Yuan Chonghuan: Why did a generation of loyal ministers become "traitors" who led the wolf into the room?

It is not a pleasant thing to be a * * * senior official in the Chongzhen era, especially the kind of senior official who takes charge of himself. During Chongzhen period, many senior officials died abnormally, such as Xiong Tingbi, Wang Huazhen and Levin. They either died of unjust imprisonment created by the authorities, or died of a piece of imperial edict during the Chongzhen period, or committed suicide after failing. However, compared with the death of Yuan Chonghuan, their death is very decent and humane.

In August of the third year of Chongzhen (1630), news of Yuan Chonghuan has spread like wildfire. Beijing officials and people who have been harassed by the post-Jin army for many times all cheered. In their view, Yuan Chonghuan, the traitor who lured the wolf into the room, will eventually be punished-Yuan Chonghuan was arrested on charges of colluding with the late Jin army and plotting rebellion.

Ming Beilue recorded the details of Yuan Chonghuan's detention: Yuan Chonghuan was still alive when his flesh was exhausted, and his heart and lungs were hoarse. People will buy a piece of meat with a silver dollar and spit it out like a finger. You will scold when you eat it, and in a short time, Chonghuan meat will be sold out.

Yuan Chonghuan is from Dongguan, Guangdong, and the other is from tengxian, Guangxi. Perhaps because of his short stature, Chongzhen once affectionately called him Yuan Manzi. Like most officials in the Ming Dynasty, Yuan Chonghuan entered the official career through the imperial examination. In the forty-seventh year of Wanli, he was a scholar, and in the same year, he was awarded the Shaowu County Order of Fujian. In the forty-six years of Wanli, Nurhachi issued seven hate declarations, which was a milestone in the Ming Dynasty. This is a landmark event in the late Ming Dynasty. For Yuan Chonghuan, it means that this stubborn and conceited southerner, even when he became a local official in Fujian, thousands of kilometers away from Liaodong, was still paying infinite attention to Liaodong's border affairs while dealing with money and food lawsuits. "History of Ming Dynasty" said that Yuan Chonghuan was bold and courageous, and he was fond of talking about soldiers ... Later, due to the recommendation of Hou Xun, Yuan Chonghuan, the magistrate of a county, was promoted to the position of Minister of War.

There are two anecdotes about Yuan Chonghuan recorded in the history books: First, in the second year of the apocalypse, he was just promoted to the post of Minister of War, and it happened that the Ming army was defeated in the battle of Guangning, and the court negotiated to send someone to guard Shanhaiguan. Yuan Chonghuan learned of this and rode alone to Shanhaiguan for an unannounced visit. Because he didn't ask for leave from the head of the Ministry of War, the Ministry of War didn't know where his master had gone, and neither did his family. After a while, Master Yuan came back and said to the leader, Give me money and food for my army, and I can hold this pass. Second, Nurhachi passed away, and Yuan Chonghuan, commander-in-chief of Ningyuan Front, sent someone to offer condolences without the authorization of the court. Although the essence is to spy on the enemy by condolence, Hou Jin is Daming's tough opponent for many years. Without the order of the court, communication with him is a taboo.

From these two details, we can see that Yuan Chonghuan is an excellent doer and an activist. Full of ideals and * * *, but often disregard the rules of the game for ideals; As a senior official in the system, he likes to be arbitrary and self-motivated. With his talent and dedication to serving the country, he has indeed made some achievements. But he doesn't understand the fact that he is a headstrong person, just as his master Chongzhen is also a headstrong person. Two headstrong people become superiors and subordinates. When the external situation is tense, they may have a honeymoon period of cooperation, but as time goes by, mutual suspicion will surely grow bigger and bigger, and this suspicion is bound to brew an inevitable tragedy one day.

In April of the first year of Chongzhen (1628), Chongzhen appointed Yuan Chonghuan as the minister of war and the right deputy capital, supervising the military affairs of Hebei, Liao, Deng, Lai and Tianjin. In July, after dozens of days' long journey, Yuan Chonghuan came to the familiar Beijing from his hometown, and Chongzhen immediately summoned him on the platform. However, this platform trial once again exposed Yuan Chonghuan's personality weakness, and his thoughtless rhetoric became one of the incentives for his execution in the future. After greeting Yuan Chonghuan politely, Chongzhen couldn't wait to ask Yuan Chonghuan: It's been ten years since the Ministry of Construction (the last year of the Jin Dynasty), and his government has fallen, and Liao people have lost their lives. Li went to get it. He is brave and worthy of praise. All strategies to pacify Liao can be played with reality! Yuan Chonghuan replied: All the strategies have been written separately. Thanks to the emperor's permission, I was summoned thousands of miles away. If the emperor can give me the right to act cheaply, Liaodong will be razed in five years and the whole of Liaoning will be recovered.

This must be the first official who can set a date to pacify Liaodong in front of Chongzhen. When I heard that it only took five years to solve the big trouble in Liaodong, Chongzhen, who was crushed by the invading world, was full of joy, and all the cabinet ministers accompanying him were in high spirits. However, some people are skeptical about Yuan Chonghuan's five-year plan, and that person is Xu Yuqing, a military engineer. He took advantage of Chongzhen's interview and went back to the harem to rest, and quietly asked Yuan Chonghuan what he was going to do. However, Yuan Chonghuan's answer surprised Xu Yuqing. He spoke to Sacred Heart! Xu Yuqing was shocked when he heard this, and reminded Yuan Chonghuan: Your Majesty is wise, SHEN WOO. How can you be right? What would you do if you were responsible for finishing the work on time?

