One day in August 1630, the city of Beijing was crowded, and people came to the execution ground in unison, because it was about to execute a "traitor" who had committed the most heinous crimes, and the official in charge of the prison read the man's guilt and ordered him to be executed. During the execution, every time the man was cut, he let out a heart-rending scream, and there was a cheer in the audience. This person was neither a eunuch who caused a disaster to the country nor a deceitful Donglin Party, he was Yuan Chonghuan, the Ming Dynasty's overseer in charge of guarding Liaodong, and a great hero who saved the Ming Dynasty from danger. Why would such a person who has made contributions to the country end up in such a miserable situation?
Yuan Chonghuan
Speaking of Yuan Chonghuan, scholars in the Ming and Qing dynasties said that he was a national hero who could be named on a par with Yue Fei, but the two people had the heart to serve the country, but they both met the Emperor, so they died unclear. However, through the records of Yuan Chonghuan in the history books, combined with his life experience, modern people believe that Yuan Chonghuan actually died unjustly. As a meritorious general who guarded Liaodong, he could have been on a steady footing, but it was because of his political naivety and many flaws in his personality that led to his bloody end.
Yuan Chonghuan, a native of Dongguan, Guangdong Province, entered his career by relying on the imperial examination, and was a sesame petty official with no sense of existence at the age of twenty-three, and a scholar in the examination at the age of thirty-five. Although Yuan Chonghuan's official position was small, he was determined to be on the frontier, and he always thought that he had the talent to lead the troops to fight, and when he was free, he liked to study the art of war, and he was even more concerned about the important affairs of the frontier. One year he returned to Beijing to see the Emperor of the Apocalypse, and his analysis of the frontier problems was very appropriate, and every word pointed directly to the concerns of the Emperor of the Apocalypse, so the Emperor of the Apocalypse made him serve in the military department.
Hongyi Cannon
From the beginning of the Wanli period, the Liaodong region was already a tiger in the dragon disk, the Mongols and Later Jin outside the Guanxi gradually became stronger, and by the time of the Apocalypse, the Ming army was no longer their opponent, and these people could enter the Guanguan at any time to replace the Great Tomorrow. At that time, there was an unwritten saying that as long as someone was sent to Liaodong, it was equivalent to a death sentence, because the Manchus and Mongols would march to the city every three to five minutes, and the general in charge of defending Liaodong had no hope of surviving.
But who is Yuan Chonghuan? The generals would rather be beheaded than go to Liaodong, he actually took the initiative to ask for instructions, and in front of Shanhaiguan he made a bold statement: "Give me soldiers and horses money and food, and I can defend here alone." The Emperor of the Apocalypse was very touched to hear this, and immediately asked him to rush to the liaodong front, and the ministers and generals heard that this civilian official who had never fought before went to the front, but one by one he couldn't smile straight, in their eyes, Yuan Chonghuan was going to be an arrow target for Houjin and Mongolia, and there must be no return.
Nurhaci
In 1626, nurhaci, the Later Jin Khan, led a nationwide force of 300,000 troops to attack Liaodong, and soon reached the city of Ningyuan, where Yuan Chonghuan was stationed. At this time, Yuan Chonghuan's army was only 10,000 people, and it was not easy to confront 300,000 people in Houjin, but Yuan Chonghuan was stunned to turn the tide of the war and sent Nurhaci to the Western Heavens. It turned out that in Yuan Chonghuan's team, there was one thing that Houjin did not have, that is, the Portuguese man-made red-clad cannon, Yuan Chonghuan fired several cannons, and the Houjin soldiers suffered heavy casualties and had to withdraw to the camp.
On that day, Nurhaci was resting in the military tent, when he was suddenly hit by a shell falling from the sky in his tent, Nurhaci was unconscious at the time, and the Houjin troops saw that the commander was gone, so they quickly withdrew back to their hometown. This shell was hit by Yuan Chonghuan's troops, who originally wanted to bomb indiscriminately, but they did not expect the bombardment to be so accurate, and nurhaci, who was several miles away, was unconscious, and died shortly after returning to Houjin. The history of this victory was called "Ningyuan Great Victory", and Yuan Chonghuan was later made a soldier and a liaodong inspector.
