The History of China - #264 - Qing 9: Koxinga Attacks!

Episode Date: January 27, 2024

Between the Southern Ming warlord Zheng Chenggong in Fujian, and the Dutch East India Company across the Taiwan Strait in Ft. Zeelandia, a curious figure named He Tingbin serves as the two powers' sole line of communication and diplomacy. But He Tingbin has only one true master - himself. And in his drive to maximize his own gains (and minimize his risk of exposure) he will throw the entire cross-strait dialogue into chaos... Time Period Covered: 1657-1661 CE Major Historical Figures: Southern Ming Loyalists [Xiamen, Fujian]: Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga), Lord of the Imperial Surname [1624-1662] Yang Ying, Court Revenue Officer & Recordkeeper Dutch East India Co. (VOC) [Ft. Zeelandia, Taiwan]: He Tingbin, Headman & translator Cornelius Caesar [Governor, 1651-1656] Frederick Coyett [Governor, 1656-1662] Hermanus Clenk van Odesse [Governor-select, dispatched 1662] Admiral Jan van der Laan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast. TD Direct Investing offers live support. So whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to the History of China. Episode 264, Koshinga Attacks.

We begin today with the tale of a curious figure who would, in almost any other circumstance, likely have been overlooked by history, save for his strangely central place in the conclusion of our tale of Dutch Taiwan and the lord of the imperial surname, Zhen Chenggong. His name is He Tingbin. Tingbin was a headsman, translator for the Dutch, village leaseholder, tax farmer, and merchant. In many ways, he was like many other wealthy and well-connected Chinese immigrants who had bought a stake in the colony. But in other ways, he was less typical. For instance, he had especially close relations to the Zheng court and with other traders in Koxinga's new capital, Xiamen.

He also appears to have been an inveterate conman. Even other Chinese businessmen accused him of behaving unethically in order to, quote, satisfy his greedy appetite and fill his bottomless stomach, end quote. Nevertheless, in 1657, when it was time to appoint an envoy to the court of Kosinga to attempt to smooth over their, by now, rather soured relations, it was to He Tingbin that the Dutch East India Company was forced to turn. As he sailed toward the Ming Memorial Court at Xiamen, morale was high.

For most of his Chinese merchants, confident that the mission would succeed, even began taking new orders again for pepper and other such goods recently banned by Dantangong. Dutch officials wrote to Batavia and requested goods so that Zealandia's warehouses would be fully stocked for when, not if, trade resumed. They also decided to delay the company's yearly auction for village leases, believing that once trade had been restored, those leases would fetch a much higher price than their current depreciated valuations. Tingbin made it to Xiamen and began his negotiations on the Vox behalf. Fortunately, Chinese records of Tingbin's visit to Chenggong's court exist and are quite revealing.

Yang Ying, one of Chenggong's revenue officers and the court record keeper, wrote, In the sixth lunar month of 1657, the chief of the red-haired barbarians, Koyet, sent Ha Tengbin to the Ming memorial capital to arrange to present tribute, open trade relations, and also to display foreign treasures. Yang then went on to explain, Because in previous years, the red-haired barbarians had captured ships and generally caused trouble, the prince decided to prohibit all harbors and bays, whether east or west, whether states or provinces or prefectures, from trading in Taiwan. The complete ban lasted two years, during which shipping was obstructed,

goods rose in value, and the barbarians suffered terribly. For this reason, they sent He Tingbin. End quote. Other Chinese sources corroborate Yang Ying's account, and they too contain expressions similar to Yang Ying's phrases, present tribute and display foreign treasures. Thus, Tingbin portrayed his visit to Zheng within the classical Chinese rhetorical tradition of the imperial tribute system. More importantly, though, he told the Zheng court that the Dutch would pay a tax for the

privilege of trading with Chenggong. Some have suggested that He Tingbin had the tacit approval of Dutch officials, but that seems rather unlikely, especially in light of the fact that what the Xiamen documents record versus what Dutch documents show Tingbin actually told Dutch officials is markedly different. Namely, he completely failed to so much as mention the idea of tribute to his company employers. When he returned to Taiwan later in June, he told Dutch officials that Cheung Kong had received him politely and had read the governor's letter with some contentment. He told them that Cheung Kong's anger was directed not at the current administration of Formosa, but against his previous governor,

