consisting of four fine cruisers of high speed, and the Main Squadron,
composed of six vessels of lower speed. There were two smaller ships,
of no value as fighting vessels. The Chinese fleet was composed of
twelve vessels and six torpedo-boats, though two of the vessels and the
torpedo-boats were at a distance, so that the effective fighting force
on each side was composed of ten ships-of-war. The Chinese fleet
included the two great ships already named, the Ting-yuen and Chen-yuen.
The latter, as has been said, were heavily armored. The other Chinese
ships were lightly protected, and some of them not at all. None of the
Japanese vessels had external armor, their protection consisting of
steel decks and internal lining down to the water-line.
On perceiving the enemy's ships, Admiral Ito, of the Japanese fleet, at
once gave orders to his captains to prepare for action. Ting, the
Chinese admiral, did the same, drawing up his fleet in a single line,
with the large ships in the centre and the weaker ones on the wings.
Ito, who proposed to take advantage of the superior speed of his ships
and circle round his adversary, drew up his vessels in a single column
with the Flying Squadron at the head.
The action began at 1 P.M., the Chinese opening fire at about six
thousand yards, the Japanese reserving their fire until at half that
distance. Ito headed his ships straight for the centre of the Chinese
line, but on drawing near they swerved so as to pass the Chinese right
wing, their speed being at the same time increased. As the Yoshino,
which led the movement, came up, she became a target for the whole
Chinese fleet, but her speed soon carried her out of danger, the Flying
Squadron sweeping swiftly past the Chinese right wing and pouring a
deadly fire on the unprotected vessels there posted as they passed. The
stream of shells from the rapid-fire guns tore the wood-work of these
vessels into splinters and set it on fire, the nearest ship, the Yang
Wei, soon bursting into flames.
The Japanese admiral, keeping at a distance from the large central
vessels with their heavy guns, and concentrating his fire on the smaller
flanking ships, continued his evolution, the Main Squadron following the
Flying Squadron past the Chinese right wing and pouring its fire on the
second ship in the line, the Chao-yung, which, like its consort, was
soon in flames. This movement, however, proved a disadvantage to the
slower vessels of the Japanese fleet, which could not keep pace with
their consorts, particularly to the Hiyei, which lagged so far in the
rear as to become exposed to the fire of the whole Chinese fleet, now
rapidly forging ahead. In this dilemma its commander took a bold
resolve. Turning, he ran directly for the line of the enemy, passing
between the Ting-yuen and the King-yuen at five hundred yards' distance.
Two torpedoes which were launched at him fortunately missed, but he had
to bear the fire of several of his antagonists, and came through the
line with his vessel in flames. The Akagi, a little Japanese gunboat,
hurried to his aid, though seriously cut up by the fire of the Lai-yuen,
which pursued until set on fire and forced to withdraw by a lucky shot
in return. Meanwhile the Flying Squadron had wheeled to meet the two
distant Chinese ships, which were hastily coming up in company with the
torpedo-boats. On seeing this movement they drew back and kept well out
of reach. Somewhat later these vessels took part in the action, though
not an important one. At 2.23 P.M. the Chao-yang, which had been riddled
by the fire of the Main Squadron, sank, the cries of the drowning men
sounding above the roar of the cannon as she went down.
As a result of the Japanese evolution, the two squadrons finally closed
in on the Chinese fleet on both sides and the battle reached its most
furious phase. The two flag-ships, the Japanese Matsushima and the
Chinese Ting-yuen, poured the fire of their great guns upon each other
with terrible effect, the wood-work of the Chinese iron-clad being soon
in flames, while a shell that burst on the Matsushima exploded a heap of
ammunition and killed or wounded eighty men. Fire broke out, but it was
soon extinguished. Almost all the Japanese gunners were killed, but
volunteers pressed forward to take their place, among them even the
band-players.
On the Chinese flag-ship the flames drove the gunners from their pieces,
and she would probably have been destroyed had not the Chen-yuen come
bravely to her aid. The fire was finally extinguished by the aid of some
foreigners who were on board. It may be said here that the fire-drill of
the Japanese was far superior to that of their foes.
The Japanese continued their circling movement around their slower
antagonists, pouring a concentrated fire upon the weaker vessels, of
which the Chih-yuen was sunk at about 3.30 P.M. and the King-yuen at
4.48. By this time the Chinese fleet was in the greatest disorder, its
line broken, some of its vessels in full flight, and all coherence gone.
