Cheng Biguang

Cheng Biguang

Cheng Biguang (1861-february 26, 1918), born in Xiangshan County, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, was a Naval General in the early years of the Republic of China. Cheng Biguang used to be the guandai of Guangdong Navy's guangc warship and participated in the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895. After the destruction of the Northern Fleet, Cheng submitted a letter of surrender to the Japanese army. After that, Cheng was dismissed and took part in the revolution. After the founding of the Republic of China, he was once the Navy chief under the Beiyang government. After Sun Yat Sen, a fellow countryman, launched the movement, Cheng led his fleet south to Guangzhou to support the movement. Later, he was assassinated in Guangzhou.

Life of the characters

early years

He was born in Chengpei County, Guangzhou. His father, Cheng Peifang, was in business in America. He died in Honolulu in 1871. In 1872, he went to his brother-in-law, Lu Yunshan. At that time, Fuzhou Shipping Bureau had just made the "Jingyuan" gunboat, which was led by Lu Yunshan. Lu Yunshan ordered Cheng Biguang to learn the art of navigation.

Join the Navy

In 1875, Cheng Biguang was admitted to Fuzhou shipping school to study navigation. After graduation on the "Yang Wu" ship as a trainee. After that, he successively served as the "Chaowu" gun ship management belt of Nanyang Navy, the "Yuankai" gun ship management belt, the teacher of Fujian Navy School, and the "Guangjia" fast ship assistant belt of Guangdong Navy. Ji Gong promoted the capital division and upgraded the "guangc" ship management belt.

Jia Wu sea fight

In May 1894, the Qing government reviewed the Navy for the second time. Yu Xiongfei, the commander-in-chief of Guangdong Navy, led the "Guangjia", "Guangyi" and "Guangbing" warships to the northern ocean for a joint exercise. During the exercise, "the three warships of Guangdong drove along the way and practiced the array of warships, changing in order, flying wild geese and running fish, maneuvering freely" and "hitting more than 70% of the target". After the parade, the situation in North Korea became increasingly tense. Cheng Biguang wrote a letter to Li Hongzhang, asking to stay in the northern ocean for war. Li Hongzhang adopted the proposal, and the two ships, Guangyi and Guangbing, stayed in the north ocean because of their stay in the north ocean. After returning to Guangdong, Guangjia also stayed in the north ocean. So the three ships of Guangdong were incorporated into the Beiyang Navy.

On July 25, the Japanese Navy started a war in the sea near Fengdao. On September 17, the main force of the Beiyang Navy and the Japanese joint fleet met in the Yellow Sea and started a war. At that time, "Guangbing" was on guard at the port. At 12:50 noon, after the battle started, Cheng Biguang commanded the "Guangbing" warship to rush to the battlefield at 1:30 in the afternoon to fight. At 2:40, the "Guangbing" fired guns to injure the Japanese warship "xijingwan" and caused a fire. The "Fulong" torpedo boat took the opportunity to launch two torpedoes. At that time, the Japanese Navy commander, lieutenant general Huashan Ziji, was riding on the "xijingwan" and thought that "I'm done." I'll die in my eyes. It's a pity that both torpedoes missed and got away with it. During the naval battle, Cheng Biguang was hit by shrapnel in the abdomen and his underwear was stained with blood.

On January 30, 1895, the Japanese began to attack Weihaiwei. Since then, the Beiyang navy was trapped in Weihaiwei harbor. On February 11, governor Ding Ruchang and "Zhenyuan" leader Yang Yonglin of the left wing general nursing department both refused to commit suicide. Some of the foreign soldiers negotiated with Niu Changbing and others from Weihaiwei camp office to surrender. They decided that Haowei, an American foreign soldier, would draft a letter of surrender and beg to surrender to the enemy in the name of Ding Ruchang. On the 12th, Cheng Biguang delivered the letter of surrender to the Japanese flagship on the "Zhenbei" gunship. On the 17th, Japanese troops marched into Liugong Island and the whole Beiyang navy was destroyed.

The late Qing Dynasty

After the war, Cheng Biguang was dismissed and returned to his hometown. Kui Guang, his younger brother, was the shipmaster of Zhentao, Guangdong Navy at that time. Because of his hometown relationship with Sun Yat Sen, he joined the Xingzhong society in Guangzhou. After returning to his hometown, Cheng Biguang was persuaded by Sun Yat Sen and his younger brother to join the association. In October 1895, the plan for the uprising of the Xingzhong society was leaked, and Cheng Biguang fled to Penang Island in Nanyang. In 1896, when Li Hongzhang was on a mission to Europe and passed by Penang Island, Cheng Biguang paid a visit to him. Li Hongzhang advised him to return home and asked him to avoid the whole army's annihilation in the Sino Japanese War of 1894-1895.

Cheng Biguang returned to China and returned to the Navy. After that, he successively served as the commander of the warship, the director of the shipping department, and the commander of the cruising fleet. In April 1911, Zeng led the cruiser Haiqi to Britain to attend the coronation ceremony. Later, a large-scale Anti China incident occurred in Cuba and Mexico. Cheng Sui led the ship to visit Cuba, which was warmly welcomed by the local Chinese. However, the Cuban president was awed by the prestige of the Haiqi ship, so he had to say to Cheng Biguang, "the Cuban military and people will never discriminate against overseas Chinese." The Haiqi was moored in Cuba and planned to visit Mexico after its rest. Without waiting for the Haiqi ship to visit, the Mexican government apologized to the Qing government for the anti Chinese incident and paid for the loss of life and property of the victims. The Chinese warship just cancelled the visit. Cheng Biguang had a successful gunboat diplomacy during his voyage.

