Ming Zuo

Chapter 121 Roots

Many people attributed Mao Wenlong's death to the conflict between him and Yuan Chonghuan.

What's more, it is believed that he has a tendency to surrender after Jin, which is why he incurred the disaster of killing himself.

In Zuo Menggeng's view, Mao Wenlong's death was actually doomed.

If one were to summarize the cause of his death, it would be...

His military failure magnified the economic problems infinitely, and his political ineffectiveness became the last straw that broke the camel's camel.

If we really want to trace the source of Mao Wenlong's tragedy, or Yuan Chonghuan's tragedy, we have to start with the resignation of Sun Chengzong and Yuan Keli.

And the culprits who caused all this were, without a doubt, Emperor Tianqi and the eunuchs.

After Saarhu, the Ming court retreated steadily in Liaodong, and Shenyang, Liaoyang, and Guangning were lost successively, leaving only a narrow strip of the Liaoxi Corridor.

At this time, in order to restore the situation, Emperor Tianqi sent his teacher Sun Chengzong to rule Liaodong.

In view of the fact that the Ming army was no longer able to fight, Sun Chengzong formulated a detailed and safe plan.

By establishing a complete defense system, while stabilizing the situation in Liaodong, we will train available troops and wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

This is the famous Ning Jin line of defense.

To put it bluntly, Sun Chengzong did two things during his stay in Liaodong.

Fortifications were built to resist Houjin's attack, and troops were trained to counterattack.

Because he had no record when he was in charge of Liaodong, many people in later generations used this to criticize him for his incompetence.

But many people have overlooked one point, and it is also a place where history books are unclear.

That is outside the Ningjin defense line. In fact, Sun Chengzong formulated a very wide-ranging siege plan for Houjin.

Sun Chengzong's huge strategy has received strong support from two people.

One is Yuan Keli, the governor of Denglai, and the other is Li Banghua, the governor of Tianjin.

Sun Chengzong's specific strategy is as follows...

He was in the west of Liaoning, and he was positively restraining Houjin, not giving Houjin an opportunity to take advantage of it.

Li Banghua was in Tianjin, acting as an intermediate bridge, linking Liaodong and Denglai.

Yuan Keli was in Denglai and was mainly responsible for supporting Mao Wenlong and North Korea.

In addition, contact Lin Danhan of the Chahar tribe, various tribes of Eastern Mongolia, and the remaining Haixi Jurchen and Savage Jurchen to carry out a strategic siege of Houjin from another direction.

In order to draw Lin Danhan, Haixi Jurchen, and Savage Jurchen into this camp, Sun Chengzong used a person to run around.

This person is Wang Shizhong, the governor of the left and the commander-in-chief of Fuyi.

Who is Wang Shizhong?
He is not a Han Chinese, but the second son of Meng Gebulu, chief of the Hada tribe of Haixi Jurchen.

In the twenty-seventh year of Wanli, Nurhachi broke through the city of Hada, and the Hada tribe was destroyed.

Wang Shizhong, who was only eight or nine years old, followed his family to Daming.

For some reason, Emperor Wanli fell in love with him and raised him in the palace himself.

Because of the increasingly critical situation in Liaodong, Sun Chengzong decided to use Wang Shizhong's identity to unite Lin Dan Khan, the remnants of Haixi Jurchen, and the wild Jurchen to deal with Houjin.

Lin Danhan's wife, Sutai Dafujin, is Wang Shizhong's niece. With this identity, Wang Shizhong became a middleman connecting various forces and played a key role.

Why is Zuo Menggeng so clear about this matter?
Because in the original history, Wang Shizhong's daughter was his wife.

And Wang Shizhong also played the role of recommendation for Zuo Menggeng's surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

At that time, the Ming Dynasty, North Korea, the Chahar tribe, Haixi Jurchen, and Savage Jurchen were all facing a huge threat from the Houjin Dynasty at the same time, so it was easy to form allies to deal with the common enemy.

And Sun Chengzong's strategy also caused huge troubles for Nurhachi.

During this period of time, Hou Jin was completely unable to use his hands and feet. Facing the situation of enemies on all sides, he was on the verge of collapse.

It can be said that as long as Sun Chengzong is given a certain amount of time to prepare, it is not impossible to counterattack Liaodong.

It's a pity that the pig teammate appeared.

With Sun Chengzong's strategy "wasting a lot of money and doing nothing", the contradictions between Tianqi, the eunuch party and him have reached an irreconcilable point.

The root of the conflict between the two sides is not really that Sun Chengzong spent a lot of military pay but failed.It was Sun Chengzong who spent all the money, leaving Tianqi with no money to use.

What is Tianqi going to do?

He wants to build three halls...

After calculation by the Ministry of Industry, it will cost [-] million taels of silver to build the three halls.

This cost shocked Tian Qi too, and felt that there was something tricky about it.

He himself is a master carpenter, and he is not a layman in construction, so he did it himself.In the seventh year of the Apocalypse, how much silver will be used in total after the repairs of the three halls are completed?
Five million nine hundred and fifty thousand taels of silver.

If we compare the project budget given by the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Industry with the actual cost of Tianqi's construction, we have saved a lot of money.

In later generations, many people praised Tianqi for this, and thought he was good.

