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

Chapter 882 Nothing But Stability
Seeing Sun Chengzong like this, Zhu Shenzhui comforted him, "Sir, you don't have to be like this. As the saying goes, human power is limited. Given your situation at the time, it was not easy for you to do this, and there are some things that you cannot change."

"In addition, Yuan Chonghuan is not incompetent. In my opinion, Yuan Chonghuan still has some ability. Unfortunately, he is too selfish, boastful, and likes to be clever. He eats as much as his appetite can. He eats even though he can't eat any more. It would be strange if his stomach doesn't burst."

"Plus, Yuan Chonghuan was only a military governor before, and was promoted from military governor to governor, and later took over your position as the commander-in-chief of Ji and Liao. Yuan Chonghuan was young and successful, and once he held power, he was arrogant. In the end, he had such a result. It was all his own fault. How can it be your responsibility?"

Sun Chengzong nodded silently. To be honest, the matter of Yuan Chonghuan had been a thorn in Sun Chengzong's heart for many years, and it had always been difficult for Sun Chengzong to get over it.

At that time, Sun Chengzong thought highly of Yuan Chonghuan, believing that this young man was courageous and knowledgeable, not only knowledgeable about military affairs but also good at strategy, and was his best successor.

All along, Sun Chengzong had carefully trained Yuan Chonghuan when he was in Liaodong, with the purpose of treating him as his successor. After all, Sun Chengzong was already in his early sixties at that time, and he didn't know whether his body could survive until the complete recovery of Liaodong and the annihilation of the Jiannu. What if he gave up halfway through, then what would the court do if there was no one available?
Instead of sending a useless person to Liaodong and destroying all the hard work, the imperial court would rather train a reliable successor in advance. In case one day he could not continue to serve the country in Liaodong, at least there would be a suitable person to replace him, continue his strategy, and achieve the goal of recovering Liaodong and destroying the Jiannu.

Yuan Chonghuan was such a person at that time. Sun Chengzong valued him very much and spent a lot of effort to train him. But Sun Chengzong never expected that the successor he had trained for several years would be wrong. Later, when Yuan Chonghuan took over the post of the governor of Ji-Liao and took control of the military and political power in Liaodong, he not only did not follow the policies set by Sun Chengzong before, but destroyed his policies completely, so that the situation in Liaodong was out of control.

Let's talk about a few things. First, Sun Chengzong implemented a policy of fortification and clearing the countryside in Liaodong, that is, to build the entire Liaodong into a large battlefield, and everything was implemented around the purpose of war. His Ningjin defense line was full of combat soldiers. Although the military strength of each stronghold was not large, the combat effectiveness was not weak. Moreover, each fortress and city could be reinforced and transferred at any time. Once the war started, the Ming army could rely on the defense line and the Eight Banners to deal with it. Even if they were defeated, they would give up some fortresses and concentrate on defending important cities. Even if the enemy occupied the fortress, it would be useless, because the Eight Banners could not take away an empty fortress. After the enemy retreated, the Ming army could still take it back easily.

But what did Yuan Chonghuan do? Yuan Chonghuan thought he was smart. After taking over as the governor of Liaodong, he changed Sun Chengzong's policy and recruited a large number of Liao people in Liaodong to engage in military farming in various places. This move simply gave the enemy an opportunity to take advantage. You should know that military farming is not impossible, but it cannot be done in a war zone. If you want to do military farming, the best place is south of the Great Wall, that is, Jizhou Town west of Shanhaiguan. This place is out of reach of the enemy, so there is no problem in military farming here.

But Yuan Chonghuan set up military farms in various places in the Liaoxi Corridor, even at the exit of the Liaoxi Corridor. Wasn't this asking for trouble? The Jiannu could attack these places at any time. You had just reclaimed the wasteland and planted food, and when you were ready to harvest after working hard for half a year, the enemy came. Military farms were all in the wild, and the Ming army was not good at field battles. These fields were either harvested by the Jiannu to provide military rations for the enemy, or burned down, resulting in huge investment but heavy losses.

Moreover, the soldiers and civilians who were farming in this situation could only run to various fortresses and cities. Their presence would not only cause panic, but also increase the burden on the Ming army. These were not just a few dozen people, but thousands or even tens of thousands of people. How to solve the logistics of so many people? It was also inconvenient to transfer them. The war that could have been fought lightly was turned into a war with burdens on their backs. In addition, the Ming army's combat effectiveness was not as good as the Eight Banners, so it was even more difficult to defeat the enemy.

After several years of struggle, the losses were not worth the gains. Not only that, Yuan Chonghuan also killed Mao Wenlong, the general of Dongjiang Town. When Sun Chengzong in Gaoyang heard the news, he was so angry that he almost vomited blood. He never thought that Yuan Chonghuan would be so bold, and he didn't understand what this guy was thinking. Thinking back to the past when Yuan Chonghuan killed the generals of the Liao army and almost caused a mutiny, Sun Chengzong wished that he had dismissed Yuan Chonghuan from his post and investigated him. If he had done so, he would not have led to such consequences.

The kindness of the past, because of his appreciation for talent, did not severely punish Yuan Chonghuan, which eventually led to Mao Wenlong's unjust death at Yuan Chonghuan's hands. How important was Mao Wenlong, and what did Dongjiang Town mean? Could it be that Sun Chengzong didn't know? Or was Sun Chengzong blind and deaf about Mao Wenlong's private smuggling business, which earned him a lot of money through smuggling?
Sun Chengzong turned a blind eye to Mao Wenlong because he understood Mao Wenlong's difficulties. The court only paid a little military pay, and it was a discounted military pay. How could Mao Wenlong support hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians with this little money? If he didn't do some other business to make money, how could he survive by smuggling? Moreover, as long as Mao Wenlong and Dongjiang Town were there, the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong would form a posture of attacking the Jiannu from the east and the west. No matter which direction the Jiannu sent troops, the Ming Dynasty could send troops to attack the Jiannu's retreat at any time, making them afraid to act rashly and unable to concentrate their forces to attack the Ming Dynasty's defense line.

