Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 257: Restoration

The Dutch have actually always been paying attention to this ancient oriental continent. During the war between the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Dutch always believed that the Ming Dynasty would definitely be able to defeat the Tatars. However, they did not expect that the Tatars would move all the way south, and the once huge empire collapsed in an instant.

However, since Batavia was too far away from the Central Plains and the situation changed too quickly, by the time the news reached Batavia, it had already changed beyond recognition.

Just when Jin Shenghuan was captured, Zheng Chenggong, who was far away in Taiwan, finally conquered Fort Zeelandia. Compared with the cities in the Central Plains, Fort Zeelandia was indeed very small, but this European-style castle caused great trouble to Zheng's army.

During the Renaissance, Europeans invented the famous bastion, but the Maltese Knights, who numbered more than a thousand, could rely on this castle to resist the attack of tens of thousands of Ottoman soldiers. For a traditional square castle, artillery can first flatten the battlements, and then set up ladders to climb the city. However, for a bastion with a large number of irregular walls, its high and low walls provide abundant shooting points. Even if one place is destroyed, the other places can still be quickly defended, so it is extremely difficult for the enemy to approach.

When Zheng Chenggong first arrived at Fort Zeelandia, he launched a violent attack. There were only a thousand soldiers defending the city. After several days of attack, Zheng's army lost more than 1,500 soldiers but still failed to capture the city. Even with powerful artillery bombardment, there was still little success.

Zheng Chenggong therefore changed his mind, dug deep trenches, and surrounded the city with his army. It was not until Han Xiong sent a letter asking for help that Zheng Chenggong could no longer hold back and made up his mind to attack Fort Zeelandia. He wanted to end the war in Taiwan as soon as possible and intervene in the war for hegemony over the world.

Just after the army launched the attack, a German sergeant named Hans Zegenradis escaped from the city and surrendered to Zheng's army.

After escaping from the city, Raddis reported in detail to Zheng's army the situation inside Fort Zeelandia. There were originally 910 soldiers in the city. Including officials, their families and other workers, the total number was about 1,900. At this time, a considerable number of them had died of hunger, disease and war.

Raddis revealed all the secrets of the bastion and also explained in detail how the Europeans captured the bastion. Under Raddis's guidance, the stalemate of the war situation changed rapidly. As the commanding heights near Fort Zeelandia were razed to the ground by artillery fire, Zheng was finally able to bombard Fort Zeelandia at will.

Subsequently, Zheng's army launched several fierce attacks. The defenders of Fort Zeelandia were short of food, gunpowder and personnel. After three days of attack by Zheng Chenggong, the commander of Fort Zeelandia, Kowloon Yi, formally surrendered to Zheng Chenggong. Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan!

The second year of the Yongli reign was a bad year for the Dutch. Zheng Chenggong conquered Fort Zeelandia. The failure of the war brought shame to the Dutch East India Company. This was the biggest defeat suffered by the Dutch colonists in more than a hundred years of sweeping the world. The proud Dutch obviously could not accept such an outcome.

The East India Company headquarters in Batavia publicly stated: "This is indeed an unprecedented failure of the company in the East India, and it is an incalculable loss to the company."

In the eyes of the Batavia authorities, Zheng Chenggong had become the most dangerous enemy. They judged: "The Zheng family's occupation of Formosa will inevitably make them ambitious, and they may even attack Batavia. We must curb the Zheng family at all costs!"

Batavia dispatched its entire fleet in the Far East, including twelve warships, eight hundred sailors and six hundred soldiers. Bortle was the commander of the fleet, but Bortle knew that it would be a fantasy to retake Taiwan with just such a fleet. Bortle could only intercept Zheng's merchant ships at sea, which was like scratching an itch. With only twelve ships and more than a thousand people, wanting to compete with the powerful Zheng Group was like hitting a stone with an egg.

Although the Zheng family's strength declined greatly as Zheng Zhilong went north, after Zheng Chenggong's call, the Zheng family today is still incomparable to the Zheng family in its heyday, but it has greatly restored its strength. Zheng Chenggong now has more than 600 ships and more than 50,000 troops, occupying Xiamen, Kinmen, Penghu, and Taiwan, which has just been conquered.

After Zheng Chenggong captured Fort Zeelandia, he changed the city's name to Anping and used it as a base to reclaim wasteland and store food and fodder. Zheng Chenggong did not care about the Red Barbarians who were far away in Batavia. In his heart, he only had the Central Plains.

But the Dutch did not think so. If they lost Formosa, it would be equivalent to losing the advantage in competing with the Portuguese. If they occupied Formosa, they could not only trade with the East nearby, but also seize the opportunity to capture Macau, which the Dutch coveted. However, this was wasted with the fall of Fort Zeelandia.

Therefore, the Dutch hoped to cooperate with Zheng Chenggong's enemies. For the Dutch East India Company, it would be best to form an alliance with the Tatars because they had received news that Koxinga's father, the former Kapitan of the South China Sea, had been captured by the Tatars and taken to the north. Unfortunately, these Tatars were too far away from Formosa, so the Dutch set their sights on Meng Jun, who occupied the southeast.

According to the Dutch intelligence, Meng Jun and Koxinga who captured Formosa were not from the same force. Although they both still flew the flag of the Ming Dynasty, it was obvious that the Ming Empire had collapsed and the central government had disappeared. According to the Dutch, they could give it a try and perhaps buy this man off with benefits.

But at this time Meng Jun obviously did not expect that these Westerners came to him to prepare to join forces to fight Zheng Chenggong. Meng Jun was looking at the reward list submitted by the shogunate. The thick stack of documents made Meng Jun panic, and he hurriedly asked Yang En to count the number and report it.

But Yang En was prepared. He said to Meng Jun, "Your Majesty, the shogunate does not reward meritorious soldiers with money and goods, but also with military positions, medals, houses, land, food, meat, cloth, etc., as well as rewards."

Meng Jun heard this and asked, "Is there any extra land in Jiangnan?"

Since ancient times, after so many dynasties, the problem ultimately comes down to land. However, this problem is too heavy and too difficult. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, land annexation in the south had actually become very serious. However, before the Hu Lu were completely expelled, Meng Jun did not intend to deeply reform the land issue.

After hearing this, Yang En nodded and said, "Your Majesty, the land under the jurisdiction of the shogunate is not much. There are only a lot of unowned lands in Songjiang, Jiading, Kunshan, Jiangyin, Taizhou and other places. The shogunate uses these lands to reward soldiers."

Meng Jun sighed when he heard this and said, "The Qing army massacred the city, and the bloodbath has killed so many civilians and gentry. The once prosperous place has now become a ruin, and the people of the past have become bones!"