In June 1661, just as Zheng Chenggong was confronting the Dutch in Taiwan, a major event occurred on tongshan island controlled by the Ming Zheng regime, that is, the rebellion of Xuanyi Left Town Wanyi and Right Chong Town Wanlu.
These two people launched a rebellion in early June, colluded with Huang Wu and Xu Longbu Qing troops, and with them Zhongkuang Bo Zhang Jin, who was guarding Tongshan Island, saw the disparity between the enemy and us on the island, so he secretly asked Xiamen for help, and at the same time coaxed Wanlu Wanyi to say that he had already tried to submit to the Qing Dynasty, let these two people come to his bedroom to talk about the qing, and at the same time placed dozens of barrels of gunpowder in his bedroom, preparing to die with these two traitors, as a result, the two traitors were too suspicious and refused to enter Zhang Jin's bedroom, Zhang Jin sighed and lit gunpowder. After a heroic martyrdom, Wan Lu Wanyi led a total of 4,400 troops and tens of thousands of family members to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, and by the time the crusading army of Zhongyong Bo Chen Bao landed on the island, the two traitors had already fled.
Portrait of Zheng Chenggong.
Zhang Jin is also a veteran general in the Ming Zheng army, in the second half of 1646, when Zheng Chenggong officially started the army, there were about 90 brave soldiers to follow, Zhang Jin was one of them, by 1661, Zhang Jin had followed the guo surname Ye to fight for Daming for 15 years, but at this time because of two traitors lost their lives, which is undoubtedly a sad thing.
In addition to the Tongshan Island Rebellion, after the reconquest of Taiwan, there was also the Chen Leopard Incident within Ming Zheng" (1662) In March, Zhou Quanbin dispatched Tongshan and SimingZhou troops to attack Southern Guangdong in an attempt to capture Chen Bao. The leopard is short and fierce, the number is "three feet Chen", and has been guarding Yue for nearly twenty years, and Xu Long and Su Li are afraid of it. The leopard is proud and arrogant, and several violations of the orders of the clan. When the soldiers arrived, the pawns led the crowd to move off the ship, and did not dare to meet the enemy very much. Yang Fan entered Guangdong and surrendered, and was named Mu Huabo. Soon after, he died of the plague. ”
The battle to recover Taiwan was actually launched by Zheng Chenggong under the condition that most of the generals did not agree and only a few people supported it, because the degree of development of Taiwan in the 17th century was actually very low, and it was impossible to provide the tens of thousands of Zheng troops with due supplies, so during the entire siege war, the non-combat attrition of the Zheng army was very serious.
Zheng Chenggong who plays chess.
We said before that Zheng Chenggong's personality was not very good, because of family feuds: his mother was killed, his father was coaxed north by the Qing court, national hatred: the demise of the Longwu regime, the recognition of his own Longwu Emperor died at the hands of the Qing army, coupled with some factors in the war situation, Zheng Chenggong's personality became more and more extreme, grumpy, and more arbitrary in his style of acting, always punishing criminal subordinates with extremely cruel means. The "Mei's Diary" finally has a description of the national surname Ye: "I guess he is about forty years old, his skin is slightly white, his face is straight, his eyes are big and black, and when the eyes are rarely stationary, they keep flashing everywhere." The mouth is often open, and there are four or five long, rounded teeth in the mouth. The beard is not much, and it is long and chest-length. He spoke in a very harsh voice, roaring and agitated, and spoke in strange movements, as if he were going to fly with his hands and feet. ”
Naval battles in the seas of Zeelandia.
Regarding some of his behavior, you can give some examples, such as Wu Fang in the Shi Lang incident. Shi Lang was actually arrested on the eve of defection and handed over to Zhongding Bolin Xishan to be imprisoned, Lin Xishan ordered his deputy general Wu Fang to guard Shi Lang, one day someone came to falsely spread Zheng Chenggong's order, saying that he wanted to take the prisoner Shi Lang away for interrogation, Wu Fang did not doubt, took a few people to escort Shi Lang to the shore, as a result, Shi Lang and the false messenger found a secluded place to beat Wu Fang and several escort soldiers, and then fled to Su Mao's home, Zheng Chenggong heard about this, he was furious, and first wanted to kill Lin Xishan, There was no killing, probably someone pleaded for mercy, then he took his deputy general, killed all five of Wu Fang's wife and children, and then forced Wu Fang to pursue Shi Lang again, the result of course was that he did not chase, and Wu Fang was locked up as a criminal general. I have to say that this method is indeed too extreme, Wu Fang is just a deputy general, and he is not intent on letting the rebel general Shi Lang escape, and as a result, the whole family is killed.
Zheng Chenggong seated statue.
