The autocratic system of the Qing government and its inevitable political and economic corruption. From all the navy ministers in important positions to ordinary members of beiyang fleet, the first consideration is not the interests of the nation-state and the army, but personal interests. No matter how powerful the army is, it is difficult to resist this kind of corruption. With the weakening of the central government in Manchu Dynasty, Li Hongzhang, a bureaucrat of Han nationality, and others rose one after another. They vigorously run westernization, run factories and train new troops. In the eyes of quite a few Manchu dignitaries, the Beiyang Navy was individual capital of Li Hongzhang. Therefore, in order to weaken Li Hongzhang, the courtiers did not hesitate to weaken the Beiyang Navy! Restricting Beiyang Navy means restricting Li Hongzhang, and attacking Beiyang Navy means attacking Li Hongzhang. Weng Tonghe, a senior minister of the Ministry of Finance, used the Queen Mother's round-up as an excuse to stop paying naval equipment purchase fees for two consecutive years to limit Li Hongzhang. Later, Prince Gong lost power and influence, and Li Hongzhang lost his pillar and became weaker. He had to make peace with Prince Chun and Manchu courtiers to meet Prince Chun's demand of misappropriating naval funds (in fact, reducing naval strength). Li Hongzhang wants to rely on the navy to regain the political shadow. That's it! Someone holds the fate of Beiyang Navy! 1888 after the Beiyang navy became an army, the military investment became less and less. The navy is just a bargaining chip in their respective political competitions. Who really considers the development of the navy?
Jin Yinan sighed loudly: How can a country that spends so much energy and financial resources on internal friction face the severe challenge from foreign enemies!
Second, the system of encouraging talents must include the fact that talents are excluded.
In this system, the nation-state and the army will eventually be destroyed even if there is an iron wall; Even if you have the courage of a man, you still can't go back to heaven. A variety of data prove that after the Beiyang Navy joined the army in 1888, the military style was seriously poisoned by various habits. At that time, Beiyang warships implemented the "responsibility contract system", with public expenses as the responsibility, management as the responsibility, and surplus as their own. Therefore, each ship management belt usually spends money on personal future "operation" and enjoyment, and has no time to maintain and repair the ship. Ships used in war are not used for maintaining and preparing for war, but for other purposes for personal gain. It is not an individual phenomenon of the navy that the army participates in smuggling and the ships are not trained all the year round.
Because we are only responsible for the upper class and individuals who have their own promotion power, we don't need to be responsible for the lower class and the nation-state. Therefore, it has become a common practice to bully the superior and deceive the inferior. On weekdays, there are gun targets and mine targets drills, and the ship does not move. Every time you target in an exercise, you always measure the number of yards in advance, set buoys and drive according to the standard. The number of yards is known and every shot can be hit. People who don't know the truth think they are invincible!
There is another point that the author can't explain: 1894, when Beiyang Navy developed into a naval academy, there were only three wartime bombs for the main guns of the two armored ships in Ding and Zhen, one in Dingyuan and two in Zhenyuan, and only the training bombs were in sufficient stock! In this regard, Li Hongzhang is not ignorant: "Zhang Hong once proposed to Von Hanneken to make giant bombs for warships", but in the end, he was "personally" trapped in domestic and foreign affairs and was busy with political affairs, and his career was never implemented.
How can such an army, such military discipline and style, such corruption and erosion be invincible once it starts?
Third, unbeaten is very strange: look at the array first. When the battlefield was no longer a training ground, facing the approaching enemy ships, beiyang fleet was in chaos at first. Ding's order is to segment the ships and line them up. When I got to Liu, I became a "flying goose". However, the formation in actual combat has become a "single-line flying goose with two wings." What does it mean that the formation is so chaotic in a short time? Even this reluctant formation didn't last long. When the Japanese ships went around the back, the Qing army began to be chaotic, and then it could not be rebuilt.
Let's watch the war. At the beginning of the war, officers and men who lacked modern quality on weekdays hurriedly fired outside the effective shooting range. Liu, commander of Dingyuan Ship, fired first. The first shot not only missed the target, but also collapsed the flying bridge in front of the main gun. Ding and British player Taylor both fell off the bridge and were seriously injured. A hit, beiyang fleet lost the commander in chief! No matter how brave a soldier is, what's the use without command? This is the fleet that is well-trained and ready to fight on weekdays?
