The behavior of the Ming army rashly joining the war suddenly made the direction of this war confusing. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

Western countries were extremely surprised that in the war with the United States that the Ming Dynasty had just ended, they had reached a certain consensus and decided to intervene in the war with the United States if necessary to prevent the Ming Dynasty from becoming too powerful by occupying the territory of the United States.

This time, the Ming suddenly took advantage of the Japanese massacre and intervened in the war between Japan and the Qing court, so that the West began to collude with each other again, through the two wars of France and the United States, they judged that the Ming had become too powerful, a powerful, hundreds of millions of yellow countries, the pressure caused in their consciousness is still very great, and the expansion of the Ming must be limited, has become a consensus.

Britain had long begun to restrict the development of the Ming Dynasty, and the war against the United States would weaken the role of the United States, but once the Ming unified China, the British decided that their influence in East Asia would be squeezed out by the Ming Dynasty. Therefore, as early as when Zeng Guofan was still alive, they sent troops to help Zeng Guofan fight the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and supporting the Manchu Qing Dynasty has become a national policy. It's a pity that the Qing court itself is not angry, on the one hand, Britain hopes to support the Qing court's powerful ministers to enhance the national strength of the Qing court, and on the other hand, the Manchu court is trying to balance these powerful ministers and limit their power.

But such a Qing court, Britain did not want to see the unification of the Ming Dynasty, because after all, this is a country with a population of Trinity, once it is managed by the Ming Dynasty, a country that has begun to modernize, the growth of national strength brought about is beyond the control of the British.

As a result, Britain immediately negotiated with the Ming Dynasty, believing that the Ming Dynasty had undermined the Neutrality Act, and that rash intervention in the war formation would make regional peace completely out of control. Da Ming replied that it was not a question of law, but of civilization and barbarism. Failure to stop Japan's massacres in the first place will result in more innocent civilians being slaughtered. Daming asked Britain rhetorically, is it willing to assume all moral responsibility?

Japan's massacre made it difficult for Britain to accept, and if they dared to take responsibility, they believed that the Ming Dynasty would definitely blame Britain for all the civilian casualties in the future, so that Britain's honor would be damaged. Therefore, Britain refused to assume this responsibility, and resolutely expressed their attitude, believing that it was illegal for the Ming Dynasty to rashly intervene in the war, and at the same time exerted pressure on Japan to restrain military discipline.

But the military operations of the Ming Dynasty did not stop, and the 100,000 army soon launched an attack like Lushun, as for the navy was limited to defense, and the navy was used to impact the fortress, the Ming navy had already suffered too many losses, especially now that the fortress had been controlled by the Japanese army, it was not the group of ruffians of the Qing army, and it was impossible to give up the position casually.

The Ming army's offensive was quite difficult, this is not a matter of combat effectiveness, the American war that just ended, let the Ming army train a group of ace troops, combat effectiveness is far superior to the Japanese army, weapons and equipment, a large number of equipped Mauser 92 rifles are also far better than the Japanese golden hook single-shot rifle, a large number of machine guns equipped with more complete victory over the Japanese army, artillery also occupies an absolute advantage, the army heavy artillery can even bombard each other with the fortress artillery of Arthur without falling behind.

The construction of the fortress system in Lushun was presided over by Li Hongzhang, with full materials and scientific and reasonable design, and theoretically speaking, it is difficult to overcome here. This was shown by the Japanese attack on the site during the Russo-Japanese War, and although the Russians were more stable at the time, the current Lushun is not an easy place to conquer.

The Japanese army Dashan Iwabe, more than 20,000 people, only took one day to capture here, if it is said to be defeated, it is really difficult to explain, without specific information to know, this place is almost let the Qing army surrender to the Japanese army.

A typical example is that Gong Zhaoxi, the top local civil official, escaped from the battle and fled to Yantai by boat before the war.

