In December 1888, Beiyang Fleet was established in Liugongdao in Weihai, Shandong. This is a naval fleet with the forefront of strength and scale established by the late Qing Dynasty. 's overall strength ranks first in Asia. The ninth in the world.
But it was such a powerful fleet, but the entire army was wiped out in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and all the officers and soldiers of the fleet died heroically.
Why is the Beiyang Fleet with such a strong strength defeated by Japan? What secret is hidden behind this?
The real reason is not as simple as people think, and now I will reveal the answer to you.
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backward military equipment and thoughts
Jiangsu Sino-Japanese War failed in the essence of corruption in the Qing Dynasty .
The policy of "close the country" has been implemented for nearly a hundred years, and even the country's gates were bombed by Western powers with shells. They were in a passive situation from the beginning.
plus the prevalence of corruption, the Qing Dynasty signed several unequal treaties in just 20 or 30 years, pulling itself and the people into the abyss of pain.
Fortunately, not all officials were in vain. After the first Opium War of , advanced officials of , represented by , Lin Zexu, , had already realized the importance of warships and navy, and so they wrote letters to demand the Qing government. Component a naval fleet.
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But at this time, the Qing government not only rejected their request, but also insisted on using outdated Qing Dynasty infantry.
It was not until The Second Opium War , The Qing Dynasty was forced to sign " Beijing Treaty " , that is, " Asborn Fleet ”.
But due to the existence of multiple factors, The Qing government later sold "Asben Fleet" and asked the officials to make warship by themselves, and changed the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau of Li Hongzhang to a simultaneous Build warships.
1878, Li Hongzhang ordered four large ships from Nanyang, named Zhendong, Zhenxi, Zhennan and Zhenbei , and left them all in Beiyang to prepare for the war.
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But it turns out that war requires not only advanced military equipment, but also advanced military ideas . Unfortunately, the Qing government did not have these two points.
Therefore, after the Ryukyu Incident, the Qing government agreed to allocate a large amount of money to buy the ship industry. Empress Dowager Cixi also brought an oral order: "I heard that I have a powerful weapon, so I should also make some tricks" and asked Li Hongzhang is fully responsible for this matter.
After Li Hongzhang received the grant, he first ordered two impact cruisers in the UK. ordered two ironclad ships from the German shipyard, named "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" .
At the same time, Li Hongzhang also founded Tianjin Naval Academy in an attempt to save the Qing government ideologically.
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But unfortunately, Li Hongzhang failed, He only learned fur after learning Western systems, however, covering the fur on the rotten flesh and blood was useless.
Unfortunately, Li Hongzhang could not see his mistakes. Although he purchased a warship and opened a school, his focus of war was still on land, and he was bound by the previous infantry thoughts.
Therefore, after buying the warship, he began to build defense towers next to the two naval bases of Lushun and Weihai, Shandong, with the focus on defending rather than attacking , and this move also laid a foreshadowing for the ending of the Beiyang Fleet.
Under such military thinking, the Beiyang Fleet trained is just a mobile turret base , and has fundamentally given up the right to attack.
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Let me ask, how could the Beiyang Fleet trained with such backward and cowardly military ideas be able to win the Sino-Japanese War of 1895?
So, besides the corrupt thoughts of the Qing government, what are the other reasons?
Strength doubt
Before discussing the reasons for the failure of the Beiyang Fleet, Let’s first learn about the strength of the Beiyang Fleet .
Beiyang Fleet was established in 1988, and the Qing government allocated a fixed amount of 4 million taels to spend on the Navy fleet every year.
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Although Empress Dowager Cixi no longer allocated funds to the navy in the later period, the initial investment cost was as high as 70 million taels of , which shows that the Qing government is still looking forward to this.
During the difficult period of being exploited by Western powers, the Qing government was still willing to invest so much money in them. The cost of is far higher than that of other countries in the world with naval , such as Japan.
But the final result disappointed them.
Before the Qing government allocated funds to the naval fleet, some aspiring people such as Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan and others had already started to open Fujian Naval Academy , Tianjin Naval Academy, Weihai Naval Academy , etc., a total of 11 Navy School .
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Their move can be said to have been prepared for the training of the navy.
In addition, They also support teenagers in their teenage years studying abroad, which consumed a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. They hope that they can return to their studies and contribute to the late Qing Dynasty.
Facts proved that the late Qing Dynasty bought a good "stock" and cultivated excellent naval generals such as Deng Shichang , Ye Zugui , Lin Yongsheng , and the strength of the Beiyang Fleet also began to rise sharply because of them.
