"Is this the former No. 1 Beiyang sailor in Asia? It was defeated by the navy of Little Japan! Inside the bridge of the "Leshan", Deng Shichang, commander of the First Fleet of the West Sichuan Navy, slapped the table fiercely, his face full of anger.

To his former colleagues, he fought bloodily, and the battleships were sunk by the Japanese Combined Fleet one after another, and his heart seemed to be dripping blood. At the same time, there is more sadness. After all, a decaying country has no hope of giving birth to a strong navy. The Beiyang Fleet has the title of No. 1 in Asia, but it ended up in this fate.

The sailors of the "Leshan" and "Qijiang" both requested an attack on the Japanese fleet. However, Deng Shichang refused. Although, in his heart, more than anyone else, he wanted to teach the arrogant Japanese fleet a lesson. But now they're just guests. However, it will not be long before it will be the turn of the navy of western Sichuan and the combined fleet of Japan to confront. At that time, he will avenge the death of his colleagues.

After the end of the naval battle, the "Leshan" and "Qijiang" turned their bows and headed south, returning to the North Sea. The battle between the Beiyang Naval Division and the Japanese Combined Fleet was the first large-scale naval battle after the navy entered the steam age, and it had a great impact on the navies of various countries. In particular, with the application of rapid-fire guns, the Japanese Combined Fleet, which had a stronger firepower projection capability, still won the final victory, even if it did not have huge ships like the "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan". Many countries are already considering whether to cancel the main guns on the capital ships and install rapid-fire guns on all of them.

The German Navy's "Caesar? The battleships of the Frederick III class were undoubtedly influenced by this school of thought. This is a brand new battleship with a fully rapid-fire gun. Unlike previous German battleships, the main guns were reduced to four, and the caliber was sharply reduced to 240 mm. Because this is the largest caliber rapid-fire gun that Germany can build. The secondary guns were also all 50 mm caliber large-caliber rapid-fire guns, as for the smaller 05 mm rapid-fire guns, all were eliminated, and the more flexible millimeter rapid-fire guns were retained.

However, the Kawanishi Navy was not affected. Because, under the guidance of Wang Yuze, they have embarked on a different path from the current countries in the world. That is, to highlight the power of the main gun. Battleships of the future. It is also all developing in the direction of giant ship artillery.

After the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the Japanese Navy gained sea supremacy, which brought with it the smooth flow of logistics supply lines for the Japanese army. After a short break, the Japanese Army also began to plan a large-scale offensive.

The Battle of the Yalu River began on 24 October and was the first battle of the Qing army to defend against the Japanese attack. At that time, the Qing army deployed on the north bank of the Yalu River totaled about 6,000 people. The Qing government appointed Song Qing, the ruler of the Twelfth Town, as the president of the armies and controlled the armies. The Japanese attacking force was the First Army under the command of General Aritomo Yamagu, including the 3rd Division of Lieutenant General Katsura Taro and the 5th Division of Lieutenant General Michikani Nozu, as well as the newly formed 13th and 18th Divisions, totaling 75,000 men. The forces of both sides are evenly matched. However, although Song Qing was in the name of tempering the armies. In fact, the Qing troops from all walks of life did not accept the dispatch, and Pyongyang was newly defeated. Morale is low, and most of the generals have no determination to resist the enemy. Japan, on the other hand, had high morale and ambitions, and the Japanese side issued a document drafted by the spy Kotaro Munakata entitled "Open and Honest Advice to the Heroes of the Eighteen Provinces", launching a political offensive against the Manchus, threatening to attack Beijing and make the Qing emperor "beg to surrender". The aftermath of the battle can be imagined.

