Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 457: Endure
Emperor Chongzhen never imagined that Yuan Chonghuan's memorial actually told him that he had killed Mao Wenlong.

Mao Wenlong was a general of the imperial court. Although Emperor Chongzhen had never met Mao Wenlong, he had known him for a long time. As early as the beginning of the Tianqi period, Mao Wenlong was famous all over the world, and his Dongjiang Town was even more famous for its military exploits. It was precisely because of Mao Wenlong and Dongjiang Town that the Liaodong Jiannu did not dare to attack too deeply every time for so many years, for fear of Mao Wenlong's backstab and sneak attack.

Mao Wenlong and Dongjiang Town played an indispensable role in the fact that the Ming Dynasty was able to hold on to several territories east of Shanhaiguan despite repeated defeats in Liaodong. Even though Yuan Chonghuan had won a great victory in Ningyuan before, Nurhaci eventually withdrew his troops because Mao Wenlong decisively sent troops to threaten the retreat of the Jiannu after learning that the Jiannu had launched an attack.

Yuan Chonghuan went to Liaodong before and quickly put down the Ningyuan mutiny. He then submitted a memorial saying that he would reorganize the military in Liaodong. Emperor Chongzhen agreed without much consideration. However, Yuan Chonghuan not only attacked the Liaodong army, but also directly changed the sea transportation line from the mainland of Ming to Pi Island, which led to the interruption of military pay and food. Mao Wenlong was extremely dissatisfied and wrote a memorial to Emperor Chongzhen to complain and severely sued Yuan Chonghuan.

After this incident, facing the conflict between Yuan Chonghuan and Mao Wenlong, Emperor Chongzhen considered it and still favored Yuan Chonghuan. After all, Yuan Chonghuan was appointed by him as the commander-in-chief of Ji and Liao, and Emperor Chongzhen had high hopes for Yuan Chonghuan, hoping that Yuan Chonghuan could pacify Liao within five years as he had promised him.

In the face of the overall situation of pacifying Liaodong, Emperor Chongzhen, after weighing the pros and cons, could only put Mao Wenlong in a difficult position. So Emperor Chongzhen wrote letters to Yuan Chonghuan and Mao Wenlong respectively, asking them to put the overall situation first and not to fight among themselves, but to sit down and discuss, to come up with a win-win plan and work together to deal with the Jiannu in Liaodong.

To be honest, Yuan Chonghuan was more important to Emperor Chongzhen, because Yuan Chonghuan not only promised to pacify Liao within five years, but was also a civil official. Mao Wenlong was different. Although he had made outstanding contributions, he was a military officer. In the Ming Dynasty, civil officials were more important than military officials. Even if Mao Wenlong's official position was higher, he could not compare with Yuan Chonghuan.

In addition, Emperor Chongzhen also had some opinions about Mao Wenlong because of Yuan Chonghuan. He felt that Mao Wenlong was indeed arrogant and domineering because he relied on his seniority, high official position, and the nearly 30,000 elite soldiers in Dongjiang Town. It would not be a bad thing to take advantage of Yuan Chonghuan's rectification of Liaodong to give Mao Wenlong a proper warning. This was another reason why Emperor Chongzhen took sides.

But even so, Emperor Chongzhen never thought of killing Mao Wenlong. No matter how stupid Emperor Chongzhen was, he understood the importance of Mao Wenlong in Liaodong. Moreover, although Mao Wenlong had many minor problems, he had no major problems, and there was no reason to kill him.

But now Yuan Chonghuan suddenly sent a memorial to Emperor Chongzhen, telling him that he had killed Mao Wenlong, and that he had used the imperial sword given to him by Emperor Chongzhen to kill Mao Wenlong. When Emperor Chongzhen saw this, he was completely stunned. He couldn't believe what he saw and even thought it was an illusion.

But it was clearly written in black and white that Yuan Chonghuan had indeed beheaded Mao Wenlong. He also listed the twelve major crimes that led to Mao Wenlong's execution in a memorial, and told others that he had chopped off Mao Wenlong's head in front of everyone on Shuangdao Island.