Cornelius Cesar. Quote, each time I mentioned Cesar, Chenggong became upset and violent. End quote. Tingbin said that he told Chenggong that Taiwan was now ruled by a new governor, Frederick Kuo-yet, who was, quote, A just, good, and intelligent person, loved and praised by all. End quote. Hearing this news, Chen Chenggong called a general council to consider reopening trade with Taiwan, after which Chenggong informed Tingbin that he would not accept the company's gifts,

but would reopen trade if the company agreed to five conditions. Tingbin said Chenggong asked him to deliver the conditions orally only. They were, at least according to He Tingbin, as follows. First, Chenggong was upset that the Chinese merchants who came to call in Taiwan suffered from Cesar's tolls on outgoing goods. Since the 1620s, the Dutch had searched vessels leaving Taiwan in order to calculate export tolls. But under Cesar's rules, the inspection process had grown ever more cumbersome, causing them losses. Chenggong therefore demanded an end to these delays.

Second, Chong Gong complained that company employees were forcing sailors from Chinese merchant junks to work menial jobs on Dutch boats. Jobs like bailing, scrubbing decks, and the like. He demanded that this practice, too, be stopped. Third, Chinese merchants did not receive sufficiently swift payments for their wares, which, he alleged, were often taken into the company's warehouses without proper receipts. He demanded payments be fast and receipts be provided for all goods. Fourth, Chinese merchants who brought bulk goods to Taiwan were forced to sell them to the company at low prices. According to Tin Bin, although Cesar used the excuse that the materials were needed for company building, he instead had used them for his own house.

Cheng Gong therefore demanded an end to such harassment. Fifth, and most importantly, Zheng Cheng Gong demanded that the governor send letters to Batavia telling the company captains not to attack any further of Chenggong's junks that traded to Southeast Asia Tianbin insisted, as I already mentioned that Chenggong had wanted him to deliver these demands orally rather than in writing which when you think about it for even more than like a second is really suspicious already All the more revealing was that Tianbin's explanation for Chenggong's motives was entirely different from those that Chenggong himself had expressed when he had

imposed the embargo in the first place. His explanation also differs from that of Yangyin's records, according to which the embargo was imposed because the barbarians had been capturing ships. Moreover, Dutch records indicate that Tingbin had said nothing about the tribute mentioned in Yang Ying's account, the 5,000 tails, 100,000 arrow shafts, and ton of sulfur that Zheng's court was now expecting to be paid every year. He Tingbin knew the company's ways, and he knew that he needed a story in order to persuade the Dutch that Cheonggong wanted to reopen trade, but didn't want to reveal the large concessions, the quote-unquote tribute that he'd had to have made on the part of the company. He was,

long story short, flat-out lying. And this, no surprise, was a very dangerous game to play. He'd managed to put the company, and by the by himself, on the hook for a massive payment. Moreover, one couched in the obsequious language of tribute, without his employer's knowledge or approval. Now, that's what I call a sticky situation. For their part, members of the Council of Formosa had only Tianbin's account to go on, and found Chenggong's purported demands acceptable. They sent Tianbin back to Xiaomeng with more gifts and a polite but cautious letter, in which they ceded no ground on the issue of who held sovereignty over the Chinese inhabitants of Formosa. The reopening of trade, wrote the governor, quote,

greatly pleases us, since it will result in the general well-being of their subjects no less than of ours here, end quote. The governor promised that Chinese merchants would enjoy better treatment, quote, than they would receive from any other nation anywhere else in the world, end quote, and that the abuses of Cesar's rule would never be repeated. According to Tingbin's report later to the Dutch, Chenggong was pleased with the letter and immediately put up placards declaring that his subjects were free once again to trade in Taiwan. Soon thereafter, though, news arrived that company ships

had captured one of Chenggong's junks and brought it to Taiwan. Enraged, Chenggong ordered the placards once again torn down. Tingbin told the Dutch that he had had to work hard to convince Chenggong that the junk had been captured without the governor's knowledge and to persuade him to put the placards back up again. Tingbin also presented a letter purportedly from Chenggong himself. One passage read, quote, I have now undertaken to see whether I can regain my land from the Manchus, and since there are One passage read, and also bow feathers for arrows, jaws of cows to use for bows, and also fish intestines, all of which, except for hemp, I need to make bows and arrows, end quote. I mean, this language is pretty suspicious, as are the contents.

