Taiwan Island has been China's territory since ancient times, it is located in the southeast sea of Chinese mainland, 300 kilometers away from Xiamen, south of Hainan Island and Nanhai Zhudao, north of Matsu, Dachen, Zhoushan Islands, known as "the fence of the seven provinces, the key to the southeast", the strategic location is extremely important. As early as 230 years, Wu Wang Sun Quan sent generals Wei Wen and Zhuge Zhi to lead more than 10,000 soldiers to reach Taiwan by sea, and the Yuan Dynasty set up an inspection department in Penghu to manage Taiwan and the Penghu Islands.
In the first half of the 17th century, the Dutch colonialists invaded Asia on a large scale and began to repeatedly invade the island of Taiwan. In 1642, the Dutch invaded Taiwan on a large scale, and soon occupied Keelung, Tamsui and other places, imposed military control in Taiwan, bloodily suppressed the resistance of local residents, and built cities such as Chichi and Taiwan on the island of Taiwan as their base for occupying Taiwan.
When the Dutch occupied Taiwan, China, the Manchu Eight Banners Army entered Shanhaiguan and fought repeatedly against the Southern Ming forces. As the remnants of the Southern Ming forces were gradually dismantled, the anti-Qing forces based in Fujian were forced to several isolated islands in Xiamen and Kinmen. Just when its leader Zheng Chenggong was almost out of breath by the Qing army, He Bin, who was working as a Dutch translator in Taiwan, fled to Xiamen due to a debt dispute, and He Bin introduced the situation in Taiwan to Zheng Chenggong and persuaded Zheng Chenggong to attack Taiwan as a foothold. Indeed, Taiwan, which has the natural danger of the strait, is fertile for thousands of miles, can be attacked and defended, and there is sufficient food and military supplies, which is exactly what Zheng Chenggong needs at the moment, so he decided to cross the sea to recover Taiwan occupied by the Dutch colonists, as a base for opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty.
After the news of Zheng Chenggong's preparation to recover Taiwan reached Taiwan, the Dutch colonists were greatly frightened, and in order to prevent Zheng Chenggong's attack, they carried out a series of preparations, first of all, from Java Island to Taiwan with 600 troops and several ships, so that the total strength of the Dutch army stationed in Taiwan reached nearly 3,000 people, and also had many warships such as "Hector" and "S. Graffran", and at the same time, a large amount of food, weapons, ammunition and other military supplies were stored in various castles in Taiwan to facilitate long-term defense.
The Dutch concentrated their main forces in the two castles of Taiwan City and Chiji City, and sank several old ships in the harbor to block the channel into the port and prevent the entry of Zheng Chenggong's fleet. The Dutch believed that by virtue of the natural danger of the Taiwan Strait, the blockade of the sea passage by warships, and the cooperation of the Taiwan City and the Chichicheng Fort, could completely prevent the landing of Zheng Chenggong's army.
Zheng Chenggong followed his father Zheng Zhilong to deal with the Dutch in his early years, and defeated the "Red Hair Army" stationed in Taiwan several times, which not only gave Zheng Chenggong the courage to defeat the Dutch, but also gave him the initiative to know himself and his opponent. The breakthrough point he chose to recover Taiwan this time was the port of Luermen, which was impossible for the Dutch to land. Zheng Chenggong's operational policy was to first recover Penghu as a base for advance, and then take advantage of the fact that the water level was two meters higher than usual on the first and 16th days of each month to carry out a landing operation on the Taijiang River through the port of Luermen, cut off the connection between the Dutch troops in Taiwan City and Chichicheng City, encircle and annihilate them respectively, and then recover the entire island of Taiwan.
In April 1661, Zheng Chenggong led all the soldiers in Kinmen "sacrifice to the river", held a grand oath ceremony, everything is ready, ships and soldiers are gathered in Kinmen's Liaoluo Bay, on the 22nd, under the guidance of fishermen who are familiar with the route, Zheng Chenggong personally led 25,000 soldiers, divided into more than 30 warships, set off from Liaoluo Bay, braved the wind and waves, crossed the Taiwan Strait, arrived at Penghu the next day, rested in Penghu for a few days, prepared to take Taiwan directly.
