Yuan Keli, courtesy name Liqing, was from Suizhou, Guide Prefecture, Henan Province.

His ancestor Yuan Rong was granted the hereditary title of centurion of Suiyang Guard because of his meritorious service in the wars fought by Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the Wei Suo system existed in name only, and the Yuan family gave up their military household status and embarked on the path of imperial examinations.

In the 17th year of Wanli, Yuan Keli passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi. In April of the 2nd year of Tianqi, he was appointed as the governor of Denglai as the Right Censor-in-Chief.

Before Governor Yuan Keli arrived in Denglai, 90% of Liaodong had fallen into the hands of the Jiannu, and the Ming army could only rely on the Guanningjin Defense Line to hold its ground.

(Guan: Shanhaiguan, Ning: Ningyuan, Jin: Jinzhou.)

After Governor Yuan Keli arrived in Lai, he coordinated with Sun Chengzong, Li Banghua, Bi Ziyan, Mao Wenlong, Shen Yourong, Zhang Pan and others to attack instead of defend.

(Yuan Keli was in charge of the overall situation, Sun Chengzong was responsible for containment in the Ningjin area, Li Banghua and Bi Ziyan were responsible for logistics, Mao Wenlong, Shen Yourong, and Zhang Pan were responsible for front-line operations.)

Yuan Keli first built warships, and then used Qi Jiguang's method of training the navy for land warfare to train the navy.

In just a few years, 4,000 warships were built, and there were 50,000 naval officers and soldiers who were good at land warfare (the predecessor of the Denglai New Army).

He served as the governor of Denglai from the second year of the Tianqi reign to left office in May of the fourth year of the Tianqi reign.

Yuan Keli used landing operations to not only recover the entire southern Liaoning (Liaodong Peninsula), but also successfully instigated Nurhaci's son-in-law Liu Xingzuo to rebel.

In particular, the navy engaged in landing operations took advantage of the complex terrain in southern Liaoning and fought seven major battles, winning all seven.

The Ming army fought hundreds of small battles and rarely suffered defeat.

Nurhaci and the Eight Banners soldiers were so beaten that they began to question their lives.

Internal documents of the Ming Dynasty called this an unprecedented victory since the establishment of the town.

With Sun Chengzong's Guanning Army in front and Yuan Keli's navy behind, Nurhaci, attacked from both sides, had no choice but to give up the attack and resort to defensive tactics.

The situation in Liaodong is turning towards the Ming Dynasty!

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but...

There was chaos within the Ming court.

Yuan Keli's best friend Gao Panlong was persecuted to death.

At the same time, he was impeached by the censors on the charge of "working in vain".

In order to avoid internal friction and constraints, Yuan Keli decided to resign.

Tianqi was still good at judging people and did not allow him to leave his post.

After his resignation was rejected several times, the treacherous officials in the court began to make things difficult for Yuan Keli and the Denglai Navy in various ways, and Tianqi had no choice but to approve it.

Immediately following.

In the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, Ma Shilong, the general of Shanhaiguan recommended by Sun Chengzong, was defeated in the Battle of Liuhe due to incorrect intelligence, resulting in more than 400 casualties.

At that time, the Guanning Army had 75,000 combat soldiers, and the total number of garrison troops was as high as 140,000.

In theory, four hundred deaths and injuries should not be a big deal.

In order to overthrow Sun Chengzong, treacherous officials in the court declared that the 100,000 Liao troops were completely wiped out and impeached Sun Chengzong for plotting rebellion.

Sun Chengzong was already disappointed with the situation in the court, and Tianqi asked him to cut down the army in order to save money, so he resigned in anger (strictly speaking, he was forced to resign).

After Yuan Keli and Sun Chengzong left office, General Shen Yourong became disheartened and resigned with them.

The morale of the Guanning Army and the Denglai Navy was low.

Then.

General Zhang Pan was killed in the Battle of Nanguan, and Mao Wenlong was lured and killed by Yuan Chonghuan.

The entire situation in Liaodong took a sharp turn for the worse until it completely collapsed during the Ji Si Rebellion.

Look at the big picture.

When Yuan Keli was in office, the Ming army defeated the Jiannu and even had the potential to recapture Liaodong.

After he left office, the Ming army was passive in every aspect. Not only did they not dare to take the initiative to attack, but even their defensive battles were defeated again and again. Their manpower was gradually eroded by the Jiannu until there were no soldiers left.

The situation before and after is completely different, which shows how important Yuan Keli's role was.

In order to conceal this history, the Qing Dynasty did not write biographies of Yuan Keli, Mao Wenlong and Liu Xingzuo.

Later, they completely fell out and simply used literary inquisition to completely ban Yuan Keli.

During the Qianlong period, literary inquisition was rampant and all books and articles related to Yuan Keli were banned.

Yue Fei had a similar experience. In the fourth year of Yongzheng's reign, Yue Fei was removed from the temple, and Guan Yu was demoted in favor of Yue Fei.

(The Martial Temple was abolished during the Hongwu reign. In the 33rd year of the Wanli reign, Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty named Guan Yu as Guan Sheng Emperor and Yue Fei as Yue Sheng Emperor, and built a temple to worship them together. During the Qing Dynasty, the Martial Temple was restored, and Guan Yu was invited into the Martial Temple. Guan and Yue were no longer worshipped together.)

"Yuan Keli..." Chongzhen gently read out the name of this veteran of four dynasties.

His strategy for pacifying Liao can be simply summarized in eight words: landing operations and attacking instead of defending.

The biggest advantage of attacking instead of defending is to seize the initiative and shift the battlefield.

Especially shifting the battlefield.

From an economic perspective, when the war is brought to enemy land, it is the enemy's people who are affected, but the impact on one's own people is minimal.

The more brutal the war is, the greater the impact on the other side, and the tighter the supplies such as food will become.

This method of letting my friends die rather than letting myself die is actually the best strategy!

pity.

In the sixth year of Chongzhen's reign, a mutiny broke out in Denglai. Yuan Keli died of exhaustion after hearing the news.

Fan Jingwen asked in a low voice: "Your Majesty, do you think Yuan Keli's strategy of pacifying Liao is feasible?"

"It's feasible," Chongzhen nodded without hesitation.

Then he frowned again.

It is feasible, but the problem seems to be back to the original point.

If you want to pacify Liao, you have to use the navy marines. Huang Fei’s navy does not currently have this capability, so you have to find a way to train it.

And when the fight really breaks out, we have to consider off-field factors.

For example, Zheng Zhilong.

No one can guarantee whether he will participate in the war, or what his attitude will be after joining the war.

Fan Jingwen saw Chongzhen's doubts and whispered, "Your Majesty, please don't be impatient. I just said that after I became the Prime Minister, I did not want to pacify Liao, but to prepare for the pacification of Liao."

"Yeah," Chongzhen responded, and the two chatted for a while, then Fan Jingwen stood up and said goodbye.

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