History begins
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October 1885The two giant ships "Zhenyuan" and "Dingyuan" ordered by Qing ** from the German Volkeng shipyard were handed over to Li Hongzhang as promised, and Li Hongzhang looked at these two "behemoths" with mixed feelings in his heart.
He stood on the deck of the "Dingyuan Ship", and the sea breeze blew his old face, and his gray beard swayed from side to side with the wind. His eyes moistened.
After having these two "giant ships", he thought that he now had the capital to confront the foreigners from the sea, and the excitement in his heart was self-evident.
Subsequently, he asked the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, "Ding Ruchang", to test the performance of the two ships, and after receiving the order, Ding Ruchang sailed eastward accompanied by two frigates.
After testing the performance, because Port Arthur was not built at this time, Li Hongzhang ordered Admiral Ding RuchangFirst, we sailed to the port of Nagasaki in Japan for maintenance, where there is a shipyard that provides repairs. ”
After the two giant ships and two frigates arrived at the Japanese port of Nagasaki, the Japanese saw such a large-scale ship, which immediately caused quite a stir in the local area, and the hearts of the Japanese at this time were full of mixed feelings, "jealousy, envy, and shock."
And Li Hongzhang came to Japan this time not only for maintenance, but more importantly, to let the "barbarians" of Japan, a small country, see the national prestige of the Qing Dynasty.
However, at this time, the "barbarian" that Li Hongzhang looked down on made Li Hongzhang say it ten years later".If China is to have no trouble, it must first destroy its country.
Since China was opened to the country by Britain in the "Opium War" and forced to sign the "Treaty of Nanjing", which humiliated and humiliated the country, it has since moved towards a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
At this time, Japan, which also belongs to East Asia, is not in a better situation than China.
In 1853, the United States also opened the door to Japan as a result of the Black Ship Incident. In this way, the United States has become a "strategic material supply depot" for the United States. ”
After Li Hongzhang learned that his neighbor Japan, which had the same experience as his own country, although Li Hongzhang looked down on Japan, because of the situation, he thought of giving Japan some small favors so that he could unite Japan to deal with foreigners.
After all, Japan at that time was a small and weak country in the eyes of our country, and it did not expose its wolf ambitions, and in the face of the menacing Western powers, Li Hongzhang naturally did not take Japan to heart.
Li Hongzhang expressed his thoughts in the court, and most of the ministers also agreed with this, because of this, the exchanges between China and Japan were very frequent during that period, and the two countries at this time can be said to be grasshoppers on a rope.
However, there are no permanent friends, only eternal interests, and if there is a dispute over interests, then falling apart is an inevitable trend.
One day in 1876, the Japanese ambassador to China had a meeting with Li Hongzhang, and although there was friction between the two countries on many matters at this time, the envoys of the two countries met with a blind eye to this.
Li Hongzhang was very puzzled when he saw that the ambassador had an oriental face but was wearing a foreigner's suit, and then learned from the ambassador's mouth that Japan was carrying out the "Meiji Restoration," so he said:
"China's civil service system is better than that of the West, but the military ** is not as good as theirs......The artillery of Westerners can attack and defend, and they are invincible in the world"
After the Japanese ambassador left, Li Hongzhang still thought in his heart that Japan was "following the example of the East" and would only harm itself in the end.
But is that really the case?
Unlike China's Westernization Movement, Japan's Meiji Restoration was a thorough "reform" from the inside out, from the top to the bottom, and Japan began to transform from an agrarian country to an industrial-oriented country, and the country gave up its isolation and closed itself to the outside world.
From the ancient Tang Dynasty to the modern United States, it is useless for you to be good to Japan, and only by subduing him will he obey you.
Therefore, during the Meiji Restoration, Japan sent ambassadors to various countries in the West.
As long as there is something there that is superior to them, they will all return to Japan regardless of the three, seven, twenty-one, and all of them. It was because of this spirit of learning in Japan that shortly after the Meiji Restoration, Japan's system, industry, and military changed dramatically.
They discarded everything they had learned from China and put forward the slogan of "leaving Asia and joining Europe." Japan also attaches great importance to learning from Western culture and education.
However, although China has also carried out the "Westernization Movement" and it is earlier than Japan, it is far from being able to reach Japan, and the core of the Qing Dynasty has not changed at all in terms of system, and there has been no change in ideology, how can the country become rich and strong?
Moreover, the practices of the leaders of China and Japan, "Cixi" and "Meiji Emperor", are simply very different.
The emperor of Japan was able to take the lead by donating all the valuables in his family to the country to develop the military, and even tightened his belt and ate only two meals a day to set an example for the people.
Cixi, on the other hand, spent lavishly on her birthday and the construction of the Summer Palace.
It can already be seen from the attitudes of the two leaders that the gap between the two countries is gradually widening. After Japan's national strength increased greatly, it continued to seek trouble from our country.
In 1874, a few years after the Meiji Restoration, Japan strengthened its national power and got rid of its semi-colonial status, so Japan invaded Taiwan, China.
The main type of ironclad ship in the invading army impressed Qing **. watched Japan show off its might in the territorial waters with strong ships and sharp guns, but at this time, the Qing ** simply took out decent ships to confront it.
Therefore, Qing ** is like the German Fraeng shipyard to build two ironclad ships "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" for itself.
At that time, this was known as the most advanced navy in the world, and the Germans also thoughtfully equipped the long-range ship with a series of advanced ** such as their own Krupp 305 mm breech guns.
However, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, these two giant ships were remembered by the Japanese after they went to Japan, which also laid the groundwork for the humiliating fate of the two ** ships in the future.
Ever since the Japanese saw these two ships, the fire of jealousy in their hearts has been burning brighter and stronger, and every day they have been thinking about how to take out these two behemoths, and that day will soon come.
