And how did the Beiyang Fleet do after the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War?

After the Japanese army completed the encirclement of Weihai from land, artillery shells poured into the harbor of Liugong Island day and night.

Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, waited for the rescue to arrive, and was worried that the remaining warships would be captured by the Japanese army, so he ordered to sink himself.

However, some Beiyang officers and soldiers were afraid that sinking the warship would anger the neon people, so they did not carry out the order, and later the Zhenyuan, Jiyuan, Pingyuan, and Guangbing ships were captured one after another, and the Japanese army effortlessly received military reinforcement from the Qing Dynasty navy.

After the war, the Neon Combined Fleet incorporated the Zhenyuan into the battle sequence, changed some other warships into training ships, and parked the Dingyuan in Ueno Park for people to visit.

In contrast, the German High Seas Fleet coincided with the Qing Dynasty's Beiyang Fleet, and neither wanted to be a cheap opponent, but the Qing Dynasty Navy was not as resolute in execution as the Germans.

The movie fully restores the scene of the armistice agreement signed between Britain and France and Germany on Singles' Day in 1918.

In the footage, the Great Powers are arguing over what to do with the German High Seas Fleet.

At this time, the main force of the High Seas Fleet still existed and was still a force to be reckoned with, including 11 battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 8 cruisers and 50 destroyers.

The British suggested that the High Seas Fleet be detained in Scapa Bay and guarded by the Royal Navy, and then that the disposition be discussed at the Paris Peace Conference.

The commander who led this fleet was Rear Admiral von Reuth.

At first, many German naval officers, including Reut, had fantasized that the British would not be harsh on themselves, and might even send one or two of their capital ships back to Germany, but then the harsh Treaty of Versailles shattered their illusions.

On November 21, more than 70 warships of the German High Seas Fleet formally surrendered to the Entente.

Escorted by more than 370 Allied warships, the High Seas Fleet arrived at anchor in Forth Bay in central Scotland, where it was to be imprisoned as collateral in Scarpa Bay until the contract was signed.

British Admiral David. Betty gives the order:

"At sunset today, the German flag is lowered from the warship, and it will not be raised again until permission is given."

A little more than 10 days later, the High Seas Fleet reached Scarpa Bay in northern Scotland in batches.

The bolts of the warship's main guns were all removed, and the number of sailors on each capital ship was reduced to 200, and the fuel carried was barely enough to allow the fleet to sail out of the waters around the Orkney Islands.

When filming this scene, the German-American actors who were invited all looked sad and angry, and they seemed to feel the humiliation of a few years ago.

The days of detention in Scapa Bay were not good, and the British forbade German sailors to go ashore or go to other warships.

The idle German sailors had to pass the time by fishing and catching seagulls, and by the way improved their food.

All mail to and from Germany was censored by the British Navy, and some German soldiers even had toothaches and needed to find a dentist, who refused to provide a dentist despite the fact that there were dentists on British warships.

At this time, the fate of the high seas fleet remained in the air.

France and Italy believed that they should get a quarter of the warships, while Britain wanted to dismantle them all in order to maintain their naval superiority.

At the same time, the British also kept a hand, preparing to forcibly seize these warships in the event that a peace treaty could not be reached.

Although the war had been temporarily halted in November 1918, the war at the negotiating table was far from over, and in June 1919, negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles were not going well, Germany still had millions of troops, and the Allied troops were not able to set foot on German soil.

Therefore, the German side refused to accept the harsh conditions proposed by the Entente, and the British government issued an ultimatum to the German government:

Either accept it all by noon on June 21, or face war again.

At this time, the negotiators also barely agreed on a number of other issues, and the Germans finally decided to give in, but it took two days of "decent preparation", and it was these two days that the British regretted.

The back-and-forth between the two sides seemed to be coming to an end, but no one kept the latest news of the negotiations with Fleet Commander von Lut in Scarpa Bay.

He and his sailors had been imprisoned in Scapa Bay for seven months, seemingly forgotten by the world, with the only source being the local British newspaper.

And the local newspaper The's reports about "armistice negotiations on the verge of breakdown" and "possible resumption of military hostilities" took Ruyt by surprise, and he thought that negotiations between the two sides had broken down and hostilities had resumed.

