The secret of the secrets
When Fang Boqian walked to the execution ground, he must have been very depressed and lost, he thought that the imperial court would not kill the general soldiers, that the old leaders would not cut him down, that no one could convict him, and that the old classmates would intercede for him, but all the miscalculations were made and the rules were in vain. Especially the last one, I'm afraid this is the most difficult for him to accept.
I want to insert a sentence here to explain that Fang Boqian's official position is not the chief soldier, but the deputy general, but the general rank, that is, the position of deputy general, and enjoy the treatment of the general soldier, which means that although you are qualified to be a general soldier, but due to the insufficient establishment, you can only solve the problem of professional title by name.
On September 23, 1894, Fang Boqian received a verdict from the imperial court and made a decision. This was dumbfounded, so he asked people to intercede everywhere, hoping to escape this catastrophe.
Is there any room for redemption?
Before taking Fang Boqian into custody, Ding Ruchang had questioned him at the Lushun Naval Office. Fang Boqian denied it in every possible way and refused to admit his guilt, which annoyed Ding Ruchang. Ding Ruchang pointed out that this time was different from the last time, and told Fang Boqian not to have illusions. Ding Ruchang said to Fang Boqian, the Battle of Fengdao did not pursue you, it was because you were caught off guard, outnumbered, and Jiyuan was saved. However, in the battle of the Yellow Sea, the enemy and our armies had the same number of ships, and if we wanted to kill the enemy and win, it was all up to everyone to work together and fight bravely. As the adjutant general of the right battalion, you fled from the enemy, how can you be worthy of those dead soldiers?
Ding Ye Chang
Fang Boqian's old classmates and comrades-in-arms for many years also remained silent at this time, and no one stood up to speak for him. Only Lin Tai once had an idea, he was more kind, and he wanted to contact Liu Buyun to intercede for Fang Boqian, but Liu Buyun's words choked him enough. Liu Buyun said, I won't do this kind of thing, I want to go to you yourself, Dadonggou battled, he Fang Boqian knew that everyone was in danger at that time, but he left, regardless of everyone's life and death, this kind of heartless person to protect him what to do!
As early as the day Fang Boqian returned to Lushun, everyone's disgust for him had been fully revealed. The Lushun base is divided into Donggang Pool and West Harbor Pool, Jiyuan is moored in Xigang Pool after he returns, and the warships that come back later are all parked in Donggang Pool, they would rather huddle together than be with Jiyuan. In addition, the warships returning to Hong Kong all hoisted a peony-colored flag, indicating that they had just participated in a vicious battle, but Jiyuan did not hang it.
It is said that after Fang Boqian learned that he was sentenced to "immediately carry out the law", he once cried bitterly and begged Song Qing, the commander of the Lushun Army, for help, and asked him to write to the court to intercede for him, but was scolded by Song Qinghao: If Lao Tzu has the right of life and death in the navy, he will cut you down in front of everyone after the Battle of Toshima, where can you mislead the army and the country again!
Battle of Toshima
Everyone has a rod and scale in their hearts, and in the hearts of the officers and men of the Beiyang Fleet, compared with Deng Shichang and Lin Yongsheng, Fang Boqian's actions really made them feel cold and disgusted.
It can be seen from this that Fang Boqian died of law, reason, love, and public anger. But what I want to tell you is that these are the reasons why Fang Boqian was killed, but there is another thing that really killed him, and this is the first secret we want to tell.
Although this thing is colorless, tasteless, imageless, and formless, it is cruel, cold, ruthless, and bloody.
As mentioned earlier, there are two reasons for the court to kill Fang Boqian, the first one is no problem, the facts are there, no matter how much you entangle, it is useless. The problem is the second one.
The second reason was that Fang Boqian's escape disrupted the formation. This argument is problematic. This is a complex logic, so it has been ignored for more than 100 years. Let's use the original historical materials to deduce this logic.