As the saying goes, "the higher you climb, the more miserable you fall", in the "Ningjin Victory" won by the Ming army in the same year, because Yuan Chonghuan insisted on ningyuan city and did not go to rescue Jinzhou for a long time, he was impeached by other generals, Yuan Chonghuan was proud and arrogant, and resigned his post and went home in a huff. Only a year after Yuan Chonghuan returned home, the Emperor of Tianqi died, and after the successor Chongzhen Emperor carried out a great purge of the imperial court and removed all the nails in his eye, Chongzhen's eyes turned to the frontier. He traveled all over the imperial court and did not find a general who could lead troops to fight, and on the recommendation of his ministers, the Chongzhen Emperor reactivated Yuan Chonghuan and made him the Shangshu of the Bingbu.
In order to show his trust in Yuan Chonghuan, the Chongzhen Emperor personally walked down the hall and went to the platform to greet him, Yuan Chonghuan was so excited that he was overwhelmed, and he actually boasted to the emperor about Haikou, saying that he could recover Liaodong within five years, and the Chongzhen Emperor almost jumped up happily. However, after the impulse, Yuan Chonghuan calmed down again, he knew that he could not recover Liaodong within five years, and with the current ability of the Ming army, it would be good to be able to resist Houjin outside Shanhaiguan. However, the cowhide had been blown out, and he always wanted a way to fool the emperor, so Yuan Chonghuan asked the Chongzhen Emperor for money, grain, and power, and Chongzhen thought that he really had the determination to recover Liaodong, so he agreed to all his requests.
Emperor Tai Chi
After Yuan Chonghuan returned to Liaodong, he not only trained a cavalry unit that was brave and good at fighting and could fight against the Houjin forces, but also established the impregnable Guanning Defense Line, which made the Emperor Taiji, who had just succeeded to the throne and aspired to avenge his father, grit his teeth in hatred, but he had no choice. However, soon after, Yuan Chonghuan did a major thing that caused a sensation in the government and the opposition, and he actually killed Mao Wenlong, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, without asking the emperor for instructions.
Mao Wenlong, a man who has always been blind to the law of the king, has been rampant and domineering, but he has the lead in leading troops to fight, so he was named the general of Liaodong and was a military general of Zhengyipin. Mao Wenlong's Pi Dao, where mao Wenlong was stationed at that time, was located in the rear of Houjin, which meant that as long as Huang Taiji dared to attack Liaodong, he would sneak up on the Houjin army in the rear, so that Huang Taiji would be afraid of his head and tail and could not enter Shanhaiguan.
However, after Yuan Chonghuan took office, he saw that Mao Wenlong was not pleasing to the eye and wanted to get rid of it quickly. In August 1629, Yuan Chonghuan came to Phi Dao on the grounds of military parade, and immediately had Mao Wenlong arrested, and after reading Mao Wenlong's twelve indictments, he was beheaded without saying a word. You must know that the execution of a military general like Mao Wenlong must be ordered by the emperor himself, otherwise it is the crime of deceiving the king. Yuan Chonghuan killed people when he saw that people were not pleasing to the eye, and in the future, after Jin attacked Liaodong, there would be no worries, and the consequences would be unimaginable.
The Chongzhen Emperor knew that Mao Wenlong had been killed, and he almost vomited blood, but the man was already dead, and the military power was in the hands of Yuan Chonghuan, how could he easily dispose of Yuan Chonghuan? So the Chongzhen Emperor issued a commendation order to Yuan Chonghuan, saying that he had killed Mao Wenlong well, and that He had long wanted to kill him, and also encouraged Yuan Chonghuan to fight the enemy well in the future and not to blame himself for this matter. Although the words were beautiful, Chongzhen had already recorded this account in his heart, and another thing Yuan Chonghuan did soon after successfully aroused Chongzhen's murderous heart.
