Battle of Bohai Bay (1)
Due to the aftermath of the Battle of Magang, the Joseon state had been completely destroyed. With successive disasters piling up, the Korean army that had advanced into Liaodong had driven the Qing navy back to Weihaiwei after Lushun fell.
“I really want to give up.”
No, there was still one place left. That was Weihaiwei, the naval base where the Beiyang Fleet had been painstakingly nurtured for decades with the court’s funding.
The Qing navy’s situation was already dire. Its only naval base for maintenance was Weihaiwei on the Shandong Peninsula, and the fleet had nowhere else to go.
The Beiyang Fleet had not even been formally registered, and the two fleets established in Nanyang and Fujian for liberation had suffered repeated defeats. They were now being herded toward Shandong like half-destroyed ships.
Weihaiwei was literally packed with ships, with no room to maneuver. The Beiyang Navy was desperately gathering wounded vessels from every corner of the country and remnants adrift at sea, yet one day it received a bolt from the blue.
“What? An order to sortie?”
“Yes, Your Excellency.”
The aide who burst into the communications room froze Viceroy Jeong Yeo-chang when he read the telegram. He checked it again, but there was no trickery that could alter the black-inked message.
The telegram ordered the unprepared Beiyang Fleet to sortie.
“The operational area is the entire West Sea?”
“Yes.”
“Are these idiots really going mad in a group?”
The same shock gripped Jeong Seo-chang, who had rushed here to persuade the Viceroy not to sortie the fleet. He had followed him all the way from the General Staff, convinced the order was absurd.
“This is completely ridiculous.”
Although he had graduated from the Naval Academy and spent years supporting the birth of the Beiyang Navy from the position of a general without a ship, the order threatened to turn all his efforts to nothing. He could not calm his mind.
“I feel the same.”
Jeong Yeo-chang, encouraged by Jeong Seo-chang’s reaction that he was not alone in his thoughts, asked about the source of the order. No matter how he thought about it, he knew this kind of order could never come from the legitimate General Staff performing the current war.
“Was the order wrongly issued? They issued a sortie order even after seeing our fleet’s armament status? And from both the General Staff and the Zongli Yamen?”
His conviction that Li Hongzhang, the Beiyang Minister, would never issue such nonsense was corrected with a more precise answer.
“No. The General Staff had instructions to prioritize port protection.”
As expected from the General Staff. There was no reason to issue such a stupid order. Then the remaining possibility was…
“So the Zongli Yamen issued it alone? Did you check again?”
It was Beijing.
Having already identified it as the Qingliu Party’s or the Empress Dowager’s foolish move, Jeong Yeo-chang smiled bitterly.
Those bastards really did seem like shamans who only knew the land of death.
“Yes, left and right. Several reports submitted have all come back identical. It is an independent order from the Zongli Yamen to conduct power reconnaissance in the West Sea direction immediately.”
“This feels off.”
But dismissing it as mere Beijing absurdity was impossible. The order was far too detailed. Specific instructions on where to sortie and where to restrain would be impossible to issue from the military perspective of the Zongli Yamen or the Forbidden City.
So, Jeong Yeo-chang propped his chin, scratched his forehead trying to understand the order’s meaning, and shook his head in confusion.
I really am unsuited for the navy. I should submit a memorial to the Beiyang Minister right away.
“…But it’s still an absurd order. With the fleet’s armament and coal supply already tight, ordering them to rush out to sea like this is unreasonable.”
Although there were no quantified charts, the Viceroy knew the current fleet’s power was greatly inferior to the French Far East Squadron operating in the West Sea.
It was because military ports and repair shops across the empire had been indiscriminately bombarded by the French navy, leaving even the available low-carbon barely sufficient.
Jeong Yeo-chang raised his finger to count something and asked the engineer who jumped up to the bridge with the same surprise.
“Engineer, if we operate at current load, how many days can we remain operational off the West Sea coast?”
The engineer, gathering his expression, answered in a hesitant voice.
