Chapter 20 Consolidate our frontier defense and build a navy

In 1840, the British colonists launched the Opium War of aggression against China.On August 29, 1842, the Qing government accepted the "Nanjing Treaty" that humiliated the country under the threat of naval guns from the British invading army, and China began to be reduced to a semi-colony.The repeated defeats of the Qing army in the Opium War and the harsh reality of the "Nanjing Treaty" prompted some insightful people in the Qing ruling group to open their eyes and begin to observe the outside world. Lin Zexu, a famous anti-British official, and Wei Yuan, a thinker, boldly issued a call to learn from the barbarians to control the barbarians, learning advanced science and technology such as strong ships and guns from Western countries to resist foreign aggression, and put forward for the first time a draft for the establishment of a modern navy.From 1856 to 1860, Britain and France jointly launched the Second Opium War.The naval fleet of the British and French allied forces felt as if there was no one in China's thousands of miles of sea. The Qing government started to build a modern naval coastal defense in another painful and deep crisis, but soon stopped due to setbacks.

During this period, our east neighbor Japan was the period after the Meiji Restoration when politics, economy, culture, and military gradually developed and became stronger.When Li Hongzhang was still in Jiangsu, Japan sent personnel to the Huai Army barracks many times to study and study. Li Hongzhang was also inspired by Japan's active learning of Western military affairs and developed Westernization.At the same time, he keeps an eye on Japan's growing strength and feels that Japan is a potential threat to China, and China should be vigilant.While the Meiji regime continued to abolish unequal treaties, it began to deliberately invade and expand its Asian neighbors, eyeing China, North Korea, Ryukyu and other countries.In the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), Japan, which was not yet fully fledged, saw that the great powers were seeking interests in China, so they sent Minister of Foreign Affairs Maemitsu Yanagihara to China to test, and Li Hongzhang received the diplomatic envoy.

Maemitsu Yanagihara only made a tentative request for friendly trade between the two countries. At this time, Li Hongzhang was thinking that China had been invaded by Western powers in recent years. If China established a cooperative relationship with Japan, it would be possible to jointly deal with the Western invaders. After Yanagihara Maemitsu returned, the Japanese government sent representatives to China to negotiate with the Qing government, but it was not as simple as Li Hongzhang imagined. Japan asked China to grant one-sided most-favored-nation treatment, and to do business in the mainland of China, sharing the interests of all Western countries.Li Hongzhang was furious when he saw that Japan was so arrogant, and he resolutely ignored Japan's request.Although Japan was ambitious at this time, it was fledgling after all and did not have the strength to exert force against China.In the end, the two sides signed the "Sino-Japanese Reconciliation Regulations" and the "Commercial Charter". In addition to trading at designated treaty ports, the two sides also stipulated that the two sides should not invade the state and should help each other in case of foreign aggression.This treaty was basically signed in accordance with Li Hongzhang's idea, which broke the illusion of Japan's meddling in China, and also established a Sino-Japanese joint Eastern Front on the surface, which was conducive to resisting Western aggression to a certain extent.

However, the Japanese government was very dissatisfied with this, and then sent Maemitsu Yanagihara to negotiate with Li Hongzhang, demanding that the treaty be changed to seek more benefits.Li Hongzhang was furious and scolded Liu Yuan. Seeing that there was no room for him, Liu Yuan had to run back to the country in despair.But Japan was not reconciled, and secretly waited for an opportunity to find another breakthrough. The opportunity finally came. At the end of the eleventh year of Tongzhi (1872), a Ryukyu ship drifted to Taiwan due to a hurricane, and more than 50 boat people were killed by Taiwan's Gaoshan people.At the beginning of the second year, four people from Japan's Oda Prefecture drifted to Taiwan, but were also killed by the islanders because they were mistaken for foreign invasion.Ryukyu is a vassal state of China, and Taiwan is China's territory. It had nothing to do with Japan, but Japan took the opportunity to blackmail China and attempt to occupy Taiwan.