Regarding this person's qualifications, Li Hongzhang completely pulled him up, and the reason for promoting him was not because of ability, but because he was rich. Gong Zhaoyu was born in a wealthy family in Hefei, Anhui Province, and is Li Hongzhang's hometown. In 1871, he joined the Beiyang Manufacturing Bureau as an errand boy, and the prisoners donated to the Tongzhi, the prefect, and the Taoist, and all the way up the promotion depended on the donation officials. In 1890, on the recommendation of Li Hongzhang, he was appointed to run the Lushun Dock Project and the Lushun Dock Camp Office. This is a rich kid who has no battlefield qualifications, and just relied on his relationship with Li Hongzhang's fellow villagers and money to pave the way, and let this kind of person command in Lushun, and the result has long been doomed. Li Hongzhang was the most responsible in this battle.

There is a saying that at that time, the Huai army and the Hunan army guarding Lushun did not obey anyone, let alone obey a civilian official, so Gong Zhaoxi chose to escape, this kind of obvious ground-washing rhetoric is not credible, as a local self-exalted official, even if he knows that he will be defeated, he has the responsibility to defend the land, and in the era when the Manchu system has not collapsed, this kind of official will definitely die. At the beginning of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, a large number of local civil officials who surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not dare to give up the city under the attack of the rebel armies from all walks of life, but in the late stage, a large number of people fled.

Investigate the reason, just look at the later ending of this Gong Zhaoxi, because he escaped from the battle, and later had a very bad impact, he was sentenced to be beheaded, but his hands and eyes were all over the sky, and the silver was smashed down, and he was not executed, until when the Eight-Nation Coalition Army entered Beijing, he was only imprisoned, and was not beheaded, and was released during the Eight-Nation Alliance, and returned to his hometown to die of illness.

This is obviously a character with a deep background, and his background is undoubtedly Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzhang tried so hard to protect him, and it is not difficult to guess how many tricks there are in this project when he sees that he is the official who recommended him to build the Lushun project. After Li Hongzhang died, he left 20 million taels of silver to his family, where did he come from, isn't it this kind of person who contributed it?

Therefore, from the perspective of employing people, Li Hongzhang's back to the black pot of the First Sino-Japanese War was not unjust, but other people could not escape the responsibility.

Gong Zhaoyu ran away to see the performance of the officers who stayed in Lushun, and the officers who were in Lushun at that time were all famous Hunan and Huai generals who started from the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Zhang Guangqian, Huang Shilin, Jiang Guidi, Cheng Yunhe, Wei Rucheng, Zhao Huaiye, Xu Bangdao and other generals, these people looked down on people like Gong Zhaoxi, and the general soldier Zhang Guangqian came forward to convene the generals and elect a commander. Jiang Gui, who is the oldest in qualifications, came out to assume the role of the coach, but Jiang Gui was illiterate, his talent was mediocre, and the armies sat and watched and passed the buck to each other.

This group of people elected an illiterate good man, still only thinking about himself, among which Xu Bangdao is a general who can fight, guarding the main position, and leaving without authorization in less than half a day under the pretext of the army's lack of food, from Li Hongzhang to the elite of the Huai army, they all want to preserve their strength, how to fight this battle. In fact, if you can muster up the courage or let go of your selfishness, even if the Huai army can't defeat the Japanese army, at least it won't give up this kind of strong fortress to others. Nie Shicheng's defense of Phoenix Ridge is an example, until the end of the war, he did not let the Japanese take his position, and his army was not very elite.

If Li Hongzhang can put a general who can suppress the scene in Lushun, let alone a day, with the level of they are still using bronze cannons, they may not be able to fight it in a year, but Liu Mingchuan, a veteran of the Huai Army, and others are not here, I heard that they are seriously ill, and Liu Jintang, a veteran of the Hunan Army, also died of illness this year, and it is a big problem that there are no generals available. But if Li Hongzhang can give a strict order, the entire Manchu Qing Dynasty can still find a big man, not to mention anything else, sending a high-ranking civilian official to Lushun, I'm afraid it is much better than letting these generals pass the buck to each other, such as sending a military secretary to go.

The responsibility for this kind of improper command of the general direction of the mountain should be borne by the Manchu court, or the emperor.

