Chapter 34 Passive Defense Lost Homeland

Looking at the Sino-Japanese War as a whole, Japan carefully planned and adopted a strategic offensive attitude. On the contrary, the Qing government was forced to fight, lacking sufficient preparations beforehand and formulating a realistic strategic plan afterwards. It was completely in a strategic defensive position.This determined the series of policies adopted by the Qing government and the result of the gradual annihilation of the Beiyang Navy. The formulation and implementation of the policy of protecting the ship against the enemy directly led to the defeat of the Pyongyang Campaign.Long before China and Japan declared war, Japan’s wartime base camp had already formulated a strategic policy for invading China: land with the main force on the Bohai Bay, fight a decisive battle with the main force of the Qing army on the Zhili Plain, and seize Beijing.As far as the Qing army was concerned, there was no clear strategic policy in advance. It was not until the official declaration of war that the Qing government put forward a strategic policy of defending the sea and attacking the land in the edict of the declaration of war: Li Hongzhang sent out all the troops in a strict order to quickly advance and suppress. Gather a large army and continue to advance to save the Korean people from the misery. Along the river and along the coast, the generals, governors and military ministers will organize the army.According to this policy, the Qing government decided to send more troops to North Korea, concentrate in Pyongyang first, and then drive south to expel the Japanese troops into North Korea. Each fleet of the navy will guard the seaports in their respective defense zones. , Cooperate with the Qing army entering the dynasty, and ensure the safety of the Kyoto gate.

Soon, the Japanese army learned that a large number of Qing troops would gather in Pyongyang and go southward, and decided to order the third division to go to North Korea, and form the first army together with the fifth division, to attack Pyongyang in the north and occupy the entire territory of North Korea first, as a bridgehead for attacking China .He ordered the joint fleet to pick up the army from the sea and make it complete the attack on Pyongyang.According to this deployment, the Japanese Combined Fleet gave up the decisive battle with the Beiyang Fleet, and instead used the method of containing the Beiyang Fleet to control Incheon and the North Port of Datong, and prevent the Qing army from reinforcing North Korea from the sea, so as to support the Japanese army's northward attack on Pyongyang.

Before the Battle of Toyoshima, Li Hongzhang attached great importance to controlling Incheon and the Datong River Estuary. However, after the Battle of Toshima, Li Hongzhang was frightened by the power of the Japanese fleet. He not only ordered Ding Ruchang to withdraw the ships, but also warned Ding Ruchang whenever he led the fleet to patrol. The situation is mainly to save the ship.After the formal declaration of war between China and Japan, Li Hongzhang was afraid that the fleet would go far away, and that the enemy fleet would suddenly break into various ports in Beiyang.On August 9, 1894, Ding Ruchang was ordered to lead ten ships to patrol the Korean sea, but the Japanese combined fleet did not fight him, but sailed into Weihai and Lushun ports, pretending to attack, but the actual purpose was to return the Beiyang Fleet. , give them control of the sea.At this time, Emperor Guangxu learned that after the Japanese fleet went deep into Weihai and Lushun, he was worried that they would invade Dagukou, so he sent a telegram to Ding Ruchang on August 23, asking him to patrol near the Dagu gate instead of going far.In this way, the control of the sea in Incheon and Datong River Estuary was handed over to Japan.

Because Ding Ruchang was bound by Li Hongzhang to protect the strong ship, he made many patrols without success, which caused dissatisfaction among the government and the public. Emperor Guangxu dismissed him on August 26. For this reason, Li Hongzhang defended Ding Ruchang and took the opportunity to formally propose to protect the ship against the enemy. combat policy.Since then, protecting the ship and controlling the enemy has become the basic policy of the Beiyang Navy to fight against the enemy.In accordance with this policy, we voluntarily gave up competing with the Japanese navy for dominance in the Yellow Sea, and retreated to the mouths of the Beiyang Sea without taking a single step out of the Bohai Sea.This enabled the Japanese army to smoothly respond to the invading Korean army from the sea.

On September 15, 1894, the Japanese army launched a general attack on Pyongyang and captured Pyongyang that night.On the 19th, Li Hongzhang telegraphed Ye Zhichao to garrison Yizhou. Three days later, he ordered Ye Zhichao to withdraw from the whole line and withdraw from the Yalu River. The Japanese army immediately occupied the entire territory of North Korea. On the eve of the Battle of Pyongyang, in order to reinforce Pyongyang in time, Li Hongzhang decided to transport 4,000 people from the Eighth Battalion of the Ming Army stationed by Liu Shengxiu, the commander-in-chief stationed in Dalian, to Dadonggou by sea, and then to North Korea by land, and ordered Ding Ruchang to lead the Beiyang Fleet convoy.On September 17, 1894, the 11th ship of the Beiyang Navy escorted the reinforcements to the Pyongyang defenders and arrived at Dadonggou at the mouth of the Yalu River. After landing, they were preparing to return.En route encountered a dozen warships flying the American flag.Suddenly, the American flags on the twelve ships were all replaced with Japanese flags, and they launched an attack on the Beiyang warships.The Chinese army fought back.The two sides fought fiercely for five hours, and the Beiyang Fleet suffered heavy losses: five ships were sunk, six ships were wounded, and more than a thousand officers and soldiers were killed or injured.Five ships of the Japanese army were severely damaged, killing or injuring more than 600 people, and they withdrew from the battlefield first, and the Beiyang Navy also returned to Lushun.So far the Yellow Sea War is over.

