Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen: The Root of the Defeat: Why Can't the Qing Dynasty Fight a Protracted War?

Lushun fell, the entire Beiyang Fleet was wiped out, and Li Hongzhang's position as the commander-in-chief of the war came to an end.The imperial court took off his top wearing flower feathers to show "thin punishment".With the fall of Li Hongzhang, the Queen's Party lost its command over the war, and the Emperor's Party came next. Since the beginning of the war, the Imperial Party has been accusing the Queen's Party of being incompetent, cowardly, and incompetent in command. Now that the Imperial Party has come to power, it is the mules or horses that come out for a walk.

Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang and Minister of Nanyang, was activated by the imperial party. He replaced Li Hongzhang as the commander-in-chief of the war, and the person in charge was the former Hunan governor Wu Dayu (Cheng). Northeast battlefield, command the Qing army. Before the war begins, we need to briefly understand the situation in the Northeast battlefield. As for the Japanese army, the First Army was divided into two parts. After the attack on Motianling was blocked by Nie Shicheng's army, Shanxian Youpeng ordered the Fifth Division to stay in Phoenix City, and the 6,000 people of the Third Division went deep into Haicheng alone. He lost his position as commander-in-chief, and was replaced by Michisuke Nozu, head of the Fifth Division.

After the Battle of Luda, the Second Army occupied Jinzhou, Dalian Bay, and Lushun. The Qing army surrounded Haicheng on three sides with 80,000 troops. They are: the Eight Banners Army of Anshan in the north of Haicheng has more than 10,000 people, belonging to General Changshun of Shengjing and General Yiketanga of Heilongjiang; The 10,000 troops are under the personal command of Wu Daju; the more than 10,000 troops in Yingkou, south of Haicheng, are under the command of Song Qing. That is to say, the 6,000-strong Japanese Third Division fell into the encirclement of 80,000 Qing troops.At the beginning, the base camp sent a brigade of the Second Army from Lushun to the north to rescue, and the brigade was led by Nogi Xidian who captured Lushun.

Naimu Xidian did not complete this task. After taking Gaizhou in the north, he could no longer advance, because Yingkou was the only place to go north, and Naimu Xidian could not break through the defense line of Song Qing's army. The base camp had no choice but to order the Fifth Division of the First Army in Phoenix City to go to Haicheng to rescue the besieged Japanese army under the leadership of Nozu Michitsuki himself! Of course, the Qing army would not wait for the arrival of Japanese reinforcements.The Eight Banners Army in Anshan was the first to launch two counterattacks against Haicheng, with more than twice the force of the Japanese army, but the results were shocking. More than 1,000 people were killed in the two counterattacks. The numbers were substantial: eight people.The counter-offensive Japanese soldiers who were trapped in Haicheng were repelled, and they didn't even touch the city wall.

Such a result even made Guangxu in the deep palace furious, and he cursed: "A bunch of trash!" If it wasn't for the clothes on his body, no one would dare to wear them, probably he would have taken off his dragon robe and rushed out.However, if the Japanese army occupies Haicheng, the threat to Fengtian will not be lifted for a day, and the ancestors of the royal family will not be able to sleep peacefully for a day, so the Military Aircraft Department decided to recover Haicheng first. It is against this background that Wu Dazhen took office. He led the army to the Tianzhuang Terrace to the west of Haicheng.

Wu Dayu, a Jiangsu native, has been evaluated in history as: a famous scholar, epigrapher, calligrapher and painter, especially good at landscape painting, with small bridges and flowing water, lifelike.This man had never led troops to fight. When he was an official in the capital, he had a deep relationship with Li Hongzhang and the generals of the Huai army. However, after he became the governor of Hunan in 1892, he became involved with the Hunan army.After the start of the war in the Qing Dynasty, he asked the court many times to lead troops to participate in the war (you can be promoted).The fact that the imperial court finally appointed him as the new commander of the war against Japan was actually the product of the compromise between the emperor and the empress. For the Houdang, Wu Dazhen is also an acceptable figure, after all, this person has had an affair with the Huai Army in history.

