The Japanese strategy then worked, and after the combined fleet approached Weihai, the Qing court was furious, and the Guangxu Emperor rebuked Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang naval division, for failing to defend the territory.

Hubu Shangshu Weng Tongyi even criticized that the Beiyang Naval Division, which cost the imperial court a huge amount of money to build, could fight the Japanese?

Its spearhead is even more aimed at Li Zhongtang, the helmsman of Beiyang, and its purpose is self-evident.

Li Zhongtang, who was forced to helpless, had to order Ding Ruchang to cruise to the Yellow Sea to calm the emperor's anger and relieve the pressure of public opinion.

On September 12, 1894, 12 capital ships of the Beiyang Naval Division set off from Weihai and went to Dadonggou at the mouth of the Yalu River to escort the army to land.

On September 13, the main unit of the Combined Fleet and the 1st Guerrilla Group went to the mouth of the Yalu River to search for a decisive battle with the main force of the Beiyang Naval Division.

With the fleets of both China and Japan gathered in one place, it was naturally very easy for a battle to occur.

On the 17th, in the waters of Dadonggou, the warships of both sides finally discovered each other. So a naval battle related to the trend of the Sino-Japanese war began.

As soon as the battle began, Japan hit the Great Luck, the flagship of the Combined Fleet, the Matsushima, and hit the Dingyuan mainmast with a cannon, the command signal cable was destroyed by artillery fire, and Ding Ruchang, who was supervising the battle on the flying bridge, was seriously injured and could not continue to command.

At this opening, the ships of the Beiyang Naval Division had lost their command except for being able to advance and retreat with Dingyuan.

Subsequently, the Japanese fleet was equipped with a large number of barreled guns, which made the Beiyang Naval Division taste the bitterness. Although the Beiyang Naval Division was also equipped with rapid-fire guns, because Li Zhongtang allocated less money and the number was not enough, this naval artillery battle was very difficult.

Not long after the battle, the two old ships of Yang Wei and Chaoyong were sunk, and then the Pingyuan was also ignited and had to withdraw from the battle.

Fang Boqian, the leader of the Jiyuan, was frightened by the tragic battle and withdrew from the battlefield without authorization.

The unauthorized evacuation of the Jiyuan greatly hit the morale of the officers and men of the other ships (now there are remarks on the Internet about reversing the case for Fang Boqian, which is enough).

The morale of the Japanese Combined Fleet was greatly boosted, and the commander, Vice Admiral Ito, made a bold statement that he would completely annihilate the main force of the Beiyang Naval Division.

Of course, he also has his own confidence in saying this, and the two ships Yoshino and Akitsusu, which cost a lot of money, performed extremely well in naval battles and were the sharp weapons that the combined fleet relied on.

Sure enough, under the leadership of the two ships, the two ships of Jingyuan and Laiyuan also sank subsequently.

So far, the Beiyang Naval Division, except for the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan armored ships, as well as the two Zhiyuan and Jingyuan armored ships, the other main warships have either been sunk or withdrawn from the battle.

Of course, if these four battleships want to be sunk, it will not be as easy as the other cruisers of two or three thousand tons.

Its thick armor withstood the attacks of the Combine's massive rapid-fire guns.

However, the current battlefield situation was extremely unfavorable for the Beiyang Naval Division, and the guerrilla fleet, which had already completed its mission, joined the siege of the four Beiyang warships, and the two sides fought from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. In a period of more than two hours, the two ships of the Jingding took three or four hundred shells each. The Zhiyuan and Jingyuan ships also had more than 200 rounds, and of course the combined fleet was not very happy, although there were fewer shells fired in Beiyang, but basically each ship of the combined fleet ate 30 or 40 shells. In particular, the 305-mm main gun of the second ship is even more powerful. The two ships Hiei and Fuso were seriously injured and evacuated from the battlefield. The two ships Zhiyuan and Jingyuan were not far behind, and the two cruisers Chiyoda and Saikyo Maru were seriously injured and withdrew from the battle.