Mao Wenlong
In 1629, there was a famine in Houjin and Mongolia, because they were all nomadic peoples, so they did not have much grain to save, and they had to buy grain from the Ming Dynasty. Grain was a strategic material at that time, and could not be easily bought and sold, Yuan Chonghuan did not dare to make his own decision this time, and wrote to Chongzhen how to deal with it? Chongzhen considered that the connection between Mongolia and Houjin was not close, and there would be no harm in selling grain to Mongolia, so he ordered Yuan Chonghuan to sell grain to the Mongols, but it must be sold according to the number of heads, and could not be sold to them in large quantities, so as to prevent them from selling grain to Houjin.
But Yuan Chonghuan did not know what to think, and actually took the emperor's words as a sidewind, and sold a large amount of grain to the Mongols, and sure enough, as Chongzhen expected, the Mongols sold the grain to Houjin, helping Houjin successfully survive the famine. In October 1629, under the leadership of Emperor Taiji, Hou Jin, who had eased from the famine, raised an army of 100,000 to march to the Central Plains, bypassing the Guanning Defense Line, diverting to the southwest of Liaoning, and heading straight for the city of Beijing. When Yuan Chonghuan heard this, he rushed to Beijing in a hurry, and finally arrived a day earlier than Huang Taiji, but Yuan Chonghuan arrived in the capital and did not fight with Huang Taiji, but instead ordered the troops to rest in place and follow Huang Taiji's team around.
In fact, Yuan Chonghuan thought very well, he wanted to use the entire city of Beijing as a solid city, and he could not hold out here, waiting until the Huang Taiji's team was dragged to the ground and there was no supply to come in, and then beat them up. According to the comparison of the combat capabilities of the Ming army and the Later Jin at that time, the Ming army really had no chance of victory, and it was the best way to stick to the city, but Yuan Chonghuan did not tell the emperor, so that the Chongzhen Emperor mistakenly thought that he was going to surrender. Moreover, Yuan Chonghuan let the troops rest here, and then went around with The Emperor Taiji all day, how could it not make people suspect him, at that time everyone in the capital said that Yuan Chonghuan had become a traitor.
At this time, the Chongzhen Emperor still had no patience, because his army was in the hands of Yuan Chonghuan, and it was not until more than two months later that Yuan Chonghuan beat the emperor away, and the angry Chongzhen Emperor ordered Yuan Chonghuan to enter the palace. In the Holy Decree, Yuan Chonghuan was not allowed to bring a soldier or a pawn, nor was he allowed to bring weapons, nor could he go through the city gate, but instead used a large basket to hang him into the palace. As soon as the Chongzhen Emperor saw Yuan Chonghuan, he asked him three questions: Why did he kill Mao Wenlong? Why sell grain to the Mongols? Why can Houjin drive straight in? These three questions, Yuan Chonghuan even if his mouth is full of mouth, can not speak clearly, had to stay where he is, the angry Chongzhen Emperor immediately ordered him to be arrested and imprisoned in Jinyi Weizhao.
Chongzhen Emperor
Because Yuan Chonghuan usually made too many enemies, someone soon came up with evidence of yuan Chonghuan's collusion with the cabinet minister Qian Longxi, the border general colluded with the cabinet minister was a capital offense, and the Chongzhen Emperor calculated the old and new accounts together, and ordered Yuan Chonghuan to be executed. Because he was misled by the public opinion that Yuan Chonghuan was a traitor, the people of Beijing city regarded him as a traitor, and at that time, every piece of Yuan Chonghuan's flesh was cut off, some people spent a lot of money to buy it, which was the real hatred for Yuan Chonghuan to the bone.
Yuan Chonghuan, who was dedicated to the country, died under torture in this way, and after his death, the Ming Dynasty lacked a top pillar and was already on the verge of extinction, but unfortunately, until the fall of the Ming Dynasty, everyone still thought that Yuan Chonghuan was a traitor. It was not until Qianlong overturned the case for him more than a hundred years later that people knew that Yuan Chonghuan was a national hero and a loyal servant of Daming. Yuan Chonghuan's death has both the emperor's distrust and his own character defects, if his personality is not so impulsive, if he can consult with the emperor when doing things, and not make up his own mind about everything, I am afraid that there will not be such a tragic end.