Koxinga and Shi Lang - Donnybrook at Sea goes East

Koxinga leads a flotilla of small vessels against the Dutch at Fort Zeelandia

A little discovery gem for me has been the exploits of Zheng Chenggong a Ming loyalist who, in his short 37 years did enough to guarantee immortality. Born in Japan to a Chinese father and Japanese mother, he became perhaps the most famous Chinese naval commander of all time. 

He was responsible for ejecting the Dutch VOC from Taiwan by capturing Fort Zeelandia in 1662 and defeating VOC forces at sea. He is often better known by his Dutch influenced name Coxinga or Koxinga. 

Wonderful (if perhaps somewhat partizan) little video segway here:

Koxinga

Just ask youself about all of the gaming possibilities in this four minute brain feast!!!!

Koxinga leads his Ming sailors against the Qing and Dutch

My biggest frustration during the pulling together of my Chinese forces has been the lack of a decent junk. A very frustrating search has produced a few possibles but nothing which could be considered a hot prospect. 

Warbases sampans

I resorted to using some pimped up sampans from Warbases. They have turned out quite well. I now have eight of them. They are a good match for my shallops, jolly boats and small sloops. The basic models are fine and I just added masts, sails, rigging, flags and banners.

Preparing to repel Koxinga

On the other side of the war was the great Qing Admiral Shi Lang - he was around in the the time of Koxinga but outlived him to reconquer Taiwan from Koxinga's descendants in 1685. He also  personally commanded VOC ships and men in his war with the Ming rebels.

My Chinese troops and sailors will battle each other and English, Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish ships and men in the South China and Andaman seas.

Some of the larger engagements I have already started to cover in smaller scales. This battle between a lone VOC 50 gun ship and a swarm of junks was great fun and ended in a Dutch victory. Completed im 1/2400 scale.

Koxinga and three sampans full of warriors.