In the later stage, the artillery shells of the four Beiyang ships were urgent, and at this time, Ding Ruchang, the pipe belt of the Zhiyuan, made an important decision to let Jingyuan, Zhenyuan, and Dingyuan evacuate the battlefield, and he drove the Zhiyuan to break off.

In the face of Ding Ruchang's move of forgetting life and death, the other three pipe bands also knew that they could not fight at this time, so they could only leave the Zhiyuan to evacuate first.

And Ito Yuhiro, the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, saw the actions of the Beiyang Fleet and decided to take the Zhiyuan as soon as he saw it. There was also a reason why he made this decision because there were not many shells for the Japanese Combined Fleet, and it was better to concentrate on destroying one than to let go of four.

So the Zhiyuan was besieged by the Combined Fleet, and it was hit by more than 400 shells, resulting in a loss of 80% of its personnel, and all the artillery power was lost, and it was reduced to a floating coffin at sea. At this time, the Japanese Combined Fleet still coveted the ship and sent a signal to ask it to surrender, but Ding Ruchang flatly refused, and was finally sunk by the nearby Takachie with a torpedo, and Ding Ruchang also died with the ship.

Of the more than 400 officers and men on the Zhiyuan, only 32 were rescued.

With the sinking of the Zhiyuan, it also marked the end of the Battle of Dadonggou.

In this naval battle, the Beiyang Naval Division lost most of its main warships, with a tonnage of more than 119,000 tons and more than 1,500 personnel. And the combined fleet lost 2300 tons of tonnage (the cruiser Hiei, which was seriously damaged and sunk on the way back), and lost more than 600 people.

It can be said that after this naval battle, the Beiyang Naval Division no longer has the strength to compete with the Combined Fleet. Although there were still three 7,000-ton ships left, the other warships had already suffered casualties, and after the lack of other auxiliary warships, the strength of the Beiyang Naval Division had dropped a lot.

As for Fang Boqian, the leader of the Jiyuan who escaped from the battle, he was taken into custody after returning to the station, and was finally sentenced to death.

In addition to the two countries concerned, the results of the Battle of Dadonggou were also spread all over the world at a very fast speed.

Although the war between China and Japan is still going on, there is already a preliminary view on the discussion of the process of naval warfare.

First of all, the barrel withdrawal artillery will be the mainstream of naval artillery in the future, and secondly, the warship formation should also be grouped at tonnage speed, and the commander must designate a successor officer before the war, and it must not be an officer of the same battleship, etc.

Of course, the most talked about thing is that a fast cruiser should never be mixed with a slow armored ship.

That's right, the biggest defeat of the Beiyang Naval Division this time was to equip the two Zhiyuan Jingyuan with a speed of 18 knots, and mix them with the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan at 14 knots.

Although this greatly enhanced the strength of the Beiyang battle formation, it greatly weakened the cruiser formation.

Otherwise, how could the Japanese guerrilla formations wipe out the cruiser formations in Beiyang so quickly and lay the foundation for winning this naval battle.

This also fully shows that Ding Ruchang, the commander of Beiyang, is not a qualified fleet commander, and his command ability is too weak.

Speaking of which, doesn't the Beiyang Naval Division have so many advisers, especially Major General Antonio, who is the chief adviser, and should point out the mistakes.

Rear Admiral Antonio wronged him, he had already mentioned it when the fleet went to sea before, but this Admiral Ding insisted that his own team was the key, as long as he defeated the enemy's own team, then he would fight the enemy cruiser formation.

And everyone knows the rest of the matter, after being seriously injured and losing the commander, the Beiyang Naval Division is completely fighting on its own, what is the reason for not losing.

And with the defeat of the Beiyang Naval Division, after Japan gained sea supremacy, the transportation route would have no worries, and the next thing to see was the performance on land.