In history, there have been many important and capable courtiers, and there are many and many dynasties that have been praised. If you choose a very outstanding dynasty from these dynasties, then the Ming Dynasty should be the first to be mentioned. The Ming Dynasty has not existed for the longest time in history, but it has created countless acclaimed stories, and countless convincing heroes have emerged during the period, and Yuan Chonghuan is one of them.
Speaking of Yuan Chonghuan as a hero, history fans' evaluation of him is extremely controversial: some people say that he is a true hero and has made great contributions to fighting foreign enemies, because with him, the end of the Ming Dynasty has only been a few decades of breathing; but more people feel that although he has extremely rare talents in the military field, he lacks the consciousness that a capable subject should have in the world, and feels that he has merit and squanders this merit, and finally ends up with a lingering end, and even the clan members are killed with him.
But no matter how he is evaluated as a man, his military talents and merits cannot be indelible. Yuan Chonghuan grew up near present-day Guangdong and was an authentic southerner, but after he led the army, he has been active in the far north, and it is with his guards that the people in the north have been able to spend nearly a hundred years of tranquility under the harassment of Houjin.
Yuan Chonghuan was fascinated by leading the army since he was a child, and he thought he had the potential to become a general, so he often discussed with others how to fight in his daily life. He also likes to chat with the retired border guards, ask them about the living environment there, and after hearing the real situation, he is full of infinite yearning for the life of the border pass.
In 1619, at the age of 35, he finally obtained a meritorious name and was able to exert his ambitions. At that time, the Ming Dynasty was already in decline, and the small countries on all sides looked at the vast and fertile territory of the Ming Dynasty, hating that they could not immediately collapse this ancient and decaying country and replace it; the internal eunuchs were in charge, and the power was so great that even the emperor of the dynasty was extremely jealous. Of course, these things did not attract Yuan Chonghuan at that time, and his attention at that time was all on the border defense.
Three years later, Hou Jin broke through the northern border and began a plan to devour the beast. At that time, the imperial court was completely insoluble about whether it could withstand this wave of attack, and after Yuan Chonghuan learned about it, he went alone to explore the terrain outside Shanhaiguan. Since he had been interested in garrisoning the border pass since he was a child, and he often chatted with the border guards, when he had investigated the situation outside the pass, he assured the above with great certainty that as long as he gave him enough soldiers and horses, one person could win the battle!
Perhaps it was his bold words that gave the crowd the confidence, perhaps he had already won the trust of the people in his daily life, or perhaps the general environment at that time was too bad to be worse, and he just handed a rope to the people who were in the mire, and the emperor not only did not punish him for his words, but on the contrary promoted him to the overseer of Guanwai, and distributed silver money for him to recruit soldiers and buy food.
Yuan Chonghuan did not live up to this trust, he did not rest for a moment after taking office, first recruited a group of soldiers, and then began to strengthen the border defense, against a lot of pressure, he had to build the Great Wall in less than two years. After that, he hoarded food and trained troops, familiar with various martial arts, the most important thing is that at that time, the whole country was lost, whether it was soldiers or civilians, they did not have much confidence in this long war, Yuan Chonghuan spent less than a year to re-establish morale among the soldiers.
In 1625, after Hearing that the Ming Dynasty was going to evacuate the soldiers outside Guanwai, Nurhaci immediately counterattacked, and Yuan Chonghuan's years of operation finally ushered in the moment of acceptance! He personally confronted the enemy with Man Gui, and after several days of bloodshed, he repelled the other side's attack and achieved the biggest victory in many years.
The great victory of Liaoyuan greatly boosted the morale of the people, and even Nurhaci, the "enemy", admired Yuan Chonghuan and felt that he really had excellent talent in leading troops. However, due to the provocation of eunuchs such as Wei Zhongxian, coupled with his own lack of communication, he finally ended up with a late end, and a generation of important ministers could not end well, which was regrettable.