In August 1630, a famous general Yuan Chonghuan was killed by the Chongzhen Emperor Ling Chi with more than 3,000 knives, and his flesh and blood were eaten by the people, but throughout His lifelong conquests, Yuan Chonghuan did not lose a single battle, and saved the Ming Dynasty from the iron hooves of Hou Jin several times. Therefore, from ancient times to the present, many people say that Yuan Chonghuan died unjustly, but some people say that Yuan Chonghuan is a traitor and died is not a pity, so today we will take a look at whether Yuan Chonghuan died unjustly or not.
The reason why people say that Yuan Chonghuan's death was wronged is largely because of his merits, and Yuan Chonghuan's greatest achievements in his life are two, one is The Great Victory of Ning Yuan and the other is the Great Victory of Ning Jin. In 1626 AD, Nurhaci led 60,000 elite troops across the Liaohe River, ready to attack Shanhaiguan directly, for a time Shanhaiguan general Yang Lin mobilized a large army to hold on, but in fact there was a place in front of them that did not fall, it was the Ningyuan City guarded by Yuan Chonghuan, but at that time Yuan Chonghuan only had 10,000 people in his hands, facing Nurhaci's 60,000 troops was really a bit unsightly, but Yuan Chonghuan showed no fear, because he had long expected the Jin army to return to attack, so as early as two years ago he began to build the city to prevent the accumulation of grain and grass. Because he knew that the Qing army was not good at attacking tough problems, and the result was indeed the same.
Nurhaci led his army to attack for two consecutive days, but instead of reaping any gains, he was killed and wounded by Yuan Chonghuan's Hongyi cannon, and even Nurhaci could not help but scold, since I was twenty-five years old, I have been invincible and invincible, but Ning Yuan has not been able to defeat a city, and finally had to retreat. When Emperor Qi learned of the news, he praised yuan Chonghuan's blood book, the soldiers were planning, the division was dispatched, and Man Gui and others defended the lonely city, and they were determined to fight bravely, although they had not exhausted the rebellion against the slaves, they had already defeated the fierce front, and this loyal labor was overjoyed, and the general Yuan Chonghuan was promoted to the position of right governor of the imperial history. Immediately after Nurhaci's death, his successor Emperor Taiji led the Eight Banner Army and part of the Mongol army to attack Ningyuan again, only to be held by Yuan Chonghuan for twenty days, and finally the Qing army had to retreat with thousands of dead and wounded, and then they were bombarded with artillery by Zhao Li of Zhenshou Jin Prefecture and lost thousands of more, after which the three Belles of Jin were wounded.
However, despite the death of a crown prince, Yuan Chonghuan, instead of receiving a reward, was impeached by the eunuch party led by Wei Zhongxian, and finally he resigned in protest, but history is often such a coincidence. In 1627, the Tianqi Emperor died, and his brother Zhu Youjian succeeded him as the Chongzhen Emperor, who after ascending the throne, he would vigorously suppress the castration party and reappointed Yuan Chonghuan as the right deputy capital of Bingbu Shangshu as the right deputy capital Yushi, the overseer Ji Liao, and the governor Deng Lai, and the military affairs of Tianjin. The Chongzhen Emperor trusted Yuan Chonghuan so much that he did not even send an overseer, and gave him full authority to entrust the military affairs of Liaodong to him, so how did such a thing evolve into a situation of endless death?
This begins with the crimes that Chongzhen originally listed for Yuan Chonghuan, who listed a whole nine major crimes for Yuan Chonghuan, namely, ineffective entrustment, bullying and concealment, stealing money with the city, beheading the marshal with the money, driving the enemy for a long time, not fighting the troops, dismissing the reinforcements in four episodes, and sneaking the lamas into the city with their subordinates. At first glance, these nine major crimes Yuan Chonghuan is simply the most heinous crime, but is this really the case?
Let's take a look at whether these so-called crimes are established or not, the first major crime is the ineffectiveness of entrustment and the long drive of the enemy is actually a thing, it comes from a promise made to the Chongzhen Emperor when Yuan Chonghuan entered the capital in July 1628, that is, it only takes five years for him to pacify Houjin, this sentence is not good, because Chongzhen he really believed, he first gave Yuan Chonghuan the title of prince taibao, and then gave him the Shangfang Sword. In addition, Chongzhen gave him 70% of the domestic taxes at that time, but although Yuan Chonghuan blew out, when he talked to people about this matter in private, he actually said that this was to coax the Chongzhen Emperor directly, because everyone knew that the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty had fought for decades without results, and how could they solve all the problems in five years. However, Yuan Chonghuan was not inactive, he used his huge resources to start a frenzied construction of the city, and he also realized in advance that the Mongols might become the deployment of the Later Jin, which in turn allowed the enemy to threaten the capital from the north to the south.
