In 1894, a war that attracted worldwide attention was fought in the Yellow Sea, this war made Li Hongzhang suffer a heavy defeat in the Beiyang family, after the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang was devastated, and he had completely lost hope for the rich country and strong soldiers, and could only drag the old and weak body to watch the crumbling Qing Dynasty continue to survive under the oppression of the great powers, the Sino-Japanese War caused China to suffer a heavy blow, since then the Qing Dynasty has completely sunk, and the clear-eyed people understand that the end of the Qing Dynasty is coming, in a sense, The Sino-Japanese War was a dividing point in Chinese history.
If before the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government was bullied by Britain, France, and Russia because Russia's national strength was strong, Britain and France were developing rapidly, and the defeat may not have allowed other countries in the world to assess the real strength of the Qing government, then after the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government was defeated by such a small country as Japan, so that the world really saw the decay and incompetence of the Qing government, since then, the world powers have flocked to the top, even Italy, Portugal and some small countries also want to participate in it, only 6 years later, the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China War broke out. In less than 10 years, the Qing Dynasty completely collapsed.
This naval battle was the direct trigger for the demise of the Qing Dynasty. This war left many regrets and feelings for future generations, such as Deng Shichang of the Zhiyuan ship, when the ammunition ran out of food, the ship was destroyed with the enemy ship, and Guangxu personally wrote a letter for Deng Shichang: On this day, the rain is long, and there is a strong naval might. Since then, Deng Shichang has become a national hero, and in the past hundred years, Deng Shichang has been praised and praised as a hero, and at the same time, there is another person who has been controversial by posterity and has been unable to give him a coffin for a long time, this person is Liu Butou, the right wing general of the Beiyang Marine Division.
Perhaps in the history textbooks of several decades ago, we will still see such a record: Liu Butou was timid to surrender to the enemy, formed a party for personal gain, panicked when the naval battle broke out, and even fired cannons from a long distance, shocking Ding Ruchang and injuring him, and also violating Ding Ruchang's military orders, changing his formation without authorization, secretly ordering Ding Ruchang to move slowly, and hiding from Japanese warships. Many historical materials portray Liu Butou as a coward who does not dare to fight, and in the movie "Jia Wu Fengyun", the image of Liu Butou is also portrayed as a negative image of greed for life and fear of death, and is unbearable, but with the gradual detailing of the historical materials of the Battle of Jia Wu in recent years, the character image of Liu Butou has also been completely subverted. So in history, is Liu Butou really a cowardly traitor in battle? Or is there something the world misunderstands about him?
In 1852, Liu Butou was born in Fujian Province, and in the book "Naval Records", he once described the young Liu Butou as follows: young and different, less calm and resolute, and deep thinking in mechanics. And long, bold and incomparable. It can be seen that Liu Butou had superior talent and outstanding ambition when he was young. In addition, Liu Butou's family is wealthy and has received a good education.
In 1866, the Qing government in Fuzhou Mawei founded the Fuzhou Shipping Bureau and the School of Ship Administration, began to train naval students, the next year, only 14 years old Liu Butou was admitted to the Ship Administration School with excellent results, became the first batch of official students of China's earliest naval school, during the time of school study, Liu Butou studied diligently, and finally graduated from the Ship Administration School with the first place in the class, in the internship before graduation, Liu Butou cruised with the ship to the Nanyang Islands, Liaodong Bay and other places. In the comprehensive examination of naval driving class students, Liu Butou once again won the first place.
After graduating from the Fuzhou School of Shipping Politics, Liu Butou finally officially became a naval officer, and it was not long before Liu Butou was appointed as the captain of a warship for his outstanding performance, at this time Liu Butou was only 22 years old. In 1875, Liu Butou was sent to Europe by Shen Baozhen, the governor of Liangjiang, to learn guns, mines and other weapons. After returning to China, he was promoted to the rank of Dusi, and in 1885 Liu Butou was appointed as the Dingyuan Pipe Belt, promoted to a staff general, and later promoted to deputy general. As the pipe belt of the Dingyuan, Liu Butou at this time was only 36 years old, and he was officially in Yipin. Liu Butou's patriotism was fully demonstrated as early as the flag removal incident.
