Wen | against the north
01 Zheng successfully advanced into the Central Plains defeat
In the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, on the river outside the city of Nanjing, which had been peaceful and peaceful for a long time, suddenly densely packed with warships, and it turned out that the Zheng Chenggong clique, which had divided the southern part of Fujian, was unfavorable to attack from land, so they switched to attacking by sea, and they bypassed the Qing army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, first along the coast, then entered from the mouth of the Yangtze River, and directly attacked Nanjing after conquering Zhenjiang and other places.
For a time, the capital was shaken, and the Shunzhi Emperor, who had recently been pro-government, was even ready to march on the imperial conquest.
At this time, Zheng Chenggong accepted the title of king given by the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, so it was naturally regarded by many Jiangnan gentry at that time as the hope of the great cause of "anti-Qing and restoration".
(Zheng Chenggong and his generals in the film and television drama)
Soon, the prefectures of Anhui, Zhejiang and other places announced their submission to Zheng Chenggong's army. Zheng saw that the attack was smooth sailing, and some of them were full of pride, as a result, they did not expect Le Ji to be sad, because his main force was deep and deep, and he stayed under the strong city of Nanjing for a long time, in addition to failing to capture Yangzhou and other key passes on the north bank of the Yangtze River in time, cutting off the possibility of the Qing army cutting off its own retreat.
As a result, under the attack of the Qing army inside and outside the city, Zheng Chenggong's expeditionary army was defeated, and this battle almost destroyed most of the capital since Zheng Chenggong started his own business. After the war, although Zheng Chenggong himself was lucky enough to regain the base area in Fujian, he was disheartened, and his ambition to advance into the Central Plains had to be shelved.
02 Fish in muddy waters could not be achieved, and Zheng Jing was defeated out of Fujian
Zheng's successful defeat in attacking Nanjing also caused a great shock to the Qing Dynasty, which had recently entered the customs. After that, how to eliminate the Zheng clique became a concern for the two emperors of Shunzhi and Kangxi. Later, when they learned that Zheng had successfully expelled the Dutch in Taiwan and obtained a more stable and reliable anti-Qing base, they regarded it as the main threat, so they had extreme measures such as forcibly forcing coastal residents to move inland.
For the Qing dynasty monarchs, if they wanted to completely eliminate the Zheng clique and cut off any possibility of "southern Ming restoration", it was necessary to recover Taiwan. However, the San Francisco Rebellion that Kangxi encountered after he ascended the throne almost lost even the territory south of the Yangtze River. During this turbulent period, the Zheng clique, which divided Taiwan and Penghu, at the "invitation" of San Francisco, sent troops to Minzhong and expanded its territory.
However, as the head of the Zheng clique at this time, Zheng Chenggong's son Zheng Jing did not have much ambition, and he did not want to use his main force to confront the Qing army, but was only satisfied with fishing in muddy waters, taking advantage of the battle between San Francisco and Kangxi to gain some benefits on his own. As for whether these benefits can be saved in the end, he does not hold out much hope — as long as Taiwan is still under his control.
Zheng Jing's hesitation allowed the Kangxi Emperor, who was overwhelmed by the rebellion of San Francisco, to concentrate his forces on dividing and disintegrating the rebels, after which Wu Sangui fell ill and died, and the yunnan army, the strongest of the three domains, was busy fighting for power and profits internally, and no longer drew on the northward advance, and the Qing army took advantage of the situation to counterattack. Faced with the sharp turn of the situation, Zheng Jing had no choice but to hastily withdraw from Fujian, losing his troops and gaining nothing.
After returning to Taiwan, perhaps affected by his previous failures, Zheng Jing became more and more depressed, and it is said that he died of illness due to indulgence in alcohol. After Zheng Jing's death, the competition within the Zheng clique for the high position of King Yanping became fierce again.
03 The Zheng family centrifuged away from Germany, and Shi Lang struck a blow
In order to enhance their political influence, the Zheng family, which divided Taiwan, could only call themselves southern Ming courtiers and did not dare to claim the title of emperor without authorization, which also affected the change of supreme power within them. Zheng Jing had originally favored his eldest son and regarded him as his heir. However, this decision was not affirmed by Zheng Jing's mother, after which his mother, together with Feng Xifan and others who controlled the guard force, assassinated Zheng Jing's eldest son Kezang and replaced him with zheng jing's second son Zheng Kezun as the titular pawn.
The infighting in the Cheng Group will inevitably affect its lower and middle levels. For example, Liu Guoxuan, who controlled the Penghu Archipelago and provided a military barrier to Taiwan, was very dissatisfied with the power of Feng Xifan and others, but he was far away in Penghu and could not quickly rush back to "get a piece of the pie."
