Yuan Chonghuan was a famous general who presided over the resistance against Hou Jin in the last years of the Ming Dynasty. In the last year of the Ming Dynasty, when the Later Jin army attacked the Ming Dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan led his troops to march east and west, and once regained the lost land in Liaodong, which dealt a heavy blow to the Later Jin army and established a sweat horse to protect the Ming Dynasty. However, such an outstanding military general was captured and imprisoned by the Chongji Emperor in December of the second year of Chongzhen, that is, in December 1629, and killed in August of the following year. Why was Yuan Chonghuan killed by the Chongzhen Emperor? What crime did he commit that made Emperor Chongjian so angry? This has been a matter of historical concern.
The general view is that the reason why the meritorious minister Yuan Chonghuan was killed by the Chongzhen Emperor was because the Chongsuo Emperor listened to the false accusations of the circle party Yu Yao and won the emperor Taiji's counter-plan, that is, Yuan Chonghuan was killed by the Chongzhen Emperor by mistake. When the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin army began to fight, the Later Jin army was twice defeated by Yuan Chonghuan's army outside Guanwai. After the Later Jin army learned the severity of the change of clothes, Yu Chongzhen avoided the Liaodong defensive line in the second year and instead took a detour to attack Beijing, which was a "change that has been made" in history. Yuan Chonghuan quickly returned to the Beijing Division to assist, and once again attacked the Houjin army under the city of Beijing. After the Jin army once again suffered the suffering of the Chong, Huang Taiji knew that if yuan Chonghuan was not eliminated, it would be impossible to advance into the Central Plains, so he had a plan in his heart, which was the "anti-plot".
As early as the time when the Later Jin army attacked Beijing, some people in the DPRK spread rumors to frame Yuan Chonghuan, saying that Yuan Chonghuan was deliberately attracting Jin soldiers to the deep, in order to form an alliance under the city. These rumors made the Chongzhen Emperor suspicious. Regarding the counter-plan implemented by Emperor Taiji, Jiang Liangqi's "Records of Donghua" has a detailed record, which says that at the beginning, the Later Jin army captured two eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty and ordered them to be closely guarded. At this time, the deputy general Gao Hongzhong and the staff general Bao Chengxian followed the plan of the emperor Taiji, deliberately sat not far from the two eunuchs, pretended to be a whisper, and said: "Today we withdraw our troops, but it is just a plan." ...... Inspector Yuan's secret appointment would be completed immediately. The eunuch, surnamed Yang at the time, carefully eavesdropped on the conversation between the two men. When the hour came to Gengji, Hou Jinjun released the two eunuchs back. When the eunuch Yang returned to the emperor's side, he hurriedly told the Chongzhen Emperor about the secret agreement between Yuan Chonghuan and Hou Jin, and the Chongzhen Emperor was convinced of Yuan Chonghuan's betrayal of him, and "then he sent Yuan Chonghuan into the city and rubbed it." Yuan Chonghuan's brothers and wives were also exiled to remote provinces thousands of miles away. It is said that this counter-plot of the Houjin army benefited from the Emperor's great fondness for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Huang Taiji Pingsu often read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and was very clear about the mysteries therein. This plan was that he cleverly used the "Jiang Ganzhong Strategy" strategy in the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" to cut out the fierce enemy Yuan Chonghuan by the hand of the Chongzhen Emperor. Emperor Chongzhen was unfortunate enough to be caught in the enemy's scheme and killed his loyalists by mistake. This act of self-destruction of the Great Wall greatly affected the defense of the northeast, which directly led to the rapid demise of the Ming Dynasty.
However, some people have questioned this statement: Although Emperor Taiji is familiar with the art of war and strategy, is the Chongzhen Emperor just an ignorant mediocre? Historical records prove that this is clearly not the case. Some researchers believe that the Chongzhen Emperor killed Yuan Chonghuan deliberately, rather than the mistaken killing of the Qing Dynasty because of the "anti-plot" in China. The real reason for Yuan Chonghuan's murder was that the Chongzhen Emperor was worried that Yuan Chonghuan and his Donglin party members would hinder his autocratic imperial power, and Yuan Chonghuan was a victim of the conflict between imperial power and the power of the chancellor.
