Service process of Jiyuan class cruiser

On June 1885, 1 1, the third day after the end of the Sino-French war, the Qing government issued an order ordering the three ships "Dingyuan", "Zhenyuan" and "Jiyuan" stranded in Germany to return to China as soon as possible. After supplying and hiring sailors, Xu Jingcheng, the ambassador to Germany, held a farewell ceremony for three ships at the Kiel military port in Germany on July 3. "Jiyuan" flies the German merchant flag, and is driven by the hired ocean navigator Ennuo and German sailors. It followed "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" to the sea and set foot on its way home. On the return trip, the "Jiyuan" ship also carried 250 shells of 2 10/0mm and150mm, and 3,500 small rapid-fire shells, a large part of which were still in use when the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1894.

It seems that fate deliberately played a trick on Li and this dome cruiser, and the return trip of Jiyuan was unlucky. Shortly after entering the Mediterranean, Jiyuan's machine broke down and was forced to leave two Dingyuan warships and stay alone in Malta for repair. It was almost half a month before it was repaired in a hurry and rushed over, but on the way, we met the problem that the coal cabin was too small and there was not enough coal. As we approached the motherland, the machine broke down again in Singapore and stopped for repair.

After such twists and turns, Jiyuan arrived at Dagu Lake in Tianjin on June 1885 and June 65438+1October 3 1, and completed the flag-raising ceremony on1October 8. Ding, the commander-in-chief of Tianjin Town, and Zhou Fu, the customs officer of Tianjin, boarded the ship for inspection and acceptance, and found that the problem was not as exaggerated as described in the figures, so they made a detailed report and explanation: the main problem of the "Jiyuan" ship was that the engine room was narrow, but the draft was shallow and the speed was high; Although the coal tank is small, it can only hold 270 tons of coal, but it can be used for 8 days at the rate of 30 tons per day. Compared with the coal cabin of Dingyuan class warship (with a load of 600 tons and more than 60 tons of coal used every day), "its intention is not much different", and it is considered that "Jiyuan" ship is "a new and reliable ship". Li Hongzhang was not at ease. He rushed to Dagu three days later and personally inspected the "Jiyuan" ship before settling down.

But things didn't stop there, and officials still refused to let go of buying Li, the former ambassador to Germany in Jiyuan, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan. After all, Zhenshan is a great pleasure. Although Li Hongzhang helped the old subordinate, transferred Li Fengbao to Beiyang Haiphong and handled things such as Tianjin Beiyang Naval Academy, he was eventually dismissed because of his personal seal. China, an outstanding military scientific and technological talent in modern times, was isolated from the officialdom and returned to his hometown of Chongming, Jiangsu (now Shanghai) alone. He devoted himself to writing books and compiled a large number of modern military works, such as Krupp Gun, Minutes of Ship Thunder, Armored Ship and so on. Even today, these books are still used to understand the technical development of the modern world navy. 1887, Li Yin died of long-term depression and overwork at the age of 57.

Shortly after returning home, the German officers and men who helped the ship sail to China were dismissed, and a middle-aged naval officer from China became the first commander of the Jiyuan ship.

Fang Boqian, born in Min County, Fujian Province. Like many senior officers of Beiyang Navy, they were born in the era when China suffered foreign aggression after the First Opium War. Many of them spent their childhood in the stories told by their parents about foreigners' strong ships and guns, and they all experienced the painful changes under the open door of China society. 1867, Fang Boqian, who was only 13 years old, became the first student of Fujian Ship Administration School, the first modern naval academy in China. The burden of building a new navy in ancient China fell on the thin shoulders of these children. Today, we can't guess how these children felt when they entered the naval palace in China. In that era when the imperial examination was the right way, would their hearts be full of longing for life at sea and worship of naval occupation?

