Liu Yongfu was the leader of the Black Flag Army, who won the "Great Victory of Paper Bridge" in the Sino-French War, which shocked the enemy and made him famous at home and abroad, and the King of Yue promoted Liu Yongfu to the position of Xuan Ti Dou and was awarded the title of Baron of the First Rank. The French called Liu Yongfu "the only enemy we fear." From the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, a folk song was widely recited in Liangguang, Yunnan and northern Vietnam: "Liu Er fights the ghosts, the more he fights, the better he looks" (Cantonese). Liu Er is Liu Yongfu. Sun Yat-sen once spoke highly of Liu Yongfu: "Yu Shaoxiao admired The Black Flag of Our Nation, Liu Yongfu, and the Battle of Zhennanguan." The Vietnamese people call it the "Great Wall of the North". The folk song "Liu Er beats the ghost, the more he fights, the better he looks" has since spread.
In the Sino-French War, Liu Yongfu took the lead in leading troops into Vietnam to resist the invasion of the French army, won two great victories at paper bridge and the Battle of Guanyin Bridge, killed the French commander-in-chief Li Weili was also his credit, and after returning to China, he also became a high official (the commander-in-chief of Nan'ao Town, Fujian, Guangdong), how to say that he is the commander of a military region, and his military achievements are not to be said. The Black Flag Army he led made the French army feel frightened, but it was such a famous general who had experienced hundreds of battles, but he planted a heel in Taiwan, was bullied by the Japanese army, and finally had no choice but to run back to Xiamen.
For more than half a century in the late Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi was the de facto ruler. In order to celebrate his lavish, extravagant, and atmospheric birthday, Cixi, the Lafayette of the Qing Dynasty, held a party on his birthday by the way, and actually embezzled naval military funds, which seriously affected the enrichment of naval weapons and equipment, and was defeated by the Japanese army in the Sino-Japanese War, and humiliatedly ceded Taiwan. However, when the Japanese army first invaded And occupied Taiwan, it did not gain any benefits, but faced strong resistance. The Japanese army happily set foot on the land of Taiwan, thinking that the people of Taiwan would eat pot paste and greet each other, but in fact they were greeted by knives, guns and sticks. In the face of the strong resistance of the Taiwan people, Japan adopted the method of countering violence with violence. As an unreasonable aggressor, the Japanese army regarded itself as its master and was very vicious, directly increasing its troops and killing the people of Taiwan. Wherever there is oppression, there will be resistance, and the Japanese army's anti-invasion and killing has further intensified the sense of resistance of the people of Taiwan province, and flames have flared up all over Taiwan. However, Tang Jingsong, the governor (inspector) of Taiwan at the time, was so shallow that when he saw the large Japanese troops coming, he was frightened and could not sleep all night. At this moment, Liu Yongfu came. The morale of the Black Flag Army led by him was high, and it was a fierce fight in the face of the Japanese army, and in the Battle of Hsinchu, Prince Nobuhisa of the North Shirakawa of Japan was killed, which was a great pleasure! When the people of Taiwan saw that Liu Yongfu was a talented man, they simply elected him as the president of the Democratic State of Taiwan and led the people of Taiwan to defend their homeland. However, the initial victory may have been the carelessness of the Japanese army, or it may have been the common hatred and hatred of the people of the whole province and the anti-Japanese soldiers, but in the face of a complicated situation in Taiwan, in the end Liu Yongfu still could not defend Taiwan.
Perhaps we are quite puzzled that Liu Yongfu could not defend Taiwan at that time, after all, Japan came from afar, and General Liu fought on his own. Here, Gui Shijun has some rough ideas that he wants to exchange and discuss with you. Gui Shijun believes that although General Liu has experienced hundreds of battles, it is inevitable that Taiwan will not be able to defend it, for the following reasons:
The times do not allow it. Although General Liu Yongfu has been in the battlefield for a long time and is also handy in cleaning up the French army, at that time, China was still a relatively strong country, Western imperialism naturally did not dare to interfere too much, China and France fighting, it is also good for themselves, take the opportunity to weaken an opponent, why not enjoy it. But when it came time to defend Taiwan against the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, it was not so lucky. In fact, at that time, Taiwan had already been ceded to Japan, and there was not much opposition in the international community, and the three "international hooligans" of Germany, France, and Russia forcibly let Japan spit out the Liaodong Peninsula, but they did not do this to Taiwan, and they did not want to overstize this Asian madman. Without foreign aid, Liu Yongfu fought alone, and it was more difficult to buy some weapons and get some guns and cannons. The great powers supported Japan during the Sino-Japanese War, and they were also tacitly aware of Japan's occupation of Taiwan, and it was quite difficult for China to obtain international support. Not only did these powers not help, they also wanted to use Japan as a gun to facilitate the partition of China in the future.