The fire of the Japanese fleet was now principally directed against the
two large iron-clads, but the fourteen-inch armor of these resisted the
heaviest guns in the Japanese fleet, and, though their upper works were
riddled and burnt, they were able to continue the battle.
In the fight here described the Japanese had shown a discipline and a
skill in naval tactics far superior to those of their foes. They had
kept at a distance of about four thousand yards from their antagonists,
so as to avoid their heavy fire and make the most advantageous use of
their larger number of rapid-fire guns and also of their much better
marksmanship. The result of the battle was not due to greater courage,
but to superior skill and more effective armament.
At nightfall, as the torpedo-boats had now joined the Chinese fleet, the
Japanese drew off, not caring to risk the perils of a battle at night
with such antagonists, both sides being also exhausted by the long
fight. The next morning the Chinese fleet had disappeared. It had lost
four vessels in the fight, and a fifth afterwards ran ashore and was
blown up. Two of the Japanese ships were badly damaged, but none were
lost, while the total loss in killed and wounded was two hundred and
eighteen, nearly half of them on the flag-ship. The Chinese lost far
more heavily, from the sinking of a number of their ships.
Thus ended the typical battle of modern naval warfare, one whose result
was mainly due to the greater speed and rapid evolutions of the Japanese
ships and the skill with which they concentrated a crushing fire on the
weak points of the enemy's line. The work of the quick-firing guns was
the most striking feature of the battle, while the absence of
torpedo-boats prevented that essential element of a modern fleet from
being brought into play. An important lesson learned was that too much
wood-work in an iron-clad vessel is a dangerous feature, and naval
architects have since done their best to avoid this weak point in the
construction of ships-of-war. But the most remarkable characteristic of
the affair is that the battle was fought by two nations which, had the
war broken out forty years before, would have done their naval fighting
with fleets of junks.
It may be said in conclusion that the Chinese fleet was annihilated in
the later attack on the port of Wei-hai-wei, many of the vessels being
destroyed by torpedo-boats, and the remainder, unable to escape from the
harbor, being forced to surrender to the Japanese. Thus ended in utter
disaster to China the naval war.
[Illustration: THE PEKIN GATE.]
_PROGRESS IN JAPAN AND CHINA._
We have in the preceding tales brought down from a remote period the
history of the two oldest nations now existing on the face of the earth.
There are peoples as old, but none others which have kept intact their
national organization and form of government for thousands of years.
Invasion, conquest, rebellion, revolution, have kept the rest of the
world in a busy stir and caused frequent changes in nations and
governments. But Japan and China lay aside from the broad current of
invasion, removed from the general seat of war, and no internal
convulsion or local invasion had been strong enough to change their
political systems or modes of life. And thus these two isolated empires
of the East drifted down intact through the ages to the middle of the
nineteenth century, when their millennial sleep was rudely broken and
their policy of isolation overthrown.
This was due, as has been shown, to the coming of the navies of Europe
and America, bent on breaking down the barriers that had been raised
against the civilization of the West and forcing these remote empires to
enter the concert of the nations and open their ports to the commerce of
the world. Concerning all this we have no tales to tell, but a brief
account of the effect of foreign intercourse upon China and Japan will
fitly serve to close our work and outline the recent history of these
two great powers of the East.
There are marked differences of character between the Chinese and the
Japanese, and these differences have had a striking effect upon their
recent history. In the Japanese we find a warlike and aggressive people,
a stirring and inquisitive race, not, like their neighbors on the
continent, lost in contemplation of their ancient literature and
disdainful of any civilization but their own, but ready and eager to
avail themselves of all that the world has to offer worth the having. In
the Chinese we find a non-aggressive people, by nature and custom
disinclined to war, asking only, so far as outer nations are concerned,
to be let alone, and in no sense inquisitive concerning the doings of
the world at large. Of their civilization, which goes back beyond the
reputed date of the Deluge, they are intensely proud, their ancient
literature, in their conception, is far superior to the literatures of
all other nations, and their self-satisfaction is so ingrained that they
still stand aloof in mental isolation from the world, only the most
progressive among them seeing anything to be gained from foreign arts.
These differences in character have given rise to a remarkable
difference in results. The Japanese have been alert in availing
themselves of all things new, the Chinese torpid and slow, sluggishly
resisting change, hardly yielding even to the logic of war.
