As can be seen from Japan's battle plan, Japan was not sure to win at that time, so three plans were drawn up. Then, China lost in the Sino-Japanese War, and it was so miserable and thorough. What the hell is going on here? China has no chance to win?
If we only look at the quality of the crew of the fleet, the Beiyang Navy is still capable of fighting against Japan. At that time, the Beiyang Navy had two largest armored ships in the world, which made the Japanese feel frightened? Dingyuan? And then what? Zhenyuan? Boat. We have a large number of outstanding generals who have studied in Britain and elite sailors who have been strictly trained for many years. All this played a great role in the battle.
In the Yellow Sea naval battle, although it was attacked by the Japanese fleet, Dingyuan? And then what? Zhenyuan? Fight hard, never back down. Back then? Dingyuan? The ship rained down and caught fire in many places. However, the Japanese found that there were officers of Beiyang Navy taking pictures with cameras on the deck. All this shocked the Japanese soldiers and shook their confidence. Japanese sailors fought to the end and shouted in despair, how can Dingyuan not sink? Are you online? Matsushima? After the Japanese navy suffered heavy losses, it was unbearable to fight again and had to take the lead in fleeing the battlefield.
In this naval battle, most of the soldiers were able to fight until the last moment, except for a few scum who were afraid of death and fled at the cold feet. Although the fleet's ship speed, gun speed and ammunition are not as good as their opponents, the soldiers of Beiyang Navy make up for all this with their overall quality. Using guns with extremely low firing rate has a higher hit rate than Japanese rapid-fire guns.
Therefore, the failure of Beiyang Navy is not due to the soldiers of Beiyang Navy, but more due to the corruption of the Qing government and the incompetence of its leaders. Such a navy that has been strictly trained for many years will play an important role if it is in the hands of a commander who knows how to use it.
First of all, from the perspective of the government functions of both sides.
Japan established a capitalist system after the Meiji Restoration. On this basis, Japan's liberated productive forces have played a great role and greatly enhanced Japan's national strength. In order to invade and expand abroad, Japan has been frugal and building a navy. Fight? Dingyuan? 、? Zhenyuan? Japan is buying advanced rapid-fire guns and snapping them up? Yoshino? Ships, build a large number of ships to prepare for defeating Beiyang Navy.
The Qing government still adhered to the feudal system. Even Li Hongzhang, the leader of the Westernization Movement, thinks that all kinds of rules and books in China are ready, and what is lacking is science and technology. Put forward the slogan that middle school is the body and western learning is the use. Constrained by the feudal system, the construction of Beiyang navy was difficult. Li Hongzhang regards Beiyang Navy as the basis to ensure his power, and some people regard the consumption of Beiyang Navy as a means to attack Li Hongzhang.
When Beiyang Navy needed to update naval equipment most, in order to attack Li Hongzhang, the Qing government decided to stop buying all naval equipment. This made the construction of Beiyang Navy suddenly left behind by Japan. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Beiyang Navy was alone against the enemy Japan, while others stood by and the ships of other fleets did not help at all. In this way, what should have been a war between the two countries has become a war between Li Hongzhang and Japan. With Li Hongzhang single-handedly confronting Japan's national strength, the consequences can be imagined.
Second, from the perspective of naval strategy.
When the Japanese government worked out its operational plan, it firmly grasped a basic point, that is, the issue of sea control. This is a plan made by people who have a thorough understanding of the importance of sea control. Because the party who has mastered the sea power can land on the other side's coastline anytime and anywhere, and the other side has no choice but to be passively beaten.
It is precisely because of this that Japan realized this and built its operational plan on the basis of mastering the sea power. All its naval forces are fighting for the right to control the sea. At the beginning of the war, he took the initiative to push his base to North Korea, seeking a decisive battle for Beiyang Navy.
On the other hand, the Qing government and Li Hongzhang had no sense of sea power at all. The strategy formulated by Li Hongzhang is that the navy stays behind and the army fights. This will fundamentally put the cart before the horse. Compared with Japan's active pursuit of war, Beiyang Navy adopted a conservative strategy of avoiding war. In this way, it not only affected the morale of the navy, but also easily handed over the sea power to Japan.
Especially after the Yellow Sea naval battle, Beiyang Navy recovered its combat effectiveness after emergency repair. At this time, Japan was hit hard, and several capital ships only needed a month or two to repair before they could go to war. At this moment, however, Li Hongzhang gave Ding a dead order to keep the port and protect the ships.
As a result, the Japanese, who easily gained control of the sea, pushed their troops into China in large numbers. With the easy fall of Lushun, Beiyang Navy lost its most important base and the largest dock in Asia where two armored ships can be repaired. Since then, it has entered a desperate situation.
Third, tactically.
Japanese tactics are actually very monotonous. When Japan summed up its combat experience after the war, the biggest reason for its victory was luck. This is because the Japanese sailors are poorly trained and the overall quality of the navy is low. It was only because of all kinds of good luck that victory was achieved.
However, luck does not come out of thin air. Because of the efforts of the Japanese, they adopted tactics that suit them, and they took advantage of these good luck. The quality of Japanese naval personnel is poor, and even a change of array can't be done, so a single column formation is adopted, and the ships at the back follow the ships at the front.
Japanese ships mainly came from Britain, and their generals also returned from studying in Britain. Therefore, its tactics are suitable for its own ships and have achieved good results in naval battles.
On the other hand, Beiyang Navy. Although the quality of soldiers is relatively high, Dante was born in the army, old and groggy, and knew nothing about modern naval warfare. His study abroad team leaders look down on him.
In Beiyang Navy, the captains were all born in England, the soldiers were trained in England, but the ships were from Germany. Now everyone knows that the tactical concepts of the German Navy and the British Navy are completely different. This is Germany's tactics to catch up with the latecomers, defeat the British navy, strengthen protection, and take defense as the attack.
However, no one in Beiyang Navy paid attention to Germany's tactical concept at all, and did not give full play to the advantages of its armored ships. How ironic it is to sail a German ship with British tactics. Later, a foreign military commentator commented,? If the Japanese navy knew about naval warfare, it wouldn't challenge beiyang fleet at all, and if beiyang fleet knew about naval warfare, it wouldn't let the Japanese fleet escape. ? That's what this sentence means
Conclusion:
In the Sino-Japanese War, Beiyang Navy didn't even have a chance to win. The Japanese estimate the Beiyang navy according to their own strategic and tactical level, and dare not say that they are sure of winning when making operational plans. Japan challenged Beiyang Navy with the courage to gamble. From this point of view, it is possible for Beiyang Navy to win.
At that time, due to the decadent and backward political system of the Qing government, political forces fought against each other. Li Hongzhang doesn't know the naval strategy, nor does Ding know the tactical principles. In this way, although there are well-trained soldiers and a powerful fleet, they can only go to failure in the end.