The Qing army was completely defeated in both land and water battles, and the public opinion on peace talks was raging for a while.Cixi ordered Weng Tonghe, Shangshu of the household department, to Tianjin to discuss peace and war with Li Hongzhang.Weng Tonghe was the leader of the main combat faction at that time. After seeing Li Hongzhang, he severely asked him why he refused to send troops for so long, which delayed the opportunity of the war!Li Hongzhang glared angrily, and said with a sneer, "Master Weng is in charge of the household department. He always gets a cold face when he asks you for funds, and he only asks you when the matter is critical."I would like to ask you, are those warships reliable?Weng Tonghe asked rhetorically: "A minister should have done his duty, why didn't he ask the court again?"Li Hongzhang replied: The court suspected that I was domineering, and the minister impeached me for being greedy for money and committing fraud. If I continue to ask for funds, is there still Li Hongzhang today?Weng Tonghe couldn't compete with him, and brought the topic to the battle situation: the northeast is the land of dragon prosperity, what should we do if we lose it?Li Hongzhang said frankly: Fengtian's army is really unreliable.Half a month later, the Liaodong Peninsula fell, and Fengtian was in danger!

At this time, the singing and drums in Beijing were melodious, and it was the 60th birthday of Empress Dowager Cixi.The Forbidden City and the Summer Palace are decorated with lanterns and festoons, and there is no trace of war in the slightest.Lafayette's 50th birthday was not well spent by the French, and this time he had to celebrate it.The chief eunuch Li Lianying ordered that during this period of time, anything that might make Lafayette unhappy is not allowed to be reported!This approach really worked. Empress Dowager Cixi issued an order to amnesty the world and to have a three-day holiday.Li Hongzhang was not idle, and emergency telegrams from the front line came like snowflakes.Li Hongzhang stepped up the pace of seeking peace: on the one hand, he sent people to ask Russia to intervene in the name of congratulating the new Russian emperor on his enthronement;Li Hongzhang was full of expectations for De Trilin, and declared to the outside world: If the negotiations between De Trilin and Ito Hirobumi go smoothly, China and Japan can first cease the war and then negotiate a peace.The Japanese government had no intention of negotiating a peace at this time, believing that Detrilin was not qualified as a messenger and refused to negotiate with him.De Trilin stayed in Japan for a few days and didn't even see Hirobumi Ito. She felt very embarrassed, so she made an excuse: Today, she received a telegram from Prince Kung, saying that the Japanese government had promised to use the U.S. government to arbitrate, so I don't need to stay in Japan, I will return to China immediately.As for Li Hongzhang's letter, I have mailed it to Earl Ito in Japan.Then he returned to Tianjin in disgrace.Japanese newspapers commented on De Trilin's mediation: "It's so strange to come here rashly, but to return disappointed!"

While Li Hongzhang was anxiously waiting for the diplomatic mediation between De Cuilin and the United States and Germany, the Japanese army successively captured Jinzhou and Dalian and rushed towards Lushun.Lushunkou and Weihaiwei across the sea, is the gateway to the Bohai Sea.The Japanese army decided to capture Lushun at the cost of heavy casualties.After the Japanese army captured Lushun, they carried out a brutal massacre of the city. Only 36 people were left in the city to bury the bodies.Gong Zhaoyu, who was in charge of the Lushun Dock Project, fled back to Tianjin after the fall of Jinzhou.Li Hongzhang ordered him to return to the front line of Lushun to serve.However, when the Japanese army attacked Lushun, he abandoned the shipyard and fled among the soldiers in disguise.At that time, people made up ballads that the civil servants had three hands and the military officers had four feet, satirizing the Huai army's fast escape.Li Hongzhang has been proud of the Huai Army all his life, and this defeat really hit him hard.

