Chapter 57 Section 2 Zheng Chenggong decides to march eastward

Zheng Chenggong (AD 1624-1662), formerly known as Zheng Sen, styled Damu.The young man is smart, brave and promising.His father, Zheng Zhilong, was born in Nan'an County, Quanzhou, Fujian Province. He was an official to the governor Tongzhi in the late Ming Dynasty (the name of a military officer, and he was the deputy chief of the Dudufu of the Five Armies); his mother, Tagawa, was Japanese.In the fourth year of Tianqi (1624 AD), that is, the year when the Dutch colonists invaded Taiwan, they were born successfully.In 1645 A.D., the Qing army entered the pass, and Ming Tang King Zhu Yu [yuyu] proclaimed himself emperor in Fuzhou and changed his name to Yuan Longwu.Zheng Zhilong was named Jian'anbo.Zhilong went to court with success.Tang Wang asked him how to save the country?He successfully replied: "Yue Fei said, 'As long as civil servants don't love money and generals don't fear death, the world can be stable'. In Yichen's opinion, these two sentences are still very important today." He praised him, gave him the surname Zhu, changed his name to Chenggong, and ordered him to be the admiral of the Imperial Army. Since then, the people have called Zheng Chenggong "the surname of the country".The following year, the Qing army aggressively invaded Fujian, the king of Tang was captured, and Zheng Zhilong shamelessly surrendered to the Qing army.Zheng Chenggong was only 22 years old at this time.He was saddened by the ruin of the country and the suffering of the people, so he raised the banner of "killing his father and serving the country", and arrived in Nan'ao (now Nan'ao, Guangdong) by boat with his comrades in arms to recruit troops to counterattack and captured Xiamen (formerly known as Zhongzuo, Successfully changed its name to Simingzhou) as the anti-Qing base.Then Zhangzhou (now Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province) was conquered, and the people of Fujian Province gathered together to respond.

After the Dutch colonists invaded and occupied Taiwan, they not only destroyed the integrity of our country's territory, but also seriously affected Zheng Chenggong's maritime trade and sources of food and wages due to their plundering and harassment activities, thus posing a serious threat to his struggle against the Qing Dynasty and restoration of the Ming Dynasty. .Zheng Chenggong was extremely indignant at the banditry of the Dutch colonists, and shortly after he raised his troops against the Qing Dynasty, he secretly made up his mind to recover Taiwan.In the thirteenth year of Yongli (1659 A.D.), Zheng Chenggong retreated to Kinmen and Xiamen after he led his division to the north and failed in Nanjing. He often worried about the narrowness of Xiamen. Taiwan, as a new anti-Qing base.

When Zheng Chenggong was planning to expel the Dutch colonists, a man named He Tingbin (1st name He Bin) came to Xiamen from Taiwan to ask Zheng Chenggong.He Tingbin is from Nan'an, Fujian Province. He was originally a subordinate of Zheng Chenggong's father Zheng Zhilong. Later, he worked as an interpreter for the Dutch in Taiwan and was very familiar with the situation in Taiwan.He suggested to Zheng Chenggong: "Taiwan's fertile land is thousands of miles away, and it is connected to foreign countries in all directions. Recovering this treasure island can expand your anti-Qing base area and support your military supply. The local people have been bullied and squeezed by the 'Hongyi'. I want to destroy them by hand. Lead troops to attack with your prestige, like a wolf driving a flock of sheep, you will be able to drive the 'Hong Yi' away."He also presented a detailed map of Taiwan's fortification situation, indicating that he could lead the way.The information provided by He Tingbin strengthened Zheng Chenggong's determination to recover Taiwan and played a very important role in the victory of the struggle.Since then, although Zheng Chenggong and his generals have studied the plan to capture Taiwan many times, they failed to act immediately because they failed to form a unified opinion.

In the first month of the fifteenth year of Yongli in the Ming Dynasty (the eighteenth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, 1661 A.D.), Zhu Youlang, king of Gui in the Southern Ming Dynasty, fled to Burma, and the provinces in the mainland were basically occupied by the Qing army.Zheng Chenggong felt that the situation was urgent and he could no longer hesitate to recover Taiwan, so he summoned his civil and military subordinates to discuss the issue of marching into Taiwan again.With the unanimous approval of all the generals, preparations for crossing the sea were immediately started.