When Chongzhen returned to the platform again, Yuan Chonghuan immediately put forward considerable conditions for the five-year plan: First, the household department should ensure money and food; Second, the Ministry of War should ensure weapons; Third, the officers and men department promised him the initiative of employing people. For these almost harsh conditions, Chongzhen accepted them one by one, and gave him everything he needed. It was this daunting move that later ruined Yuan Chonghuan's life and, in a sense, Daming's country.

Zhang Dai, a scholar in the Ming Dynasty who experienced the change, made an in-depth analysis of this platform call and Yuan Chonghuan's own tragic character: Yuan Chonghuan was short and capable, short, but impetuous, talking about what was going on in the world, shameless, but he was all day long, caught in the fog of curtain swing, unaware that he was possessed. Destroy Kou in five years, but you can't destroy Kou. Destroy yourself. Zhang Dai's evaluation is a bit bitter, but it is basically in line with historical facts. Yuan Chonghuan, who was born as an intellectual, has a unique trait of boasting and talking, although he has been through battle and lived in an iron vest. There is no doubt that such intellectuals are loyal to the country and the monarch. They try their best to be responsible, but they can't hide an ironclad fact: they are often suspected of having ambitions. They believe too much that their loyalty and sincerity can turn the tide, but they don't know that they will be difficult to support when the building is about to collapse. What's more, holding shots, I went to Yuan Chonghuan in Liaodong in the eager anticipation of Chongzhen, facing an extremely troublesome mess.

The first is money and food. Although the public knows the simple truth that horses have to eat grass if they want to run, the soldiers guarding Liaodong have not received their salaries for many years. Therefore, the main line that almost runs through the military history in the late Ming Dynasty is that soldiers who lack pay constantly mutiny and flee. As Yuan Chonghuan arrived in Liaodong, the chief executive of Liaodong, Bi He, the company commander Zhu Mei, was caught by soldiers who had been in arrears for four months, covered in blood. After Bi was released, they hanged themselves angrily. After Yuan Chonghuan's arrival, the imperial court did allocate part of his salary to Liaodong, but compared with the huge expenditure, it was still a drop in the bucket. Yuan Chonghuan had to write to Chongzhen, asking Chongzhen to use internal funds for Liao affairs, otherwise the mutiny would continue. Chongzhen hated the ministers' proposal to use his private money, even if it was used to defend their Zhujiashan and life.

So as you can imagine, Yuan Chonghuan's proposal can't be adopted by Chongzhen, but it will cast the first shadow of dissatisfaction in Chongzhen's heart.

Secondly, Mao Longwen, who is bigger than Pidao, is too big to fail. The thoughtlessness and arbitrariness in dealing with the Mao issue led to Yuan Chonghuan's tragic fate to a great extent.

Pidao, also known as Wadao and Dongjiang, is an island in the Bohai Sea, with a length of 15 and a width of 10, echoing Zhangzi Island and Kashima Island at the mouth of the Yalu River, showing a tripartite confrontation. Because Pidao was located between the late Jin Dynasty and Korea, as well as Liaodong, Dengzhou and Laizhou in the Ming Dynasty, its strategic position was very important. Mao Yuan was an unemployed person in Hangzhou. At the age of 30, he was recommended by his uncle to Wang Huazhen, the governor of Liaodong, and soon stood out and was promoted to deputy commander. After that, he led his troops to Pidao, used the traffic conditions on the island to gather refugees and develop trade, and made the island a hero town a few years later. Pidao was located in the throat of the sea in the late Jin Dynasty. When the Ming army lost several important towns in Liaodong, the strategic significance of Pidao became more prominent.

It should be said that Mao managed Pidao despite his behavior of making an example of others, which is still a great constraint on the latter. The imperial court, including the Apocalypse, which has always been uninterested in politics, fully realized this point, not only promoted him as the company commander, but also sent people to express condolences many times. As for the role of Mao, Jiang, editor of Hanlin Academy, thinks that the Jewish people, like Dongjiang countries, have fleas and lice. If you pinch it, you will have nowhere to start, and you will fidget when you listen ... If there is no Dongjiang, Peter will use Liao people to reclaim Liao soil. In other words, Mao is like a flea attached to Houjin, which can constantly harass it and make it restless, although it will not kill Houjin. But after sitting aside for a while, fleas became less easy to control. The court began to criticize Mao from condescending to criticizing, and Mao did become arrogant and illegal because of Changzhen's side:

First, he almost turned the garrison in Pidao into Mao Jiajun-most of the important positions in the army are his sons and nephews or semes, and all generals are surnamed Mao;

Second, he falsely reported that the number of soldiers was 200,000, but actually it was less than 50,000. Most of the wages of hundreds of thousands of other people fall into his pocket;

Third, he used Pidao's superior geographical position at the crossroads of the sea to levy taxes on merchant ships, which was not authorized by the court.