Author | Leng Yan author team - Li Zitang
Word count: 6656, reading time: about 13 minutes
Editor's note: There has always been a lot of controversy about the war in Taiwan. The author has previously written about the most famous field battle in this battle - the Battle at the End of the North Line - "Who is stronger in the Chinese and Western field battles in the 17th century? Zheng Chenggong recovered Taiwan , the truth of the battle at the end of the North Line was verified.
In the battle at the end of the North Line, the Zheng army defeated the Dutch army with extremely high military literacy. In terms of field battles, it can be said that the Zheng army won the complete victory. However, in the first stage after the end of the northern line, the offensive and defensive battle of Relanzha City (that is, the battle between May 5 and May 26), the Zheng army's defeat came to an end. The offensive and defensive war in this stage has always been used to prove that the Chinese army represented by the Zheng army is not good at siegeing cities, and to demonstrate the poor level of Zheng's arms.
These discussions often only use the records of Kiichi's book "The Neglected Formosa". The records in this book are mostly full of the subjective colors of Kiyi , and are mostly exaggerated and wrong. Therefore, based on the first-hand and some second-hand historical materials from the Chinese and Dutch side, the author verified the true situation of the offensive and defensive battle in this stage.
▲The whole picture of Relan Chacheng and various prints
Forces
First of all, the author will sort out the number of troops invested by both sides at this stage. Let’s talk about the forces in , the Netherlands, . According to Kuiyi's "Negated Formosa", on May 6, the Dutch army needed 300 to 400 troops to maintain the artillery on the castle and 3 corner walls. If the defense of the fortress wings and other areas is sacrificed, seven or eight hundred soldiers can be sent to the city to fight. Total, the total force that the Dutch army could use during this period was about 1,000 to 1,200. This number should contain slaves.
combined with the "Batavia City Log" records on May 7: "At that time, there were 1,733 people in the city, 870 soldiers, 35 gunners, 63 married people, 218 women and children, 570 men and women slaves and children." , and in his book "1661 Decisive Battle of Relanzhe", Mr. Ouyang Tai quoted different numbers with VOC files, namely "Nine hundred and fifteen officers and soldiers, 63 married men, 218 women and children, and 547 slaves and their children."
The author has limited knowledge and cannot distinguish these two numbers, so he only came up with a rough range, that is, the number of officers and soldiers is about 870-905. At the same time, the Dutch side has formed troops from slaves many times, such as on May 20, a guard composed of 80 black people was formed. During this stage, the Dutch army's troops were divided into two parts, namely the remaining troops and the troops who went out of the city to raid. The following author lists the Dutch army's several attack forces based on " Relan Chacheng Log " as follows:
From the above table, we can see that since May 6, the Dutch army has launched a total of 16 attacks, of which the attacks from May 6 to before May 25 were mostly small-scale attacks of more than a dozen people. On May 6 and May 25, the scale was relatively large, both of which were attacks of more than 100 to 200 people. To sum up, the Dutch army had a total strength of about 870-905 regular officers and soldiers during this stage, assisting with unknown numbers of sailors and slaves. The troops invested in each raid out of the city are about 10-200.
And Zheng Jun’s troops have more controversies. In the Netherlands, Kuiichi's book "The Neglected Formosa" mentioned the strength of the Zheng army. The "Batavia City Diary" does not mention a single word. According to Kuiyi, on May 6, three to four thousand Zheng troops were ambushed on the street outside the range of artillery.
5 May 26 (This should be the time when Kuiyi remembered the wrong time, which should be May 25). Zheng's army had another six or seven thousand people approaching Relanzha City from the south. It was also mentioned that there were 4,000 Zheng troops in the city block (Kuiyi said that the Zheng army had launched three sieges and lost 1,000 people, so according to this, there should be 5,000 Zheng troops in the city.), and there were 7,000 Zheng troops in the city back.
If you look at it this way, Zheng Jun invested about 150,000 to 20,000 troops in this stage of the war (the difference is 5,000 because it is impossible to determine whether the Zheng Jun who entered the city subsequently included the Zheng Jun ambushed on May 6.) This data should be said to be quite exaggerated.
First of all, in the first stage of Zheng Chenggong attacking Taiwan, the entire Zheng army had less than 15,000 troops. According to the Zheng army's strength recorded in the "Batavia City Log", the entire Zheng army had 11,700 troops. Even if each soldier carries only 23,400 servants, and the siege obviously will not throw the servants into it together. Therefore, even if the entire Zheng army entered the battle, there were only 11,700 people.
