The Sino-Japanese War was launched at the end of the 19th century, when the outbreak of this war coincided with the First Sino-Japanese War, so it was also called the Sino-Japanese War. After the Meiji Restoration, Japan changed to the capitalist road, began to actively invade and expand abroad, and launched the "mainland policy" of China-centered War I.
At that time, the Beiyang Marine Division was in charge of this war, and in this war, the Beiyang Marine Division, which had a strong comprehensive strength, was completely destroyed.
01 The reason for the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War was questioned: the Beiyang Marine Division army smoked opium
The Beiyang Marine Division was a modern naval fleet established by China at that time, which can be said to be the strongest and largest fleet in the entire Qing Dynasty, and the captains and senior officers of the main battleships of the fleet almost all graduated from the Fuzhou School of Ship Politics.
Even most of the senior officers have also been to the British Naval Academy to study and intern, there are more than 4,000 officers and men, the largest ship can carry tens of thousands of people, from a modern point of view, this fleet is a very strong level of development of the fleet, but why the whole army was destroyed?
For this war, many people have questioned the Beiyang Marine Division's army, and some people have said: "The defeat of this war is mainly directly related to the individual soldiers, if the soldiers are strong and healthy, they will not lose this war."
In other words, it is precisely because these soldiers have been smoking opium for a long time, becoming weak and uncontrollable, coupled with the lack of operational command and being besieged by Japanese warships, that they will not be able to withstand the impact of normal war, and eventually lead to the total annihilation of the army.
02 After the long-distance ship was salvaged, the excavated cultural relics washed away the grievances of the soldiers of the Beiyang Marine Division
The soldiers of the Beiyang Marine Division have been questioned by the outside world, until in 2018, archaeologists found the Jingyuan ship in the salvage process, and in the search and investigation, the archaeologists found a lot of remains in the Jingyuan ship, and also excavated a lot of cultural relics.
Shisha is a traditional tobacco product in China, and shisha pots have a long history in China. Hookahs, also known as hookahs, hookah cups, hookah pipes, etc., is a kind of smoking apparatus that allows smoke to pass through the water and then inhale into the mouth, at that time Empress Dowager Cixi was also a fan of shisha, there were about a hundred shisha bags in the warship, archaeologists speculated that these soldiers had the habit of smoking shisha, which was their favorite pastime.
In the process of further searching, archaeologists did not find a "big smoking gun" for smoking big smoke. It should be known that in the late Qing Dynasty, there were many opium addicts, and at that time, the British began to smuggle opium to China and obtain high profits.
One out of every ten Chinese is opium smoker, and long-term opium consumption has caused many Chinese to suffer physical weakness. If people have previously questioned, archaeologists should have found a large smoking gun instead of a hookah on the Jingyuan ship.
There were about 4,000 officers and men on the Jingyuan ship, and not a single large smoking gun was found, which can only show that no one in the Beiyang Marine Division army smoked opium, and the reason for the previous suspicion of the total annihilation of the whole army seemed unreliable.
03 The total destruction of the Beiyang Marine Division is directly related to the Qing Dynasty government
So why was the Beiyang Marine Division's army completely destroyed? We can only say that this is directly related to the corruption and incompetence of the Qing government, knowing that it takes a lot of money to maintain a fleet, and on the occasion of the Sino-Japanese War, it coincided with the birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi.
Therefore, no official would be bent on allocating funds for the Beiyang warships, and they were all thinking hard about how to please Empress Dowager Cixi, no one would worry about the front line, there was no funding, the battle situation on the front line was naturally tense, the soldiers were cold, the morale was insufficient, and finally caused the defeat of this war.
Nowadays, this major discovery by archaeologists has finally cleared the reputation of the Beiyang Marine Division army sunk in the seabed for nearly a hundred years, and it has become famous in the world in the First World War, and the Beiyang Marine Division has lived up to expectations, even if it was completely destroyed in the Sino-Japanese War, it was once a fleet of brave fighters, and their reputation can be recorded in the annals of history, providing important value for modern archaeological research.