There is nothing in the history of the world to match the phenomenal
progress of Japan since the visit of Commodore Perry in 1853. If it had
been the people of the United States, instead of those of that
archipelago of the Eastern seas, that in this way first gained a
knowledge of the progress of the outer world, they could not have been
readier in changing their old institutions and ideas and accepting a new
and strange civilization offered them from afar than have been the alert
islanders of the East.
When the American fleet entered the Bay of Yedo it found itself in the
heart of a civilization and institutions a thousand years and more of
age. The shogun, the military chief, was the actual ruler of Japan, as
he had been for many centuries before, the mikado, the titular ruler,
being still buried in that isolation into which he had long since
withdrawn. It was only a dim tradition with the people that the mikado
had ever been emperor in fact, and they looked on him as a religious
potentate to be worshipped, not as a ruler to be obeyed. The feudal
system, established in the past centuries, was still intact, the
provincial lords and princes being held in strict vassalage by the
shogun, or tai-kun (great king), as he then first termed himself. In
truth, Japan was still in its mediaeval state, from which it showed
scarcely a sign of emerging.
The coming of the foreigners made a sudden and decided change in the
situation. Within less than twenty years the whole condition of affairs
had been overturned; the shogun had been deposed from his high estate,
the mikado had come to his own again, the feudal system had been
abolished, and the people beheld with surprise and delight their
spiritual emperor at the head of the state, absolute lord of their
secular world, while the military tyranny under which they so long had
groaned was irremediably annulled.
Such was the first great step in the political revolution of Japan. It
was followed by another and still greater one, an act without a parallel
in the history of autocratic governments. This was the voluntary
relinquishment of absolutism by the emperor, the calling together of a
parliament, and the adoption of a representative government on the types
of those of the West. In all history we can recall no similar event. All
preceding parliaments came into existence through revolution or gradual
growth, in no other instance through the voluntary abdication of
autocratic power and the adoption of parliamentary rule by an emperor
moved alone by a desire for the good of his people and the reform of the
system of government.
Japan had learned the lesson of civilization swiftly and well, her
ablest sons devoting themselves to the task of bringing their country to
the level of the foremost nations of the earth. Young men in numbers
were sent abroad to observe the ways of the civilized world, to become
familiar with its industries, and to study in its universities, and
these on their return were placed at the head of affairs, industrial,
educational, and political. No branch of modern art and science was
neglected, the best to be had from every nation being intelligently
studied by the inquisitive and quick-witted island youth.
The war with China first revealed to the world the marvellous progress
of Japan in the military art. Her armies were armed and disciplined in
accordance with the best system of the West, and her warlike operations
conducted on the most approved methods, though only native officers were
employed. The rapidity with which troops, amounting to eighty thousand
in all, and the necessary supplies were carried across the sea, and the
skilful evolution, under native officers, of a fleet of vessels of a
type not dreamed of in Japan thirty years before, was a new revelation
to the observing world. And in another direction it was made evident
that Japan had learned a valuable lesson from the nations of
Christendom. Instead of the massacres of their earlier wars, they now
displayed the most humanitarian moderation. There was no ill treatment
of the peaceful inhabitants, while ambulances and field hospitals were
put at the disposal of the wounded of both sides, with a humane kindness
greatly to be commended.
But the lessons taught in this war were of minor interest and importance
in comparison with those of a much greater war ten years later. In those
ten years the progress of Japan had been proceeding with accelerated
rapidity. There was little of leading value in the arts and industries
of the West which had not been introduced into this island empire, the
equipment of her army vied with that of the most advanced powers, her
navy possessed a number of the most powerful type of steel-clad
battle-ships, she had been admitted into the family of the great nations
by a compact on equal terms with Great Britain, and she had become
adapted to cope with powers vastly more capable in the arts of war than
China, to deal, indeed, with one of the greatest and much the most
populous of European nations.
This was soon to be shown. The Boxer outbreak of 1900 in China ended
with Manchuria practically possessed by Russia, a possession which that
nation seemed disposed to maintain in defiance of treaty obligations to
China and of the energetic protest of Japan. As a result, to the
surprise, almost to the consternation of the world, Japan boldly engaged
in war with the huge colossus which bestrode Asia and half of Europe,
and to the amazement of the nations showed a military aptitude and
preparation and a command of resources which enabled her to defeat the
armies of Russia in every engagement, to capture the great stronghold of
Port Arthur, to win victories on the sea as notable as those on the
land, and in the end to impose upon Russia a treaty of peace humiliating
in its provisions to the proud Muscovite court. This victorious war
settled the status of Japan so far as the decision of the nations was
concerned. The island empire was definitely accepted as one of the great
powers of the world. Its standing in war had been established, and was
rapidly being matched by its standing in peace, its progress in
commerce, industry, and science promising to raise it to the plane of
the most advanced nations.