The separation between the Zheng family and Zheng Chenggong's old ministry seems to have provided an opportunity for the Kangxi Emperor's political appeasement. The two sides launched marathon negotiations on the issues of the Zheng family abandoning Fengnan Ming Zhengshuo and opening up the Haicheng mutual market, but the Zheng clique believed that there was a strait separated by it and was not willing to make any substantive concessions to the Qing court. In this way, the armed crusade invisibly became the only choice of the Kangxi Emperor.
To recover Taiwan, it needs a capable and reliable person to serve as the commander-in-chief, Kangxi had considered too many personal candidates before, but in the end he still preferred to give priority to ability, and handed over the main force of the water and army to Zheng Chenggong's former general Shi Lang.
Shi Lang followed the Zheng family relatively early, before Zheng Chenggong's father Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing, Shi Lang was his left charge, and later surrendered to his son Zheng Chenggong, fighting against the Qing army in Fujian. As the war dragged on, Zheng Jun's hope of fighting Fujian was slim, and Shi Lang had the heart to change the court. Zheng Chenggong became aware of this and took his family as hostages and forced him to continue fighting with the Qing army. However, Shi Lang's idea was already decided, and in the end, at the cost of his relatives being slaughtered, he and Zheng Chenggong were cut off twice.
After Shi Lang joined the Qing Dynasty camp, he was not taken seriously at first, for many reasons, such as he was once a subordinate of Zheng Chenggong, and he actually abandoned his father and brother for the so-called glory and wealth, but these were not the most important. The most fundamental reason why Shi Lang was slow to be reused was that the Kangxi Emperor had not been on the throne for a long time, his foundation was unstable, and he did not have the energy to carry out the planning and crusade against the Zheng clique in Taiwan.
But now, the situation is completely different, the Zheng clique is fragmented, and the negotiations presided over by Yao Qisheng, the governor of Fujian, have also turned into a dead end, and now is a good opportunity for Shi Lang to show his skills. The Kangxi Emperor knew that he had worked for the Zheng family, was familiar with the Zheng army's fighting methods, and was familiar with water warfare, so he granted him the post of admiral of the water division, hoping that he would end the turmoil in the southeastern sea frontier.
After Shi Lang gained military power, he also felt pressure, because after he changed the court, he had not made any achievements, and Yao Qisheng, the governor of Fujian, out of jealousy, did not want to succeed himself, so in the next attack on Taiwan, he must be foolproof.
In June of the 22nd year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the fleet commanded by Shi Lang suddenly appeared around the Penghu Archipelago. Liu Guoxuan, who was defending Penghu, did not dare to be careless, and also commanded a fleet of ships to cooperate with the defenders on the shore to defend. At first, Shi Lang's attack was unfavorable, and after Shi Lang learned his lesson, he no longer let the fleet all be crowded together, but divided into three teams, and then five warships were organized into a unit, taking advantage of the high tide to approach the coast and capture the fleet attacking Zheng Jun separately.
The Zheng army should have been a sure winner in fighting near the islands controlled by their own side, but they made a very serious mistake, that is, they relied too much on the protection of the defenders on the shore, and dispersed their own forces and fought a passive defense. In contrast, the Qing army not only had a large number of ships and strong firepower, but also repeatedly gathered a superior number of ships to attack the single Zheng army ships near the island.
The fierce battle in the Penghu Islands largely determined how long the Zheng family, which had divided Taiwan, could sustain itself. However, Feng Xifan and others did not reinforce in time, but sat back and watched As Liu Guoxuan's warships fought less and less. In this situation, Liu was depressed and took advantage of the night to leave the front line of commanding the war situation without authorization. Due to the leaderlessness of the dragons, the remnants of the Zheng family's defenders were soon encircled by Shi Lang. Penghu, once relied on by Taiwan as the Great Wall on the Sea, no longer belongs to it, and the Qing warships have arrived at their doorstep.
(Stills from "Kangxi Dynasty")
At this time, if Zheng Ketuan and others dared to give it a go, it was still possible to temporarily extend the life of their own separatist regime, because at that time the Qing army was unstable in Penghu, and because the tide did not rise for a long time, there were many reefs near Taiwan's Luermen harbor, and it was difficult for the Qing army to reach the shore quickly. At this time, if zheng jun counterattacked again, it was not yet known whose hand the deer would die.
However, whether it was Zheng Ketuan, liu Guoxuan or Feng Xifan, they all chose to sit quietly and wait. When the tide rose again a week later, the time was ripe for the Qing fleet to land. Feng Xifan and others thought about how to win the forgiveness of the Qing court in order to preserve their personal glory and wealth.
Shi Lang succeeded, and in just two months, Taiwan was revived by the water army under his command, and the official and public anti-Qing restoration activities were thus brought to an end.
bibliography:
(Qing) Zhang Tingyu et al. History of Ming, Zhonghua Bookstore
(Qing) Wei Yuan' Records of Shengwu, Zhonghua Bookstore
Zhao Erxun et al., Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore