In 1661 (the 18th year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty), Emperor Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty collapsed and the third son of the emperor Xuan Ye succeeded to the throne. Huang Wu, a descendant of the Zheng family, proposed to the Qing court the "Five Strategies for Combating Thieves", which included as long as The 20-year border relocation order cut off Zheng Chenggong's economic and trade resources from Shandong to Guangdong. Coastal ships were destroyed and no boats were allowed to enter the water. At the same time, Zheng Zhilong, the father of Chenggong, was killed at the Ningguta Relocation Place (one theory is that he was executed in Chaishi, Beijing). (the west entrance of Fuxue Hutong today, the place of execution since the Yuan Dynasty); dig the Zheng family's ancestral graves; relocate the surrendered officers and soldiers, and reclaim wasteland. Zheng Chenggong heard bad news one after another. In addition, the soldiers in Taiwan were unaccustomed to the local climate and people were panicking. His son Zheng Jing had an affair with his wet nurse. This caused Zheng Chenggong to be pressured internally and externally. He became seriously ill on June 23, 1662 (the fifth lunar month in the 16th year of Yongli calendar). He died. Before his death, he shouted: "I have no face to see the late emperor underground." He scratched his face and died. He was only 39 years old. However, according to records in Xia Lin's "Min Hai Notes" and Jiang Risheng's "Taiwan Foreign Affairs Chronicle", Zheng Chenggong's condition was not serious at first, and he could still read, watch, and drink. Some people think that he may have been poisoned to death.
According to the "Taiwan County Chronicle": "On the early morning of the second day of May when Mr. Guo Xing was ill, the sky suddenly became dark and the ground was full of wasps. On the third day of the Lunar New Year, it was windy and rainy. Waves surged into the sky along the Taijiang River and the sea off Anping, followed by thunder. Lightning flashed like a mountain collapsing and the earth cracking... On the fifth day of the lunar month, the weather cleared, and on the eighth day of the lunar month, Mr. Guo passed away."
Some people say that Zheng Chenggong was from Nan'an, Fujian. Emperor Longwu of the Ming Dynasty once gave him the surname Zhu and the first name Chenggong. Therefore, later generations often call him "Guo Xingye". Zheng Chenggong's father, Zheng Zhilong, was a businessman and a thief in his early years, and eventually became the Fujian General Soldier. When Zheng Zhilong lived in Hirado, Japan in his early years, he married a local woman named Tagawa and gave birth to Zheng Chenggong. Zheng Chenggong returned to China from Japan when he was 7 years old and began to receive Confucian education. In the first year of Shunzhi (AD 1644), Emperor Yongli of the Southern Ming Dynasty conferred Zheng Zhilong as Nan'an Bo, the headquarter of Fujian, responsible for the anti-Qing military affairs of Fujian Province. The following year, brothers Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Hongkui enthroned the Ming Tang King Zhu Yujian as emperor in Fuzhou, with the reign title Longwu. Zheng Zhilong was canonized as the Marquis of Nan'an and was responsible for all military affairs of the Southern Ming Dynasty. When the Qing army marched into Fujian, Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and the Longwu regime also perished. When Zheng Chenggong learned that his father wanted to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, he tried hard to dissuade him. Seeing that his father was stubborn, Zheng Chenggong was angry and ran to Nan'ao Island alone, recruiting thousands of troops to resist the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty sent people to induce surrender several times, but Zheng Chenggong refused.
After Zheng Chenggong became stronger, he joined forces with Zhang Huangyan, the anti-Qing general, and led his army to attack Nanjing by land and water, all the way to the city walls. However, he fell into the Qing army's fake surrender plan and was defeated and returned to Xiamen. After Zheng Chenggong returned to Xiamen, he began to plan to capture Taiwan as a base for resisting the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty. At this time, He Tingbin, who had worked as a translator in the Dutch army, rushed to Xiamen to see Zheng Chenggong and persuaded Zheng Chenggong to recover Taiwan. He Tingbin also gave Zheng Chenggong a map of Taiwan showing the military deployment of the Dutch invading army. In March 1661 AD, Zheng Chenggong sent his son Zheng Jing to lead a part of the army to stay in Xiamen. He personally led 25,000 soldiers and set off from Kinmen in hundreds of warships. After crossing the Taiwan Strait, the army rested in Penghu and prepared to take Taiwan directly.
