Beiyang Marine Division combat footage
The late Qing Empire was the last period of history that Chinese was reluctant to mention, due to its weak strength, it was constantly invaded by foreign enemies, of which the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle was the most famous, and the result of the war ended with the total destruction of the Beiyang Marine Division. In the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government had a total of four water divisions, which were ranked according to strength as the Beiyang Water Division, the Nanyang Water Division, the Fujian Water Division, and the Guangdong Water Division.
Li
As we all know, the Battle of Jiawu was not a sea encounter, but a large-scale battle including ground battles and several naval battles, and many people may wonder why only the Beiyang Naval Division was fighting in the entire Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, and why the other three naval divisions did not come to support, in fact, this responsibility should almost be fully borne by Li Hongzhang alone, and it can also be said that it is an inevitable problem in feudal society.
At that time, the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau already had the ability to build large warships
Under the influence of the social system, although there was a foreign affairs movement and a reform faction at that time, the entire Qing Empire still belonged to a feudal society, which caused officials in the court to form gangs and factions, and the private struggle was extremely serious, which li Hongzhang, a heavy minister of the imperial court, was not exempt from vulgarity. The Beiyang Marine Division was not so much the fleet of the Qing Empire as It was Li Hongzhang's private fleet, and because of its greater authority, Li Hongzhang did not do less to increase the Beiyang Naval Division's fleet by withholding the salaries of other fleets.
The Dingyuan replica ship was the largest ship in Asia at that time
In fact, before the Sino-Japanese War, the relationship between the four major sailors was not harmonious, and even some of them were basically old and dead. Due to its deduction of military expenses, the development of the other three armies has been unsatisfactory, and even the overall size of the Nanyang Marine Division, which ranked second at that time, was far inferior to that of the Beiyang Naval Division. In the end, the bitter fruit of the egg in a basket could only be swallowed by Li Hongzhang alone.
The officers and men of the Hai rong-class cruiser Haichen took a group photo, which showed that they were well trained and not necessarily without the strength of a war
Imagine if the government and the opposition had been able to share a grudge against the enemy at that time, put aside their personal grievances, and have developed their armies more evenly, the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle would not have been fought to such an unbearable point. Although the level of the fleet at that time was already lagging behind that of Japan, after all, the total amount of equipment still maintained the first position in Asia. If the North and the South had been able to unite at that time, if they had not passively avoided war, the direction of the war might have been another scenario.
Of course, in addition to the Nanyang Marine Division, the other two marine divisions also have objective factors, among which the Fujian Marine Division was almost completely destroyed during the Battle of Majiang against the French fleet, and almost collapsed, and did not develop until the end of the war. The overall strength of the Guangzhou fleet was almost negligible, with a total tonnage of only 11,000 tons, but it still sent three ships to assist the Beiyang Marine Division in combat.
The Pingyuan offshore defense ironclad
In fact, the overall strength of the water fleet of the Qing Empire at that time was not weak, in addition to the huge size of the fleet, its own shipbuilding level was not low, and it was already able to build a fully protective all-steel armor ship such as the "Pingyuan" ship. If the Sino-Japanese War had actively resisted and taken the initiative to attack, the entire modern history of China would have been rewritten.