中国海盗与料罗湾海战

Chinese Pirates and the Battle of Liaoluo Bay

1633年10月22日,明朝水师与荷兰东印度公司的舰队在金门附近的料罗湾爆发了一场海战。这次海战被视为一场中国与欧洲列强早期海上较量的一次重要交手。其时正值明朝末年,朝政腐败,北方边患严重,南方海防废弛多年而未加整顿。为应付荷兰人的舰队,明朝政府拉拢盘踞在该海域的海商首领郑芝龙;荷兰人也采取相同的战略,寻求与同样盘踞在该海域上的中国海盗刘香、李国助等合作,希望借此压倒对方,取得最后胜利。本文旨在探讨两个问题:第一,明、荷双方为何与中国海盗、海商势力合作;第二,郑芝龙、刘香等中国海盗、海商势力在料罗湾海战中扮演着怎样的角色,他们对海战的最终结果又构成多大的影响。

The Battle of Liaoluo Bay begun on 22 October 1633.It was the first time a military confrontation between the Ming dynasty and the Dutch,one of great European sea powers in the world.In addition to deploy their own fleets,both sides also approached Chinese pirates to participate in this sea battle.This paper argues that Chinese pirates played an important role in this sea battle.The cooperation between Zheng Zhilong and the Ming court was relatively solid since they shared a common goal of defeating the Dutch in order to maintain their respective interests.It is explained that why the Zheng fleet fought bravely on the battlefield and was able to carry out its tactics precisely.On the other side,the Dutch and their pirate collaborators,Liu Xiang and Li Guozhu,had different expectations between each other and thus affected seriously the latter motivation in the battlefield.It forced the Dutch to put their pirate collaborators in the backup positions instead of taking up the foremost positions as their opponent did.The passive attitude held by Liu and Li also led them become a deserter,fleeing from the battlefield when they saw Dutch defeat likely.