There is also Su Mao, this person we said before, that is, the general of the Zheng Army who was defeated in the Battle of Jieyang, may have a better relationship with Shi Lang, so he hid him in his home, but he was not punished for this matter, and later because of the defeat of Jieyang, zheng was killed by Zheng Chenggong, it is reasonable to say that this matter is actually not too much wrong, after all, Su Mao said "I am not victorious before the war, I am willing to follow the military orders", but Jiang Risheng recorded in the "Taiwan Foreign Chronicle" that "Mao Yin indulged Shi Lang, successfully detected, long-cherished, and wanted to kill for no reason." Nowadays, there are occasional losses of the Sun, and this is the way to cut it off. The generals did not know why, and Xian had a slight word: On the defeat of Mao Jieyang, it is nothing but providence; is it a crime of war? Although he did not follow Guo Suidi's words, his qi could swallow the enemy, so why should he die? It is difficult to enumerate the achievements of mao and is not comparable to others. Isn't it chilling that the lord of the clan travels like this? It can be seen that in the Zheng army at that time, there were still many people who were dissatisfied with Su Mao's killing, and on the eve of Huang Wu's defection, zheng chenggong was also said to be "mean and widowed".
Cheng's army in Taiwan.
At the time of the attack on Taiwan, more and more people in the Ming and Zheng armies were killed by Zheng Chenggong, such as Wu Hao, who we mentioned earlier, this person did not die before the attack on Taiwan, but in May 1661, the crime was "tossing the people of Taiwan silver two, stealing millet stone criminals", and by December, Yang Chaodong, who had originally approved of Zheng Chenggong's attack on Taiwan, was also killed because of "small fights and scattered grain", the whole family was planted, and at the same time, zhu Jing of Wannian County, was killed, so "the people were afraid, and the generals disintegrated", and even the Dutch recorded Zheng Chenggong." Many people are often executed". It can be seen that Zheng Chenggong's methods of the emperor, although there are some remarkable points in the early days, such as the surrender of Yao Guotai, but on the whole it is still relatively clumsy.
In 1662, Li Dingguo fell ill and died, the Southwest Ming army was completely destroyed, and the situation of the Ming and Qing confrontations underwent a major change, and the Southern Ming regime, which had barely been equally divided, suddenly only had a few small islands left in the hands of the Southern Ming regime and a few counties at the junction of the three provinces of Sichuan, Qin, and Chu. In this situation where the enemy is too strong and I am too weak, as the commander of the anti-Qing division on the southeast coast, at this time, it should be more tolerant, and some of the behaviors under the opponent should be more tolerant. In other words, under such a war situation and its sinister situation, it is not suitable to punish the subordinates excessively, at least not to kill the generals at every turn, but Zheng Chenggong does the opposite, and the result can only make the generals more and more alienated from him as the "lord of the domain".
The powerful Ming Zheng regime ended up with this fate
Including the aforementioned Loyal and Courageous Bo Chen Bao, who was stationed on Nan'ao Island, the reason for his rebellion was also related to Zheng Chenggong's behavior. In other words, Chen Bao's rebellion was basically a figment, someone said bad things about him in front of Zheng Chenggong, saying that he wanted to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, of course, being said bad things about Chen Bao's usual style still had something to do with Chen Bao's usual style, "pride and arbitrariness, several violations of the orders of the clan", but in this extremely inferior situation, Zheng Chenggong did not care whether the rumors of Chen Bao's rebellion were true or false, and directly ordered Zhou Quanbin to send troops to conquer Nan'ao, and the result directly forced Chen Bao to the side of the Qing Dynasty.
Almost all of the cavalry in Zheng's army came from the Qing army anyway.
The structure of Zheng Chenggong's army we have said many times before, mainly three parts, the first part is those who started with him, the second part is some local forces attached, the third part is the Qing army anyway (these people can be said to be the backbone of the Zheng army), this Southern Ming army at its peak, the number of soldiers once reached as many as 70,000 or 80,000 people, more than twice as many as the Fujian Qing army, but the territory is very pitiful, without the corresponding land and people, there is no sufficient grain and grass, then why this army can still fight for more than ten years, In addition to Zheng Chenggong's own military and organizational talents, there are also generals who can unite around Zheng Chenggong, most of them still have the idea of the homeland, unwilling to accept the rule of the Qing Dynasty, which is the basis of the existence of the Zheng Army, and now, the hope of reviving the Ming Dynasty has almost been shattered, it is when the people's hearts are unstable, Zheng Chenggong instead of killing, the final result is "the first month, give the surname Yan To move." Zheng Tai, Hong Xu, Huang Ting, etc. did not want to go, so they did not send a ship to Taiwan. And sent a ship to hang Ji Hongchu and ten other people, in charge of the Fan Society; all of them were not retained, and the information on the island was isolated", Zheng Chenggong and the generals were separated from Germany, and the Ming Zheng regime began to collapse less than a year after his death, a large number of generals were surrendered, and all the strongholds except Taiwan were lost.
The strength of the Qing Dynasty is also one of the important reasons.
Therefore, why the Ming and Zheng armies that fought in the heart of the Qing Dynasty began to gradually collapse after the closure of Taiwan, first, that is, after the fall of the Yongli Imperial Court, the comparison of the strength of the two sides was too great, and the second was the perverse behavior of Zheng Chenggong himself, of course, this may be Zheng Chenggong's own body and spirit due to repeated stimulation and military fatigue more and more abnormal, so that it is often impossible to think calmly, which we will talk about later.