The ancestor curled his lips and said, "I am not very interested in these things. I just want to hear what you said about the end of the battle between China and Japan after decades of development. As you said, the Westernization Movement of the Qing Dynasty, the leaders of the Qing Dynasty, local officials went to buy Western machines, while the country bought Western weapons and handed them over to the new army controlled by the leaders of the National Development, right?"

Liu Yu nodded and said, "Yes, it is not actually a new army. At this time, the new army was just the army left after the victory of the anti-rebellion war. Most of the soldiers returned to their hometowns after receiving the rewards. A few of them formed new army after the disarmament. They trained according to the rules of the Western powers' armies so that they could use these purchased Western weapons. There were about 100,000 such so-called new army troops in the army. The other large number of Eight Banners and Green Camps still maintained their organization. The military pay for the New Army was mainly borne by these regiment leaders, who were responsible for taxes in the provinces they controlled."

"The big head of money was in the navy. In previous wars with the Western powers, almost all the Qing Dynasty navy's navy. Even if there were surviving, the old sailing ships and wooden ships were no match for Western warships. So a famous regiment leader established a fleet called the Beiyang Navy. The ships purchased the latest new iron-clad ships of Western countries, rather than buying out old ships. Relying on the tax and financial resources of the southeastern region of the Qing Dynasty, the Beiyang Navy once had a large number of advanced ships. From the total weight of the ship to the number of cannons it owned, they were among the top in the entire Eastern region at that time. Even the fleets of powerful countries such as France and Russia may not be the opponent of the Beiyang Navy."

The ancestor curled his lips and said, "After all, the Central Plains is a vast land and rich in resources. Even if it attacks the great powers and the rebels one after another, it is still capable of buying such a powerful fleet. However, these are still subject to others and have to spend their own real money to buy other people's. Can Japan make its own products?"

Liu Yu shook his head: "At this time, Japan did not have the ability to build ships on its own. Although some army weapons such as guns and cannons can be imitated, those warships weighing hundreds of thousands of pounds and millions of pounds were not completed in Japan, which had a weak industrial foundation, or in the Qing Dynasty. Japanese warships were also purchased from Western powers. Moreover, because their funds were not as abundant as those of the Qing Dynasty, the weight of the warships, the number of cannons, and the power of the artillery were slightly inferior to those of the Beiyang Navy of the Qing Dynasty."

"But Japan's victory is united and the whole nation strives. After defeating the Tokugawa Shogunate, the whole country was shrouded in a fanatical atmosphere of expansion. They spent all their money to buy arms and soldiers. In order to buy these Western weapons, starting from the Emperor himself, he ate less meal a day and donated the meal to buy weapons. In contrast, although the Qing Dynasty was also engaged in the Westernization Movement, for the Emperor and the Queen Mother of the Qing Dynasty, his enjoyment was the first priority, and there is the most obvious example.

That is to give the Empress Dowager at that time and the actual ruler of the Qing Dynasty at that time. In order to celebrate this woman's birthday, the Qing Dynasty built a very luxurious royal garden. The funds required for this garden were to misappropriate the military expenditure of the navy, which led to insufficient shells from the Beiyang Navy and also unsubscribed a new iron armored cruiser. This iron armored cruiser was immediately bought for Japan and became the flagship of the Japanese Navy, also known as the Joint Fleet."

The ancestor sighed: "When you talk about this, I already know the success or failure of this war. Both sides purchased Western weapons from abroad, and there was no big gap in performance. That is to see who finally made progress and worked hard. Japan is the whole country, just like the Qin State of Shang Yang's reform, and the Qing Dynasty was like Qi State and Wei State in the same period. It seemed to be larger and had a larger population, but the whole country lacked sufficient sense of crisis and ambition. Although the Westernization Movement made weapons advanced, in my opinion, people are still as numb, comfortable, and unprofitable as before. It is doomed to fail to face a new neighboring country with such a big country."

Liu Yu nodded and said, "Yes, that's it. After Japan became stronger, it began to expand outward. The first target was North Korea. This North Korea has always been a vassal state of the Central Plains dynasty, and was no exception during the Qing Dynasty. At this time, North Korea was corrupt and fought for power and profit. There was almost no decent army in the entire country. When North Korea also experienced large-scale civil unrest, not only did the Qing Dynasty send troops to suppress it as a sect leader, but even Japan sent troops to North Korea on the pretext of protecting the expatriates in North Korea. So the Qing Dynasty and Japan started a war because of the struggle against North Korea, because this war broke out in the year of Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895."

"Before this war, the entire world almost believed that the Qing Dynasty would win, because judging from the territory, population, army number, equipment weapons, and especially the strength of the naval fleet, the Qing Dynasty was several times that of Japan. The Qing Dynasty had defeated powerful countries like France before, which made the world admire it. However, only Britain, who was the first to defeat the Qing Dynasty, their naval officers believed that Japan would be the winner."

"The process of the war quickly confirmed the judgment of these British naval officers. On the surface, the Qing army was the elite who suppressed and suppressed the rebellion, but it had been more than thirty years since the war against the rebellion. The warriors in the army were already over 60 years old and had a high position and were also beginning to become greedy for death. When fighting with the Japanese army, they were almost at a loss. They threw down the army and escaped by themselves. The navy's fleet was not much better. The Beiyang minister, who was the leader of the regiment, regarded this fleet as his private property, for fear of destroying and sinking the warships. Therefore, they did not want to fight from the beginning, but instead hoped for the mediation of the Western powers and persuaded them to make peace. When they finally had to fight, they secretly ordered the admiral of the fleet to protect the ship, which was not what they should do when fighting normally."
Chapter completed!