Once upon a time,"Weak countries have no diplomacy"It is the consensus of the world, and whenever we look back on that unbearable period of history, we will inevitably feel helpless and regretful. The broken Old Summer Palace, the national treasures lost overseas, and the scars of history all make us deeply regretful.
Among them, the Dingyuan ship of the Beiyang Naval Division is an eternal pain in our hearts. This ship was once hailed"Asia's largest ship"However, in 1895, it chose to blow itself up and sink into the sea, and it was not until 124 years later that it was rediscovered by the world.
What's even more touching is that during the salvage process, after the staff saw it, they couldn't control their emotions and couldn't help crying. So, why is the Dingyuan called the first warship in Asia?
How did it sink? Why are the staff crying? These questions are worthy of our deep thought.
The mystery of the Dingyuan ship has been gradually unveiled in the exploration, and the state attaches great importance to it. After decades of exploration, Shandong Weihai launched the "Jiawu Shipwreck Site Protection Area Demonstration Meeting" in 2019, discussed the salvage of the Dingyuan ship in detail, and successfully went to sea a batch of cultural relics.
However, the salvage of the main body of the battleship was very complex and required a lot of preparation. To this end, the relevant departments in Weihai have made detailed arrangements and determined the second salvage time as September 17, 2020.
On this day, everyone is looking forward to witnessing this historic moment.
With the help of the Guangdong Salvage Bureau, an archaeological team set off from Liugong Island in Weihai Bay, Shandong Province, and continued to dig deeper along the eastern coast. After an hour of stealth, they finally got a clear view of the giant ship.
However, salvage work is extremely tedious and requires patience and care. After diving, it took more than 10 hours to go through dredging, cable threading, lifting and other links before it was gradually completed, and finally a piece weighing 187 tons of iron plates.
Although the armor equipped with this ironclad ship of the Beiyang Navy has been rusted, it still looks majestic and majestic. This discovery is enough to prove that the experts' judgment is correct, and the Dingyuan ship is indeed hidden under this sea area.
It stands to reason that the staff should be happy that the years of preparation have not been in vain, and that this is an important archaeological discovery that will help us understand the history of that period.
However, these diving archaeologists all hugged their heads and cried, why is this?
Originally, people thought that their tears were flowing because of joy, and that the value of their work was duly recognized and respected. However, the leader of the archaeological team immediately rejected this view, saying that instead of joy, the team members were filled with humiliation and anger.
It turned out that in the process of diving and salvage, in addition to the remains of the Dingyuan ship, they also found the bones of several heroic dead navies. I saw that they were clasping the battleship's hands, as if they were unwilling to let go.
At this time, people really understood the reason why the archaeological team members were crying. It is conceivable that in the final battle, those navies tried their best to fire at the Japanese fleet, but due to the disparity in strength, they could only step by step towards despair.
Despite their heroic sacrifices on the battlefield, they still clenched the ** in their hands and were unwilling to let go of their insistence on justice. When they sink to the bottom of the sea, they may still resist in their hearts, but they are powerless to return to the sky.
These Qing soldiers are not mediocre and incompetent, they have courage and blood. However, in the corrupt environment of the Qing Dynasty, their talents could not be unleashed, and their ideals were eventually shattered.
So, why did these valiant warriors lose the war? Let's start at the beginning, the whole thing goes through.
From ancient times to the present, China has always been regarded as a great power, and all countries have come to the dynasty, proud of the world, and have lasted for thousands of years. However, in modern times, the two industrial revolutions in the West have changed the world pattern, and major empires have risen one after another, while the Qing Dynasty has adhered to the policy of closing the country to the world, and gradually fell into a backward and even crisis-ridden situation from the world's leading power.
In 1840, Britain provoked the Opium War and opened the door to the Qing Dynasty with strong military force for the first time, and from then on, China began to move towards a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
Not only that, but the pressure from the outside world has not changed the corruption of the Qing Dynasty, among which the Empress Dowager Cixi is the initiator of extravagance and waste. She has to enjoy 100 dishes at each meal, and she does not hesitate to spend a lot of silver taels on building palaces and holding large celebrations.
According to records, Cixi spent 40,000 taels a day at its peak.