“Hmm, we received fuel once two days ago from the low-carbon, so we can operate for at least five days.”
“Five days.”
The Viceroy repeated the word several times in his mouth before answering.
“First, meaningful mobile operations are possible.”
“Viceroy left and right, but currently our fleet has lost too many officers, sailors, and armaments in reorganizing the Nanyang Fleet that escaped from Fujian.”
“More than half the corvettes and gunboats in the current fleet are unarmed. A significant number of skilled engineers have also been mobilized for fleet reconstruction.”
“In this worst situation, facing the French Far East Squadron allied with the American navy…”
Even though Jeong Yeo-chang’s tone suggested he was positively reviewing the order, aides rushed in like madmen, shouting the impossibility of operational success.
Most of them were professional officers who had graduated from naval academies in Britain and France, and their determination was absolute. When the last remaining Qing dynasty fleet sorted, this country would truly perish!
“Enough. Let’s organize this first.”
When the aides and officers rushed to denounce the absurdity of sortie and the fleet’s deficiencies, Jeong Yeo-chang hurriedly explained to relieve their anxiety.
“Has the General Staff received no intelligence? Even something minor.”
Then a white hand immediately popped out.
“Several days ago, a report that a steamship from Jemulpo had docked in Yingkou arrived.”
“Let me see.”
Following the Viceroy’s command, the communication record he was responsible for was hastily torn and handed to the aide. And Jeong Yeo-chang’s expression darkened when he reached out and grabbed the telegram.
“This is support from the Koreans heading to Shenyang.”
A terrifying report that the combat strength of the Korean army that had penetrated the entire Liaodong region was equivalent to about 200,000, along with the news that Shenyang was about to fall.
The sudden disaster that had grown to threaten even North China caused Jeong Yeo-chang to look at the aide who joined with a warning look.
“However, why did the General Staff issue an order prohibiting our fleet from sortieing? And why is the Zongli Yamen issuing sortie orders so late? If the Koreans have already landed in Yingkou, it’s useless to sortie the fleet now, isn’t it?”
“Hmm.”
Jeong Yeo-chang, looking at Jeong Seo-chang, shifted his gaze to the map on the wall of the operations room. There was something they were missing.
“Ah.”
And soon, the Viceroy found what they were missing.
“If they don’t head to Shenyang…?”
“Eh?”
The aides around Jeong Yeo-chang’s mutter were surprised.
On their reaction, the Viceroy said with a confident expression.
“Let’s think. If the Korean army that landed in Yingkou enters the Bohai Bay by boat again? Then, how should we move logically?”
“…”
How could it be, everything was doomed.
The aides who became speechless like those who ate honey, Jeong Yeo-chang slammed the table with an angry face.
“Damn. This is completely a one-sided fight. We got hit by the French.”
Despite the clear trap, the Beiyang Navy had to sortie. Otherwise, not only would Shenyang’s fall be second, but Shanhaiguan might really be attacked.
And Shanhaiguan was not just a pass for the Qing dynasty. It was a trumpet announcing the beginning and end of a thousand years.
Noticing the situation was urgent, Jeong Yeo-chang started poking his subordinates.
“Chief of Staff, how many ships have been fully armed for us to sortie with the Beiyang Fleet?”
“Fully armed, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“Well, twenty at most. Of which half are gunboats for coastal liberation, so if they engage in battle, firepower is meaningless, and the combat ships that can rely on meaningful firepower are the newly joined cruiser Fuxing and the corvette Chenhang that has completed emergency repairs.”
“Tsk.”
Jeong Yeo-chang clicked his tongue in front of his subordinates despite the extremely poor numbers, but disappointment was inevitable.
If not for the damn Beijing’s urging, those three times more modern cruisers would have remained here.
On Jeong Yeo-chang’s disappointed expression, Jeong Seo-chang added with a comforting tone.
“By the way, there is also the Fupo, which has all armaments removed but engines and sailors intact, left and right.”
