#Headline Creation Challenge#Dutchman's Confidence
Known as the coachmen of the sea, the Dutch were one of the first countries in Europe to achieve great navigation. Soon, they discovered that trading with Chinese could make a lot of profit. Therefore, finding a place on the coast of China and becoming a Dutch port to facilitate trade became an urgent problem for the Dutch. The Dutch discovered Macau in 1602, but they found that it had been occupied by the Portuguese, and despite two years of fighting with the Portuguese, the Dutch defeated the Portuguese. So they turned their attention to Taiwan and occupied Taiwan. HMS Hector
Although the Netherlands was powerful at that time, it faced the Ming Dynasty, which was a great country, after all, thousands of miles away, and it was a small country. Why did he have such courage to dare to make an attempt on such a huge Daming? Or even occupy?
Let's first see what kind of confidence the Netherlands had at that time. First let's look at the ships that the Dutch are equipped with. For the ships of the Dutch, the Ming army called them "giant ships" or "plywood ships". In the records of Chinese literature, it is said that the Dutch ships were "more than twenty zhang long, several zhang high, double bottom, and small boats are afraid of their pressure." It's no idea to hear that number. To put it another way, the ships of the Dutch at that time were called "Galen" sailing ships. Almost all of the maritime powers of that time were equipped. The Galen was divided into four classes at the time, and the Dutch Hector, a third-class warship, had a displacement of about 1,200 to 1,600 tons and about 60 to 80 guns.
In addition, the Dutch warship is also particularly powerful, that is, the design of the sail. It is very cleverly designed, hovering like a spider's web, no matter what kind of wind blows, it can be used for its own use. Looking at the equipment of Dutch warships, almost every battleship is equipped with about 60 guns, which are placed on the front and rear decks and in the hanging windows on both sides, which are enough to attack the enemy in any direction. The guns on board were all cast from copper, and dozens of kilograms of iron pellets were used as shells. Ships in those days were basically made of wood, no matter how big they were, and they were hit by such an iron ball, and they were almost difficult to drive without smashing. For example, in 1622, the Dutch began to invade the Penghu Lake in the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming army sent naval divisions to drive it, and in an instant dozens of Ming warships were destroyed at a distance of ten miles away from the Dutch gunboats.
The Dutch took advantage of the civil strife of the Ming Dynasty at that time to invade Taiwan. At that time, the Taiwanese also made desperate resistance, but because the weapons were too backward and did not receive certain military training, such resistance was quickly defeated by the Dutch. Through this occupation of Taiwan, the Dutch lamented Chinese their weak combat effectiveness, claiming that twenty-five Chinese could barely compete with a Dutch soldier. For the Dutch, the Dutch believe that Chinese cannot help but be timid and not yet tolerant of war. The imperial court of Daming was not afraid.
Zheng Chenggong's dilemma
In 1658, Zheng Chenggong led more than 50,000 warships, 170,000 infantry, 5,000 cavalry, and 8,000 Huwei on the Second Northern Expedition, and captured Nanjing. However, the Northern Expedition ended in failure. The Qing army, led by the general Dasu, pointed directly at Xiamen. Zheng Chenggong led his army to retreat to Haimen and Tong'an, and Zheng Chenggong believed that now the general trend was gone, and the Qing army was approaching. If you retreat, you will really jump into the sea. Forced to helpless, Zheng Chenggong set his sights on Taiwan.
In April 1660, Zheng Chenggong proposed to recover Taiwan, but this proposal was opposed by his generals Zhang Huangyan and other generals. Many of Zhang Huangyan and other generals are Fujianese, and if they want to abandon the southern Fujian base area, then many soldiers will leave their hometowns, which will lead to the separation of people's hearts. In addition, he has also been to Taiwan, and knows that the Dutch are very powerful in firearms, and if they want to fight Taiwan, I am afraid that they will pay a terrible price, and when the time comes, there will be Qing troops pressing step by step, and they will not be able to fight again. Zheng Chenggong retorted to the generals' suggestion that although it had fought a big victory with the Qing army last year, our army also suffered heavy losses. Now the southeast is inclined, our army is good at being a water station, and the Qing army is stronger in land warfare. Give full play to your own strengths and overcome the enemy's weaknesses. I want to calm Taiwan, think that it is fundamental, and settle the entire military family. As for Taiwan's strategic purpose, Zheng Chenggong was very clear in his heart, recovering the territory of his ancestors and using Taiwan as his base for opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty.
