The Beiyang Naval Chronicle records: "In the early morning of July 23, 1894, Keisuke Ōtori personally led a coalition of Japanese soldiers to capture the Korean royal palace, abducted the king, and organized a pro-Japanese puppet regime headed by Li Gangying, the prince of the compound. ”
In 1894, Japan launched the long-planned Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, and the outcome of the war directly changed the fate of the two countries: Japan went to the road of the modern powers to redeem the army, while the Qing Dynasty of the Heavenly Dynasty lost face and fell into the abyss of no return, falling into the point of being slaughtered by others. All this stemmed from the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, and it was Keisuke Otori, the Japanese ambassador to the DPRK, who gradually led the Sino-Japanese dispute into the abyss of war, and also The diplomatic operator of Japan who provoked the Sino-Japanese War. Who is Keisuke Ohtori? Many scholars do not pay much attention to it, but today they comb through the historical materials and restore the true face of this disaster that caused disasters to China!
The Japanese were stationed in the Korean fleet
Born on April 14, 1833, Keisuke Otori was bright and studious since childhood, and under the influence of his father, who was a doctor, in 1852, he went to the Shikaya School to study sinology, Confucianism, and traditional Chinese medicine, and had a deep understanding of Chinese culture. Later, he studied orchidology and Western medicine in the private school of the famous orchid medicine practitioner Ogata Hong'an, the so-called orchidology is to learn Dutch culture, and also has a strong interest in Western military science, engineering, Western-style martial arts and photography, involved in a wide range of subjects, both arts and sciences, can be said to be a scholar who has learned both Chinese and Western, then called Western scholars. In 1860, the military work "New Edition of Artillery Technique" was also published. In Japan, the alloy lead version was first produced, which was called the Big Bird Movable Type, and later the Big Bird Movable Type was widely popularized and became the first choice for most publications.
Keisuke Ohtori
However, what left his mark on history was his diplomatic career. In 1889, he became minister extraordinary and plenipotentiary to China, gained diplomatic experience, and four years later, in 1893, he was transferred to the minister extraordinary and plenipotentiary in Korea, thus beginning his criminal career as a diplomatic operator of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War.
Japan, which had experienced a great increase in strength after the Meiji Restoration, began to plan to invade Korea and occupy China. However, there must be an excuse to start a war, and the Outbreak of the Dongxue Party Peasant Uprising in Korea in June 1894 provided a once-in-a-lifetime historical opportunity, and the Japanese government was determined to take advantage of the Dongxue Party Peasant Uprising in Korea to launch a war of aggression and aid to China.
The Dongxue Party peasant revolt in North Korea
To provoke a war dispute, it is necessary to have a scheming, cunning and fierce diplomatic figure, and Keisuke Otori, who has returned to China for recuperation, once again puts on the battlefield and goes to the forefront of the diplomatic war and becomes the main operator of the Sino-Japanese dispute.
On June 5, 1894, Japan immediately established a "base camp" with the participation of the Chief of Staff, the Deputy Chief of Staff, the Minister of War, and the Minister of Naval Command, as the highest wartime command body for directing the war of aggression. He also decided to send troops to invade Korea in the name of protecting the return of Keisuke Ōtori, the minister in Korea. Before the departure of the Japanese advance team, Japanese Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu instructed Keisuke Otori, minister in Korea, to "impose what he deemed appropriate, and authorized Otori to provoke a provocation and find an excuse to launch a war of aggression."
Japanese Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu
On the 6th, it was also decided to send an infantry brigade of Oshima Mixed Brigade into Korea, and sent 400 Marines and 20 patrols to escort Keisuke Ohtori back to his post.
On the 10th, Keisuke Otori led 420 troops into Seoul on the orders of Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, and in accordance with the instructions of the Japanese government, began to carry out a series of diplomatic blackmail against the Korean government one by one.
On the 14th, the confused North Korean government questioned the reason for Japan's sending troops into Korea, and Keisuke Otori rudely replied, "The Korean bandits cannot be eliminated by themselves, please ask Hua to act on their behalf." Naturally, they were unable to protect the Japanese, so they led their troops to "defend themselves."
However, just as Keisuke Otori was ambitiously exercising his diplomatic tricks, the Dongxue Rebel Army signed the Jeonju Peace Treaty with the government, and the Dongxue Rebel Army withdrew from Jeonju, ending the riots.