After making sure that there was nothing wrong with his eyes, a surge of anger suddenly surged in Emperor Chongzhen's heart. He never expected that Yuan Chonghuan would be so bold as to do such a horrific thing.

Even though Yuan Chonghuan was personally appointed by Emperor Chongzhen as the commander-in-chief of Ji and Liao, and the Minister of War, who was granted the imperial sword, how could he kill Mao Wenlong? Putting aside whether the charges Yuan Chonghuan listed were true or false, and whether they could withstand scrutiny, even if these charges were all true and Mao Wenlong really had a way to die, it was definitely not something Yuan Chonghuan could kill.

Mao Wenlong was the General of Dongjiang Town, General Ping Liao, Left Governor-General, and Prince Taibao. His official position had reached the pinnacle of an official. For a first-rank official like him, let alone Yuan Chonghuan, even if Emperor Chongzhen wanted to kill him, he could not be killed at will. There must be sufficient reasons, and the three judicial officials must hold a joint trial and convict him before he could be executed according to the law.

Even so, killing Mao Wenlong would still require many other considerations, among which Dongjiang Town was the most difficult to deal with. Because Dongjiang Town was founded by Mao Wenlong, it can be said that Mao Wenlong was not only the founder of Dongjiang Town, but also the soul of Dongjiang Town. If Mao Wenlong was gone, would Dongjiang Town still be able to play its previous role? Whether it could do what Mao Wenlong did when he was still there to deal with the threat of the Liaodong Jiannu was unknown.

Not to mention that Emperor Chongzhen never intended to kill Mao Wenlong. Even if he really wanted to kill him, he would have many concerns and would not do it easily. But now, a first-rank official was killed by the second-rank Ji Liao governor with the imperial sword without his consent and without any conviction by the court. Yuan Chonghuan was really too bold!

For a moment, Emperor Chongzhen was so angry that his face turned red. Unable to control his emotions, he waved his hand and swept all the memorials piled on the table to the ground. He stood up and kicked the table hard, overturning it.

"Good! What a great Yuan Chonghuan! What a great Yuan Chonghuan!"

Emperor Chongzhen laughed angrily, his eyes wide open and his teeth gnashing. If Yuan Chonghuan was standing in front of him now, he would want someone to fetch him a sword and chop this audacious bastard down directly!
Wang Chengen had never seen Emperor Chongzhen so angry, and he had no idea what had happened. He just heard from Emperor Chongzhen's words that it seemed that Yuan Chonghuan had caused a big disaster.

He stood aside and dared not even breathe, while Cao Huachun, who was still kneeling, did not even dare to raise his head, allowing Emperor Chongzhen's angry laughter and scolding to echo in the hall. After venting for a while, Emperor Chongzhen gradually calmed down, looking at the mess on the ground, his cold eyes swept over, and then his eyes fell on Cao Huachun.

Just as he was about to say something, Emperor Chongzhen swallowed his words back. With a frown on his face, he slowly sat down, and his eyes returned to the memorial given to him by Yuan Chonghuan, lingering for a long time.

In the end, Emperor Chongzhen said nothing, but waved his hand and asked Wang Chengen and others to pick up the memorials on the ground. Cao Huachun, who was relieved, also got up from the ground and helped to pick them up carefully. He still sat there, staring at Yuan Chonghuan's memorials expressionlessly, and made the final decision after a long time.

The final decision of Emperor Chongzhen was to swallow the bitter pill instead of arresting the audacious Yuan Chonghuan. The rational Emperor Chongzhen made this decision for a reason, because in his opinion, Mao Wenlong was already dead, and even if he arrested Yuan Chonghuan from Liaodong and brought him to the capital to be punished, it would be useless to kill him directly. The chopped-off head could not be put back, and the dead Mao Wenlong could not be resurrected. The facts could not be changed.

In this case, Emperor Chongzhen also had to consider the consequences of doing so. If Yuan Chonghuan was punished for the Mao Wenlong incident, then the entire Liaodong would collapse completely.