Wu Dazhang seemed to be very proud of his "advantage". Before the war, he called on Li Hongzhang and Liu Kunyi respectively, and said confidently: "We will make the Xianghuai Army unite and rejuvenate!" What Wu Dachan meant was: I am a centrist figure. With me here and me as the commander, the emperor and queen parties can unite and speak out together! Now, we need to understand this special Hunan army led by Wu Dachan. The Hunan Army that defeated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had long been abolished by Zeng Guofan, and Wu Dazhen's Hunan Army was no longer the Hunan Army of the past. It was only an army transferred from Hunan—that is, the "Xiang Army" in name.This Hunan army employed several old generals of the Hunan army, and the soldiers were basically recruited hastily, without much training, and even without uniforms, they went to the battlefield, which can be called a mob.

Can Wu Dachan live up to expectations? The third counterattack against Haicheng began.Commanding an army of 80,000 troops, Wu Datang was sure of victory. After arriving at the front line, Wu Datang quickly revealed the characteristics of a general who had never led an army: he handed over all tactical issues to his staff, and he relied on listening to reports to grasp the situation on the battlefield. Wu Dachan believed that he did not need to go to the battlefield to inspect the enemy's situation, nor did he need to go to the front of the battle to motivate the soldiers. What he did next revealed that Comrade Wu Dachan was not only a military general familiar with the battlefield, but also a romantic scholar.

He concentrated on doing the following two things well: First, ask a famous fortune teller to calculate the day when the enemy will be defeated and set a good day for launching a general offensive. Then, Marshal Wu personally wrote a letter to the Japanese army in Haicheng, informing the Japanese army that he was about to lead the army into the city, and once the army entered the city, the Japanese army would be killed to the last.So he purposely set up a few death-prevention flags outside Haicheng. If you come out and kneel in front of the flag, I will extrajudicially mercifully not kill you and send you back to the country.

Wu Datang did what he said, and sent people to plant many white flags on the mountains around Haicheng, with a big "Wu" character written on them. In Wu Datang's view, the next thing to do is to wait for the Japanese to come and worship. Marshal Wu waited for a few days, but he was disappointed when the Japanese army came out to accept the surrender.So when the auspicious day came, he waved the flag: attack! The next result will make Wu Dachen even more disappointed. A naive scholar leads a group of rabble, the result can be imagined.After the battle started, only 20,000 of the 60,000 "Hunan Army" actually went to the front and fired shots, while the other nearly 20,000 Eight Banners troops who fought in coordination experienced two counterattack failures, and they became afraid of the Japanese army. Only dare to shoot from a distance.

The result of the third counterattack on Haicheng was: the Qing army killed hundreds of people, and the Japanese army in Haicheng killed three people. The first time he personally commanded failed, but Wu Dazhen also has his own opinion. He believes that the reason for this failure is that the Hunan Army did not dispatch the main force, and the Eight Banners Army dragged him back. If all 60,000 Hunan Army participated in the battle, it must be possible. defeated the Japanese soldiers.Thus, the fourth counter-offensive began, which was also the largest use of troops by the Qing Dynasty since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty-all 60,000 Hunan troops went into battle.With 10 to 1, there is nothing to say. The result was still very cold: the Hunan Army killed nearly a thousand people, countless people fled, and the Haicheng Japanese Army killed two people—one less than last time! This time, we can no longer say that the main force did not dispatch the responsibility, nor can we shift the responsibility to the Eight Banners Army.Guangxu in the palace was completely angry again. He slapped the pen holder on the imperial table flying with his palm, and shouted: "The army is gathered, and the guns are also available. Why can't you attack a lonely city surrounded by siege?" The fifth counterattack against Haicheng began. This time, Guangxu personally ordered, demanding that all the troops in southern Liaoning work together to quickly recover Haicheng! The emperor personally issued an order, and everyone had to deal with it seriously.The Hunan Army and the Eight Banners Army knew that they could no longer afford to be ashamed, so they all mobilized, and Song Qing from Yingkou also sent troops to