After the Meiji Restoration, Japan developed rapidly, in the eyes of the Manchu Qing ministers, a country as large as a province, has developed into a fierce enemy of China, in the eyes of the rulers at that time, Japan is only a weak island country, there is no need to worry, only Li Hongzhang, who has been dealing with Japan for many years, clearly knows what the Japanese country has developed into, and Japan after the Meiji Restoration will become the biggest enemy of the Qing court.
Li Hongzhang believed that the Qing government at that time was absolutely incapable of resisting Japan. Therefore, when the Japanese-Korean War broke out, Li Hongzhang advocated peace, but his opinions were not accepted by the emperor, and Li Hongzhang held the hope of victory and hoped to reduce losses or fight a draw to prepare for the war.
The outcome of the war was the same as Li Hongzhang thought, and the Qing army was gradually defeated. Such a result really does not know what to say, is the pessimistic Li Hongzhang has foresight, or the far-sighted Li Hongzhang is very pessimistic.
There is such a sentence in psychology, called "luck and misfortune are your own efforts to achieve", as the overseer Li Hongzhang has a certain impact on the direction of the war, is Li Hongzhang's pessimistic psychology indirectly led to the defeat of the war, or because of the inability to return to heaven to know oneself and know the other side of the vision directly led to Li Hongzhang's pessimism about the war? There has been a debate on this issue throughout history, with each side having its own arguments.
The Kingdom of Heaven that was defeated by a small country
More than 100 years ago, Li Hongzhang warned his descendants: "If China wants to have no future troubles, it must destroy its country.", and his country is talking about Japan.
During the Guangxu period of the Qing Dynasty, Japan sent troops to invade Korea, and the Korean telegram asked the Qing government for help, and the Guangxu Emperor decided to send troops to support Korea. At that time, the entire Qing government from top to bottom believed that Japan was only a country of bullets, and that it was a blow in front of the Great Qing Dynasty of the Heavenly Dynasty, which was vast and rich, and everyone thought that it was not necessary to defeat Japan at all.
The self-confident Guangxu Emperor and the Qing court and Manchu ministers did not take this war seriously, and the Qing government, which had just been cleaned up by Britain and the United States, also thought of using this war to clean up the small country of Japan, so as to show the great power strength of the Qing government.
The Guangxu Emperor, who had not yet ascended to the throne, was still too young, and he had not even figured out how many families his own country really had, let alone the small countries around him.
When the young emperor and the self-righteous ministers were full of anticipation and fantasized about the glory of the coming victory, a minister who had longed for others and destroyed his own prestige, Li Hongzhang, stood up, and instead of saying morale-boosting words to the others, he raised objections to the invasion of Korea, believing that the Japanese state was now different from before, that Japan after the Meiji Restoration had become very strong, and that the Qing government could not defeat him.
Although the qing government's family background was not clear to the young Guangxu Emperor, the old fox Li Hongzhang, who was in charge, seemed to be very clear, so this time Li Hongzhang advocated peace.
Peace, peace with other countries, but also peace with a small country, joke, this was a big joke at the time, a country's heavy minister actually said to ask for peace from a small country that insulted the country. Li Hongzhang's proposition made the Guangxu Emperor very incomprehensible, in order to take this opportunity to show the strength of the country, the Qing government still sent troops, the Guangxu Emperor sent Li Hongzhang to prepare for the war and prepare for war.
Li Hongzhang, who had no hope of victory, began to prepare for war, and the pessimistic Li Hongzhang did his best to hope that the Qing army would reduce losses or be tied with the Japanese army in the war.
Fu fight, courage also. With the mentality of reducing losses to arrange soldiers, with the mentality of reducing losses to direct the war, even the strong countries can not win in the war, let alone the corrupt Qing government. When the two armies went to war, the Qing army was vulnerable and gradually defeated and retreated, and the war situation has been developing in the direction that Li Hongzhang predicted.
Who is responsible for the defeat of the war
The defeat in the war disgraced the Guangxu Emperor and the Qing government, and also made the angry Guangxu Emperor suspicious of his ministers, suspecting that the ministers were not capable of actively responding to the war.