The key to this logic is: Is the "formation" of the Beiyang Fleet the "formation" caused by Fang Boqian's escape? As long as we look back at the course of the Great Battle in the Yellow Sea, it is not difficult to find the answer.
The Beiyang Fleet did not become chaotic all at once, and there was a rather complicated gradual process in the middle. There are two small messes. First, the gap goose walking squad formation did not become, and it was placed in a herringbone formation, and the last two squads did not follow; The second is that Chaoyong and Yangwei were sunk, and the right wing began to collapse. After the small chaos, the Beiyang Fleet as a whole was not too chaotic. There were also two major disturbances, the first of which occurred when Deng Shichang's charge was sunk, after 3:04 p.m. First, the main unit of the Combined Fleet and the guerrillas surrounded the Beiyang Fleet, flanking the front and rear, and the Beiyang Fleet, due to the lack of unified command, fought separately and fell into a chaotic battle. Deng Shichang's charge objectively exacerbated the chaos. The second chaos was the escape of Fang Boqian and Wu Jingrong, and the time was after 3:20 p.m., that is, after the sinking of Zhiyuan, which was estimated to be around 3:40. This chaos led to the complete collapse of the left.
The facts are already very clear, long before Fang Boqian escaped, the Beiyang Fleet was already in chaos. The effect of Fang Boqian's escape can only be said to be "chaos on end" of the Beiyang Fleet. Even if Fang Boqian doesn't run and forms a team with Lin Yongsheng, Jingyuan may not be sunk, and the ending may be a little better, but it is impossible to reverse the overall situation, let alone win a big victory.
Therefore, it is inconsistent with historical facts to put the charge of "disrupting the fleet" on Fang Boqian and to blame Fang Boqian for the failure of the Beiyang Fleet.
Speaking realistically, there are many reasons for the failure of the Beiyang Fleet, such as the problem of fleet formation, the speed of warships, the quality of shells, the problem of squad coordination, especially the problem of rapid-fire guns, and so on. It is a fact that Fang Boqian's escape affects the formation and affects morale, but after all, it is only one of the reasons for the defeat of the fleet, and this black cauldron should not be carried by him alone.
It seems like it's going to end here, and if that's all there is, I still don't have to put that much effort into it. There is sometimes a deeper secret behind the secret, and in the end that secret is our goal. Only by smashing the Yellow Dragon and brushing away the last layer of dust that covers up the truth can we understand how cruel history really is.
Let's uncover the second secret.
The real cruelty lies in; In fact, Li Hongzhang and Ding Ruchang both knew that the formation was not caused by Fang Boqian alone.
In an inconspicuous historical document, they inadvertently reveal the secret. This historical material is the telegram sent by Li Hongzhang to Premier Yamen on September 18, which contains the following sentence that tells the truth of the matter:
The battle lasted until three o'clock in the afternoon, when our team was swept away by the other ship.
The Complete Works of Li Hongzhang on August 19, 20th Year of Guangxu
This time was the time when the Taiji Formation of the Combined Fleet was formed, and the fire broke out at 3:04. Ding Ruchang told the truth here: the Beiyang Fleet was washed out by the Combined Fleet!
What is puzzling is that since then, all the documents from the hands of Li Hongzhang and Ding Ruchang, including the recital and telegrams, have all been changed to Zhiyuan After the sinking, Jiyuan's escape disrupted the formation, and the time of the formation change changed from 3 pm to after 3:20 pm.
The formation of the Beiyang Fleet was not messed up by Fang Boqian, at least not mainly by him. However, Ding Ruchang and Li Hongzhang concealed this important truth and imposed all the charges of formation chaos on Fang Boqian. And they didn't do it unintentionally, but on purpose.
Why did Ding Ruchang and Li Hongzhang do this?
