In May 1645, the Hongguang regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty, which had just been established for less than a year, was destroyed by the Qing court, and the Emperor Hongguang of the Southern Ming Dynasty was betrayed by the rebel generals Tian Xiong and Ma Degong, and was later sent to Beijing by the Qing army, where he was strangled a year later. With the betrayal of the emperor rebel generals together with the Qing Dynasty there are 230,000 Ming Dynasty regular army, after the Qing army advanced to Jiujiang, the original Ningnan Marquis Zuo Liangyu commanded more than 30,000 soldiers, more than 100,000 people surrendered to the Qing court under the leadership of Zuo Liangyu's son Zuo Menggeng, the Qing court surrendered to the Qing court after the surrender of the officers and soldiers, left 2~30,000 troops in the south of the Yangtze River, and 12,000 people in the elite Zuo Liangyu became the main force of the Qing army to attack Huguang and Guangxi in the future.
The Qing army in film and television dramas.
In fact, after the capture of the Hongguang Emperor Zhu Yousong, there were still many regular troops of the Ming Dynasty who refused to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, or hid in the mountains or floated on the sea, seeking to revive the Ming Dynasty, and Zhejiang also had a large amount of land in the hands of the Ming Dynasty. In 1646, the Longwu court was overthrown, the Lu Jianguo regime was defeated, there were still a large number of regular troops of the Ming Dynasty who insisted on resisting the enemy, Huang Binqing, the chief soldier of the naval division, occupied Zhoushan, Zheng Hongkui and Zheng Caibu were active in the coastal areas of Fujian, their soldiers wore bamboo helmets and cloth iron armor, and these armies constantly launched attacks on the coastal cities occupied by the Qing side.
Ming Army Sailors.
Zhao Guozuo, the governor of Fujian in the Qing Dynasty, recorded a series of battles along the coast of Fujian in a post on March 28, the fourth year of Shunzhi, mainly targeting the Ming army and naval division of Zheng Caibu. Zheng Cai, Zheng Zhilong's nephew, served as the chief soldier of quarrying during the Hongguang period, after the loss of Nanjing, he continued to insist on resisting the Qing Dynasty by entering the sea from the Yangtze River, after the fall of the Longwu regime, Zheng Zhilong once asked Zheng Cai to send Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu who took refuge in him, to the Qing army, but Zheng Cai was unwilling to surrender to the Qing court, so he got a stand-in, hid the king of Lu himself, and instructed the generals to say that if Zheng Zhilong sent someone to capture the king of Lu, he would strangle this stand-in and pass the test, but Zheng Zhilong was soon coerced north by the Qing army, and there was no time to capture the king of Lu, The stand-in and Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, both escaped.
Shotgunner.
Since then, Zheng Caibu has continued to be active along the coast of Fujian Province in Zhejiang, constantly clashing with friendly forces, but also constantly launching attacks on Fujian cities. From the experience of Zheng Cai, Zheng Hongkui and others, we can see that there were actually a large number of generals and soldiers in the Ming Dynasty army at that time who were unwilling to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. In terms of a series of generals from the Zheng family, in addition to Zheng Zhilong himself who has illusions about the Qing court, many people, including Zheng Chenggong, are very sober, and they all know that they can't negotiate peace with the Qing court, the Qing court is not credible, and they can still dominate one side with the army territory in their hands, if the family falls into the hands of the Qing emperor, then what will happen in the future, it is difficult to say. So from this point of view, Zheng Cai and Zheng Hongkui's reluctance to surrender to the Qing Dynasty is not only loyal to the Ming Dynasty, but also from their own point of view, they must make the right choice.
Green battalion soldiers of the Qing army.
On the eighth day of February in 1648, more than 30 Ming warships attacked Min'an Town, Fuzhou, and the local Qing Army's deputy chief soldier Man Jinzhong blocked the "first level of the thief, and the head of the red flag thief, and obtained armor, broadsword, killed, wounded, and drowned dozens of people" There is a common sense in the historical materials of the Ming and Qing dynasties, that is, this so-called "dozens of drowning dead" can be treated as a lie, whether it is the war report of the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, similar words such as "dozens of people", "hundreds of people", "thousands" and "more than 1,000 people" are basically clichés, In other words, the only result that the Qing army can confirm is to capture one person alive and capture one head. It can be seen that the Ming army did not seem to have any fighting spirit, and was lightly blocked by the Qing army, and sailed away. On 15 March, the Ming army came again by boat, but was defeated again, with more than 20 killed and one captured.
