Not to mention the right and wrong of Mao and Yuan Chonghuan, not to mention the truly well-documented record of Yuan Chonghuan in history (as evidenced by his head). Not to mention Mao's achievements in the Eastern Front (if you are interested, you can check the beheading results of Lushun Defence War (divided into two stages, the first stage is guarding the city and the second stage is field battle), and then compare it with the "Ningjin Victory")
If you are the commander of a gateway fortress, such as Shanhaiguan and Tongguan. With the terrain of "building a strong city with guns", of course, you can keep the enemy out of the country, no matter how attractive the other side is, as long as you don't attack. However, combined with the terrain in western Liaoning, it is absolutely impossible for one person not to fight, and the so-called "building a city with guns" is absolutely impossible.
The terrain of the western Liaoning corridor is long and thin, with the narrowest part being more than ten kilometers. In the late Ming Dynasty, the defense in western Liaoning was actually a fortress group full of fortresses.
This is different from the traditional gateway (such as the gateway between the northwest and Shanxi). For example, Shahuguan in Shanxi is actually a vast no-man's land outside. The Ming army usually went to the grassland for fire prevention in autumn to destroy the grassland and isolate the supplies of the Mongolian invaders. Inside Shanhaiguan pass are farmers and military households of the Han nationality. There are mountains on both sides of the pass, and the army can't get around it at all. Therefore, as long as the gate is blocked, the Ming army is basically invincible.
The fortress in western Liaoning is completely closed except the Great Wall of Shanhaiguan. Other blockades can actually be bypassed geographically. But it is impossible militarily, because if you go around, the troops stationed in the fortress will threaten your grain route, so you can either attack it or send more troops to surround it (see the examples of Zu Dashou and Zhao Lvjiao). If we surround every fortress, the number of troops in the Manchu dynasty is simply not enough. But if you want to seal the city gate like Yuan's "building a city with guns", you won't send troops anyway (in fact, he did give an order, but for the auxiliary soldiers who attacked the other side's traffic in violation of the order when the Qing army retreated, it is estimated that "Ningjin Victory" will also become a decapitated "victory" in China history except "Ningyuan Victory", so you will lose the food that contains the other side.
Therefore, militarily speaking, it is absolutely impossible to achieve the goal of defense in western Liaoning without an army that dares to fight in the field at least with superior forces.
In addition, military households and farmers in western Liaoning are farming in villages and military towns outside the city. How can "building a city with artillery" evacuate people, materials and even the grain to be harvested in the field like "building a city" before the arrival of the mobile Ma Army in the late Jin Dynasty? Don't sit and watch Houjin burn, kill and rob?
Finally, in history, no army has ever won a battle by the tortoise method of "building a city with artillery". The so-called "skill of entering the building" in the war between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Summer Song Dynasty was not to avoid the field battle. In fact, on the frontal battlefield, Song Jun is often the winner. The purpose of "entering the building" is to prevent the powerful cavalry of the other side from attacking the route for providing foodstuff in Song Jun (in fact, in the history of the Five Dynasties, Dingnan Army blocked Liang Jun with the high wall of Tongwan City, and the Tangut "kite" cut off the route for providing foodstuff, and finally repelled100000 Liang Jun). Song Jun's practice is, on the one hand, to build forts, and only let the trench team walk for one day between every two forts, so as to ensure that the trench team will not be attacked by night. Secondly, the garrison troops can send troops to help the grain team attacked by Xixia Right Banner. Therefore, the technique of "entering the building" is a tactic to ensure logistics based on the ability of frontal field operations, which is essentially different from Yuan's motive of "building a city by relying on guns" to avoid field operations.
I feel that the more historical materials are involved, the more I should read them with suspicion.
For example, Han Biaozhou was a good prime minister of the Northern Expedition in history. Historically, it was what Yue Fei did when he was in office that gave Yue Fei an ordinary name, posthumous title "Wu Mu". In addition, he also donated 200,000 yuan to support the Northern Expedition (worse than the stone that assassinated him). As a result, because he defined Neo-Confucianism as pseudoscience, he was included in the biography of treacherous court official by later Neo-Confucianism disciples.
The Ming history written by the adherents of Lindong Fushe has its own limitations. Coupled with the literary inquisition in the Qing Dynasty and the four revisions made by Kangxi Qianlong after the book was written, I think the history of the Ming Dynasty is basically discredited, at least in the content related to the Northeast War.
In contrast, I think Ji's Next Season's Beilue is much more credible.
Ps: Actually, Liaodong was not involved in time, and the history of the Ming Dynasty was not so good. For example, about Yan Song, Ming Shi quoted Wang Shizhen's Biography of Historical Records and Yan Song since Jiajing.
As a history book, compilers usually refer to the words of various factions, conduct on-the-spot investigations, and draw conclusions after consulting villagers. Up to Sima Qian's "Historical Records" and down to the same period's "A Brief Introduction to the North in the Next Season", it was written in this way. It is absolutely not objective enough to take only one view like Ming History.
And you know, Wang Shizhen and Yan Song are enemies. Yan Song's description in The Complete Biography of Historical Records since Jiajing is not objective. For example, it was common for Zaifu to be impeached by Yushi at that time. Wang Shizhen wrote several records-Zhang Cong, Xia Yan, Zhai Luan and Xu Jie, all of whom were impeached. Zhang Cong was attacked more than 100 times, much more than Yan Song was "disintegrated". His Biography of Zhang Cong didn't give an example. The Biography of Yan Song quotes more than ten cases, which is the first case of impeachment cited in the biography.
Finally, Wang Shizhen, the suspected author of Jin Ping Mei, has a very problematic attitude towards history.
There is a saying that Xu Da has carbuncle on his back and doesn't eat fish. Zhu Yuanzhang gave him carp, which caused Xu Da to fall ill and die. The day after his death, Zhu Yuanzhang also cried at the cat and mouse.
This sentence comes from Wang Shizhen. To tell the truth, even any reader at that time (including now) knew that Xu Da died in Beijing and Zhu Yuanzhang was emperor in Nanjing. The idea of "giving people fish" is absolutely impossible. This absolutely impossible rumor is written in the notes, which shows Wang Shizhen's attitude towards history.
As a result, Wang Shizhen's articles are quoted throughout the Ming History, which shows what attitude the editors of Ming History have towards history.