Ding Ruchang inadvertently revealed the answer in a telegram. As we mentioned earlier, on September 22, he wrote in his second combat report telegram to Li Hongzhang:
Since the provocation of the Japanese invaders, Chang has repeatedly issued orders and earnestly admonished that the Japanese are fast in ships and artillery, and our army must attack in whole formation, and must not leave, so as not to be counted by the enemy. If they do not return to the team this time, it will be difficult to preserve Dingzhen and Jingyuan. Nai Jiyuan was the first to retreat, the team was disorganized, Guangjia fled, if he did not strictly participate, he would not be able to set an example in the future, and he hoped to cheer up.
- "The Complete Works of Li Hongzhang on August 23, 20th Year of Guangxu"
In the Battle of the Yellow Sea, before the two sides fought, Ding Ruchang once used a signal to achieve 3 orders, one of which was "all ships should be within the scope of possibility, and move with the flagship", which means that "the whole team will attack, and you must not leave", you can't leave the fleet alone, you Fang Boqian dared to openly disobey orders, is there still me as a commander in your eyes? If I don't punish him severely, how can I lead the troops in the future!
It can be seen from this that Ding Ruchang advocated that Fang Boqian should be strictly punished with two motives, the first of which was Liwei.
The second motive is to shirk responsibility.
Realistically speaking, as the supreme commander of the Yellow Sea War, Ding Ruchang is somewhat responsible for fighting like this, he did not designate the deputy flagship in advance, and the wild goose array laid out is not enough to deal with the Taiji array of the combined fleet, if he does not kill Fang Boqian, the responsibility can only be borne by him, and those Qing factions who regard him as a thorn in the side still eat him alive?
In addition, Fang Boqian escaped, and Ding Ruchang also had to bear some responsibility. As mentioned earlier, if he had swapped Pingyuan and Guangyi at the beginning, and let Pingyuan and Jiyuan, who had a larger tonnage and stronger combat effectiveness, form a team, maybe Fang Boqian would not be so timid and afraid of death, even if he wanted to run, maybe he would not have run so early.
The power of the system is terrible, the power of the unspoken rules is huge, and the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty is a big dye vat, as long as you are in it, you will inevitably be dyed. Although Ding Ruchang is "simple", after all, he has been in the officialdom for many years, and it is difficult to ensure that he is spotless, not to mention that self-preservation is human instinct.
By the way, Ding Ruchang's telegram also tells us an important message, that is, he has always believed that the last three orders he gave are correct, so it is certain that even if the Dingyuan signal flag is not knocked down, he will still not change the formation, and the Beiyang Fleet will still play in this way.
Li Hongzhang can only choose to acquiesce in Ding Ruchang's approach. The Qing faction has been attacking Li Hongzhang, saying that he is passive in fighting and fearing the enemy like a tiger, and he wants to replace Ding Ruchang by name, so as to seize Li Hongzhang's naval command. In order to keep Ding Ruchang and keep his control of the Beiyang Fleet, he had no choice.
Speaking of which, we already know that Li Hongzhang and Ding Ruchang deliberately put the charge of disrupting the formation on Fang Boqian, and we also know their motives for doing so, it seems that the problem has been clarified, but in fact, it is not, otherwise I would not have spent so much effort to wade into this troubled water. In the process of searching for the above truth and secret, I also unexpectedly discovered that behind the second secret there is actually a third secret, which is not only interesting, but also more cruel.
In fact, Li Hongzhang wanted to transfer the charge of disrupting the formation to Fang Boqian, and he also had his "bitterness" as a last resort.
Today, we all know that the Beiyang Fleet was defeated in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, and it was a crushing defeat, but Li Hongzhang did not see it that way back then, and in the telegrams he sent and the recitals he handed in, it was written like this: The Beiyang Fleet is the winner, and the Combined Fleet is the loser.
Therefore, the reason why Li Hongzhang wanted to kill Fang Boqian was not because Fang Boqian's escape caused the Beiyang Fleet to lose the battle, but because Fang Boqian's escape caused the Beiyang Fleet to only win a small victory, not a big victory.
