Zheng Chenggong's father, Zheng Zhilong, was a maritime businessman and, to be precise, the leader of a maritime smuggling syndicate.
Zheng Zhilong married a total of 5 wives in his lifetime, and his second wife is more special, a Japanese named Tagawa Clan, she was known by Zheng Zhilong when he went to Japan to do trade.
Because the Japanese authorities attached great importance to Zheng Zhilong at that time, they not only arranged a residence for him in Japan, but also gave him many rewards, and marrying the Tagawa clan was naturally a measure for them to win Zheng Zhilong over.
Zheng Chenggong was the son of the Tagawa clan and Zheng Zhilong, who was born in Japan
He also lived in Japan until the age of six, and later Zheng Zhilong accepted the Ming Dynasty's offer and became an official of the Ming Court, and took his wife and children back to his hometown of Fujian Province.
After returning to China, Zheng successfully received a traditional Confucian education.
After the Qing army entered the customs, the Ming court moved south to establish the Southern Ming regime, and the Southern Ming Yongli Emperor named Zheng Zhilong as the Southern Amber, responsible for organizing the forces of the whole province of Fujian to resist the Qing army.
After the Ming and Tang kings Zhu Yujian became the little emperor of Nanming, zheng Zhilong was made the Marquis of Nan'an, leading all the affairs of Nanming, and when the Qing army marched into Fujian, Zheng Zhilong planned to surrender, and Zheng Chenggong's persuasion was fruitless.
Watching his father obsessed, Zheng Chenggong was indignant, ran to Nan'ao Island in a huff, and recruited thousands of soldiers to resolutely resist the Qing army.
Zheng Chenggong's move won the support of many people, and his ranks grew larger, and later he joined forces with the anti-Qing general Zhang Huangyan, and for a time the momentum was like a rainbow.
Under Zheng Chenggong's plan, their troops went north in two ways, all the way to the city of Nanjing, but they did not succeed in their plans to fall under the false surrender of the Qing army, and as a result, they were defeated and had to return to Xiamen.
At this time, Zheng Chenggong had realized the great disparity between the enemy and us, and planned to retake the treasure island of Taiwan, which was occupied by the Dutch, as a base for anti-Qing and restoration.
Zheng successfully recovered Taiwan and became a national hero, but he died violently at the age of 39
So did he die of illness or was he poisoned by his own son?
Let's take a look.
Zheng successfully recovered Taiwan
It is said that after Zheng successfully attacked Nanjing and lost his return to Xiamen, after his careful consideration, he hit the idea on the island of Taiwan.
However, at this time, Taiwan was occupied by the Dutch, and it was not easy to retake Taiwan.
Zheng Chenggong naturally knew the degree of difficulty in this, coupled with the advanced weapons of the Dutch and the geographical advantage, even if he wanted to conquer Taiwan, he could only think in the long run.
Just when Zheng Chenggong was hesitating, an uninvited guest rushed to Xiamen and asked to see Zheng Chenggong.
The name of the person who came was He Tingbin,
The purpose of his coming was to persuade Zheng to successfully recover Taiwan.
Of course, he did not come empty-handed, and he brought Zheng Chenggong a map of the military strength of the Dutch invading army in Taiwan.
At this time, there are small partners to ask, why can He Tingbin know the military arrangements of the Dutch army?
This is because He Tingbin had worked as a translator in the Dutch invading army, so he knew the situation of the Dutch army on the island of Taiwan.
With this map, Zheng Chenggong was overjoyed, and without saying a word, immediately ordered his son Zheng Jing to lead a part of the army to stay in Xiamen
He himself, with 25,000 soldiers, set out from Kinmen in hundreds of warships to attack the island of Taiwan.
After many fierce battles, after nearly a year,
Finally driving the Dutch invading army out of the island of Taiwan, Zheng successfully recovered Taiwan
He has ended the situation of the division of the motherland and safeguarded the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the motherland, so he is a veritable national hero.
Zheng Chenggong died violently
Occupying the island of Taiwan, Zheng Chenggong naturally had a base for opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty, and even if it was unfavorable to go north, it also gave him the confidence to cultivate obscurity, which made him feel angry.
But what people didn't expect was that
Zheng Chenggong had no chance to realize his great ambitions, and after more than five months of recovering Taiwan, he suddenly died violently
, at the age of 39.
Zheng Chenggong's death was sudden, according to historical records, he died on June 23, 1662 (the eighth day of the fifth lunar month), and he fell ill on the first day of May.
That is to say, Zheng Chenggong only had seven days from the onset of illness to his death, and he was in his prime at the time, and this sudden death was difficult to understand.
Even more surprising is that in
The records of his death in the historical records are also very brief, and there are still different statements in these brief records
This makes it difficult to determine what the historical truth of Zheng Chenggong's strange death is.
Two of the most widely circulated statements are,
One is an acute illness, and the other is poisoning
。
The mystery of Zheng Chenggong's death
The "Zheng Chenggong" written by the Qing Dynasty scholar Wang Zhonglin said this:
On the eighth day of the first month of May, Gengchen, on the stage, the crown belt invited Taizu out, made a bed into the wine to read, to the third frame, sighed: What is the face of the former emperor in the underground, and passed away with both hands covering his face.
Judging from this record, we have found no abnormality, which seems to be a natural death caused by inner grief and anger, but this is inconsistent with Zheng Chenggong's age, after all, he is only 39 years old, even if he is sad and angry, he will not die because of this.
Li Guang, a contemporary of Zheng Chenggong, once said:
Ma Xin recommended a doctor, thinking that he had heat stroke, cast a cool agent, and died late.
From this record, we can know that Zheng Chenggong was indeed ill before his death, and the illness was not light, and within a few days, the condition continued to deteriorate, and even the doctors could not see what disease he had.
Later generations speculated that if Zheng Chenggong really died of illness, perhaps falciparum malaria, tuberculosis, and influenza were all possible.
But
Before Zheng Chenggong's death, he had issued an extremely incredible order, that is, to behead his son Zheng Jing, Zheng Jing's nursing mother Chen Shi, Zheng Jing's birth mother Dong Shi, and others.
The cause is that Zheng Jing is extremely improper, his relationship with his nursing mother Chen Shi is very abnormal, and he also gave birth to a white fat boy.
Zheng Chenggong could not accept his son's chaos, so he gave such an order, but his subordinates
This order was not carried out until Zheng Chenggong's sudden death.
What is even more puzzling is that
Ma Xin, who had recommended a doctor to Zheng Chenggong, also died suddenly the day after Zheng Chenggong's death (another said to be the fifth day).
According to Zheng Chenggong's performance of epilepsy poisoning before his death, this points out the biggest possibility for us, Zheng Chenggong was poisoned, and Ma Xin and his recommended doctors should be directly involved in it.
There is also such a record in the "Chronicle of minhai":
Du Duhong adhered to the principle of dispensing medicines to advance, and was thrown to the ground by Zheng Chenggong, and then he was immediately touched and shouted.
This record shows that it is very likely that Zheng Successfully discovered that the medicine was poisonous, so he would have such an action, but unfortunately, he was already deeply poisoned at that time, and there was no medicine to save.
After Zheng Chenggong's death, Zheng Jing took Zheng Chenggong's place, and he did not investigate the cause of his father's death, so
This series of perverse points out the greatest possibility that Zheng Jing is the mastermind behind Zheng Chenggong's violent death.
So which do you think is likely to be the biggest?
References: "Zheng Chenggong", "History of Ming", "Chronicles of Minhai", etc.
(Figure net, invasion and deletion)