The "Zhenyuan" ship and the "Dingyuan" ship are ironclad ships of the same level, and the thickness of the ironclad and all the arrangements are the same as those of the "Dingyuan", but the "Dingyuan" waterline is full of steel-faced ironclad, and the "Zhenyuan" waterline is used in ironclad. The ordering process of "Zhenyuan" and the experience before becoming an army are roughly the same as those of "Dingyuan".
In October 1888, when the Beiyang Navy was formed, Lin Tai was entrusted with the left wing chief and the "Zhenyuan" ship management belt. In the naval battle of the Yellow Sea, it formed the first squadron with the "Dingyuan" sister ships, which was located in the center of the "sandwich goose-shaped formation", and cooperated with the "Dingyuan" in the naval battle and became the mainstay of the Beiyang Fleet. During the battle, the officers and men of the "Zhenyuan" ship stuck to their posts, fought bravely, regarded death as home, inflicted great casualties on the Japanese troops, and also paid great sacrifices.
When he fell, a gunner on the next floor hugged his waist and handed his body to the people below, and then he took the gun rope from the gunner, took his position, adjusted the direction and continued to fire.
After the end of the naval battle, when the ships were inspected, they found that the "Zhenyuan" ship was full of corpses, and the miserable appearance was beyond words. The foremast was originally equipped with 2 small cannons, equipped with 1 rangefinder non-commissioned officer and 5 gunners, and all of them were killed at the end of the battle. The damage to the warship was also severe, with multiple bullets on the deck and bulkheads, scarring, and craters from armor and turret armor like a beehive. The artillery shells were also running out, with 148 shells consumed by the 150-mm secondary gun, and only 25 armor-piercing shells from the 305-mm main gun remained, and all the grenades were gone.
On November 14, 1894, the ship "Zhenyuan" suffered another disaster. In the early morning of that day, the "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" warships sailed from Lushun to Weihaiwei, and they entered the anchorage along the west entrance of Weihai Bay in turn, but what was unexpected was that the "Zhenyuan" ship suddenly ran aground when it entered the port, and then the hull of the ship tilted, and the situation was critical. What's going on here?
It turned out that since the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War, out of defensive needs, a large number of mines have been laid in the east and west mouths of Weihai Bay, and the mines at the west mouth are laid on the west side of the waterway. For the sake of the safety of ships entering and exiting, the Beiyang Fleet placed two floating drums on the waterway as navigation signs. The west floating drum is close to the mines, and the east floating drum is close to Liugong Island, and the width between the two floating drums is about 600 yards (548.64 meters) for safe passage. The floating drum near Liugong Island is 300 feet (about 100 meters) from the mouth of Liugong Island, and the length of the reef extending from the mouth of the island is 250 feet (about 83.3 meters). On November 14, the strong northwest wind and the large water power of the "Dingyuan" ship moving forward caused the floating drums to be pushed to the southeast, so that the distance between the two floating drums was widened, and the reef at the mouth of the island was included in the safe passage.
The town is far away in Lushun for repair, and the white place is the bullet impact point.
In addition, it was at low tide at that time, and the water depth on the reef was only 2 feet and 1 foot (about 7 meters), and due to the war, the "Zhenyuan" ship was loaded with enough coal and water, and more ammunition, so that the original draft of 20 feet 8 inches (about 6.93 meters) increased by 8 inches (about 27 centimeters). The combination of these factors caused the "Zhenyuan" to touch the reef when it was imported. According to Lin Tai, the head of the "Zhenyuan" ship, when the warship was driving close to the floating drum on the east side, it suddenly felt the hull of the ship shake twice, and then found that the cabin was flooded.
After the accident, Lin Taizeng organized manpower to rescue on the one hand, and reported the situation to Ding Ruchang on the other. Ding Ruchang was shocked when he heard the news, and immediately sent someone into the water to explore the injury of "Zhenyuan". Divers found that the "Zhenyuan" was injured in many places, including three wounds under the bomb bay, one 8 inches wide (about 27 centimeters) and 6 and a half feet long (about 2.2 meters), one 10 inches wide (about 33.3 centimeters) and 3 and a half feet long (about 1.2 meters), and one 1 foot 8 inches wide (about 0.6 meters) and 9 feet long (about 3 meters). There was one wound under the sail cabin, 10 inches (about 33.3 cm) wide, and the tail tapered and 17 feet (about 5.7 meters) long. There were also three wounds under the coal tank and the pot tank, one was 2 feet 4 inches (about 0.8 meters) wide and 11 feet (about 3.7 meters) long, and there were several small holes around the wounds, one was 2 feet 4 inches (about 0.8 meters) wide and 5 inches long (about 16.7 cm), and one was 4 inches wide (about 13.3 cm) and 1 foot 8 inches long (about 0.6 meters).
There was one wound under the hydro engine room, 2 feet 6 inches (about 0.9 meters) wide, 3 feet 9 inches (about 1.3 meters) long. In the face of such a serious injury, Ding Ruchang hurriedly hired two divers from Shanghai and rushed to Weihai from Yantai on the "Beiping" steamer, where they were launched to replenish the congestion. To Ding Ruchang's surprise, just as everyone was busy dealing with it, Lin Taizeng took advantage of the unpreparedness and committed suicide by swallowing opium on the night of November 15.
