Since the opening of the era of navigation to the mid-to-late 16th century, the Portuguese obtained the residence rights in Macau , exchanges and conflicts between China and the West have gradually increased.
After entering the 17th century, China in the first half of the century was at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and China in the second half of the century was at the early stage of the Qing Dynasty, and both sides had more exchanges with Western countries.
From the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, there were three main Western countries that had had armed conflicts with China:
Netherlands , Britain and Tsarist Russia .
In the battle between the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty and these countries, Western countries showed common advantages over China. What do they have? What is the solution?
1. The near-desolution advantage is Battle
0. The Western countries that had the most conflicts with the Ming Dynasty in the late Ming Dynasty were not Portugal, which was entrenched in Macau in front of us, but the newly emerging "sea coachman" Dutch .
Since the 32nd year of Wanli (1604), the Dutch Wei Malang occupied Penghu and was threatened and persuaded by the Ming general Shen Yourong, and finally sent him away.
Then, in the second year of Tianqi (1622), he occupied Penghu again and built a castle in Penghu to harass the coast of Fujian. In addition to colluding with pirates to burn, kill and loot, he also plundered thousands of Ming Dynasty people and sold them to Batavia as slaves.
was eventually expelled from Penghu by Fujian Governor Nan Juyi, and went to Taiwan to build a castle for colonial rule. It was not until he was defeated by Guo's master 38 years later and surrendered.
However, the Guoxian Ye did not have smooth sailing against the Dutch, because the Dutch built several fortresses in Taiwan, the more famous of which were Prominzha and Jelanzha .
1661 On May 1, 1661, after the army of Guoxian landed in the north end and other places, it quickly cut off the connection between Prominzha City and Relanzha City, and mobilized all troops to siege it.
Three days later, the defender of Prominzha City "Mao Nanshi Ding" announced his surrender. The Zheng army captured the fortress with the smallest loss, but the Zheng army was helpless in the face of Relanzha.
Because Jelancha is a very typical western prism.
It is composed of two fortresses. The upper city is a huge square building, with a length and width of about 100 meters, and there are huge ridges protruding in all four corners.
Compared with Chinese-style city walls or levels, the outstanding advantage of the battalion is that there are no blind spots in the defense. The defenders can shoot guns and cannons at the attackers from all angles, forming a dense firepower network to kill invading enemies.
Moreover, the inclination angle of the bastion and the filled soil can alleviate the bombardment of shells and effectively protect the bastion.
The Guoxian master began to attack the city of Relanzha in June 1661, and it was not until the eight-month siege in February 1662 that he finally forced the Dutch defenders of Relanzha to surrender. During the period of
, the Guoxian master also invested a large number of cannons to bombard the Utrecht Fort in support of the city of Relanzha, but in the end, he did not break the city of Relanzha.
Instead, it forced the Dutch Governor-General Kiyi to accept surrender, and only then did the Zheng army defeat the city of Relanzha.
The Zheng army was difficult to chew off the bastion, and the Qing army also made no progress in the frontal attack against the fortress built by Tsarist Russia.
Take the two battles of in Yaquesa as an example. After Tsarist Russia invaded the Heilongjiang River Basin, it also built several fortresses to invade various tribes.
But perhaps it is subject to the civil and construction conditions in the Heilongjiang River Basin, so the fortress they built cannot be considered a strict bastion. Many places of the fortress are still built of wood.
So facing the continuous bombardment of the Qing army's thirty large artillery and fifteen small artillery, more than 100 Rakshasa were killed ten days after the shelling.
But apart from siege and artillery, the Qing army never attacked head-on Yaquesa , but due to the large casualties of Rakshasa and the destruction of materials, they finally chose to surrender.
After the Qing army withdrew, Rakshasa made a comeback, repairing and strengthening the Yaquesa Castle that was demolished after being bombarded by the Qing army, and increasing the number of artillery to defend.
The castle built this time is a bit like a castle.