But you fucking have nearly six million taels of silver to build a house, wouldn't it be nice for Sun Chengzong to strengthen the defense of Liaodong?
What is the difference between this approach and the Queen Mother?
And even if it is [-] million silver, where can it come from?
It can only be saved by reducing the investment in Liaodong and Nine Borders.

This is the fundamental contradiction between Sun Chengzong and Tianqi.

As a person close to Tian Qi, the eunuch certainly understands the master's thoughts.Coupled with political contradictions, they immediately launched an offensive against Sun Chengzong.

If you use a slogan, that's it.

【Extravagantly spent, without an inch of merit】

And this slogan has made many people believe it.

Because after Sun Chengzong arrived in Liaodong, he really didn't fight.

However, if the implementation of a grand strategy is to be successful, it must take several years, ten years or even decades to see the rewards.

As a result, Sun Chengzong suffered tremendous pressure from public opinion.

In order to alleviate the doubts of "people in the world", Sun Chengzong had to use the army that had not yet formed to launch a hasty offensive, hoping to ease the mouth of the world.

This is the defeat of Liuhe that led to Sun Chengzong's resignation.

In fact, the result of Liuhe's defeat was not to the point of hurting the Ming Dynasty, and Liaodong's attitude did not change fundamentally.

If Sun Chengzong's strategy continues, Hou Jin still can't find any way out.

But this defeat caused Sun Chengzong to step down, and the strategy of siege on all sides that he formulated was completely aborted because of the opposition of the eunuch party.

Not only that, but the eunuch party extended its hand to Liaodong.

As a result, Yuan Chonghuan and Wang Zhichen were at odds with the governor, and the situation between Xiong Tingbi and Wang Huazhen was reproduced.

Yuan Chonghuan resigned in anger, and the situation in Liaodong, which was originally good, plummeted, and there was no room for recovery.

At the same time, with the defeat of the Dongdonglin Party in the DPRK, Li Banghua, the governor of Tianjin, and Yuan Keli, the governor of Denglai, had to step down.

Without Yuan Keli's full support, Mao Wenlong would have become a rootless duckweed.Not only did it fail to defend the Liaodong Peninsula, but it could only sit back and watch North Korea be forced to surrender by Houjin.

He himself could only lead the remnants of the defeated generals to stay on the isolated island, completely losing the restraining effect on Hou Jin.

It can be said that by this time, Mao Wenlong had reached the end of his military career.

Those in later generations who thought that Mao Wenlong, who was trapped in Pidao, could contain Houjin, were just like Chang Kaishen who thought that Wei Lihuang would be able to break the siege of Jinzhou and even defeat our army if he led the national army in Shenyang to the west. They all took it for granted. .

In the eyes of many people, the comparison of military strength between the two sides is as simple as numbers.

It seems that there are [-] troops, and the strength of a [-] troops can be exerted.

Doesn't take combat power into account at all.

If Mao Wenlong can really contain Houjin, he still needs to watch Houjin forcefully surrender to North Korea and lose the Liaodong Peninsula?

It's not because you can't beat it.

In the first year of Chongzhen, the Ming army in various places mutinied because of payment arrears.

Not only did it lead to Zuo Liangyu's dismissal, but the most serious thing was the opening of Jizhen's door, which also paved the way for Huang Taiji's invasion.

In fact, at this time, although Mao Wenlong lost his military role, he also caused a huge economic burden on the Ming court.But he is still useful politically.

That is the so-called post-surrender gold incident that he was often criticized in later generations.

In fact, those letters were just Mao Wenlong adhering to the Ming court's intention and negotiating peace with Hou Jin.

Not only he is doing it, Yuan Chonghuan is also doing it.

All those who say that Yuan Chonghuan and Mao Wenlong are going to surrender to Houjin are actually deliberately blackmailing.

As for Yuan Chonghuan's rhetoric of "Ping Liaodong in five years", it may not necessarily be to pacify Liaodong, but to calm Liaodong.

If the peace negotiation is successful, wouldn't Liaodong be peaceful.

Of course, there is no basis for this claim, it's just speculation.

However, the peace negotiation that Mao Wenlong was in charge of finally went bankrupt after he exchanged eight letters with Hou Jin.

The correspondence between Mao Wenlong and Hou Jin cannot be used as evidence of Mao Wenlong's intention to surrender.Because of his actions, the court was reported in the Tang newspaper.

This can of course be regarded as, in fact, the Ming court was tacitly acquiescing to Mao Wenlong and Hou Jin to discuss peace.

Many views in later generations believe that the arrest of Kuo Ke, the envoy of the Later Jin Dynasty, was the inducement that led to Chongzhen's decree to approve the military salary of Dongjiang Town.

But in fact, the real reason why Chongzhen did this was Mao Wenlong's last letter to Huang Taiji.

[Reading Khan's book, I am very puzzled.How can I not know about his arrogance, dishonesty, and suspicion?The matter of discussing peace is what the two countries wish and is beneficial to both places.If you don't want to, it's too late!Why are you lying to me? 】

Such words represent only one meaning.

That is the complete breakdown of the peace talks.

So far, as far as the Ming court is concerned, Mao Wenlong is of no political use.

(End of this chapter)