The Battle of Shiramura River in 663 was the first official confrontation between China and Japan. The Battle of Baicunjiang basically determined the political structure of East Asia at that time. After Japan's defeat at the Battle of Shiramura River, japan did not dare to act rashly and was forced to retreat to its homeland for more than 900 years. At the same time, it also stimulated the enthusiasm for learning from the Tang Dynasty, and began to send larger and more envoys to the Tang Dynasty, and the most friendly and cultural exchanges in the history of China and Japan finally began. The Battle of Wanli Korea was a war of far-reaching historical significance, and the outcome determined the pattern of international relations between China, North Korea and Japan in Northeast Asia for more than two hundred years. The Ming army sent troops to aid the DPRK and resist the Japanese, which taught Japan a lesson and laid the foundation for the stability of East Asia for a long period of time in the future. In the Sino-Japanese War, Japan defeated China and replaced China's dominance in the East Asian system, and Japan's millennium ambitions were finally realized.
The Third War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Aid to Korea took place in 1894 and is known in history as the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War. At that time, Korea was still under the control of a closed and self-defending feudal dynasty, the productive forces were backward, the domestic political situation was shaky, and it relied on the support of the Qing Dynasty for a while. Japan strengthened the development of pro-Japanese forces in Korea, and through diplomatic means, strived to free Korea from the control of the Qing government and become an "independent country." Due to Japan's internal interference and economic aggression against Korea, especially Japan's forced export of Korean rice, which led to a peasant uprising in Korea, and the Lee dynasty government requested the Qing government to send troops to suppress the peasant uprising, and Japan sent a strong force to try to capture Korea. After successful negotiations with Britain and its actual support, the Japanese Navy attacked the Chinese fleet, triggering a war between the two countries.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > the Japanese troops</h1>
In 1890, when Japan broke out of the economic crisis, the demand for war became more urgent; in the same year, then Japanese Prime Minister Aritomo Yamagata threw out the theory of the so-called "line of sovereignty" and "line of interest" in the "policy speech" of the first Imperial Diet, taking the Japanese mainland as the line of sovereignty, China and the Korean Peninsula as Japan's "line of interests," claiming that Japan was "depopulated" and must "defend" the line of interest by force and step up the expansion of the war of armaments. In 1894, the Dongxue Party revolt broke out in Korea, and the Korean government army was defeated and forced to beg for help from the Qing Dynasty. Japan believed that the time had come to start a war, and said to the Qing court, "Why doesn't your government quickly replace Han Jie?" ...... Our government will have no other intentions", inducing the Qing Dynasty to send troops to Korea. The Qing Dynasty sent Ye Zhichao, a directly subordinate governor, and Nie Shicheng, the commander-in-chief of Taiyuan Town, to lead 2,000 Huai troops to land in two groups at Asan in Korea a few days after June 6, preparing to suppress the uprising, and at the same time notifying Japan in accordance with the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Tianjin of 1885. On June 10, the North Korean government and rebel forces reached a statewide peace agreement, and the Qing army quelled the uprising without a fight. On June 25, the planned third group of Qing troops landed at Asan, and the total number of Qing troops stationed in Korea reached 2465.
The base camp of Japan during the Sino-Japanese War
At that time, Ito Hirobumi's cabinet was facing impeachment of the parliament's case of no confidence, and while Korea was begging the Qing Dynasty for help, Japan discovered through its legation in Korea that the Qing court was going to send troops to Korea. On June 2, 1894, Ito's cabinet decided to invade Korea. On June 5, Japan immediately set up a "base camp" with the participation of the Chief of Staff, the Deputy Chief of Staff, the Minister of War, and the Minister of Naval Command, as the highest leading organ for directing the war of aggression. On June 9, Japan sent an advance detachment of more than 400 people, led by Keisuke Otori, the Minister to Korea, to enter Seoul, the capital of Korea (present-day Seoul, South Korea), under the pretext that Japan had the right to protect the embassy and expatriates stipulated in the Treaty of Jiwupu, and at the same time informed the Chinese side in accordance with the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Tianjin, and then sent 800 troops to Seoul on June 12. Before the departure of the Japanese advance team, Japanese Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu instructed Keisuke Otori, minister in Korea, to "impose what he deemed appropriate, and authorized Otori to provoke a provocation and find an excuse to launch a war of aggression."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="8" > negotiations broke</h1>
After the jeonju peace talks were reached, the North Korean government demanded that China and Japan withdraw their troops, and Keisuke Otori began to negotiate with Yuan Shikai, the Qing court's minister in Korea. Although Otori verbally promised to withdraw troops, and even reached a written agreement, the Japanese government on the one hand sent a telegram to Otori refusing to reach a joint withdrawal agreement, and on the other hand, on June 15, it threw out the plan of "China and Japan jointly assisting the DPRK in reforming the internal affairs", thus writing off the joint withdrawal agreement. After that, Japan began to increase its troops continuously, and on June 16, Major General Yoshimasa Oshima led the first batch of troops of the mixed brigade to land at Inchon, and by June 28, the second batch of troops of the mixed brigade and regiment landed, and the Japanese army invaded Korea with more than 8,000 troops, which was an absolute advantage over the Qing army stationed in the DPRK; while Li Hongzhang, the governor directly subordinate to the qing court and minister of Beiyang, hoped that China and Japan would jointly withdraw their troops, neither reinforcing the army to Korea, nor withdrawing the qing army first according to the suggestions of Yuan Shikai, Nie Shicheng, and others, and finally giving the Japanese an opportunity to take advantage of it.
