When the land meets the ocean, it is not only the waves that rise, but also the vicissitudes of the sea after the tide rises.
More than 100 years ago, a city was born from the sea, and it got its name from the sea. It is bordered by the Bohai Sea in the north, connected with the sea and sky at the mouth of Lushunkou on the Liaodong Peninsula, defending Gyeonggi, and facing the Yellow Sea in the east, facing the stormy waves of the Pacific Ocean, which is not too peaceful. The long coastline surrounds the city, and the breath of the sea rings in people's ears all the time.
Unlike most coastal cities with trade genes in their blood, from the moment she was officially born, she was burdened with the sacred mission of modern China to resist maritime aggression and defend the country's maritime frontiers. She is Weihai, one of the "Seven Sons" written by the patriotic poet Wen Yiduo.
As sung in "Song ▪ of the Seven Sons Weihaiwei", "Mother, don't forget that I am a strong warrior in defending the sea." I have a Liugong Island as my shield." When you come to Weihai, you must go to Liugong Island.
Looking at Liugong Island in the distance. Photo by Li Jingxuan, a reporter from China Military Network
Departing from Weihai, it takes only 20 minutes to reach the tourist pier of Liugong Island. Less than 500 meters from this modern pier is a long iron pier. It is like an old man who has experienced vicissitudes of life, quietly watching the endless stream of tourists landing on the island for sightseeing, just as it silently greeted the group of athletes returning from the sea more than 130 years ago.
What kind of people are they?
Through the fog of history, a column of warships painted in black and red is breaking through the waves. Under the dragon flag fluttering in the bow of the ship, the officers and men in the navy uniforms of the cardigan are either steering and adjusting to the charts, or constantly changing the flag commands. That's right, that is China's first modern navy - Beiyang Naval Division.
Model of the ship "Dingyuan". Photo by Li Jingxuan, a reporter from China Military Network
In the 19th century, with the rise of the modern navy, the world map underwent drastic changes. In 1873, a top-notch naval academy was established in Greenwich, England, known as the cradle of naval officers in the "Empire on which the sun never sets". Just four years later, the academy welcomed a group of young people from the East. Six of them were the first batch of naval students sent by the Qing government to study in England. At the beginning of entering the school, although there is a certain gap with Western students, the quality of hard-working and hard-working can always make them catch up. Just like Lin Yongsheng, who served as the commander (captain) of the "Jingyuan" ship a few years later, the British instructor's final comment to him was that he was "proficient in marching and arranging formations and all tactics."
The "Jingyuan" ship pipe belt Lin Yongsheng. Data map
In addition to the six international students who entered the Royal Naval College Greenwich, the Qing government also sent six top students from the Fujian Ship Master School to the British Mediterranean, West Indies, and Atlantic fleets for on-board internships. By the time of the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, 8 of these 12 men served as the pipe belt of the Beiyang Naval Division.
In 1888, after more than 20 years of painstaking operation, the Beiyang Naval Division was officially formed. On the day of the formation of the army, the ironclad giant ship was moored on the sea surface of Liugong Island, looking at the sea and swallowing the sea of clouds. Soon, supporting military facilities such as iron wharves, sailor schools, and shore defense batteries were also built one after another. Liugong Island became the "fundamental powerhouse" of the modern Chinese Navy.
The iron pier on Liugong Island. Photo by China Military Network reporter Li Jiaqi
But the prosperity is finally a thing of the past. In the first battle of the Yellow Sea, although the Beiyang Naval Division suffered heavy losses, the main ships still existed, and they should have regained their spirits and fought again, but they looked ahead and looked backwards, and at the critical moment when the enemy had already entered their homes, they chose to "avoid the battle and protect the ship", but in fact they were afraid that "the more they do, the more mistakes they will make", in order to protect themselves, and finally the huge ships such as "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" could only be used as iron batteries, and they were trapped in a lonely harbor and the whole army was annihilated. Eight months after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the dragon flag on Liugong Island fell gloomily. With a terrible whistle, the "Kangji" ship sailed away from this small island of only 3.15 square kilometers with the officers and men of the defeated Beiyang Naval Division.
We can't help but ask, why did the Beiyang Naval Division, which was once "strong and strong", finally lose in the hands of the "not amazing" Japanese Navy?
