Chapter 48 Beiyang Navy

A few days after Cixi appointed Zuo Zongtang as the imperial envoy, he issued another important instruction: the two opium wars all invaded by sea, and when they were free, they drove warships into the Qing Dynasty for free sightseeing.Whether it is tolerable or unbearable, the central government decided to establish Beiyang Navy and Nanyang Navy to defend the coastal defense of the Qing Dynasty. On May 30, 1875, Empress Dowager Cixi promulgated new personnel appointments, ordering Li Hongzhang and Shen Baozhen to build the Beiyang and Nanyang Navy as soon as possible. The status of the Beiyang Navy is much more important than that of the Nanyang Navy, after all, it is closer to the capital and the center of the imperial court.So let's focus on the Beiyang Navy.

Cixi also issued a red-headed document: The central government will allocate four million taels of silver every year as the construction funds for the Bei and Nanyang naval forces. If the central government has no money, you can save it! It is a pity that there was always an unspoken rule in Chinese officialdom at that time-layers of exploitation, appropriations came down from the central government layer by layer, and officials at each level would take a little bit of it, and in the end there was still half left in the hands of the undertaker. It's time to burn incense.Therefore, the actual money Li Hongzhang and Shen Baozhen got was far less than four million taels, so Li Hongzhang made money everywhere later.It is precisely because of this that the Beiyang Navy has left a deep imprint on Li Hongzhang.

From this point of view, Empress Dowager Cixi supports both the Serb defense faction and the Haiphong faction.This is probably because Cixi herself can't make up her mind, so let the two factions do their own things for the time being, let's try it.Unexpectedly, Cixi's sloppy behavior led to the recovery of Xinjiang and the establishment of the Beiyang Navy. In this year, Li Hongzhang ordered four warships in the UK through Chief Taxation Secretary Hurd, which created the history of the Qing Dynasty's navy purchasing warships from abroad. Four years later, Li Hongzhang "show off his power" and "super brave" to the British custom cruiser.In the same year, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the establishment of the Fujian Navy, and the Qing Empire owned three major naval fleets.

Five years later, in 1880, Li Hongzhang ordered the ironclad ships "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" from the German shipyard.In the same year, Li Hongzhang established the Beiyang Navy Academy to train officers for the Beiyang Navy.The chief instructor (equivalent to the teaching director) is a familiar person, his name is Yan Fu, and he is a returnee who studied at the Royal Naval Academy in Greenitz, UK.The three words "faithful and elegant" he put forward are still the bible of translation studies. Six years later, when the Lushun Naval Base was built, the on-site commander was Yuan Xiaosi's cousin Yuan Baoling.Li Hongzhang inspected Lushun military base eight times successively, and successively stationed troops in Dagu, Yantai, Dalian Bay (now Dalian), Weihaiwei, and Jiaozhou Bay (now Qingdao). He wants to build a world-class naval base here, which can be attacked , you can retreat and defend!Lushun is his hard work and hope!

Ten years later, the Naval Yamen was established. Thirteen years later, on December 17, 1888, the Beiyang Navy was formally established. Since then, China has officially owned the first modern navy!This was a world-class and Asia's largest naval fleet at the time!