Eunuch dictatorship during the Ming Dynasty was a common phenomenon. After the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, in order to eliminate the threat posed by the eunuch party to himself, he used the Donglin party, which effectively weakened the eunuch party's threat to imperial power. However, when the threat of the eunuch party to the imperial power weakened, the Chongzhen Emperor began to weaken the power of the ministers, that is, from relying on the Donglin party to returning to relying on the circle party and the small group. It was in this environment that Yuan Chonghuan rose up and naturally became the object of the fall of the remnants of the castration party. Yuan Chonghuan was upright, bold, and dared to speak and act, which was exactly what the remnants of the castration party feared, and what all the emperors did not like. At the same time, Yuan Pinghuan and Wang Held the entire war situation against Hou Jin, and had great power. Since ancient times, the slightly heavier power of the courtiers was bound to be easily suspected by the emperor, and the suspicion of the Chongzhen Emperor was extremely strong, and the reason why he began to use the Donglin party and then the castration party was to realize his exuberant desire for dictatorship. At this time, Yuan Chonghuan was undoubtedly walking on a tightrope, and the slightest carelessness would provoke the disaster of killing. However, it was also unfortunate that Yuan Chonghuan was a good military general, but he could not see the monarch's mind, and he first beheaded and then killed mao Wenlong, the general of the Ming Liaodong Dynasty, which was a big accident, and the Chongzhen Emperor "suddenly heard and was horrified". Although Yuan Chonghuan repented afterwards, he also repented: "Mao Wenlong is a grand marshal, not a courtier like me who should be killed without permission." However, this incident made the chongzhen emperor's idea of killing Yuan Chonghuan firm in his heart. Historian Tan Qian of the late Ming Dynasty said that Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong without authorization, "so he committed suicide."
The reason why the Chongzhen Emperor did not kill Yuan Chonghuan at the beginning was, on the one hand, because he lacked sufficient excuses, and more importantly, the main reason was that at that time, the Chongzhen Emperor was full of expectations for Yuan Chonghuan's "five-year restoration", so he temporarily tolerated Yuan Chonghuan's unruly behavior, but only secretly took a lot of surveillance and containment measures. After the "change of his own", the Later Jin soldiers launched a large number of criminals, and then besieged the city of Beijing, at this time the Chongzhen Emperor had no hope for Yuan Chonghuan's revival of Liao, and the fragile dependency between the monarchs and subjects no longer existed, and it was inevitable to kill Yuan Chonghuan. At this time, Emperor Taiji carried out a counter-plan, and the Inner Court Eunuch Party also fabricated yuan Chonghuan's three major crimes of inducing the enemy to concord, making peace with the lord, and killing the grand marshal, and the Chongzhen Emperor immediately took this opportunity to throw Yuan Chonghuan into prison.
To say that the Chongzhen Emperor was hit by the Emperor Taiji's counter-plan is unconvincing. Because people can know according to historical data, from Yuan Chonghuan's imprisonment to his murder, there were eight or nine months before and after, and in such a long time, the Chongzhen Emperor had enough time to distinguish between right and wrong. At the same time, there are also historical facts that show that anti-conspiracy and false accusations cannot be concealed from the Chongzhen Emperor, and it is not enough to put Yuan Chonghuan to death. Emperor Chongzhen's decision to kill Yuan Chonghuan was based on the goals of consolidating imperial power, preventing ministers from forming a party, and completely destroying the Donglin Party forces, and the counter-plot only created a suitable excuse for Emperor Chongzhen to arrest Yuan Chonghuan and imprison him.
Since ancient times, "believing and doubting, loyal and slandered", is the fate of loyal subjects really like this? Why was Yuan Chonghuan killed? Is it the monarch's inability to recognize the enemy's ruse, or is it the monarch's suspicion that he cannot leave his vassals behind? The solution of the mystery still needs further study by future generations.
—————— still has a long way to go
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