Mao Wenlong (Chinese: 毛文龍; pinyin: Máo Wénlóng; 10 February 1576 – 24 July 1629), courtesy name Zhennan, was a Chinese military general of the Ming dynasty, best known for commanding an independent detachment based in Dongjiang, a strategically important island in the Yellow Sea that defended the coastal corridor into the Ming vassal state Joseon, where he engaged harassing naval and amphibious battles against the Manchu-led Later Jin (which later became the Qing dynasty).
[4] However, in 1619 a new governor named Xiong Tingbi (熊廷弼) was appointed, who ordered Mao to conduct scorched earth operations in border areas in response to increasing Jurchen incursions,[5] allowing him to gain a long-waited promotion the following year.
[6] After Xiong was impeached and removed in political struggles, the new governor Yuan Yingtai (袁應泰) reassigned Mao to manage logistics at the Shanhai Pass, where he gained another promotion for works involving gunpowder production.
[9] His detachment arrived at Zhenjiang (modern day Dandong) on July 14, and attacked the city at night, capturing several Manchu nobles, ambushing and killing the Jurchen commanders who was returning from raids on the surrounding towns.
In June 1622, Mao was appointed the General Commander of the Liao Region (平遼將軍總兵官) by the Ming court,[14] and in February the next year was promoted to Governor and Marshal with a sword of state granted by Tianqi Emperor as proof of authority.
Mao's divisions also managed gain a foothold on the southern Liaodong Peninsula, recruiting over 4,000 militiamen from the refugees[20] and successfully recapturing the towns of Jīnzhou and Lüshun and large quantities of Later Jin weaponries.
[27] In January 1625, Wu Zhiwang (武之望), the Governor of the Deng-Lai, appealed to have a canal built between Jīnzhou and Lüshun, and pressured the local garrisons to start the construction project without considering the military situation.
[28] The news got leaked to the Later Jin, who attacked and captured the two towns, killing Mao's commanders Zhang Pan (張盤) and Zhu Guochang (朱國昌) who were in charge of the canal construction.
[30] However, Governor Wu took the opportunity to send in his own men into Lüshun and claimed the achievements for himself, but withdrew from the garrison in winter in fear of another Jurchen attack and suggested to the Ming court to abandon defense altogether.
Hong Taiji changed his father's way of ruling to a more ethnically tolerant policy and started recruiting Han Chinese into the ranks of Later Jin, which helped solidifying the Jurchens' control of Lower Manchuria and thus reduced the success rate of Mao's raids.
[50] Hong Taiji immediately organized a raid through the Yan Mountains later that year, completely circumventing Yuan's heavily invested Shanhai Pass-Ningyuan-Jinzhou defensive line.
This attack, known as the Jisi Incident, was the first time the Later Jin forces successfully invaded the North China Plain, with the Jurchens ransacking and looting virtually unchallenged to the outskirts of Beijing.
[53][54] The matter of the Mao Wenlong affair was however brought up again months later after the humiliating Jisi Incident, and became a major factor for Yuan's own impeachment, prosecution and execution by a thousand cuts the following year.
He was eventually caught for smuggling and executed by Yuan Chonghuan, a fellow military commander who had been conferred the imperial sword of absolute authority by the last Ming emperor.