With this huge amount of funds from the Queen of Hawaii, the Far East Fund suddenly came alive. At the same time, Li Ningyu started the next wave of development plans. According to his plan, he will build three ports, one military port, and two military ports in Alaska.
A trading port, while Hawaii only established a Far East military port, but it seems that some things have gradually changed. After Japan, which was originally clamoring, saw the power of the Far East, some changes occurred in their original plan. The famous Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War
Will a war break out?
The Hawaiian Islands are beautiful and very pleasant, giving Li Ningyu a sense of home after years of wandering around. During this time, Duan Tong and Princess Kaola got along very harmoniously, but Li Ningyu didn't know that they didn't understand the language.
How do they communicate with other people? At the same time, the two of them often plot together behind Li Ningyu's back. However, Li Ningyu is most concerned about the development of the Far East at this time. After a large amount of funds are in place, two groups of immigrants from Africa have begun
Construction began in Alaska, and at the same time the Somali Army, which had expanded to 350,000 troops, was divided into two units, of which 150,000 were directly transferred to Alaska and reorganized into the Far East Alaska Production and Construction Corps.
At the same time, half a year later, the U.S. dollar has begun to be fully issued in Alaska, and batches of students who were sent to study in European countries in the early years have returned, and have been sent to Somalia and Alaska. At the same time, Li Ningyu announced that the Far East will not participate in the Western and European countries.
After the Qing Dynasty, the great powers intensified their efforts to divide and occupy the country.
In February 1894, on New Year's Eve, the day before the Chinese Lunar New Year, several warships were launched again at the seven shipyards of the Far East Navy in Africa and North Korea. Li Ningyu specially cut the ribbon at the North Korean military port, but when Li Ningyu cut the ribbon
, was assassinated and his life and death are unknown. According to the news released by Far East diplomats, the assassin was a Tsarist Russian or a Japanese. Then the Far East announced that it had entered level one combat readiness. The first and second fleets of the Far East Navy were ordered to blockade the waters of North Korea, Tsarist Russia, and Japan.
At that time, the turmoil in Asia was rising again, and all countries began to prepare to take action. The next day, Tsarist Russia also issued a vague statement on the matter.
But at this time, Li Ningyu was celebrating the Spring Festival in the palace of North Korea with King Li Bin of North Korea. During the banquet, there were also senior officials from the Far East such as Duan Tong, Kaola, Liu Qinghui, Hu Dejing, etc., who all drank their glasses, and Li Ningyu was even more enthusiastic.
His face was red, and there was no sign of being seriously injured in the assassination. It turned out that all this was a fascination trick between him and Alexander II, with the purpose of getting Japan to take action.
Sure enough, we saw a full-scale confrontation between Tsarist Russia and Tsarist Russia in the Far East at this time. Japan finally opened fire on the ships of the Beiyang Fleet in the early morning of July 25, 1894, in the waters southwest of Toshima. This was a battle initiated by Japan, and as a result, the Qing Dynasty and Japan
War was formally declared, but at this time, three newly launched Taishan-class battleships and four light cruisers bound for North Korea from Somalia entered the North Korean military port. On the same day, the Fourth Far East Fleet was established, and Huang Tao was appointed as the first fleet commander.
.
The Fourth Fleet at this time can be regarded as the world's largest fleet at that time, because it has 4 Taishan-class 12,000-ton armored battleships, 12 cruisers, and more than 40 supply and small ships with a total tonnage of more than 130,000 tons, which is larger than the entire Beiyang.
The fleet is 25% higher.
According to reports from various coastal observation points in the Far East, the Japanese Navy's First Guerrilla Force immediately issued combat orders after discovering the Beiyang Jiyuan and Guangyi ships. At 7:45 in the morning, the flagship of the First Guerrilla Force, the Yoshino, fired first.
It was the beginning of Japan's undeclared war, and then the Beiyang Fleet began to fight back. Then the two armies launched a fierce artillery battle. The Japanese Navy's warships had a greater advantage in terms of tonnage, artillery, and speed. Guang Yi, a self-made gunboat affiliated with the Fujian Shipbuilding Bureau, was seriously injured.
Unable to launch torpedoes, the ship then tilted out of the battle, but ran aground near the Shibashima Islands. The captain ordered the warship to be chiseled and set on fire so as not to leave the Japanese behind. Subsequently, all 236 people on the Guangyi ship were killed.
The Jiyuan ship suffered casualties at the beginning of the battle. The commander Fang Boqian, who had no actual combat experience, immediately became timid and began to escape without achieving greater results. When the Jiyuan ship retreated westward at full speed, the Japanese ship pursued it fiercely, and the Jiyuan ship hung in the air.
After raising the white flag and the Japanese ship caught up, the Jiyuan ship also hoisted the Japanese naval flag. At this time, the merchant ship Gaosheng flying the British flag and the Caojiang ship loaded with ordnance arrived.
After the three Japanese warships saw Gaosheng and Caojiang, they immediately intercepted Gaosheng with lang speed warships and intercepted Caojiang with Qiujinzhou ship. Jiyuan ship took the opportunity to withdraw to the west, but the Japanese ship pursued Jiyuan with Yoshino, which had a speed of up to 22.5 knots.
Reluctant to leave the ship, the Jiyuan ship abandoned the Gaosheng and left, and fired its tail gun to attack the Yoshino.
Then the Jiyuan ship arrived in Weihai and fabricated the results of the battle in the Beiyang Fleet's logbook. Then Ding Ruchang mistakenly reported that the Jiyuan ship had sunk the Yoshino, and the Gaosheng troop transport was sunk at a high speed. More than 700 people were martyred, and the Jiang ship was
He was also captured. On August 1, China and Japan officially declared war!
In the following days, various countries began to have major discussions. The Qing Dynasty believed that Japan was waging undeclared war and that attacking chartered foreign ships violated international law. However, Captain Togo Heihachiro reported that the British ship carried combatants and acted in accordance with international wartime law, that is,
It can be intercepted, inspected, captured or even sunk as needed.
The key difference is that the two sides have different views on the issue of war. The Qing Dynasty believes that there is no war before a formal declaration of war, and the provisions of international law on the protection of neutral ships should be followed. The Japanese side believes that since a military conflict breaks out, international law in time of war shall apply.
, and the Gaosheng is carrying troops of a belligerent country, which is a hostile act, so it should not be treated as a neutral ship.
The Qing government hoped to use the Gaosheng incident to drag Britain into the war, but the British government considered its own interests, so after protests from the British government and opposition parties, it turned to support the Japanese position. In addition, Japanese public relations also affected British public opinion.
The influence of the Battle of Toshima is not simply the Gaosheng incident. In fact, because this naval battle was the starting point of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 recognized by both sides.
So, which side started the undeclared war has become the key to the problem. If the Qing army fired the artillery first, then even if the Japanese took excessive measures against the Gaosheng Hao and Cao Jiang, the Qing Dynasty's position would not be stable, and if it was
The Japanese side fired the artillery first, so not only was the Japanese side responsible for not declaring war, but the possibility that a series of events were considered premeditated cannot be refuted. If the responsibility lies with the Japanese side, then even if the approach to the Gaosheng was in line with wartime
International law also has difficulty maintaining the legitimacy of its own actions.
However, since there is no third-party testimony, it may never be possible to know the sequence of events at the beginning of the war. Only when new evidence emerges can the historical truth of this series of tragedies be truly understood.
But at this moment, at the Far East Naval Base, Li Ningyu stood at the meeting venue and began a series of appointments, and then said his last words: "When dealings between great powers, it's all about the situation! Ignore it!".
Vote to support the author and receive points and k-beans