On the day of the planned march, caught up with the storm, the sea was full of vicious waves, according to the prior investigation, in order to enter Luermen smoothly, it was necessary to take advantage of the high tide on the first and sixteenth days of the first month of each month, if the opportunity was missed, it would be postponed for half a month, in this case, Zheng Chenggong made a quick decision and decided to take the risk of forcibly crossing. On the evening of April 30 (the first day of the fourth lunar month), Zheng Chenggong led a fleet to set sail in a storm, and the next morning, Zheng Jiajun's fleet arrived outside the port of Luermen, which the Dutch had neglected to defend.
The terrain of Luermen is very dangerous, there are dozens of miles of shallow sandy beaches on the periphery, Zheng Jiajun's fleet took advantage of the full tide, sailed to Luermen Port, and went straight to Taiwan's Beigang along the Taijiang River, and landed part of the army at the end of the northern line along the way, and the main force quickly went ashore at a place about 5 kilometers away from Chichicheng. The Dutch in Taiwan originally thought that Zheng Jiajun's fleet would sail in from the South Passage and was going to intercept it with artillery, but they did not expect that Zheng Jiajun's fleet avoided the interception of artillery fire and sailed into the Taijiang River from Luermen outside the range of cannons.
After the successful landing, the Zheng army began to implement the plan to capture Chichi Castle. The circumference of the city is hundreds of meters, nearly 20 meters high, there are four turrets on the castle, and there are more than 400 Dutch soldiers guarding the castle. Zheng Jiajun besieged Chichi's castle and cut off the castle from the city of Taiwan, and the Dutch troops in the castle urgently appealed to the Dutch governor in Taiwan, Kuiyi, for help. The Dutch governor of the Netherlands, who was cowering in the city of Taiwan, had more than 1,200 troops, and despite their small strength, their arrogance was very arrogant, and they tried in vain to resist stubbornly by virtue of their strong ships and strong castles. After the siege of Chiji Castle, three groups of men and horses were sent to counterattack the Zheng Jiajun, the water route was to attack the Chinese ships anchored in the Taijiang River, the northern route was led by Captain Beder to lead 300 troops to attack the Zheng family army that landed at the end of the northern line, and the south route was reinforced by more than 200 people led by Captain Aldorp by boat to reinforce the Chichi City.
The end of the north line is a sandbar of less than 1 square kilometer, the south end is opposite to Taiwan City, and the north end is adjacent to the Luermen channel, on May 2, Beder took advantage of the fact that Zheng Jiajun had just landed, and his foothold was not stable, and led more than 300 soldiers to take a boat along the bank of the Taijiang River to rush to the end of the north line, and after going ashore, he counterattacked Zheng Jiajun. The Dutch army lined up in battle formation, put a row of guns, and approached the Zheng army, thinking that as long as their guns rang out, the Zheng family army would flee for their lives. Unexpectedly, more than 4,000 Zheng soldiers were divided into two routes, flanking back and forth, according to the Dutch's own description, "Zheng Jun's arrows were like a shower, and even the sky seemed to be dark." Finding himself at a loss for his own hands, the Dutch soldiers under his command were completely frightened and fled with their heads in their hands. Zheng Jiajun took advantage of the victory and attacked fiercely and annihilated these hundreds of Dutch soldiers in one fell swoop.
More than 200 Dutch soldiers on the south road to reinforce Chichicheng under the leadership of Aldorp sailed to Chichicheng by boat along the south bank of the Taiwan River to Chichicheng, trying to relieve the siege of Chichicheng, as soon as they landed on the shore, they were cut to pieces by the Zheng family's army, and in the face of tens of thousands of Zheng's army, Aldorp had to flee back to Taiwan City with more than 100 remnants.
