In the Battle of Jiawu, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was defeated, the Beiyang Fleet was completely destroyed, and Korea fell into Japanese hands. There were many reasons for the defeat of the Manchu Qing, a feudal state still in the Middle Ages, which was almost in all respects, and was suspended by modernized Japan.
The most exaggerated thing is that before the outbreak of the war, the Japanese who were treated as friends by Li Hongzhang and invited to visit the forts and armaments factories turned out to be the deputy chief of the Japanese Army General Staff, who was specifically responsible for the intelligence work of the Japanese army, and was later promoted to general. This is completely the rhythm of taking the initiative to send information to others, not receiving and not being happy.
Soon after the Meiji Restoration, Japan aimed its expansion at North Korea and China. To this end, the Japanese government and non-governmental organizations have sent a large number of spies to China, and after decades of efforts, a huge spy network has been established in China.
The main purpose of the military survey and mapping techniques learned by Japan from the West is to collect intelligence on China. During World War II, the Maps captured by the Chinese Army were much more detailed and accurate than those used by themselves, and even some trails and wells that were known only to the locals were clearly marked. It can be seen how much thought and cost the Japanese army spent in order to invade China.
Within the Japanese army, the person in charge of intelligence gathering was the deputy chief of staff. Before the Sino-Japanese War, Major General Kawakami Served as the deputy chief of the General Staff Headquarters and began to collect Chinese war preparations in a targeted manner.
Kawakami was originally a samurai who went abroad to inspect European armies and learned staff work with Moltke, the chief of the German general staff. Such a resume was very popular in the Japanese army, and at the age of 40, he rose to the position of chief of intelligence.
Kawakami attached great importance to the collection of intelligence on China, and when the staff headquarters was tight, he even exchanged his house for a mortgage to fund his spies. In addition to sending a large number of spies, Kawakami also personally came to China to conduct field investigations of some important targets.
This is the tradition of the Japanese army, and many senior Officers of the Japanese Army in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression have had experience in China and have a fairly profound understanding of China's national conditions, military intelligence, and people's feelings. In the point of knowing oneself and knowing the other, the Japanese army dumped several positions.
With a ghost in his heart, Kawakami Naturally hoped to attract the attention of the Manchu Qing, and he led the operational officers of the Japanese General Staff Headquarters into China in the name of tourism in an attempt to make a field visit to the future battlefield environment. In the language of military specialty, it is to examine the geographical records of soldiers, which is an important process that must be carried out before the war begins.
Unexpectedly, as soon as they entered the country, they attracted the attention of the Manchu Qing side and sent someone to receive them. What was even more unexpected was that the Manchu Qing government demanded nothing of their demands, and took the initiative to send officials to accompany them and visit various places.
Li Hongzhang even personally came forward to show the friendship between China and Japan, and attached great importance to Kawakami's visit. The people had sharpened their knives and were ready to sheath them. Lord Zhongtang only wanted to show the demeanor of the Heavenly Dynasty, and he did not expect that people had come to collect intelligence on the war.
Chuan Shangcao and his party entered Korea through Shanhaiguan, Beijing, Tianjin, Yantai, Shanghai and other places, accompanied by Qing officials along the way. Especially in Tianjin, which is the gateway to Beijing, the Wubei Academy, the Dagukou Fort, and so on, have all been clearly seen by Kawakami Cao liu and others.
Later, it was from here that the Eight-Power Alliance landed and entered the city of Beijing. The intelligence collected by the Japanese on the defense of Tianjin really came in handy. Yantai is very close to the Weihai base of the Beiyang Fleet, and the Japanese spies collecting the road and hydrological conditions in this area can provide great convenience for future landing operations.
In fact, the real reason for the collapse of the Beiyang Fleet was that the Japanese army landed in Shandong and raided their old nests from land. The forts built at great expense in the Manchu Qing Dynasty were instead used to bombard the Beiyang Fleet. The officers and men guarding the battery and the marine division base would not have imagined that the Japanese soldiers had observed themselves at such a close distance.
In order to show off their weapons production capabilities to the Japanese, Manchu officials also took Kawakami Tokuroku to visit the arsenal. What they would not have imagined was that the Japanese would be able to deduce from the need for foreign core components from these arsenals that as long as foreign supplies were cut off, the Chinese arsenals would not be able to provide heavy weapons to the Qing army. The foreign affairs movement, which seems to be quite so, is actually not afraid at all.
It was during this expedition that Kawakami Makoto matured his battle plan for the Qing Dynasty and determined that he could defeat the old empire of the foreign powers. As we all know, in 1898, Kawakami was promoted to chief of staff and the rank of general in recognition of his contributions to intelligence work against China.
Sadly, Li Hongzhang and other Manchu Qing generals were completely in the dark, and they would not understand how they had lost this war until they died. In this war, the Manchu Qing did not lose unjustly, but the price of their burial was too great, and the Chinese nation fell into an unprecedented dark situation.
[Reference: A Thousand Details of the Sino-Japanese War]