If Zheng Chenggong expected to receive these military supplies as, like, a tax or a tribute, why in the world would he word his letter so imploringly? It's very out of character. And also, the phrase under your rule appears very much at odds with Chenggong's own previously and rather forcefully stated perspective, which again, viewed Taiwan and its inhabitants as part of his sphere of sovereignty. It is impossible to know whether or not this letter was forged by He Tingbin, but he was the only intermediary the Dutch had, and there are other examples of Chinese merchants forging correspondences with Dutch officials. Indeed, Chenggang's own father, Zhang Zhelong, carried out an elaborate and highly successful forgery in the early years of Dutch rule on Taiwan. It's not like it wasn't a thing.

In any case, trade picked up again at once. Just two weeks after Tianbin had left Taiwan, a junk arrived from Xiamen with gold, silver, tobacco, paper, as well as many other trade goods. Company officials were upset, however, when they had the actual chance to, you know, read Cheng Gong's actual placard. Its tone indicated, rather strongly, that he did not recognize the company's sovereignty over the Chinese inhabitants of Taiwan. Quote,

My father was happy to grant trade to the Hollanders in Taiwan and allow them for so long to enjoy its good profits. And I, from time to time, have allowed my merchants, junks, and people freely to go to and from there in order to pursue their trade. And all the people who have gone there and now live there, are they not all my subjects? And do I not thus lose a little of my tolls? But thereby I have helped Taiwan, and the Dutch who are there must realize, they drink the water where it comes from, so that they can with a good heart repay me by treating my merchants and people well. End quote. Cheng Gong went on to explain why he would reopen trade.

First, a new governor had replaced Cesar, and reports from his merchants and from Tingbin indicated that the new governor was good and just. Second, he had received assurances, not just from Taiwan, but also directly from Batavia, that his junks would no longer be mistreated by company ships. Finally, he wrote, quote, Realizing that my subjects live in Taiwan, I cannot any longer keep their trade closed. I must rather help them from their despair, and I therefore reopen trade, The governor and the council of Formosa decided that the edict disparaged the Dutch nation, and asked Tingbin sharply whether Chonggong had intended it to be shown to the people of Formosa or just to Dutch officials. Tingbin replied that he had brought the edict to be shown to the Dutch, and if they should approve, that it then would be shown to the people of Formosa. He assured them that the edict that had been put up in Xiamen was different.

Dutch officials were suspicious. At first, Tingbin had said that this was the same edict that had been promulgated in Xiamen. Was he changing his story now to just placate them? How much could he be trusted? The answer probably won't surprise you. From the very beginning, the company had had trouble with their Chinese intermediaries. Rippon blamed the company's first skirmish with the aborigines on a mischievous translator. Salvador Diaz and Li Dan had both cheated the company, and now He Tingbin appeared to be acting suspiciously. Indeed, the company had not really trusted Tingbin to begin with. In 1656, they had delayed talks with Chenggong partly

because they'd been unable to find a trustworthy Chinese, and they knew that a couple of years earlier, Tingbin had been accused of questionable practices by members of the Chinese community in Taiwan. The Dutch had used Tingbin not because they thought they could find him particularly faithful, but because of his strong connections in Xiamen and that he was known in Chenggong's court. They knew, of course, that they had no real way to verify whatever he reported, and that he sometimes told stories about his negotiating skills or his courage on the company's behalf that seemed, at the very least, exaggerated. On one occasion, for instance, he told of how he had saved the company 130,000 tails of silver. Lord Chonggong, he had said, told him that since the company had been wont to pay his father several thousand tails each year for the privilege of trading with him, and since it had stopped paying this sum once Zilong had been taken prisoner by the Manchus, it should pay arrears,