According to the regulations of Fujian Ship Administration School, freshmen should first receive basic naval knowledge training, during which there are no rest days except the three traditional festivals of Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival every year. With such a compact curriculum, everything is aimed at making these children grow up as pillars of national coastal defense as soon as possible and become Nelson of China. For the backward China navy, time is really too tight. Through strict university study and life, most of these children graduated with excellent results and mastered the theoretical knowledge they should have as naval officers, which made Shen Baozhen and Li Hongzhang, the leaders of modern naval construction in China, feel greatly gratified. But to be a qualified naval soldier, you need to go to sea to be tempered by stormy waves.

187 1 year, Liu and other students were sent to the sail training ship "Jianwei" of Fujian Ship Administration Navy, and set sail at sea, starting from Bohai Bay and Liaodong Peninsula ports in the north and reaching Singapore and Penang in the south. This sailboat, originally belonging to Prussia, holds up the hope of China's naval revival. 1874, after the internship, Fang Boqian was left in Fujian and worked as a teacher on ships such as Fu Bo and Wu Yang.

During this period, China began a new wave of purchasing western warships in modern times, in order to train a group of world-class naval officers and reserve talents for purchasing large warships in the future. At the initiative of Shen Baozhen and Li Hongzhang, the Qing government sent the first batch of naval cadets to Britain. After review, 12 people, including Fang Boqian, were selected and arrived in the UK in May 1877. According to the initial study plan, all China students will enter the world-famous naval academy-Greenwich Naval Academy. However, there is a rule that foreign students cannot exceed 20% of the total number of students in the school, so it is impossible to accept all China students. In the end, only six students successfully passed the exam, and three students, including Liu, were directly sent to the British fleet for internship because of their good foundation. The other three students were also sent directly to the British navy for internship because they failed the entrance examination. At school, Fang Boqian and others visited the Embassy of China many times. Guo Songtao, the enthusiastic first ambassador of China to Britain, recorded his impression of these international students in his personal diary. He thought that Fang Boqian was smart, liked to comment and had strong expressive ability, but he was a little frivolous. SaZhenBing who went with him was a little introverted. From this, we can initially understand the character of the future "Jiyuan" ship management belt.

1In June, 878, Fang Boqian graduated with honors and was sent to HMSEmryafus, the flagship of the British East India Fleet, as an intern to learn driving skills. The following year, Fang Boqian personally requested to board the Hemmes Padan as an intern, which showed that he was good at expressing himself. 1May, 880, after the expiration of studying abroad, I still returned to work in Fujian. Fang Boqian was appraised as "smart and proficient" by Sgong Seger, a foreign student tutor, and this kind of "smart" will be more incisive in the following days.

188 1 year, due to the large number of warships purchased in China, the fleet size is getting bigger and bigger, and the demand for talents in Beiyang coastal defense is becoming more and more urgent. Li Hongzhang, governor of Zhili, transferred a large number of naval talents from Fujian, the cradle of China's modern maritime generals. Fang Boqian, who was trained in the school of ship administration and further studied at the Royal Maritime School, and Lin Taizeng, Ye Zugui and Lin Yongsheng with the same background were all transferred to the Beiyang Navy under construction. These young people, regarded as soldiers by Li Hongzhang, later grew into the backbone of Beiyang Navy.

After Fang Boqian was transferred to Beiyang, he first served as a new mosquito ship "Zhenbei" and then transferred to "Zhenxi" the following year, becoming a training ship "Weiyuan" responsible for the training of new recruits in the fleet. 1884, when the Sino-French War broke out, Weiyuan stayed in Lushun. Fang Boqian, who has always been used to expressing himself, begged to build a fort in Lushun and personally supervised the completion, and named it Weiyuan Fort. Later, some commentators thought that the construction cost of Weiyuan Fort was cheap, only a few thousand taels of silver, which was much lower than that of Huang Jinshan Fort built by Von Hanneken, and praised Fang Boqian for building it well and saving a lot of money. This conclusion is wrong, because it only sees the result, but ignores the reason for this result. The guns equipped with Weiyuan Fort are all dismantled and seconded from the Weiyuan ship, so they don't need to be spent on armaments at all. Moreover, judging from the general plan of the Aobao project in Lushunkou preserved by the First Historical Archives of China, Weiyuan Fort is the smallest in the whole Lushunkou Fort Group, and it is only a simple fortification, and the required funds cannot be compared with the big fort equipped with a large number of new Krupp large-caliber guns.