But in the Battle of Lushun, there was always a puzzle, that is, why did the Japanese army carry out a massacre in Lushun?

If it is said that the battle was difficult and angered the Japanese army, this is nonsense, compared with the later Russo-Japanese War, this battle of Arthur was almost no battle.

There is also a theory that the Japanese army, in order to intimidate the Manchus and follow the policy of the Mongols, did not want to see resistance. Or they had a good time in North Korea, and they advanced easily all the way, and when they arrived in Lushun, they encountered a little resistance, and they were not satisfied.

According to historical data, it was the first Japanese to enter Lushun that the chief of staff of the 1st Division, Yasumi Oji, suggested, and after the commander of the regiment, Motoharu Yamachi, agreed, the Japanese army launched a massacre in Lushun, killing more than 20,000 people in the city of Lushun.

This is still the officer's own doing, not a means of Hirobumi Ito and others, not to whitewash Hirobumi Ito, but this kind of behavior that clearly disadvantage Japan out of international morality, and Japanese politicians will not take it. During this war, Japanese politicians have been trying to make Japan play the role of a civilized country, and they have allowed a large number of European and American journalists to accompany the army to cover the news, and what Westerners see is that Japan has built a reasonable field hospital, which not only treats the wounded of Japan, but also shelters the wounded of the Qing army and treats the wounded civilians. The Qing army, on the other hand, robbed its own civilians and brutally killed Japanese prisoners, and many reporters took pictures of the bodies of Japanese prisoners whose limbs were cut off and their balls cut off by the Qing army. Therefore, as the war progressed, Japan's image in the West became better and better, and the barbaric image of the Manchus became more and more deeply rooted in the psychology of Westerners.

At this time, the Lushun Massacre broke out, which was obviously not deliberately planned by the Japanese government, and because of the large number of journalists accompanying the army, it could not even be concealed. It spread all over the world for the first time. The Japanese civilian government could only guide, but could not deny, that the final operation was to buy Western newspapers and publish the lies that the Japanese massacre was all Manchu soldiers dressed as ordinary people, and finally covered up the past with the defeat of the Manchus.

But now they can't hide it, the Ming Dynasty's influence in the world is much greater than Japan's, the Ming Dynasty has more experience in propaganda warfare, Japan has undoubted behavior, the whole world knows Japan's massacre, not only the West knows, the Ming Dynasty also through the entire China business channels, through the Ming and Manchu chambers of commerce, the printed leaflets, into the Manchu inland, even the people of Sichuan know that Japan and the Qing Dynasty have started a war, and after the victory will slaughter the city. Previously, people in some remote areas did not even know the news of the outbreak of war.

The news of the Japanese massacre, through newspapers and leaflets, left a deep panic in the literati psychology of at least the entire Chinese region, the Japanese occupied the Lushun massacre, so what about the occupation of Beiqian and Nanjing?

Just when they were worried, the Ming sent troops, and after a week of fierce fighting, captured Lushun, which the Japanese army did not have firm control, the Ming army paid 10,000 sacrifices, 25,000 Japanese troops, 20,000 killed, 5,000 captured.

Before the capture of Arthur, middle and high-ranking Japanese generals such as Oyama Iwa collectively cut their stomachs, and the vast majority of the 5,000 prisoners were soldiers, with a few low-ranking officers.

At the same time, in a public state, the captured Japanese officers and soldiers were tried and sentenced to murder, all officers were shot, and ordinary soldiers were sentenced to ten years of hard labor and sent to the Ming colony to serve hard labor.

World public opinion was in an uproar, feeling strange about the Ming Dynasty's judgment behavior of presenting himself as a savior, but the governments of various countries were concerned about the military action of the Ming Dynasty, and they feared that the Ming would take this opportunity to join the war and occupy the territory of the Manchus.

But at this time, the Ming Dynasty reached an agreement with Japan, continued to maintain a neutral attitude, and began to withdraw troops from Dalian, which did not alleviate the doubts of Westerners, but only confused them even more.