Koxinga organized his army in to two groups. One for field battles and one for defensive battles fought over important towns and key fortresses.
His armies were form by the following types of troops:
部隊裝備有盔甲、籐牌、滾被、銃砲、刀斧等。又親軍衛鎮則有收編黑奴為兵的洋槍部隊，即護衛一鎮，鄭經時期這黑人護衛鎮作為宮中衛隊及僕役用。
The equipments used by Zheng's armies are helmets, Rattan Shields, Rolling Cover, Firearms, knifes and axes and etc. Within the Elite Guards, black slaves were used as Firearm troops and protects a town. During the times of Zheng Jing (Koxinga's son), the black slaves soldiers were used as guards in the palace and as servants.
In defensive battles, Koxinga utilized a lot of mines. Often time’s mines are placed and Koxinga would lure the Qing army into the mines and detonate to achieve maximum damage.
In all Koxinga’s army, perhaps the most famous is the Rattan Shield 藤牌 troops as it was mentioned in Jinyong’s novel Deer Caldron.
However, equally impressive is his Iron Troops.
Iron Troops:
In March of 1658, Koxinga mentioned to his generals that last year, the army defeated 河格商 He Ge Shang at 護國嶺 Hu Guo Ling and got his armor. It was covered in iron scales. Koxinga recalls seeing the Japanese heavy armor in his youth in Japan and he decided having Iron Armor gives soldiers more advantage both mentally and physically.
Several of his generals were against the idea. They feel that Iron Armor is good in cavalry battles. However being in the south, Koxinga’s army doesn’t have an cavalry, therefore Iron Armor isn’t going to work on foot soldiers. Iron Armors weighs up to 30 Jin, making it very hard to maneuver as infantry. General 甘煇Gam Hui (Gan Huei for Mandarin readers) suggested to have soldiers train with sand bags tied on foot, they could get use to the weight. Later on, he had a stone weighing 300 Jin in the middle of the training field. Those who can were armor and moved the stone around the field 3 times gets to be selected into the Elite Guards, called Iron Man, and paid 3 Liangs of Silver every month.
The elite guards wore metal masks, metal armor, and wore facial paintings. Koxinga was able to recruit about 10,000 of such troops. They weren’t afraid of other weapons, often times are in the front of the army, wielding Zhan Ma Dao 斬馬刀. The enemy of Koxinga often thought of the Iron Troops as gods. The first time the Qing army saw the Iron Troops, they were afraid to attack.
In battles for Formosa, the Dutch saw the Iron Troops and developed a deep fear of Koxinga’s armies. They even draw the troops in their diaries. They described the Iron Troops as such: “There are 3 types of weapons used by the Koxinga’s army. A portion of them wore bows and arrows on their back, holding a very heavy sword with the right hand and had a shield on the left hand. Others hold long sticks with a curved blades at the tips. All of his troops, besides their arms and feet were covered in iron scaled armor… They held their shields for cover and charged into their enemy. They entered in and out of the enemy position almost as if they had another body at home which they could use. Even though many of them died, but the others wouldn’t even look and charged on like crazy dogs.”
The shield mentioned were Rattan shields and the heavy swords were Yunnan Zhan Ma Dao 雲南斬馬刀.
Paintings of Iron Troops by the Dutch.
The Chinese records on the Iron troops are:
設戎旗左右鎮，以林勝為左戎旗鎮，拔左衝鎮楊琦為右戎旗鎮，調各處鄉勇訓練銃器，配執銅百子花釬銃，設斬馬刀，不空歸木棍，每名兵另帶銃彈三粒在身，遇敵擲擊。
The troops were divided into Left and Right wings. Lin Sheng led the Left Wing and Yang Qi led the Right Wing. The recruited volunteers from many towns to train them on the use of firearms and equip them with braze Bai Zi Hua gun, Zan Ma Dao, Bu Kong Guei sticks. Every soldier carried 3 bullets to shoot at the enemy.
