Han's affairs in the Far East gradually entered the income stage.
At the end of July, the Nanyang Army first handed over the occupied Halong Bay port area to the French colonial army in Annam. Later, the two parties exchanged prisoners and supplies in accordance with the peace agreement.
The Annan War between Han and France ended in a compromise. The French colonial army stationed in Annan gained the initiative in Annan and Cochin China at the cost of thousands of casualties and the transfer of French Polynesian sovereignty.
After the lessons of the Annan War, the French government realized that the strength of the French colonial army in the Cochinchina region was not enough to deal with the joint consequences of the annexation of Annan, Cambodia, and Laos.
The Nanyang Army was the first threat that hindered France from establishing an eastern colonial empire. As the Nanyang Army gradually withdrew from northern Annan, the Manchu Qing court, as the suzerain of the Annan Kingdom, became the main enemy of the French colonial army in Annan.
After losing Burma and several vassal states in the northwest frontier, the Kingdom of Annan and the Kingdom of Korea, the two countries that received the most profound influence from Chinese culture, became the bottom line that the Manchu Qing court could not give up easily.
The Kingdom of Korea is located on the flank of the Northeast region and is related to the security of the Northeast region and the Forbidden City. Unless the Manchu Qing government loses the war with the enemy, it is impossible to allow Russia and Japan to occupy Korea.
The Annan Kingdom borders Yunnan, Guizhou, and Bagui. Through the Annan offshore and the Red River route, it can bring the entire southwestern region into the threat range. Therefore, in order to maintain the stability of the rich southeast and the southwest hinterland, the northern Annan region must not be controlled by
Occupied by an enemy country.
In addition to the need to plunder the resources of the Cochinchina region and lay out a global colonial strategy, the French government's occupation of Annan was also one of the main purposes of using the Annan Kingdom as a foothold to bring Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi into its direct colonial rule or indirect economic colonial rule.
In order to achieve this goal, the French government approached Japan through various diplomatic channels such as Beijing, Paris, Berlin, and Tokyo, in an attempt to conclude a military alliance with Japan against the Manchu Qing government, in the hope that the French government would annex northern Annan.
, Japan can launch a military offensive from another direction and share the military pressure on the Cochinchina garrison.
On July 18, 1881, when the French Foreign Minister met with the new Japanese Minister to France Shigedai Haesuka in Paris, he said: "We, France and Japan, have common interests in dealing with the Qing Dynasty."
It hopes to form an alliance with Japan at an early date and, when necessary, take joint military action against China. To this end, the French Foreign Minister also linked this issue to the Japanese government's amendment to the treaty and expressed his willingness to provide assistance to the Japanese government's amendment to the treaty.
help,
On July 20, Haizuka Shigedai made a detailed report on this in a secret report to the Japanese Foreign Minister Kaoru Inoue. Uniquely, on July 23, 1881, the French Acting Minister to Japan Castel (
vial cantel) met with Japanese Foreign Minister Kaoru Inoue in Tokyo, and once again linked the issue of the "Japanese-French Alliance" with the Japanese government's treaty amendment issue to test the Japanese government's intentions.
He also said: "Our neighbor, the Qing Dynasty, is actually a stubborn country with insufficient resources and strategies. Only your country is familiar with our country's national conditions and is worthy of working with us. Considering your country's future policy towards China, I believe that if we can unite with our country,
Joint consultation will be beneficial and harmless. As the saying goes, France and Japan have the same interests and equal priorities, which will definitely contribute to the enlightenment of the East."
Since July, the French government has been close to Japan many times and is eager to conclude a military alliance with Japan. In order to impress the Japanese government,
The French government moved away from Japan's biggest wish since the early years of the Meiji era - the issue of revising the Articles of Inequality. With an attitude that seemed to promise the "key points" that the Japanese government particularly wanted, it tempted Japan to form an alliance with it and jointly deal with the Manchus in the Far East.
government.