On the afternoon of October 24, the Japanese army successfully crossed the river by swimming at the mouth of the Anping River upstream of Jiulian City. That night, the Japanese army erected a pontoon bridge in the middle of the Yalu River near Hushan. The Qing army did not notice. At 6 o'clock in the morning of the 25th, the Japanese army crossed the pontoon bridge and launched an attack on the position of the Qing army in Hushan. The Qing garrison generals Ma Jinxu and Nie Shicheng led their troops to resist stubbornly, but they were forced to withdraw from their positions due to the situation and heavy casualties. The Japanese army then occupied Hushan. Other Qing army units heard that Hushan had fallen and fled without a fight. 26th. The Japanese army occupied Jiulian City and Andong County (present-day Dandong) without firing a single shot. In less than three days, the defense line of the Yalu River, which was heavily garrisoned by nearly 70,000 Qing troops, collapsed.

The Battle of the Golden Brigade also began on 24 October and ended with the fall of Lushunkou on 22 October, which was a key battle between China and Japan during the First Sino-Japanese War. The same day that the Japanese First Army attacked the Qing army's defense line on the Yalu River. The 45,000 men of the Second Army under the command of General Oyama Yan, under the cover of Japanese ships, began to land at Huayuankou on the back road of Arthur. Because Li Hongzhang was bent on protecting Port Arthur, the Qing army did not fortify here. The Japanese landing lasted 12 days, and the Qing army sat idly by, and only the local peasants spontaneously resisted the Japanese army, temporarily delaying the Japanese army's movement. On the 6th of the month, the Japanese army defeated the Qing army Lianshun and Xu Bangdao and other units, and occupied Jinzhou (now Jinzhou District, Dalian City, Liaoning). On the 7th, the Japanese army attacked Dalian Bay in three ways, and Zhao Huaiye, the defender of Dalian, fled when he heard the news, and the Japanese army won Dalian Bay without a fight. After resting in Dalian Bay for ten days, the Japanese army began to advance towards Lushun. At that time, the Qing army in the Lushun area had a town and a mixed association, about 0000 people. On the day, the Japanese army advanced to Tuchengzi, and Xu Bangdao's Gong Guards stubbornly resisted. On the 9th, Zhao Huaiye absconded. On the 2nd, the Japanese army launched a general attack on the mouth of Arthur, and the next day, Lushun, known as the "first fortress in East Asia", fell into the hands of the Japanese army. After the Japanese army captured Lushun, it created the Lushun Massacre, which slaughtered more than 20,000 Chinese residents in four days.

As the Qing army retreated, within the Qing court, the main peace faction had gained the upper hand and carried out surrender activities on a large scale. After the fall of Lushunkou, the Japanese Navy gained an important base in Bohai Bay, and since then the Beiyang Gateway has been opened, and the Beiyang Fleet has been hidden in Weihaiwei Harbor, and the war situation has taken a sharp turn for the worse.

The Battle of Weihaiwei was a defensive battle to defend the Beiyang Naval Base Area, and it was also the last battle of the Beiyang Fleet against Japan. At that time, there were still 26 ships of various types of the Beiyang Navy in Weihaiwei Harbor. On June 20, 95, the Japanese Second Army under the command of Admiral Oyama Iwa, including the 2nd Division of Lieutenant General Sakuma Zomattai and the 6th Division of Lieutenant General Kuroki Harujeong, a total of 45,000 men, began to land on Eisei Ryusu Island under the cover of Japanese ships, and all the landings were completed on the 2nd. On the 0th, the Japanese army concentrated its forces to attack the Weihai Weinan Gang Battery. The Qing army stationed at the Nanbang Fort had only six battalions of 3,000 people. Battalion officer Zhou Jiaen guarded the position of Motianling and put up stubborn resistance, and was finally annihilated. The Japanese also suffered heavy casualties, and their left flank commander, Major General Yasumi Otera, was killed by a Qing artillery shell, the only Japanese general killed in the war. Due to the disparity in troops, the Nanbang Fort was finally captured by the Japanese army. On February, the Japanese army occupied the Weihai Acropolis. The land of Weihai was all occupied by Japan, and Liugong Island, which Ding Ruchang commanded, became an isolated island. Ito Yuhiro, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, once sent a letter to Ding Ruchang to persuade him to surrender, but Ding Ruchang refused. In the early morning of the 5th, the flagship Dingyuan Zhongmine ran aground, and it was still used as a "water battery". On the 0th, Dingyuan ran out of ammunition, and Liu Buyun committed suicide. On the same day, Ding Ruchang committed suicide by refusing to surrender under the coercion of the foreigners and the generals such as Niu Changyu and other generals promoted by the Weihai Camp Office. The foreigners and Niu Changyu and others pushed Yang Yonglin to take Yang Yonglin to preside over the surrender, and Yang Yonglin finally committed suicide. On the 2nd, the American foreigner Hao Wei drafted a surrender document, and in the name of the pseudo-Totin Ruchang, he sent Guang Bingguan to bring Cheng Biguang to the Japanese flagship. On the 4th, Niu Changyu and Ito Youheng signed the "Weihai Surrender Treaty", stipulating that the ships in Weihaiwei Port, the Liugong Island Fort, and all the ordnance materials on the island would be handed over to the Japanese army. On the 7th, the Japanese army landed on Liugong Island, the Weihaiwei naval base fell, and the Beiyang Fleet was completely annihilated.