" is surrounded by four zhang wide on all sides and three zhang high on all sides. The earth wall is made of plants, clay and plant rhizomes. It is extremely solid and has a fortress with four protruding edges on all sides. " ("Cossacks on Heilongjiang")
So during the Second Battle of Yaques, the Qing army's besieged Yaques was obviously difficult. Although the number of artillery invested increased, the time for the forced landing of Rakshasa became longer.
Starting from September 1, 1686, the Qing army besieged Rakshasa until early December, almost destroying Rakshasa in the past four months.
Rakshasa evacuated from the initial 736 people to the end of the peace talks between the two sides, only 66 people were left.
It can be seen that due to geographical conditions, the Tsarist Russian bastion has no red-haired bastion to be repaired, so personnel losses are naturally greater than red-haired.
But neither the Red-haired bastion nor the Tsarist Russian bastion could be conquered head-on.
The only way to show off the bastion is to siege .
2, medium advantage is that the Western warship
The earliest country to fight with the Ming Dynasty was the Portuguese. Both sides had several naval battles since the early 16th century, but the scale was very small.
includes Tuen Mun Naval Battle in Guangdong , Xicao Bay Naval Battle, Shuangyu Port Naval Battle and Zoumaxi Naval Battle in Zhejiang, which ended with the victory of the Ming Dynasty army. But after entering the 17th century, the biggest enemy of the Ming Dynasty on the sea was no longer the Portuguese and Japanese pirates, but became the Red-haired Yi who was unscrupulously rampant on the sea.
is also the Dutch.
Since the first time the Ming Dynasty met the Dutch in the 32nd year of Wanli, he was impressed by the tall and fierce firepower warships they drove, because even the Portuguese were cowardly.
" The ship is very huge, wrapped in copper leaves, and it enters the water by two feet. " ("Guangdong Sword Edition·Chief of the Wild Yi")
" At the beginning, the Dutch drove such a warship. The first time the Dutch harassed Macau and occupied Penghu, and persuaded him to retreat.
knew very well that Ming Dynasty navy could not compete with it. At that time, Shen Yourong said righteously to Dutch commander Wei Malang that they were strong in ships and cannons came and went freely.
But the Ming army did not have a way to defeat them, because the Ming army had more warships than them. If you have the ability, you would sink all the Ming army navy, otherwise you would wait to be besieged by the Ming army navy.
" means using a gangster to break one ship, and one ship will be repaired; gunpowder is limited, my ship is endless; I am afraid you will die! " ("Chongxiang Ji·Shu of the Southern Er Taigong Zu")
If you sink one of our warships, there will be other warships to be repaired. The implication is that we have many warships, and we are not afraid of you to fight; but your artillery is limited, and your shells will always be exhausted.
Similarly, your warships are limited. If we sink one, one will be reduced. However, our warships can have countless substitutes, so you will eventually be destroyed by us.
sounds like a show of power, but in fact, being able to say something or threat to this point can clearly feel the helplessness of the patriotic general Shen Yourong.
Our warships and artillery are not as good as you, so we can only make up for the shortcomings with quantity and life, but the attitude of expelling you will not change. After the Dutch occupied Penghu twice between the Tianqi period, their warships were significantly improved compared with the Wanli period, and the power of the artillery was upgraded.
" relies on the huge boat and cannon. The boat is thirty zhang long, six zhang wide, more than two feet thick, five masts, and three floors behind it. There is a small window next to it. There is a copper cannon in , and two zhang under the mast, which can break the stone city and shake dozens of miles. " ("Records of Emperor Xizong of Ming Dynasty")
So whether it was the Battle of Six Ao with the Ming army when the Dutch occupied Penghu, or the Battle of Nanjuyi to regain Penghu, the Ming army basically did not take advantage.
even suffered huge casualties.
Also Chongzhen , the most well-known Liuluo Bay Battle , was also hundreds of Ming Navy warships, fighting against more than a dozen Dutch warships.
