Many people attribute Mao Wenlong's death to the conflict between him and Yuan Chonghuan.
What's more, some people thought that he had a tendency to surrender and pay for the money, which was why he was killed.
In Zuo Mengeng's view, Mao Wenlong's death was actually destined.
If you want to give a summary of the cause of his death, it would be...
His military failure magnified the economic problems, and his political ineffectiveness became the straw that broke the camel's back.
If we really want to trace the origin of Mao Wenlong's tragedy, or the origin of Yuan Chonghuan's tragedy, we have to start with the resignations of Sun Chengzong and Yuan Keli.
The culprits who caused all this are undoubtedly Emperor Tianqi and the eunuchs.
After the Saarhu War, the Ming Dynasty retreated steadily in Liaodong. Shenyang, Liaoyang, and Guangning were lost successively, leaving only a narrow strip of the Liaoxi Corridor.
At this time, in order to save the situation, Emperor Tianqi sent his teacher Sun Chengzong to take charge of Liaodong.
In view of the situation where the Ming army was unable to fight anymore, Sun Chengzong formulated a detailed and sound plan.
By establishing a complete defense system, while stabilizing the situation in Liaodong, we can train available troops and wait for opportunities to counterattack.
This is the famous Ningjin Defense Line.
To put it bluntly, Sun Chengzong did two things while he was in Liaodong.
The city was built to resist Hou Jin's attack, and troops were trained to prepare for counterattack.
Because he had no record when he was in charge of Liaodong, many people in later generations used this to accuse him of being incompetent.
But many people have overlooked one point, which is also unclear in the history books.
That is, outside the Ningjin defense line, Sun Chengzong actually formulated a very wide-ranging siege plan against Houjin.
Sun Chengzong's grand strategy received strong support from two people.
One is Yuan Keli, the governor of Denglai, and the other is Li Banghua, the governor of Tianjin.
Sun Chengzong’s specific strategy is as follows...
He was in western Liaoning, trying to contain Hou Jin head-on. If he didn't give Hou Jin any opportunity, he could take advantage of it.
Li Banghua served as an intermediate bridge in Tianjin, connecting Liaodong and Denglai.
Yuan Keli was in Denglai and was mainly responsible for supporting Mao Wenlong and North Korea.
In addition, contact Lindan Khan of the Chahar tribe, the tribes of Eastern Mongolia and the remaining Haixi Jurchens and Savage Jurchens to launch a strategic siege of Houjin from another direction.
In order to bring Lin Danhan, Haixi Jurchens, and Savage Jurchens into this camp, Sun Chengzong appointed a person to take charge of the campaign.
This person was Wang Shizhong, the commander-in-chief of Fuyi and the commander-in-chief of the Left Army.
Who is Wang Shizhong?
He is not a Han, but the second son of Meng Gebulu, the chief of the Hada tribe of the Haixi Jurchens.
In the twenty-seventh year of Wanli, Nurhaci attacked Hada City and the Hada tribe was destroyed.
Wang Shizhong, who was only eight or nine years old, followed his family to Daming.
For some unknown reason, Emperor Wanli fell in love with him and raised him in the palace himself.
Because the situation in Liaodong became increasingly critical, Sun Chengzong decided to use Wang Shizhong's identity to unite Lin Dan Khan, the remaining Jurchens in Haixi, and the wild Jurchens to deal with Hou Jin.
Lin Dan Khan's wife Sutai Dafujin is Wang Shizhong's niece. Relying on this identity, Wang Shizhong became the middleman connecting various forces and played a key role.
Why is Zuo Mengeng so aware of this matter?
Because in the original history, Wang Shizhong’s daughter was his wife.
Wang Shizhong also played a role in recommending Zuo Menggeng's surrender to the Qing Dynasty.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty, North Korea, the Chahar tribe, the Haixi Jurchens, and the Savage Jurchens all faced huge threats from the Hou Jin Dynasty at the same time, so it was easy to form allies to deal with the common enemy.
Sun Chengzong's strategy also caused huge trouble for Nurhachi.
During this period, Hou Jin was completely unable to use his hands and feet. Facing a situation where he was surrounded by enemies on all sides, he was on the verge of collapse.
It can be said that as long as Sun Chengzong is given a certain amount of time to prepare, it is not impossible to counterattack Liaodong.
It's a pity that the pig teammates appeared.
As Sun Chengzong's strategy "wasted a lot of money and achieved nothing", the conflict between Tianqi, the eunuchs and him also reached an irreconcilable point.
The source of the conflict between the two sides was not really that Sun Chengzong spent a lot of money on the military but had no results. It was that Sun Chengzong spent all the money, leaving Tianqi with no money to use.
What is Tianqi going to do?
He wants to build three major halls...
The Ministry of Industry has calculated that it will cost 30 million taels of silver to build the three main halls.
This cost shocked Tianqi, and he felt that there was something fishy in it.
He himself was a master carpenter and was not a layman in construction, so he did it himself. Finally, in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, after the renovation of the three main halls was completed, how much silver was used in total?
Five million nine hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver.
If we compare the project budget given by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry with the actual cost of Tianqi's construction, we can really save a lot of money.
Many people in later generations praised Tianqi for this and thought he was good.