The Ming army in film and television dramas.
On February 21, the Qing army captured a Ming warship in Nanjing Xiaoshan, Zhangzhou, captured two people, and seized a Japanese knife, a hundred guns, the Qing court said that "thieves drowned and fled to the shore" here It is obvious that the people successfully evacuated, and the boats were taken away by the Qing army, but only two legs and feet were captured, a Japanese knife was captured, and a hundred sons were captured, and there was no other spear, waist knife, armor, bird gun, and three-eyed gun. Let's take a look at how many things were seized in a real victory fought by the Qing army in Quanzhou more than ten years later, taking a captured ship as an example: the Qing army captured fourteen Zheng soldiers on one ship, and the captured equipment included "five guns, three iron forks, seven waist knives, five catties of gunpowder, a pigeon cannon, a copper baizi cannon, ten stones of salt, a big flag, and a large seal of customs defense" and other ships also captured cotton armor and other soldier protective gear. Therefore, most of the soldiers and sailors on the ship captured by the Qing army in Nanjing Xiaoshan in Zhangzhou successfully escaped, not only successfully escaping, but also taking away almost all the light and heavy equipment.
The Ming army in film and television dramas
On February 12, the Ming warships attacked Jiliaoao and were repulsed, and the Qing army "killed countless thieves"; On the 16th, the Ming warships attacked Fuqing Haikou, attacked three formations in a row, and were defeated by the Qing army, and the Qing army said that more than ten Ming warships were burned; On the 17th, a small boat of the Ming army was captured in Fuqing Haikou, and the Qing army captured five prisoners, captured five bamboo helmets, six waist knives, and two short strings, which was a signal light used in the Ming Dynasty army; On the 19th, the Ming warships launched a fierce attack on Fuqing, and the result was defeated, a Ming warship was completely destroyed, the Qing army claimed to have captured "26 large and small guns, iron armor, and 47 armors and swords" on this warship, and the Ming army continued to launch a fierce attack on Fuqing County in the next 23, 24, and 253 days, but the result was still a failure, and in the land battle on the 25th, a nephew of the Ming general Zhou Cuizhi was also killed under the county seat of Fuqing.
Ming Dynasty saber.
There are also records of Zheng Cai's army activities in Zhao'an, Changtai and other places, "and according to the Zhangzhou General Soldier Meng Quansheng report: On the 24th of the first month, according to the Zhao'an County newspaper, the pirates landed on the shore, were bravely resisted by the township, beheaded two thieves, and captured one thief alive. According to the Changtai County Daily, Zheng Cai's thief officials Zheng Ting, Liu Jing, and the thief Zheng Quan were five others, and the flag, waist knife and other pieces "In fact, in general, from the records of these Zheng army activities in early 1648, Zheng Cai's attack on the coastal areas of Fujian seems to be a little weak, because the Ming army generals and soldiers were captured, and the records of the loss of warships are very few. It is recorded that there are 90 generals under Zheng Cai's command, which shows that his strength is not bad, and this casualty is also a drop in the bucket.
Ming infantry.
The battle was like this, perhaps because Zheng Cai did not attack with all his strength, or perhaps because the Qing court's coastal defense in Fujian was still much stronger than that of Zhejiang, and there would be no good fruit to eat if he drove a warship. So the Ming and Qing wars were like this, for the Ming Dynasty, it was obviously not a wise choice to attack the opponent's preset position with their own elite forces, so they should retreat after paying a small price for a tentative attack. The way to victory lies in attracting the enemy out of the city in land battles, and in naval battles, it is necessary to attract the enemy to win a decisive victory on the ocean, and to kill and injure the enemy's living forces as much as possible.
The army at the end of the Ming Dynasty depicted in "Zuo Liangyu's Departure from the Army".
Qin Shizhen, the governor of Zhejiang in the Qing Dynasty, once emphasized the necessity of the Qing court to defeat the Ming army in Zhoushan...... If it is protracted, how different is the carbuncle, once it is broken, I am afraid that it will be cleaned up" here is actually very clear, if the "Kou of the court" Nanming army continued to harass the Qing Dynasty-controlled areas on the southeast coast, so that the Qing army was exhausted, and continued to cause casualties to the Qing army, so that the Qing court continued to invest manpower and financial resources in this front, and finally made it "once rout" This is the way to win the Nanming regime, but we all know the history after that, The heads of the Nanming regime did not seize the opportunity.