Disclaimer: Wu Xuehua's original works, refused to reprint
Yuan Chonghuan, as a famous general of the late Ming Dynasty against the Qing Dynasty (Later Jin), although he was loyal to the king and patriotic, he was eventually tortured by Ling Chi and became the biggest unjust case in the late Ming Dynasty. Nowadays, some people on the Internet have cited various reasons that Yuan Chonghuan deserves to die.
Their reasons were nothing more than four points: first, they promised the emperor to pacify Liaodong for five years, and as a result, Liaodong was delayed, and let the Qing army fight under the city of Beijing; second, they killed Mao Wenlong without regard to the holy will; third, they secretly negotiated peace with Houjin, creating the illusion that Liaodong had nothing to do, which was an act of deception; fourth, they wanted to blackmail the emperor and sell grain to mongolia, and instead supported Houjin.
These four pieces, no matter which piece of evidence, can put Yuan Chonghuan to death.
In fact, in the second year of Chongzhen, Yuan Chonghuan learned that Emperor Taiji had secretly entered Guanguan to harass, led his troops back to defend and resist, forced the Qing soldiers to slip away, and after the crisis in Beijing was solved, some ministers in the imperial court impeached Yuan Chonghuan on charges of "killing Mao Wenlong without permission", "negotiating peace with the Qing court", and "enemies of the city".
Therefore, for Yuan Chonghuan's three "accusations", it is completely the suspicion of insiders, in fact, there is no evidence at all. What is even more rare is that the Chongzhen Emperor was originally a very critical and suspicious person, did not have the mind and strategy of the emperor, preferred to believe that there was, and in the absence of "evidence of guilt", he took a wave of anger and gave Yuan Chonghuan to Ling Chi, thus tearing off the last straw of Daming himself.
We debated according to the four "capital crimes" proposed by the previous netizens.
The first and five-year promise to pacify Liaodong was not fulfilled, and the Qing army was sent to the city of Beijing.
Yuan Chonghuan, as the governor of Liaodong, during the reign of Emperor Tianqi, in liaodong in the fight against Houjin, successively won the ningyuan victory and the ningjin victory, because Of Wei Zhongxian was obstructed, he was forced to resign, and after the Chongzhen Emperor took the throne, due to the bad situation in liaodong, he had to use Yuan Chonghuan.
That is to say, Yuan Chonghuan was experienced in dealing with Houjin, and he was also the only person among the Manchu ministers who could shoulder heavy responsibilities.
He had said something like five years to pacify Liaodong, but there were conditions. In the first year of Chongzhen, at the beginning of his term of office, when the prelude to the king was right, he clearly put forward: Do not restrain the subject's elbow, and do not use opinions to confuse the courtier's plot!
He also told the Chongzhen Emperor in the recital: ... In the past, When Wei Wenhou appointed Le Yang to attack the Zhongshan Kingdom, besieged the city for a long time, and slandered the book in the middle of the country, but Wei Wenhou was not moved in the end, and finally achieved great achievements...
When he ran Liaodong and won two great victories, some people in the DPRK and China gossiped, and he resigned in anger. Therefore, this time, he told Chongzhen: Since you want to use me, you should let me let go of my hands and feet and do as I want, so as to achieve the goal.
For Yuan Chonghuan's request, the Chongzhen Emperor agreed to it.
But what?
After Yuan Chonghuan went to Liaodong, the Chongzhen Emperor immediately issued orders: Yuan Chonghuan was in charge of matters outside Guanwai; places such as Gubei and Xifengkou in Guanxi were under the jurisdiction of Wang Yingxuan, the governor of Shuntian; and Yu Ansheng, the governor of Jiliao, was ordered to guard the pass.
That is to say, Yuan Chonghuan, Wang Yingxuan, and Yu Ansheng were in charge of their own affairs and could not command the action uniformly. Once the Qing soldiers sneak attack, whoever reaches the territory will be in charge, others cannot intervene, and once they intervene, it is equivalent to exceeding their authority.
Friends who are familiar with history know that in the official arena of the feudal era, ultra vires was a very serious act, and at the slightest, they were impeached by their colleagues, and those who were seriously questioned were guilty.
As an emperor, Chongzhen should do the art of employing people, rather than engaging in some strategic decentralization. It is precisely because of this that it has led to confusion in the management of the Liaodong front. With chaos, there must be a gap, the Qing soldiers are originally good at movement warfare, often avoiding the truth and making a surprise attack, so the later change of self-discipline is also reasonable.