Under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, corruption reached an alarming level, and the loyal and upright ** were excluded, while the ** who could only slap the horse was able to rise step by step. In the long run, the Qing Dynasty could only survive by paying reparations for land cession.
However, some sober-minded people in power gradually emerged within the Qing Dynasty, such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, Zuo Zongtang, etc. Among them, Prince Gong, who is in charge of the central power, is the most radical.
On January 11, 1861, he wrote a letter to the Empress Dowager Cixi to introduce Western technology to enrich the country and strengthen the army.
Although Cixi was resistant to the West, the Qing Dynasty was already at a critical moment of life and death and had to make changes. Therefore, she agreed to the proposal. After that, the dispatch of international students, the establishment of Western-style schools, and the introduction of advanced technology were carried out in an orderly manner.
During the Westernization Movement, China successively established military industries such as the Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau, the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, and the Tianjin Machinery Bureau, among which the most striking achievement was the Beiyang Naval Division prepared and established by Li Hongzhang.
In 1888, the Beiyang Naval Division was officially established, marking the end of China's history of not having a modern naval force. At the beginning of its establishment, the Beiyang Naval Division had a huge scale, including 25 main ships, 50 auxiliary ships, 30 transport ships and more than 4,000 officers and men, and the navy had more than 300 people.
According to the ranking of the "United States Navy Almanac", the Beiyang Naval Division ranked ninth among the world's navies at that time, and it was second to none in Asia. Li Hongzhang has worked hard for nearly ten years to achieve this.
In 1880, he embarked on an ambitious plan: to establish the Tianjin Naval Academy as a way to reserve military talents. Then, he went to Britain and Germany tirelessly, and ordered the largest warship in Asia at that time, the Dingyuan.
The cost of this battleship was as high as 1.4 million taels**, and Li Hongzhang finally obtained this budget from the Empress Dowager Cixi after a lot of hardship. He commissioned the British shipbuilding company to design it, and had the famous German shipyard Volken build it himself.
After nearly a year, the 7,000-ton ironclad ship was finally successfully launched, and when it was delivered, the Qing Dynasty's ** were shocked by its huge size. The length of the Dingyuan ship is 945 meters, a width of 18 meters, a draft of 6 meters, a full load displacement of 7670 tons, and its power is a terrifying 6200 horsepower.
In the history of China's modern coastal defense, there is a warship known as "Asia's No. 1 Iron Ship", which is the pride of the Beiyang Naval Division - the Dingyuan Ship. The Dingyuan was equipped with the most advanced German Krupp 305 mm breech guns at that time, and was equipped with a twin turret on the left and right sides of the ship, using water pressure power, and each gun weighed 315 tons, with an amazing range of 25 times.
No matter in terms of volume, power or combat capabilities, the Dingyuan ship reached the world's top level at that time. On the basis of the Dingyuan ship, Li Hongzhang also customized top warships such as the Zhiyuan ship, the Zhenyuan ship and the Jiyuan ship, which repeatedly defeated the enemy army on the way to Russia, the Korean Peninsula and Japan, and became the pride of the Beiyang Naval Division.
For a time, the Beiyang Navy seemed to have ambitions to revive the Qing Dynasty.
Empress Dowager Cixi restricted the development of the Westernization movement with her personal desires, and she was reluctant to allocate funds for the Westernists, because it would reduce her extravagant money. Instead, she organized a birthday of 10 million taels for her 60th birthday in advance, and the money was deducted from the funds of the Westernization Movement.
This led to the restriction of the development of the Westernization movement.
It turned out that the Beiyang Fleet suffered a major budget cut in 1893, which led to the inability of ships to be repaired, to be renewed, and even to ensure the rations of soldiers. How can a feared army be built in such a situation?
And the Empress Dowager Cixi is in stark contrast to Emperor Meiji. Emperor Meiji felt a great threat when he saw the power of advanced military equipment such as the Joto ship. He carried out a mobilization campaign throughout Japan, and at the beginning of his ascension to the throne, he declared in the "Emperor's Imperial Letter" that he would "open up thousands of miles of waves and proclaim the prestige of the country in all directions."
Of course, the Empress Dowager Cixi also had such ideals, but her attention was only on her own luxurious life and did not care about building the country.