There is no doubt that this is a diplomatic strategy of the French government. However, this carefully planned diplomatic strategy of the French government was quickly discovered by the Japanese government.
On July 28, 1881, the Japanese government held a cabinet meeting to discuss the disputes between China and France surrounding the Vietnam issue and Japan's foreign policy issues.
Although some people within the Japanese government did advocate that in exchange for the French government's suggestions on the conclusion of a "Japan-France Alliance", they should conclude an alliance with France as soon as possible and take joint military actions against China, this idea was opposed by most participants.
After the meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Kaoru Inoue pointed out in an order to Minister Haesuka Shigedai in France: "The French government believes that Japan and France have common interests on the issue of so-called vassalism advocated by the Qing government.
The French government not only wants to understand the Chinese government's intentions regarding the Tokyo (Beijing) incident, but also wants to know the key points that the Chinese government particularly hopes for on the issue of amending the Articles. On the one hand, the French government wants to help our country realize our long-cherished wish, but on the other hand, it
He also hopes that our country will take the Tokyo incident as an opportunity to form an alliance with France in order to deny the Qing Dynasty's theory of vassalage. Based on this, it is speculated that this is just a French strategy. "
Therefore, Bing Shangxin further pointed out, “Following the Ryukyu incident, Japan and Qing have had disputes over the Korean issue in recent years, and the Qing government’s resentment towards our country has deepened day by day.
Our government should have worked hard to preserve peace in the East. However, the current events have nothing to do with our country. For example, because of the distant "Tokyo Incident", blatant alliance with a Western country will definitely make the Qing Dynasty more angry. Thinking about it, at present
We cannot easily agree to France's suggestions, nor can we publicly expose our intention to confront the Qing Dynasty in relation to the "Tokyo Incident".
Regarding the joint action between Japan and France, please note that although our government cannot publicly express its approval, it can privately support France's proposition and criticize the Qing's vassalism until the Qing is willing to give up. Please convey this intention to the French government tactfully
.”
Of course, the Japanese government did not reject the French alliance request because it was worried about destroying the good situation of peace in East Asia. The reason why Inoue Kaoru and other Japanese dignitaries quickly reached an agreement on the Annan issue was because of the contrast in naval power between China and Japan.
There have been obvious changes.
After the Taiwan Incident ended in 1874, the Japanese government ordered three new warships from the United Kingdom in May of the following year: Fuso, Kongo, and Hiei. Among them, Fuso was a central gun profile ironclad with a displacement of 3,777 tons, a speed of 13 knots, and four guns.
240 mm guns, 2 150 mm guns, and 4 120 mm guns. In 1878, these three warships were put into service one after another, which enabled the Japanese Navy to rise in the Far East overnight and formed an absolute advantage over the Qing Navy.
In the same year that Japan ordered the aforementioned three ships, Li Hongzhang also ordered four warships from the British Armstrong Company. These were the four mosquito cannon ships (also known as Longxiang, Huwei, Feiting, and Ceden) that were later named
Rendell gunboat).
In 1878, when Fuso and three other ships were commissioned, Li Hongzhang ordered four more mosquito cannon ships from Britain. These were Zhenbei, Zhennan, Zhenxi and Zhendong. In addition, Zhenbian, Zhenzhong, and Fujian ships purchased by Shandong Province
The Qing government owned a total of 15 ant gunboats including Fusheng, Jiansheng, Jinou built by the Jiangnan Manufacturing Administration, Haidongxiong imitated by Guangdong and Guangxi, and Haijingqing purchased.
The so-called mosquito gun ship is a new concept warship in the 19th century. Its basic feature is that the small boat is equipped with cannons. Its mission is to serve as a movable water fort to defend the port. Therefore, its tonnage is small and its speed is slow. It is only suitable for activities in shallow waters offshore.