Battle of Hsinchu, Taiwan
The Qing government did not act. During the Sino-French War, the French army attacked Taiwan, but was helplessly beaten by liu Mingchuan, a general of the Huai Army. Since then, the government has strengthened its administration of Taiwan, dismantled the government and set it up as a province, and directly administered it. However, during the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government, which had a huge territory, was defeated by Japan, a small country that it despised, and the image of the hegemon of East Asia was all said, and it had to cede Taiwan to Japan. At that time, the people of Taiwan also opposed the Qing government's decision and took up guns to oppose the Japanese invasion, but the Qing government was forced by its own predicament, perhaps because of its own weakness! After Liu Yongfu led the Black Flag Army to Taiwan, it was a fierce chase and fierce attack on the Japanese army, and it was impossible to say that the Japanese army was the commander of the three Yi commanders, which could not be said to be cattle, and wherever the Black Flag Army went, the Japanese army was frightened. As the saying goes, chaotic fists kill the teacher, wheel war can also consume the hero to death, when the Japanese army continues to reinforce from the mainland, Liu Yongfu's army has been a long-term tired division, has reached the end of the crossbow, the combat strength is greatly reduced. At that time, Liu saw the large-scale arrival of the Japanese army and continuously asked the Qing government for help, hoping that the government would give support. However, the Qing government was also powerless and powerless at that time.
Japan is bound to win. Taiwan is a key node in the first island chain, and using Taiwan as a base to attack the mainland is an important part of Japan's "mainland policy." Japan has coveted Taiwan for a long time, it is difficult to seize Taiwan from the hands of the Qing government, and there is no international interference, this piece of fat, Japan will not spit out, this is very similar to the "old Maozi". Although Liu Yongfu also wanted to defend Taiwan, he even wanted to drive away the Japanese in this way, so as to dispel the idea of occupying Taiwan. Both are full of passion, the Japanese three easy commanders, although the resistance is strong, the sacrifice is also very large, but the Japanese Bushido spirit is not just talk, but really dare to play with their lives, the more the number of casualties, the greater the increase in troops, soldiers can die, the commander can be changed, but Taiwan must swallow. Although liu Yongfu, the general of the Black Flag Army, had a high value of force and was an expert in cleaning up foreign invaders, unfortunately, at that time, the Qing government was not able to deal with internal and external troubles, the soldiers fought less and less, and the territory became smaller and smaller, and when the Black Flag Army was almost killed, Tainan was also lost, and General Liu had to take advantage of the night to take a small boat and then change to a British merchant ship back to Xiamen.
No experience in large corps combat. General Liu Da got up in the army, once joined the Heaven and Earth Society, engaged in a peasant uprising, and later in the interior of the country, he went to the Border of China and Vietnam (Vietnam was then colonized by France) to find some way to live, support his family, and lead these difficult brothers to ben Xiaokang. In 1873, the opportunity came, the French suddenly shelled Hanoi, Feng Zicai responded to the call of the Vietnamese king, directly led the Black Flag Army to the past, beat the French army in Hanoi, killed the main general An Ye, the next paper bridge victory and the battle of paper bridge, General Liu Yongfu defeated the French army, achieved the paper bridge victory, can be described as "battle achievements", the Vietnamese king directly named General Liu as the viceroy of san Xuan. In fact, the Black Flag Army led by General Liu was only three or four thousand people, and each battle was to eliminate one or two hundred people, of which not all were French soldiers, many of them were Vietnamese mercenaries. There is no such thing as really leading a large army corps to fight and causing the enemy to be seriously injured, and this is a big difference between him and Liu Mingchuan, who is a general of the Huai Army, and in the process of cleaning up the Taiping Army and the Twist Army, they are all large corps, and the teams of more than a few thousand people are more common, and the recovery of Shanghai Pudong is his credit. Liu Yongfu is an expert in guerrilla warfare, leading a small number of elite troops to cooperate with the regular army to fight, and there should be no problem in cleaning up the enemy's rear forces, but it is still a little pressure to lead the army to carry out large-scale operations. When Liu Yongfu led the Black Flag Army to resist Japan and defend Taiwan, he was faced with the subsequent increase of 100,000 Japanese troops, rather than a small group of French colonial troops, and it was a matter of casually cleaning up, which required detailed strategic deployment and huge logistics supplies for long-term large-scale operations.
All in all, the national hero Liu Yongfu was unable to defend Taiwan; first, the international environment was not good and there was a lack of foreign aid; second, the Qing government did not act; third, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan embarked on the road of militarism, its military strength was strong, and it was inevitable that it forced the Qing government to sign a land-cutting treaty; fourth, General Liu Da had no combat experience in large corps and no strong logistical support, and could only run back to Xiamen in the face of the Japanese army with an increase of 100,000 troops. Although Taiwan could not be defended at that time, General Liu's great historical merits and the patriotic heart of his naked son were worthy of recognition, and the people of Taiwan remembered him, the people of the mainland also remembered him, and the people of Guangxi should also be proud of him. As an inseparable part of China, Taiwan finally returned to the embrace of the motherland after more than half a century of resistance and struggle, and finally returned to the embrace of the motherland after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japan!
This article is the original work of "Zongheng National History", welcome to reprint, share, collect, comment, please indicate the source when reprinting, thank you! Stay tuned for more!
Editor: Gui Shijun