What's more, the Zheng army also needs to take into account the defense of Provencha City and warships at this time, and also guard the Dutch prisoners of war in Provencha City and the indigenous forces around Relanzhe, and the troops are very tight.
Moreover, combined with the records in the "Relanzha City Log" - until May 17, there were only 2,000 soldiers in the town of Relanzha City. At the same time, for the Zheng army in the surrounding area of Rulintouyuan, the log only said that there were many Zheng army, which shows that the Dutch side could not understand the situation of the Zheng army at that time. The number mentioned by Kuiyi was obviously a casual compilation.
▲Zheng Jun’s organizational table
From the diary of Yang Ying, an eyewitness at that time, the "On the 24th day, the vassal state was an isolated city in Taiwan, and the attack was not free from killing and injured, and the besieged and waited for him to surrender. The towns were assigned to settle the land." From this sentence, the towns were still concentrated in the area around the city of Relanzha, and the settlement had not been fully dispatched. (Of course, according to the records of the Dutch, some troops have been gradually sent out for settlement)
Since Yang Ying was a household official and did not fight on the front line, the records may be lagging. For example, it was mentioned later that "Lin Fu, Liwu Town, was injured by a red barbarian gun" Combined with the "Relan Chacheng Diary" that the Dutch army killed an officer of Zheng's army on the 25th, Lin Fu should have died in battle on the 25th. Here we can speculate that Liwu Town participated in the urban combat at that time. Here we will combine the "On the fourth day of the first day of the first day, the surname was given to move Kun's body and build a ground platform... The barbarians went out of the city to seize cannons, Ma Xin, Liu Guoxuan led the archers to shoot it, and then retreated."
"The Record of the Sea" condensed the battle situation at this stage into one day, but there were also several information points, that is, Zheng Chenggong led his personal army to station near Relanzha, and his personal guards must also be present. The reason why the Yi people went out of the city to seize cannons should be the battle on May 25, and Ma Xin and Liu Guoxuan should be the admiral.
At this point, it can be inferred that the Zheng army had a personal guard, the admiral of the personal military army, and the Liwu town, a total of 1,600 people were present. However, this is not all. Based on the Qing side's intelligence in Taiwan (the sources of intelligence were from Taiwanese people and informants in Taiwan), other participating troops could still be inferred.
"According to the report of Dong Dayong, the general of the left side of the guard Haicheng, the thief who came to surrender, said that when the pseudo-national surname came to Taiwan to attack the Red-haired Yi, the pseudo- general Lin Fu's hand was interrupted by cannons. The left vanguard was also the soldier of Wu Hao in the rear of Xuanyi...... There were many slander."
"According to the deputy general of Tong'an, the former pseudo-national surname attacked the city of Taiwan, the pseudo-general Wu Hao was sent to suppress Zhang Zhi's attack on the city at night."
"The surrendering officer Mao Chengbin came, and it is reported that... More than 300 soldiers under the Ma Xin's troops in Xiaoqi Town were killed and injured, and the remaining soldiers in the town were still unknown. Zhou Quanbin was shot in the cannon with both legs, and Chen Ce's troops in Xuanyi Town, Luo Yunzhang and the former puppet general in the Navy, and nine deputy generals were shot in the cannon with their guns."
Intelligence on the Qing Dynasty should be used with caution. The intelligence is mixed with right and wrong, and there are many fallacies. For example, the third article is a great exaggeration of the casualties of senior generals of the Zheng army and will not be accepted. However, most of this information was brought by the officers of the Zheng army's surrender. From this we can see that the Zheng army that participated in the first stage at that time had the admirals' personal army, Liwu Town, Xuanyi Hou Town, aided the Hou Town, and the left Wu Guard (that is, the left Pioneer).
The Chen Ce Department of Xuanyi Town mentioned in Article 3 should be Chen Ze's unit. At that time, Chen Ze's unit was responsible for the defense at the end of the north line and was unlikely to participate in the offense and defense in the city. The back town of the Navy had to work full-time at sea and could not participate in the offense and defense on land.
In summary, based on historical materials from Zheng and Qing sides, it is speculated that the Zheng army that entered the battle in Relanzha City at this stage should have one guard and four towns (Zheng Chenggong's personal guards do not directly participate in the battle), with a total of five troops. That is, the admirals were the personal army of Xiaoqi Town (900 people), the personal army of Zuowu Guard (1,800 people), Liwu Town (700 people), Xuanyi Hou Town (900 people), and the assistance to suppress Hou Town (900 people), totaling 5,200 people.