As the news that Zheng Chenggong was going to attack Taiwan reached Taiwan, many Han Chinese in Taiwan responded. In February 1659, He Bin, a merchant who had long had commercial contacts with the Dutch, sent Zheng Chenggong overnight the situation of the Dutch garrison and a map of Taiwan's province. He Bin said: Taiwan has thousands of acres of good land and abundant products, and it can be used as a base for opposing the Qing Dynasty. In addition, although the Dutch had strong guns and artillery, the garrison had less than 1,000 defenders, and the natural army would be in full swing when it arrived. By the first half of 1661, the town had successfully prepared all the military supplies, and in February of that year, the Shunzhi Emperor died, asked the imperial court to change power, and the undercurrent was surging, and he had no intention of attacking the Zheng army in Xiamen. April happens to be a northeast wind, which is suitable for crossing the sea.
Zheng Chenggong's navy, to tell the truth, is indeed an invincible state in Asia. Zheng Jun's naval ships, mainly Fujian's Fu ships, are famous for their height and sturdiness. Its main warships are mainly large ships and water dwelling ships. This type of warship, wrapped in iron sheets and with water wheels on both sides of the ship, such ship technology was almost invincible in Asian waters at that time. But there is one thing to say, compared with the Dutch warships, it is indeed a lot behind. Not to mention that the Dutch warships could travel against the wind, the number of guns they were equipped with was almost thirty times the number of guns of the Zheng family's warships. Although the guns on the Zheng Chenggong ship were also imitations of Western-style guns, they were too heavy and difficult to move. And both the range and the explosive power are inferior to the Dutch naval guns. But such guns only have two in the front and rear of the ship, and the rest are some small guns such as two hundred guns or serial barrels, and there is no way to deal with the large ships of the Netherlands.
In addition to the double-plywood battleships like the "Galen", the Dutch also had the castle of Gelanshao built on the island of Taiwan. This castle was built on the west side of the island. The castle is located on a small hill hill. In the West, such castles have four fortresses, and twelve cannons in each fort. At the foot of the mountain, there are four semicircular fortresses, each with three cannons. There were also several forts along the sea, all armed with five to six guns. It can be said that such a fortress configuration makes the defensive fortress staggered and hierarchical, and the artillery is also equipped according to the range and the function of the fortress.
However, no matter how difficult and tough the enemy is, a robber is a bandit. The best thing to do with the aggressor is to beat her hard.
Zheng Chenggong's Daming fleet quietly passed through Luermen, which was not guarded by Dutch troops, in the face of the storm, and then divided the troops into two groups. All the way to Dayuan Island and all the way into the Taijiang River. At sea, the Dutch sent four warships, Hector, Sgrafer, Egret and Maria. Zheng Chenggong's side sent more than forty ships, although the Chinese ships are lagging behind in terms of weaponry, but it has to be said that the army surnamed Ye is indeed very brave. Under the command of generals Chen Guang and Chen Chong, the Zheng family warships used the wolf pack tactic to quickly surround the Dutch warships separately, firing 10,000 cannons in unison. Having destroyed the Dutch capital battleships Hector and Grafran, the other two warships, seeing that the situation was not good, immediately fled to Japan and Batavia directions. At this point, the Dutch in Taiwan no longer had the sea power to compete with the Daming army led by Zheng Chenggong.