"The Chinese and Japanese navies compete for development", the picture is remade from the Museum of the First Sino-Japanese War in China. Photo by China Military Network reporter Li Jiaqi
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan prioritized the development of the navy. In order to quickly strengthen the strength of the navy, Emperor Meiji cut down on food and clothing, and took out 300,000 yuan of silver from the inner treasury every year for naval construction. Ordinary Japanese people and even peddlers and pawns also use various methods to raise donations. Records at the time show that laborers who earned only 20 yuan a day donated 10 yuan, and even a few copper plates for the children's New Year were wrapped in cloth and contributed.
However, at a time when Japan was frantically expanding its naval strength with the strength of the whole country, the pace of the Qing court's naval construction came to an abrupt halt, and the Beiyang Naval Division "did not add a single ship" six years after its formation. Even the funds for the purchase of updated rapid-fire guns for the main warships were shelved, and the 600,000 taels of silver needed were diverted by the Qing court to build the Summer Palace and prepare for the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager Cixi.
When he was beaten by the foreign powers, he spent a lot of money to build a "No. 1 sailor in Asia" to maintain the rule of the system; he soon healed his scars and forgot the pain, ignoring the precipitous situation surrounded by strong enemies, thinking that he could always be "No. 1 in Asia." In an instant, he lost the motivation to further develop his navy and consolidate his coastal defense, and turned to embezzling military funds for extravagant enjoyment. The toxins from corrupt politics will inevitably invade the body of the military, and the harm caused will inevitably increase exponentially. A variety of materials prove that before the First Sino-Japanese War, the military discipline of the Beiyang Naval Division had been seriously poisoned.
The "Beiyang Navy Regulations" originally stipulated: "All officers below the general army level shall live on ships all year round, and shall not build a government office or a mansion." But the reality is, "Lang Wei Li goes, and the practice is exhausted." From the left and right flanks below the general army, they fought for the land residence, and the sergeants went to the boat to play." As the commander of the navy (commander of the fleet), Ding Ruchang not only did not supervise the government, but in order to earn extra money, he built a shop on Liugong Island, where the naval office was located, and rented it out to various generals to live in, so that "half of the boats live on the shore at night." Before the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, every time the Beiyang Naval Division shot at the target in each exercise, the Beiyang Naval Division "premeasured the yardage, set up buoys, drove in accordance with the standard, the yardage was known, and it was easy to fix it." And whether the performance is good or not often becomes the criterion for some bureaucrats to judge the "combat effectiveness" of the fleet!
Japan, on the other hand. After the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese Navy was known for its strict military discipline, with a strict work and rest system and high-intensity training. At that time, a military song called "Moon, Moon, Fire, Water, Wood, Jinjin" was widely circulated among Japanese naval officers and soldiers. The meaning of the song title "Moon, Moon, Fire, Water, Wood, Jinjin" is to treat Sunday as Monday, Saturday as Friday, and train continuously without a day off. Compared with the two, in the first battle of the First Sino-Japanese War, it would be a strange thing for the Beiyang Naval Division to be undefeated.
The scene of the first engagement between the Chinese and Japanese armies in the Battle of the Yellow Sea. Data map
History has eloquently proved that an army that has lost its ideals and lax military discipline will not be able to win a war. And an army that cannot win a war can play a role for the country and the nation in addition to being an ornament?
In the more than 100 years since the middle of the 19th century, the spirit of the inland river navy, the Beiyang navy, and even the navy of various banners has been weakened, and the ancient country of the East has been invaded by foreign enemies from the sea more than 470 times! Behind this eye-popping figure is the bitter humiliation of old China having no sea defenses; this shameful figure has also become a sober-minded agent and a catalyst for action for people with lofty ideals to make unremitting efforts for the Chinese nation to become self-reliant and self-reliant!
At the end of 1944, China's War of Resistance was still in the darkness before dawn. Zheng Daoji, the captain of the guards of the Wang puppet naval training camp stationed on Liugong Island, led his troops to revolt and joined the Eighth Route Army, which was later reorganized into the naval detachment of the Jiaodong Military Region. The first unit under the leadership of the Communist Party of China to use the navy number was born on this small island that had witnessed the humiliation of China's coastal defense.
When the news reached Yan'an, Mao Zedong happily said to the comrades around him: "Have you thought that after the Japanese are driven away, if we want to be optimistic about the east and south gates of our country, we must build our own navy." From now on, we will begin to study the issue of coastal defense and coastal defense!"
