Yuan Chonghuan was a famous figure in the last years of the Ming Dynasty, as the governor of Liaodong, he once guarded the northeast border plug and faced the powerful Houjin, Yuan Chonghuan commanded the so-called "Guanning Army", achieved some achievements, and was also considered by some later generations to be the "Optimus Prime" of the Ming Dynasty frontier at that time.
However, Yuan Chonghuan's final fate was tragic, and the evaluation behind him was also high and low, some people thought that Yuan Chonghuan was too much more than meritorious, and even some people said that he was one of the culprits that caused the military erosion in the northeast region of the Ming Dynasty.
So, what kind of person is Yuan Chonghuan, and how should he evaluate his merits and demerits?
Yuan Chonghuan was originally a grassroots civilian official, but he was very ambitious and always wanted to do something big. At that time, there were frequent wars in the Liaodong region of the Ming Dynasty, and the Manchurians invaded the frontier, which was a great headache for the central government of the Ming Dynasty.
Yuan Chonghuan felt that the northeast region was a good place to make meritorious achievements, so he took the initiative to ask for help, and received the praise of the imperial court to let him enter the military department, Yuan Chonghuan also boasted about Haikou, saying that as long as he had money and soldiers, he could resist the enemy outside the country.
Yuan Chonghuan was thus sent to the Liaodong front.
Yuan Chonghuan of the Apocalypse Dynasty achieved some achievements, the most famous of which was the Ningyuan Great Victory, the Ningjin Great Victory, and the former was even rumored to be the place where Nurhaci was killed.
However, Yuan Chonghuan's great victory did not stop the Manchurian invasion, and the defense of the northeast region of the Ming Dynasty became increasingly severe.
At the beginning of the Chongzhen Dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan met with the emperor and boasted about Haikou's "five years of Pingliao", and Chongzhen initially trusted Yuan Chonghuan and ordered him to be the governor of Liaodong military and entrusted him with a heavy responsibility.
However, Emperor Taiji soon bypassed Yuan Chonghuan's heavily fortified defensive line, took the Great Wall, and rushed to Beijing.
Although Yuan Chonghuan rushed to the rescue of the city of Beijing, the emperor's courtiers and people were already very dissatisfied with Yuan Chonghuan, and there were rumors that Yuan Chonghuan was an internal response of the Manchurians, so Chongzhen issued an edict, Ling Chi Yuan Chonghuan.
Legend has it that on the day Yuan Chonghuan was killed, the people of Beijing, as officials, cursed him as a traitor, and he was stabbed with three thousand knives, and the flesh on his body was divided into food.
The inspector of a town ended up like this.
Yuan Chonghuan's death was too tragic, and many people later cried out for his grievances, but when we look back at Yuan Chonghuan's military career, we will find that his death may not have been unjustified.
First of all, Yuan Chonghuan promised Chongzhen "five years to pacify Liao", but the result was not only that houjin was not pacified, but that the enemy bypassed the defensive line and hit the capital, which is called deception and dereliction of duty.
Secondly, during the defense of Beijing, Yuan Chonghuan was considered to be "unable to work hard", and some people said that he brought lamas into the city of Beijing to cooperate with the Manchus.
Third, Yuan Chonghuan lied about military information and privately negotiated peace with the Manchus, which was both a bully and a traitor.
Fourth, and most importantly, Yuan Chonghuan once killed Mao Wenlong, an anti-Qing general of the same rank as him, in Liaodong.
Mao Wenlong was the main general of Dongjiang Town in the Ming Dynasty, he insisted on the front line of the anti-Qing for a long time, the troops he belonged to were all hardcore anti-Qing factions with deep hatred with the Manchus, and the Nurhaci Emperor Taiji repeatedly surrounded and suppressed the Dongjiang Army, but did not succeed, and Dongjiang Town became a problem for Houjin's confidants.
However, Yuan Chonghuan did not know whether it was out of jealousy or party strife, so he actually deceived Mao Wenlong and then killed him without authorization.
Yuan Chonghuan's killing of Mao Wenlong caused the people of Dongjiang Town to be scattered, and those Liao people who had a deep feud with the Manchurians were later forced to be helpless and even defected to Houjin, bringing not only internal information of the Ming Dynasty, but also technical troops, including artillery.
It was shortly after Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong that Emperor Taiji had no worries and led the main force of the Eight Banners to attack Beijing for thousands of miles. It can be said that Yuan Chonghuan removed a great enemy for Emperor Taiji.
One of the crimes of Chongzhen Lingchi Yuan Chonghuan was to kill Mao Wenlong without permission, which shows that these are the keys to Yuan Chonghuan's tragic death.
Yuan Chonghuan, on the other hand, once swore an oath to the false edict when he killed Mao Wenlong, saying, "Among the generals, if there is a Ruowen dragon, he will be punished." The subjects could not succeed, and the emperor also cursed the subjects with the name of the Dragon Emperor. ”
This means that if there are people like Mao Longwen in the army, I will kill them, and if I can't successfully destroy Hou Jin, then please ask the emperor to kill me like I kill Mao Longwen.
Judging from this sentence alone, Yuan Chonghuan's words can be said to be "seeking benevolence and benevolence".
It should be known that when Yuan Chonghuan corrected the edict to kill Mao Wenlong, the attitude of the Chongzhen Emperor when he got the news was "the emperor suddenly heard, the intention was particularly frightening", chongzhen was really frightened by Yuan Chonghuan's boldness. Later, Chongzhen Ling Chi Yuan Chonghuan was directly related to this matter.