Ten days after the Battle of the Yellow Sea, on September 27, Li Hongzhang said this in a telegram to Premier Yamen:
According to Xi Yuanyun: (The Battle of the Yellow Sea - Author Plus) It has been unprecedented for European countries in recent decades, although there have been losses to each other, and the Japanese ships are seriously injured and retreat first. Our army can be described as a small victory, if the rear team does not disperse, it will win a complete victory.
- "The Complete Works of Li Hongzhang on August 28, 23rd year of Guangxu Dynasty"
Li Hongzhang believed that the Battle of the Yellow Sea was the largest naval battle in decades, and that both sides suffered losses in this battle, but the Combined Fleet suffered greater losses and withdrew from the battle first, so the Beiyang Fleet was a small victory.
In the 5 October recital "The Battle of Dadonggou," Li Hongzhang gave a more detailed explanation of this, saying that although the Beiyang Fleet lost five warships, it sank three Japanese ships and completed the escort mission. The Combined Fleet was not only the first to withdraw from the battle, but was mostly seriously wounded, so the Battle of the Yellow Sea against the Beiyang Fleet was a small victory. If it weren't for Fang Boqian's escape and disrupting the formation, the Beiyang Fleet would have won a complete victory, so Fang Boqian should be killed. This is Li Hongzhang's logic.
In fact, Li Hongzhang was talking nonsense, because in fact he knew that the Beiyang Fleet did not win a small victory, but a big defeat.
Some people say that Li Hongzhang said this because the information was wrong and he did not know the truth, and this statement has been followed by people to spread falsehoods, but this is not the case, and the evidence is in the three telegrams.
As early as 23, 24, and 27 September, after Li Hongzhang confirmed Fang Boqian's accusations, he sent three telegrams to Ding Ruchang in succession, urging him to seize the time to repair the warship, and at the same time send mosquito boats and torpedo boats to the coast to bluff, so as not to let the Japanese see the truth that the Beiyang Fleet was seriously injured and could not go to sea to fight, so that the combined fleet would have some scruples and would not run rampant.
It can be seen from this that Li Hongzhang knew that the losses of the Beiyang Fleet were more serious than those of the Combined Fleet, but on 27 September, Li Hongzhang reported to Premier Yamen that the Beiyang Fleet had won a "small victory" in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, and that the United Fleet had suffered even heavier losses than the Beiyang Fleet. On October 5, in the "Battle of Dadonggou" to the imperial court, he gave a detailed account of the situation of "Xiaojie", and especially emphasized that Fang Boqian was involved in the formation.
It is obvious that Li Hongzhang is deliberately lying, knowing that he has won a big defeat, but he tells the court that he has won a small battle. This is the crime of deception, the crime of deception is to kill the head, why risk singing such a play?
The answer is four words: a last resort.
Li Hongzhang was forced out to do this, and years of hard work in officialdom have long cultivated him into a master, and he has become an old fox who is well versed in the way of officialdom. He knows very well that the imperial court has always been good at this, but whenever there is a war, no matter how big or small, the imperial court has always liked to report good news and not bad news.
Flickering seems to be a major feature of officialdom at that time. Fang Boqian fooled Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang then fooled the court, everyone was fooling, how could I get mixed up if I didn't fool? Alas, it's not easy.
But "Xiaojie" can't satisfy the imperial court, you Li Hongzhang have run the Beiyang Fleet for so many years, and spent so much money on the imperial court, why did you only play a "small Jie"?
Therefore, Li Hongzhang couldn't tell the truth, so he showed the most critical sentence in the recital: The Beiyang Fleet can actually be "big victory", all because Fang Boqian retreated and disrupted the formation, so that the "big victory" became a "small victory"!
There is no problem with Fang Boqian being sentenced to death, and in any case, he will have to pay the price he deserves for his escape. From a jurisprudential point of view, there was nothing wrong with killing him, but his death was attached to something that did not belong to him.
The ideal scapegoat in this world is the one who is guilty and should be killed.
The truth is always ugly, and politics is always cruel.
Okay, the story of Fang Boqian of the Beiyang Navy is finished, let's take a breath first, and then move on to another wonderful story of the long-distance running general.