In his endeavor to topple the Qing and restore the Ming, General Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) shifted base to Taiwan. He took advantage of high tides in the Taijiang inlet and landed via the Luermen waterways, chasing away the Dutch dubbed by the locals as â??the red-haired foreignersâ?. From then on, a new chapter of Chinese culture began to blossom in Taiwanâ??s history, and Minnan (also known as Hokkien) architecture began to take root in Taiwan under Koxingaâ??s earnest development of the island.
Koxinga had his sights set on securing Taiwan as a base to overturn the Qing as early as 1660. A chance acquisition of Taiwanese maps and of the Dutch deployment particulars prompted him to set off from the offshore island of Jinmen with 25,000 soldiers in a fleet extending 5 kilometers long. They replenished in Penghu and continued to advance to Taiwan. Upon landing, his army first laid seige to Fort Zeelandia and replaced the Dutch regime with the first Han administration in Taiwan. He set up administrative divisions after â??liberationâ? of the island, declared Chikan (Tainan) the easterly capital of the Ming dynasty, and established Chengtianfu, the highest level of government in Taiwan. In light of low food supplies on the island, he also sent troops to settle and cultivate lands on the Jianan and Gaoping plains. Koxinga passed away less than six months after entering Taiwan, and his title of Lord Yanping was succeeded by his son Zhengjing. During this era, the Qing continued its policy of prohibiting any foreign entry along its seashores.
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