Hundreds of years later, another person made the same mistake, and as a result, he lost the northeast, lost the central plains, and fled to Taiwan.
If the Chongzhen Emperor really gave power to Yuan Chonghuan, how could it happen that Yuan Chonghuan had to stop when he led his troops to pursue the attack?
For example, Yuan Chonghuan learned that the Qing soldiers secretly entered the pass, so he led his troops to chase up, and as a result, he chased Wang Yingfeng's territory, he could not fight, fighting is to exceed his authority, he should let Wang Yingping fight, after Wang Yingping finished fighting, all the merits were Wang Yingfeng's. As a result, after Yuan Chonghuan and Wang Yingxuan contacted him, qing soldiers had already run to Yu Ansheng's territory. Yuan Chonghuan and Wang Yingxuan could only stare wide-eyed and small-eyed, chasing or not chasing?
Therefore, after the Qing soldiers entered the customs, if they entered the no-man's land, the generals of daming were still communicating and discussing countermeasures, and the Qing soldiers arrived in Beijing. When the Chongzhen Emperor looked, why did I let a few of you guard the Liaodong side, and the Qing soldiers still arrived at the doorstep?
The Chongzhen Emperor was angry, and he must be held accountable, you Yuan Chonghuan are guarding outside the pass, how did you let the Qing soldiers enter the pass?
Yuan Chonghuan was also aggrieved, he was guarding the outside of the pass, but the outside of the pass was so big, he couldn't always release every mountain, right? The Qing soldiers were all light cavalry, coming and going very quickly, the Ming army could only wait for the opportunity to fight a decisive battle, and it was impossible to control the movement of the Qing soldiers.
Yuan Chonghuan's strategy of pacifying Liaodong was to seek victory in stability, and wanted to isolate the contact between all parties and the Qing army to achieve the goal of trapping the Qing army. During the Kangxi dynasty, Kangxi used Yao Qisheng to deal with Taiwan, and the same strategy was only changed by a new name, which became "moving the border and forbidding the sea". Kangxi had the courage to ask for money and grain for grain.
But the Chongzhen Emperor was different, the treasury was empty, and his own money would not be taken out, he only told Yuan Chonghuan two words: no money.
You don't have any money, but you can also give up power! No money and no power, how to fight wars?
Second, kill Mao Wenlong.
Let's first take a look at the history of Mao Wenlong's fortune, Mao Wenlong first defected to Ningyuan Bo Li Chengliang, mixed in the military camp in Liaodong, from a hundred households to a thousand generals, and then to the garrison of Yongyang, he was familiar with the terrain of Liaodong, and in the process of resisting the Qing army, he had many military achievements. Later, with the help of Yuan Keli, the inspector of Deng Lai, he was promoted to the rank of chief soldier and stationed in Dongjiang, which is now Phi Dao.
At that time, the situation in Liaodong was basically controlled under the power of Hou Jin, and Mao Wenlong, an old loach, fled to the island to fight guerrillas, becoming a major problem for Hou Jin's confidants, which was beyond reproach, but he was proud of his achievements, proud of his own princes, running his own small kingdom, not taking Yuan Chonghuan in his eyes, and repeatedly disobeying Yuan Chonghuan's orders.
Prior to this, when Sun Chengzong was supervising Liaodong, he had sent Zhao You to contact Mao Wenlong and ask Mao Wenlong to advance with everything, but Mao Wenlong secretly killed Zhao You, and when Yuan Chonghuan sent Xu Shiquan to contact Mao Wenlong and ask Mao Wenlong to go ashore to attack the enemy, Mao Wenlong insisted on not agreeing.
In the eleventh year of the Mandate of Heaven (1626), when Yuan Chonghuan was alone in defending Ningyuan, he also sent people to ask Mao Wenlong for help, but Mao Wenlong only sent people on a day trip to the sea and went back. Yuan Chonghuan shot Nurhaci to death with artillery, but also made an account for Mao Wenlong.
Dongjiang (Phi Dao) is only a few tens of nautical miles away from North Korea, and if Mao Wenlong really wants to resist Houjin, the most suitable place for the base area should be in Haizhou or Gaizhou, rather than hiding on a small island in North Korea.
In order to establish his prestige and be able to command the army of Liaodong in a unified way, Yuan Chonghuan could only take Mao Wenlong's knife. Although the "Twelve Major Crimes" announced are somewhat far-fetched, according to some historical data, Mao Wenlong's plundering of his troops and false reporting of military salaries are also facts. Standing at the height of the entire front, without killing Mao Wenlong, how will Yuan Chonghuan fight in the future?