Rattan Shield:
There are many reasons why Koxinga’s army used Rattan shield.
First of all, much of Hokkien and Taiwan was covered by jungle, making Rattan readily available and much cheaper than other material. Also Rattan shields are extremely light, and it is easy to use and carry. Finally, Rattan floats. After the shield is processed with oil, not only can Rattan defend against arrow and bullets, it generates great buoyancy, making it easy for soldiers to cross a body of water. That is how the Iron troops crossed rivers. Rattan shield troops uses 緬刀 Mian Dao or 雲南斬馬刀 Yunnan Zan Ma Dao as weapons. When fighting, Rattan shield blocks incoming projectiles and then soldiers would roll to the enemy and cut the legs of the enemy or enemy horses. It is extremely effective at breaking through enemy formations.
In Koxinga’s army, everyone from the general to the soldiers were expects in using the Rattan shield. Normally his armies required equal amounts of firearms and rattan shiled.
There are 6 Rattan shiled fighting methods:
1. Roll towards the enemy formation and cut legs.
2. Use the shield to block of arrows and stones while breeching city walls or boarding enemy ships.
3. Using 3 man as a group, one man used the shield for protection, the other 2 would attack.
4. A formation of Rattan shields could charge into enemy formation and initiate close combat.
5. 藤牌厝 Rattan Shield House. A unit of Rattan shield forming roof and walls and charge. Also called Round Formation attack. Often used against the Qing cavalry archers or other high maneuverable enemies.
6. Big Hat attack.
In the book 明季南略 Ming Ji Nan Lue, it described Koxinga’s Northward Push as such:
「…前隊長鎗，次團牌，第二陣『倭銃 』…而疾走如飛，突至馬前殺人。其兵三人一伍，一兵執團牌，蔽兩人，一邱斫馬，一兵砍人，甚銳，一刀揮鐵甲軍馬為兩段。蓋鑄刀時，用鐵匠百人挨遞打成此一刀，故銳特甚…鄭兵不動，俱銕甲胄銕面頭子，只露兩足，用長刀砍騎，銳不可當，射中其足，則拔箭更戰，清兵逐敗…」 此處所說的團牌即藤牌，並有鐵人及藤牌的使用。 「第一隊五十人，前有五色旗一面領之。有滾被二人；滾被者，用一大棉被厚二寸，一人執之，雙手有刀。如箭至，即張被遮候； 箭過，即捲被持刀滾進，斫人馬足，又有團牌二人。滾被、團牌此四人俱喫雙糧。」
“The front formations were armed with spears, then with round shields. The second formation were armed with 倭銃 Japanese firearm. They move fast like flying, suddenly arrived in front of the horse to make their kill. Every 3 soldiers move as a group. One man held the shield to protect the other two soldiers. One attacks the horse, the other attacks the person. The knifes are very sharp, one slash could cut the iron armor and horse in to half. That’s because while making the sword, one hundred black smith hammered the sword… The Zheng army need not move, all of them armed with Iron armor and Iron Masks, showing only the bare feet, used long swords to chop down horses. If arrow shot their feet, they would pull it out and continue fighting. Qing’s army was no match for them.”
Here mentioning the used of Rattan shields and Iron man.
“Every team consists of 50 man, with a five colored flag leading. Two man wore the Rolling Cover, which is a big Cotton cover as thick as two inches. One man held it, with knifes in both hands. When arrows arrive, they raised the cover to block it. As soon as the arrows has passed, they rolled the cover around and rolled on the ground forward with knifes and chops foot of man and horses. There are also Rattan Shield teams in two men. All 4 men in the Rolling Cover team and Rattan shield team eats double the food than the regular soldiers.
Present Day Rattan Shield. The art of Rattan shields are still practiced in some areas of Taiwan. However the shields are smaller than what the Koxinga army would have used.
Any descriptions of their performance in specifics battles? Are there many battle accounts of the wars fought by Koxinga and his heirs in general?
