made contributions to the court, Mao Wenlong did not obey Yuan Chonghuan’s command. As a pragmatist, even if you have made great contributions, you don’t obey the orders and ruin the great event of my five-year pacification of Liao, then you must die. By beheading Mao Wenlong, you can see that Yuan Chonghuan has personality flaws, eager for quick success and instant benefits, and wants to become famous immediately. He wants to accept the Liaodong military and political major immediately.

The power was put into his own hands, and then he regained Liaodong according to his own strategy. In his original intention, it was indeed for the country, but you don’t think about it. This situation was very similar to that of Wang Jian of Qin. Wang Jian destroyed Chu. The King of Qin asked how many people he wanted. Wang Jian said he wanted 600,000 people. Everyone thought that Wang Jian wanted to rebel and did not let the King of Qin hand over all the troops and horses of the whole country to him. In order to dispel the King of Qin's doubts, Wang Jian kept asking the King of Qin to give him good land and beautiful houses. Six times in the past, he finally made the King of Qin believe that he only loved beautiful women of money and was not greedy for power.

But Yuan Chonghuan, he killed Mao Wenlong first, wrote a letter to Zu Dashou, and Zhao led the sect to increase his title. What is this to do? Liao's salary was 20 million a year, and Liaodong's more than 100,000 troops are the most elite troops in the country. If you kill someone who is not against you, you also ask the emperor to increase his title to your subordinates. Your subordinates will only remember your kindness. Will the Liaodong army become your private property? Emperor Chongzhen felt very uncomfortable since then. Qi Jiguang was reorganized from that time on because Zhang Juzheng was supported by the court, so Qi Jiguang had no worries to be famous in history.

Yuan Chonghuan also wanted to follow Qi Jiguang's example and build a Yuan family army, but he ignored it. There was no one in his court. Not only was there no one, but a large group of Wei Zhongxian's remaining parties wanted to die. Sure enough, it was Wei Zhongxian's remaining parties Wang Yongguang, Gao Jie, Yuan Hongxun, Shi Qi and others who wanted to take the opportunity to avenge Wei Zhongxian, and convicted Yuan Chonghuan for two charges of arbitrarily discussing peace with the Later Jin army and killing Mao Wenlong.

So Yuan Chonghuan just wanted to integrate the Liaodong Army into an army like the Qi family army and uniformly dispatch it during combat, so that tens of people can exert their maximum combat power as one person. From the starting point and the initial results, it is indeed good, and it has played a certain role in suppressing the Later Jin Dynasty. However, Yuan Chonghuan was only a general rather than a handsome man after all.

The fisherman thought that his fate was actually very similar to Yang Hao, both screws and nuts were mismatched. Yang Hao was a diplomatic and logistics talent, but he used him as the commander. Yuan Chonghuan was a tactical expert, not a strategic master. He tried his best to draw cakes for Chongzhen. In the end, he found that the cake was a bit big and could not come back. In the Jisi change in 1629, Huang Taiji led the Eight Banners Army to attack Zunhua, killed Zhao Rujiao, and crossed Jizhou to the west to take the capital. He broke through the defense line that Yuan Chonghuan worked hard to manage. In this regard, Yuan Chonghuan was more than a little worse than Sun Chengzong. So even though Yuan Chonghuan led his troops back to the rescue, he fought a field battle with Huang Taiji's Eight Banners Army outside Beijing, and finally repelled the Eight Banners Army, but he suffered heavy losses. In addition, he

Before the war, a foolish move was made. He wrote to Chongzhen to ask to enter the city to defend. It was this memorial that took Yuan Chonghuan's own life. This memorial made Chongzhen realize that Yuan Chonghuan was a city-guarding talent, not an attacking talent. However, if you restore Liao in five years, how could you restore Liao if you don't attack? This is obviously a deception of the emperor. It shows that Yuan Chonghuan was not sure of fighting with the Jin soldiers. It was because of this that Chongzhen was furious. After the Jin soldiers retreated, Yuan Chonghuan was immediately arrested and executed. As for the remnants of the eunuch party, it was probably Chongzhen's instructor. Wei Zhongxian had only been dead for two years. It was the period of severe crackdown that several clowns dared to jump out and overturn the case? It was obvious that Chongzhen wanted to kill Yuan Chonghuan, but he was unwilling to do it himself, so he put the shit on the remnants of Wei Zhongxian.

However, after Yuan Chonghuan was executed by Lingchi, his family was sent to the frontier and the Jinyiwei who was searching the house found that Yuan Chonghuan's family had no money. If Yuan Chonghuan really colluded with Jin soldiers for his own personal interests and had bad plans, he would not have no money. Before his death, Yuan Chonghuan wrote a poem titled "The Seizure" and his career was empty. Half a lifetime of fame was in a dream. After his death, he would not worry about having no brave generals, and his loyal soul would still guard Liaodong. This poem has the character of Wen Tianxiang leaving a loyal heart to shine in history. Moreover, after his death, his subordinates collected their bodies, built a tomb for him, and guarded his tomb for generations. It can be seen that he was still very morale in the army. Such a person would definitely not be the traitors mentioned in later generations.

And the most important thing is that during the Southern Ming Dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan had been rehabilitated and his posthumous title was Xiangmin. This posthumous title means that he had military achievements but was wronged and killed. Therefore, things that had been concluded as early as the Southern Ming Dynasty have been overturned by people with ulterior motives. Emperor Qianlong said: "Although Yuan Chonghuan was in a dilemma with our dynasty, he was still loyal to his affairs. At that time, the lord's secret policy was in vain and could not be too heartless, and he suffered repeated attacks. It is deeply pity for him." Even the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, who was the opponent, said this, is not enough to show that Yuan Chonghuan was not a traitor. The General History of Cambridge also said that the emperor killed his most capable minister in Beijing in 1630. This shows that Chinese and foreign historians have made a conclusion on this, including Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao, and even General Chi Haotian of the Republic, all had positive comments on Yuan Chonghuan.
Chapter completed!