support them.That is to say, the Qing army had 100,000 troops attacking the city, while the Japanese army had only 6,000 defenders. However, the best opportunity to regain Haicheng has passed, and the reinforcements of the Japanese army are about to arrive. Opportunities on the battlefield will not exist forever. The army wasted again and again.Opportunities wait for no one. After Nogi Xidian's northward rescue was blocked, the base camp ordered the Fifth Division of the First Army in Phoenix City to go to the rescue, led by the new First Army Commander Nozu Michitsuki himself! Resigned in danger, Nozu Michiru is about to start his performance. How to solve the siege of Haicheng?According to the general idea, just drive the reinforcements over and start fighting.But if Nozu Michiko thinks the same way, I'm too sorry for the word "wild" in his name, he took a wild way. Nozu Michisuke believes that direct clearance is the most conventional way to clear the siege, and it is also the stupidest way. He also has the most brilliant method.That is: Let the opponent automatically withdraw from the encirclement. Specifically, in order to break the siege of Haicheng, the reinforcements had to give up the previous tactics of attacking the city and occupying the territory, and always grasp the initiative on the battlefield, attack on a large scale, and actively mobilize the opponent. Annihilate each! Sounds great, but how?Nozu Michiru believes that it is only necessary to grasp the psychology of the Qing court and grasp what they fear most.For the Qing court, what they fear most is that Fengtian will be lost and the graves of their ancestors will be dug. After analyzing this element, Nozu Dōkan's tactics are determined: as long as Naimi Xidian holds back the troops of Song Qing and Wu Dazang in the south and west of Haicheng, then he will personally lead the reinforcements to march to Liaoyang to the north of Anshan, creating an army that is about to attack Liaoyang. situation.Liaoyang is the gateway of Fengtian. Once Liaoyang falls, it will endanger Fengtian. Therefore, the Qing army must be very nervous about this move. The Eight Banners Army in Anshan will definitely withdraw from Anshan and move to Liaoyang. At this time, reinforcements will enter Anshan , Tear a hole from the north of Haicheng, and the siege of Haicheng will be resolved by itself! This trick is actually learned from our ancestors, which is called attacking and saving.No way, like Hitomi Ito, Hirobumi Ito, and Yohiro Ito, they just like to read books on Chinese military art and history. After the tactics were approved by the Murenhe base camp, Nozu Dōsuke led the reinforcements and set off, and 11,000 troops went straight to Liaoyang.Sure enough, the Eight Banners Army in Anshan began to get nervous. They quickly thought about this question: Would the Japanese army give up the rescue of Haicheng and attack Liaoyang and then attack Fengtian when the Japanese army went to Liaoyang? However, the Military Plane Department of the imperial court would rather believe in the possibility of Nozu Dōken attacking Fengtian. The ancestral graves are more important, and no one can afford this responsibility.Thus, the estimated scene happened: before the arrival of the Japanese army, the Eight Banners took the initiative to withdraw to Liaoyang! Seeing this situation, Nozu Dōkan immediately led his army to Anshan. In the process of driving to Anshan, the Japanese army displayed the ability of marching like a devil. When the Qing army reacted, they had successfully reached Anshan and successfully inserted Encircled by the Qing army! With the withdrawal of the Anshan Qing army, the siege of Haicheng was torn open like this. Wu Dazhen was very nervous about the arrival of Nojin Daoguan's reinforcements. Attack, defend now! Nozu Dōsuke's first step goal has been achieved, and next step will be his second step goal! Daoguan Nozu is about to act according to his plan, but Wu Dazhen is lost in thought. The current situation is obvious, Nozu Daoguan is coming for Haicheng.So Wu Dazhen immediately drove the army from Tianzhuangtai to the front line of Haicheng. Just when Wu Dazhen thought that Nozu Daoguan's army would take advantage of the momentum and march from Anshan to Haicheng, the result was beyond his expectation again. In Anshan, except for drinking saliva, Nozu Daoguan did not stop for a moment, but immediately swung his troops, bypassed Haicheng with the force of the wind, and marched towards Niuzhuang! From the map, Niuzhuang is located east of Tianzhuang Terrace and west of Haicheng—that is, sandwiched between Tianzhuang Terrace and Haicheng.This is a small street town, so small that it doesn't even have a city wall, so there are very few Qing troops stationed here. After some thought, Comrade Wu Dazang believed that Nozu