Yuan Chonghuan, how could he not understand such a simple truth that the lips and teeth are cold? After all, Yuan Chonghuan was a Jinshi, an orthodox scholar, could he really not understand it? Sun Chengzong knew Yuan Chonghuan and knew that Yuan Chonghuan attacked Mao Wenlong for two reasons: one was to monopolize power in Liaodong and intend to annex Dongjiang Town. The second reason was that he had his eyes on the smuggling channels in Mao Wenlong's hands and wanted to seize Mao Wenlong's way of making money.

Yuan Chonghuan forgot about the greater good for the sake of small gains. His behavior was a great loss to his relatives and a great pleasure to his enemies. Since then, Sun Chengzong was completely disappointed with Yuan Chonghuan. He felt that he had misjudged Yuan Chonghuan and recommended him wrongly, which led to such a bad result. If Sun Chengzong knew that Yuan Chonghuan had directly lifted the economic blockade against the Jiannu at that time and privately sold a large amount of military rations in Liaodong to Huang Taiji through Mongolia, Sun Chengzong would probably be so angry that he would vomit three liters of blood. He had spent so much effort to blockade Liaodong, but in less than two years, all his arrangements were torn apart by Yuan Chonghuan. So, let alone recovering Liaodong, it would be difficult for him to continue to defend Liaodong.

As expected, a sudden change happened soon after. Huang Taiji bypassed Shanhaiguan and attacked Ming Dynasty from Jizhou. He was unstoppable all the way south and even reached the capital.

The Liaodong battlefield was transferred from Liaodong to the capital region. The war that was originally supposed to take place in Liaodong turned into a war to defend the capital. Not to mention Emperor Chongzhen, even Sun Chengzong was stunned when he learned about such an outcome.

Afterwards, Sun Chengzong was ordered to rush to the capital to take over the battle between the loyalist troops and the Jiannu. It took a lot of effort to expel Huang Taiji from the Ming Dynasty and stabilize the situation. At that time, Sun Chengzong also thought about the possibility of returning to Liaodong as a commander. He planned to reorganize the army after returning to Liaodong, reuse the policies that Yuan Chonghuan had destroyed before, and continue to fight the Jiannu with the old method. As long as he was given time and absolute economic and political support, Sun Chengzong was very confident about this. Unfortunately, Emperor Chongzhen did not trust Sun Chengzong. Not long after, he found a reason to seize Sun Chengzong's military power. Seeing this, Sun Chengzong was completely discouraged and retired again.

"Your Majesty, there is no need to comfort me. It was indeed my fault. Fortunately, Your Majesty is here. After Your Majesty became regent, you first blocked Huang Taiji's attempt to enter the country again at the Great Wall, and then mobilized a large number of troops to completely solve the problem of bandits in the Central Plains. You adjusted national policies, stabilized the local areas, and restored production. After the siege of Jinzhou, you did not easily send troops to reinforce Jinzhou, but implemented the tactic of crossing the sea to the north to attack the rear of the Jiannu. This move is fantastic and I admire you very much. Only Your Majesty can do this in the world. I, an old minister, can never do it."

"Sir, you are too modest. How can I compare with your ability?" Zhu Shenzhui was happy in his heart when he heard it, but he was very modest in his words.

Sun Chengzong said solemnly, "Your Majesty, I am not being modest. I am actually not as good as Your Majesty in commanding troops. To be honest, although I have the ability to lead troops, I am mediocre in the art of commanding troops. All my military operations over the years have been based on the word 'stable'. All my methods have been for stability. If you let me fight this battle, I can't think of a way to cross the sea and attack the north. At best, I can only mobilize troops to start from the Liaoxi battlefield. If I fight like this, I am not sure I can rescue the Jinzhou defenders."

Zhu Shenzhu nodded. Sun Chengzong was right. He was very frank and made a lot of sense. As Sun Chengzong said, if Sun Chengzong fought this battle, he should send heavy troops to advance steadily in the Liaoxi Corridor and finally rescue Jinzhou.

But to do so, a large number of troops must be mobilized, and the commander must be careful not to give Huang Taiji the opportunity. Either besieging the city or cutting off the retreat would result in the failure of the battle. Hong Chengchou used this method in history. According to Hong Chengchou's plan, the army would not have been defeated. Unfortunately, Emperor Chongzhen was too impatient and repeatedly urged Hong Chengchou to advance quickly, which eventually led to the disconnection of the army. Huang Taiji seized the opportunity and cut him off in half, resulting in his defeat and capture.

However, the method Zhu Shenzui used was unusual. Although the troops Zhu Shenzui sent out were small in number, their combat effectiveness was extremely strong. These were the elite new troops on which he relied. In addition, Zheng Hongkui's Zheng family navy was good at fighting this kind of battle. The combination of the two led to the subsequent victory.

It can be said that Zhu Shenzhui adopted a special combat method similar to that of later generations, using a small-scale force to harass the enemy's rear, so as to achieve the goal of Wei to save Zhao. As for the later rebellion of the Zhenglan Banner, it was an accident, and it was precisely because of this accident and the losses caused by Zheng Hongkui, Li You and others in the rear of Liaodong that Huang Taiji had no choice but to withdraw his troops from Jinzhou, thus making his efforts fall short.

(End of this chapter)