The Survival Wisdom of the Beiyang Era (244): The Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell.
In the early autumn of the twenty-first year of Guangxu, in the shadow of the disappearance of the combined fleet, the Beiyang Naval Division's Dadonggou Naval Battle was declared defeated, and this water division that the Qing Dynasty invested the most was actually defeated in disgrace, and the Qing Rumors Officer naturally would not let go of this opportunity, although the strength of the Beiyang Marine Division still existed, it was definitely the best time to impeach Ding Ruchang for commanding unfavorably, and then shake Li Hongzhang. Ding Ruchang sat in the position of admiral of the Beiyang Marine Division, which was naturally Li Zhongtang's intention, and when the results of the naval battle came, an uproar was made that the officials were eager to try it out and spared no effort to participate in Ding Ruchang's performance, and Ding Ruchang, who was targeted by everyone, also quickly confessed to Li Hongzhang and described the course of the naval battle. Ding Ruchang understood that the meaning of his old boss was very clear, so he quickly rewrote a report.
Subsequently, this battle report of the Beiyang Naval Division's Dadonggou Naval Battle focused on how Fang Boqian led the Jiyuan ships to escape from the battlefield, and eventually turned the entire fleet into a mess. The reason is also justified, that is, after the Jiyuan ship escaped first, the morale was certain, and the rest of the ships also waited and watched to avoid dispersion, so that the fleet was in disarray. Li Hongzhang felt that fang Boqian was pulled out as a shield for the defeat of the Beiyang Marine Division in this way, and the reason seemed to be inappropriate, so he added a sentence to this end: "If it were not for Jiyuan and Guangjia fleeing one after another and disrupting the ships, they would certainly have won a great victory." "To say that Fang Boqian is not wronged, even if he escapes, he also sank the wounded Yangwei in the escape, followed the fleeing Guangjia ship into the reef and ran aground, has entered the two sides of the close-range artillery battle, the Beiyang Marine Division has lost three battleships in a row because of its own people, and the balance of victory has begun to tilt. Of course, taking Fang Boqian out as a shield, Li Hongzhang also had his further plan, that is, to block the mouths of a group of Fujian and Zhejiang officials above the court.
However, in Li Zhongtang's city government, this kind of appearance, whether it is his own shot, or the protégé's shot is out of standard, that is, at this time, it is necessary to borrow a knife to kill people, that is, the Beiyang Water Division martial general from Fujian and Zhejiang can come forward to Zhang Luo to block the mouth of the crowd, and a suitable candidate is Li Hongzhang, this person is Liu Butou. Using Liu Butou's knife, which belongs to the Fujian-Zhejiang lineage, and the result is that Fang Boqian of the same camp is dropped, this move can be regarded as complete. Next is the operation performance time of Li Zhongtang, first Ding Ruchang asked for leave, and then Li Hongzhang played a telegram to send the Beiyang Marine Division, which will bring Liu Butou's name, that is, the plan of Breaking Fang Boqian, Liu Butou must participate in the whole process, and it is Lin Taizeng, who has an honest personality. Li Hongzhang has a very good grasp of the personality of these people, with Lin Taizeng's personality will definitely protect Bo Qian, while Liu Butou is tough and can envelop these Fujian compatriots in the water division, and it is most appropriate for him to come and take a shot.
In the end, Liu Butou was in the position of the acting helmsman of the Beiyang Marine Division, Fang Boqian was escorted to Lushun to be beheaded, and Li Hongzhang's borrowing of a knife to kill people was fulfilled. Before leaving, Bo Qian also defended himself: "The army has no orders, the team is not in order, whose fault is it." After that, Ding Ruchang quickly returned to the Beiyang Water Division, Liu Butou's agent status was also declared over, and the telegram sent by Li Hongzhang to the Beiyang Water Division on behalf of the Qing court was no longer embellished with the name of "Liu Zhen", because Fang Boqian died in Liu Butou's office, Li Hongzhang's plan to kill people by borrowing a knife can be said to be very complete, after all, if he saved Ding Ruchang, he saved his control over the Beiyang Water Division, and also preserved the weight of his speech above the temple. As for Fang Boqian's identity as a shield, Li Hongzhang not only gave an explanation to the imperial court, but also blocked the mouths of a group of officials, and everyone seemed to be relieved.