1885, when China and France went to war, China had no time to look east, and the Japanese provoked the "Shen Jia Incident" on the Korean Peninsula. The Beiyang Navy led the Ding Fleet to quell the chaos in North Korea, and the "Weiyuan" ship also took part in the action against North Korea. Although "Weiyuan" did not stand out in the whole incident, Fang Boqian was awarded a special prize by Beiyang Minister afterwards, so he was appointed as the newly purchased "Jiyuan" dome armored cruiser. Recommended by Ding, Li Hongzhang made contributions in aiding and protecting Korea, defending, popularizing guerrilla warfare and rewarding Hualing. In just over four years, Fang Boqian won the honor and status that ordinary military attaché s in China dreamed of at that time.

Good luck. Go on. 1888, Beiyang was preparing to set up a navy. It crossed Liu and other senior generals for the first time and was called to Tianjin to participate in the revision of the Beiyang Navy's articles of association. The next year, he was promoted to a higher level. After Li Hongzhang's guarantee, he was promoted to deputy commander of Beiyang Navy in Zuo Ying and Zhong Jun. 189 1 year, was named "Jieyong Batulu", which is extremely beneficial.

Modern people may find it hard to understand why Fang Boqian reached the top in just a few years. It is not difficult to find the answer by counting the officers of Beiyang Navy.

At the beginning of the construction of Beiyang Navy, most of the ready-made naval officers in China were graduates of Fujian Ship Administration School, and their native places were basically concentrated in Fujian Province. This group of personnel was later transferred to Beiyang Navy in large quantities by Li Hongzhang. Many people have had the experience of studying in the west because of their early learning and deep qualifications. Later, the middle and senior officers of Beiyang Navy were basically this group of personnel. Li Hongzhang is naturally full of worries about the influx of foreigners into the navy he founded, but he has to do so because of the rare consideration of talents. In order to control these officers from other provinces and firmly control the Beiyang Navy, Li Hongzhang chose Ding, an Anhui general who was not from the navy but was good at reconciling generals, as the prefect of the Beiyang Navy. Some Fujian senior officers in Beiyang Navy were greatly dissatisfied with this appointment, so they formed a clique, secretly resisted, threatened and made things difficult for Ding everywhere, and tried to replace Ding. These officers are called Fujian Party, headed by Liu, the right-wing company commander of Beiyang Navy, and Lin Taizeng, the left-wing company commander whose rank is above Liu, is from Fujian. However, due to his introverted cowardice, Liu has long overshadowed the limelight. These officers have never really been controlled by Ding. But outside the Fujian Party, Deng Shichang, a Cantonese, who is one of the few senior officers of Beiyang Navy, is a simple and courageous person, which is incompatible with the Fujian Party. But he is too strong-willed and ignorant of officialdom to be reused. Fang Boqian, who has always been known as "smart", is full of longing for the position of prefect. However, unlike the non-cooperative way of the Fujian Party, Fang Boqian took a shortcut and adopted a positive cooperative attitude towards the top. This special Fujian officer with modern naval knowledge was deeply favored by Li Hongzhang, and was regarded by Li Hongzhang and Ding as the right-hand man to control the Beiyang Navy, so he was repeatedly promoted and reused. (According to reports, most of the mid-level officers at that time were from Fujian, but there were also a large number of mid-level officers from other provinces on warships in Deng Shichang and Fang Boqian. )