On the way, Dutch captain Beder led 240 Dutch mercenaries to attack the landing Ming army. There were nearly 4,000 Ming troops landed, and you said that Captain Bader knew that 4,000 Ming troops landed. The answer is yes, the Dutch have long sent scouts over, but they still dare to block it with such a point, really treating the army of the Celestial Empire as the Indians of South America. Sure enough, as soon as he encountered the Ming army, he was hit head-on. Just a few dozen people ran fast and withdrew to the castle. What particularly impressed the Dutch was Zheng Chenggong's "rattan soldiers", which were established in imitation of the Qi family army and were personally trained by Zheng Chenggong.
The strength of this unit impressed the Dutch defenders, and this group of rattan armor soldiers rushed into the Dutch army madly, fierce and cruel. After they had shot, the group of rattan armor soldiers rushed over more excitedly, almost like war maniacs, and even made some Dutch soldiers so frightened that they threw their guns crazy. As a Dutch commander complained after a battle, "Our soldiers pale like dead men when they saw the swords and helmets of the enemy glittering in the sun."
Under the strong attack of the Zheng army, the Dutch army was all in the fortress of Turtle Island, waiting for overseas reinforcements. Both sides fell into a silent embarrassment, facing the Dutch army such a rogue who did not leave, which made the national surname Ye speechless. Seeing that the food and grass are about to run out, it is necessary to quickly solve this group of scoundrels. On May 25, Zheng Chenggong ordered the use of generals to bombard the city of Gelan. But it has to be said that the "Renaissance" style fortress built by the Dutch really reached the extreme of the fortress built at that time. Zheng Chenggong's army rushed to follow, with countless casualties, and the artillery was almost broken, but it was still unable to break through.
Just when both sides were in a state of anxiety, Zheng Chenggong received the war report that the East India Company had sent 12 support warships and had sailed to the waters off Taiwan. In the face of the supporting Dutch warships, the national surname Ye Zheng successfully lured all the enemy warships into Dayuan Bay, concentrated all the artillery on the Dutch warships and fired all the shells. In this artillery battle, half of the twelve Dutch warships were sunk, and several other warships had varying degrees of damage to combat effectiveness. After capturing the Chichilou, and after the rest of the fortress. The Dutch left only the last fortress city, Taiwan City.
Facing the last city, Zheng Chenggong did not want to sacrifice too many soldiers. He wrote a letter to the last Dutch governor of Taiwan. Yi Yi's reply to Zheng Chenggong's reply was to ask why the surname of the country wanted to invade Taiwan? It should be added here that it can be seen from here that the logic of people in the West has not changed since ancient times, that is, I can invade you, and if you hit me, it is barbaric and rude. The surname of the country was suddenly confused by such a seemingly extremely shameless question, you have invaded our land, and asked why we beat you. It's really a lot more faceless, and it's the first time I've seen such a pure one that can interpret a faceless. Zheng Chenggong replied: You can take all the property away, but we will take back all the land.
The Dutch argued that Taiwan did not belong to Daming, and promised to compensate Zheng Chenggong with 100,000 taels of silver, and was willing to pay taxes to the Zheng family every year. Seeing that the Dutch were like this, Zheng Chenggong said nothing more, and on the 24th, he ordered the mobilization of 28 cannons to be set up on the plain, and the muzzles of the guns were unanimously aimed at Taiwan City. In the early morning of the 26th, Zheng Chenggong's artillery began shelling the city of Taiwan, which lasted for eight hours. But it has to be said that the Dutch can be called sea coachmen at that time, and they are indeed very hard-working. After being besieged for nine months, the Dutch lost all their supplies and had no choice but to surrender.
summary
Although the Dutch were the invaders, and when Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan, all the soldiers also fought hard, but it has to be admitted that the equipment of the Dutch has greatly surpassed that of China at that time. This also explains why more than 2,000 Dutch people dared to cross thousands of mountains and rivers to run to our ground and occupy the field. Zheng Chenggong's hard battle bought China nearly two hundred years for Europe to dare not invade China, but the ignorance of the Qing Dynasty wasted this precious time, making China's firearms completely lag behind the West.