The Japanese government sent Liu Yuan to China to exchange the contract. Liu Yuan knew Li Hongzhang's tough attitude, so he did not contact Li Hongzhang, but went directly to the Prime Minister's Office to accuse the Taiwanese islanders of killing the Ryukyu boat people, and claimed that Ryukyu was not a vassal state of China, but a Japanese territory. , and asked China to severely punish the Taiwan murderer.Liu Yuan's unreasonable request was refuted by the Zongli Yamen.Seeing that the unreasonable demands did not work, Japan began to seek a solution by force.A year later, with the help of the United States, Japan brazenly sent troops to occupy Langjiao in the east of Taiwan.

The British Minister to China was very dissatisfied when he saw that the United States was helping Japan to invade China alone. On the one hand, he protested, and on the other hand, he informed the Qing government of the news.At the suggestion of Li Hongzhang, the Qing government sent Fuzhou Shipping Minister Shen Baozhen as an imperial envoy, leading an army of 10,000 people to Taiwan to suppress the repression, and brought Liu Mingchuan of the Huai Army and the French shipping supervisor Riyige to assist. At this time, Japan did not have the strength to fight China head-on, so it sent Maemitsu Yanagihara to negotiate with the Qing government in an attempt to gain benefits through diplomatic means.In addition to asking for the so-called punishment of the murderer, they also asked for two million taels of silver for military expenses.In the end, he was scolded by Li Hongzhang again, and Liuyuan ran back to Japan in despair.

Japan sent Minister of Internal Affairs Okubo Toshimichi to continue negotiations with Li Hongzhang. At this time, the Qing government and Li Hongzhang also wanted to settle peacefully as soon as possible. In addition, Western powers also came forward to mediate for their own interests. Finally, the two sides signed the "Beijing Special Article": Japan withdraws troops from Taiwan, China recognized that Japan's invasion of Taiwan was a righteous act to protect the people, and gave Japan 500,000 taels of compensation. The signing of the "Beijing Special Regulations" not only allowed Japan to test the details of the Qing government, but also left hidden dangers for Japan's annexation of Ryukyu.Because in the terms, the Qing government did not clarify the suzerain-vassal relationship between China and Ryukyu, but recognized Japan's righteous deeds to protect the people, and at the same time made the big powers feel the Qing government's incompetence.

In 1874, Japan looked for an excuse to send troops to invade Taiwan.Although this matter ended in peace talks and did not start a bigger war, it caused a stronger shock in the Chinese government and the opposition.As a result, a vigorous discussion on coastal defense was triggered internally.In November 1874, the Zongli Yamen’s document emphasized the importance and urgency of coastal defense, and proposed methods such as training troops, simplifying equipment, building ships, raising salaries, employing personnel, and lasting.Invite the governors and generals of the coastal provinces to discuss.

At this time, Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, submitted the eloquent "Discussion on Coastal Defense", which stated the important strategic significance of the navy's coastal defense cause, and called for the establishment of a modern naval coastal defense.Li Hongzhang first analyzed the unprecedented severe situation facing China: Bibian in the past dynasties was mostly in the northwest.Its strengths and weaknesses, and the shape of the host and guest are all suitable for each other, and there are still boundaries between China and the outside world.Today, there are more than ten thousand miles in the southeast sea, and all countries are doing business and preaching, and they can come and go freely. They gather in the capital and the hinterland of the provinces. The name of reconciliation is under the pretense of peace, and the plan of engulfing it is under the ulterior motive. One country creates troubles, and ten thousand countries create troubles. This is a change that has not been seen in thousands of years!The speed of the ship's telegraph is thousands of miles in an instant; the precision of military equipment and machinery is a hundred times stronger.Wherever the artillery shells arrive, they are invincible; the water and land passes are not limited, and they are actually a powerful enemy that has not been seen for thousands of years!Li Hongzhang also painstakingly pointed out that the foundation of handling international relations lies in the strength of a country: foreigners do not care about power, but they are oppressed by military power.He also pointed out that the urgency of the historical opportunity comes at a time when coastal defense is in short supply. Not only are outsiders sniggering, but if the opportunity is lost, China will never have the day of buying iron armor, that is, it will never have the day of self-improvement!

