The naval battle that broke out between the Beiyang Naval Division and the Japanese Combined Fleet in the Yellow Sea, as in history, the Beiyang Fleet was completely defeated, and after losing five cruisers, it retreated when the ammunition was exhausted, and none of the Japanese warships were sunk. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

From the military analysis of this naval battle, some people believe that the Beiyang Naval Division made a command error. The low-level ones are staring at the formation of the enemy on the bow of the Beiyang Naval Division, while Japan is facing the enemy on the side side, but in fact it is the bow of the Beiyang Naval Division that can give better play to the enemy's combat effectiveness, because of the defects in the design of the warships, they can give full play to the power of the main guns in the case of the bow facing the enemy, and Japan is more able to give full play to the firepower advantage against the enemy on the side side. It can be said that both sides are in battle formations designed according to the characteristics of their own warships, and it is impossible to say who is superior and who is inferior.

There is also a saying that the shells of the Beiyang Navy Division are filled with sand, which is also an ignorant statement, and the artillery at this time is like this. The warhead of the shell is either filled with high explosives, which increases the lethality, or filled with sand and gravel, which increases the weight. The Beiyang Naval Division's heavy artillery has an advantage, and it is normal to increase the armor-piercing power by loading sand and stones, which is common in the world. The shells of the Beiyang Naval Division are all imported, and there is nothing to say about the shells.

When the Japanese Combined Fleet began to maneuver in front of the Beiyang Naval Division, the Beiyang Naval Division seized on their disjointed situation and rushed over with all of them, intending to cut off the Japanese fleet. As a result, due to the slow speed of the warships, the Japanese fleet was not cut off, but the flanks were exposed to the Japanese fleet.

Some people say that the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division seized the opportunity of disconnection caused by the different speeds of the Japanese fleet, but unfortunately the warships were too slow to seize this opportunity, so it is not the commander's command error, but the inferiority of the equipment.

As a commander, not being able to make the correct command according to the performance of his own fleet is a mistake in itself. Due to the mistake of the Beiyang Naval Division, the Japanese Combined Fleet slammed the flank of the Beiyang Naval Division with the maximum firepower on the side, and after sinking five cruisers, the Beiyang Naval Division ran out of ammunition and began to retreat.

As in history, the Beiyang Naval Division lost some cruisers, but the main ironclad ship was not sunk, or even one was not injured, and after the war, Dingyuan and other ironclad ships suffered thousands of Japanese artillery shells, but there was no damage and did not move. This would have proved that the ironclad had an absolute advantage against the cruiser. It's just a pity that they had to retreat without suffering heavy losses.

Therefore, the biggest defeat in this naval battle is probably not the miscommand of the enemy, but the problem of insufficient shells.

And the reason for this problem, according to the feedback of the Ming intelligence department, turned out to be the direct cause of the Manchu Emperor Guangxu.

The young Guangxu Emperor played a rather disgraceful role in this war, of course, the black cauldron was carried by Li Hongzhang in history, but in fact, Li Hongzhang's performance was much better than Guangxu's.

First of all, Guangxu is the main battle faction, the young man is the main battle, and his personality dictates it, but there is also a deep political background, and Guangxu has become an adult.

When he became an adult, he wanted to be pro-government, but in the face of Cixi's refusal to hand over power easily and repeated delays, Guangxu needed prestige, which was one of the reasons for his main battle, and he needed a victory to win prestige for his pro-government. A group of officials of the main battle faction gathered around Guangxu were all Qingliu, led by his teacher Weng Tongshu, and tried their best to lead the battle. Weng Tongshu and Li Hongzhang are political enemies, and they also have personal enmity. Weng Tongshu's elder brother back then, Li Hongzhang wrote a letter for Zeng Guofan, and was sent to Xinjiang. Therefore, Weng Tongshu fought the main battle, and there was also a conspiracy to weaken Li Hongzhang's power by borrowing Japan's hand.

