I didn't go to work this afternoon and wanted to write a few more chapters at home, but I didn't expect to fall asleep and slept until 7 o'clock in the evening. It was already nine o'clock after dinner. It seemed that I couldn't write tonight. Let's do this, it's okay anyway, so I'll write another historical figure of the Ming Dynasty. What I'm going to write about today is a very controversial figure in the late Ming Dynasty, that is Yuan Chonghuan.

There are many controversies about Yuan Chonghuan now. Some people say that he was a loyal minister and was unjustly killed by Chongzhen. Some people say that if Yuan Heizi had not killed Mao Wenlong, would Huang Taiji have entered the pass? So Yuan Chonghuan was a spy from the Qing Dynasty. Anyway, he had everything he said, and Xiaosheng always had a point of view, that is, to understand a historical figure, and to combine the historical situation at that time and replace it with himself, he would find that he could not do it at that time.

Now I will start to look at the commander Yuan. Yuan Chonghuan is from Dongguan, Guangdong. He is short and dark. Later generations call him that Yuan Heizi not a craftsman. Yuan Chonghuan's family was very poor, but it was not considered extremely poor, and it was incomparable to Zhu Chongba who was begging for food. There were still a few acres of thin land at home, which could be regarded as the middle and lower class of society. However, his family had a turning point in the 47th year of Wanli because Yuan Heizi was admitted to the Jinshi. You should know that Guangdong was not a major province in the imperial examination, and it was a rampant countryside to be able to pass the imperial examination, let alone a Jinshi.

However, our future Master Yuan was not good at studying and only got the first grade. With his academic performance, he was the highest in peacetime, which was to be a prefect. You should know that it is difficult to get through without education in the officialdom, without appearance, and without a backstage. This is a very experienced student.

The same goes for saying that the times create heroes. What happened later shows that the eunuch party is not all incompetent. Officials like Yuan Heizi who had no background were promoted step by step under the eunuch party's praise. However, after the Ningjin victory, Yuan Chonghuan resigned from his official position and went home. This is very important. He drew a clear line with the eunuch party at a critical moment and laid the groundwork for Chongzhen's subsequent resumption.

The next step is simple. Emperor Tianqi died and Chongzhen came to power. After Zhu Youjian came to power, he was in a general situation to clear the remnants of the eunuch party. At this time, someone in the court spoke for Yuan Chonghuan. Chongzhen just wanted to do something, so he hit it off and regained Yuan Chonghuan as the governor of Ji Liao, and also the military affairs of Denglai and Tianjin. This position is very awesome. Liaodong government and military affairs are in charge, plus the military affairs of Shandong and Tianjin. It is equivalent to the later Shenyang Military Region plus the positions of Jinan Military Region and the governor of Liaoning Province. Do you think it is not awesome?

In July, Yuan Heizi came to Beijing from his hometown in Guangdong. Chongzhen also wanted to do something, so he summoned Yuan Chonghuan on the platform. It was during this meeting that Yuan Chonghuan proposed a plan to restore Liao for five years. The young emperor Zhu Youjian was very excited and talked with Yuan Chonghuan for a long time. How long? Historically, Zhu Youjian was very tired and had to rest for a while when he wanted to return to the palace, and then continue talking. How long can he talk?

While Chongzhen was resting, Yuan Chonghuan went out to use the toilet. At this time, a doctor from the Ministry of War next to him said how dare you say such big words. Yuan Chonghuan said he was very happy to see the emperor, and said something nice to make the emperor happy. The doctor said that you don’t know what kind of person this little emperor is. He is different from the late emperor. This is the lord of Yingdu. At this time, Yuan Chonghuan regretted it a little, and you can see the conversation with Chongzhen later.

Chongzhen finished his rest later and continued to talk. This was Yuan Chonghuan regretting the big words he said just now. He mentioned to Chongzhen that "The plan to restore Liao in the five-year period 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. In order to succeed, the court must cooperate with everything inside and outside the court to achieve success." The meaning of this sentence is "The plan is not easy, if I want to work, I have to give me some conditions." Yuan Chonghuan originally thought that Chongzhen could not give him such great power, but unexpectedly, Chongzhen agreed to all of the excitement. Yuan Chonghuan had no choice but to take the five-year period of restoration plan he brags about to take office.

Yuan Chonghuan is not a young angry young man who just became an official. He worked in Liaodong for many years and fought with the Qing Dynasty for many years. He also knew that it was a bit unrelated to the resumption of Liao in five years, but he had no choice but to fight the cannon he had made in tears. So after Yuan Chonghuan came to power, he began to think about how to achieve the set goal. Now it was not that Yuan Chonghuan had to defend Liaodong when he was in Liaodong. Now because of Yuan Chonghuan's bragging and Chongzhen's lack of understanding of the situation, the strategic goal of the entire Liaodong has changed, that is, from the original defense to the offense, and there is time limit, to restore Liao in five years. So Yuan Chonghuan thought of many ways, but the most reliable one was peace talks, which was the only way to complete the resumption of Liao within the scheduled time. In order to negotiate, Yuan Chonghuan had no choice but to attack Mao Wenlong from Pidao.