which Koxinga and his advisors calculated to be 130,000 taels. Tingbin replied that his lord must be misinformed, for the company had never paid Zhang Zilong a yearly sum. He suggested that this rumor had probably originated from the company's having once or twice sent presents to Zilong and his mandarins in the course of trade negotiations. Changgong's counselors retorted that Tingbin would at that time have been too young to know, at which Tingbin claimed that he said, quote, that the daily record book of the Dutch in Taiwan is no youngster, and he had seen all of this written down there,

and if their excellencies still did not wish to believe him, they might themselves take the trouble to look in the history books, end quote. He heard nothing more about this 130,000 tales, and so, he concluded, they must have checked their records and found that he had been right. Oh, what a frugal hero that He Tianbin was, tirelessly working on behalf of the company to save them from false back payments, a situation he surely didn't just spin from whole cloth. From Fort Sumter to the Battle of Gettysburg. a situation he surely didn't just spin from whole cloth. From Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman.

To Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The Civil War and Reconstruction was a pivotal era in American history. I'm Rich. And I'm Tracy. And we're the hosts of a podcast that takes a deep dive into that era, when a war was fought to save the Union and to free the slaves. And when the work to rebuild the nation after that war was over turned into a struggle to guarantee liberty and justice for all Americans. Look for The Civil War and Reconstruction wherever you find your podcasts.

Company officials were, at best, ambivalent about Tingbin. He'd probably changed his story about the edict Chenggong had put up in Xiamen. They also had questions about his expense account, which they judged to be higher than necessary, and they delayed paying it in order to examine it more closely. Most importantly, they were beginning to hear disturbing rumors from the Chinese settlers on Taiwan who were accusing Tianbin of personally collecting tolls from departing Chinese junks. When they questioned him about the matter, he proclaimed his innocence. Company officials accepted his story, quote, since such work could not occur here without causing great tumult among the residents, end quote.

But they warned him never to do such a thing, nor, quote, even to allow such an evil idea to enter his thoughts, end quote. He promised to comply. Not long afterwards, the company caught him cheating in a tax farming auction. Somehow, he'd contrived to buy the rights to collect the tax rights for a certain area for less than half the going rate. The auctions had been open. How in the world had he managed to persuade the other bidders to allow him to retain such a low bid?

Why had nobody even attempted to outbid him? Amazingly, even though caught pretty much red-handed, company officials still allowed him to skate on these charges and pursue the investigation no further, almost certainly because they still depended on He Tingbin for his connections in Xiamen. He was, after all, still the main conduit through which they communicated with Zheng Chenggong. Whenever he traveled between Taiwan and China, he carried letters, and he continued polite diplomacy on behalf, and put that behalf in big quotes, of the company. Company officials knew that he was also working for Zheng Qiangong, who

Tingbin told them had entrusted him with money to buy war supplies, things like whitewood, feathers, cow jaws, and fish intestines, as we mentioned before. supplies, things like white wood, feathers, cow jaws, and fish intestines, as we mentioned before. But they condoned this work, quote, so long as the weapons be made there in China and not here, end quote. In 1659, however, they learned from a Chinese merchant named Sam Siak that Tingbin had never actually stopped his demanding of payment from Chinese traders. Executed in the name of the Zheng family, it was, in effect, an extra toll on Zheng's departing Taiwan. Sam Siak said that the Zheng captains found it too burdensome to pay tolls both to the company and to Tingbin,

and had therefore reduced their traffic across the strait. Upon hearing this news, the governor summoned a few Chinese headsmen who'd been acting suspiciously. Under quote-unquote sharp questioning, they admitted that Tingbin had leased the right to collect duties from one of Koxinga's mandarins in 1657. The lease allowed him to collect tolls on all Formosan products exported to China. If the exporter was unable to pay the tolls, Tingbin generously lent them money. With interest, of course.