In Fang Boqian, where officialdom is developed, private enterprises are also developing. According to Fang Boqian's own Chronicle of Tang Yi, he successively purchased real estate in Dagu, Yantai, Weihai and Shanghai. Whenever he arrives at a port, he will move his family to live there. Moreover, while buying real estate, I also married several concubines (one of whom was collected during the mourning period for my father), and the youngest was only 16 years old. Although Beiyang warlords often buy land, it is rare for them to act recklessly like this, and it is even more unique for them to be so keen on concubinage. As a soldier, being too greedy for wealth and enjoyment inevitably makes people worry about his choice between life and death. What Fang Boqian has done is far from that of Deng Shichang, which always takes warships as its home.

As the head of the family, Fang Boqian successfully arranged his life in a colorful way. But as far as the country is concerned, Fang is a naval officer, and the value of soldiers needs to be reflected in the war.

1894, Wu Jianian, China lunar calendar. The East School Party Uprising broke out in North Korea. As the situation gradually got out of control, the North Korean government turned to the suzerain-China for help. After repeated weighing, the Qing government decided to send troops to the DPRK to help suppress the uprising, and Japan, which has long coveted the peninsula, also took this opportunity to send troops to the DPRK in large numbers. The situation is extremely tense and war is imminent.

Shortly after the Qing government decided to send troops into the DPRK, the "Jiyuan" ship was ordered to escort the troops to the DPRK together with the "Chaoyong", and Fang Boqian was appointed as the captain of the formation, which shows the dependence of the other side. After seeing the situation that Japanese warships shuttled between Incheon and Yashan Port, and the war was inevitable, Fang Boqian wrote to Li Hongzhang and put forward five suggestions, two of which were related to the naval battle: First, it was suggested that the Beiyang warships stationed in the DPRK be evacuated to Weihai and Lushun to gather troops; The second is to demand more clippers and fast guns, saying that this can deter the Japanese navy. It's all general talk and has no practical significance. However, it is quite intriguing that Fang Boqian, who holds the rank of lieutenant, can write directly to Li Hongzhang, a university student, minister of Beiyang and governor of Zhili.

On July 23rd, 1894, Fang Boqian, once again as the captain, led the dome armored cruiser Jiyuan, the torpedo hunting ship Guangyi and the training ship Weiyuan to arrive in Asan, North Korea, to escort the troop transportation. At 5: 30 pm on the 24th, while Jiyuan, Guangyi and other ships were assisting the troops to land, Weiyuan, who sent a telegram to Incheon, brought an alarm that the Japanese army had captured the Korean palace. Fang Boqian ordered the weak training ship Weiyuan to return to China immediately, while Jiyuan and Guangyi returned to China immediately after the troops landed.

At 4 o'clock in the morning of July 25, the night has not completely faded. Fang Boqian ordered "Jiyuan" and "Guangyi" to anchor and sail for China. At 5: 30, the sentry in Jiyuan mast plate found several wisps of black smoke on the western horizon. As time went on, the warships under the black smoke gradually became clear. At seven o'clock sharp, the sentry found three powerful dome armored cruisers of the Japanese navy coming at high speed. Here and now, they met the Japanese fleet and the air suddenly became tense.

15 At 7 o'clock, Fang Boqian ordered the formation to prepare for the enemy, and the ships Jiyuan and Guangyi immediately began to prepare for the war. With the loud password of the officers, the binding device on the main gun was loosened, the dark barrel stretched out of the gun door, and the ammunition depot began to get busy. Huge shells and barrels filled with propellant are loaded from the ammunition at the bottom of the deck through complex bomb disposal devices.

At that time, the Japanese fleet had a narrow channel near Toyoshima, which was not conducive to fighting, so it turned right 16 degrees and sailed east. Seeing the Japanese warship turn around, Fang Boqian and the officers and men on the second ship couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but soon, after the three Japanese warships sailed to the open water, they immediately turned left 16 degrees, ready to go. At 7: 43: 30, the Japanese formation flagship "Yoshino" fired an empty gun. At 45 o'clock, the Yoshino officially opened fire, and the shells landed in the waters near the China warship, causing bursts of water columns. At 52: 00, the Jiyuan ship began to fight back, at 55: 00, the Qiu jinzhou area opened fire, and at 56: 00, the Su Lang opened fire, and the Sino-Japanese War Toyoda Akio naval battle began.