In order to prevent Zheng Chenggong’s army from attacking Taiwan, the Dutch invaders concentrated their troops in the two castles of Taiwan and Chichi, and sank ships in the port to prevent Zheng Chenggong’s fleet from landing. Under the leadership of He Yanbin, Zheng Chenggong took advantage of the rising tide to sail into Luermen and landed on Taiwan Island. After a fierce battle, the Dutch invading army was defeated miserably and huddled in two cities, daring not to fight. While they sent people to Java Island to mobilize reinforcements, they also sent envoys to Zheng's army camp to sue for peace, trying to exchange one hundred thousand taels of silver for Zheng Chenggong's troops to withdraw from Taiwan. Zheng Chenggong flatly rejected the demands of the Dutch invaders and used the method of cutting off the water source of Chiqian City to force the Dutch entrenched in Chiqian to surrender. Regarding the invading troops entrenched in Taiwan City, Zheng Chenggong decided to adopt a long-term siege to force them to surrender. After eight months of siege, Zheng Chenggong ordered a storming of Taiwan City. The Dutch invading army had no choice but to surrender. In early 1662 AD, Zheng Chenggong drove the Dutch invaders out of Taiwan.
Not long after Zheng Chenggong regained Taiwan, he suddenly fell ill and died at the age of 38. Regarding the death of Zheng Chenggong, there is this saying: While Zheng Chenggong regained Taiwan, he also received a bad message saying that his father was reported by his slave Yi Daqi. Yi Daqi said that there were letters exchanged between Zheng Zhilong and Zheng Chenggong from time to time, and they had evil intentions. The Qing court was furious and executed Zheng Zhilong's family. After Zheng Chenggong heard the news, he beat his chest, looked north and cried: "If you had listened to my advice, how could you have been killed?"
Soon Zheng Chenggong learned that the traitor Huang Wu was in his hometown After digging up the Zheng family's ancestral grave, Zheng Chenggong even beat his chest and slapped the table, crying sadly all day long. He gritted his teeth and swore: "What does the resentment of a living person have to do with the dead? If one day I lead the troops to fight back, and I don't cut your body into pieces inch by inch, I will be in vain as a man in the world." Zheng Chenggong's wish This was realized 14 years later. When Zheng Jing captured Zhangzhou, he also dug up Huang Wu's grave and whipped his corpse to avenge his father's hatred.
In April 1662 AD, Lin Ying, the secretary of the Ministry of War of the Southern Ming Dynasty, became a monk and fled from Yunnan to Taiwan to meet Zheng Chenggong. Qi Li Guotai fled to Burma. Now Wu Sangui is attacking Burma, and the king of Burma has offered the emperor to Wu Sangui. He heard that Wu Sangui had killed him." After hearing this, Zheng Chenggong burst into tears.
Unexpectedly, one wave is over and another wave is coming.
Tang Xianyue, one of Zheng Chenggong's subordinates, reported that Zheng Chenggong's son Zheng Jing had committed adultery with his wet nurse. Zheng Chenggong immediately sent people to Xiamen to kill Zheng Jing, his baby and wet nurse Chen, but the generals who stayed behind in Xiamen did not carry out the order. Zheng Chenggong climbed high every day to see if there were any ships coming from the direction of Penghu, so he caught wind and cold. On the eighth day, he suddenly shouted frantically: "How can I see the late emperor underground?" Then he grabbed his face with both hands and passed away. Therefore, "Taiwan General Chronicle" said that Zheng Chenggong died of cold.
Based on Zheng Chenggong’s abnormal behavior before his death and the background of the internal struggle within the Zheng Group at that time, some people believe that Zheng Chenggong was poisoned to death. The main basis for this statement is that the situation before Zheng Chenggong's death was very similar to the symptoms of toxic attacks after poisoning. Li Guangdi's "Sequel to Rongcun Quotations", Xia Lin's "Minhai Chronicles", and Lin Shi's "He Zha", both contemporary and contemporary of Zheng Chenggong Cong Tan" respectively recorded the death of Zheng Chenggong. For example, "The Continuation of Quotations from Rongcun" contains: "Ma Xin recommended a doctor who thought he had heatstroke and gave him a coolant, but he died late." "He Zha Cong Tan" said: "(Cheng Chenggong) suddenly went crazy and bit off all his fingers and died"; "Min Hai Jiwen" said that before Zheng Chenggong died, he threw the medicine to the ground, and then "stomped his feet, supported himself, and shouted. die". Zheng Chenggong probably realized that someone was plotting to kill him, but it was too late.
