"The ship is in, and the ship is dead." This sentence is really worthy of the name when it is used to describe the Beiyang Navy. For a long time, the disastrous outcome of the Chinese Beiyang Fleet in the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War has been criticized. It is said that the Beiyang Fleet's military discipline has been disintegrated, which led to the failure. But in fact, none of the Beiyang Fleet withdrew from the battle without authorization, even if it was sunk, it was sunk on the way to the charge.
In 2018, the shipwreck of the Beiyang Fleet's long-distance ship was discovered in the Yellow Sea, revealing the history of that year for the first time. The
warship is not high in the Beiyang Fleet, but it is an iron-clad ship that was actually sunk by the Japanese. There were 231 officers and soldiers on board who died for the country. Only 16 survived, and the survivors have gradually disappeared in history. In the long river, no one can tell us the history of that year. During the archeological process, the researchers found 74 bullets on the bow of the long-distance ship, which aroused people's questions. According to common sense, bullets should not appear in this position.
Because in the age of huge ship and heavy artillery, naval battles were all bombarded by naval guns, depending on whose firepower was strong and whose armor was thick, the rifle could not function at all. These bullets popped up at the bow of the ship, which can only explain one thing, that is, how tragic it was that the officers and soldiers on the Jingyuan ship planned to use rifles to fight the Japanese artillery.
Before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, although the Beiyang Navy was the largest in tonnage in Asia, it had already been misnamed. Due to open and secret struggles within the Qing government and Empress Cixi’s overhaul of the Summer Palace, the military expenditure of the Beiyang Navy was seriously insufficient. Before the outbreak of the war, the Beiyang Navy had not added a new warship in 10 years, and had not added a gun. The Beiyang Navy’s ammunition is not only small in quantity, but many of them have quality problems. Some need to be flattened with a file before launching, and some have no gunpowder, and only a small hole in the Japanese warship. In desperate circumstances, the officers and men of the Beiyang Navy could only rush to the Japanese ships, and then use their rifles to fight the Japanese army, and some even directly rammed the Japanese army, wanting to die together. A navy like
is worth remembering for each of us. Data shows that the Beiyang Navy’s training is very solid, and its artillery hit rate is higher than that of the Japanese army. As long as the ammunition is sufficient, it can completely defeat the Japanese ships. But it is a pity that the Qing government at that time couldn't even satisfy the Beiyang Navy.
Fortunately, China now has a strong naval force and will never be bullied by foreign countries.
