The Naval Battle Between The Zheng Group And The Dutch East India Company And The Evolution Of The Military Pattern Across The Taiwan Strait(1633-1663)

In the 17th century,China was in an era of frequent warfare.There were both land wars caused by dynasty changes and maritime conflicts between China and the West.The Zheng Group participated in it.After the fall of the Ming Dynasty,the Zheng Group first fought the Qing army in the southeast coastal area,and then restarted the war with the Dutch on the sea and regained Taiwan.Finally,it was strangled by the Qing and the Dutch and staged a trilateral struggle between the Taiwan Straits.However,as the situation changes,the focus of the game has changed.It is no longer the trade competition between the Zheng group that dominates the sea and the Dutch who dominate Taiwan,but the competition between the Qing Dynasty and the unwilling Zheng group.Contest in coastal areas.The status of the Dutch in the Taiwan Strait War has gradually changed over the past 30 years,and the Zheng family has always been in a dominant position.This article presents the causes and consequences of the three-stage maritime war between the Zheng Group and the Dutch East India Company in the Chinese waters from the 1630s to the 1660s,and compares the changes in the maritime military forces of the two sides,and discusses how the military structure of the Taiwan Strait has continued to evolve during the war.The end of the Zheng-Dutch relationship in the center of the Taiwan Strait.This article is divided into four parts.The first part discussed Zheng Zhilong’s first large-scale maritime war with the Dutch after the naval forces he established after accepting the Ming Dynasty’s invocation and becoming part of the national armed forces.After the war,Zheng and the Dutch formed a balance of power in the Taiwan Strait to jointly maintain peace and order.The second part first discusses the end of the balance of power across the Taiwan Strait and the changes in the relationship between Zheng and the Dutch during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.Secondly,it described the three large naval battles surrounding Taiwan’s ownership in the Second Zheng-Dutch War and the maritime operations of the two sides in the later period of the siege of Zeelandia castle,thus showing the importance of the navy in supporting land operations.Finally,it is described that after the Dutch lost Taiwan,they united with the Qing Dynasty to counterattack the Zheng group,and finally forced the Zheng to abandon all the coastal islands and retreat to Taiwan.However,the Dutch’s strategic intent was not realized at all,and the short-term Qing-Dutch alliance came to an end.The third part mainly compares the maritime military forces of Zheng and Dutch with previous naval battles.That is to say,it vertically shows the development of Zheng’s maritime armed forces during the two periods of Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong,and compares the changes in the strength of the Dutch fleet from the battle of Liaoluo Bay to the battle of Kinmen and Xiamen,and horizontally compares the differences in the level of equipment between the two sides.After analyzing the scale,location and tactics of the previous naval battles,it is believed that the Zheng’s maritime armed forces prevailed in naval battles against the Dutch fleet,not only because of their numerical advantages,but also the result of the rational use of strategies and tactics.The last part discusses the influence of the Zheng-VOC naval battle on the military structure of the Taiwan Strait.The military situation in the Taiwan Strait has changed after every war.The three-stage war not only reflected the process of the Zheng Group’s maritime forces from rising to prosperity and then to decline,but also reflected that although the strength of the Dutch fleet is gradually increasing,it cannot prevent its decline in the Taiwan Strait.The main reason for this change is that the Taiwan Strait,which is on the periphery,has been incorporated into the large pattern of political changes in the East Asian continent,and China’s internal war has covered the Taiwan Strait.The maritime conflicts between China and the West in this sea area have gone from fierce to receding,and the Taiwan Strait is completely controlled by the Chinese.