Da Qing was immersed in the illusion of the sun in the sky, was awakened by the Japanese combined fleet "Yoshino", "Wave Speed" and "Akitsu-chau" shells.
In the early morning of July 25, 1894, in the southwest waters of Toshima Island at the mouth of Asan Bay, North Korea, the Chinese and Japanese navies slowly sailed here to meet, and the Qing government sent a well-known Beiyang Navy cruiser, and the commander was Fang Boqian, who graduated from the Fuzhou School of Shipping Administration and once went to the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, England for further study.
Fang Boqian commanded the warships "Jiyuan" and "Guangyi" to meet the Japanese combined fleet, although afterwards both sides claimed to be the hands of the other side first, and at that time, The "Current Affairs News" in Tokyo also wrote in black and white that "the Qing ship fired the first gun, and our ship met the battle", in order to throw out the cauldron that provoked the war.
However, no matter who fired the specific first gun, the Beiyang Navy warships were severely damaged within a few hours of the start of the battle, and it was rumored that the commander Fang Boqian was even stunned by a cannon, and the group of generals was surrounded and surrounded by the Japanese combined fleet, and his nose was blue and swollen. The "Jiyuan" battleship with high hopes carried Fang Boqian around and ran, while the "Gaosheng" battleship, which swore to defend the dignity of the battlefield to the death, was sunk, and more than 700 Qing soldiers were all sacrificed.
The fierce Battle of Toshima resulted in the capture of 72 Qing generals.
Japan won the first battle and decided to take advantage of the victory to pursue, and on September 15, 1894, war again broke out with the Qing army in Pyongyang, Korea. This time the Qing government was a little sober, they no longer dared not to take Japan across the water as improper, the main war faction and the main peace faction in the DPRK reached a rare temporary consensus, sent a total of 13,000 Qing generals to meet Japan, and decided to regain face fiercely.
After intelligence organizations lurked around in Japan, after finding the news that the Qing government was going to reinforce, they also returned home and brought a total of 16,000 Japanese troops to besiege Pyongyang.
It is said that the time, place, and three elements needed to fight the war, the Qing government occupied almost all of them before the start of the war, first of all, the Qing army occupied the fortified capital of Ping'an Province, there were six tall city gates front and back, left and right, covered, and the people of Pyongyang also strongly supported the Qing army to fight and privately transport intelligence because the Qing army gave food after it was stationed.
The ruler of Korea at the time, Heungso Dae-won, after weighing the two sides, planned to side with the Qing government and decided to cooperate and join forces to drive Japan back to its hometown. However, on the 15th, the two sides fought fiercely, and the Qing army was still caught off guard.
The general Ye Zhichao and Li Hongzhang repeatedly failed to communicate well, thus delaying the fighter planes, so that the retreating Qing army not only could not see the enemy and us clearly because of the high night wind, but also surrounded by ambushed Japanese troops, resulting in 2,000 casualties on the spot, 4,000 wounded, and a total of 683 soldiers were captured.
The Battle of Pyongyang was a key node in the Sino-Japanese battle, and if the victory or defeat of the battle before that was still unresolved, after this battle, Japan completely occupied Pyongyang, and morale soared all the way to Liaodong and Weihai, with the goal of taking the then zhili plain Hebei, hoping to take the Qing court.
In these battles, the Confidence of the Qing army, which had been defeated in both major battles, was even more lost, and a total of 1110 soldiers were captured. Therefore, the Sino-Japanese War can be roughly divided into three phases, the first phase was the Battle of Toshima, a total of 72 soldiers were captured, the second phase of the Battle of Pyongyang resulted in the capture of 683 soldiers, and the third phase of up to 1100 soldiers were captured.
What happened to them after they were captured by the Japanese?
After the Japanese captured 72 Qing generals at the Battle of Toshima, they felt that this was an excellent symbol of inspiration, after all, the afterglow of the Tang Dynasty was still there, and ordinary Japanese people were always afraid of the glorious empire of the past. So the Japanese army escorted the Qing prisoners of war back to Japan on a ship and decided to squeeze out all the use value of these prisoners of war.
When the Japanese ships approached the shore, the bells and trumpets shook in unison, and a group of Japanese soldiers were arranged to ring bells on the ships, and the thunderous movement attracted all the nearby residents.
They recognized that this was their own country's warship, and they exchanged endless discussions, and those who knew how to read and hyphenate and understand current affairs were at the end of the Sino-Japanese naval war popularized in the crowd, and although everyone's ears listened to the news from all directions, their eyes were in unison to pay attention to the movements of the battleship.
In a short time, the Japanese soldiers escorted 72 Qing prisoners to disembark in a row, in order to let the Japanese people recognize the characteristics of the Qing army at a glance, these soldiers even wore combat clothing, and their braids were dirty and wrapped around their necks.
The soldiers escorted them through the streets and slowly walked through the streets in front of them, and the Japanese people on both sides pointed at them, believing that although these captured soldiers could not understand what they were saying, those oncoming laughter and skimming must be a hundred times worse than dying in battle.
After the completion of the parade, the 72 officers captured at the Battle of Toshima were imprisoned in the Sasebo Naval Prison, many of whom must have died of illness due to the harsh environment and water and soil, and those who survived were returned to their hometowns as prisoners of war in exchange after the signing of the Treaty of Maguan between China and Japan.
The 683 soldiers captured in the Battle of Pyongyang, because of their large numbers, suffered a lot in the process of transporting them to Japan. They were squeezed and locked up in a cramped cabin like canned sardines, eating meals mixed with mud and sand, drinking dirty and colorless water, and because the defecation was solved in the cabin, their clothes were stained with filth.
The prisoners were in a bad image due to suffering, so the process of parade and demonstration was simplified. The Japanese soldiers escorted them directly to prisoner-of-war camps, and according to the rank of the officers, they were divided into different standards of treatment, 24 yuan for the officers, 18 yuan for the superiors, non-commissioned officers and associate non-commissioned officers, and 16 yuan for corporals and ordinary soldiers.
This money is not easy to get, just like the appearance fee needs to be coordinated with japanese performances, in advance, there are Japanese soldiers who are proficient in two Chinese will arrange the link, so that they will show gratitude and thank you when western journalists arrive, so as to gain the reputation of treating prisoners well in international public opinion.
These 683 soldiers, in addition to the death of illness, the final result was also due to the signing of the "Maguan Treaty" back to their hometown.
In the third phase of the campaign, more than half of the 1110 soldiers who were captured one after another were already full of prisoners in the early stages, and the Japanese cheaply rented abandoned places and temporarily requisitioned temples to hold prisoners, and the living conditions were even worse.
They interrogated the captives with burning and knives, and the food they gave was moldy and foul-smelling dried radish three times a day, and only a few captives with strong will and physical fitness survived and were reborn with the exchange of prisoners of war.
It can be seen that no matter which period of the Qing army prisoners who were brought to Japan, they were all treated harshly with multiple physical and mental injuries, and even if they were selected to become prisoners of war "symbols" of preferential treatment, the process of performing gratitude was also a major blow to the three views.