Considering that the city area of Relanzha is large, it is impossible for each town to be concentrated in one area, and there are Lintouyuan and other areas nearby (Lintouyuan has deployed 3,000 people will not be stationed in the city), and 5,200 people will not be stationed in the city. In addition, according to the "Twelfth Day, Taiwan City was not attacked and there was no food." and "Relanzha City Log" mentioned that the Zheng army had severe food shortages, which shows that the Zheng army towns were not fully compiled at that time, and they were unable to adapt to the local conditions and could not fight.
By May 25, the troops stationed in the city will not be much more than on May 17, about 3,000-5,000. And according to the records of the Dutch, the Zheng army was mixed with a large number of servants at that time, not all of them were armed forces.
. Most of the Dutch army's surprise attacks were concentrated to attack weak areas. The Zheng army often could not exert its numerical advantage in street fighting. Therefore, in terms of military strength, the Dutch army did not have much disadvantage in short-term local operations.
Battle process
The entire battle can be divided into two stages. The first stage is May 6th to May 25th. During this period, it is mainly the prelude of the Zheng army before the siege of the city and the Dutch army preparing for war and constantly leaving the city to block the Zheng army. The battle is mainly small-scale conflicts and sporadic artillery battles. The second stage is the battle on May 25th. The situation in Japan is quite fierce and a final battle, which almost determines the subsequent offensive and defensive trend.
In the first stage, Chinese historical materials lacked records, so they mainly quoted Dutch information. Kuiyi's "The Neglected Formosa" said that on May 5, Zheng's army was blocked by sniper soldiers led by Captain Aldop when landing. However, check the "Jeranzha City Log" and "Batavia City Log" on May 5th, no Dutch army left the city to block the Zheng army. On May 6th, Kuiichi had no record of the battle situation. It may be that Kuiichi recorded the battle situation on the 6th and went to the 5th, and he also confused the commander.
As mentioned in the previous table, on May 6, the flag-master Adamhening (called the second lieutenant in the Batavia City Log) left the city to burn some houses in the city, but was attacked by the Zheng army. The Dutch army could only burn the houses in front facing the castle, while some of the Zheng army's armed forces charged towards the Dutch army. The Dutch army fought back with rifles and knocked down several Zheng army.
It seems that because the Zheng army's offensive was too fierce, the city sent troops to respond again, and the battle lasted until 12 noon. According to Zheng Chenggong's letter to Kuiyi, the situation of the Zheng army should be a small soldier of 40 soldiers and 200 soldiers (i.e., servants).
As for its casualties, Dutch was visually measured to knock down several people, while Zheng Chenggong claimed that no one was injured. However, according to the wife of Jonas, the Dutch doctor who served in the Zheng army, they received 170 injured Zheng staff, which is speculated that most of them were Zheng soldiers and servants injured in the battle on the 6th. After May 6, there were no major conflicts between the two sides, but there were still various skirmishes. The specific conflict situation is shown in the table below:
▲The above table is compiled based on the "Relan Chacheng Log"
It can be seen from the above table that in the first stage, except for Zheng Jun suspected of losing more than 100 people on May 6, there were no major casualties in each attack. The invincibility of the Dutch people in the city is actually due to the fire cover in Relanzha. This can be seen from the battle of the Dutch army leaving the city to the end of the northern line on May 24.
In order to deal with the defenders of only twenty or thirty people in the basket of the North Line's last fortress at that time, the Dutch side sent 50 strong soldiers and 3 small cannons. Just after seeing that the Zheng army sent only 25 armed soldiers to reinforce, the raid mission was immediately cancelled. It can be seen that once it escaped from the artillery cover of the castle, the Dutch army was not sure to defeat the Zheng army with similar forces.
At the same time, the Zheng army, which was fighting with the Dutch army, also suffered a serious decline in combat effectiveness due to long-term food shortage and unacceptable local conditions (as can be seen from the emergence of large-scale deserters). Therefore, the Dutch army's attack actually has a bit of a sense of unfair victory.
There have also been many ridiculous stories in these small-scale conflicts. Interested readers can check the book "Jeranzha City Log". In addition, interestingly, Kuiichi summarized this stage in "The Neglected Formosa" for Zheng's army to attack from time to time and was attacked by the Dutch army's bombs and stones, which can be said to have completely reversed the roles of both sides.
Regarding Zheng Jun who was deployed in the city of Relanzha during this period, the author combined with the Qing side's intelligence to speculate that it may be aiding the Houzhen, the personal army left Wuwei, and Xuanyi Houzhen. These Zheng army may have suffered certain casualties during long-term harassment, or have undergone phased rotation deployment. Of course, there are not only sporadic conflicts between May 6 and May 25. During this period, both sides are engaged in sporadic artillery battles almost every day. Due to the high frequency, I will not list them one by one.