Daoguan's army's march into Niuzhuang was the same as the previous march into Anshan, just to gain a stronghold to attack Haicheng-after all, they came to relieve the siege of Haicheng.Since Nozu Michiko's army will march into Haicheng sooner or later, it is better to abandon Niuzhuang now and let the Japanese army occupy it, while his own army waits for work in Haicheng. Wu Dachan's idea was opposed by one person, Wei Guangtao, the guard of Niuzhuang. Wei Guangtao, a native of Xiangxi, is Wei Yuan's nephew and grandnephew. He served in Zuo Zongtang's army in his early years. After Zuo Zongtang recovered Xinjiang, he stayed there and became the director of the Xinjiang Finance Department (Fantai).When the imperial court ordered the use of the Hunan Army, he led a troop as an old general of the Hunan Army, and came to the Northeast battlefield with Wu Dayu. Wei Guangtao strongly opposed Wu Datang's arrangement: Obviously, although Niuzhuang is not eye-catching, its location is very important.Tianzhuangtai and Haicheng will be threatened at the same time, and Tianzhuangtai is the original garrison of Wu Dazhang's army, the base camp of the Qing army, an important food and grassland, and an arms transfer base. Once Yejin Daoguan occupies Niuzhuang, according to this person's Yeluzi style, he is likely to Leave Haicheng alone and attack Tianzhuang Terrace first.At that time, the Qing army in Haicheng had to return to help, which fell into the plan of Nozu Michiru's attempt to mobilize the Qing army on a large scale. In addition, considering the overall battlefield, the south of Niuzhuang is Yingkou where Song Qing's army is stationed.Further south of Yingkou was the Japanese army led by Nogi Xidian. Once Niuzhuang fell, Nozu Michiru would probably go directly south to Yingkou and attack the Song Qing army in Yingkou with Nogi Xidian.At that time, the Qing army on the front line of Haicheng had to reinforce Yingkou, which was another trick of mobilization. In short, although the strategy of counterattacking Haicheng was formulated before, and the Qing troops from all walks of life have been implementing it, but when the reinforcements of Nozu Dōkan arrived, the battlefield situation has undergone new changes. At this time, it is no longer possible to continue to attack Haicheng mechanically. The order of the city was not given, but a new plan should be formulated according to the new situation.Nozu Dōkan's reinforcements traveled long distances, and this is a good time to encircle and attack Haicheng. The Qing army only needs to send some troops to continue to surround Haicheng. . However, according to Wu Dachan's plan, regardless of reinforcements, he still insisted on attacking Haicheng, allowing the Japanese army to gather heavy troops in the rear, and giving Nozu Doukan multiple choices, which is equivalent to giving up the initiative on the battlefield, which will affect the development of the next battle. Extremely unfavorable. In war, in addition to destroying the enemy's vital force, it is also necessary to eliminate the enemy's choice!It is the best policy to let the enemy army have only one choice, and it is the best policy to let the enemy army have no choice. Marshal Wu will not fail to understand such a simple truth. But what Wei Guangtao didn't know was that Wu Dazhen insisted on attacking Haicheng first, and he had his own considerations. In order to protect the important place of the Fengtian Mausoleum, the imperial court was eager to regain Haicheng, but after several counterattacks failed to attack Haicheng with heavy troops, Wu Dayu was very mad.As the commander-in-chief, he is very shameless, and he urgently needs to take down Haicheng to justify his name.Moreover, the Japanese army in Haicheng had been besieged for a long time, and their soldiers were exhausted. It was safer to attack Haicheng, and the sixth counterattack against Haicheng had a great chance of winning. In this way, before the battle started, Wei Guangtao and Wu Dayu had serious disagreements.Although Wei Guangtao stated the importance of Niuzhuang to Wu Dazhang and asked the army to return for help, Wu Dazhang's opinion was still: I disagree, and I want to beat you. When Nojin Daoguan's 10,000 troops arrived at Niuzhuang, Wei Guangtao's troops were still only 3,000.He decided to stick to this place, abandoning the city and leaving is definitely not what a guard should do! Japanese, come on!Let you experience the bloody spirit of the old Hunan Army passed down by Mr. Zuo Zongtang here, and let you see what the real Hunan Army is! The battle is on.Facing the elite crowd that was more than three times his own, Wei Guangtao ordered the soldiers to build earthen walls on the street to resist. He rode on a big horse and personally supervised the battle. Nozu Michiru, who had a superior force, was