Emperor Meiji raised a large amount of private funds in a short period of time, and then he carried it out firmly"Break away from Asia and join Europe"Policy. Under his leadership, the strength of the Japanese Navy grew rapidly, and by the end of the 80s of the 19th century it was already able to compete with the Beiyang Naval Division.
Therefore, Japan immediately set its sights on China. On July 25, 1894, a cannon shot in Toshima began the Sino-Japanese War, three months before Cixi's birthday, but the empress dowager lost the opportunity to celebrate her birthday in peace.
Because Japan was well prepared and the Qing Dynasty was in a hurry to deal with it, the Japanese navy advanced all the way, while the Qing army was defeated and retreated.
After experiencing an initial fiasco, the Beiyang Naval Division began to appear. Among them, the Dingyuan ship and other ** began to counterattack the Japanese army, and the resistance of the Qing Dynasty Navy made the tide of the war reversed for a time, and the balance of victory was tilted in favor of the Qing ** again.
However, due to the sharp reduction in military spending, the equipment of the Beiyang Naval Division could not withstand the pressure of a protracted war. With the increase in the number of Japanese ** and the intensification of firepower, the Beiyang Naval Division was once again in a predicament.
The Zhiyuan ship was hit by artillery fire, lost its combat effectiveness, and finally chose to die with a Japanese warship. Although the Dingyuan ship survived, it was forced to retreat to Liugong Island in Weihai and could not continue to participate in the war, and the situation was still grim.
There was a lull in the war of 1894, but the Japanese did not allow the Dingyuan to exist. Therefore, in 1895, they raided Liugong Island again, resulting in serious damage to the Dingyuan ship, and then withdrew to Weihaiwei Military Port.
However, ** was hit by a torpedo again on the way to evacuation, resulting in a loss of power. In order to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Japanese, Ding Ruchang, the captain of the Dingyuan ship, made a quick decision and decided to blow it up and sink it into the sea.
Since then, the Dingyuan ship has completely disappeared in the long river of history.
The First Sino-Japanese War ended with the defeat of the Qing Dynasty, marking the complete defeat of the Westernization Movement. In 1895, Li Hongzhang was forced to sign the "Treaty of Shimonoseki", which humiliated the country, and Japan seized Taiwan, Penghu Islands and Liaodong Islands in China.
In addition to its ambitions for the land and ** of our country, Japan is also interested in the sunken Dingyuan ship. In 1896, the Japanese began salvaging the Dingyuan, and their two attempts exposed their wolf ambitions.
The first is to study the structure of warships in order to create a large fleet in Japan. The second is to transport the remains of the Dingyuan ship back to Japan and display them as trophies.
However, these attempts were met with strong domestic opposition, but after the defeat of the Qing Dynasty, they were powerless to stop it, so they could only let Japan salvage it.
Although Japan has succeeded in salvaging some of the Dingyuan's exterior steel, the core remains dormant in the deep sea due to its insurmountable technical difficulties. The wreckage was transported back to Fukuoka City by Japan and built into an exhibition hall, the Dingyuan Museum, which has become an indelible wound in the hearts of the Chinese people.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, China also tried to salvage the Dingyuan ship, but for various reasons, it was not until 2019 that the project was officially launched. In the process, the staff found a Navy soldier who would rather die than let go, and they couldn't help but shed tears.
As Zhou Chunshui, the leader of the underwater archaeological survey project of the Dingyuan ship, said, "The Dingyuan ship is a heroic warship from beginning to end, and this piece of iron armor is a witness to history and a witness to heroes." ”
Since November 24, 2012, when China successfully launched its first aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, China's maritime power has evolved rapidly and is no longer what it used to be.
In recent years, the advent of advanced equipment such as China's 056 corvette, Shandong aircraft carrier battle group, and 075 amphibious assault ship has further enhanced China's naval strength.
In the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and other waters, the name of the Chinese Navy has long been heard like thunder, and it has become an important part of the world's naval forces.
The Dingyuan incident in history has left us with a profound lesson, but looking to the future, we firmly believe that such a tragedy will not be repeated in China's waters, and we will continue to develop our maritime forces to protect our maritime rights and interests.