According to the "Relan Chacheng Log", in almost every artillery battle, the Dutch side used howitzer and heavy artillery to cause great casualties to the Zheng army. The Zheng army fought back with small cannons (i.e. Bass cannons, which may be a kind of personnel killing firearm) and light field cannons, but the shells flew over the city. It should be said that the Dutch army was condescendingly with heavy artillery bombardment. Most of the firearms used by the fortress baskets supported by the Zheng army were light firearms, which was indeed difficult to cause too much casualties to the Dutch army.
also has a similar description, which may not be true. Just like the Qing Dynasty on the other side, it often claimed that the so-called "I was protected by the heavens, but the Ming army failed to hit it..." "One of our army was not damaged." 's rhetoric is mostly just a way to boost morale or self-promote. And in the "Relan Chacheng Diary", many unlucky guys were killed by Zheng Jun's small cannon. The real artillery battle should have happened in the second stage.
▲A batch of light red artillery guns manufactured by Zheng Jing
On May 25, two hours before dawn, the Zheng army suddenly fired fire and bombarded the east side of the castle, opening the prelude to the battle that day. According to the "Batavia City Log", at dusk on May 24, Zheng Jun transported 26 and 7 bronze cannons and iron cannons that fired 12-pound, 18-pound and 24-pound shells, and installed them at the south foot of Breu Street in the square in front of the city.
The Dutch had a high evaluation of the Zheng army's artillery rate, that is, "was fired after one cannon, and the other cannon was immediately launched." Just before the Dutch were ready, the Zheng army had fired a total of forty shells, and then both sides began to shell each other.
According to the "Relanzha City Log" "Some of us were killed or injured, and some were injured by the bricks on our chest wall and the tiles on the roof of the above-mentioned houses." At the same time, the chest wall of the castle was severely broken, and the city wall itself was bombarded, with many 62 cm deep holes being punched out, and there were 250 holes in the shells alone.
However, as dawn and several heroic gunners from the Netherlands launched a fierce counterattack, the Zheng army was forced to withdraw from the artillery position. During the entire artillery battle, four people (including one gunner) were killed in the Dutch side and 11 were injured. The Dutch fired 350 shells, while the Zheng army fired almost the number of shells.
▲The image of Zheng army drawn by the Dutch
According to the "Batavia City Log", the Zheng army's retreat was caused by the violent shelling of gunners in the upper city, resulting in heavy losses and 300 casualties. However, the "Relan Chacheng Diary" states that Zheng's army ceased fire and evacuated on its own after dawn, and did not record much killing and injury. Only a few cannons fell on the Zheng's artillery position.
Regarding the Zheng army in this battle, the author personally speculated that it might be Ma Xin's admiral Xiaoqi Town and Lin Fu's Liwu Town, because the casualties combined with the aforementioned Qing Dynasty intelligence "More than 300 officers and soldiers under Ma Xin's ministry in Xiaoqi Town" can be compared with what is mentioned in the Bacheng log.
But considering that Ma Xin's troops are cavalry, it is more likely to be supervising the war. Combined with Lin Fu, who died near the fort in the later text, it can be inferred that Liwu Town was also next to him at that time. The so-called 300 casualties of the officers and soldiers under Ma Xin’s troops were most likely to include the firearms troops in Liwu Town.
Interestingly, Kuiyi recorded again in "The Neglected Formosa" that the Zheng army launched three brainless charges in the artillery battle and was repelled by the fierce artillery fire of the Dutch army. 1,000 people died and countless injured people. Finally, the cannon was removed during the chaotic retreat.
This record has been cited by many people, but in fact, by looking at the Recheng Log and Bacheng Log, you can see that Zheng Jun decisively abandoned the artillery position after dawn and evacuated backwards. The so-called launching many brainless charges and being massacred by artillery fire is just Kuiichi's self-proclaimed and not worthy of trust.
Moreover, a record after "The Neglected Formosa" also reflects that Zheng Jun did not retreat in a panic. "Although they were forced to abandon their cannons and hide in the city, their retreat did not appear to be panic, but was orderly, which shows that it was not because of fear of our soldiers, but because of pure orderly retreating in order to avoid our artillery fire." Although this record in was written after leaving the city to seize the flag, the description clearly refers to the scene of the Zheng army retreating after the sun came out. What really caused great losses to the Zheng army should be the subsequent attacks. See the table below:
▲The above table is compiled based on the "Relan Chacheng Log", and some casualties are compiled based on the "Region of the Conquest" and other Chinese historical materials
The Dutch army's raid occurred during the retreat of the Zheng army. Just when the first Dutch army left the city to seize the flag and nail the cannon, the Zheng army behind the fortress shot with arrows. However, considering factors such as building shelter and bow and arrow projection accuracy, several rounds of arrow rain only caused losses to the Dutch army, one person died and several others injured. The Dutch army achieved several cannons and won the brilliant results of thirty-two flags.
