In February 1871, the Japanese Navy selected 12 of the best officers, sent to England to study for further study, Togo Heihachiro was selected, because he had participated in the war with the British warships, was refused to enter the Naval Academy by the British government, before transferring to the Merchant Marine School, the internship was also from the grass-roots sailors, after graduation was ordered to supervise the construction of ordered warships in the British shipyard. Togo became an expert in building warships and piloting naval vessels. In 1879, Heihachiro Togo returned to Japan on the gunboat Hiei.
After spending eight years in England, he was beaten up by the British for his resemblance to Chinese, and was often beaten by the British as a Chinese. However, after being beaten by the British, Togo Heihachiro did not actually hate the British, but pointed his hatred at China. Because in the eyes of Westerners at that time, the status of Chinese was very low, and the Japanese had already left Asia and entered Europe, and had already stepped into the ranks of Western civilized countries, no longer associated with their former close neighbors, China and North Korea.
After returning to Japan, Togo Heihachirō successively served as captains on a number of warships, was promoted to the rank of Navy Daisaku in 1889, and also served as the chief of staff of the Japanese 2nd Naval District, and the top brass of the Japanese Navy focused on cultivating these naval officers with experience in the ocean, hoping that they would be competent in organizing the comprehensive command of a considerable naval force. Before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese Navy purged the interior of the navy, eliminating a large number of officers who did not have military expertise, and Togo Heihachirō was given the opportunity to become the captain of the "Wave Speed".
At 6:30 a.m. on July 25, 1894, the Japanese warships encountered two ironclad ships of the Beiyang Fleet, the Jiyuan and Guangyi. At 7:52, at a distance of 3,000 meters, the Japanese warship launched an undeclared attack on the two ships of the Beiyang Fleet, and the "Jiyuan" ship was attacked first. The 1,030-ton displacement "Guangyi" ship was seriously injured, and soon the hull of the ship was seriously tilted, and it was forced to withdraw to the shore and run aground, still unable to save itself and finally set itself on fire and set itself on fire; the "Jiyuan" ship was outnumbered, and was chased by the Japanese ship "Yoshino" and had to retreat all the way.
At this time, a British merchant ship "Gaosheng" and the Daqing transport ship "Caojiang" were carrying out the task of transporting Qing troops to Korea, just in time to enter the waters where the war was being fought. The Caojiang ships hurriedly turned the rudder to escape to the west, but were captured by the Japanese ship Akitsushu. At 9:30 a.m., the Japanese ship "Langsu" approached the "Gaosheng" carrying more than 1,100 Qing troops, issued a flag order for the ship to "get down to anchor and stop sailing", and ordered that all the "Gaosheng" and the Qing troops it carried should be captured back to Japan.
At that time, the "Gao Sheng" was the commander Of Gao Shanji and Jiang Zikang, who recognized that this was a British merchant ship, and the Japanese ship did not dare to take action against the British ship, and refused the unreasonable demands of the Japanese ship. Heihachiro Togo ordered the red signal flag to be raised on the mast of the "Wave Speed" to indicate a dangerous red signal for battle, and about 150 meters from the "Takasei", a torpedo was fired at the Takasei, and six cannons located on the starboard side fired a fierce salvo at the "Takasei".
At 13:30, after the sinking of the Takashin, the Japanese ship Lansu speed only rescued the British captain, first mate and another British crew member, and did not exert any rescue on the other surviving Qing officers and men who fell into the sea, Ando Heihachiro, but watched them drown alive. The next day, a French warship passing through the waters rescued the surviving 200 or so people from the sea. The Gaosheng troop carrier was sunk, resulting in 871 of the 1,100 officers and men martyred in the belly of the fish.
The vileness and shamelessness of the Japanese shocked the world once again, and the ignorance and stupidity of the main officials of the Qing government were the main culprits who led to the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War. Britain's performance was surprising in how to deal with the sinking of the British merchant ship Gaosheng. The commander of the British Far East Fleet, Felimantel, believed that Togo's actions were justified, and Dr. Holland, a professor at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, as an authority on international law, also published an article saying that Togo Heihachiro's sinking of the Takashi did not violate international law.
Not only that, but the British pointed the finger at the Qing government, accusing the Qing army of not wanting to become a prisoner of the Japanese army, and taking the act of coercing the captain of the Gaosheng, which was a violation of international law by the Qing army. In the end, Li Hongzhang instead lost a sum of money to the British. Li Zhongtang, who was clever himself, eventually lifted a stone and dropped it on his own feet. It is a pity that the nearly a thousand officers and men did not sacrifice themselves on the battlefield of fighting the enemy, but innocently gave their lives.
And this so-called "god of war" of the Japanese Navy, who was admired by militarists, and when faced with public opinion accusing him of not helping the Qing army that fell into the water, he replied: "As a soldier, I cannot watch the enemy flee. I will take responsibility for my actions, and I can apologize if I need to, but I will never regret my actions. “
This man has already revealed the essence of Japan's national nature, and apart from barbarism and cruelty, these beasts will never make any reflection on any immoral behavior. So why, more than seventy years after the end of World War II, have you ever heard the Japanese make any profound reflection on past wars? To revitalize China, we must first forget the national shame! Only when the alarm bells are sounded for a long time can we know that shame is almost courageous, and once the Wokou rises to war again, it will never be able to be overborn.