Despite being at an absolute disadvantage in terms of tonnage, speed, firing rate and gun number, two warships of China fought back bravely. The main gun of "Jiyuan" hit the Japanese ship many times, and the sailors on the mast were also strafing the deck of the Japanese ship from a height with small rapid-fire guns. However, shortly after the war, some disadvantages in the design of Jiyuan appeared one after another. First, the commander tower above the flying bridge was hit by shrapnel because its position was too exposed. Shen Shouchang, the first mate in command of the command tower, was shot in the head and died on the spot. Then the front main gun cover was hit one after another, and the fragments were scattered and bounced around in the sultry tank cover. Ke Zhangjian, the second artillery officer who supervised the war in the artillery company, was shot in the chest and died. Huang, the trainee who took over his command, was interrupted again, and the sailors were ready to carry him to dress him up. He was killed immediately, and the officers and men of the former main artillery company were killed and injured, so that the artillery could not be turned. The "Guangyi" ship, which followed the "Jiyuan", quickly joined the battle and once approached the Japanese warship, ready to launch a torpedo. However, due to the fierce firepower of the Japanese army, the battlefield was filled with smoke and the visibility was poor, and it failed. After being hit hard by Japanese ships, it retreated to the shallow waters on the west coast of North Korea and destroyed itself.

There was no objection before the "Jiyuan" pipeline took Fang Boqian, but the situation changed after the first mate Shen Shouchang was killed. Although this rich general, high flyers of Fuzhou Naval School, has many years of naval experience, a good student is not necessarily a good soldier. Perhaps at the beginning of the battle, his heart was full of pride in becoming a hero in naval battle, but when the first mate's brain blood splashed on him, the cruelty, ruthlessness and terror of the battlefield were all revealed. We don't know what happened to Fang Boqian's psychology after that, but at 8: 20, an unexploded shell fired by Jiyuan 150 gun crashed into the engine room of Yoshino, and soon after that, Jiyuan began to turn the rudder and retreat to the west. After that, something incredible happened. According to Japan's Log 278, the mast of Jiyuan was very fast, and China's troop carrier Goldman Sachs and transport ship Jiang Cao came from a distance. The retreating Jiyuan lowered the Japanese flag only a little, and then sailed at a high speed. As a result, these two unarmed ships fell into the hands of the enemy. The Cao Jiang was captured, and the Gaosheng was brutally sunk by the Japanese. More than 1,000 army soldiers on board died for their country. In the final stage of leaving the battlefield, the sailors Wang Guocheng and Li Shimao of Jiyuan spontaneously used the 150 mm Krupp gun at the stern to attack the Japanese ship Yoshino, which was in hot pursuit. After that, "Jiyuan" sailed into shallow water, and "Yoshino" had a deep draft, so it was forced to turn the rudder and leave for fear that it would run aground. It is described in the log book of Jiyuan, which was examined and reported by Fang Boqian: "Our ship fired four shots in the background, all of which hit the key point, injuring the Japanese ship and killing dozens of Japanese officers and officers. Knowing that it was hard to resist, we hung up the dragon flag of our country and ran away. " This is a complete fabrication. First of all, Fang Boqian claimed that the "Japanese prefect" who was killed, namely Hirai Hangsan, was unscathed and participated in the naval battle in the Yellow Sea a few months later; Secondly, the speed of "Yoshino" is higher than that of "Jiyuan", and the active running is entirely on Yoshino's side. The description of "running with a dragon flag" is really absurd.