While little Japan was thus forging swiftly ahead, great China was
stolidly holding back. This was not from lack of intelligence or the
disposition to avail itself of material advantages, but from the pride
of its people and scholars in their own civilization and their belief in
the barbarism of the outer world. This sentiment was so deeply ingrained
as to make it hard to eradicate.
China was not without its reformers, and such progressive men as Li Hung
Chang had their influence. Steamships made their appearance upon the
inland waters of the empire, the telegraph was widely extended, and a
navy of modern war-ships was bought abroad. But the army, organized on
mediaeval principles, went to pieces before that of Japan, while the
ships, though their crews fought with courage and resolution, proved
unable to bear the impact of the better handled Japanese fleet.
Aside from its shipping and the telegraph, China at that time showed
little disposition to accept modern improvements. The introduction of
the railroad was strongly resisted, and commerce, industry, mining,
etc., continued to be conducted by antiquated methods. Nothing of value
seemed to have been learned from the war with Japan, and even the
seizure of parts of its territory by the powers of Europe and the threat
to dismember and divide it up among these powers seemed insufficient to
arouse it from its sluggish self-satisfaction.
Yet thought was stirring in the minds of many of the statesmen of China,
and the small band of reformers began to grow in numbers and influence.
The events of the twentieth century--the Boxer insurrection, the capture
of Peking by foreign armies, the retention of Manchuria by Russia, and
above all the mighty lesson of the Manchurian war, which demonstrated
admirably the revolution which modern methods had made in Japan--proved
more than even the conservatism of China could endure. Within the few
years since the dawn of the twentieth century the torpid leviathan of
the East has shown decided signs of awakening. Most prominent among
these indications is the fact that the ruling empress, but recently a
mainstay of the conservative party, has entered the ranks of reform and
given her imperial assent to radical changes in Chinese methods and
conditions.
Everywhere in China are now visible indications of the dawning of a new
era. The railroad is making its way with encouraging rapidity over the
soil of the celestial realm. New and improved methods in mining and
manufacture are being adopted. Other evidences of progress in material
things are seen in various directions. But most promising of all is the
fact that the time-honored method of restricting education to the
ethical dogmas of Confucius has been overthrown and modern science is
being taught in the schools and made part of the requirements of the
annual examinations for positions in the civil service of the empire. A
new race of scholars is being made in China, one which cannot fail to
use its influence to bring that old empire into the swing of modern
progress.
Equally significant with this revolution in the system of education is
the seemingly coming change in the system of government. Statesmen of
China are now engaged, under the sanction of the empress, in studying
the governmental systems of other nations, with a view of a possible
adoption of representative institutions and the overthrow of the
absolutism which has for ages prevailed. And this is being done at the
instance of the government itself, not in response to the demands of
insistent reformers. Back of the study of Western methods lies the power
to introduce them, and the probability is that before another generation
has passed China will be classed among the limited monarchies of the
world, even if it be not admitted to the circle of the republics.
These radical changes are of very recent introduction. They are results
of the developments of the past few years. But when we see the ball of
progress rolling so swiftly and gathering new material so rapidly, we
may well conjecture that before many years the China of the past will be
buried under its mass and modern China, like modern Japan, take rank
among the most progressive nations of the world.
* * * * *
Transcribers Notes:
1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
2. "Tenno" on pg's 5, 8 and 10 in original text appears with an macron
(straight line) over the "o".
3. An oe ligatgure appears in the original text in the words
"manoeuvres" (pg. 196) and "phoenix" (pg. 273).
Spelling: 4 corrections made based on (multiple) correct spellings
elsewhere in text.
pg. 12 "Takenouchi" to "Takenouchi" (2) (statesman named Takenouchi)
pg. 148 "Yang-tsze Kiang" to "Yang-tse-Kiang" (3) (river
Yang-tse-Kiang,)
pg. 280 "sufered" to "suffered" (now Chungwan suffered)
pg. 337 "flagship" to "flag-ship" (4) (the Japanese flag-ship,)
End of Project Gutenberg's Historic Tales, Vol. 12 (of 15), by Charles Morris