This battle in the Yellow Sea was a major decisive battle between the navies of China and Japan. It was large in scale, fierce in battle, and long in duration.In the battle, although the Beiyang Fleet lost more than the Japanese, it also inflicted heavy damage on the Japanese ships, which made the Japanese army's arrogant plan to gather and wipe out the ships in the Yellow Sea unsuccessful.But objectively speaking, in terms of the strength of the two navies in the Yellow Sea War, China is not inferior to Japan.If the Beiyang Navy is fully prepared and commanded well, it will not suffer such heavy losses.Even so, Japan is engaged in a long-term war, and the supply of funds and weapons, weather, location, people, and many other factors are unfavorable. If the Beiyang Fleet actively adjusts its strategic deployment after the Yellow Sea War, it is possible to restore the unfavorable war situation.It is a pity that Li Hongzhang fell further into a situation of fear and compromise, and actively sought mediation from Western powers, hoping to end the war as soon as possible.In addition, because Li Hongzhang regarded the Beiyang Fleet as private capital, he was very angry at the loss of many ships in this sea battle, and emphasized the policy of protecting ships again, which made Ding Ruchang dare not fight again, resulting in the Japanese navy basically controlling the sea in the Yellow Sea. The process and the complete annihilation of the Beiyang Fleet had a major impact.

The next target of the Japanese army was Weihai.Li Hongzhang ordered Ding Ruchang to defend Weihaiwei at any cost.At that time, both the government and the opposition accused Ding Ruchang, the admiral of the Beiyang Navy, as greedy for life and afraid of death, fearing the enemy and avoiding war, and demanded that he be dismissed immediately.The chief instructor of the Beiyang Navy, the German Hannagan, commented: Some people blame the Beiyang Navy, but they don’t know that it is not the fault of the Beiyang Navy, nor is it the fault of Admiral Ding.Some people clamp down on the navy, and Ding Ruchang cannot call the shots.This person is Li Hongzhang.Li Hongzhang believed that the strength of the Chinese and Japanese armies was very different. When attacking Lushun, Ding Ruchang asked the fleet to fight to the death with Japan.Li Hongzhang resolutely opposed it, and said to Ding Ruchang: You guard those ships in Weihaiwei, and the rest is none of your business!

Japan suddenly changed its strategy at this time, and publicly published the negotiation price in the newspaper: China compensated 400 million taels of military expenditure, and ceded the area occupied by Japan at that time.The Qing government believed that although the conditions were harsh, there was hope for a peace negotiation, so they appointed Shao Youlian and Zhang Yinhuan as ministers with full powers to go to Japan for negotiations.Li Hongzhang, who has always advocated peace talks, was not positive about the peace talks. He believed that there must be something strange in Japan's proposal of peace talks at this time.Sure enough, before the Qing envoys set foot on Dongpu, the Japanese army launched a bigger offensive.The quick departure of the two missions clearly showed that the Qing government had no intention of war and was eager to seek peace, and it also convinced the Japanese government that the more the war expanded, the more profitable it would be. After the Battle of the Yellow Sea, in order to first implement the battle plan of invading the Liaodong Peninsula, the Japanese wartime base camp ordered the First Army to cross the Yalu River as soon as possible, invade Liaoning, and threaten Shenyang, so as to contain the frontal Qing army, and cover the troops from the First Division and the Twelfth Division. The second army composed of mixed brigades carried out landing operations on the Liaodong Peninsula; while the Qing army, in order to prevent the Japanese army from attacking the mainland of China, had changed from sea defense and land attack to comprehensive defense.In response to the situation of the enemy and ourselves at that time, Li Hongzhang proposed the so-called purely defensive combat policy.Although Emperor Guangxu had great ambitions, he could not mobilize the power of the whole country, and was restrained by Cixi, so it was difficult to do anything. Therefore, the Qing government adopted the purely defensive strategy proposed by Li Hongzhang.But even if this policy was adopted, because the main attack direction of the Japanese army was not clear, the Liaodong Peninsula, where the enemy was mainly attacking, had not strengthened its defense forces, but continued to transfer the defenders to other places, which provided favorable conditions for the Japanese army to land here. On October 24, 1894, the Japanese First Army first launched an attack on the Yalu River.On the same day, under the escort of the Japanese Navy, the Second Army also began to land smoothly at Huayuankou without any obstruction from the Beiyang Fleet.At the end of October, when the landing Japanese army was slowly advancing, Ding Ruchang led his fleet from Weihai to Lushun, but he did not dare to go to the Japanese landing site to carry out any necessary raids.On November 7, the landing Japanese army occupied Dalian Bay without firing a single shot because the Qing army stationed in Dalian fled.On the same day, Ding Ruchang also led his fleet back to Weihai.After being reprimanded by Li Hongzhang, on the afternoon of November 12th, he led the fleet to Lushun for a short cruise, and left Lushun on the evening of the 13th and returned to Weihai.On the 22nd, Lushun was captured by the Japanese army.Less than a month later, the Japanese army captured most of the important places in the Liaodong Peninsula, and seized advanced positions for the decisive battle in the Zhili Plain.