Although China's history developed to the Ming Dynasty, it can no longer be compared with the strong and prosperous Han Dynasty and the brilliant Tang Dynasty, but at that time, it was still a big country that could not be underestimated in the world at that time.
In particular, the invention of navigation technology and firearms is second to none in the world.
From 1405 to 1433, the navigator Zheng He sent seven missions to the "Western" countries on the orders of Ming Chengzu to "show that China is rich and strong" in foreign countries, in order to force Southeast Asian countries to pay tribute to Ming and proclaim national prestige to the world.
Among them, the number of people who went to the West for the seventh time, according to the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yunming's "Former Wenji • Xia Xiyang" record, there were 27,550 people in official schools, flag troops, fire chiefs, helmsmen, class stalkers, general servants, officework, bookmakers, healers, iron anchors and other craftsmen, sailors, and civil servants.
What a huge fleet!
Unfortunately, on the seventh voyage, Zheng He died of illness in the middle of the way, making the Ming Dynasty fleet in the South China Sea a masterpiece.
Since then, the once noisy South China Sea has disappeared from the official ships of the Ming Dynasty, and some are only the sails of pirate groups large and small.
Pirate leaders who frequently operated on the southeast coast of China in the late Ming Dynasty included Chen Zuyi, Wang Zhi, Shi He, Xu Hai, Xu Xinsu, Zheng Zhilong and others.
Almost contemporaneous with Zheng He, Westerners also became interested in the ocean, and they also began the Great Navigation Movement.
This activity began in 1415 when the Portuguese crossed the Strait of Gibraltar, and although their small boats at that time were very different from Zheng He's huge fleet, they had a good start after all.
With christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World in 1492, the vast ocean became noisy and the South China Sea became lively.
In 1588, a small state was established in Europe called the Dutch United Provinces, which was the first country in the world to "give full political rights to the merchant class".
Although the country was not completely free from Spanish rule after its founding (Spain did not formally recognize Dutch independence until 1648), it developed maritime trade very quickly.
Because it is a merchant who wants to do business, it is necessary to constantly open up the sea route at sea. In 1602, the Dutch United East India Company was founded, and since then, their business has been done all over the world.
In 1604, the Dutch captured Penghu with two warships, and the Ming Dynasty general Shi Dezheng sent Dusi Shen Yourong to lead the troops to drive them away.
In 1622, the Dutch, with seven warships and 900 men, once again occupied Penghu and blockaded Zhangzhou Bay, making it impossible for the Ming army to move.
The Ming government saw that it was powerless to deal with the Dutch, so it recruited the pirate Zheng Zhilong and asked him to deal with the Dutch.
Since dutch colonial expansion also threatened the living space of pirates, Zheng Zhilong agreed to cooperate with the Ming army.
In 1623, Zheng Zhilong attacked the Dutch fleet, after which the Ming Dynasty besieged Penghu with 200 warships and more than 10,000 people, and finally after 7 months of bitter fighting, spending 170,000 taels of military expenses to finally expel the Dutch.
The Dutch could not stay in Penghu, so they landed in southern Taiwan in 1624, while the Spanish also landed on the island of Taiwan in 1626.
However, due to the Ming Dynasty's adherence to the policy of sea ban, the Netherlands was still unable to conduct normal trade with China. If you don't trade, there will be no profit, and if you don't make a profit, you will sit on the mountain and eat the sky.
The Dutch merchants who had been waiting for several years finally couldn't hold back, and the negotiations were not good, so let's open the way.
On October 22, 1633, the Battle of Fernsawan finally broke out.
At this time, the Ming Dynasty was the Chongzhen period, and due to large-scale peasant uprisings in the inland, the imperial court's army was repeatedly defeated, and it was only 11 years after Chongzhen was hanged on the coal mountain and the Ming Dynasty fell.
This time it was a sea battle, the main opponent was still the Westerners, could they win this battle?
Zheng Zhilong's fleet and Putmans' fleet encountered each other in the area of Shiluo Bay south of Kinmen, and the Ming Dynasty sailors dispatched 50 large warships and 100 fireships, the Dutch fleet 8 sailing ships, and pirates (leader Liu Xiang) 50 large and small sailing ships.
Although the Ming Dynasty had a large number of ships, the equipment was too big compared to the Dutch.
This time, the Dutch giant ships did not participate in the battle, and most of the battleships involved in the battle were small armed and commercial dual-purpose warships, and the number of soldiers carried by each ship was about 10, and the number of sailors was 40-60.
The last of these warships to participate in the Battle of Narok Bay consisted of eight dual-purpose warships, which were flanked by single-decker side-mounted guns, two guns at the bow and 4 guns on the stern, with a total of 26-30 guns for heavy cannons, and 8-10 guns on the deck, with a total number of guns below 40.
In the Ming Dynasty", it is recorded that the firepower equipment of the Dafu ship is: 1 Hongyi cannon at the bow, 6 Thousand Jin Flang machines, 3 bowl mouth guns, 20 thunder cannons, 60 spray canisters, 10 Lumi guns, 500 crossbow arrows, 10 gunpowder crossbows, 300 rockets, and 100 fire bricks. It was staffed with 64 crews, 9 sailors and 55 warriors.
In terms of weapon advancement, the only weapon that can reach the same level as the Dutch is only one Hongyi cannon on each ship.
During the battle, the combined Dutch-Liu Xiang fleet opened a defensive formation centered by Dutch warships and scattered pirate ships.
The Ming fleet was deployed in the southeast corner of The Luo Bay, with Zheng Zhilong's troops as the vanguard, and Shundongfeng adopted the tactics of two-way assault and black tiger digging out of the heart.
Before the war, Zheng Zhilong's reward for soldiers was: "Burn the Dutch ship to get 200 taels of silver, and obtain a Dutch head to get 50 taels of silver", under the heavy reward there will be brave men, so the morale of the Ming army is unprecedentedly high.
According to the prior arrangement, the main ships of the Ming Army, as soon as the war began, all went straight to the Dutch fleet, and only used auxiliary troops to deal with pirate ships. At the same time, they adopted a style of play never seen by the Dutch in the European battlefield, which was something they learned from the Battle of Chibi, that is, the use of fire tactics.
Those 100 small boats are actually all fire boats. With a command, under the cover of the large ship's artillery, a hundred fire ships swarmed up and hooked up to ignite.
After the Ming army's fire attack ship collided with the Dutch ship, it was immediately ignited, instantly turning into a wall of fire and ending up with the Dutch ship. At this time, Putmans realized that the Chinese fleet did not follow the routine, and this batch of fire attack ships had come to accompany him.
But by the time he realized it, it was too late, for the boat had been taped like a plaster.
According to the "Diary of Batavia City", a historical record of various activities in Taiwan during the Dutch rule over Taiwan, the Ming army in the Battle of Luowan captured 84 Dutchmen, beheaded five, captured 2 Dutch blonde beauties, 1 servant, and 19 pirates at the cost of 86 soldiers killed, for a total of 106 people.
Putmans, the leader of the Dutch fleet, was lucky enough to retrieve a life and broke through and fled.
The Chongzhen Emperor, who was already exhausted on land, but his Shubian generals achieved an unprecedented victory in the battle against the Westerners at sea, and smeared a beautiful sunset for this empire in the dusk.
Resources:
History of the Ming Dynasty, Qing Zhang Tingyu
"The End of the Ming Chronicle" Qing Gu Yingtai
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