Yoshino
Now that the Dongxue Party rebellion had subsided, there was no reason for the foreign armies of China and Japan to continue to be detained in Korea, an outcome that Japan, which was bent on provoking war, did not want to see. In order to prevent the Qing army from withdrawing from Korea and thus achieve the goal of aggression, the sinister and cunning Keisuke Otori brazenly put forward the proposal of "jointly promoting the reform of Korea's internal affairs" in order to muddy the waters and tie the Qing army to Korea, thus writing off the Sino-Japanese joint withdrawal agreement.
Since then, Japan has begun to continuously increase its troops, and the Japanese army invading Korea has an absolute advantage over the Qing army stationed in Korea. Li Hongzhang, the governor of the Qing court and minister of Beiyang, wanted China and Japan to withdraw their troops together, and neither reinforced the army to Korea, nor did they withdraw their troops first according to the suggestions of Yuan Shikai, Nie Shicheng, and others, and finally gave the Japanese an opportunity to take advantage of it.
On the 21st, the Qing government made it clear that Japan had no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Korea, and the reply was rejected. But Japan used its advantageous position to control Seoul to force North Korea to accept the "reforms" it had devised.
On the 22nd, the Japanese cabinet held a royal meeting and resolved to "reform" Korea's internal affairs alone.
On the 26th, Keisuke Otori was ordered to meet with the King of Joseon and make a request for reform of internal affairs. He has also repeatedly coerced and seduced the DPRK Government, proposing that "if your country does not agree with my proposal, I think it is a dissuadment to me" and that "in the future, my Government will regard only my interests as a matter of view and want to use forceful means to give advance notice."
On July 18, the North Korean government categorically rejected Keisuke Ōtori's request to reform its internal affairs.
On the 19th, the Japanese government secretly telegraphed Keisuke Otori, demanding that war be provoked immediately by any means.
On the 20th, Kei Ōtori introduced that in accordance with the japanese government's will, he issued an ultimatum to the DPRK, demanding that the DPRK government abolish its vassal relations with China, "order the Qing army to withdraw from the country", and ordered a reply before 12 o'clock on the night of the 22nd. That night, Keisuke Ohtori sent another note to the North Korean government, demanding that it abrogate all treaties with China.
Courtyard Jun Li Gangying
On the 22nd, the Korean government returned to the Japanese government and pointed out that China's troops were sent in accordance with the "Treaty of Tianjin", and the Japanese army could not retreat, nor could the Qing army retreat. After receiving the reply from the DPRK, Keisuke Ōtori, who was embarrassed and angry, immediately issued an ultimatum to Cho Byeong-ji, the foreign affairs inspector of the DPRK, proposing that if the DPRK did not meet Japan's demands, Japan would use force. In fact, long before the ultimatum was proposed, Keisuke Otori had already agreed with Yoshimasa Oshima, the commander of the Japanese Mixed Brigade, to send troops into Seoul on July 23 to capture the palace.
In the early morning of July 23, as mentioned at the beginning of this article, the heartbroken Keisuke Ōtori went into battle shirtless and personally led a wing of Japanese troops to capture the Korean palace, imprisoned King Gojong of Joseon, Andi Hee, and established a government headed by Lee Hyung-young, the prince of the Xingxuan Compound.
The first order issued by the traitorous Emperor Ofon was to appoint Keisuke Ohtori as a political adviser to the King of Korea. On July 25, Daewon-jun changed his cabinet, informing Tang Shaoyi, the Qing minister in Korea, of the unilateral abandonment of all diplomatic treaties that existed between the Qing Dynasty, and demanding that all Qing troops stationed at Asan and all ships of the Beiyang Marine Division on the sea of Toshima immediately withdraw. Behind The Great Courtyard Jun stood the Japanese Minister Keisuke Otori, and stood the combined fleet of the Japanese army and navy, which was the official declaration of war by the Japanese Empire to the Qing Dynasty.
At this point, head-on confrontation between China and Japan is inevitable. On the same day, the Japanese combined fleet sneaked up on Chinese ships in the sea off Toshima, brazenly provoking the Sino-Japanese War.
From the above combing and analyzing, we can clearly see that Keisuke Ohtori is working step by step, and each step is full of cunning, insidious, blackmail and other despicable diplomatic means, and also gradually leads the Qing Dynasty into the abyss of war... This person also made the Chinese people always remember the evil face of his invasion of China!
This article is "The Sixteenth of Today in the History of the Beiyang Navy", which is continuously updated, so stay tuned!