The emperor did not doubt his own national strength, but doubted the ability of the ministers, believing that the ministers were lazy and did not seriously prepare for the war. Faced with the defeat of the war, the emperor was disappointed, believing that it was caused by the lack of ability of the ministers below.
In the face of the emperor's accusations, the ministers felt very aggrieved, because the ministers believed that the loss of the war was caused by the lack of national strength. They all blamed each other, they all felt that they had failed because of reasons other than themselves, they did not find reasons for themselves, the emperor did not think that the country was insufficient, the ministers did not think that they were incompetent, they all thought that they were right, and it was the other party who was wrong.
More than 20 years before the war, Li Hongzhang said that the biggest enemy of the Qing government in the future would be Japan after the Meiji Restoration, and he also warned future generations that if China did not have any troubles, it was necessary to destroy Japan.
But how to extinguish? Li Hongzhang did not say it clearly, he only said this sentence, and then there was no more below. In the face of political enemy Li Hongzhang, there is a way to destroy him, and in the face of such a thing as destroying the enemy country, Li Hongzhang seems to be powerless, and can only use his mouth to talk.
Li Hongzhang saw that Japan was gradually becoming stronger, and expected that Japan would become the biggest enemy of the Qing government, which showed that Li Hongzhang was a far-sighted person, his vision was not narrow, and he could see the changes in the surrounding environment.
However, every powerful country around it will have the opportunity to become an enemy of the Qing government, and if it is backward, it will be beaten, and this simple and easy-to-understand truth is rarely understood by Li Hongzhang, the Qing government can close the country to prevent the progress of its own country, but it cannot point fingers and feet to stop the progress of other countries, and the relationship between countries is that if you are strong, he is weak, and if you are weak, he is strong.
Therefore, the biggest trouble of the Qing government is not the powerful countries around it, the biggest trouble is the corruption and backwardness of the Qing government itself, just as Confucius said, I am afraid of the worries of the jisun, not in the shadows, but also within the Xiao Wall.
Li Hongzhang had the ability to wipe out the powerful political enemies around him, but the decadent Qing government was no longer able to destroy the small countries around it that had become stronger, unless the Qing government could become strong and become a behemoth again, otherwise the destruction of future troubles could only be empty talk.
What is the real consequences
"If you enter, you can't be a home, and if you go out, you can't be invincible to foreign patients, and the country will always die." Then He was born in sorrow and died in comfort."
Mencius once said that in a country there are no adherents of the law and sages who assist the monarch, and if there is no hostile state and foreign troubles abroad, the country will often lead to extinction, because sorrow can make people survive, and comfort and pleasure will make people wither and die.
Mencius was born in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, during the spring and autumn Warring States period when wars were frequent, if a country wanted to survive and stand in an invincible position, it must have a sense of distress and could not covet comfort and pleasure. No dynasty in China since ancient times has been free of external troubles, even during the time of the powerful Qin Kings Han Wu and Tang Zong and Song Zu, the country's borders were also full of enemy foreign patients.
When your country is rich and the people are strong, and the soldiers are strong, all the nations come to the dynasty, and the small countries around you are subservient to you. When you fall behind them, they will attack you en masse. Man's greatest enemy is not others but yourself, and the same is true of the state, and the greatest enemy of a country is not the enemy state, but the state itself. Those who destroy the Six Kingdoms, the Six Kingdoms also, not Qin Also. The clan Qin is also Qin, not the world.
Man is always defeated by himself, and he cannot expect the existence of no enemies, but should constantly improve himself so that he has the strength and ability to deal with the unfriendliness around him. But when you have the strength, you don't need to destroy him, because he is no longer a threat to you, and he can't become an external problem.
brief summary:
The ancients once said: "Although the homeland is great, it will perish if it is belligerent; although the world is at peace, if it forgets the war, it will be dangerous." So when you are strong, you can't bully yourself, destroying the enemy does not make yourself stronger, destroying the enemy is only a demonstration of your own strength, and our main purpose is to make yourself stronger, strong enough to have no opponent.
China has been a peace-loving country since ancient times, and it has continued to develop and make itself stronger for the sake of peace. Only when the country's strength becomes stronger can it have no troubles and can we maintain peace.