Of course, in addition to these excellent naval generals, also has many ordinary people with excellent qualifications who have also made great contributions to the Beiyang Fleet .
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After returning to China, these outstanding international students will apply the knowledge they have learned in the United States or the United Kingdom to train naval and build ships.
They used to "create instruments with tools, and reform them with laws" . made its first ship of its own . Although the appearance is rough compared to the inside of Germany and Britain, it was already a part of the Qing Dynasty. Great progress.
On this basis, they also created the "Pingyuan" ship.
is this Chinese-made warship. It made great achievements in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and was hit by several bullets without falling . Although the result ended with the failure of the Qing Dynasty, it has successfully completed its mission.
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These outstanding international students not only made ships and warships, but also trained excellent Fujian fleet and Guangdong fleet , and trained many excellent navy.
Their knowledge reserves and physical fitness even exceeded the average level of the world navy at that time. Even foreign officers who assisted naval training in China praised them.
"If we compare the emerging navy of Japan now with the Qing navy, then Japanese navy will definitely lose to Qing ."
Unfortunately, when it was time to fight, The best Beiyang fleet of the Qing Dynasty was wiped out. , leaving only the "Pingyuan" ship full of scars.
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In addition to joy, the Japanese army also felt sorry for their death. All Japanese officers participating in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 admitted that the Beiyang Navy is a very excellent team. has "I would rather be broken than to do it." "HTM4's spirit of resistance.
From the perspective of humanistic care, it is a pity that they died in war like this. , which also made the already shaky Qing Dynasty even more miserable.
Since even Japan has recognized the excellence of the Beiyang Fleet, what exactly caused them to be defeated?
War Live
This is to find the reason from the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.
Li Hongzhang
In July 1894, in the waters of Fengdao, North Korea, the first guerrillas of the Japanese Joint Fleet suddenly attacked , attacking two cruisers belonging to the Beiyang Fleet for no reason.
Not only that, they also fired fire at Britain and sank the transport ship , which belonged to Britain. At this time, a large number of naval generals of the Beiyang Fleet realized that a terrible maritime battle was about to begin.
As expected, in September 1894, the first guerrillas of the Japanese Joint Fleet fired at the main force of the Beiyang Fleet for no reason, and the war was about to break out.
The Beiyang Fleet ordered the ironclad ships "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" from Germany at that time were tall and hard, and the naval guns were densely distributed, , but the disadvantage was that they were too bulky, which was not conducive to speed battles .
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In contrast, although the warship is short and thin and has a very small number of cannon barrels, it is better because of its "body" lightness, and can launch an attack on the ironclad ship while moving quickly.
Among the Japanese warships that provoked them, there is also a "big brother" that was at that time, which was known as the "Yoshino" , which had the highest speed and strongest firepower in the world at the time.
When attacking the ironclad ship, Japan also used the "gecko's tail-breaking" trick. used the advantages of the light and fast warship to form a column and rushed straight towards the ironclad ship . The generals of the Beiyang Fleet saw this style of play for the first time and couldn't help but start to know it. At a loss.
Wait until he realized that the Japanese warship had already arrived beside him, and the Beiyang Fleet lost the opportunity.
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Japanese warship shells hit the hull one by one. Not long after, "Dingyuan" main turret of ship was hit and lost its attack ability , and it also caught fire and burned. The navy admiral Ding Ruchang .
Not only that, 's fire also spread to the commanding signal flag , causing the "Dingyuan" ship to lose the best opportunity to ask for help . In desperation, they had to use the remaining cannons on the ship to attack the Japanese warship.
However, due to the shortage of materials, did not even have a few basic flowering bullets, so he had to fire the solid bullet , but the solid bullet was covered with sand, which could not cause substantial damage to Japanese warships at all.
Then, the Japanese warship took this opportunity to turn around and attack the side of the ironclad ship. caused the escort "Super Yong" and "Yangwei" to lose their combat capabilities one after another.
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But while they were hit, the soldiers on the ship also tried their best to hit Japan's "Hirui" and "Akagi" . Since then, the four warships have been forced to go together. Exit the battle.
The Sino-Japanese Naval Battle lasted for more than five hours in total, , but Japan became more and more fierce as it beat , and began to gradually gain the upper hand.
, while the Beiyang Fleet is getting weaker and weaker . The two main ironclad ships were seriously injured and even tilted to the point where they could not fight normally. ammunition is short and shoddy, resulting in them being unable to cause substantial damage to Japanese warships , and they can only defend passively. .
