The Ming dynasty defeated the Dutch in the Sino–Dutch conflicts in 1622–1624 over the Penghu islands and at the Battle of Liaoluo Bay in 1633. In 1662, Chinese and European arms clashed when a Ming-loyalist army of 25,000 led by Koxinga forced Dutch East India Company garrison of 2,000 on Taiwan into surrender, after a final assault during a seven-month siege. According to Frederick Coyett's account written after the siege to absolve himself of the Dutch defeat, the alleged final blow to the Company's defense came when a Dutch defector, who would warn Koxinga of a life-threatening bombardment, had pointed the inactive besieging army to the weak points of the Dutch star-shaped fort. This claim of a Dutch defector only appears in Coyett's account and Chinese records make no such mention of any defector. While the mainstay of the Chinese forces were archers, the Chinese used cannons too during the siege, which however the European eyewitnesses did not judge as effective as the Dutch batteries. The Dutch lost five ships and 130 men in an attempt to relieve the siege of the fortress.