Once again, he and his fleet are at war!

However, there were no artillery to fight, no fuel to escape, and the only chance to prevent the fleet from falling into the hands of the enemy and save the honor of the German Navy was to scuttle it on its own before the enemy acted.

But no one told him at this time that the details of the final treaty had yet to be further refined, and the deadline for signing the contract had been extended from noon on June 21 to the evening of June 23.

However, Ruyter guessed correctly, the British did intend to seize the warships, whether the Germans and the French agreed or not.

And on the side of the British, the Royal Navy had already learned that the German side had "two days" to carry out "decent preparations".

The deadline for signing the Treaty of Versailles was postponed to 7 p.m. on 23 June.

The British, who thought that the meat had rotted in the pot, were full of confidence and waited only to receive the fruits of victory.

Moreover, the 1st Battleship Squadron of the "Protection" High Seas Fleet was originally scheduled to take advantage of the good weather to go to sea on 21 June to conduct a torpedo attack exercise.

Therefore, whether the German sailors in Scapa Bay agreed or not, the British would take over the ships after the signing of the peace treaty came into effect, and if the German sailors refused, then they would take them by force.

At 9 a.m. on June 21, 1919, the Royal Navy's 1st Battleship Detachment, which was stationed in Scapa Bay to monitor the German High Seas Fleet, sailed out of harbor for drills in the open sea.

At 11:20, Rear Admiral von Reuth gave the order from the flagship cruiser "Emden", and the high seas fleet received a predetermined signal - "Section XI, confirmation".

Later, some people called this operation 'Rainbow', but the crew found that this was not the case after research, at least no code name similar to 'Rainbow' has been found so far.

In fact, Operation Rainbow was the code name for the German Navy's self-sinking operation after the defeat in World War II.

"Section 11" is a slang term commonly used by the Germans when drinking beer, which means to open the bottle and drink, which is a signal to the entire fleet to prepare for self-sinking.

All the sailors on the German battleships went into action at once, raising the German naval flag, which had previously been forbidden to be hoisted by the British, on the masts of the ships, opening the sea-opening and inlet valves, and loosening the portholes and watertight doors.

The sailors also dug large holes in the watertight compartments of some warships, and once the chiseling operation was initiated, all kinds of measures that could make the warships flood in large quantities were adopted by the German sailors.

In a tragic atmosphere, the battleship "Frederick the Great", with a displacement of 24,000 tons, was the first to sink, capsizing in the bay at 12:16 p.m.

At 12:56, the battleship King Albert sank;

At 13:10, the Moltke sank;

At 13:15, the three battleships Crown Prince William, the "Emperor", and the "Regent Leopold" sank almost simultaneously ... The rest of the warships were also submerged one after another.

At this time, the British navy in Scapa Bay had only three destroyers and some tugboats, and was powerless to stop the Germans from sinking themselves.

While trying to use force to prevent the Germans from continuing to destroy their own warships.

A total of nine German sailors and officers were shot and killed by the British, but this did not stop their self-denial.

By 17 o'clock in the afternoon, the last German battlecruiser "Hindenburg" sank to the bottom of the sea.

Most of the German warships anchored in Scapa Bay had capsized and sunk, and those that were not completely sunk were also sitting on the reef, and the once-prosperous High Seas Fleet was in ashes.

A total of 10 battleships, 5 battlecruisers, 5 cruisers, and 32 destroyers of the High Seas Fleet sank in Scapa Bay, and the rest of the warships still floating on the surface were towed by the British to shallow waters or stranded.

The ships were distributed to the navies of various countries, and due to the high cost of salvage, the sunken warships have been sleeping on the bottom of Scapa Bay.

It was not until the 1930s, when local residents complained that shipwrecks affected navigation, that 7 battleships, 5 battlecruisers, and most of the destroyer ships were salvaged.

The salvaged warships were either sunk as target ships or sent to the shipbreaking yard for dismantling.

However, several German capital ships, including the battleship King, were not salvaged due to the depth of their sinking, and their wreckage remains on the seabed of Scapa Bay to the next generation, and has become a mecca for divers.

