Li Hongzhang, this person, has been evaluated by the world in various ways. Some people say that he is patriotic, for the sake of the country, he can still create the Beiyang Marine Division under such tight funds. But some people say that he is stubborn and conservative, and it is precisely because he paid for a series of unequal treaties in place of the Qing government that the Qing Dynasty became a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
But in fact, it is better to say that Li Hongzhang is incompetent than to say that Cixi and the Qing Dynasty are incompetent, and if it were not for Cixi's arrogance and the closed country of the Qing Dynasty ministers, the late Qing Dynasty would not have ended up like this. Li Hongzhang has no right to decide these things, so even without Li Hongzhang, there will be other people, why the Beiyang Marine Division is vulnerable, presumably those who have studied history know it, it is because Cixi used the money that should have been cast for the Beiyang Water Division to buy luxury jewelry and self-enjoyment, resulting in a serious shortage of funds for the Beiyang Water Division, and it was vulnerable when fighting.
Because of insufficient funds, the Beiyang Marine Division could only pack stones and sandbags in the cannons, and compared with the real guns of the Japanese warships, the Beiyang Naval Division's really vulnerable.
Even if he was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang was only a peace negotiator sent by the imperial court, and in the face of the Japanese lions, Cixi wanted to meet these unreasonable demands in order to seek peace. But Li Hongzhang hoped that the Japanese would lower their requirements and maximize their efforts for the country. Li Hongzhang chose to engage in a tug-of-war with the Japanese, and the Japanese tried every means to assassinate Li Hongzhang. But Li Hongzhang's life is big, not dead, the Japanese look at it, there is no way, can only reduce the compensation down to 17 billion.
This fell 17 billion, but Li Hongzhang exchanged the bullet that the Japanese attacked him and left in his body. At that time, even Cixi could not do such a sacrifice for the country, just thinking about what the Japanese said, if not, it would satisfy them, if it were not for Li Hongzhang's painstaking maneuvering with the Japanese at home and gambling with his own life, how could the Japanese have lowered the compensation so painfully, according to Cixi's way, I am afraid that the speed of the fall of the Qing Dynasty has intensified.
After Li Hongzhang's death, there was no burial gold and silver jewelry in his mausoleum, just the shrapnel worth 17 billion yuan in his body, and some were just the determination to negotiate with the Japanese for the country.