Look at the battlefield. In the fierce battle, the outdated Japanese ship "Bi Rui" ventured through our fleet, and our Dingyuan ship fired a torpedo at a distance of 400 meters, but it missed. When the Japanese armed merchant ship "Xijing Maru" passed the Dingyuan ship, Dingyuan fired four shots at it and missed two shots. On the battlefield, there is only the strength of hardware and software, without falsehood and luck! In the Yellow Sea naval battle, the Japanese artillery hit rate was more than 9 times higher than that of beiyang fleet!
For soldiers, many things can't be obtained only by the power on the battlefield. Often the most brilliant victories are conceived in the most trivial and boring and dull daily training! Jin Yinan said meaningfully.
Fourth, the army is corrupt on weekdays and will inevitably pay a high price in wartime. In order to cover up the cost, we must lie to military intelligence. This is also a feature of Beiyang Navy.
In the Yellow Sea naval battle, the Ding sank and the fleet lost its command. This is due to our hasty firing outside the effective range and the collapse of the flying bridge. However, the report became "The Japanese ship's firing will damage the Dingyuan Observatory, and the legs will be caught by the iron wood and cannot move"! In this battle, Beiyang Navy lost five ships, namely Zhiyuan Ship, Jingyuan Ship, Yangwei Ship, Chaoyong Ship and Guang Jia Ship, and the Japanese 1 ship did not sink. However, Li Hongzhang telegraphed to the army, "I lost four ships, but sousaphone was sinking".
For a time, except those who know the war, they all fell into a false aura of complacency. I can't fight, thinking I can fight; This has been defeated. I thought it was a draw or a victory! After the sinking of the Beiyang newspaper Japanese ship, it appeared in the Japanese ship team that besieged Weihai. But until the day when the whole army was wiped out, our army lied about its military situation and did not stop. 1February, 895, Wang Ping, the leader of the left torpedo boat, fled with the boat. After arriving in Yantai, he lied that Ding had led the troops out, and later lied that Weihai had been lost. The land reinforcements got the news and cancelled the reinforcements to Weihai. The withdrawal of land became the direct cause of the failure of Weihai Defence War.
A difficult environment can test the army best. In the late period of the siege of Weihai, the military discipline of Beiyang Navy even disappeared. Mr. Jin Yinan wrote:
First of all, some people leave without saying goodbye. "Beiyang navy medical staff, as civil servants, do not belong to the prefect. They fled before the war, but it was extremely shameful for foreign officials to serve in the end. "
Secondly, organized large-scale escape by boat. 1February 7, 895, Japanese ships attacked Liu Gongdao; During the war, ten torpedo boats and two small steamboats of Beiyang Navy fled together under the leadership of Mao Ping and Cai Tingkan. As a result, "the escaping boat was bombarded by the guns on the shore of our ship and the Japanese naval guns at the same time. One boat broke the horizontal, Yu Yanting fled to the west, and the Japanese ship pursued it. Or abandon the ship ashore, or run aground with the ship and be captured by the Japanese army. " An intact torpedo boat detachment made no achievements in the war, so it was humiliated and destroyed.
Eventually it developed into a collective surrender. "Soldiers and sailors from Liu Gongdao gathered to make noise and fired guns all over the city, claiming to find a way out for the prefect." All foreign members were invited to surrender. In the face of such a situation of total annihilation, in desperation, Ding "ordered people to wait for orders, and at the same time sank, people should not. Chang Ru reconsidered and ordered the ship to break through, but was not ordered. The sergeant went out to hold Chang Ru, and Chang Ru entered the cabin and died of medicine. "
Only dare to expose your blade to yourself, not to the enemy. At this point, the Beiyang army's wind and military discipline did not die. Taylor, a foreign member who witnessed the whole process of the battle, commented on this fleet like this: "If the tree is natural, insects will eat into the roots, and if you look outside, you will know that your stomach is half rotten."
Who defeated Beiyang Navy?
Soldiers are born to win. Not bad. But to defeat the enemy, we must first defeat ourselves!