On November 19, the emperor issued an edict ordering Li Hongzhang to thoroughly investigate the cause of the accident and the cause of Lin Taizeng's suicide, and specifically pointed out whether there was an internal affair with Japanese spies in the incident.
The emperor's edict made Li Hongzhang's heart tremble, and he soon realized that if this incident simply involved the weakening of the Beiyang Navy's anti-enemy force, it would be easier to deal with it, but if it involved the issue of the Beiyang Navy's personnel collaborating with the enemy, the matter would be very serious. He immediately set about investigating the incident. The results of the investigation showed that the incident was purely accidental, and no connection with the Japanese spy was found. Although Li Hongzhang breathed a sigh of relief, it was difficult for an ironclad ship to explain to the imperial court that its combat effectiveness had been seriously weakened when the war was raging. In desperation, Li Hongzhang could only make a deep review to the imperial court.
At the end of January 1895, the Japanese army launched an attack on Weihaiwei, and Ding Ruchang deployed the "Zhenyuan" ship, which had not been repaired after being wounded, in Weihai Bay as a mobile battery. In the early morning of 2 February, in order to prevent the Beibang batteries from falling into the hands of the Japanese army, Ding Ruchang dispatched 30 brave sailors from the "Zhenyuan" ship to the Beibang on the "treasure raft" ship and blew up all the batteries. When the Japanese army attacked the Beiyang Navy warships in Weihai Bay, "Zhenyuan" was an important target, but because it was dark at night, the Japanese army never found out the exact location of "Zhenyuan," so that "Zhenyuan" was not attacked again. At dawn on 7 February, the Japanese Combined Fleet was dispatched to attack the left and right armies under the leadership of Ito Sukehiro.
Eight Japanese ships were the right army, and Ito Yuhiro personally commanded the attack on the Liugong Island Fort. The 15 Japanese ships were the left army, and the commander of the West Sea Fleet, Norimi Soura, commanded the attack on the Japanese island battery. The southern gang forts such as Zhaobeizui, Lujiaozui, and Longmiaozui Forts, which were occupied by the Japanese army, cooperated to attack the Ridao Forts. This attack was the largest offensive operation of the Japanese Navy since the Battle of Weihaiwei began, and it was stubbornly counterattacked by the Beiyang Navy.
The "Zhenyuan" and "Jingyuan" ships worked closely with the Liugongdao Fort and damaged many Japanese ships. One shell hit the chimney of the "Matsushima" ship, and shrapnel wounded three people, including Eijiro Takagi, the chief navigator; The bow of the "Hashidate" was slightly injured by a bullet; The aft deck railing of the "Akitsu Island" was shattered, and 2 sailors were wounded; The gun shield of one 47 mm caliber gun of the "Yoshino" ship was hit, the shell penetrated the ship's boat, the gun shield was broken into several pieces and scattered, destroying the upper deck of the deckhouse and several herald tubes, the gunners Keitaro Moriya and Yamashiro Matsusuke died on the spot, and 4 soldiers were wounded; The ship "Naniwa" was hit, and the shells entered from the coal tank No. 6 on the starboard side in the middle of the hull and exited through the port side. Since the shells were solid and did not explode, both the warship and the personnel escaped.
On 11 February, Ding Ruchang made the final decision to blow up and sink the "Zhenyuan" ship, but it was too late. In the face of the imminent fall of Liugong Island, Yang Yonglin, the acting commander of the "Zhenyuan" ship, refused to be asked to preside over the surrender and shot himself in the official cabin of the "Zhenyuan". On 17 February, the ships of the Japanese Combined Fleet sailed into Weihai Bay, and the warships of the Beiyang Navy, including the "Zhenyuan," became trophies of the Japanese army.
On February 27, 1895, the "Zhenyuan" was towed by the Japanese ship "Saikyo Maru" to Lushun for more than two months of repairs, and then sailed to Yokosuka, Japan to change weapons, replaced two 150 mm Krupp guns with 6-inch (152 mm) Armstrong rapid-fire guns, added ear stands on both sides of the aft deckhouse, and installed 6-inch (152 mm) Armstrong rapid-fire guns respectively to increase the firepower on both sides. In March 1895, the "Zhenyuan" was officially incorporated into the Japanese Combined Fleet, still using its original name, and was listed as a second-class battleship. In 1904, when the Russo-Japanese War broke out, the "Zhenyuan" was integrated into the same team as the "Itsukushima" and "Hashidate" ships of the Japanese Combined Fleet, and participated in the Battle of the Yellow Sea on October 4, 1904 and the Battle of Tsushima on May 27, 1905. On December 12, 1905, the "Zhenyuan" was listed as a first-class coastal defense ship. On April 1, 1911, "Zhenyuan" was retired from active service and later used as a target ship for testing new weapons. On April 6, 1912, the "Jinen" was dismantled in Yokohama.
After the First Sino-Japanese War, in order to show off its "achievements", Japan displayed the iron anchors, shells, and anchor chains of "Zhenyuan" and "Jingyuan" in Ueno Park in Tokyo, Japan, and in 1947, the Nationalist Government took them back through efforts. The main anchor of the "Zhenyuan" is currently on display in the Military Museum of the Chinese People's Revolution, and the secondary anchor is stored at the Kibitsu Shrine in Okayama, Japan.