1624, the Dutch fleet began to target the trade of Ming Dynasty . Although it was not able to get a bargain in the Battle of Penghu, it did not mean that the Dutch ambition completely disappeared with the defeat.
The Netherlands demands monopoly Ming Foreign trade
The emerging colonial empire The Netherlands hopes to obtain all the trade management rights of the Ming Dynasty. The Netherlands has a very big appetite after taking this piece of fat. What it wants is not only a share of the pie from trade, but a monopoly from the root!
Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, all emperors have adhered to the spirit of never bowing to other countries to manage the Ming Dynasty. This request made by the Netherlands is a great humiliation for any emperor of the Ming Dynasty.
The emperor of the Ming Dynasty could not have cut off trade with other countries in order to make good friends with one country in the Netherlands, not to mention that the Netherlands' behavior is no different from threats.
The Ming Dynasty rejected the Netherlands' "dream" without hesitation. The Netherlands, whose wishful thinking was broken, wanted to force the Ming Dynasty to bow its head in July 1633 by plundering Ming maritime merchants and merchant ships.
If the Ming Dynasty did not agree that all out trade would be handed over to the Netherlands, then they would send maritime troops to interfere with the maritime trade between the people and merchants of the Ming Dynasty, and use this method to destroy the economic and trade exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and other countries.
Such behavior is simply shameless. Chongzhen The emperor was very angry when he learned about the actions of the Netherlands. He immediately summoned the ministers in the court and conducted a profound discussion based on this matter.
"The Later Jin regime is becoming more and more powerful now, and there are many peasant uprising troops across the country trying to resist. Now our court has reached internal and external troubles, and we really cannot distinguish more manpower and energy to resolve the harassment of the Netherlands at sea."
court ministers and ministers of a faction tried their best to prevent Emperor Chongzhen from sending troops to fight against the Netherlands. The reasons they said were not without basis. "The Netherlands just wants to do business with us. We make money with any country we do business with. There is no need to waste additional troops because of this matter."
Some of the reasons these ministers chose to stop sending troops were because they were greedy for life and fear of death, and some of the reasons were because they really felt that there was no need to continue to make enemies when there were already many strong enemies. If the Netherlands really united with one of the two forces, it would be a huge blow to the Ming Dynasty.
The opinions of ministers in the court are different
The opinions put forward by the ministers in the court are divided into two parts. The ministers of the peace are based on the idea of stability, but there are still some ministers who believe that this war must not bow their heads like the Netherlands.
"The lessons of the Japanese pirates have caused a very serious impact on the Ming Dynasty. If we choose to bow to the Netherlands this time and agree to his request, I am afraid that other countries will follow suit and ignore the Ming Dynasty, and then make more excessive demands."
This reason did make Emperor Chongzhen feel cold. After showing weakness for the first time, the other party will definitely gain a slight advantage. I want to test where the bottom line of the Ming Dynasty is. This time it is the Netherlands, and the next time it is very likely that it will be other countries.
Nowadays, there are many forces who want to resist the Ming Dynasty. If even the Western powers want to join in and get a share of the pie, then the Ming Dynasty is truly in danger.
Although the opinions put forward by the ministers of the Lord and He was very pertinent, Emperor Chongzhen felt that this war was very necessary and he wanted to take advantage of the Dutch momentum to declare to Western country that although the Ming Dynasty was on a downward tide, it was definitely not an existence they could trample on.
1633 On October 19, 1633, the Ming Dynasty fleet and the Dutch army officially faced each other in Liuluowan.
The two sides confronted each other for three days, and this war was still impossible to avoid. The Dutch army was determined to win their demands. After all, the weapons in their hands were several times more advanced than those of the Ming army. When the two sides fought, as long as they could set a sufficient distance, they could ensure that the Ming army would be beaten to the point of helplessness.
As the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse. Although the Ming Dynasty's army did not have an advantage in weapons, its years of combat experience was enough to fight against the arrogant Dutch army.
Listen to the victory of the battle of Luowan
The Ming Dynasty's fleet had already figured out the Netherlands' style of play before the war began. This time, the Ming Dynasty did not dispatch huge ships, but chose small ships to fight.
Each ship carries enough hay and flint. The Dutch ship is huge in size, but it also has a fatal disadvantage, which is that it moves slowly and cannot accurately aim at small ships with faster movement speeds.
"When they were preparing to fire, we carried out fire cover while waiting for an opportunity to ignite their ships with hay, and used fire attack tactics to completely repel them."
This is the combat strategy that the governor of Fujian thought of against the Dutch army. Although the soldiers under his command were not good at naval warfare, it was not difficult to implement such tactics.
At first, although some ships were affected by shells fired by Dutch troops, Dutch ships quickly realized the fear that the fire attack made them feel.
The Dutch ships could hardly imagine that they would be attacked by fire on the sea. They were confused for a moment and fled everywhere. In order to survive, many soldiers on the Dutch ships had to choose to jump into the sea to escape.
As for those soldiers who do not know how to water, they can only drown alive. As for those ships with small fire, when they flee to the range where the Ming Dynasty shells can sink, the ships in the rear were ready to fire.
After two consecutive ships were sunk, the situation became more and more obvious. If the war continued, the Netherlands' losses would be further expanded. In order to avoid such a situation, the Dutch military could only choose to retreat temporarily.
Ming's army won a great victory in this naval battle, not only successfully repelling the Dutch military, but also greatly encouraged the morale of the Ming Dynasty soldiers and the people, earning a certain face for the Ming Dynasty.
Some Western countries that wanted to see the battle between snipe and clams saw that the Netherlands lost so fiercely in this war, and completely stopped their intention to start a war with the Ming Dynasty. After all, they would not take the initiative to come and die until they developed how to restrain the fire attack tactics.
In the next few years, Dutch no longer made such crazy words to the Ming Dynasty that they wanted to monopolize foreign trade, and other Western countries no longer had harassment. The Ming Dynasty's maritime economic and trade remained stable for a long time.
Reference
" Mingshi "