not in a hurry to launch an infantry charge, and continued to let the cannons exert their power. Dozens of cannons were blown up from morning to noon, and all the earthen walls were blown up.The fortifications were destroyed, and there was silence in the Qing positions, which seemed to have withdrawn. Seeing this situation, Nozu Michiru confidently ordered the infantry: Charge!The infantry rushed forward with their rifles in hand, but bad luck was waiting for them. When the Japanese army approached the street, the Qing army ambushed on both sides of the street and shot them intensively!The Japanese army was caught off guard, fell a large area, turned around and retreated. It turned out that Wei Guangtao adopted the tactic of luring the enemy to go deep, luring the Japanese army to advance, and then killing them at close range. Notsu Michiru tasted the power, so he thought of the cannon again, and ordered: keep firing!The Japanese army bombed the houses on both sides of the street one by one, blowing up one step forward until they were all blown up.Violent artillery fire quickly razed the streets of Niuzhuang to the ground. With no shelter left, Wei Guangtao led the soldiers to retreat to the streets and started a heroic street battle with the Japanese army.Under the command of Wei Guangtao, all the officers rushed to the front, picked up bayonets and stabbed the enemy. When they were injured, they pulled a piece of cloth to wrap the wound and fought again. They vowed to live and die with Niuzhuang. However, after all, the Japanese army has an absolute advantage in military strength, and more and more people are attacking.Wei Guangtao retreated step by step, from one street to another.The battle was inextricably linked. After dark, there were only a few hundred people left around Wei Guangtao. Everyone had been fighting fiercely for a day, and no water or rice had been eaten, but everyone continued to fight with high morale.However, the Japanese army adopted wheel tactics and launched charges in turn, and both sides were red-eyed for a while. In the early morning, the troops led by Wei Guangtao had retreated to the last alley. Wei Guangtao was wounded in many places, blood had already stained his uniform red, and due to continuous fierce fighting, the fingers of both hands could no longer pull the trigger.Wei Guangtao knew that it was time to die together, so he silently ordered the soldiers to pile up all the remaining explosives around them, and prepared to detonate the explosives when the Japanese army surrounded them. "The guard can't die, to plan for the future!" The soldiers beside them knelt down on one knee. They couldn't watch the commander die. Several soldiers couldn't help saying that they set up Wei Guangtao and lifted Wei Guangtao to break through. In front of these soldiers, there were hundreds of soldiers. They used their bodies to block the Japanese artillery fire and cover Wei Guangtao's breakthrough. After dawn, the battlefield returned to calm.The soldiers covering Wei Guangtao finally managed to break through. All 1880 soldiers of the Hunan Army were killed, and all officers below Wei Guangtao were sacrificed.The Japanese army also paid the price of 389 casualties.This was the first tough battle Nozu Michiru encountered. The Japanese army, which was able to capture Lushun Fortress in one day, was blocked by a small army of 3,000 people for a day and a night. It can be said that Wei Guangtao and his soldiers did not lose the battle except for the comparison of military strength and weapons! In the Battle of Niuzhuang, Wei Guangtao took the lead, inspired the soldiers with his bravery, and commanded the soldiers to fight calmly. This is a real Hunan army.Although the battle of Niuzhuang was a failure, it showed the world that the Qing army was not born incapable of fighting, and the Japanese army was not invincible. As long as the soldiers were brave and commanded properly, the victory could also belong to the Qing army. After occupying Niuzhuang, Nozu Michiko once again resorted to a strange trick. As Wei Guangtao expected, Yejin Daoguan did not march towards Haicheng, but he did not march into Tianzhuangtai or Yingkou alone, but divided his troops into two groups, marching towards Tianzhuangtai and Yingkou respectively. In the art of war, dividing troops is a big taboo. Nozu Daoguan's march in two routes is a tentative attack. Nozu Daoguan did not decide whether to attack Tianzhuangtai or Yingkou first. He was waiting for the changes of the Qing army. Flaws disrupted Wu Datang's deployment and led the other party by the nose.And Wu Dazhang was really fooled. Since Tianzhuangtai was an important strategic rear area of ​​the Qing army, once Tianzhuangtai fell and the grain roads were affected, the Qing army would suffer from cold and hunger.Therefore, Wu