You should know that Yuan Chonghuan was the commander-in-chief of Ji-Liao, and Mao Wenlong was the general of Dongjiang Town. They were both important figures in Liaodong and the key to the Ming Dynasty's maintenance of the Liaodong war situation. Now Mao Wenlong is dead. If Yuan Chonghuan is removed, who will be responsible for Liaodong? Who can deal with the Jian Nu?
Furthermore, Yuan Chonghuan used the imperial sword given to Yuan Chonghuan to kill Mao Wenlong, and he also publicized that Mao Wenlong was killed by imperial order. If he denied the correctness of Yuan Chonghuan's killing of Mao Wenlong, wouldn't it be the same as slapping himself in the face with his own hands?
Don't forget, everyone in the world knows that the reason Yuan Chonghuan was able to become the governor of Ji and Liao was entirely because of Emperor Chongzhen. Now that Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao Wenlong in this way, some people would definitely think that it was their own instruction. Yuan Chonghuan directly killed Mao Wenlong by taking advantage of the power of others, which forced Emperor Chongzhen into a corner. Even if he was angry, he couldn't explain this to the world.

Another important reason is that Emperor Chongzhen trusted Yuan Chonghuan, including the so-called five-year commitment Yuan Chonghuan promised him. If Yuan Chonghuan could really do this, let alone killing one Mao Wenlong, even if he killed two or three Mao Wenlongs, Emperor Chongzhen would think it was worth it.

Since the man was already dead, the only thing left for him to do was to rely on Yuan Chonghuan. He couldn't ignore the overall situation, could he? As long as Yuan Chonghuan could pacify Liaodong within five years, recover all of Liaodong and solve the Jiannu problem, this matter would not be unbearable. Now arresting Yuan Chonghuan or even killing him would not benefit the Ming Dynasty at all. It was because of this that Emperor Chongzhen suppressed his anger and admitted it, without thinking of punishing Yuan Chonghuan.

After cleaning up, Cao Huachun saluted to Emperor Chongzhen. Emperor Chongzhen waved his hand to signal him that he could leave, and Cao Huachun backed out of the Qianqing Palace.

Cao Huachun left and Wang Chengen sent him out. When they were outside the palace, Wang Chengen, who was still confused, couldn't help but ask Cao Huachun what was going on and why the emperor was so angry.

With no outsiders around, Cao Huachun whispered the contents of Yuan Chonghuan's memorial to Wang Chengen. When Wang Chengen learned that Yuan Chonghuan had actually killed Mao Wenlong, he was stunned and speechless, not knowing what to say for a while.

"How could Yuan Chonghuan be so bold? How dare he do such a thing?" After a moment, Wang Chengen asked in astonishment.

"What is there for him not to do?" Cao Huachun smiled bitterly, raised his hand and pointed towards the palace: "The emperor's reaction just now was similar, but in the end he did not show any intention to deal with Yuan Chonghuan. Mao Wenlong died in vain."

"This..." Wang Chengen opened his mouth and nodded helplessly. Although they were eunuchs, the top eunuchs who had reached their status were all shrewd people. Why did Emperor Chongzhen react from his initial rage to his final calmness? Considering this incident, how could they not guess what Emperor Chongzhen was thinking?
"But this matter is very serious. Once the news spreads, I'm afraid there will be an uproar in the court."

"Let them make a fuss. There's nothing we can do about it. Who made the emperor have to use only Yuan Chonghuan now? This Yuan Chonghuan... Hey, brother, in my opinion, although Yuan Chonghuan still has the emperor's favor, he is too bold and presumptuous. If he continues like this, he will probably not have a good ending. Brother, you need to be more careful when you accompany the emperor." Cao Huachun reminded him kindly.

Wang Chengen nodded silently. He certainly understood what Cao Huachun meant. It seemed that he had to stay away from Yuan Chonghuan in the future. He knew Emperor Chongzhen's character best. Even though he didn't get angry now, it was because Yuan Chonghuan was still useful. Once Yuan Chonghuan was no longer useful, given Emperor Chongzhen's vengeful nature, he would definitely settle all the old and new accounts at that time. People like Yuan Chonghuan would definitely not have a good ending.

(End of this chapter)