Tang Jingsong was the last governor of Taiwan and also served as the "president" for several months.
"President"? You're bound to feel strange.
Here's the thing: As soon as the Maguan Treaty was signed, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands ceased to be China.
When the news of the signing of the Maguan Treaty reached Taiwan, the Taiwan people were extremely sad and indignant, and every day ordinary people ran into the patrol gate and cried bitterly.
Tang Jingsong, the inspector, was certainly even more reluctant to cede Taiwan, and he wrote a letter to the imperial court in an attempt to obstruct the cession of Taiwan.
However, the imperial court also had no way to save Taiwan, and it was helpless to reply to him.
"Although Taiwan is heavy, it is lighter than that of The Beijing Division."
Taiwan is important, but Beijing cannot be lost! If the Japanese demands are not met, the Japanese army will have to drive straight into the capital to occupy the capital! The Manchu Qing, who had just been defeated in the Sino-Japanese War, had no strength to resist the Wokou.
As soon as the Taiwan people see that the state cannot save Taiwan, they will be able to protect themselves.
They protect themselves in two ways:
First of all, to prepare for an active armed boycott, Tang Jingsong got 20,000 guns from the famous minister Zhang Zhidong.
France also secretly provided arms assistance.
Liu Yongfu, a hero of the Anti-French Resistance, also parachuted into Taiwan and actively recruited troops to build an armed force.
At the same time, they also had an unprecedented action, that is, on May 25, 1895, two weeks after the signing of the Treaty of Maguan, the establishment of the "Democratic Republic of Taiwan" was announced, and Inspector Tang Jingsong became the "president".
Since you can't stay in China, it's better to be independent.
However, Tang Jingsong still felt that Taiwan was a bit rebellious in doing so, so he revealed his ideas to the imperial court.
"When the Taiwan people learned of the bad news of the cession of Taiwan, they hoped for a turnaround, so they did not dare to act rashly, but now that they are desperate, they have established themselves as a democratic country under public discussion, and have informed all the States to win foreign aid; in the future, the president of Taiwan will be elected by the Taiwanese, but they still respect the imperial court as orthodoxy and serve as a barrier to the Great Qing Dynasty, and when Taiwan is slightly stable, if the ministers can get out, they will immediately go to the imperial court to plead guilty."
At this moment, the Qing Dynasty did not care about the establishment of a "republic" in Taiwan, but Japan would never tolerate the existence of a "republic", and on May 29, 1859, the Japanese army landed, and soon after captured Keelung.
Tang Jingsong was a good civilian official, but he could not fight wars, and would not use the genius soldier Liu Yongfu, when Liu Yongfu himself organized a group of people and horses to defend Taiwan to the death.
As soon as President Tang saw that Japan could not be defeated, he ran to the mainland with the Inspector Great Seal.
With the escape of the "president", Taipei was occupied by the Japanese army on June 7, and the "Democratic Republic of Taiwan" quickly collapsed, existing for only more than ten days, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it was a flash in the pan.
Although the inspectors ran away, the Taiwanese still insisted on resisting Japan, and japan eventually paid 32,000 casualties to swallow Taiwan, which was far greater than the casualties of the Japanese army in the Sino-Japanese War (more than 10,000).