In 1661, more than a decade had passed since the fall of the Zhu Ming Dynasty, but there were still troops throughout the country that were still fighting against the rising Qing regime, and Zheng Chenggong's army in the southeast coastal area was undoubtedly the main military force in the late Southern Ming Dynasty.
But also in this year, the Shunzhi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty died and the third son of the Emperor Kangxi ascended to the throne as emperor, in order to eliminate the remnants of Daming's forces, Aobai, who was in power at that time, took the advice of Daming to lower Huang Wu and implemented the "Five Strategies for Ping Thief", forbidding ships to go to sea for twenty miles from Shandong to Guangdong coast, and also ordering the beheading of Zheng Zhilong, the father of Zheng Chenggong.
Zheng Chenggong, who was 39 years old at the time, heard several bad news in Taiwan and fell ill and eventually died suddenly in the military camp, but on his deathbed, he ordered people to kill his wife, son and even grandson! What is the reason for this command that is so disregarding of family affection?
Anti-Qing generals
Zheng Chenggong's ancestral home was in Nan'an, Fujian Province, but he was born in Kyushu, Japan, because his father Zheng Zhilong was a very famous maritime merchant and the leader of the smuggling syndicate on the southeast coast at that time, and he had been active between Japan and China for a long time, and he had as many as 5 wives in his lifetime, zheng chenggong was born to the second wife, Theagawa clan.
With his father Zheng Zhilong being recruited as an official by the Then Zhu Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong was also able to return to China to live and study, Zheng Chenggong was brilliant since childhood, and successfully passed the Middle School Xiucai examination at the age of 14, becoming one of the only twenty high school talents in Nan'an, Fujian Province.
It was also at the moment of his life that Zheng Chenggong was appreciated by local officials, and a few years later he married Dong Yougu, the niece of Dong Biaoxian, who was then a servant of the Fujian Jinshi Ceremonial Department, and Dong Yougu followed Zheng Chenggong all the way to Princess Dong in the future, and gave birth to his eldest son, Zheng Jing, who doted on her son very much, which was also the reason why Zheng Chenggong later ordered the killing of the mother and son.
Later, with the invasion of Beijing by Li Zicheng, the last emperor of the Zhu Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen, committed suicide with his family, and the Zheng family faced an important choice, but the father Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong's intentions were completely different, Zheng Zhilong originally wanted to take Zheng Chenggong and several other sons north to surrender to Qing, but Zheng Chenggong saw that he could not persuade him and left kinmen with some soldiers.
And Zheng Zhilong's surrender did not exchange for favors, on the contrary, he was taken hostage by the Qing army, and Zheng Chenggong's biological mother Tian Chuanshi died in the war of the Qing army, his father was imprisoned and his mother was killed, which made Zheng Chenggong strengthen his determination to oppose the Qing, so he led his father Zheng Zhilong's old department to continue to fight on the southeast coast, becoming one of the few famous anti-Qing generals in the Southern Ming regime at that time.
Family chaos
However, when Zheng Chenggong led his troops to fight against the Qing army on the front line, his family was in turmoil during the period, when Zheng Chenggong was leading soldiers to attack the Dutch to regain Taiwan, so he asked his eldest son Zheng Jing to stay in Xiamen, Fujian Province with his family to ensure the stability of the rear, but Zheng Jing had an improper relationship with his fourth brother Zheng Rui's mother-in-law.
At that time, Zheng Jing's wife Tang Shi was the daughter of the original Ming Dynasty Shangshu Tang Xianyue, and Zheng Jing, who originally had a marriage relationship, should enjoy the pleasures of husband and wife, but the separation life of perennial conquest had long allowed discord between the husband and wife, so in the case of concealing the family, Zheng Jing even gave birth to a son Zheng Kezang with the fourth brother's nursing mother.
Originally, the birth of the eldest grandson was very happy for the family, but Zheng Kezang's birth mother identity was contrary to human morality, and under Zheng Chenggong's governance, not only the military discipline was strict, but the Zheng family was also strict.
Therefore, Zheng Jing did not dare to tell his father the true identity of his eldest grandson, so he had to deceive Zheng Chenggong that he was born of a concubine, although it was not born of Zheng Jingzheng's wife Tang Shi, but it was zheng's flesh and blood after all, which also made Zheng Chenggong feel very happy.
But this matter was finally known to the Tang family, so the Tang family informed his father Tang Xianyue of this scandal, as the father Tang Xianyue was very angry about his daughter's encounter in the Zheng family, so he directly wrote a letter condemning Zheng Chenggong, and Zheng Chenggong, who learned the truth, felt angry and ashamed, so he ordered Zheng Jing to sink the nursing lady into the sea.
However, Zheng Jing pretended to obey, and then asked his mother Princess Dong to help him conceal this matter, and with the help of Princess Dong, the nursing lady and the child disappeared in the hiding of Zheng Chenggong's men, which made Zheng Chenggong, who was fighting on the front line, even more angry, so he sent his brother Zheng Tai to Xiamen to behead his wife, eldest son and grandson!
Zheng Chenggong died suddenly
However, Zheng Chenggong's order was rumored to be to kill all the generals in Xiamen, and for a time the troops stationed in Xiamen were panicked, and in order to save their lives, the soldiers who remained in Xiamen supported Zheng Jing as the Duke of Pingguo and confronted Zheng Chenggong across the strait, all of which made Zheng Chenggong even more angry.
Because at that time, in addition to facing the "Five Strategies of The Peaceful Thief" implemented by Ao bai, Zheng Chenggong also had two pieces of news that struck Zheng Chenggong hard, one was that the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty fled to Burma with the help of the former Generals Li Dingguo and Mu Tianbo to surrender to the Burmese King, but was put under house arrest by the Burmese King and offered to the Ming rebel general Wu Sangui.
Wu Sangui, in order to show his loyalty, executed the Yongli Emperor and his dependents in Burma, and since then the blood of the Zhuming Dynasty has been cut off, which is a major blow to Zheng Chenggong, because the Ming imperial family he served has never returned, which also means that the great cause of reversing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty will be more difficult in the future.
The second is that his father Zheng Zhilong was killed by the Qing army, before Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing army, he was able to survive until now all by Zheng Chenggong and has not surrendered, so the Qing army has been using Zheng Zhilong's identity to lure Zheng Chenggong to surrender, but with the change of the situation, Zheng Zhilong's role is getting smaller and smaller, and in the end he still can't escape the fate of being killed.
Although Zheng Chenggong and his father Zheng Zhilong disagreed and parted ways, but in the end he had a father-son relationship, and at this time he encountered his son Zheng Jing leading a rebellion, all these events made Zheng Chenggong exhausted, even if he had the ambition to restore the Zhu Ming Dynasty, but a series of major blows finally knocked down this famous general.
This is also the reason why Zheng Chenggong also ordered the killing of his wife, eldest son and grandson on his deathbed, as Zheng Chenggong's most trusted family member, not only failed to help himself when he was most desperate, but even stabbed himself in the back when he was fighting on the front line, which accelerated Zheng Chenggong's sudden death.
brief summary:
As a very famous anti-Qing general at the end of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong's life was worthy of the nation, but the background of the war of external and internal troubles made this famous general die suddenly before the age of 40, which is a pity for us.