In ancient China, China created a splendid civilization and economy, and the military strength was also very cattle, so in ancient times, whether it was the Battle of Baijiangkou, or the Mongolian Three Expeditions to Japan, the Wanli Korean War, Japan was passively beaten and overwhelmed. However, in modern times, the decline of the Qing Dynasty made Japan continue to bully China. So under the circumstances at that time, did the Qing Dynasty have a chance to destroy Japan? In fact, there are, but because of Li Hongzhang's fatal mistake, he missed the last good opportunity.
And this opportunity arose during the most glorious period of the Great Qing Dynasty, that is, around 1880, when the domestic economic development was booming, and the military side established a huge Beiyang Navy, which ranked seventh in the world and first in Asia at that time. At this time, Japan's naval strength was still very small, and its economic development was even slower than that of the Qing Dynasty, so by chance, the Qing Dynasty was determined to destroy Japan. In 1886, the Beiyang Navy at that time could be described as flaunting its might, cruising around Asia, or very powerful.
In July of that year, Yuan Shikai, who was in Korea, gave Li Hongzhang a note, saying that there might be problems in Korea's coastal defense, mainly due to the glimpses of Tsarist Russia and Japan, sending warships to cruise. After Receiving the report, Li Hongzhang immediately reacted, after all, the strength was there at that time. Therefore, Ding Ruchang was immediately dispatched to take the four giant warships Jiyuan, Zhenyuan, Dingyuan, and Weiyuan to the Korean sea, and the first stop of the cruise was Japan. At that time, Japan's weak navy, seeing the four iron-armored giant warships of the Qing Dynasty, simply remembered the moment when the American black ship fleet invaded.
Four heavy battleships docked in Nagasaki, Japan, looking at the giant guns on the warships and the flying Dragon Flag. The Japanese are both afraid and jealous. Therefore, the officers and soldiers of the Great Qing were carefully entertained, and just when the officers and men of the Great Qing were indulging in their eroticism, a dispute occurred with the local Japanese police in Nagasaki. The Soldiers of the Great Qing Dynasty were also very confident and beat up the Japanese police violently. After this incident, Japan did not dare to come out of the atmosphere at that time, and in the eyes of the Japanese, this was an insult to Japan by the Qing Dynasty, which also became the seed of Japan's revenge later.
As for this matter, Li Hongzhang had a tough attitude at that time, believing that Japan was picking quarrels and provoking trouble, so he connived at the soldiers' behavior. Moreover, on August 15, the officers and soldiers were given a holiday, and while the officers and soldiers were playing in Nagasaki, they were surrounded by Japanese police, and in the case of being outnumbered, the Qing soldiers were beaten fiercely and suffered a great loss. This was the Qing-Japan Nagasaki Incident that shocked China and foreign countries at that time, and the Beiyang Navy at that time was excited and wrote to take advantage of the opportunity to destroy Japan and give them some color to see.
Moreover, the four ironclad warships had all been reloaded and ready for combat, and as long as Li Hongzhang gave an order, he would immediately start shelling Japan from Nagasaki. The expectation was that, if not completely destroy japan, at least its main cities would be squeezed clean, and it was safe to wipe out the tiny sea forces of the time. At that time, Li Hongzhang originally wanted to fight such a battle, and used this as an excuse to teach Japan a lesson.
However, after this incident occurred, the Japanese minister in Tianjin found Li Hongzhang, who scolded him bitterly, and the attitude of the Japanese minister was only a promise, which made Li Hongzhang see his own majesty. Moreover, China has always paid attention to benevolence and righteousness, and once the other party gives in, it will be counted. Therefore, Li Hongzhang only left it behind, and Japan must deal with it seriously, otherwise China will not be ruthless in its harsh words. At that time, Japan also knew how many pounds it weighed, and while greeting it, it also found a Western country to mediate from it.
In order not to anger Li Hongzhang, Japan made huge concessions, and finally this incident became a misunderstanding, Japan punished the police, paid 50,000 yuan in compensation, and also paid medical expenses for Qing soldiers, and finally it was gone. At that time, Li Hongzhang believed that Japan had yielded, so he abandoned the generals' proposal. But what everyone knows is that Japan's hatred has deepened, and under the exaggeration of militarism, this incident has become the biggest shame in Japan since the Meiji Restoration, and it has been rendered all the time, war revenge.
This began later, when the Japanese people donated money to save money to build warships, and the Japanese emperor even ate only once a day to build warships and buy advanced warships in order to repay this humiliation. It was also from 1886 that the then triumphant Qing Dynasty began to reduce the military expenditure of the Beiyang Navy and no longer buy new advanced warships. As a result, in less than 8 years, the Beiyang Navy completely lagged behind Japan, and finally completely collapsed in 1894. And if Li Hongzhang had ordered this battle at that time, perhaps there would have been no repeated insults from Japan later.