In the third year of Shunzhi (the second year of Longwu in the Southern Ming Dynasty, 1646 AD), the Qing army commanded the Qing army from Quzhou, Zhejiang, Guangxin (now Shangrao), Jiangxi, and invaded Fujian by two routes. Under the fierce offensive of the Qing army, the Ming army in Fujian was crushed at the first touch, and Zhu Yujian, the Longwu Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, was captured by the Qing army in Tingzhou (present-day Changting, Fujian) and killed soon after. Zheng Zhilong, the local leader of the powerful faction in Fujian, who actually held the Longwu regime, surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing army took all the land of Fujian, and the Longwu regime, which was the most effective in the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty, collapsed.
After the Qing army occupied Fujian, there were still many anti-Qing forces that did not want to submit to the Qing court, among which Zheng Chenggong, the son of Zheng Zhilong, was the most powerful, Zheng Chenggong relied on the advantage of water warfare, occupied Xiamen, Kinmen, Quanzhou and other coastal areas of Fujian and the Qing army, under the encouragement of Zheng Chenggong, many anti-Qing forces in Fujian and even the interior came to join them, and the forces were shocked, and the strongest time controlled Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Kinmen, Xiamen and Chaozhou in Guangdong, even once went north to the city of Nanjing, and later drove away the Dutch colonists who occupied Taiwan, and recovered the treasure island of Taiwan, which made a good story, so Zheng Chenggong was able to fight against the Qing army for more than ten years, thanks to his naval division and the most powerful heavy infantry Iron Man Army in the Southern Ming Dynasty at that time. In the previous article, Zheng Chenggong's sailor has been repeated, and today I will tell the story of the Iron Man Army.
The official names of the Iron Man Army at that time were Wuwei Town and Huwei Town, and they were the backbone of Zheng Chenggong. In the fifteenth year of Shunzhi (1658), Zheng Chenggong learned the lessons of the Ming army in hand-to-hand combat against the Qing army, specially selected strong and brave warriors, and built elite heavy infantry troops, the soldiers were equipped with comprehensive protection of armor weighing 23 kilograms, and they were trained harshly, and equipped with bows and arrows, rattan shields, regimental cards, rolling quilts, spears, sabers (cavalry specially restrained by the Qing army) and other equipment, called the "Iron Man Army".
"In February, the commanders were selected as pro-army, and the Xiamen Port was built to perform martial arts exercises. With 500 stones each, he was able to lift 5,000 people who traveled through the church. Feng Chengshi, the painting sample and the engineer officer, supervised the production of strong iron helmets, iron armor and arms, skirts, iron shoes, etc., and the arrows could not penetrate. He also made an iron mask, only showing his eyes, ears, mouth and nose, and painted colorful like a ghost, holding a big knife for cutting horses. Each person has two soldiers to hold the equipment and vice, specifically chop the horse's feet, and there is no retreat in the battle, and the name is the iron man. —— "Taiwan Foreign Notes"
Under the city of Nanjing, 1,000 Iron Man Army faced 3,000 Manchurian Eight Banners, killed more than 1,000 Eight Banners, and lost less than 100 people. But it was also in the later stage of the Nanjing Campaign, because the Iron Man Army was the main force of Zheng Chenggong, the soldiers of the department suffered heavy losses, from 10,000 to 3,000. In the seventeenth year of Shunzhi (1660), the Qing army took advantage of Zheng Chenggong's attack on Nanjing, and when the base of Xiamen was empty, they besieged Xiamen with heavy troops. At that time, there were only some old, weak, sick and disabled people who defended Xiamen, as well as less than 1,000 Iron Man Army troops left behind, while the Qing army had more than 10,000 people, of which more than half of the Eight Banners were garrisoned, which can be described as a huge disparity in strength. However, the Iron Man Army once again proved itself to be the strongest heavy infantry of that era with its achievements, the Iron Man Army of less than 1,000 people, the Qing Army that was 10 times harder than itself, did not fall behind at all, and persisted until Zheng Chenggong's main force returned to help, during which more than 2,000 people in the Eight Banners were killed, and there had never been such a big loss since the Qing Army entered Fujian.
In April of the eighteenth year of Shunzhi (1661), Zheng Chenggong launched a glorious campaign to recover Taiwan. At that time, the officers and men of the Iron Man Army also crossed the strait and fought bloody battles with the Dutch colonial army occupying the treasure island.