At nine o'clock, the Dutch army again went out of the city to nail the cannon, and here the most important battle of the entire stage took place. At that time, while the Dutch army assaulted the fortress, they used rifles to shoot against Zheng's small cannon bows and arrows with their rifles. At this moment, a Zheng army commander ran out of the house next to them and was immediately hit by two bullets. Judging from historical materials such as "The Veritable Records of Conquests", this commander should be Lin Fu, the head general of Liwu Town.
also speculated from this that the person in charge of the defense of the fort at that time was most likely Liwu Town (as for whether the other three towns mentioned above participated in this battle, it is impossible to speculate. It may be there or not. It depends on how the readers can distinguish it).
Lin Fu's death triggered a more fierce counterattack by Zheng Jun, so that a hundred people had to be sent to cover and respond. Finally, the Dutch army achieved its goal at the cost of four people killed in battle and 19 people injured, while the casualties of the Zheng army were not recorded.
Here we combine the records in the "Batavia City Log" mentioned above that in the artillery battle on May 25, the Zheng army lost 300 people, and later it was said that the Zheng army suffered 600 casualties. After the Dutch side captured a sack-making craftsman in Zheng's army, and asked to find out that during the May 25 battle, hundreds of people were killed in the Zheng army.
combined with the exact number of Zheng's casualties given in the Qing Dynasty intelligence mentioned above is more than 300. The author speculates that in the battle on May 25, the Zheng army's casualties should be less than 1,000 people, about 600 to 700.
Summary
After the analysis of the above two articles, we can roughly introduce the overall situation of the offensive and defensive battle in this stage, that is, the Zheng army invested 3 to 5,000 people and arranged it in the city of Rylanzhe, and confronted more than 1,000 defenders of the Dutch side for 20 days. After a long-term artillery battle, various harassment operations, and three large-scale street battles.The Zheng army's casualties throughout the entire stage should be around 800 to 1,000, and a senior officer was lost at the same time. The Dutch army suffered more than a dozen casualties.
This stage of offensive and defensive battle temporarily damaged Zheng Chenggong's siege plan, and Zheng Jun's poor siege technology also brought great casualties. But the reason is that the serious combat power caused by food shortage and incompatibility. Compared with the Dutch's surprise attack, the food problem will be more serious. And if we compare the military situation between China and the West at that time, it would be rather biased.
can only be said that after the training of Spanish , the Dutch were indeed one of the best city defenders. The Zheng army's tactical habits of siegeing and sieging the city were limited by the battlefield environment they experienced (according to Ouyang Tai's statistics in the book "1661 Decisive Battle of Relanzhe", the Zheng army rarely had any battles to capture cities through artillery bombardment, and most of the operations were still mainly to hit the city gates). They had great disadvantages when facing European-style fortifications with strong protective firepower such as European-style fortifications.
▲Dutch army's battle map on May 25
First of all, the Zheng army has never established a complete encirclement network within 20 days, and its patrol system also has major loopholes. The Dutch can often cause certain losses to the Zheng army through unexpected attacks. (Of course, this situation has been greatly improved later.)
But when the firepower cover of arch was lost, the Dutch army faced the Zheng army, which had severe decline in combat power in the field, and had severe decline in combat power. There are many reasons, and the author will write another article for analysis in the future.
To summarize it briefly, in the face of the bastion invented by Europeans with thousands of lives as tuition fees, Zheng Chenggong's army must also pay tuition fees with blood. Fortunately, the tuition fee was not paid in vain.
Reference:
"Jeran Chau Log"
"Batavia Log"
"Neglected Formosa"
"Record of the End of the End of the End of the End of the End of the End of the End of the
""Records of Experiences on the Sea"
"Translation and Compilation of Manchu Documents of Zheng Chenggong Family in the Early Qing Dynasty"
"1661 Decisive Battle of Relanzha"
This article is an original manuscript from the Cold Weapon Research Institute. The editor-in-chief Yuan Kuo and the author Li Zitang. No media may reprint without written authorization. Violators will be held legally responsible. Some pictures are from the Internet. If you have any copyright issues, please contact us.