After returning to Weihai, the scandal of flying the white flag and the Japanese navy flag escaped was not exposed. According to the report of the sailors and the sailors of Jiyuan Ship, the navy division prefect Ding invited others to present awards. However, Li Hongzhang, who was well-informed and shrewd, heard some news from various places and began to doubt Fang Boqian. However, the Qing government rewarded Fang Boqian on the grounds that he fought hard for a long time when he took over the Battle of Yashan, and the artillery wounded their ships, which was still effective. The Qing faction even played the throne, demanding that Ding be executed and let Ding's ship be taken over. The fleeing general with a white flag once almost became a hero because of the bad news. "Smart" Fang Boqian has taken another step of good luck.

After the Battle of Toyoshima, according to the injury in Jiyuan, the thick and closed dome-shaped gun cover originally covered on the fore and aft batteries of warships was removed, because actual combat proved that the gun cover originally designed to resist artillery was not thick enough and had no defense ability against large-caliber artillery shells. If there is no artillery cover, large-caliber shells may fly without causing any harm. Even if a man is hit, it will only kill the sailor who was hit. After the closed gun cover is adopted, although it can't prevent large caliber shells, it can prevent small shell fragments. Once the debris enters the gun cover, it will fly around in the gun cover because it can't get out, causing serious injuries to people on the gun position. The "Dingyuan" class warship, which also used the dome as "Jiyuan", was immediately modified.

With the increasingly tense situation in North Korea, in September of 1894 and 15, Ding led the main force of Beiyang Navy, including "Jiyuan", and escorted troop carriers to land at the mouth of Yalu River, which strengthened China's army strength in North Korea. At noon on September 17, the main naval force of Beiyang Ship, which completed the escort mission, met the main naval force of Japan when preparing to set sail and return. According to the technical characteristics of Chinese warships, Ding ordered the whole fleet to fight in a horizontal array. The Jiyuan ship was arranged at the end of the left wing of the horizontal array, followed by Guang Jia, Jingyuan and Zhiyuan on the right, and the four ships became the left wing of the formation. 12: 50, at a distance of 5,500 meters, the flagship "Dingyuan" fired first and began a naval battle.

The Japanese fleet coming in the form of a column is intended to cross the Chinese fleet and attack the weaker right-wing ships "Chaoyong" and "Yangwei", so the "Jiyuan" ship commanded by Fang Boqian at the end of the left wing did not encounter much artillery fire at first. As the foremast of the flagship Dingyuan broke, the right-wing Chaoyong and Yangwei caught fire one after another, and the formation of Beiyang Navy began to be chaotic. At about 3 pm, the first military hospital of the flagship Dingyuan ship was shot and caught fire, and smoke enveloped the whole ship. The adjacent Zhiyuan ship rushed out of the cover and finally sank into the sea. The Zhiyuan bravely collided with an enemy ship, and both sides were shocked, but then something surprising happened. Just like the Battle of Toshima, the "Jiyuan" ship commanded by Fang Boqian turned its bow, began to retreat and escape, and then got out of hand. The neighboring "Guang Jia" followed suit and followed the "Jiyuan" to retreat and escape. As a result, the left-wing armored cruiser Jingyuan was besieged by Japanese warships and eventually sank.

Later, some commentators believed that the ships of the Beiyang Navy, such as Jingyuan, Laiyuan, Chaoyong and Yangwei, had also withdrawn from the battlefield in the late period of the Yellow Sea naval battle, thus inferring the rationality of Jiyuan's evacuation. However, it should be noted that the purpose of "Jingyuan" and other ships leaving the battlefield is to temporarily avoid gunfire, repair warships, and then return to the battlefield, which is completely different from "Jiyuan" fleeing all the way back to Lushun.