“That’s a transport ship.”
It would be a coffin on the sea.
“Since we removed all armaments from the Nanyang Fleet and Fujian Fleet, which are already in ruins, and moved them over, there should be no problem in operation.”
Listening to the aides’ excuses, the Viceroy slowly opened his mouth.
“The cruisers we can mobilize are at most nine, well checked.”
“Otherwise, if we force the corvettes and other gunboats to join, in terms of scale, it would be similar to the current forty ships of the French Far East Squadron.”
“Good.”
By gathering all kinds of family property, about forty gunboats were born. Insufficient, but still, one size is the largest in East Asia.
Well, it was impossible for the Qing navy, which had naval power comparable to the second-rate European powers, to end up in a miserable state overnight compared to the Japanese navy, which had just begun to stretch its arms, and the Korean navy, which was doubted to have anything.
Based on the confidence from size, Jeong Yeo-chang, who was clever enough to guard Li Hongzhang’s side, finally opened his mouth after careful consideration.
“First, let’s do something. Although sortie of the fleet itself is impossible, to avoid being chased away by the Zongli Yamen’s incessant pressure, we need to at least pretend to receive the order.”
“Then, is it a decisive battle?”
“No. That’s impossible logically.”
Jeong Yeo-chang, who had thrown a sarcastic joke that if we had a body size to properly spar with the fleet of those great powers like the French Far East Squadron that had annihilated the Qing navy three times, it should have won at Magang, Jinhae, or Seokpo Bay, continued.
“Naval power is not decided solely by the difference in tonnage. Ships are just tools, the most important is the people who operate them.”
What they lacked was not resources but people, and especially skilled sailors and officers who had professionally received naval education, like Jeong Seo-chang.
Therefore, preserving the officer assets that would demonstrate ability in battle was the top priority for the fleet Viceroy Jeong Yeo-chang.
So,
“The defeated fleets of the Nanyang Fleet and the Fujian Navy are now at the level of emergency repairs just to start functioning. Even towing them out, accidents could cause casualties.”
“Then…?”
To Jeong Seo-chang, who trailed off, the Viceroy gave a firm command with a resolute expression.
“Complete emergency repairs on the remaining fleets of the Fujian Fleet and Nanyang Fleet, command the cruiser Fuxing as flagship to attempt mine-laying for Bohai Bay protection. In the meantime, the French Far East Squadron that will cover the ports will be restrained as much as possible by the Beiyang Fleet that has preserved the fleet.”
“But if the fleet that was supposed to protect the port all rushes out, the Far East Squadron might attempt maritime blockade.”
“To prevent that, our forward outposts on the Shandong Peninsula must send timely warnings. In the situation where both sides are moving fleets like stripping off underwear on a gambling table after losing all cards, there is no meaning in feints.”
Although it was a trick, in a situation where nothing could be done, the method Jeong Yeo-chang could come up with was cowardice.
It could not decisively block the Bohai Bay’s entry, but it was a kind of low posture not to watch the entry passively.
Jeong Yeo-chang, who ordered to start mine-laying operations for this, explained further.
“If they are determined to block Shanhaiguan through the Bohai Bay and encircle and annihilate Shenyang, it will certainly be a very serious situation for our army. Therefore, despite the clear difference in military strength, we must carry out an ambitious operation to protect the empire.”
He wanted to avoid a future where his sweat and blood effort to build the fleet for today would be wasted overnight, but unlike the destroyed fleet, the fallen country would be extremely hard to revive.
Having made up his mind, Jeong Yeo-chang commanded the naval officers including Jeong Seo-chang.
“Request cooperation from the General Staff. Inspect the defense posture in the legitimate area, and transmit the movement of the Far East Squadron daily through the forward outposts. If our fleet is attacked by the enemy during mine-laying operations, it will cause a very fatal accident in the overall situation.”
“Yes!”
By using tricks and exerting effort, what remained was only to leave it to the sky.
