Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the ocean was still dominated by sailboats. Whoever makes progress in industry and technology first will win the world. Spain, Britain, the Netherlands, France, Portugal, Turkey, Russia and other countries took the lead in seizing this opportunity and became modern powers. At that time, many wars in the world were decided by the appearance of modern navy and the strength of maritime power, which also decided the fate of many countries. Faced with this opportunity, the Qing dynasty, which claimed to be the boss, was not to be outdone. From the 1960s, after thirty years' efforts, a powerful navy was finally built. But he quickly withdrew from the world stage and was defeated by Japanese naval guns. The reason is not that the strength is inferior to others, but that the strategic thinking is wrong.
As early as 1839, Lin Zexu bought a 1080-ton British merchant ship from an American businessman, converted it into a warship, and tried to transform the old navy from equipment and establish a navy. Later, in 1842 (twenty-two years of Daoguang), Daoguang Emperor ordered three times to actively build large ships in Sichuan, Hubei and coastal provinces, and tried to buy them, and at the same time rewarded those who donated money to make them. For various reasons, Daoguang's wish has not been fully realized. 186 1 year (Xianfeng 1 1 year). Trying to build a new fleet. He proposed to British Minister Pruss that he hoped to "help buy warships made in Europe". Britain, on the other hand, set up a "Sino-British Fleet" in disguise, with Captain Arthur of the Royal Navy as the commander of the fleet, hoping to control China's plan to develop its navy. Due to the resolute opposition of Zeng Guofan and others, the "Sino-British Fleet" had to abort.
After the naval plan of the central ruling group in the Qing Dynasty went bankrupt, local power groups began to plan to establish their own navy. Therefore, the preparation of the Qing navy is aimed at the "self-improvement" of local strength groups and based on the establishment of modern military industry.
From the development course of the Qing navy, from the preparation to the final formation, the navy experienced the first delay and then the urgent formation; First, local officials organized, and then the court unified planning; There is no fixed strategic model before the process of training an army is determined.
Compared with the Japanese and American navies, the strength of the Qing navy is dominant. In terms of development speed, compared with Japan, China was faster than Japan in the first 20 years, and Japan was faster than China in 10 years. 1890 or so, the Qing navy ranks ninth in the world naval strength comparison, and the United States ranks 12. The order of naval strength is: Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Turkey, China, Norway-Sweden, Austria-Hungary and the United States. Japan ranking 16.
Since the Qing navy has the ninth strength in the world, why did it fail in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895?
Many works have answered this question. To sum up, there are mainly:
1, the weapon is inferior to the opponent. The main basis is that most of the ships purchased by the Japanese navy are new ships, including fast warships and rapid-fire guns such as Yoshino (23 knots) and Shinjiro (19 knots). The reason is that the Qing navy was short of military expenses and could not buy fast ships in time before the war. The lack of military expenditure of the Qing navy lies in the misappropriation of military expenditure by the Qing court for the Three Seas Project and the Summer Palace Project.
2. Mental and quality problems. People think that senior commanders are not mentally prepared for battle, soldiers are not skilled enough, and even generals like Fang Boqian have emerged who escaped from the Cold War.
3. Tactical error. It is considered that Ding's zigzag formation (or herringbone formation) is the wrong command.
These three factors do exist. But this is not the essence of the problem. The key factor is the lack of adequate combat preparation.
The Sino-Japanese naval arms race began in June when 5438+0874 invaded Taiwan Province Province. By 1882, Japan recognized that China's navy was three times bigger than Japan's. "Since then, Japan has been trying to expand its naval strength. 1886, the Japanese government issued navy bonds. 1890, with the support of the royal family and the internal expenses of the state, maintained its naval expansion plan. 1893, the Japanese parliament refused to pass the military budget, and the royal family donated again, which moved the parliament and passed the military budget plan. Before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan tried its best to balance its naval armament with China. Nevertheless, as mentioned above, the navy actually has advantages. Therefore, the key to the engagement between the two sides is not the strength comparison, but the strategy and tactics.
Tactically, Ding's zigzag formation is an attempt to control the enemy's weakness with his own strength, that is, to exert the power of heavy artillery and have the opportunity to implement collision tactics. This tactic is based on the fleet situation with heavy ships as the core, which is beyond reproach. It's just that in actual combat, I'm inflexible and make mistakes. The battle of the Yellow Sea provided two situations: the Japanese navy took great risks and gave full play to its fleet of ships with small speed and fast speed; (2) The equipment of naval vessels should develop in the direction of the fleet of heavy ships and fast ships. If before the war, the Qing navy was equipped with fast ships comparable to Japanese ships "Yoshino" and "Wave Speed", then in the Yellow Sea War, the Qing navy would have an absolute advantage.
However, the battle of the Yellow Sea did not annihilate beiyang fleet's main force, and it was fully capable of a second counterattack. Instead, it retreated to Ahava and was finally caught between Japan, the sea and the land. Therefore, the downfall of beiyang fleet was not entirely due to a tactical mistake in a campaign, but to the strategic failure of the whole war. In addition, judging from Japan's potential, Japan does not have the strength to compete with China for a long time. Therefore, as China's navy, there should be other strategic choices, such as destroying the Japanese navy before it becomes strong; Accelerate the arms race, delay the outbreak of war, exhaust Japan and force it to submit. As for the poor quality of soldiers, it is more complicated. If we say spiritual quality, the patriotism of the Qing soldiers in the battle still exists. For example, the soldiers on the "Goldman Sachs" would rather die than surrender, and Deng Shichang and the whole ship's soldiers mutually assured destruction are all examples.
In a word, the key factor of beiyang fleet's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was that the Qing navy lacked sufficient strategic and ideological preparation.
Judging from Japan's national interests, the main purpose of the Sino-Japanese War was realized after Japan won the Russo-Japanese War 10 years later. Japan received Taiwan Province Province and a large sum of war compensation from China, but this was not the main intention of Japan to wage war. Japan wants to establish hegemony and a broader security system on the Korean peninsula.
China's defeat in the war not only made China sink further politically and economically, but also suffered incalculable losses militarily. First, China lost its powerful navy, making 30 years of efforts go up in smoke and the coast lost its defense; Second, more importantly, the failure of military strategy. With the loss of the navy, China lost its military position in the western Pacific, lost its position of territorial sovereignty, and could not compete for opportunities for development in the Pacific. After the war, China's navy withdrew from the world stage, and the military in the Far East was unbalanced.
In order to fill the strategic position lost due to the defeat of the Japanese navy and compete for benefits, after the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, countries sent fleets to the Far East in succession. On the basis of the original 18 warships, Russia added 36 warships, reaching100000 tons. France sent nine 20,000-ton Far East Fleet. Germany also sent an Eastern Fleet consisting of seven warships (22,000 tons) to the Far East. In order to compete with these countries, Britain has equipped 3 1 70,000-ton fleet in the Far East.
The Qing navy failed in the war because of insufficient strategic preparation, and the strategic blank left after the war had a far-reaching impact, which determined the fate of China's modern history.