He had managed to keep his activities secret from the Dutch for so long because he had had help from other Zheng supporters on Taiwan who helped him run his operation. Hey, but don't take their word for it. The headsman brought receipts. In addition to letters from the Zheng family concerning the tolls, there were receipts that Tingbin himself had signed on receiving payments. It's likely that the tolls Tingbin collected went to pay for the tribute and the military supplies that Chonggong expected from the Dutch. The Council of Formosa summoned Tingbin. Under questioning,

he gave a partial confession. Six weeks later, after the Board of Aldermen conducted a formal trial, Tingbin was removed from his office as a headman, discharged from his position as a company translator, and assessed a fine of 300 rials. Rather than facing the long-deserved music, however, he, surprise, surprise, skipped the town and fled to Xiamen with his wife, children, and relatives, leaving behind his very heavy debts both to the company and to individual Chinese and Dutch lenders. What a guy. His escape, to be sure, caused quite the stir across Taiwan. His creditors said that they would be ruined. Company officials, though, were more worried that, quote,

the fusion of good-for-nothing Tianbin could become for Chenggong an instrument dangerous to the company, since he has very good knowledge of our sanctions on Formosa and will not hesitate to use it in order to gain Chenggong's good graces, end quote. And that's precisely what Tingbin did. According to Yang Ying, in 1661, Zheng Chenggong called his top officials to a secret meeting, during which he told them of his plans to invade Taiwan and use it as a base, saying, quote,

The map that He Tingbin submitted two years ago depicts Taiwan as a vast fertile land, with revenues of several hundred thousand taels per year. If we concentrate our skilled people there, we could easily build ships and make weapons. Of late, it has been occupied by the red-haired barbarians, but they have less than a thousand people in their fortress. We could capture it without lifting a hand. I want to conquer Taiwan and use it as a base. After settling new general's families there, we could campaign to the east and chastise those to A rather less reliable account places He Tingbin himself at this very meeting, at which he purportedly said that the aborigines of Taiwan had suffered bullying from the Dutch and would be delighted

to help overthrow them, so that expelling the Dutch from Taiwan would be, quote, like a tiger chasing a herd of sheep, end quote. In any case, Chenggong's advisors were rather reluctant to leave mainland China. One who had actually been to Taiwan said, quote, the island's feng shui is unfavorable, and the land is full of pestilence, end quote. Others felt that the withdrawal was tantamount to giving up the cause of Ming loyalism. Nearly all considered Taiwan to be a malarial wilderness, unfit to serve as a base for Ming loyalism. But Zheng had made his decision. He had a family connection to Taiwan, and the Chinese colonists were,

he reasoned, his subjects. He ordered his generals to prepare to attack the Dutch. Meanwhile, Dutch officials knew nothing of Tingbin's meetings with Koxinga or of the map he'd presented to the warlord. They already more than had their hands full on Taiwan itself. Although trade had increased briefly after Tingbin's initial missions in 1657, it slowed again toward the end of 1658. Over the next two years, few junks came to call in Taiyuan, and the Formosan economy wilted. Village leaseholders lacked trade goods, and more importantly, prices for their deer products plummeted in China. Having expected that trade would recover, they had again paid too much for their leases and were now deeply in debt. Bad weather had hurt the sugar crops, even as sugar prices fell in China.

Rice crops had fared better, but no junks came from China to buy the harvests. Farmers and leaseholders pleaded for help from the governor. Dutch officials decided to lower tolls and decrease interest rates to stimulate their economy. Yet, as officials reported to Amsterdam, quote, there are many who are in such a state that all these benefits will help little, end quote. So long as trade remained paralyzed to and from Fujian, Taiwan had no hope of recovery.

Some officials even reportedly believed, quote, that with that established colony, the best has already come, and it is more likely to decline than to rise. End quote. By 1660, to make matters somehow even worse, company officials began to notice that many Chinese inhabitants were selling their possessions and sending the proceeds on to China. They worried that the Chinese are sending their goods home in order to follow when the opportunity should arise, leaving us with the idle stump, as it were. The Council of Formosa asked some of the richer Chinese merchants for an explanation, but the latter replied that they had always sent money to their relatives across the strait.