On September 15, 1894, the Beiyang Fleet, sailing in the Yellow Sea, was suddenly attacked by the Japanese Combined Fleet, and the officers and men quickly reacted to this, and under the leadership of the Dingyuan, more than a dozen warships of the Beiyang Fleet began to engage in a fierce exchange of fire with the Japanese fleet.
This is also a war that Japan has been planning for a long time, and it is also a bloody investment. The Japanese army dispatched a total of 12 ships in battle**. As soon as the two fleets came into contact with the Japanese troops, they launched the first salvo in a row, and the "Super Brave Ships" and "Yang Wei Ships" of the Beiyang Fleet were severely damaged by artillery fire.
Moreover, Japan has long been very clear about the Beiyang Fleet through spy investigations, and these two warships are the weakest of the Beiyang Naval Division. After disrupting the position of the Beiyang Naval Division, the Japanese army fired a series of rounds of artillery to destroy the lookout platform of the "Dingyuan Ship".
Admiral Ding Ruchang was also seriously injured as a result, and the signal device was also destroyed, and the Beiyang Naval Division instantly lost its command and contact methods, and it became a plate of scattered sand and could only fight on its own. However, at this time, the Japanese army's one-line formation also exposed its shortcomings.
All the ships of the Beiyang Fleet began to fire on the Japanese army, and although the Japanese army had the upper hand by sneak attack at the beginning of the naval battle, it did not gain much benefit under the counterattack of all the officers and men of the Beiyang Fleet, and in the first stage of the contest, the Beiyang Naval Division even had a slight upper hand.
However, the short defeat did not extinguish the wolf ambitions of the Japanese, and the Japanese fleet completed the encirclement of the Beiyang Fleet at about two o'clock in the afternoon, resulting in the Beiyang Fleet being attacked on its back. In the face of the Japanese attack, all officers and men were not discouraged and rose up to fight back.
Under the command of Deng Shichang, the Zhiyuan ship was hit by many bullets in time and was still crisscrossing the sea. When the ammunition was about to run out, they ran into the "Yoshino", a sinful Japanese ship, and Deng Shichang ordered the Zhiyuan to rush towards the Yoshino.
This also frightened the Japanese army desperately to set fire to the Zhiyuan, and finally the torpedo of the Zhiyuan ship was hit by artillery fire, and Deng Shichang and a group of officers and soldiers sank to the bottom of the sea with the Zhiyuan, and died with hatred.
Deng Shichang had a chance to survive, but he resolutely rammed into the enemy ship with the determination of living and dying with the officers and men of the whole ship.
In the next few rounds of battles, the Beiyang Naval Division was also defeated by Japan, and the Japanese army also gambled on the country's ownership to win the war.
The two giant ships ordered from Germany were naturally not let go by the Japanese, and the manager of the Dingyuan ship, "Liu Buchan", ordered the Dingyuan ship to be blown up with his own hands in order to prevent the Dingyuan ship from falling into the hands of the Japanese.
The subordinate said to him:"My lord, get out of here."
But Liu Buyun only said one sentence:"If you are low, you will cut yourself", so he chose to die with the Dingyuan ship at the age of 43.
In the end, the Dingyuan ship could not escape the clutches of the Japanese, they took great pains to fish out the Dingyuan ship, dismantled it and transported it back to Japan one by one, some of the objects were used to arm their own armaments, and some were used by the Japanese army as trophies to commemorate it.
The bullet-riddled deck of the Dingyuan was also built by the Japanese as the "Dingyuan Pavilion" to satisfy their vanity. The steering wheel was made into a coffee table and kept in Glover Park in Nagasaki, Japan.
The Zhenyuan ship was captured by the Japanese intact, and was later incorporated into the Japanese Combined Fleet to serve the Japanese Navy, and the Zhenyuan ship actually became the first battleship of the Japanese Empire, and they deliberately retained the name of Zhenyuan in order to insult the Chinese.
Finally, in 1915, the Zhenyuan ship was dismantled, and the relics on board were scattered throughout Japan for display and show-off, showing off how incompetent China was under the iron heel of the Japanese navy at that time.
The corruption of the Qing Dynasty caused the destruction of the Beiyang Naval Division and the sacrifice of all patriotic officers and soldiers, and the attitude towards this war was to gamble on the national fortune with the strength of the whole country, while the Qing Dynasty was careless, thinking that there was no need for Japan to take it to heart.
Qing ** was also completely awakened in this battle, and understood that his despised, "barbarian" country, had far surpassed himself.
For the first time in its thousand-year history, Japan has surpassed China to become the richest and most powerful country in Asia.
On April 17, 1895, with the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, China not only paid 200 million taels of indemnity to Japan and robbed Taiwan Province and its affiliated islands, but also further added China's semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. From this moment on, it is no longer that we look down on the Japanese, but the opposite.
This also represents the complete failure of the Qing Dynasty's Westernization Movement, the corruption of the Qing Dynasty is not only on the surface, but has penetrated into the bone marrow, and the face of the ruling class of the Qing Dynasty has been swollen since the First Sino-Japanese War.
A few years after the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Li Hongzhang warned future generations:"If China is to have no troubles, it must be destroyed. ”
Historically, Japan launched the "Battle of Baijiangkou" in the Tang Dynasty, the "Renchen War" in the Ming Dynasty, the "First Sino-Japanese Naval War" in the Qing Dynasty, and the tragic "War of Aggression against China" against China during the period.
This also shows that what Li Hongzhang said is not wrong, that Japan's ambition to peek into China's Chinese land has never changed, and that there are still signs of raising its head in Japan's militarism, and our descendants must not forget this "Japan" that has brought us all kinds of harm.