Just when the Germans were trying their best to advertise themselves in South America, the Far East, the land of right and wrong, the clarion call for a naval race had also been sounded.

In 1874, when Saigo landed in southern Taiwan on May 6 in violation of government orders, the era of the naval arms race in East Asia came after Saigo landed in southern Taiwan on May 6, in violation of government orders.

Recognizing the importance of the navy, the Japanese increased their investment in the navy in 1875, spending 90% of the navy's military expenditure that year and purchasing three warships from the United Kingdom for 3.11 million yen.

Before the Qing Dynasty acquired the Dingyuan-class ironclad ships, these three warships were the only modern ironclad ships in Asia.

By 1890, when the Naval Regulations were promulgated at the same time as the Constitution of the Empire of Japan, Japan already had a standing fleet of cutting-edge ships such as Naniwa and Takachiho and a training fleet of obsolete ships.

In 1891, the Japanese Navy held the first naval exercise in which the Eastern Army, with the standing fleet acting as the attacking side, played the role of the attacking side, and the Western Army, which consisted of a fleet of exercises, held the second naval review ceremony of the Japanese Navy.

On March 26, 1868, after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese Navy conducted the first naval review at Tempozan in Osaka, and the newly established Japanese Navy could only borrow 6 warships from Satsuma and other feudal domains, with a total tonnage of only 2,450 tons, and the lineup of the second naval review reached 19 warships with a total tonnage of more than 30,000 tons, and the Japanese Navy increased 15 times in 23 years.

However, in the face of the Beiyang Naval Division, which had two ironclad ships in Dingzhen and five German-made cruisers, the Japanese Navy was still no different from the papier-mâché.

In order to get to know its future opponents more closely and to create public opinion for the expansion of naval armaments at home, the Japanese government specially invited the Beiyang Fleet to visit Japan.

On June 26, at the invitation of the Japanese government and under the personal arrangement of Li Hongzhang, the elite of the Beiyang Naval Division led by Admiral Ding Ruchang went out to visit Japan with seven warships, including Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Jingyuan, Laiyuan, and Jiyuan.

On 28 June, the Beiyang Fleet arrived at Japan's first stop at Shimonoseki, and the next day it sailed to Kobe to refuel coal and add water, and then sailed straight to Yokohama as planned.

Arriving at the port of Yokohama on 5 July, the flagship Dingyuan issued a flag to change formation and sailed into the port, and then the Dingyuan fired a 21-gun salute to salute the Japanese Navy, and the Japanese Navy Akitsuzu (Note 1) also fired a 21-gun salute in response, and the British and American ships anchored in the harbor at that time all fired 13 salutes to salute the Beiyang Fleet.

On 9 July, the Japanese emperor also specially met with Ding Ruchang and the Beiyang ship pipe belts in Tokyo, and the ceremony was very solemn. However, the officers of the Beiyang Naval Division who were received did not know that the day before the Japanese emperor received them, the Japanese cabinet proposed a plan of 58.6 million yuan for naval spending, which was approved by the Diet.

On 10 July, Japanese Foreign Minister Takehiro Enomoto held a garden party at Koishikawa Korakuen in Bunkyo District, Tokyo, to entertain officers of the Beiyang Naval Division. At the garden party, Enomoto proclaimed that China and Japan are "two countries with the same culture and common territory, friendship and friendship," and he was very "happy" about the growing friendship between the two countries.

Commissioned by Takehiro Enomoto, the Japanese Navy was also preparing to hold a reception for the officers of the Beiyang Naval Division. Navy Minister Shikinori Kayama is preparing to entertain Admiral Ding Ruchang of the Beiyang Navy Division and 50 officers on a visiting warship at the Momijikan in Shiba-ku, Tokyo, on the 15th.

But in contrast to Takehiro Enomoto's "euphoria," the officers of the Japanese Navy scoffed at the so-called "Nisshin friendship."

Navy Minister Shikinori Kayama made no secret of his dislike for Rear Admiral Ito Junyoshi, Vice Admiral of the Navy: "What I hate the most is that this Ding Ruchang and Foreign Minister Enomoto insist on saying 'Nissin friendship'. Tomorrow, everyone will go out to meet this enemy who will meet on the battlefield sooner or later, and everyone will remember this Ding Ruchang's face for me. Go and call me the Chief of War. ”

At this time, the head of the Military Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of the Navy was none other than Rear Admiral Sukehiro Ito, who had previously built the YÌ Navy to purchase smaller warships from Germany. As soon as Ito entered the door, Shiki Kayama asked, "Ito-kun, why did you say Ding Ruchang took such a strange route this time?" From Shimonoseki into Japan, via the Seto Inland Sea, through the Kii Peninsula, before arriving in Tokyo? ”

Ito replied: "Ding Ruchang is demonstrating to us, and taking this route means that Japan's inland sea is the backyard of the Beiyang Naval Division, and if the Japanese Qing Dynasty starts a war, he can command the Beiyang Naval Division to attack all the way to Tokyo." ”

On July 15, Ito asked Ding Ruchang at the garden party: "Admiral Ding, can you let me visit your flagship Dingyuan?" ”

Ding Ruchang readily agreed: "You are welcome at any time, you can visit the ship at will, but you can only watch, we will not answer your questions." ”

On 16 July, Ding Ruchang held a reception aboard the Dingyuan, which was berthed in the port of Yokohama, and invited people from all walks of life in Japan, including members of the Diet and journalists, to attend. At this event, the Beiyang Fleet, while politely thanking the Japanese for their hospitality, once again showed off the prestige of the Beiyang Fleet to the Japanese.

