Although the guns of the Western powers opened the closed door of the Manchu Qing, it also made the Manchu Qing realize its own shortcomings. After the Foreign Affairs Movement, the Manchu Qing government, which had mastered what the United States ranked as the "strongest maritime force in Asia," began to plan how to deter other Asian countries. As the saying goes, "just when someone was giving a pillow to dozing off," the war in korea, a vassal state, gave the Manchus a stage to prove themselves. But I did not think that this was a trap carefully woven by the Japanese government for the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
At that time, the Dongxue Party revolt was breaking out in Korea, and The Koreans themselves could not suppress the rebellion, so they could only turn to the suzerainty of the Manchu Qing For help. After receiving the signal, the Manchu Qing immediately hand-picked the general of "quelling the chaos" and ordered the Beiyang Marine Division to immediately support the Korean war situation. It was this step of support that dragged the Manchu Qing into the Japanese government's "big net."
The rebellion that broke out in Korea was pushed by the Japanese government to redivide the sphere of influence on the Korean Peninsula with the help of the rebellion, and in Japan's plan, the Manchu Qing were the first country to be out of the game. Therefore, the Manchu Qing's support for Korea was expected by Japan.
The outcome can be imagined, the first batch of Manchu Qing reinforcements with the mentality of "returning home from a big victory" understood the cruelty of reality after landing in Korea. At the same time that 1,500 Manchu soldiers landed, Japanese troop carriers had already transported 10,000 soldiers to the Korean Peninsula, nominally to protect the Japanese diaspora in Korea, but in fact to suppress Manchu reinforcements and deter the Korean government.
The Manchu Qing soldiers who landed at Asan in Korea could only move around Asan, and the surrounding Japanese soldiers surrounded them without attacking, constantly exerting mental pressure on the Manchu Qing commanders and forcing them to ask for help from the mainland.
The development of things was indeed as expected by Japan, and after receiving the help of the lone army in Asan, the Manchu Qing moved their true character and mobilized a large number of troops to give the Japanese army a heavy blow on the Korean Peninsula. At the request of the Manchu Emperor, Li Hongzhang chartered a British merchant ship to support the assan lone army on three occasions as a troop carrier, and at the same time ordered the Beiyang Fleet's "Jiyuan" and "Guangyi" to assist.
In Li Hongzhang's plan, Fang Boqian led thousands of Qing troops to unite the Asan Lone Army and the Korean garrison and the Korean army, which was enough to quickly crush the Japanese army.
However, in the case of unequal intelligence and calculated, the Manchu Qing were Japan's opponents. At the same time that Manchu reinforcements arrived in Korea, Japan deliberately revealed to the Manchu commander Fang Boqian that the large-scale reinforcements of the Japanese army would reach the Korean Peninsula the next day, misleading Fang Boqian to make a wrong decision.
Fang Boqian did not disappoint the Japanese, and directly asked the landing soldiers to speed up the progress, and at the same time asked the "Weiyuan ship" to return first, and then ordered the "Jiyuan" and "Guangyi" to return together. Fang Boqian did not have the slightest idea of resisting the Japanese army, only thinking about how to escape back to the mainland.
And how could the Japanese warships, which had long been waiting for the only way back to the country of the Manchu warships, miss such a good opportunity to fight the Beiyang Marine Division directly near the waters off Toshima. In the end, the Manchu Qing "Guangyi" was severely damaged and destroyed, the "Jiyuan" escaped with injuries, the "Caojiang" was captured, the troop carrier Gaosheng was sunk, and 800 soldiers were killed.
With the outbreak of the Battle of Toshima, Japan declared war on the Manchus. The Manchu Qing also declared war on Japan on the same day, all of which was in the Japanese plan, after the declaration of war, the Japanese army had a reason to launch an attack on the Manchu Qing, and could get a piece of the pie under the eyes of the Western powers. Only in this way can we occupy a better position in the Manchu Qing territory and then launch an all-out war.