In 1894, after the start of the War of jiawu and Qing Dynasty, the Qing court at this time had three marine divisions in Fujian, Guangdong and Nanyang in addition to the Beiyang Fleet in Bohai Bay. In the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, the Beiyang Fleet was difficult to fight, and Deng Shichang and a number of other generals emerged, regardless of their own safety, and led the ship directly into the enemy's flagship, and their actions were singable and weeping, but in the end, they did not change the situation in which the Beiyang Marine Division was completely annihilated. This cannot help but make people ask rhetorically, since Japan is gathering the strength of the whole country and the elite of the national navy to fight against the Beiyang Marine Division. So, what were the other three water divisions of the Qing court doing, and why didn't they go north to fight against the Japanese army and kill the enemy together?
The Qing court's indecisiveness in its strategic choices was at work. Looking at the entire war, the Qing court did not make a battle strategy from beginning to end, and the war was uncertain, even after the declaration of war between China and Japan, it did not exert all its strength to meet the battle, repeatedly retreated and avoided the war, and even still hoped for the mediation of the great powers, let alone the establishment of a combat command. In contrast, in Japan, people have made serious preparations before the war, set up the Navy and Army Headquarters very early, and even pushed this base camp to the front line of the battle, thus gaining the initiative in the war, and the Japanese army can always preemptively attack. It is precisely because of this situation that the Qing court issued a holy decree to mobilize the three water divisions of Fujian, Guangdong, and Nanyang to support the Beiyang Naval Army in battle, and even the Beiyang Marine Division itself has fallen into the contradiction of war and peace, which has seriously hit the determination and confidence of the frontline soldiers to resist the war.
The conspiracy of the top brass of various water divisions and the mentality of party struggle in dismantling each other is at work. At this time, the Qing court was already corrupt, there were many internal factions at the top level, the big men had different political views, opposing interests, and infighting. In particular, the contradiction between the Chu army headed by Zuo Zongtang and the Huai army headed by Li Hongzhang has always been a long time. Both sides regard their own control of the army as their own private armed forces, which is to maintain the family capital of the group, to seek self-preservation and preserve strength everywhere, and how to be willing to fight for their own old roots in the face of national difficulties; at the same time, they are also eager to exhaust the strength of the other side, so as to increase the right to speak of their own family. The division controlled by the water division is precisely that Li Hongzhang controls the Beiyang Water Division, zuo Zongtang controls the Fujian Water Division and the Nanyang Water Division, in this historical background, it is strange that troops can be sent to support, and the sino-Japanese naval war is basically the battle between Japan and the Beiyang Water Division!
The other three sailors were too weak. The four water divisions of Beiyang, Fujian, Guangdong and Nanyang are the only one in Beiyang, and the large ones are far more than the sum of the equipment of the other three water divisions! At that time, the imperial court attached great importance to Beiyang, resulting in the construction of the other three water divisions far inferior to the Beiyang water division, especially in the 1880s, during the Sino-French battle, the Nanyang Water Division suffered a heavy blow and has since collapsed. The three marine divisions had very little effect on that point of equipment, and it was not worth mentioning in the eyes of the people of the world at that time, and it was impossible to influence the development of the war situation at all. In short, within a year, Daqing, which claimed to be the first navy in Asia, was completely destroyed, and daqing no longer had any naval hope.