(Headline Number: Miscellaneous Characters)
Yellow Sea
More than 120 years ago, the Beiyang Marine Division of the Sino-Japanese Yellow Sea War was completely destroyed, not only lost, but also lost very badly, why lost to Japan, which link went wrong, for more than a century, many scholars and historians are looking for answers. What were the mysteries of the Sino-Japanese War that year, and it was really foggy and unsolved.
Some scholars believe that Empress Dowager Cixi spent her birthday, rebuilt the Summer Palace, and embezzled more than 30 million taels of naval military expenditure, and there is a historical saying that "the Yellow Sea became Kunming", which means that the money that should be spent on the Yellow Sea Navy was actually spent on the Kunming Lake where the Summer Palace was renovated, but some scholars investigated that when Empress Dowager Cixi celebrated her birthday, she only embezzled 6 million taels of naval military expenditure. Although it is responsible for the Yellow Sea War, it is not fully responsible. In japan, in other countries, in order to develop the navy, up to the emperor, down to the common people, to reduce clothing and food, originally Japan's economy at that time was not developed by the Qing Dynasty, and people were stunned to secretly surpass the naval strength of the Qing Dynasty. Although at that time, the Great Qing Beiyang Marine Division had two world-class giant warships, Zhenyuan and Dingyuan.
Summer palace
Li Hongzhang, as the chief minister of the Manchu Qing Dynasty at that time, in the Qing Dynasty that was the first person in the Qing Dynasty at that time to clearly understand the status of the Qing Dynasty, was able to clearly understand the status of the Qing Dynasty, and when he formed the Great Qing Navy, he was indeed the first person in the world to open his eyes, and first of all, he had a modern sense of sea power.
However, the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle was defeated, and judging from the information from all sides, Li Hongzhang had an unshirkable responsibility.
When the Qing Dynasty formed the Marine Division in 1875, the displacement was 27,000 tons, while the Displacement of Japan in 1890 was 17,000 tons. When Japan secretly developed after several years, by the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Japan's displacement reached 72,000 tons, and the discharge of the Qing Dynasty in 1894 was 40,000 tons, which was almost twice that of the Qing Dynasty.
Beiyang Marine Division Battleship
Secondly, in order to firmly grasp the Beiyang Water Division in his own hands, Li Hongchang used his compatriot Ding Ruchang, a general of the Huai Army, as the admiral of the Beiyang Water Division, and Ding Ruchang was from the army, and (headline number: miscellaneous people) was a native of Luzhou, Anhui, and was more honest and reliable. I don't know much about naval warfare, of course, I don't know much about the story of the genre of war, just to talk about it, at that time Ding Ruchang did not understand the naval formation, one of the reasons for the failure. At that time, the formation decision was determined by the shipboard cannons of warships, with the front cannons of the Qing Dynasty and the flank guns of the Japanese. Therefore, the Japanese one-line formation defeated the Daqing Yanling formation. The advantages and disadvantages of the formation Some scholars believe that it is the reason for the defeat in the Yellow Sea War?
Let's start with the Battle of the Yellow Sea, on September 17, 1894, in the morning, the Beiyang Fleet escorted 4,000 officers and men to Korea, that is, in the process of returning to the sea, in the middle of the Yellow Sea beach and the port of Dalian in Lushun encountered, admiral Ding Ruchang immediately convened the ship pipe belt arrangement battle plan, so that the two giant warships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships stood out, because the decks of these two warships were the thickest in the world's naval warships, and the general shells could not penetrate, and the rest of the battleships were placed on both sides of the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan ships. Just make a goose feather formation. This was determined by the beiyang marine division's front-mounted carrier-based guns and belonged to a frontal attack.