Seeing that Japan killed so many compatriots and sank several warships, Deng Shichang's eyes were red, and with the idea of dying, he drove the charge ship "Zhiyuan" and violently crashed towards the culprit "Yoshino" .
Deng Shichang
However, he was seriously injured due to the "Zhiyuan" and was sunk before he could get close to the "Yoshino". All the soldiers on the ship, including the generals, died heroically.
Deng Shichang's move is heroic, but this result is unhelpful.
In these five hours, the Beiyang Fleet lost five powerful warships. In order to preserve its strength, Li Hongzhang ordered the remaining fleet to give up the battle and return to Shandong Weihai Guard to repair .
, which means that the Qing government directly gave control of the Huanghai to Japan , and also added so many lives and warships in vain.
Deng Shichang
From then on, Huanghai has been controlled by the Japanese army, and The Qing government was also forced to sign the extremely insulting " Treaty of Shimonoseki " .
What caused the failure of the Beiyang Fleet during this war?
enjoyment? fail!
The Beiyang Fleet was short of materials during the war. In the later period, Empress Dowager Cixi did not allocate funds to the navy. These factors directly led to the failure of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894-1895.
Why?
Ding Ruchang
Because in the later stage, Empress Dowager Cixi began to be dissatisfied with the navy's huge expenses and believed that they had no results , so she took back the dialed silver. also blamed Li Hongzhang for wasting public funds , which was suspected of withholding public funds.
But everyone knows that All the officials in charge of the navy at that time were Li Hongzhang's most concerned about the Beiyang Fleet, and he was the most unlikely to withhold public funds.
On the contrary, when Li Hongzhang was in a hurry to spend the military expenditure of the Beiyang Fleet, also took out a large amount of money from his salary for the Navy's expenses .
But the Beiyang Fleet is successful and Li Hongzhang is defeated.
Ding Ruchang
The reason for success is that Li Hongzhang advocates the establishment of a naval school and learns advanced Western military systems, laying the foundation for cultivating an excellent Beiyang fleet . The reason for the failure is that Li Hongzhang arranged his confidant Ding Ruchang to enter the navy Team .
Navy fights at sea, while Ding Ruchang is the general of the army . These two troops were combined by him, which is also one of the main reasons for the failure.
, and Most of the generals in the Beiyang Fleet were Li Hongzhang's confidants. Empress Dowager Cixi was dissatisfied with this and was no longer willing to allocate funds to them, but used the money for her own enjoyment.
The most notorious thing about Empress Dowager Cixi is that she deducted 24 million taels of silver that originally belonged to the navy for birthday , and also built a large-scale construction to build Summer Palace .
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so as to the point where before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Li Hongzhang requested the Ministry of Revenue to allocate 3 million taels of silver for combat funds, but the Ministry of Revenue could only withdraw 180,000 taels of .
The 180,000 taels of silver cannot buy even ten or eight flower bullets, let alone other advanced combat weapons. This also shows that Empress Dowager Cixi does not attach importance to the Beiyang Fleet at all.
In addition, Empress Dowager Cixi also advocated peace and did not support war . She was very wrong in her attitude.
This kind of thought and attitude in peacetime is certainly correct. But in the troubled times, what she wants to put first is to gain enough power to protect herself. The national gates that were bombarded by Western powers did not alert her.
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In contrast, Japan began to reduce its expenditures in the first few years of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, and even took out 300,000 yen from the royal expenses as military expenditures of the Japanese Navy.
In addition, Japanese cabinet also raised funds from the whole country, and many businessmen and ordinary people, and even prostitutes have emptied their pockets to support the Japanese Navy .
This gave the Japanese Navy a lot of money and people's hearts as a basis, forming a sharp contrast with the Beiyang Fleet.
Let me ask, in this comparison, how can the Beiyang Fleet defeat Japan?
Therefore, the direct reason for the failure of the Beiyang Fleet has a great relationship with Empress Dowager Cixi.
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Of course, the reason for failure is not only the only. 95 naval battle is not only the military equipment, but also the military ideas, economic foundations, cultural thinking and other .
Although Japan has few people, its thoughts are advanced, its people are cohesive, and its leaders attach great importance to the development of the navy. Although the Qing government has many nationals, its thoughts are backward, its people are loose. The leaders not only do not pay attention to the navy, but also do not pay attention to the navy. They suppressed .
In this way, the result of the war will be obvious.
Therefore, there are many reasons for the failure of the Sino-Japanese War in 1894-1895 and cannot be discussed in a single way.
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But no matter what the reason is, it is always inseparable from the corruption of the Qing government and the incompetence of Cixi .
