In the years of war and chaos, heroes have emerged, and they have sacrificed their families for the country, even at the cost of their lives, to defend the peace of their homeland.
In the face of external aggression, they did not hesitate to pick up the "sword" in their hands, rushed to the battlefield, and sacrificed again and again in exchange for people's happy lives today, and since then, they have been buried underground, so that the world will be worried about eternity.
National hero Deng Shichang, is such a person, when the Qing government and the Japanese army, in the sea war, as the pipe belt of the Zhiyuan ship Deng Shichang, obviously had a chance to escape, but the command of the Zhiyuan ship crashed into the enemy's Yoshino, until 125 years later, the shipwreck was salvaged, everyone understood why he chose to do this in the first place.
The strength of the Beiyang Marine Division declined
Ever since Li Hongzhang assisted Zeng Guofan in the Pacific War, he realized the importance of having an independent naval force to a country.
At that time, the Qing government was in a period of development, so under the leadership of Li Hongzhang and others, the Beiyang Marine Division was begun to be established, which could not only enhance the Qing government's maritime power, but also resist the maritime invaders of various countries.
In the early days of its establishment, the Beiyang Marine Division was highly valued by the imperial court, and the Qing government did not hesitate to spend a lot of money to specially invite professional staff officers from abroad, and also followed the example of other countries, founded a Western-style naval school, and trained a large number of new-style naval talents.
Deng Shichang, on the other hand, grew up during this period and gradually developed into the backbone of the Beiyang Marine Division.
In addition to the cultivation of talents, in terms of science and technology, the Qing government also created top-notch main warships such as Zhiyuan and Zhenyuan, which were enough to resist foreign maritime invaders.
At that time, the Beiyang Marine Division was very powerful and was a complete opponent that could not be underestimated, but as the development of the Beiyang Marine Division became better and better, the Qing government believed that it was no longer necessary to invest more manpower, material and financial resources on top of it.
In particular, Empress Dowager Cixi, ostensibly claiming to "save the source and open the flow", but in fact took the military expenses that should belong to the navy to fill her harem, and this method of withholding funds and exploiting military expenses also led to the heavy damage to the Beiyang Marine Division.
The imperial court did not pay enough attention to it, and the direct consequence was that the internal management of the Beiyang Marine Division was chaotic, and the forces of all sides were deadlocked, resulting in many contradictions between the various leadership levels within the Water Division.
Coupled with the fact that there is not enough money to purchase equipment, this also leads to the continuous decline in the strength of the Beiyang Marine Division.
The Battle of Jiawu was also over
In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, and the shortcomings of the Beiyang Marine Division were highlighted.
In the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government's warships were repeatedly attacked by enemy warships because they did not have ammunition and the quality of ammunition was too poor, but they had no ability to fight back, which also caused the warships of the Beiyang Marine Division to suffer heavy damage.
As the commander of the Zhiyuan ship, Deng Shichang also knew what the Zhiyuan ship would face next when he saw this scene.
At that time, the two sides were deadlocked at sea, and the war was in full swing, but the Beiyang Marine Division was already scarred and almost overwhelmed, and many medium and small warships had long been vulnerable and completely destroyed by the enemy warships.
However, at this time, although the enemy warships were also attacked by the Beiyang Marine Division, due to the poor quality of the Beiyang Naval Division's ammunition and the enemy's warships were very strong, they did not cause fatal damage to them, but the warships of the Beiyang Naval Division were constantly destroyed.
Seeing that his own team's warships were destroyed by the enemy one by one, Deng Shichang was already powerless to return to heaven at this time.
He had been thinking in his heart about how to deal a heavy blow to the enemy in this situation, so that even if he could not save his battleship, at least he could make the enemy a "funeral product", which was also his last contribution to the Qing government.
Later, he set his sights on the enemy Yoshino, intending to command the Zhiyuan ship, and crashed into the Yoshino, and the two sides came to an end.
With one of its own "lingering" warships and colliding with the enemy's rock-solid warships, this transaction can only be counted as a win or a loss, but it turns out that this method of "ending up together" is not feasible.
Salvage the wreck to reveal the truth
At that time, Deng Shichang was single-mindedly commanding the Zhiyuan ship and crashed into the Yoshino, but before his battleship could reach the enemy warship, he was hit by an enemy torpedo.
This also directly caused the sinking of the Zhiyuan ship, and all the soldiers on the battleship, as well as Deng Shichang, had no life to survive, and they paid the price of their lives for the victory of the war.
I thought that the reason why Deng Shichang commanded the Zhiyuan ship and collided with the Yoshino was only because he wanted to die with the other party, but he did not expect that in 2014, after salvaging the Zhiyuan ship, people found the truth that had been covered up for more than 100 years.
After the Zhiyuan ship was salvaged, professionals studied the wreckage in it, and in the process of research, they found that there was an unfired torpedo inside the Zhiyuan ship, which still existed in the torpedo tube.
Logically, this torpedo was enough to destroy the enemy army, but why did Deng Shichang choose to collide with the Yoshino under such circumstances?
Later, experts gave a detailed explanation, because the Zhiyuan ship itself is a percussion battleship, its biggest advantage is that it can use the strong angle of collision to hit the enemy warship at high speed, giving it a heavy blow, and Deng Shichang knows the Zhiyuan ship enough, he wants to use this advantage to hit the other side's Yoshino.
Moreover, through research, people have found that although there are torpedoes inside the Zhiyuan ship, the range of this remnant torpedo is not so far, and it is even more difficult to hit the enemy's Yoshino.
Under comprehensive consideration, Deng Shichang chose the "two-ship collision method" with higher danger but higher success rate.
But he never expected that before he hit the Yoshino, he was hit by the enemy's torpedo, and he had the mood of seeing death as a homecoming, and wanted to die with the other party, but he did not admit it, but he encountered an "ambush" and planned to fail.
epilogue
Although things did not go in the direction Deng Shichang thought in the Battle of Jiawu, it is undeniable that he was a real military genius.
His combat strategy of not fearing life and death, perseverance and courage, is also worthy of study and admiration by future generations.
In history, there are countless heroes like Deng Shichang who put personal life and death aside and devoted themselves only to the country.
They exchanged their precious lives for victory after war, and it was precisely because of their sacrifices that they exchanged the founding of New China and enabled more people to live a good life of living and working in peace and contentment.