Let me first introduce Mao Wenlong. Mao Wenlong is from Zhejiang. He went to Liaodong to serve in the army in his early years. Later, the Ming army in Liaodong was defeated. Mao Wenlong fled to Pi Island with a little man. Pi Island is at the mouth of the Yalu River and is now under the jurisdiction of North Korea. Open the map and you can see that this place is the weakness of the Qing Dynasty. It is less than 600 miles from the mouth of the Yalu River to Chenyang. At this time, the main forces of the Qing Dynasty were confronting the Ming army in the western Liaoning Corridor.

Mao Wenlong gathered the Ming army defeated troops on Pi Island, and started guerrilla warfare with the Han people in Liaodong behind the Qing Dynasty. So the Qing Dynasty had a headache with Mao Wenlong on Pi Island. With more people, these guys ran away, and if there were fewer people, they could not defeat them. So Nurhaci promulgated a law, that is, only ten Manchus could leave the city, which also shows how helpless the Qing Dynasty was with Mao Wenlong.

The Ming Dynasty court also saw Mao Wenlong's power, so he named Mao Wenlong a general of Dongjiang Town. This was not because there were many generals in the late Southern Ming Dynasty. During the Tianqi period, there were only more than twenty generals in the country, which was equivalent to the commander of the main force in later generations, so the court still attached great importance to Mao Wenlong.

At this time, Yuan Chonghuan came to Pidao for inspection. Mao Wenlong had to accompany him when the military leaders came. Everything went smoothly a few days ago, and Yuan Chonghuan also admired Mao Wenlong's work. However, in the last few days, Yuan Chonghuan said that Mao Wenlong would accompany him to Shuangdao for inspection. Shuangdao was also under Mao Wenlong's management, so he didn't think about anything else, so he went with Yuan Chonghuan. On Shuangdao, Mao Wenlong was killed by Yuan Chonghuan.

After Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong, he said in front of his grave, "I'm sorry, I know it's not easy for you, but there's no way to kill you." Why did Yuan Chonghuan say this since he killed Mao Wenlong? This is back to what I said above. Yuan Chonghuan wanted to negotiate with the Qing Dynasty, so in order to show sincerity, he must kill Mao Wenlong, a confidant in the Qing Dynasty, so Mao Wenlong died too unjustly.

The next thing was very simple. Huang Taiji saw that his confidant was gone. In November of the second year of Chongzhen, he led more than 100,000 Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty into the pass. Everyone knew that Yuan Chonghuan brought people back to Beijing. After the Qing Dynasty retreated, Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned and killed half a year later.

In history, some people say that Yuan Chonghuan's death was because Huang Taiji used a counter-espionage plan, which was purely the novelist's words. Yuan Chonghuan's case was tried for more than half a year, and there was a counter-espionage plan there. Yuan Chonghuan's charges had nothing to do with the counter-espionage plan. Instead, he killed Mao Wenlong without authorization, which became one of the causes of Yuan Chonghuan's death.

After the introduction of Yuan Chonghuan's death is over, let's overturn the case for Yuan Chonghuan, but it is not a overturn. I will give you a reasonable analysis.

Yuan Chonghuan knew that it was not possible to restore Liao in five years to military strength, so peace talks became the first plan. Chongzhen should have known this plan, but under the Ming Dynasty, it is very likely that Chongzhen agreed that if Yuan Chonghuan did it, he would be recognized by you. This is also the reason why Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong and said that I was given the emperor's secret order. It is very likely that Chongzhen gave Yuan Chonghuan the secret order for peace talks.

But man's calculations are not as good as God's calculations. Unexpectedly, the Qing Dynasty would enter the pass before the peace talks were carried out. At this time, Chongzhen's temper of not taking responsibility came out again. This was the business of you ministers, and it had nothing to do with my wise and great emperor. Now that such a big thing happened, someone must take the blame. Why did the Qing Dynasty enter the pass? Because Mao Wenlong died, no one restrained the Qing Dynasty. Why did Mao Wenlong die? Because Yuan Chonghuan killed him. Why did Yuan Chonghuan kill Mao Wenlong? Because the emperor wanted to negotiate. But Chongzhen would never take the responsibility, so Yuan Chonghuan, the actual operator of the peace talks, became the best target to take the blame.

This was not the last time Chongzhen took the minister to the jar. Later, Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, also leaked the letters the emperor wanted to negotiate, and was killed.

So now everyone knows that the initiator of Yuan Chonghuan's unjust case was Chongzhen himself. He was eager for quick success and instant benefits. He agreed to the strategy of restoring Liao in five years without understanding the situation in Liaodong. It was Chongzhen who killed the only general who knew the situation in Liaodong for his own face after the incident was exposed. From then on, the Ming Dynasty completely entered the defensive in Liaodong. The Qing Dynasty robbed Hebei and Shandong again and again like walking in his backyard. All of these were counted as Chongzhen, the leader of the Ming Dynasty.

Before his execution, Yuan Chonghuan recited his last words: his career was empty in his life, and his fame and fortune were in his dream. After his death, he had no worries about his brave generals, and his loyal soul still guarded Liaodong. Yuan Chonghuan died at the age of 47. Yuan Chonghuan's descendants joined the Eight Banners of the Han Army after entering the pass of the Qing Dynasty. Two descendants of later generations, one was Shoushan, whose surname was Yuan and whose courtesy name was Meifeng, lived in Heilongjiang Province. The people of the Zhengbai Banner of the Han army were defeated and committed suicide when they resisted Tsarist Russia's invasion of the Northeast. His younger brother Yongshan fought fiercely with the Japanese army for two days and nights during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and died.
Chapter completed!