The reason why Japan proposed the "Joint Reform of Korea Case" is that on the one hand, it will keep its own army in Korea from leaving korea in the name of "assisting korea in reforming its internal affairs," and on the other hand, it will drag down the Qing troops stationed in korea, which is entirely a provocative measure taken to launch a war. The Qing government rejected the "Joint Reform of Korea" case and stressed that Japan must withdraw its troops, so on June 22, Japan issued a "first letter of renunciation" to the Qing government. After that, Li Hongzhang pinned his hopes on the United States, Britain, Russia, and other European and American columns to emphasize a halt and let Japan withdraw its troops. Because of the interests of the above-mentioned countries, the United States, Britain, and Russia only expressed "condemnation" of Japan and did not take tough measures, coupled with Japan's flexible diplomatic strategy, the great powers finally adopted a wait-and-see attitude, and mediation failed. On July 14, Japan issued a "second letter of renunciation" to the Qing government, refusing to withdraw its troops, and falsely accusing China of "intentionally provoking trouble," threatening that "if an accident occurs in the future, the Japanese government will not bear its responsibility." At this point, the Sino-Japanese negotiations broke down.
After Japan issued the "first letter of renunciation" to the Qing court, it began to reform the internal affairs of Korea alone. During negotiations with North Korea, Keisuke Otori forced North Korea to deny that it was a Chinese vassal state on the one hand, and on the other hand, proposed five twenty-seven reform plans to force North Korea to accept it within a time limit. However, the Korean government was pro-China at that time, and according to Sugimura, the first-class clerk of the Japanese Legation in korea at that time: "The situation at that time was that the Qing Dynasty, which took advantage of the chaos in Korea, secretly plotted and should have opposed it, but the Korean government not only did not have the slightest sense of hatred, but sympathized with it." Therefore, The DPRK is very disgusted with Japan's arbitrariness, perfunctorily demands of Japan, and has repeatedly urged Japan to withdraw its troops. By July 17, the Japan-North Korea talks had also broken down.
The Sino-Japanese War lasted 9 months, divided into two battlefields, land and naval battles, the Japanese army captured Pyongyang, in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the Beiyang Naval Division was defeated, and the Beiyang Marine Division was completely destroyed. On the army side, China's 400,000 troops collapsed, and the Liaodong and Jiaodong defense lines collapsed one after another. The Japanese army formed a pinch attack on Beijing from the two directions of Liaodong and Jiaodong. The Japanese took advantage of the victory to pursue, and then captured China's Lushun and Weihai, and on November 22, 1894, they began to carry out four days and three nights of massacres, robberies and rapes in Lushun, killing more than 20,000 people, only 36 people who buried their bodies survived, and bloodied Weihai and Pyongyang.
After the war, the two sides signed the "Maguan Treaty", which stipulated that China would pay compensation for the cession of land to japan, and the Chinese government was saddled with heavy foreign debt, and its national strength was deteriorating day by day. Because of the huge war reparations, Japan's national strength quickly became stronger, and it further embarked on the road of militarism's external expansion. The defeat in the Sino-Japanese War marked the bankruptcy of the tributary system that lasted for 2000, with Japan replacing China as the dominant force in the East Asian system. The impact of this war is very far-reaching, and it has epoch-making turning significance in the modern military history of China and Japan, as well as in the history of international relations in the Far East.