In the later deciphered "Manchu Old Files", Mao Wenlong exchanged letters with the Emperor Taiji, and there was a saying that "Er took the mountains and seas and I took Shandong". That is to say, Mao Wenlong already had a disobedient heart and wanted to be a sea overlord.
Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong, but in fact removed a hidden danger.
In ancient times, in order to establish his prestige, Sun Wu even dared to kill the emperor's favorite concubines, and Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong, what is it? The only explanation is that erpin (Yuan Chonghuan) killed yipin military attaché (Mao Wenlong) without the emperor's consent. But Yuan Chonghuan sat in Liaodong, with the Shangfang Sword in his hand, and the power to cut first and play later, which was also given by the emperor, how to settle accounts after a move?
Third, secretly negotiate peace with houjin and deceive the king
The key to this question is whether Yuan Chonghuan really negotiated peace with Hou Jin or whether he would rectify his armaments in the name of "negotiating peace."
After the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, the biggest stupid thing he did was to cut off troops and salaries, and it was precisely because of this divine operation that Li Zicheng's uprising led to internal and external troubles in Daming.
Yuan Chonghuan has been in Liaodong for many years and is still very familiar with the strength and crazy expansion of Houjin. As I mentioned earlier, he used a step-by-step strategy, he painstakingly managed the Liaodong front while trying to consume the strength of Houjin in various ways. For example, mongolia and North Korea are used.
According to Yuan Chonghuan's idea, first stabilize the situation of Daming in Liaodong, concentrate on rectifying the defense of the three cities of Jinzhou, Zhongzuo, and Dalinghe, and then let Houjin make enemies on all sides and lose allies.
In the same year, Hou Jin launched a major attack on Korea. Yuan Chonghuan believed that North Korea was Daming's younger brother, and first consumed Houjin's strength for Daming, and when his three cities were completed and the troops were reorganized, they would unite everyone to deal with Houjin in one fell swoop.
He later sold grain to mongolia, also based on this idea of isolating Hou Jin.
Yuan Chonghuan should have consulted the Chongzhen Emperor when he negotiated peace with Houjin in the second year of Chongzhen (1629), otherwise, the Chongzhen Emperor would not have decreed to him: the frontier is defense-oriented, and the matter should not be discussed lightly.
Therefore, the reason for deception is not valid at all.
Fourth, he sold grain to the Mongols and instead supported Houjin.
As I said earlier, in order to save money, the Chongzhen Emperor constantly reduced the number of soldiers and salaries, and those soldiers who were cut had nowhere to go, only riots. Yuan Chonghuan sat in Liaodong, for example, he needed 30,000 soldiers, but the imperial court only gave him 10,000 soldiers, and the salaries of these 10,000 soldiers were still in arrears.
The Chongzhen Emperor sitting in the imperial palace may not understand, but Yuan Chonghuan cannot fail to understand, in order to cope with the promise to the emperor, he can only privately recruit troops and increase the number of soldiers. This is even more deficient. What to do?
In the first year of Chongzhen, Daming suffered a drought, and Mongolia was not much better, and all the Mongolian ministries asked Daming for help. Daming did not have time to take care of himself, and still gave some righteously, but that point was simply a drop in the bucket and to no avail. It also triggered the "Xinpingbao Incident", and the Chongzhen Emperor was angry and simply did not give. As a result, all the Mongol ministries turned their hungry green eyes at Houjin. The meaning is very clear: Daming's big brother is not righteous, we are all your little brother after Jin, you help us!
Chongzhen's move was tantamount to pushing his allies into the arms of his enemies. Yuan Chonghuan looked at it and was anxious. If I continue like this, how can I play my five-year policy of pacifying Liaodong?
Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan asked the imperial court for grain on the grounds of increasing grain. In order to win over the Mongol ministries and stabilize the situation, he ordered the opening of a market at Gaotai Fort and let the Mongols exchange firewood and grass for grain.
Yuan Chonghuan's move had two advantages, one was to solve the difficulties of the Mongol tribes so that they would not turn to Houjin, and the other was that the soldiers who came to spend the winter also had firewood and grass, and hoarded firewood and grass for war. At the same time, the lives of those soldiers in the private placement also have a place to live.
In fact, when he did this, he was wiping the ass of the Chongzhen Emperor.
Unfortunately, what he did not expect was that the Mongols had just pulled the grain home, and when they turned around, they were robbed by the Qing soldiers of Houjin. Thus there is evidence of his crime of "enemy of the city".