The Dutch Navy of the waterway attacked Zheng Jiajun's fleet with only 2 warships and 3 small boats, the 2 battleships of the Dutch Navy had a very large hull and very advanced equipment, Zheng Chenggong dispatched more than 60 warships to surround the Dutch warships, Zheng Jun's naval divisions fought bravely one by one, surrounded by all sides, the two battleships of the Dutch Navy could not resist no matter how brave they were, the "Hector" was the first to catch fire, and the other Dutch warships saw that the momentum was not good, and they turned around and fled in the encirclement of the Zheng Junshui Division, and the Zheng Junshui Division chased after and beat fiercely, As a result, only 2 dinghy escaped after being seriously injured. The Dutch failed in both naval and land warfare, and the city of Chichicheng and Taiwan became two isolated castles, completely cut off from each other. Surrounded by more than 10,000 Zheng soldiers, Chichicheng had no choice but to surrender to the Zheng army when the water source was cut off and foreign aid was hopeless. After Zheng Chenggong forced the landing in Chichicheng, the main force then moved to Taiwan City. Taiwan City is the center of Dutch colonists' rule in Taiwan, with strong castles and complete defense facilities. The circumference of the city is more than 1,000 meters, more than 20 meters high, the city wall is as solid as stone, dozens of cannons are placed on it, and there are more than 1,000 Dutch soldiers in the castle.
On May 5, Yu Yi proposed to pay 100,000 taels of silver in exchange for the withdrawal of Zheng Jiajun, but Zheng Chenggong sternly refused. In view of the strong cities of Taiwan, it was difficult to attack them for a while, in order to reduce casualties, Zheng Chenggong decided to besiege them for a long time and wait for them to surrender themselves. So he ordered Zheng Jiajun to build an earthen platform around the city and surround the city of Taiwan. At the same time, he divided his troops to recover other parts of the island, and established good relations with the local residents of the island, which won the support of the local people.
In order to save them from the crisis in Taiwan, the Dutch East India Company sent the commander of the navy, Jacob Cayu, to lead 12 ships and more than 800 soldiers to reinforce Taiwan, and also brought a large amount of military supplies to the defenders in Taiwan, which rekindled the hope of a counterattack. However, the Dutch reinforcements sailing to the sea off Taiwan were suddenly attacked by a storm and had to retreat to Penghu to take shelter from the wind and rain, and in August, Zheng Chenggong's sailors took advantage of the situation to launch an attack at sea. The two sides fought fiercely for more than an hour, and Zheng Chenggong's sailors sank 2 Dutch warships, captured several ships, and killed more than 150 Dutch soldiers, forcing the Dutch reinforcement fleet to flee back to Java. In early November, Zheng Chenggong's naval division again defeated the second batch of Dutch reinforcements. After that, he was trapped in the city of Taiwan, and no longer dared to fight with the Zheng family army easily.
On January 26, 1662, Zheng Chenggong ordered the bombardment of Utrecht Fort, an important stronghold outside Taiwan, firing nearly 3,000 shells, and breaking the city that night, leaving only more than 500 Dutch remnants in the city of Taiwan. Due to disability and illness, they almost lost their combat effectiveness, and the Dutch colonists finally decided to surrender the Taiwan castle on preferential terms. On February 2, on behalf of the Dutch side, he signed the instrument of surrender and led more than 500 remnants of the army to withdraw to Batavia. At this point, the island of Taiwan, which had been occupied by the Dutch colonists for 38 years, was returned to China.
In the campaign to recover Taiwan, Zheng Chenggong correctly chose fighter planes and strike directions, took advantage of the monsoon and tides to make a surprise landing, and at the same time, combined military strikes with political disintegration, and finally won a complete victory, and this campaign also became a successful example of a large-scale sea-crossing and landing operation in Chinese history. After Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan, he abolished the system of Dutch colonialists, carried out various reforms, built schools, vigorously developed overseas trade, and at the same time called on the people of the mainland to move to Taiwan to open up wasteland and cultivate land, so that Taiwan's economy and culture developed rapidly, and wrote an important page in the history of Taiwan's development.