Editing Koxinga (section)

===Resistance to the Qing===
[[File:Zheng Chenggong.JPG|right|thumb|upright=1.15|Zheng Chenggong statue in Xiamen, Fujian, China. The granite statue is {{val|15.7|u=m}} tall and weighs {{val|1617|u=tons}}.<ref>{{cite web|title=Koxinga Statue at Gulangyu receives Sculpture Achievement Award|url=http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/travel-msg-972.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180925065121/http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/travel-msg-972.html |archive-date=25 September 2018|url-status=live|access-date=24 September 2018}}</ref>]]
By 1650, Koxinga was strong enough to establish himself as the head of the [[House of Koxinga|Zheng family]].{{sfnp|Struve|1984|p=116}} He pledged allegiance to the [[Yongli Emperor]] of Southern Ming, who created him Prince of [[Yanping District|Yanping]] (延平王).<ref name="LuWangNMHTW">{{cite web |script-title=zh:臺南與鄭成功 |url=https://tainanstudy.nmth.gov.tw/article/detail/9/read? |trans-title=Tainan and Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) |author=Yan Xing |website=Tainan Literature and History Research Database |publisher=National Museum of Taiwan History |access-date=12 February 2021 |script-quote=zh:這時成功意志堅决，便單獨倡導拒滿復明運動，以金，厦兩島爲根據地地，不斷地向閩，浙東南一進攻，奉永明王永曆正朔 |trans-quote=Then Chenggong (Koxinga) resolutely and independently advocated for the movement to resist the Manchus and restore Ming, with bases in Kinmen and Xiamen, continuously attacked southeastern Min (Fujian) and Zhejiang, pledged to serve the Youngli emperor of Ming}}.</ref> The Yongli Emperor was fleeing from the Manchus with a motley court and hastily assembled army. Despite one fruitless attempt, Koxinga was unable to do anything to aid the last Ming emperor.{{sfnp|Struve|1984|p=116}} Instead, he decided to concentrate on securing his own position on the southeast coast.

Koxinga had a series of military successes in 1651 and 1652 that increased the Qing government's anxiety over the threat he posed.<!-- This is too brief. Please be more specific here and list some of the military successes. -->{{sfnp|Struve|1984|p=159}} Zheng Zhilong wrote a letter to his son from [[Beijing]], presumably at the request of the [[Shunzhi Emperor]] and the Qing government, urging his son to negotiate with the Manchurians. The long series of negotiations between Koxinga and the Qing dynasty lasted until November 1654. The negotiations ultimately failed.  The Qing government then appointed Prince Jidu (son of [[Jirgalang]]) to lead an attack on Koxinga's territory after this failure.{{sfnp|Struve|1984|p=160–166}}

On 9 May 1656, Jidu's armies attacked [[Kinmen]] (Quemoy), an island near Xiamen that Koxinga had been using to train his troops. Partly as a result of a major storm, the Manchus were defeated, and they lost most of their fleet in the battle.{{sfnp|Struve|1984|p=181}} Koxinga had sent one of his naval commanders to capture [[Zhoushan]] island prior to Jidu's attack,{{sfnp|Struve|1984|p=182}} and now that the Manchus were temporarily without an effective naval force in the Fujian area, Koxinga was free to send a huge army to Zhoushan, which he intended to use as a base to capture Nanjing.

Despite capturing many counties in his initial attack due to surprise and having the initiative, Koxinga announced the final battle in Nanjing ahead of time giving plenty of time for the Qing to prepare because he wanted a decisive, single grand showdown like his father successfully did against the Dutch at the [[Battle of Liaoluo Bay]], throwing away the surprise and initiative which led to its failure. Koxinga's attack on Qing held Nanjing which would interrupt the supply route of the Grand Canal leading to possible starvation in Beijing caused such fear that the Manchus considered returning to Manchuria and abandoning China according to a 1671 account by a French missionary.<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Ho |first=Dahpon David |date=2011 |title=Sealords live in vain : Fujian and the making of a maritime frontier in seventeenth-century China |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO |pages=149–150 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3pk3t096 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404092359/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3pk3t096 |archive-date=4 April 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> The commoners and officials in Beijing and Nanjing were waiting to support whichever side won. An official from Qing Beijing sent letters to family and another official in Nanjing, telling them all communication and news from Nanjing to Beijing had been cut off, that the Qing were considering abandoning Beijing and moving their capital far away to a remote location for safety since Koxinga's iron troops were rumored to be invincible. The letter said it reflected the grim situation being felt in Qing Beijing. The official told his children in Nanjing to prepare to defect to Koxinga which he himself was preparing to do. Koxinga's forces intercepted these letters and after reading them Koxinga may have started to regret his deliberate delays allowing the Qing to prepare for a final massive battle instead of swiftly attacking Nanjing.<ref>{{cite book |last=Yim |first=Lawrence C.H |date=2009 |title=The Poet-historian Qian Qianyi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fI99WIDOVrgC&pg=PA109 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=109 |isbn=978-1134006069 }}</ref>

Koxinga's Ming loyalists fought against a majority Han Chinese Bannermen Qing army when attacking Nanjing. The siege lasted almost three weeks, beginning on 24 August. Koxinga's forces were unable to maintain a complete encirclement, which enabled the city to obtain supplies and even reinforcements — though cavalry attacks by the city's forces were successful even before reinforcements arrived.  Koxinga's forces were defeated and slipped back to the ships which had brought them.<ref name="JR.1985">{{cite book|author=Frederic E. Wakeman Jr. |title=The Great Enterprise: The Manchu Reconstruction of Imperial Order in Seventeenth-century China|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8nXLwSG2O8AC&pg=PA1047|year=1985|publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-04804-1 |pages=1047–1048|access-date=2 May 2016}}</ref>