Dachan didn't care about attacking Haicheng anymore, and quickly withdrew his troops—back to Tianzhuangtai again! On the way back to the army, Wu Dazhen committed the old problem of fearing the enemy again. He felt that his army alone might not be able to stop the Japanese, so he sent an urgent call to Song Qing in Yingkou, asking Song Qing to lead the main force to Tianzhuangtai . Song Qing's army has more than 20,000 people, although he believes that Wu Dazhen's main force is enough to deal with the Japanese army, and once his army leaves, Yingkou will become an empty city, and the Japanese army can easily occupy it.However, now that Wu Dayu is his leader, after thinking twice, he felt that he should listen to the leader first, leaving 3,000 people to garrison Yingkou, and the other troops headed to Tianzhuangtai under his leadership. News of the changes in the Qing army in Yingkou quickly reached the ears of Nozu Daoguan.Here's your chance!The Qing army finally showed a flaw!This situation is exactly what Nozu Daoguan hoped to see. Wu Dayu's army withdrew from the front line of Haicheng, and the siege of Haicheng was automatically lifted. However, Song Qing's army marched from Yingkou to Tianzhuangtai. Yingkou was empty and could be captured in one fell swoop. The army of Naimu Xidian, who was blocked south of Yingkou, could also join forces. In this way, the Japanese troops that were originally scattered all over the country can fully realize the joint forces, and when the time comes, they will turn their guns and go to attack Tianzhuangtai, and the chances of winning will also be greatly increased. Nozu Dōkan did not miss such a good opportunity. He ordered a small group of Japanese troops to continue their feint attack on Tianzhuangtai, and mobilized the main force of Wu Dazhang and Song Qing to rush to Tianzhuangtai. The main force of the Japanese army occupied Yingkou in less than an hour. Now, let’s summarize the actions of Nozu Dōkan since he dispatched troops. After arriving at Haicheng, this army, which obviously came to relieve the siege, just fought around the city instead of attacking Haicheng. He didn't let one of his soldiers run to Haicheng, and he seemed to ignore the existence of the besieged Haicheng. Nozu Dōkan's tactics may seem complicated, but in fact they are very simple. It is what we mentioned earlier that he must save when attacking, mobilize the opponent on a large scale, and let the opponent run, and the opponent's flaws will always be exposed in the process.Once you find a flaw, you must seize it without hesitation and attack its weak parts. First attack the isolated and helpless enemy, use your own superior force to wipe out the enemy's vital forces, and carry out each attack until you squeeze out this opportunity. until dry. Don't think that after the appearance of rifles and other hot weapons, the art of war is unnecessary. Ultimately, it is people and how to use them that determine the outcome of a war. This is the core of the art of war. Opportunities are equal on the battlefield, and discovering an opportunity does not mean seizing it.In addition to good judgment, there is another extremely important factor to seize the opportunity: taking risks. In fact, all opportunities are actually obtained by taking risks.Sometimes, the bigger the risk, the bigger the opportunity.As a military commander, his most important job is to take risks, make decisions, and issue orders.Before this order is issued, it can be carefully considered and weighed repeatedly, but a man who is indecisive is by no means an excellent commander. The public is right, and the mother is right. You still need to make up your own mind about who is right and what is wrong.For the commander-in-chief, at the critical moment, you must suppress all arguments and wipe away all spittle—draw your sword!Let the sword out of the sheath! And once the sword is out of its sheath, all that remains is to fight for it.At this time, you can't think east and west, look left and right, look forward and backward, and don't have to worry about gains and losses. Successful people can be spared at critical times, and the commander is no exception.When you persist until you forget why you persist, maybe the dawn of victory will come. A good commander must believe in his own decision as he believes in God. We all know that this is not just the case on the battlefield. Many successful people in shopping malls and even in love have the nature to dare to take risks.Because they know that there are not many opportunities that really belong to them. If they miss this time, there may be no next time. Therefore, they generally do not hesitate in front of opportunities, but will actively attack them. What you understand is to understand in the process of doing it, instead of thinking about it