It was, to be sure, an unconvincing response. Moreover, many Chinese residents were sending wives and children back to China as well. In early March of 1660, a distraught headsman came before the governor to ask for safe haven. Zheng Chenggong, he said, was going to invade Formosa. He had learned the news the previous day, and his mother, his wife, and his brother's wife had cried all night. They had no precise information about Chenggong's plans, and so Dutch officials asked other headsmen, who said the invasion was to occur on the night of the next full moon, when the Dutch officials would be busy with the company's Landag, or its National Day ceremony, in which the Dutch East India Company would annually gather the residents of Formosa together and display their power in order to cement their authority over the residents.

At that time, the monsoon winds would begin blowing from the south so that the governor and his men would be unable to send messages to Batavia. Chenggong had already conscripted 40 Chinese fishermen from the Pescadores who knew the seas and bays in and around Taiwan. They would help ferry half of Chenggong's army to the north of Taiwan, near Wangkan, and the other half to the south, near Tangkoya. The armies would then march first on Sakam and then on Zealandia itself. Tingbin, they said, had helped formulate the plans and had told Changgong that Chinese residents in Formosa would greet him and his men as liberators. Governor Koyet and the Council of Formosa took immediate action. They put the fortress back into a state of defense and then sent letters throughout Taiwan

telling company officials to prepare for an attack and ordered soldiers who were not directly guarding the fortresses to either repair walls or help finish a new bulwark of Fort Zelandia. They also detained 12 Chinese residents who had allegedly sent wives back to China. When the houses of the detainees were searched, company employees found some of the wives still at home and told them that their husbands would be held until all Chinese grain and venison was sent to Zelandia

and the headsman's horses placed in the company's corral in Sackham. Wrote the Dutch officials, quote, with God's help, which is our greatest hope and refuge, we are hopeful that we will preserve our fortress Zelandia, end quote. There was, however, little the company could do to protect the Formosan plains with their fertile fields and rich deer herds. The Aborigines proclaimed their loyalty to the company, but Dutch officials felt that, quote, this will last only so long as they see that we are as powerful as our enemy and can protect them,

for it is to be expected that they will join the side that is strongest, end quote. Perhaps, company officials mused, the inhabitants of the closest and most Christian towns, such as Sinkan, Matau, Solong, and Bakulan, might hesitate to place themselves under the rule of the heathen Chinese, but they would not help protect the Formosan countryside. One thing they could do was to postpone the Landag, since that was when Changgang's purported invasion would take place.

Most important of all, they dispatched a ship to Batavia to ask for a fleet to resist Zheng's armada and for at least a thousand men to defend the countryside and man the new fortresses that would have to be constructed to defend it properly. As the ship made its way to Batavia, more information about Chenggong's plans continued to arrive in Zealandia. The most important evidence came when the captain of a small Chinese junk revealed under interrogation that he'd come to Formosa to take Chinese settlers to Fujian before Kosinginga arrived. Company officials searched the

vessel and found 18 letters. They were addressed to Chinese residents of Formosa, and nearly all of them advised friends and relatives to leave the island with their property before Changgong's attack. One letter was written to a brother, quote, I inform you with this letter that I have arrived again in the Pescadores and am farming my land as I did before. I believe that my wife and children who live in Taiwan are not safe there. If they have any grain, whether it be little or much, or if they can get any, have them bring it here when they come. Send my wife and children here without delay. Trust that I mean it, and do not disregard this letter as if you do not value my writing.

For each night I become frightened, thinking that some tumult or turmoil is taking place there. I therefore request, as I have before, that you take good care of my wife and children. End quote. It appears that nearly all the Chinese colonists in Formosa believed the rumors about Zhan Chenggong's plans. The governor and the council of Formosa therefore enacted a series of measures to control the Chinese settlers. They required colonists to vacate large areas of Formosa, seeing that, quote, the wide dispersion of Chinese causes difficulties for us, since we have too few people to keep proper surveillance over all of them, and so provides an opportunity and a temptation for them to undertake dangerous assaults on this colony, end quote. Settlers were ordered to move to Sakam. Some complied readily, hoping to find protection under the new fortress, but others had to be cajoled or even threatened. Company officials