The Battle of Liaodong lasted a long time. Since the Japanese army broke through the defense line of the Yalu River of the Qing army, it occupied Phoenix, Xiuyan, Haicheng and other places. The Qing Dynasty transferred Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, to supervise the military affairs of the Eastern Expedition as the minister of the Qin Mission, gave him full power to command the military inside and outside the Guan, and appointed Wu Dacheng and Song Qing, the governors of Hunan, as assistants, in order to recover the declining situation. From July 7, 95, the Qing army launched four battles to recover Haicheng, but due to poor command, they were all repelled by the Japanese army. On February 2, the Japanese army took advantage of the victory to pursue, attacked from Haicheng by separate routes, captured Niuzhuang on the 4th, took Yingkou without a fight on the 7th, and captured Tianzhuangtai on the 9th. In just ten days, more than 100,000 troops from five towns of the Qing Dynasty retreated from the east bank of the Liao River.

Since then, the war has been lonely, and the Manchus have lost the war.

In 94, Japan, with the support of American and British imperialism, launched the "First Sino-Japanese War" to invade China. Due to the Qing government's blind compromise and retreat, the Qing army lost its territory: it was defeated first in Korea, then in Liaodong, and the Beiyang Fleet was completely annihilated. The Qing army was completely defeated, and Beijing and Tianjin were in danger. In the face of this situation, the Qing government was terrified and determined to beg for peace.

In order to expand its aggressive interests, the United States seized the opportunity to "mediate" and manipulate the peace talks between China and Japan on its own; at the suggestion of the United States, the Qing government dispatched Zhang Yinhuan, a household servant, and Shao Youlian, governor of Hunan, as plenipotentiary ministers to Hiroshima, Japan, to negotiate peace. The Japanese side believed that Zhang and Shao's official positions were too low, refused to negotiate, and demanded that the Qing government send Beiyang Minister Li Hongzhang to Japan.

On September 9, 95, Li Hongzhang arrived in Shimonoseki, Japan, in the name of "Minister First and Plenipotentiary", with his son Li Jingfang and more than 00 attachés including American adviser Kosda, and negotiated a peace treaty with Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi.

At the negotiating table, Japan, with the support of the United States, blackmailed and intimidated Li Hongzhang and coerced him to sign a clause that had already been drawn up. On April 7, 95, Li Hongzhang drew a charge on the treaty.

The main content of the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" was: Korea was completely "autonomous", which in fact recognized Japan's control over Korea; ceded China's Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan Province, Penghu Islands and other places; indemnity 200 million taels of silver; allowing Japanese capitalists to set up various factories in China's treaty ports; Suzhou and Hangzhou were opened as treaty ports.

As soon as this humiliating treaty was transmitted back to China, the whole country was shocked. Not only did the people of western Sichuan excite and denounce the Manchus, but even the people and elites in the Manchu-ruled areas were greatly disappointed with the Manchus. At the right time, Kawanishi was also ready for the final blow against the Manchus!

PS: Four more complete! Tomorrow's third watch, there is no update in the early morning, book friends don't have to wait. The first day is finally over, and from tomorrow's chapter, it's the west of Sichuan!!