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The force despatched up the Yangzi in 1629 by Koxinga's father was led by Zheng Huigui, Koxinga's uncle. It arrived off Zhenjiang just as the Manchu army was crossing over to Jin Shan [Golden Island], causing the Manchus to pause, change their plans and move further upstream for their crossing. However, the Manchus, having taken Nanjing, upstream, they floated downstream on rafts and after coming under fire from Zheng's force, still went on to capture Zhenjiang. Zheng fled downstream and back down the coast to Fujian. It was just at that moment that Koxinga's father deserted to the Manchu side. With most of Fujian province within his power Zheng, despite his submission to the alien Manchus, welcomed the Ming emperor who was fleeing ahead of the southward advance of the Manchus as a means of augmenting his power. Despite his protestations of loyalty he failed to aid the emperor's restorationist cause by the simple expedient of inactivity.
Our next episode begins fifteen years after the execution of Koxinga's father in Beijing where he had been held hostage, with Koxinga himself vigorously opposing the Manchus. In 1659, Koxinga hearing that the Manchu forces were preoccupied in Yunnan province sailed to the mouth of the Yangzi where he remained whilst a portion of his fleet commanded by Zhang Huangyan, sailed up the Great River, captured Zhenjiang before sailing on to Wuhu, far upstream beyond Nanjing. Koxinga, himself, landed on Congming island near the mouth of the Great River and having marched across country, he entered the old Ming capital of Nanjing in triumph, where he proclaimed the restoration of the Ming. However, he was promptly besieged in Nanjing for four long months before surrendering the city and being able to escape. The failure of the second raid up the Yangzi led the Manchus to install large garrisons within the major walled cities down the Yangzi, Zhenjiang being but one. In each city a special quarter was set aside for the Manchu garrison, members of which were forbidden to have too much intercourse with the native Chinese and quite categorically were forbidden to marry them. The Manchus at first were merely feared but as the years passed so they grew to be heartily disliked. And in their later years they were despised. There was a remnant of the Manchus still in Zhenjiang in the 1920s, whose poverty was a burden on local charities and the authorities and whose extensive burial grounds down the centuries of both the Manchu White and Yellow Banners were still standing in the city's south-west suburbs. It was claimed that Zhenjiang reflected typical Jiangbei culture with a dash of Peking from the
267
The force despatched up the Yangzi in 1629 by Koxinga's father was led by Zheng Huigui, Koxinga's uncle. It arrived off Zhenjiang just as the Manchu army was crossing over to Jin Shan [Golden Island], causing the Manchus to pause, change their plans and move further upstream for their crossing. However, the Manchus, having taken Nanjing, upstream, they floated downstream on rafts and after coming under fire from Zheng's force, still went on to capture Zhenjiang. Zheng fled down stream and back down the coast to Fujian. It was just at that moment that Koxinga's father deserted to the Manchu side. With most of Fujian province within his power Zheng, despite his submission to the alien Manchus, welcomed the Ming emperor who was fleeing ahead of the southward advance of the Manchus as a means of augmenting his
power. Despite his protestations of loyalty he failed to aid the emperor's restorationist cause by the simple expedient of inactivity.
Our next episode begins fifteen years after the execution of Koxinga's father in Beijing where he had been held hostage, with Koxinga himself vigourously opposing the Manchus. In 1659, Koxinga hearing that the Manchu forces were preoccupied in Yunnan province sailed to the mouth of the Yangzi where he remained whilst a portion of his fleet commanded by Zhang Huangyan, sailed up the Great River, captured Zhenjiang before sailing on to Wuhu, far upstream beyond Nanjing. Koxinga, himself, landed on Congming island near the mouth of the Great River and having marched across country, he entered the old Ming capital of Nanjing in triumph, where he proclaimed the restoration of the Ming. However, he was promptly besieged in Nanjing for four long months before surrendering the city and being able to escape. The failure of the second raid up the Yangzi led the Manchus to install large garrisons within the major walled cities down the Yangzi, Zhenjiang being but one. In each city a special quarter was set aside for the Manchu garrison, members of which were forbidden to have too much intercourse with the native Chinese and quite categorically were forbidden to marry them. The Manchus at first were merely feared but as the years passed so they grew to be heartily disliked. And in their later years they were despised. There was a remnant of the Manchus still in Zhenjiang in the 1920s, whose poverty was a burden on local charities and the authorities and whose extensive burial grounds down the centuries of both the Manchu White and Yellow Banners were still standing in the city's south-west suburbs. It was claimed that Zhenjiang reflected typical Jiangbei culture with a dash of Peking from the
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