In the memorial, Li Hongzhang also elaborated on the specific implementation methods for coastal defense.It is proposed that China should be dominated by the army, and the navy should set up three divisions of Nanyang, Dongyang and Beiyang.Zuo Zongtang put forward different opinions. He believed that the Qing Dynasty should implement coastal defense in the east and fortress defense in the west, and both should be emphasized.He believes that if three naval divisions are set up, it will lead to disunity of leadership, and the three naval divisions will act independently.He suggested that the navy should be under unified leadership.

The difference between Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang was that Li Hongzhang believed that the defense of the Northwest was dispensable, and that Xinjiang could even be sacrificed as a price.However, Zuo Zongtang believed that the northwest frontier was very important, and if the defense was not strong, the northwest barrier would be lost.At that time, the situation faced by the Qing government was that Tsarist Russia invaded and occupied Ili, and Agubai occupied Xinjiang, and it was imminent to recover Xinjiang.At the end of 1874, Emperor Tongzhi died of illness, Emperor Guangxu succeeded to the throne, and Cixi once again listened to the government behind a curtain.The following year, the coastal defense discussion entered the stage of court discussion.The Prime Minister's Office headed by Yixin neither adopted Li Hongzhang's opinion, nor agreed with the idea of ​​focusing on the Western Expedition, and finally made a policy of paying equal attention to coastal defense and fortified defense.Let Li Hongzhang be in charge of coastal defense, and let Zuo Zongtang be in charge of block defense. In Zuo Zongtang's later memorial, he seemed to support the imperial court's opinion, but in fact he advocated an all-out western expedition.In his view, there is no real danger in Haiphong, and he steals the cooperation between Western and Western countries for his own sake. His ambition is to make profits through trade. If you have no other choice, how dare you make troubles.Since the launch of the ship, I have been able to do the same with those who are arrogant to me; and I am broad-minded and restrained, and I have always sought good things and sharp weapons to prepare for them; .Obviously, Zuo Zongtang believes that Western countries have no intention of invading, but China has enough preparations, and coastal defense is not a concern.The implication is that we should go all out to march west. Li Hongzhang believed that the main danger at that time came from the long sea frontier, especially since Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai-Nanjing were the heartland of the country, and coastal defense must be the focus.However, Li Hongzhang did not consider that the problems in Xifeng should be solved first by concentrating manpower and material resources in a short period of time.Zuo Zongtang's success is to meet this need, although his estimation of the coastal defense situation is too optimistic.At that time, the Qing government's finances were very difficult, so they had to use the available financial resources mainly for the Western Expedition.Li Hongzhang's great discussion on coastal defense and his later advocacy of naval coastal defense played a powerful role in promoting the construction of modern Chinese navy's coastal defense. Under the hard work and advocacy of the pragmatic senior officials represented by Li Hongzhang, the Qing government established four small-scale naval fleets in Fujian, Beiyang, Nanyang and Guangdong.However, during the Sino-French Mawei Naval Battle in August 1884, the French expeditionary fleet actually wiped out the entire Fujian Navy that was first formed.As soon as the Sino-French war ended, Emperor Guangxu solemnly issued an edict to vigorously expand the navy: Since the incident at sea, France relied on its strong ships and powerful guns to run amok.In my planning, I also tried to open a shipyard and create a navy.However, the shipbuilding is not strong, the equipment is not prepared, the selection is not good, and the financing is not wide.Last year, the legal person provoked and started battles repeatedly, and the land armies won many victories, which could still show our army's prestige;Learn from the past and learn from the future, and focus on the master of water governance!Immediately, Emperor Guangxu ordered the establishment of the Prime Minister's Naval Affairs Yamen, referred to as the Naval Yamen. The navy has thus become the country's official military branch, and modern China's