Subsequently, Mao Zedong instructed Ye Jianying to set up the first "naval research group" in the history of our army, which opened the prelude to planning the construction of the people's navy. The Chinese Communists, represented by Mao Zedong, had an insight into a future that was broader than the sea from such a seemingly small incident.
Xiao Jinguang inspected the monument on Liugong Island. Photo by China Military Network reporter Li Qingtong
At the Kintetsu Wharf on Liugong Island, there is such a stone monument, which is engraved in bright red font: "Write down, on March 17, 1950, Navy Commander Xiao Jinguang inspected Liugong Island by fishing boat!"
In just a few words, we can really feel the difficulties of the People's Navy at the beginning of its creation, and we can also feel the self-spurring of that group of entrepreneurs. As the first commander of the People's Navy, Xiao Jinguang must be familiar with the history of Liugong Island; it is precisely because of this that building a navy and building a strong navy has an unstoppable sense of urgency for generation after generation of Chinese -- the humiliating history of having no sea defense must not be repeated in New China!
In the same year, a heroic army came to Weihai from Wanxian County, Sichuan Province and established the Weihai Wei Patrol Area. Since then, this army has been stationed in the hometown of Jiawu and guarded on the shore of Liugong Island.
In 1965, the "86" naval battle broke out. Wang Ruichang, deputy captain of the No. 1 Squadron of the 3rd Frigate Brigade of the unit, commanded the 601 boat to fight bravely and cooperated with friendly warships to sink two Kuomintang warships in one fell swoop, and was awarded a first-class combat merit. This is also another classic example of the People's Navy's "small boats fighting big ships" and "fighting bayonets at sea" created by the People's Navy when its equipment is inferior.
Liu Gongdao has witnessed the inheritance and development of the spirit of "fighting bayonets at sea", and at the same time, there is also the transmutation and sublimation of "small boats into big ships".
In 2017, a legend of "thousands of miles of riding alone" set sail from the waters of Liugong Island. A certain detachment of frigates, formerly known as the Weihaiwei Patrol Area, sent the Huangshi ship to the north for more than 1,100 nautical miles to the port of Vladivostok in Russia to represent the Chinese Navy in the "International Military Competition-2017 Ocean Cup" ship competition. This is the first time that the Chinese Navy's new frigate has gone abroad, and it is also the first time that the Chinese Navy's combat ships have competed with foreign warships in the form of a single ship.
In the face of unfavorable factors such as unfamiliar sea areas, unfamiliar opponents, and unfamiliar training facilities, the officers and men of the Huangshi won the first place in four of the six subjects, including shelling sea targets and using life-saving equipment, and won the overall championship of the competition. After the triumph, the ship did not organize celebrations, but immediately threw itself into new combat training tasks.
In 2019, the Yellowstone ship was ordered to go south and once again carry out a special combat readiness mission with a single ship. In 144 days, the Yellowstone not only completed its mission excellently, but also set a record for the longest combat readiness duty time of a single ship.
The Yellowstone ship of the Navy sails on the seas. Photo by Wang Guangjie
At the beginning of 2022, the Yellowstone, which was undergoing routine training, suddenly received an order to switch to tracking and monitoring foreign ships. Captain Xu Lei relied on the joint command system to study and judge the sea situation in real time, command the whole ship to enter combat deployment, occupy a favorable position, and use the rules of sea collision avoidance to drive away. During dozens of hours of tense confrontation, they did not give the foreign ships the slightest chance to break through.
The tempering of combat readiness tasks again and again has not only boosted the confidence and confidence of a Yellowstone ship to win battles. With the entry of the new type of warship into the "dumpling" type and the rapid formation of combat effectiveness, the combat training track of the People's Navy has been continuously extended towards the deep blue.
Standing on Liugong Island and looking back at the mainland, you can see the green mountains in the distance across a bay of clear water, and at the foot of the mountains is the long coastline, where there is a modern military port of the People's Navy. As the sun set, a silver-white battleship slowly sailed into the military port.
Looking along the long track of the warship, the military port is not the spectacular scene of waving flags and warships like a forest as people imagined, but presenting a quiet and vast area. Nowadays, warships returning to Hong Kong often leave port for a long time after resting for the night......
This distant place is the blue sea illuminated by the sun, moon and stars, and there is peace and development that need to be guarded!
Author: Li Jingxuan, Li Jiaqi, Li Qingtong
Editor: Chai Xiao
Source: China Military Network WeChat