On the way to escape, the desperate Jiyuan will be hit hard by Japanese ships again. The "Yangwei" ship, which was escaping from self-help in shallow water, was hit in the middle. The sharp corner of the underwater collision failed to give any blow to the enemy, but it pierced the friendly hull. After the collision, "Jiyuan" did not take any remedial measures, but immediately retreated and quickly fled the battlefield. The "Yangwei" ship sank quickly after the impact. If the steel "Jiyuan" ship has feelings, it should also shed tears. At that moment, did Fang Boqian care enough to feel a little guilty?

/kloc-in the early morning of September, 2008, when other Beiyang warships were still on the voyage back from the battlefield, Jiyuan had returned to Lushun nearly four hours in advance. As for why Fang Boqian returned to Hong Kong early, he reported that "the bow was cracked and the cannon failed to sound". People with a little conscience and judgment will be angry when they see this. The "head crack and leakage" caused by the "Yang Wei" collision is now confused as a reason to escape. As for "the gun can't be fired", that's even more nonsense. The "Jiyuan" ship is equipped with nearly 20 naval guns of different sizes. According to Japanese statistics, "Jiyuan" only fired dozens of rounds, while ships such as "Dingyuan" and "Chaoyong" all fired thousands or hundreds of rounds, and they could still fight to the end. But "Jiyuan" escaped with only a few dozen bullets, and the Japanese ship opened fire at top speed. Incredibly, only a few dozen bombs can damage nearly 20 artillery pieces. According to the report of Daler, a foreigner who was appointed to investigate the injuries of various ships after the war, the muzzle of the main gun of Jiyuan ship was marked by a hammer, while the corresponding part of the main gun of Jiyuan ship 2 10, which was kept in the Sino-Japanese War Museum in Liu Gongdao, China, was indeed marked by smashing. If the gun of the "Jiyuan" ship "can't fire" was really vandalized and thought it was an excuse to escape, then the crime would be even worse.

After the Beiyang warships that participated in the war returned to Hong Kong one after another, they refused to dock with the fleeing ships. "Jiyuan" can only be parked alone in humiliation, silently enduring the notoriety brought by the pipeline. Fang Boqian's luck came to an end this time. Although Ding ordered him to go to Sanshan Island on 19 to tow away the ship "Guang Jia" that ran aground when he escaped, and gave him a chance to make contributions by apologizing, Li Hongzhang, the minister of Beiyang, was completely disappointed with this once-relied officer. On the 24th, the military headquarters, as the center of the Qing court, officially ordered: "When the war broke out on18th this month, Fang Boqian, the deputy commander of the' Jiyuan' pipeline, fled first, causing chaos on the ship and its crew. Indeed, he did the right thing when he got cold feet." At five o'clock the next morning, Fang Boqian was beheaded on the execution ground west of Jinshanxia Wharf in Lushun at the age of 4 1.

Since then, the management belt of Jiyuan has been replaced by the original management belt of Guangyi, Lin Guoxiang, and Jiyuan was captured by the Japanese in Weihai on February 1895 and incorporated into the Japanese fleet. It still retains the name of Jiyuan, and its English translation was changed to TsiYuen, which was 1904 during the Russo-Japanese War. In 1980s, the water was salvaged by Yantai Salvage Bureau of Shandong Province and Jingjiang Ocean Engineering Company of Jiangsu Province, and some weapons, ship materials and other relics were produced, which are now preserved in the China Sino-Japanese War Museum. These water relics silently tell the story of Jiyuan, a twisted and sharp blade.

Postscript Since 1990s, initiated by the descendants of Fang Boqian, there has been a so-called trend of reversing the verdict, trying to establish Fang Boqian as the soul of china of the Chinese nation. It seems that the person who reversed the case should still remember the following historical scenes.

On the Yangtze River during War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's period, the cruiser Ninghai and Heping Hai of China Navy fought fiercely with the Japanese invaders in Jingjiang-Jiangyin section. Fang Boqian's nephew, Major General Fang Ying, ordered himself to be tied to the compass of the warship, inspiring the soldiers to fight, and vowed never to be the second in Fang Boqian. ...