were especially worried about the Chinese who lived in Tan Koya and Wangkan, the areas Chenggong intended to attack first. When farmers who lived in Wangkan refused to comply, the company's soldiers brought them to Sakham by force. Other settlers, who had fortified positions in the mountains and the island of Lemi, were also brought to Sakham by force. Other settlers, who had fortified positions in the mountains and the island of Lamey, were also brought to Sakham. Nor were the Chinese permitted to do as they pleased whilst at sea. Company officials forbade Chinese to fish at Wan Khan and northward, and ordered all Chinese boats and vessels to be impounded and kept in company custody. When company ships encountered junks in the Taiwan Strait, their captains felt no compunction about waylaying them and bringing them and their crews back to Taiwan for interrogation.

Junks that called on Formosa of their own accord were not allowed to depart, and their crews and passengers were held to prevent them from talking to the Chinese in Taiwan. Officials also made plans to construct new fortresses in the countryside, and they wrote another letter to Batavia to request more soldiers to man them. They were, they wrote, quote, praying with fiery prayers, end quote, that God would help them in this crisis, thanking him for the warnings they'd received, just as he had helped in 1652 with the Chinese revolt. So long as Batavia took these warnings seriously and sent proper reinforcements, the company, they were sure, would weather the storm. The Council of the Indies responded with unusual speed, sending a fleet of 12 ships under Jan van der Laan. Unfortunately, van der Laan carried rather ambivalent orders. He was to protect Taiwan from Chenggong, but, quote, if, as has frequently occurred, the rumors about Chenggong disappear like smoke in the wind, end quote, he was then to take his fleet south to wrest Macau from the Portuguese.

Van der Laan arrived in Taiwan in late July, and began to grow restless by early October, as no invasion had yet taken place. He wanted to move against Macau, and the question was debated in divisive sessions of the Council of Formosa. Van der Laan, whom some Formosan officials began calling Jan the Unreasonable, argued that rumors of Cheng Gong's attack were nothing but empty rumors. Even if an attack were launched, he purportedly stated, Formosa's defenses would be ample to repulse it, for, quote, half of these defenses and men would be enough to repel a party of Chinese dogs, who are not soldiers, but effeminate men, end quote. Most Formosan officials felt that Chenggang had not abandoned his plans, but merely delayed them, perhaps because he'd learned of the arrival

of Vanderlande's fleet. They were afraid that if the fleet departed, the colony would once again be vulnerable. One member of the Council of Formosa suggested that a messenger be sent to Xiamen to determine Chenggong's intentions. The Council agreed. Chenggong politely received the envoy, but when the latter made what he felt were subtle inquiries about Chenggong's preparations for war, Chenggong interrupted him and said, quote, that he was not in the habit of publishing his designs, but frequently circulated a rumor that he was moving west when he was really intending to move east, end quote. He then wrote a letter to the governor of Formosa directly. He wrote, quote, your honor still remains in doubt about my good feelings toward the Dutch state and believes that I have been planning to undertake some hostile action against your land. This is, however, just a rumor propagated, it would seem, by evil-minded people,

end quote. Chung-Kong went on to state that he was too busy with the Manchus to concern himself with a small, grass-producing land like Formosa. In any case, he said, he frequently spread such rumors to deceive his enemies. He asked the governor, quote, How can one know my hidden thoughts and tell what are my actual intentions, which I have revealed to nobody? End quote. The governor, Chenggong slyly stated, was too quick to believe everything that he was told.