But you have nearly six million taels of silver to build a house. Wouldn't it be nice for Sun Chengzong to strengthen the defense of Liaodong?
What is the difference between this approach and that of the Queen Mother?
And even if it is 5.95 million silver, where can it come from?
We can only save money by reducing investment in Liaodong and Jiubian.
This is the fundamental contradiction between Sun Chengzong and Tianqi.
As people around Tianqi, the eunuchs certainly understood their master's thoughts. Coupled with political conflicts, they immediately launched an offensive against Sun Chengzong.
If you use a slogan, that's it.
[A lot of money is spent, but no effort is made]
And this slogan has made many people believe it.
Because after Sun Chengzong arrived in Liaodong, he really did not fight.
However, if the implementation of a grand strategy is to achieve success, it must take several years, ten years or even decades to see returns.
Sun Chengzong suffered tremendous pressure from public opinion as a result.
In order to alleviate the doubts of "the people of the world", Sun Chengzong had to use the unformed army and launch a hasty offensive, hoping to alleviate the doubts of the world.
This was the defeat of Liuhe that led to Sun Chengzong's downfall.
In fact, the result of Liuhe's defeat was not devastating to the Ming Dynasty, and Liaodong's attitude did not fundamentally change.
If Sun Chengzong's strategy continues, Hou Jin still can't find any way out.
However, this defeat forced Sun Chengzong to step down. The strategy of siege on ten sides he formulated was completely aborted due to the opposition of the eunuch party.
Not only that, the eunuchs also extended their hands to Liaodong.
As a result, Yuan Chonghuan was at odds with Wang Zhishen, governor, and the situation between Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen was repeated.
Yuan Chonghuan resigned in anger, and the originally good situation in Liaodong plummeted, leaving no room for recovery.
At the same time, with the defeat of the Donglin Party in North Korea, Li Banghua, the governor of Tianjin, and Yuan Keli, the governor of Denglai, also had to step down.
Without Yuan Keli's full support, Mao Wenlong became a rootless duckweed. Not only did he fail to hold the Liaodong Peninsula, he could only sit back and watch North Korea be forced to surrender by Hou Jin.
He himself could only lead the remaining defeated troops to stay on the isolated island, completely losing his ability to contain Hou Jin.
It can be said that by this time, Mao Wenlong had reached the end of his military career.
Those in later generations who believed that Mao Wenlong, who was trapped in Pidao, could contain Hou Jin, were just like Chang Kaishen who believed that Wei Lihuang could break the siege of Jinzhou and even defeat our army as long as he led Shenyang's national army to the west. They all took it for granted. .
In the eyes of many people, the comparison of military strength between the two sides is as simple as numbers.
It seems that with a hundred thousand troops, the strength of a hundred thousand troops can be exerted.
There is no regard for combat effectiveness at all.
If Mao Wenlong could really contain Hou Jin, would he still have to watch Hou Jin force him to surrender to North Korea and lose the Liaodong Peninsula?
It's not because he can't beat it.
In the first year of Chongzhen, Ming armies in various places mutinied due to lack of pay. The source was the root of the disaster laid by Tianqi and the Eunuch Party.
Not only did it lead to Zuo Liangyu's dismissal from office, but the most serious thing was that the doors of Ji Town were opened, and it also laid the groundwork for Huang Taiji's invasion.
In fact, by this time, although Mao Wenlong had lost his military role and placed a huge economic burden on the Ming court, he was still useful politically.
That was the so-called surrender payment matter that he was often criticized for in later generations.
In fact, those letters were just Mao Wenlong adhering to the wishes of the Ming court and negotiating peace with Hou Jin.
Not only is he doing it, Yuan Chonghuan is also doing it.
All those who said that Yuan Chonghuan and Mao Wenlong wanted to surrender to Hou Jin were actually doing so deliberately.
As for Yuan Chonghuan's heroic words of "pacifying Liaodong in five years", it is probably not necessarily to pacify Liaodong, but to calm Liaodong.
If the peace talks are successful, Liaodong will be peaceful.
Of course, this statement has no basis and is just speculation.
However, the peace negotiations that Mao Wenlong was responsible for finally went bankrupt after eight letters were exchanged with Hou Jin.
The correspondence between Mao Wenlong and Hou Jin cannot be used as evidence that Mao Wenlong intended to surrender, because his actions were reported to the court in the Tang Dynasty.
This can of course be regarded as the fact that the Ming court acquiesced in Mao Wenlong's peace talks with Hou Jin.
Many views of later generations believe that the arrest of Kuo Ke, the envoy of the Later Jin Dynasty, was the inducement that led to Chongzhen's decree to approve the military pay for Dongjiang Town.
But in fact, the real reason that led Chongzhen to do this was Mao Wenlong's last letter to Huang Taiji.
[After reading Khan’s letter, I feel very puzzled. How can I not know that his arrogance and dishonesty have caused people to doubt him? Moreover, the matter of negotiating peace is what the two countries want and is beneficial to both places. If you don’t want to , that’s all! Why are you deceiving me with such big words?】
Such words have only one meaning.
That means the peace talks completely collapsed.
At this point, Mao Wenlong's political use was gone as far as the Ming court was concerned.