Taking the aforementioned 15 mosquito cannon ships as a whole, in terms of tonnage, the smallest one, such as Ca Mau, only has 195 tons; the largest ones, such as Zhenzhong, Zhenbian, and Haidongqing, only have 440 tons; in terms of speed, the slowest one, such as Haidong
The Qing Dynasty only has 7.5 knots, the fastest ones like Liuzhen and Ca Mau are only 10 knots.
But they are all equipped with powerful main guns. The 11-inch main guns of Longxiang and Huwei achieved the result of penetrating 326 mm iron armor at a distance of 274 meters during the test firing.
Achieved the achievement of penetrating 414mm iron armor at a distance of 274 meters.
The purpose of its design is to use its artillery to restrain the enemy's armored giant ships. This design idea is exactly the same as that of future ramming cruisers, torpedo boats, and missile speedboats. They all hope to take advantage of offshore defense and destroy large ships with small boats.
The mentality of buyers is often to pursue quick results. They hope to spend a small amount of money to do big things and find a shortcut to the south. In essence, it embodies the killer thinking.
But cruel facts have proved that the modern navy is a systematic project. It has everything, and if it does not advance, it will retreat. If it is only offshore defense, in the era of the revival of land power, it is better to build land-based forts and railways to enhance the mobility of the army.
Once a navy is developed, there will never be a navy that can only fight inside the mouth. What's more, although the mosquito gun ship has strong firepower, it is slow, has poor protection, poor artillery accuracy, slow fire rate, short effective range, and extremely low actual combat effectiveness.
Especially with the development of machine guns and small-caliber rapid-fire cannons, weapons such as mosquito cannon ships can only launch suicidal attacks with low success rates in front of large warships.
If the enemy launches a landing on the coastline far away from the port and launches a long-distance roundabout attack on the military port on land, the mosquito-filled ships will have no choice but to despair.
Due to the lack of comprehensive awareness of strategy, operations, and tactics, Li Hongzhang and others never clearly understood the fatal flaw of mosquito cannon ships. The reason why he stopped buying new mosquito cannon ships after 1878 was not because he had already
Realizing the shortcomings of this weapon, from the moment Japan purchased the Fuso, the Manchu and Qing court formed a public opinion that "Japan actually has an ironclad ship".
Ironclad ships, like aircraft carriers in the 21st century, were universally recognized as the strongest warships at that time and a symbol of the status of a great power.
Under this circumstance, a consensus quickly formed within the Qing court to purchase powerful ironclad ships and re-establish the naval hegemony in East Asia.
In the context of extremely fierce inter-regional budget competition, no matter how Li Hongzhang viewed the ironclads, he never wanted this large sum of money to fall into the hands of other governors. Therefore, once he found out that the central government was willing to pay for the purchase of ironclads, he
Take action now.
In December 1879, Li Hongzhang ordered two new ram cruisers, named Chaoyong and Yangwei.
In December 1880 and May 1881, Li Hongzhang ordered two large ironclads from the German Vulcan Shipyard, namely the famous Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. These two ironclads with a displacement of more than 7,000 tons have super strong defense capabilities.
, each equipped with four Krupp 305mm main guns, was the largest ship in the Far East at that time.
With the incorporation of Chaoyong and Yangwei into the Qing Navy and the signing of the construction contract for Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, Japan mobilized the whole country to develop its navy, and the short-lived naval advantage it gained quickly disappeared. Under the threat of the Qing navy's maritime power
, the Japanese government gave up its intention of forming an alliance with France and once again invested in the wave of donations from all over the country to purchase warships.
The arrival of the era of armored giant ships has forced countries around the world to pay attention to the role of the navy. The naval arms race among European powers has begun to take shape. In the Far East, the Qing court and Japan secretly competed for dominance in East Asia, while in the South American continent
, with the stabilization of the domestic and naval situation, and the three Brazilian ironclads captured early on were about to be withdrawn from active service, the Han monarchs also launched a big discussion on the development of the navy.