Before and during the Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang adopted the policy of avoiding war and seeking peace and avoiding war and protecting himself, and the main reasons for this were three main points.
(1) Li Hongzhang knows very well what the essence of his boastful coastal defense is, so he does not dare to fight
Li Hongzhang boasted that his three bases were solid and indestructible, and he proudly wrote a personal inscription for the world to boast about. But calm down, li Hongzhang himself is corrupt or not, and who his relatives and subordinates are, he himself is not clear? As a result, Li Hongzhang knows that his coastal defense has many loopholes.
Li Hongzhang did not know that his son, nephew, and staff had arms dealings with the Japanese? Business? If he didn't know, he was really confused. For example, his nephew Zhang Shiheng was firmly convicted of selling arms to Japan and being associated with Japanese spies.
From this, Li Hongzhang knows very well where he will be placed in the first battle of the war. It was precisely because he knew the priorities that Li Hongzhang would spit out the "Beiyang military expenses and daily expenses" of the eight million taels of silver that had been "secretly" and hand it over to Wang Wenshao, the representative of his old political enemy, the SaiFang faction.
(2) Neither Li Hongzhang nor the Qing court expected a war, and they both adopted the strategy of "defense" and "arch guarding the Beijing Division". After the completion of the three major bases in Beiyang, they themselves believe that there is no need for large-scale investment. This is also the reason why the Qing Dynasty Weng Tonggong "temporarily did not allow to buy Western weapons" in order to provide disaster relief.
In the past, we said that Li Hongzhang defended against Japan, but this was wrong: Li Hongzhang only engaged in coastal defense to facilitate the cultivation of his own forces, and the "Beiyang Army" taking the lead in escaping in the Sino-Japanese War was only an act of "self-preservation of strength."
Li Hongzhang, Ding Richang, and other "Li Hongzhang system foreign affairs schools" have always adhered to the "United Japan Thought" and have been coerced by the ideas of "one cloth with water" and "the same language and the same species." At the end of 1867, Ding Richang, the envoy of Jiangsu Province, went to the "Eight Articles of Self-Improvement". Li Hongzhang played it on its behalf in the name of "Michen Ding Richang Proposed Amendment Film". Article 10 (the eight articles of self-improvement refers to the eight aspects of the Qing court inquiring about how to strengthen the self-improvement of local governors) has the view of resisting the West.
Picture note: In the Weihai base of the Beiyang Navy, our coastal defense weapons were used to encircle and annihilate the Beiyang Navy after they were seized by the Japanese army
In 1874, Japan attempted to annex Taiwan and sent troops to invade. Coincidentally, Zuo Zongtang took some of the decision from the Manchu nobles in 1874 to "deal with the Xinjiang issue". Cixi and others began to prepare a strategy of using the Manchus to deal with the Xinjiang problem, because no one within the Manchu nobility could be of great use, so they began to gradually let Zuo Zongtang intervene. Under these circumstances, Li Hongzhang used the "coastal defense" issue to prepare to seize power from Zuo Zongtang, which raised the issue of "abandoning Xinjiang."
Although Li Hongzhang has always preached about the dangers of Japan, he only used this as an excuse to ask the Qing court for money, people, and power. Mutsu Munemitsu, then Japan's foreign minister, said, "China ridiculed our country as a frivolous and impetuous person who simulated the skin of European civilization."
By the 1880s, the problem had changed, but because of the "Beiyang Army", the three major bases had been built. Li Hongzhang was satisfied with this, and his eyes turned to foreign enterprises, and he also actively invested in shares.
In the past, some people often spread rumors that Weng Tonggong had a personal vendetta against Li Hongzhang, which was simply nonsense. Weng Tonggong did not put the matter of his brother's overthrow on Li Hongzhang's head at all, but on others. That person was a ghostwriter for Zeng Guofan, and he did not become an official, and he was teaching at home, and If Weng Tonggong was a careful person, he would have gone to take revenge earlier.
Weng Tonggong did not allocate military expenses to the Beiyang Marine Division, which was even more nonsense. Because of the flooding of the Yellow River, Weng Tonggong rescued millions of victims and demanded that all powerful and rich people except the empress dowager and the emperor donate money, and all sailors could not buy Western weapons. This is the truth, and it has nothing to do with Weng Tonggong. Li Hongzhang had more money than both hubu and Shang Shu Weng, and Li Hongzhang was really anxious, and he could donate 90% of his salary bonus like Zuo Zongtang, and the three Beiyang Water Divisions were built.