In addition, it happened in the battle between the Ming Dynasty and the United Kingdom in . Although the Ming Navy did not invest much troops, it did not take advantage of it in the end.
During the resumption of Taiwan by the Kuomintang, there were more than 60 various Zheng army warships fighting against three Dutch warships.
In the end, the Ming army's fighting style was the same, basically the number of superior warships and troops, and only by moving closer to the fire attack can we win. This kind of playing style is naturally helpless, so the Ming army basically had a "miserable victory", among which the naval battles during the resumption of Taiwan by the founder of the country were even worse, and the Zheng army's record against the Dutch Navy was even worse.
But fortunately, both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, warships can only drive to the sea or park in the port, and many battles ended with China's victory.
So the advantages of warships are smaller than those of the battalion.
3. The one with the smallest advantage is the firearm
Compared with the almost misunderstanding of the bastion, the warships with a large gap in style and firepower, the gap between the West and the Ming and Qing dynasties was not that big in the 17th century.
Take the Ming Dynasty as an example:
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, they first introduced their advanced "Folang Machine" artillery through war and trade with the Portuguese and carried out various styles of magic modifications.
In the late Ming Dynasty, with the arrival of the Dutch, the Ming army quickly equipped the more advanced " Red Cannon " by salvaging Dutch shipwrecks or seizing them, as well as purchasing or smuggling from Macau Portuguese people.
was used in the wars of Liaodong , Later Jin , Qing, etc., and achieved considerable results, but they were soon absorbed and used by the Qing army.
After Qing army entered the pass, they fought with the Ming army, especially after capturing the southeast coast, they also took over many advanced artillery of the Ming army, and even recruited many Western mercenaries to serve themselves.
is more famous like black mercenary under the command of Zheng Zhilong. A small number of them were captured by the Qing army and were incorporated into the Qing army and followed the Qing army to fight everywhere.
The introduction and manufacturing of artillery in the early Qing Dynasty was still quite enlightened due to the need for war. Of course, most of them were the foundation left by the Ming Dynasty, and a small part was also obtained from the Portuguese or the Netherlands.
So in terms of artillery, musket , etc., there is certainly a considerable gap with Western firearms, whether in the late Ming Dynasty or the early Qing Dynasty, but the gap is not so big that it is insurmountable.
and even this technical gap can be made up with sufficient quantity, which has been proven in the battle between the Zheng army and the Dutch, as well as the battle between the Qing army and the Rakshasa.
Even if you rely entirely on cold weapons and without the fire support and assistance of muskets and cannons, the Ming army (Zheng Jun) and the Qing army may not be at a disadvantage.
Take the battle at the end of the northern line when the king of the country restored Taiwan as an example. The less than 800 Zheng soldiers fought against the 240 Dutch musketeers. The Zheng army all carried sabre , waist knife, rattan card and other cold weapons.
, while the Dutch all carried musket , and several artillery pieces helped. As a result, the Zheng army attacked with a frontal assault and backward attack, and annihilated the Dutch musket team with a wave of charge.
Although Zheng Jun also suffered considerable casualties during the charge, as long as the speed is faster and the number of people is enough, it is not too difficult for the frontal impact to fire a musket array with continuous firepower and artillery bombardment.
If the two sides set up their formations in an open field without castles, trenches or other fortifications, they can also say that the Western army with all the firearms will defeat or even wipe out them.
Also during the First Battle of Yaquesa, Fujian rattan soldiers dispatched by the Qing army could still use the cold weapon of rattan plus waist knife to severely damage the Rakshasa reinforcements in Yaquesa on the water.
Because the power of muskets and cannons at that time was not very amazing.
What's more, whether the Zheng army restored Taiwan or the Qing army's Battle of Yaquesa, both sides invested huge artillery. Even if they were not as advanced as the Netherlands and Rakshasa, the firepower was basically the same as the number.
So in the war between China and the West in the 17th century, firearms should be the one with the least advantage over bastions and warships.
(One person's opinion, seek common ground while reserving differences, thank you for reading)