The young and ignorant little emperor, the selfish minister, cast a shadow on this war from the very beginning.

Then after the outbreak of the war, Emperor Guangxu was full of pride, probably remembered the great achievements of Kangxi, Qianlong and other ancestors, and thought that his military talent was bursting, and he completely looked down on the command of Li Hongzhang, an official who started in the military.

At that time, the war had broken out, and Li Hongzhang had to fight the war whether it was the main battle or the main peace, but Li Hongzhang did give people a sign that he did not want to fight, and the Beiyang Naval Division was slow to move in Weihai, which made Guangxu extremely anxious, and issued a holy decree to forcibly order the main force of the Beiyang Naval Division to leave the port.

As a result, after the Beiyang Naval Division left the port to escort the army to land, it was discovered by the Japanese Combined Fleet on the return journey, and the Battle of the Yellow Sea broke out.

Li Hongzhang is responsible, as a navy with superiority on paper, he has never planned to take the initiative, such as going directly to the Japanese coast to provoke, and planning to defend from the beginning, this is Li Hongzhang's command mistake, if he can take the initiative to attack, even if he is defeated, at least he will be defeated with dignity. It's a pity that the Beiyang Naval Division is a private army, which is Li Hongzhang's political capital, and after defeating the Beiyang Naval Division, Li Hongzhang no longer has a reason to ask the Qing court for money, and it also reduces a lot of dependence. As long as the Beiyang Naval Division is in hand, the Qing court's Jingshi coastal defense will have to rely on Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang's Beiyang minister, and no one can move the position of the governor of Zhili.

But if there is no blind command of Guangxu, even if Li Hongzhang is conservative, he will not bury the entire naval division, after all, he is conservative, and he also wants to keep the capital, so as not to risk burying the fleet. As long as the Beiyang Fleet retains its power, Japan will not be able to land in the Bohai Bay, and the Qing court will not be able to defeat Japan in a costly ground war in Korea or Northeast China by transporting troops through the inland of Northeast China.

But Guangxu directly gave the fleet an order to attack, completely ignoring Li Hongzhang's reason for the insufficient preparation of the fleet's artillery shells, and this reason was true.

As a result, when the Beiyang Naval Division ran out of shells, there were still thousands of shells left on the capital ships of the Japanese Navy. If the artillery shells of the Beiyang Naval Division were sufficient at that time, how could the four ironclad ships meet Ding Ruchang's wishes, and at least sink a few of his enemy ships, but unfortunately, after severely damaging a few Japanese cruisers, they could only retreat.

There are some other differences in the comparison between the Chinese and Japanese fleets, such as the Japanese warships are generally newer, and the new advantage is that their guns have a higher rate of fire, and the shells are mostly explosive shells, and their warships are faster. After destroying the cruisers of the Beiyang Fleet, the heavy ironclad ships could not be compared with the Japanese cruisers in terms of speed, and Li Hongzhang's selfishness in trying to retain these capital ships gave up the sea supremacy.

Zhu Jinglun had to sigh, they lost this battle, one was a faint monarch who didn't understand anything, and the other was a bastard who tried to get by, how could he be undefeated.

At this point, Zhu Jinglun had no expectations for the Manchu court, or only needed to wait for them to bring enough shame to the literati doctors, and then the Ming Dynasty should take action, win the support of the Manchu elite, and then dominate the world.

Although emotionally supported that the Manchu Qing could bring a heavy blow to Japan, he rationally told Zhu Jinglun that in fact, the harder Japan attacked the Manchus, the more beneficial it was for the Ming Dynasty to unify the nation and country.

Soon the Japanese gave Zhu Jinglun this opportunity, and they conquered Lushun and then launched a massacre. The whole nation was in an uproar, the whole world was shocked, and the Ming expressed fierce resistance, sent 100,000 troops to Dalian, and blockaded Lushun from both land and sea.