In the winter of 1890, the Beiyang Fleet patrolled Hong Kong, Ding Ruchang went ashore to do business, Liu Butou lowered the admiral flag according to the custom, and replaced it with his own general military flag, but the chief instructor Xi Langweili jumped like a thunderbolt, thinking that Liu Butou was insulting himself, even if the governor got off the warship, and himself, how could he hang the general military flag, Liu Butou did not let go, he thought that this move was related to the sovereignty of the fleet, so he answered only one sentence: The admiral is like this, so he no longer takes care of Lang Weili. Lang Weili was furious and complained to Li Hongzhang, but he did not expect that Li Hongzhang actually supported Liu Butou. Later, Lang Wei resigned in anger and said that he had been insulted everywhere.
On July 25, 1894, the Japanese Navy secretly attacked our naval forces near Toshima, 6 days later, China and Japan officially declared war, Liu Butou made a vow before the war to boost morale, "Gou lost the ship, will cut themselves", decided to fight with the Japanese army to the end, in fact, as early as before this sneak attack, Liu Butou had a premonition, thinking that the Japanese army was treacherous and untrustworthy, and might sneak attack our fleet, and before the outbreak of the war, he repeatedly asked Ding Ruchang to report to Li Hongzhang, and the strength of the Japanese ships and ships has surpassed our army. It was hoped that Li Hongzhang could seek from the imperial court to purchase additional naval guns for the navy.
On August 18, the Chinese and Japanese armies fought in the Yellow Sea, in which Liu Butou fought bravely, commanding the Dingyuan ship to fight heroically, and severely damaged the flagship of the Japanese fleet, the Matsushima. After the end of the naval battle, Liu Butou was promoted to the post of titular governor for his merits, because Ding Ruchang was wounded in this battle and needed to recuperate, during which all the affairs of the Beiyang Marine Division were represented by Liu Butou, Liu Butou was full of confidence, but he did not expect that the Weihaiwei defense battle made Liu Butou almost lose his reputation.
After the Battle of the Yellow Sea, Li Hongzhang suffered from the lack of ammunition in the fleet, in order to preserve the strength, ordered the fleet to be all stationed in the Weihaiwei military port, but what he did not expect was that the Japanese army surrounded Weihaiwei and continued to attack, and in January of the following year, it captured the north and south batteries of Weihaiwei, at this time the Beiyang Fleet was already very critical, if it did not withdraw again, there would be a danger of the total annihilation of the army, on February 5, the Japanese army launched an attack, the Dingyuan ship was hit by torpedoes, it had no combat effectiveness, if no measures were taken, the Dingyuan ship would be captured by the Japanese army. At this moment, Liu Butou resolutely ordered that the Dingyuan ship be sailed to shallow water and act as a battery to fire guns at the Japanese fleet; 5 days later, the Beiyang Fleet trapped on Liugong Island ran out of ammunition, and some officers and men of the Dingyuan ship forced Liu Butou to surrender, Liu Butou sternly refused, and ordered the sinking of the Dingyuan ship. The next day, Ding Ruchang, the admiral of the Beiyang Marine Division, also committed suicide, and the Beiyang Marine Division was completely destroyed.
Liu Butou was slandered as a shipwreck and surrendered due to the chaos of the battle, and was misunderstood by posterity for a hundred years, Liu Butou's 107-year-old granddaughter Huang Yiyong, although deaf in both ears, still insisted on dictating the past of his grandfather Liu Butou every day. With the help of her family, she assembled and printed the "Study of Liu Butou", which is of great historical reference value, and restored the real Liu Butou. He was an important general of the Beiyang Marine Division, and was an officer to the right wing commander-in-chief and the "Dingyuan" ship pipe belt. In the 1895 Defense War of Liugong Island, after the "Dingyuan" ship was sunk, Liu Butou committed suicide in grief and died with the ship, she believes that more than 100 years have passed, it is time to rehabilitate her grandfather!
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Out-of-print overseas historical materials are presented for the first time, and a new perspective is used to interpret the Sino-Japanese War;
The defeat of Jia Wu, the unforgettable shame, Chinese waking up from a dream.
Jia Wu Thoughts restored the 27 5,000-word abridged articles published by the newspaper to a complete version of 10,000 words, added 3 new articles, and carried out strict examination and revision, supplemented by precious historical and cultural relics pictures. The book shows the historical details of the Sino-Japanese War, shows and analyzes and compares the national system, army building, strategy and tactics, character style, image in the eyes of outsiders and many other macro and micro aspects of the two sides of the war, which helps readers to understand the background of the entire war in detail, objectively think about the reasons for the victory or defeat of the war, and its far-reaching impact on Chinese society at that time and at present.
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