while waiting in vain. The unity of knowledge and action, if you want to see a thousand miles, go to the first floor first, and then talk after doing it. There used to be many opportunities in front of Wu Dachan, but he didn't seize them. Because the same method can be used by the enemy, you can also use it. The so-called return of the other's way to the other is the most wonderful phenomenon.Even after Yejin Daoguan occupied Niuzhuang, he divided his troops and marched towards Tianzhuangtai and Yingkou, Wu Dazang still had the opportunity to retaliate. This opportunity is: you don't need to manage Tianzhuangtai and Yingkou, you just need to counterattack Niuzhuang again. After Nozu Daoguan's army was dispatched, only a small group of Japanese troops remained in Niuzhuang. Wu Dazhen attacked Niuzhuang with an absolutely superior force. The Japanese army ran and regained the initiative on the battlefield.If you don't save them, it's easy to do: first chop up the Japanese army in Niuzhuang and make dumplings, which greatly dampens the spirit of the Japanese army, and then attack the Japanese army from north to south with Song Qing's army in Yingkou, but block the reinforcements of Nozu Dokan in the encirclement! And the reason why Wu Dayu was unwilling to give up Haicheng at the beginning, and now he hurried back to Tianzhuangtai has his secret. After learning that Song Qing's army had set out from Yingkou and that Tianzhuang Terrace could be defended by Song Qing's army, Wu Dachan pulled the army towards Shuangtaizi behind Tianzhuang Terrace.Once Song Qing lost the battle, he could easily go to Jinzhou from here, and then back to Shanhaiguan.It's pretty safe staying inside. What Wu Dachan is thinking about now is his own future. After the initial enthusiasm passed, Comrade Wu Dachan found that the battle was not so easy to fight, and even how to command the soldiers was a problem. He was very crazy before the battle, but he was very timid in his bones.Life-saving is the most important thing. Wu Dazhen no longer has the ambition to give advice and become Zeng Guofan's second, and he doesn't want to continue to be promoted. The main consideration is how to return to Shanhaiguan safely. After all, he still has to paint. So, when the 74-year-old Song Qing led a panting army to Tianzhuangtai to join forces with Wu Dazhang, he found that the leader was missing, and the famous long-distance runner even wanted to cry to death. The battle of Tianzhuangtai finally ended with the victory of the Japanese army. After being unable to resist the attack of Nozu Dōkanen, Song Qing also had to retreat to Shuangtaizi.Yejin Daoguan not only successfully rescued the siege of Haicheng, but also successively captured Anshan, Niuzhuang, Yingkou and Tianzhuangtai, defeating the 100,000 Qing army with 10,000 troops! For the Japanese army, the capture of Tianzhuangtai was another major victory, because it opened up an important land passage: the Japanese mainland army could be quickly transported to Lushun by troop carrier, and then from Lushun all the way northward to attack Mukden, Or turn from Yingkou and Tianzhuangtai to the southwest to attack Shanhaiguan.In other words, the Japanese army in the northeast has threatened Fengtian and Beijing! When the news reached Hiroshima, Muren in the base camp was very excited, and he issued three consecutive edicts of commendation! But Nozu Michisuke was still criticized by the Japanese domestic media. When capturing the streets of Tianzhuangtai, Yejin Daoguan learned the lesson of the heavy loss in the street battle with Wei Guangtao last time. Instead of fighting in the street again, he ordered someone to bring some things. This was hundreds of barrels of oil, and the Japanese army collectively poured oil on it and set it on fire. The fire took advantage of the wind, and the entire Tianzhuangtai was reduced to ashes. This bustling town with thousands of houses turned into scorched earth.This arson by Nozu Michisuke was criticized by the people in Japan. "There are countless materials, weapons and ammunition in the city of Tianzhuangtai. They are all trophies of our country, but you burned them. What a pity! Can't you think of other ways?" Decades later, the Japanese army learned this "lesson", and the order of the "Three Alls" policy was: kill them all, then loot them all, and then burn them all! Why didn't the Qing Dynasty fight a protracted war? Well, now is the time to sum up the root causes of Qing's defeat in this war.Of course, my current summary is from a purely military point of view. Although I have analyzed many reasons before, they are all reasons for the defeat of the Qing Dynasty in this war, but none of them have touched the root cause of the Qing Dynasty’s failure. . The root cause of this is that the Qing Dynasty lost at the starting point-strategy. 