Japanese admiralty battleship
The Japanese battleship is a word swing, the middle is the flagship Matsushima, this is because the Japanese battleship gun position is on the side, belongs to the side attack formation, the Japanese Yoshino ship on the far left, is the guerrilla flagship, the decisive battle began, Japan can fire three or four shells a minute, and the Beiyang Naval Division can only send one in five or six minutes, although a shell of the Beiyang Naval Division is much stronger than the Japanese attack power, but the Beiyang Naval Division does not have a short japanese attack cycle. (Headline Number: Miscellaneous Characters) Therefore, it is very limited, in this case, only a few shells are carried, and the effective attack is not high.
The battle began for half an hour. The Japanese Yoshino led the other three warships to detour from the side and sank the Super Courageous Ship of the Beiyang Fleet, and then the Yang Wei ship also caught fire and soon sank, and then the four ships such as the Yoshino Ship were interspersed behind, and the Beiyang Marine Division formation was immediately chaotic, and in the subsequent engagement, the Japanese Marine Division sank five warships of the Beiyang Marine Division. The Beiyang Marine Division was completely defeated.
Map of the Yellow Sea
After the defeat of the Yellow Sea War, people questioned at that time that Ding Ruchang did not understand naval warfare and that it was not possible to arrange the formation, and some scholars believed that it was not possible. Ding Ruchang's formation was determined by the ship-borne artillery, the formation was correct, the attack frequency was too low, the Japanese continuous attack, the Beiyang Marine Division did not even have the strength and opportunity to fight back, it was the root cause of the failure, a few shells, the hit rate was low, as long as it could hit, a shell could almost sink a Japanese warship, but after a few rounds, it was left to be beaten, and the ship-borne gun type determined the failure of the Beiyang Marine Division. The absence of shells was indeed the actual situation at that time, what happened?
In the Sino-Japanese War, the beiyang marine division's shortage of artillery shells was a true existence, and some people said that insufficient funds did not purchase artillery shells, and military expenses were embezzled by Empress Dowager Cixi for her birthday and the rebuilding of the Summer Palace. In fact, declassifying historical archives, it is not like this, when the Navy had shells that were not on board. The shells were all piled up in the weihaiwei and Lushun military port warehouses. So why not bring it with you? (Headline Number: Miscellaneous Characters) The great war is imminent, the armament is not complete, whose responsibility is it, of course, it is Ding Ruchang, the admiral of the water division. In fact, although Ding Ruchang did not know much about naval warfare, he had long been mentally prepared for the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, but the naval battle preparation was insufficient, and Ding Ruchang had an unshirkable responsibility, which required him to ask his superior, Li Hongchang, because Ding Ruchang obeyed Li Hongzhang's respect for Li Hongzhang.
Li
See what Li Hongzhang thinks? Li Hongzhang believes that the Beiyang Marine Division cannot defeat the Japanese Marine Division, but he believes that as long as the strength of the Beiyang Marine Division is guaranteed, the Japanese fleet does not dare to act recklessly in the coastal waters of China, and still less dares to transport troops to Tianjin Dagukou to land on Beijing. Therefore, Ding Ruchang was underprepared for battle at the behest of Li Hongzhang.
Why does Ding Ruchang not know how to be flexible, as we said earlier, Ding Ruchang has the grace of knowing Li Hongzhang, a fellow countryman, a superior, and unconditional obedience. Don't you know that the heavy weapon of the country shows that people are soldiers who bend the other side, and if the other party is unyielding, it can be used completely, perhaps the reason for Ding Ruchang's suicide is to be ashamed to be the admiral of the water master and interpret his foolish behavior.
In the absence of ammunition, The Deng Shichang Dingyuan ship crashed into the Japanese ship Yoshino with great helplessness. (Headline Number: Miscellaneous Characters) The defeat of the Sino-Japanese Naval Battle had a huge impact on future generations, although after a hundred years, the Chinese people all lamented it.
The defeat in the Sino-Japanese War provided a historical basis for Japan's invasion of China, one was to glimpse the national strength, and the other was to obtain a material basis for post-war reparations.
The Sino-Japanese War determined the fate of China for half a century and had a far-reaching impact.
(All pictures are from the Internet)