After the reception, Saburo Miyaozaki, director of the Japanese Legislative Affairs Bureau, recounted: "The Dingyuan released a dinghy to greet it, and it boarded the Dingyuan first. Ding (Ruchang) and Li (Jingfang) greeted the guests of the Beiyang Naval Division warship anchored in Port Arthur at the gate of the ship and shook hands one by one. The guide then led the tour of the upper and lower rooms of the ship. There were 4 huge cannons, with a diameter of 1 foot and a length of 25 feet, which was unprecedented in China at that time

The inside of the ship is clean, no less than European. We will have lunch at 12 noon and leave the ship at 1:30 p.m. to say goodbye. At this time, a 21-gun salute was fired to see off the landing. On the way back to Beijing, several people who were watching the ship talked about how China had become a big country after all, and that it was already equipped with such a superior fleet that it would surely fly to the waters of the East Ocean. On the other hand, in China, there are only three or four cruisers of three or four thousand tons, which cannot be compared with them. The fellow spectators were tongue-in-cheek and frightened. ”

Japanese public opinion also vigorously exaggerated the "horror of the might of the mighty Chinese fleet" in Japan. According to the "Shishi Xinbao" at the time, it also reported: "The ship is huge, the aircraft is complete, and the soldiers are skillful, and there are many things worth seeing." ”

Shiki Kayama saw Ito's report: "If we start a war with the Qing State now, we have no chance of victory, as long as the two ships of Dingzhen are enough to sink all of our standing fleet." Japan is an island nation, and the navy is the only force that can defend us. Possessing a warship capable of countering the Dingzhen II is now the most urgent task. ”

It can make Ito, who is known as the "brain" of the navy, be forced to admit that "there is no possibility of victory." "The purpose of Li Hongzhang's main force in sending the Beiyang Naval Division - to demonstrate to Japan has indeed been achieved.

However, not everyone sees it that way.

The Beiyang Fleet stayed in the port of Yokohama for about two weeks, and then Ding Ruchang led the fleet to Nagasaki to visit Wèn.

On August 4, the Beiyang Fleet left Japan and returned to Weihai on August 11, ending its visit to Japan that lasted more than 40 days.

On the return voyage, the Hokkai Naval Division still took the Seto Inland Sea, and while anchoring at Miyajima in Hiroshima, he received a visit from Lieutenant General Nakamuta Kuranosuke and Chief of Staff Togo Heihachiro Osa, the governor of Kure Town.

During this visit, the Dingyuan claimed to be out of order and entered the Kure military port for repairs, and the Beiyang Naval Division actually figured out this way to observe and reconnoiter the technical capabilities of the Japanese navy.

However, Togo Heihachiro observed the Dingyuan at the docks almost every day in civilian clothes, and finally Togo Heihachiro concluded: "The Qing fleet is not to be worried, they are just a treasure knife that has faded from fire." The sword is indeed a sword, but it fades and is useless when it is really needed. Then, a rumor that had been rumored for a hundred years spread that the Dingyuan main gun was drying clothes (Note 2).

The earliest record of this incident is the "Biography of the Holy General Togo Heihachiro" written by Lieutenant General Ogasawara Nagasei, who served as Togo Heihachiro's adjutant for a long time, in the book, Togo Heihachiro's original words are: "On the sacred muzzle, there are a lot of things hung, from ** to socks, how do they look like a clothes pole, this is still in a foreign port, and the deck is also messy, and it is not sorted out at all." ”

"The muzzle of the cannon is the soul of the warship, and the morale of this fleet can be known from the fact that the fleet can do so without any worries, from the officers to the soldiers, there is no tension, and the original strength of the warship cannot be exerted, so what is there to fear?"

In fact, Dingyuan's main gun was 3 meters above the deck, and the barrel was only a short part of the turret. Moreover, the caliber of the main gun is 305 mm, and the wall of the barrel is a cylinder half a meter thick, on which it is impossible to fix clothes for drying.

However, in any case, Togo's evaluation gave the Japanese navy a morale-boosting excuse for the battered, and the "loose military discipline" of the Beiyang Naval Division gave the Japanese navy the courage to challenge this opponent. The Japanese Navy began to catch up with the ultimate goal of defeating the Beiyang Naval Division, and Togo's goal was achieved.

The Japanese Navy began to aim to defeat the Beiyang Naval Division, and began its own era of frenzied expansion. It was in this year that Shiki Kayama ordered a new type of protective cruiser from the British company Armstrong, the Yoshino.

The following year, in 1892, the Cabinet announced plans to build 100,000-ton warships, which were soon implemented by the Emperor's ruling.

On February 10, 1893, Emperor Akechi issued the "Edict on the Construction of Ships": For six years, the internal budget will be reduced by 300,000 yen per year, and all officials will be reduced by 10% to finance the construction of naval ships. As a result, the Diet approved a naval budget of 18.08 million yen over six years.

The market for warships of the Japanese also opened.

However, in the Qing Dynasty, in the same year, the Ministry of Household reduced the navy's expenses on the grounds of a shortage of funds, and forbade the Beiyang Naval Division to purchase foreign guns, ships, and equipment for two years, and did not even allocate the cost of supplementing equipment.

Originally, the gap in military strength between the Japanese and Qing navies was slowly leveled under this situation of stopping and catching up.

Note 1: Originally, it was supposed to be Takachiho firing a salute in return, but now the Emperor of the German Navy was sold to the Japanese and renamed Akitsushu, which is the largest tonnage warship of the Japanese Navy, and she is used as the flagship here.

Note 2: There is also a theory that a postcard has this sentence by Togo Heihachiro, but the postcard says Heiyuan instead of Dingyuan, but Pingyuan has never been to Japan.