In the late Qing Dynasty, the Qing court was already very decayed, and it collapsed in a few moments when it encountered foreign enemies, but people certainly did not want to be bullied, especially those who had been in high positions, and they did not want to be bullied by foreigners, so when the Westerners came to China, the Qing court put forward the slogan of "Mastering the Art of Mastering the Art to Control the Yi", and by learning the advanced military technology of the Westerners, it was used to resist the aggression of the Western foreigners.
Li Hongzhang, as a famous celebrity in the late Qing Dynasty, was responsible for presiding over the establishment of the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau, the Steamship Merchants Bureau, the Kaiping Mining Bureau, the Machine Weaving Layout, the Telegraph General Bureau, and a modern naval fleet: the Beiyang Marine Division.
However, it is a good thing to say, but it is still somewhat difficult to implement, after all, everything must be done with rules and norms, and without rules, it cannot be a square circle, which Western country should we learn advanced military technology from? Li Hongzhang, who has already been to many countries, believes that Britain and France are not very reliable, and they were not very respectful when they received him, and I am afraid that they will not devote themselves to helping our country establish a new military force.
Li Hongzhang felt that Germany was very good, the Germans were strict in their work, and Li Hongzhang also witnessed the German "iron-blooded prime minister" Otto von Bismarck use the Krupp cannon handily and defeat the French army, so Li Hongzhang also admired German weapons, in 1871, Li Hongzhang bought 328 Krupp cannons from Germany, and invited German officers to train the Huai army of the Qing Dynasty.
In ten years, Li Hongzhang bought 2,000 Krupp cannons, and in 1888, Li Hongzhang selected a group of outstanding students from the Beiyang Wubei Academy to study in Germany, Duan Qirui was one of them, and Li Hongzhang was also full of spirits at that time, thinking that it was a matter of time before the foreigners were driven away.
Later, Krupp cannons appeared in the Sino-French War, sino-Japanese war, the Battle of Gengzi, etc., but the foreign affairs movement failed to change the fate of the Qing Dynasty, and the Krupp cannon did not pull the late Qing dynasty back from the edge of the cliff, but after the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Krupp cannon still played an important role in China, active in the warlord war and the War of Resistance Against Japan.
In the 1937 Xiamen Fortress Defense War, the Krupp cannon sank the Japanese "Bamboo" type warship with one cannon, which was 66 years after Li Hongzhang purchased the Krupp cannon in 1871, but it still allowed Chinese to see its strength.
The Krupp cannon was produced by the German Krupp family, which had always been the cornerstone of German militarism, and the founder of the Krupp family was Alfred Krupp, who was only a small blacksmith shop when it was first established, and by the time of the old Krupp, it was only three thatched houses.
However, the old Krupp later created the "tank steel", and "tank steel" made the advanced breech steel cannon Krupp cannon of the time, and the Krupp family gradually grew, but after the war, the German workers in the Krupp factory also went to the front line, replaced by prisoners of war of various countries, and at the end of the war, the "Krupp slaves" reached 100,000 people.
In 1948, Alfred Krupp was sentenced to 12 years in prison for "opposing humanity, plundering occupied areas and conspiring against peace", and Alfred Krupp was later released from prison to rebuild his glory, but 12 years has changed a lot.