So he wrote to the Chongzhen Emperor one after another to strengthen the defense of the Jimen area, but the Chongzhen Emperor did not believe him, and as a result, in the end, the Emperor Taiji really fought from there, directly under the roots of the imperial city, and almost the Chongzhen Emperor did not even have time to hang the crooked neck tree, or Yuan Chonghuan took the centaur to help at night to repel the enemy army. Therefore, in this regard, the crime of entrusting ineffectiveness and indulging in the enemy's long drive is actually not established, because Yuan Chonghuan is after all fighting with most of the resources of the country, in this case, he himself does not act but asks the emperor to pay attention to defense, which is really a bit difficult for a strong man, and Chongzhen is also defeated in trusting him too much, so both of them are at fault for this crime, and the second crime is exclusively bullying, and its focus is actually on concealment. And on this point we have to talk about the two major crimes of beheading shuai with money and stealing money from the city, first of all, the conspiracy to behead the marshal, here the beheading was Mao Wenlong, the commander-in-chief of Pingliao at that time, whose official position was one level larger than Yuan Chonghuan's, and he also possessed the Shangfang Sword given by the Emperor of the Apocalypse, and his station was called Phi Dao, located in the West Korean Bay east of the current Yalu River estuary.
There was the rear position of Hou Jin, so Mao Wenlong could often threaten Hou Jin from the rear, so that they did not dare to attack boldly, but although Mao Wenlong was in a high position of power, he did not fight more, but instead shrunk on Phi Island, and he also intensified his demand for grain from the imperial court, and history clearly recorded that he raised troops twice, frightening the imperial court to directly suspend his military salary for two months, and Yuan Chonghuan knew the importance of Mao Wenlong. So he personally went to persuade him, and as a result, no matter how he tried to persuade Mao Wenlong, he refused to listen, so Yuan Chonghuan simply used the Shangfang sword to kill him, and then asked Chongzhen for guilt, and Chongzhen was shocked after learning of this, but did not punish Yuan Chonghuan, and did not even scold him a few words, it can be seen that in Chongzhen's eyes Mao Wenlong is also a bit excessive, but no matter what, Mao Wenlong, as a member of the Yipin, even if there is a mistake, should be interrogated by the imperial court, his own official position is still one level lower than others, and he also uses the sword of the emperor of this dynasty. He cut off Mao Wenlong, who had been given the sword by Shangfang by the previous emperor.
Not only was it a bit of a crime, but it also took a black pot to the Chongzhen Emperor, which led to the fact that chongzhen later wanted to kill him when he turned this matter over, as for the city rice thieves, in fact, this matter was up to Chongzhen down to Yuan Chonghuan, the cause of the matter was that Mongolia begged to trade with the Ming Dynasty in exchange for grain because of the harsh winter, at first the Ming Dynasty did not agree, because they thought that the grain sold to the Mongols was likely to flow into the hands of Hou Jin, but at this time Yuan Chonghuan stood up and said, If we didn't sell any grain to the Mongols, I'm afraid they would jump the wall and fall directly to the back gold. Therefore, in the end, the Chongzhen Emperor agreed to sell rice to the Mongols, the so-called Jikou is how many people on the other side, we will sell as much rice to them, if they want to sell to Houjin then they themselves will not have to eat, originally this plan was quite perfect, but Yuan Chonghuan changed when it was implemented.
In order to raise military salaries, he sold a large amount of grain cloth and so on to the Mongols, and the Mongols really sold to Houjin, so it is forgivable to say that he indirectly contributed to the enemy, and the last remaining crimes came from one place, that is, when the Emperor Taiji soldiers came to Beijing, Yuan Chonghuan originally arrived in Beijing quickly, but he did not put into battle at the first time, but stood on the sidelines to watch, and then when the various reinforcements arrived, he not only did not concentrate his forces but let the army fight separately. In the end, the defending general Man Gui was killed, and when the battle was over, Chongzhen was surprised to find that there were emissaries of HouJin in Yuan Chonghuan's army, plus Yuan Chonghuan had always wanted to enter the city at this time, which made chongzhen, who was suspicious, directly regard it as a rebellion, but even this did not make Chongzhen hurt the killer, and the last straw that overwhelmed Yuan Chonghuan was actually himself.
Because his grand strategy was clearly a tactic of sticking to development and waiting for an opportunity, and he had to boast to Chongzhen about the Haikou of The Jin Dynasty after five years, but the Chongzhen Emperor was young but not a fool, he later understood that Yuan Chonghuan was bragging, and Yuan Chonghuan did not defend himself in this situation, but acted more and more rashly, and there was a vague sense of self-respect for the soldiers. Therefore, Chongzhen combined his deeds, coupled with his previous good at killing Mao Wenlong, and finally the courtiers no matter how slanderous, directly portrayed Yuan Chonghuan as a great warlord who collaborated with the enemy and committed treason, and for Chongzhen, who was in the turmoil of the late Ming Dynasty, he absolutely did not dare to take the risk of betting on whether Yuan Chonghuan was loyal to him, so he simply killed him.
So looking at what Yuan Chonghuan did, although he was capable but not stable enough in his handling of things, he often took it for granted and began to implement it, he may feel that the emperor must be able to understand his behavior, but he forgot that the emperor's most important thing is always his own interests, once you threaten his interests, then even if there is a one in ten thousand possibility, he will not hesitate to kill the killer, this has happened in all the dynasties, but in any case, Yuan Chonghuan, as a general, did fulfill his duty to guard the land and an state.
However, as a courtier, he did not achieve the example of humility and benevolence, so his tragic fate of being lingchi more or less had his own responsibility, as for his unjust injustice, it became a matter of thousands of faces, but it is certain that Chongzhen, who was hanging on the crooked neck tree, absolutely did not think that he was wronged, because he felt that everyone except him was wrong.