300 years ago, the Japanese army was led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to attack the Ming Dynasty. Although he only reached the Yalu River, but in the wars against the Chinese Empire in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Japan’s strategy was the same. This strategy can be used in one word To summarize: speed. First seize the control of the sea and the strategic location of North Korea, and then go straight to the Liaodong Peninsula and the Shandong Peninsula to make a quick victory and force the opponent to surrender in exchange for a peace treaty. For Japan, such a strategy is extremely gambling, and it is completely a reckless and desperate gambler's style of play.But this is also impossible, because Japan is small and poor, with limited supplies, unable to wage a war of attrition, and Japan's national strength cannot support a long-term war. As long as it is restrained by an opponent in one place, it will lose everything! For comparison, both Ming and Qing were defeated in the early stages of the war, but the difference is that Ming soon came to his senses. Although the Wanli Emperor never went to court, his belief in fighting the Japanese Kingdom to the end was unshakable.With a firm belief, the later Ming army began to change its tactics, with the main purpose of combat was to consume the active force of the Japanese army and slow down its attack pace.The Ming Dynasty's "Anti-Japanese and Aid Korea" war lasted seven years, and Japan was beaten to the brink of collapse. Soon after, civil strife broke out, and the domestic civil war lasted for 200 years. The national power was slumped for 200 years, so that later Zheng Zhilong (Zheng Chenggong's father) relied on a few pirate ships It will be able to run rampant in Japan! Therefore, in history, except for the extremely powerful Tang and Yuan dynasties, the war against Japan has always been prepared to "hold each other for a long time, and fight for a long time". In the face of the ensuing war, Liu Kunyi, the new commander-in-chief of the Qing army, proposed a strategy of protracted warfare. In his memorial to the imperial court, Liu Kunyi said: The word "long-lasting" is actually the key to the current Japanese control.And this kind of thinking has also been recognized by many other ministers. Everyone said that if you can't fight Japan for a while, you can fight for a long time. This idea is very in line with reality.Once the Qing Dynasty decided to fight Japan for a long time, this could only be bad news for Japan. After the Qing-Japanese War began, Japan not only invested almost all of its army and navy, but its domestic forces were empty, and more importantly-they were almost out of money. In order to maintain this war, Japan has spent 200 million yen in temporary military expenditures, while Japan's annual fiscal revenue was only 80 million yen at that time.In other words, in order to fight this war, Japan spent all the money in the next few years, and the whole country became a war machine. In just three months after the war officially broke out (until November 1894 ), Japan's national industrial production was reduced by half (51%), commercial production was reduced by one-third (31%), and agricultural production was reduced by 13%.War needs money. In order to continue fighting, Japan is going to borrow money from HSBC. But the court did not intend to fight a protracted war. The reason for not doing this is not that the court did not have this idea, but that it is impossible to do so. For Cixi, the actual supreme ruler of the imperial court, the fact she faced was that the Huai army had been wiped out. This army belonged to Li Hongzhang, and it was also her power base. The Huai army belonged to the queen party. In the future, only figures from the imperial party will continue to be in charge. Obviously, whoever commands the war will have the military power in his hands. If the imperial party holds military power, this is something that Cixi and her post-party group do not want to see of. It is for this reason that from the very beginning of the war, although Li Hongzhang knew that the war had no chance of winning, and the gossip officials belonging to the imperial party kept attacking and making tricks behind the scenes, Li Hongzhang still insisted on fighting. The War of the Qing Dynasty was organized and directed by the people of the Houdang group, so as to ensure that the power of the government remained in the hands of Cixi and the Houdang group.And when the war progresses to the point where it may bring about a reshuffle of domestic power and affect the power of those in power, the war must end. It's that simple. The war is over, so let's start the peace talks.Maybe as long as a contract is signed and some money is paid, all worries will be resolved.