When he learned of the sinking of the German High Seas Fleet at Scarpa Bay, British Admiral Roslyn Weems secretly told others what he thought:

"I'm glad that this has solved the problem of the distribution of these ships once and for all."

The famous German admiral Schell had a different idea:

"I am glad that the stain of surrender has been erased from the head of the German fleet, the sinking of the High Seas Fleet shows that the spirit of the fleet is not dead, and this behavior of the High Seas Fleet in the last moments of the war carried forward the glorious traditions of the German Navy itself."

This scene is also the last scene of the whole movie, Li Yaoyang stared at the scene after filming, and quietly left without waiting for the final finishing ceremony.

He still didn't understand what the Admiralty was thinking, why he was repeatedly asked to change the script.

This is a question that only Cecil can answer.

Originally, he didn't want to say it, but he couldn't stand Li Yaoyang grinding him, so he said helplessly:

"The British are out of money, very weak, and they need a movie to keep themselves strong, at least to make the outside world look unpleasant."

It dawned on Li Yaoyang that Britain is an island country with the largest territory in the world and an astonishing number of overseas colonies in history.

For this, the British forged a navy for themselves. A navy armed to the deck.

Not only did it have an impressive number of fleets, but it was also the first to place aircraft carriers in the navy.

By the time of the First World War, Britain had eight aircraft carriers.

At that time, the strength of the British Navy was also recognized as the first in the world, leaving the ugly country in second place far behind.

However, this situation did not last long, and after the end of World War I, the strength of the British navy began to decline significantly. In the end, it was greatly surpassed by the ugly country.

A large part of the decline of the British Navy was due to the significant decline of the British economy after World War I.

In the First World War, although Britain was a victorious power, it still suffered great damage, but because of the investment in the war and the resulting stagnant economic development, Britain paid a heavy price.

Britain also owed a huge amount of reparations to the ugly country, which it could not pay off for a long time.

Therefore, the situation in Britain at that time made it necessary for them to put economic development in the first place, and as for military equipment, it had to be arranged later.

And the construction of the navy is like a bottomless pit, which cannot be filled no matter how it is filled.

Even if you achieve a leading position in a short period of time, if you don't have continuous investment, you will soon fall behind.

Even if Britain wants to develop its navy, it has to be in the back row and cannot affect normal economic development.

This is also an important reason why the development of the British Navy experienced stagnation after World War I.

In the same period, the ugly country and neon have increased their efforts to build up their navy.

Since the Meiji Restoration, Neon has intensified its efforts to build up the navy.

In the First World War, they won the sovereignty of the coastal city of China from Germany, and they made another profit.

So, they have enough money to keep the money in the navy.

In addition, Neon is also an island country, and it is indeed necessary to build a navy.

The same is true of the ugly country, which made huge profits in World War I and did not suffer much in the war.

Moreover, before the First World War, the ugly country began to invest in the construction of the navy.

It's just that it wasn't so dazzling at the time, and after World War I, the ugly country built the navy with greater intensity because it was afraid of neon's large-scale construction of the navy.

The ugly country has a strong foundation, coupled with a long coastline, and investing in the construction of a navy will not meet with too much opposition.

It wasn't until the outbreak of World War II that the ugly country entered the war, and the countries discovered the truly amazing strength of the ugly country's navy in the Pacific War, in which the ugly country chased the neon.

At this time, the two countries stopped and rose, and soon there was a gap.

In addition to economic factors, public opinion in Britain also determined the intensity of British investment in the navy at that time.

Britain is an elected government, and the opinions of ordinary people play a certain role in influencing the decision-making of the whole country.

And after the end of the First World War, the British people experienced the devastation of the war firsthand.

Although their relatives and friends died in the war to defend their country, the vast majority of British people did not want to experience the pain of war again.

They all want to live in peace, and most of them are negative about the build-up of armaments, which could lead to war.

This was also an important reason why British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain came to power that year.

The British thought at that time was very similar to that of France after the First World War, and they both desperately wanted peace.

France built the Maginot Line, while Germany was trying to get revenge because of its defeat, which led to World War II.

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