At the end of the 19th century, China's coastal defense was facing a great crisis, and the late Qing government created a Beiyang naval division in just a dozen years, and the Chinese navy became the first navy of the western Pacific countries.
However, due to political and financial reasons, the Chinese naval equipment gradually lagged behind Japan, and in the First Sino-Japanese War, the once mighty Beiyang Marine Division was completely destroyed. In the book "The Fleet with the Dragon Flag Flying", we can see that behind the rise and fall of the Beiyang Marine Division, there is one person who has always played a key role, and this person is Li Hongzhang.
01. In order to prepare for the construction of a modern navy, from scratch to have a family foundation
Before the Opium War, China had no navy. In 1840, with the outbreak of the Opium War, the British Empire opened the door of the Chinese Empire with a cannon. Since then, the government of the late Qing Dynasty has been repeatedly defeated in foreign wars and has been constantly subjected to aggression from the sea.
In 1861, Hu Linyi, a fierce general of the Xiang Army who was known as the "Three Ministers of Zhongxing" with Zeng Guofan and Zuo Zongtang, encountered a British steamship while cruising the waterways of the Anqing Yangtze River. Only to see this steamship go up against the current, quickly surpassing the Xiang Army's marine division, flaunting its mighty power and stirring up terrifying waves, almost overturning the Xiang Army's marine division ship, and Hu Linyi was frightened at that time. When he woke up, he said in horror: "Suffering from this great change that has not been encountered in a thousand years, my country and our people are like this!" ”
Hu Linyi's worries, Li Hongzhang also felt.
Over the past few years, Li Hongzhang took a British steamship to encircle and suppress the Taiping Army, and witnessed the power of foreign warships with his own eyes, which not only opened his eyes, but also worried him: Sooner or later, these foreigners will come to deal with us, but as long as we have cannons and ships in our hands, these foreigners can restrain a little. Since then, Li Hongzhang, as a representative figure of the foreign affairs movement, has made the strengthening of naval armaments the most important task of his work.
To build a navy, you must first have warships. At that time, there was an American shipyard in Hongkou, Shanghai, called the Qiji Iron Factory, which Li Hongzhang presided over and bought, and then, together with the other two artillery bureaus, merged to form the Jiangnan Manufacturing General Bureau, which began to manufacture steamships. In July 1868, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau did indeed build the first ship, named "Tian Ji".
It was the first ship made in China that could sail the oceans. After boarding the ship, Zeng Guofan said happily: "The way of China's self-improvement may be based on this." "In the more than ten years since then, the Jiangnan General Manufacturing Bureau has built a total of 8 ships, which is a great starting point for China to establish modern coastal defense."
In 1874, after Japan invaded and occupied Taiwan, the late Qing government was forced to sign the Beijing Special Article with Japan, compensating Japan with 500,000 taels of silver, after which Japan withdrew its troops from Taiwan. But how could Japan's aggressive ambitions cease here? Five years later, Japan openly annexed the Ryukyu Islands in the East China Sea.
Li Hongzhang summed up the experience and held: "Japan has three ironclad ships, and it dares to defy China and yaowu on the seashore, so that there is the Battle of Taiwan and the abolition of Ryukyu." He threatened all those who insulted each other, and I should not be able to seek self-improvement", so he demanded that the late Qing government immediately purchase ironclad ships, and stressed: "If the opportunity is lost, China will never buy ironclads, that is, there will never be a day of self-improvement." ”
Seeing this situation, the government of the late Qing Dynasty quickly agreed to Li Hongzhang's proposal, and since the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau could not build a ship that could be used for war, it should be purchased from foreigners.
In this way, from 1875 to 1894, the government of the late Qing Dynasty successively purchased dozens of ships, including the famous "Dingyuan", "Zhenyuan", "Zhiyuan", "Jingyuan" and other ironclad ships, new-style clippers and torpedo boats. These ships were bought back, and the equipment and combat effectiveness of the Chinese Navy were improved.
02. In order to recruit talents, not only pay salaries to trainees, but also send them to Europe to study abroad
With equipment, can you fight? Of course not, because no one will operate. Li Hongzhang is a man of understanding, he mentioned in "Planning for coastal defense folding": "Warships are easy to buy, and it is difficult to find talents for operation, driving, maintenance and manufacturing", that is, there are no people on ships, and they are white.
In fact, as early as the Opium War, the Minister of Chincha of the late Qing Government had visited the British warship and saw a group of uniformed young people on the warship learning military technology, and later learned that they were all interns of the Naval Academy. Li Hongzhang thought about this incident and decided to learn from others and build his own military talents.
In 1880, Li Hongzhang set up the Admiralty School in Tianjin and invited Yan Fu, a senior student of the Ship Administration School who had returned from studying in Britain, to be the chief teacher.