naval coastal defense has begun to enter a period of development on the right track.Emperor Guangxu's biological father, Prince Chun Yizhen, personally served as Prime Minister and Minister of the Navy, and Li Hongzhang, who had always advocated the establishment of a large-scale navy, served as Minister of the Navy, in charge of the national navy and coastal defense construction. After Li Hongzhang took up the task of preparing for the establishment of the Beiyang Navy, he devoted himself to the construction of coastal defense, purchased ships, set up a naval academy, built Dagukou, Lushunkou, Weihai Weihai Military Port Base, and employed a large number of famous scientists such as Xu Jianyin, the son of Xu Shou. Chinese and foreign professionals.In the first year of Guangxu (1875), Japan invaded North Korea, another vassal state of China. ), Japan annexed Ryukyu and changed to Okinawa Prefecture.The painful facts shocked the Qing government and the government time and time again, which also prompted the acceleration of naval construction.Especially during the Sino-French War, the Mawei Naval Port was bombed by the French army, and the entire Fujian Navy was annihilated, which led to the establishment of the Naval Office. Shanqing, the capital of the army, and Zeng Jize, the right servant of the Ministry of war, were assistants with a huge lineup, while Li Hongzhang was the actual power holder of the Beiyang Navy. To establish a modern navy, the ship problem must be solved.Li Hongzhang initially advocated self-manufacturing, but later turned to the policy of mainly buying ships from Britain and Germany, supplemented by shipbuilding.Because at that time, the cost of building a ship in China was much higher than buying a ship from abroad.While buying ships, Li Hongzhang also transferred some ships manufactured by the two factories in Fujian and Shanghai to the Beiyang Navy.In addition to ships, naval bases must also be established.Li Hongzhang built a dock in Dagu, and built forts on the west and east coasts of Lushunkou, land forts, and Dalian Bay forts; built forts on the Weihaiwei coast, and built iron piers on the water.For a time, Weihaiwei was called the Ping Fan of the East China Sea.Lushunkou and Weihaiwei thus became the bases of the Beiyang Navy, guarding the Bohai Sea and Tianjin.Li Hongzhang also realized the need to train a large number of naval personnel.Almost all the students of Fujian Shipping Academy were used by Li Hongzhang.In addition, Li Hongzhang also hired a group of foreigners as technical personnel. At this time, Wade hoped that British officers could monopolize the task of teaching the Beiyang Navy, but Li Hongzhang refused.Li Hongzhang has always adopted the principle of using both British officers and German officers, which prevented the great powers from achieving their goal of controlling the Chinese navy.In October 1888, under the painstaking preparation of Li Hongzhang, the Empress Dowager Cixi was played in the Navy Yamen and was approved to promulgate the "Regulations of the Beiyang Navy", which marked the official formation of the Beiyang Navy. This is the glorious culmination of the development of the Chinese navy's coastal defense cause in modern times.Due to the huge lineup of the Beiyang Navy, the total tonnage of the Chinese Navy's combat ships has reached more than 40,000 tons, which once jumped to the ranks of the world's naval powers, and is second to none in Asia.An important enterprise in the Beiyang military industry is the Lushun Torpedo Manufacturing Institute. The construction of the Beiyang Navy has always used Japan as an imaginary enemy. Before the Sino-Japanese War, its strength had reached the leading level in the world at that time.However, in this process, there were also factional struggles within the Qing government, and the Beiyang Navy had many fatal weaknesses to a large extent.For example, there are many problems in the construction of the defense system, the training of the navy, and the system of the army, especially in terms of funds. Not only did he set up obstacles for Li Hongzhang everywhere, but he also openly opposed the construction of the Beiyang Navy, and defaulted on or refused to pay the navy funds.Due to financial limitations, China's navy is far from being able to compete with foreign armies.Li Hongzhang once sighed: Beiyang has only half a navy.Soon after, Li Hongzhang's worries really turned into a cruel reality, which was the failure of the Sino-Japanese War.A series of problems led to the final result of the Sino-Japanese dispute. The Beiyang Navy ended in a disastrous defeat in the Sino-Japanese War.