The letter, as might be expected, did little to reassure the governor and the council members. Although shortly thereafter, Chenggong took steps to reopen trade between Formosa and China, they remained suspicious and voted to delay the Macau expedition until the following year. They also decided that the soldiers that van der Laan had brought should stay in Formosa. Van der Laan, furious, returned to Batavia, taking with him two ships and some of his experienced officers. When he made his report to the Council of the Indies, he fulminated against Coyette and presented letters from Formosan employees who complained about the harsh policies Coyette had imposed on the Chinese settlers. Coyette had enemies at Batavia's Council of the Indies, who listened to van der Laan's complaints with eager ears. They, in turn, wrote a letter to Amsterdam, excoriating Coyette for wasting valuable resources by deciding to retain men and ships in Formosa rather than to attack

Macau. Moreover, they decided that rumors of Chenggong's attack were groundless, quote, having been spread among the common folk for years on end without the least outcome, and that rumors had, quote, been from beginning to end nothing but a bunch of false and frivolous fantasies propagated by a few bad Chinese, end quote. As for the Chinese settlers who were fleeing Formosa, Batavia blamed Koyet and other Formosan officials.

Our people are themselves Kazomovans of the commotions that have taken place on Formosa, from which the inhabitants and especially the farmers have received such hindrance and suffering as if Chenggong's army had already been there. The poor peasants have seen their grain sheds razed, and their rice burned. The governor had all the elders and other powerful Chinese imprisoned. The Council of the Andes sent a sharp letter to Coyette and the Council of Formosa. First, they chastised them for harassing Chinese settlers. Quote, The Chinese colony, which has been planted there at so much cost and trouble, is the only means through which that island

has been brought to fruitfulness and from which the company thus yearly derives such rich incomes. And therefore, the correct maxim has always been to nurture the Chinese there.

You, however, have oppressed the Chinese colony with such a hard hand that they are more inclined to leave Formosa than to live under such a restless and punishing government.

End quote. They then told Coyette and his second and third-in-command that they were henceforth relieved of duty. They were to come back to Batavia immediately and answer for their actions. As Coyette's replacement, they chose a man named Hermanus Clank von Odessa, whose instructions called for him to re-establish the Chinese colony on Formosa. Quote, Above all, to see to it that the Chinese colony there, which, thanks to the actions of our people, has suffered like winter wheat in the field, can be helped on its feet again, because without that hard-working nation, the island Formosa cannot be fruitful or bring any income. End quote. Clank was ordered to adopt special measures to make Chinese colonists feel welcome again.

First, he was to issue full pardon for the Chinese headsmen whom Coyette and his men had imprisoned. They would be allowed to take up their old positions, including judicial duties in the Council of Justice. Second, the sheriff, Valentin, quote, who, with his fines and abuses chewing the legs off the poor Chinese, end quote, would be replaced by someone who, with his fines and abuses chewing the legs off the poor Chinese, would be replaced by someone who will serve this office with more compassion and less greed. Third, the Chinese farmers whom Koyet and his men had forced from their fields between Solong and Sinkan and elsewhere would be given back their lands so long as they agreed to abide by the old lease conditions.

Finally, friendly overtures would be made to Chenggong and his people. They would be sent a compliment letter, in which Chenggong would be told explicitly that the new governor had been sent there in order, quote, to take away all the differences that had arisen between him and Governor Koyet, end quote. The Governor General and the Council of the Andes were quite explicit that the Chinese settlers should be mollified. The new governor was instructed to tell the Chinese plainly that Koyat had been fired from his post, quote, in order to show openly that we are upset by the cruel procedures that have recently been undertaken against them

and that they occurred without our knowledge, end quote. Koyat's replacement would not only protect the Chinese from further oppression, but also make it possible for them to again settle on Taiwan without molestation. According to the Council of the Indies, we shall gain more from Changgong by love than by the exercise of violence. Clank took the letters and sailed to Formosa on June of 1661. But by then, it was too late and that is where we will pick up again next time in the conclusion of our Kosinga and Taiwan mini-series that has gone on now for a bunch of episodes next time Kosinga will do the truly unbelievable committing the full weight of his amphibious assault forces to take the island of Taiwan and expel the Dutch

from Fort Zalandia. This next episode will probably come out a bit quicker than usual because I already have it written. This is actually supposed to be just one entire long episode and then I realized that I'd massively overdone it and so decided to split it into two. Until then, thanks for listening. over ten generations, or take a deep dive into the Iron Age or the Hellenistic era, then check out the Ancient World Podcast. Available on all podcasting platforms, or go to ancientworldpodcast.com. That's the Ancient World Podcast.