Before, the Qing government did have the idea of ????murdering Zheng Chenggong. "Taiwan Foreign Affairs" records that at that time, the Qing government sent a senior officer to sneak into Zheng's army with a sprig of peacock gall, paid a large sum of money to the chef who cooked for Zheng Chenggong, and asked him to poison Zheng Chenggong and his generals while Zheng Chenggong was in a meeting with his subordinates. . Although the chef was greedy for money, he was afraid that the matter would be exposed and did not dare to take action after careful consideration, so he handed the matter over to his younger brother. When it came time for his brother to actually do the poisoning, he "shuddered all over every time he tried to take the medicine." He was so horrified that he told their father what had happened. His father was "shocked when he heard this" and angrily scolded the two of them: "To murder the master is disloyal; to promise others and not do it is lack of integrity. It is better to have no integrity than to be disloyal. What about the annihilation of the nine tribes? What can we do? If we turn ourselves in quickly, we might be able to get away with it." So he took them to Zheng Chenggong's residence and surrendered. Zheng Chenggong not only did not punish them, but also rewarded them heavily, saying very confidently: "I am born, how can I be poisoned by mortals?" After that, Zheng Chenggong strengthened his protective measures. In this way, even if someone "wants to inflict poison, he cannot get close to (referring to Zheng Chenggong)". But this does not rule out the possibility that Zheng Chenggong was poisoned.
The mysterious death of Zheng Chenggong's general Ma Xin seems to prove that Zheng Chenggong may have been poisoned. Ma Xin was a general who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and later became a close confidant of Zheng Chenggong. On the day of Zheng Chenggong's death, a prescription was prescribed by a doctor recommended by him. Zheng Chenggong died at night, and he himself died suddenly without any illness. According to Li Guangdi, Ma Xin died the day after Zheng Chenggong's death. According to Jiang Risheng's "Taiwan Foreign Records", his death date was only five days after Zheng Chenggong's death. Therefore, Ma Xin may have directly participated in the murder of Zheng Chenggong, but was later killed to silence him.
If Zheng Chenggong was poisoned to death, who was the perpetrator? Of course, the Qing government has serious suspicions. At the same time, some people think that they are Zheng Chenggong's brothers Zheng Tai, Zheng Mingjun, Zheng Xi and others, especially Zheng Tai. Zheng Chenggong, who was violent by nature, used severe methods. Many of Zheng's subordinates, including his elders and relatives, were sentenced to death for their faults. The generals were panicked. Many of them defected under the temptation of high-ranking officials in the Qing Dynasty. Relations within the Zheng Group were extremely tense. . Zheng Tai had conflicts with Zheng Chenggong as early as when Zheng Chenggong led his army to attack Taiwan. At that time, Zheng Tai was a grain transport officer. When Zheng Chenggong's army encountered supply difficulties, Zheng Chenggong was extremely dissatisfied with Zheng Tai's dereliction of duty. He wrote five big words in front of his seat: "Before losing your household, you must be punished!" which means that if something goes wrong, , first punish Zheng Tai. After Zheng Chenggong's death, Zheng Tai and others forged Zheng Chenggong's will, ###Zheng Jing, and promoted the ambitious but untalented Zheng Xilai to inherit his brother's throne. In the end, their plot was foiled by Zheng Jing, Zheng Tai was imprisoned and died, and Zheng Mingjun and others led his troops and their families to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. Based on this analysis, it is possible that Zheng Tai and others were the ones who planned the murder of Zheng Chenggong.
After Zheng Chenggong's death, Zheng Jing was first busy dealing with Zheng Tai's rebellion, and then pursued Zheng Tai's huge sum of money in Japan. He himself was almost killed by Zheng Chenggong for committing adultery, so the cause of Zheng Chenggong's death was It was not investigated in detail at the time. It seems that the cause of death of a generation of national heroes needs more historical data to be confirmed.