This school is not simple, completely in accordance with the Western-style method of running schools, opened a driving, tube wheel 2 majors, the recruitment of students are required to be between the ages of 13 and 17, but also have a certain educational foundation, more importantly, good character, high quality, no bad habits. In other words, the young people who can be admitted to the Tianjin Water Teachers' Academy are excellent young people who can't worry about finding a partner.
But how can we attract these high-quality talents? The answer is to give money. Li Hongzhang decided to pay the trainees every month, and the salary was very high, with 4 taels of silver per month.
Because at that time, few people in China understood the performance and operation methods of Western-style naval equipment, So Li Hongzhang also hired foreign teachers to teach, which shows that Li Hongzhang's concept of running a school was already very advanced at that time.
However, the trainees did not sit back and relax when they came, they learned a lot of content, in addition to driving and pipe wheels, but also to learn English, mathematics, chemistry, artillery, foreign guns, swords, medicine bullets, sails and other military practical courses. There are also three exams per year, and if you fail the exam, you will be expelled. After four years of systematic study, plus one year of on-boarding internship, the results are passed before graduation, and once you graduate, you are an officer on board.
From 1881 to 1900, the Tianjin Admiralty School trained 210 graduates, who later became an important backbone of the early days of China's modern navy.
Since then, Li Hongzhang has successively opened various naval schools in Fujian, Guangdong, Weihai, Nanjing and other places, and has also selected outstanding cadets to study in the United States, France, Britain and other countries from time to time. After returning home, these international students have played a huge role in coastal defense and naval construction.
03. For the cowhide they blew down to round the field, paid a terrible price
Under the operation of Li Hongzhang, the Beiyang Marine Division had the strength of ranking fourth in the world and first in Asia at that time. When the warships flying the dragon flag appeared on the sea, for a time there was no difference, and the navies of the nearby countries were afraid.
However, the crisis has quietly emerged behind this seemingly prosperous scene.
In order to form a powerful modern navy, Li Hongzhang proposed that there should be sufficient funds as the foundation. In his "Preparations for the Fold of Coastal Defense" to the imperial court, he proposed that the purchase of ships, military training, and simplified ware needed at least more than 10 million taels of silver every year.
For the government of the late Qing Dynasty at that time, this was not a small amount. But Li Hongzhang boasted about Haikou and said: The Beiyang Marine Division ranks third in the world! Such a cattle army, of course, deserves a high amount of money!
This remark made the vast majority of people believe, so the late Qing government tightened its belt, although it could not take out more than 10 million taels of silver a year, but how much it could take, in 1875 alone, the Qing government allocated as much as 4 million taels to the navy. In "The Fleet Of The Dragon Flag Flying", it is mentioned that from the establishment to the abolition of the Navy Yamen, a total of more than 20 million yuan was allocated for the national navy.
However, the money was given to the Navy, and Cixi had few children in her pocket. In 1886, Cixi wanted to repair the Qingyi Garden for herself, which was later the Summer Palace, which required a lot of funds, but the Qing government's treasury was already very embarrassed, and in order to please Cixi, Li Hongzhang agreed to embezzle up to 7.5 million taels of naval funds to repair the Summer Palace, which caused great damage to the strength of the Beiyang Fleet.
Due to the lack of funds, the warships could not be repaired, and the artillery shells could not be supplied, and it was at this stall that the Japanese provoked trouble in Korea. The government of the late Qing Dynasty, from top to bottom, advocated war, and they all said: Isn't the Beiyang Marine Division the third in the world? Could it be that such a powerful navy could not defeat little Japan?
Li Hongzhang could not say that he could not admit that the naval strength was insufficient, nor could he admit that the naval funds had been misappropriated by Cixi, so he had no choice but to fight hard, and as a result, the beiyang fleet was completely destroyed.
Of course, the reason for the decline of the Beiyang Marine Division is not only the funding, Li Hongzhang cannot carry the pot alone, but as the founder of the Beiyang Marine Division, Li Hongzhang naturally has an unshirkable responsibility. History is like the water of the Yellow River, and it cannot be simplified to the extent of clarity. Li Hongzhang was not a useless villain, but in any case, his mistake was the catalyst for the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War.
With the defeat of Jia Wu, the once-prominent modern Chinese navy also disappeared. As a major minister of foreign affairs exchanges, Li Hongzhang signed a series of unequal treaties with the great powers in order to ensure the stability of the late Qing government, especially the "Xinugu Treaty" signed by Li Hongzhang before his death, which made modern China a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, and then fell into chaos. And the dragon flag that once flew proudly also sank to the bottom of the sea forever, leaving no trace.