The Chongzhen Emperor, who was sitting in the Forbidden City, had a soft ear, forgot his promise to Yuan Chonghuan, listened to the words of others, and ordered Yuan Chonghuan to stop changing grain.
Yuan Chonghuan had to go up to the defense: ... If you can't be empty, you don't have to complain and drive him to join the East Slave! It is better to be virtuous, to store a few seeds outside, and he will be invaded, and I will have to borrow it as a fence...
Using the enemy's enemy to fight the enemy, Yuan Chonghuan thought of it, but Chongzhen would not let him do it.
The Chongzhen Emperor did not heed his advice at all, so the Mongol tribes all submitted to Houjin, and in October, Houjin evaded Yuan Chonghuan's defense line and was borrowed by the Mongols, thus triggering the "Change of Self".
Just when the Qing army was rampaged in Daming territory, a strange incident occurred: Yuan Chonghuan learned the news that the Qing soldiers had entered the customs and ordered Zhao Lijiao, the general soldier of Guannei stationed at Shanhaiguan, to rush to the aid of Jizhen with 4,000 cavalry, and as a result, Zhu Guoyan, the chief soldier of Jizhen stationed in the Santun camp, refused to let Zhao Lijiao enter the city, for the simple reason that this is my territory, what are you going to do? As a result, Zhao Lijiao had to go to Zunhua, and encountered the Qing army on the way, and after a fierce battle, he was martyred. The dismissed soldiers in Zunhua City rebelled and helped the Qing army easily take Zunhua. When the Qing army approached the Santun camp, Zhu Guoyan, the chief soldier who refused to teach Zhao to enter the city, could not fight this battle (the soldiers did not want to fight because they had no money), and the deputy general soldier secretly surrendered kaicheng, Zhu Guoyan could only commit suicide...
This was the evil result of the Chongzhen Emperor's "separation of powers" and "disarmament."
Yuan Chonghuan also wanted to wipe out Huang Taiji's long-distance Qing army in Guannei, but he could only use his own Guanning Iron Horse, and the army in Guannei could not command at all, and he himself could not fight on other people's territory, and could only monitor the movement of the Qing army all the way and try to drive the Qing army away. (Here are two more crimes: long-term driving of the enemy, and no fighting)
As a result, the Qing army actually went to hang out under the Forbidden City. He was in a hurry, and before he could wait for the Holy Order to be issued, he brought his troops to serve the king. As a result, he committed a great taboo, and before Emperor Taiji left, he also spread a divisive plan, saying that he was conspiring with Inspector Yuan.
Although the Qing army was gone, Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned by Chongzhen.
Therefore, in August of the third year of Chongzhen (1630), Yuan Chonghuan was executed by Ling Chi.
Why does Chongzhen hate Yuan Chonghuan? The reason is simple, why did the Qing soldiers arrive at my doorstep. But he didn't think about it, why did the Qing soldiers come to your doorstep?
Whose fault is it?
Besides, Yuan Chonghuan promised to ping Liaodong for five years, did you give him the power he deserved? Is the five-year deadline up?
Putting aside the question of whether Yuan Chonghuan was wronged or not, let's talk about another person: Chen Xinjia.
This person was once a soldier Shangshu, in command of the Battle of Songjin, due to a mistake led to Hong Chengzu surrendered, and later with the permission of the Chongzhen Emperor, secretly negotiated peace with the emperor Taiji, but the news leaked, and the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu was horrified. In order to appease the anger of the people, the Chongzhen Emperor had to kill Chen Xinjia.
Later, Li Zicheng came to the city of Beijing and offered to return as long as Chongzhen approved of his division of shaanxi. Chongzhen consulted with the two ministers, but neither minister was stupid: Do you want my brothers to be Chen Xinjia?
No matter what the Chongzhen Emperor asked, neither of them spoke, so the Chongzhen Emperor lost the last chance to save himself.
In addition to slamming the door and being jealous, the Chongzhen Emperor was self-conscious, did not dare to take responsibility in case of trouble, and also rebelled, disappointing the courtiers to the extreme. So he opened his mouth to borrow money from the minister at the imperial court, who dared to borrow? At most, it can only mean one meaning.
If you borrow too much, the Chongzhen Emperor will immediately send someone to investigate, saying that where you got so much money, it must be corrupt. Who would be stupid enough to stretch their neck under the sword of the Chongzhen Emperor?
Therefore, Yuan Chonghuan died unjustly, and he carried a black cauldron on his back for the Chongzhen Emperor!