Beiyang Period

During the period of Beiyang government, he lived in Shanghai. But yuan was not at ease that he lived in the south. In the spring of 1913, Yuan sent officers to invite him to Beijing, where he was employed as a senior adviser of the Navy, and then served as a counsellor of the commanding Office of the Grand Marshal of the army and navy. Later, Yuan Shikai's rebellious desire for restoration gradually revealed, and Cheng Biguang was very depressed. In the autumn of 1915, he wrote a letter to a friend, saying, "but the times are not good, which is really tiresome. I wish I could die early."

After Yuan Shikai's death in June 1916, Li Yuanhong succeeded as president and Duan Qirui as premier of state. In his early years, when he was a navy officer, Li Yuanhong was a member of Biguang's subordinate. At this time, he strongly recommended Cheng Biguang as the chief of the Navy, which was approved by the Congress. Cheng stood on the side of "Fu" and became Li Yuanhong's supporter in the later "Fu Yuan struggle".

In April 1917, on the issue of declaring war on Germany, the contradiction between Li and Duan became white hot. In order to exert pressure on the president and Congress, Duan Qirui summoned provincial governors to Beijing and held a military meeting on the 25th. Navy chief Cheng Biguang and army training director Zhang Shaozeng were also invited to attend. After Duan announced his claim to declare war on Germany, he stuffed a pre prepared signature sheet "in favor of the prime minister's foreign policy" into the audience for signature. The provincial governors or their representatives all supported Duan's intention and signed "yes", but Cheng Biguang wrote: "if the Congress is consistent, it should be subject to the majority's public opinion." Make Duan very unhappy. Later, when the war case was submitted to the house of representatives for examination by the State Council, Duan Qirui instigated the military, police and hooligans to perform the farce of "citizen group" encircling the Parliament and insulting members. For a moment, the crowd was furious and the public opinion was in uproar. Cheng Biguang, together with Foreign Minister Wu Tingfang, justice minister Zhang yaozeng and agriculture and Commerce Minister Gu Zhongxiu, proposed to Duan that the cabinet should take the blame and the general manager should resign, but Duan refused. So that night, Cheng Biguang and the other four submitted their resignations to the president respectively, leaving only the "prime minister" in the fragmentary Duan cabinet. On May 23, Duan Qirui was removed from the post of prime minister by Li Yuanhong. Under Duan's instigation, the provincial governors of Beiyang Department declared their independence one after another, and prepared to expel Lebanon by force. Seeing that the incident was imminent, Cheng Biguang ordered Lin Baoyi, commander of the first fleet of the Navy, to lead his ship to Dagu and expressed his support for Li. At the beginning of June, Cheng asked Li to leave Beijing and go south. He was willing to lead a fleet to escort him. Li did not agree. Cheng had no choice but to leave Beijing first and arrived in Shanghai on the 9th. On the same day, he called a meeting of the captains of the ships to study the ways to deal with the traitors.

The period of protecting the law

Since Duan Qirui came to power and led the governor's regiment into chaos, the southwest provinces and the Kuomintang led by Sun Yat Sen have stood in sympathy with Li. After Cheng arrived in Shanghai, he got in touch with Sun Yat Sen, Tang Shaoyi and Cen Chunxuan, who were in Shanghai at that time, to study the method of supporting Li and opposing Duan. Zhongshan raised military expenses for the Navy and encouraged Cheng to break away from Beijing government.

In June, when Zhang Xun went north, the parliament was forced to dissolve. In July, after the restoration of Zhang Xun, Li Yuanhong entered the Japanese embassy. When Cheng Biguang heard of the news in Shanghai, he sent three warships north to Qinhuangdao to welcome Li Yuanhong south, but failed. On the 3rd, Cheng and Lu Yongxiang, the protector of Songhu, jointly issued an address denouncing the restoration and supporting the Republic.

In 1917, Sun Yat Sen encouraged Cheng Biguang to break away from the Beiyang government. On July 21, Cheng Biguang led some ships to the south of Guangzhou. On the next day, he issued a declaration on naval Dharma protection, known as the Dharma protection fleet. On September 10, the military government was established, Sun Yat Sen was elected Grand Marshal, and Cheng Biguang was appointed Navy chief. On February 26, 1918, Cheng Biguang was assassinated in Guangzhou. It is still a mystery to assassinate the principal. On January 20, 1919, the Guangzhou military government posthumously conferred the title of admiral. On July 20, 1922, he was awarded a admiral.

Biography of Cheng Biguang

Cheng Biguang, named Hengqi, was born in 1861 in Xiangshan County (now Zhongshan County), Guangdong Province. His father, Cheng Peifang, was a businessman in America. He died in Honolulu in 1871 and returned home with Bi Guang. After the funeral, forced to make a living, he lived in Fujian on his brother-in-law Lu Yunshan. When Yunshan was in charge of the Jingyuan warship, he ordered him to learn navigation. At the age of 15, he entered the Naval Academy of Majiang shipping administration. After graduation, he was assigned as an intern of Yangwu warship. Later, he successively served as the leader of Chaowu warship, the leader of Yuankai warship, the teacher of Fujian Naval Academy, the leader of Guangjia warship, and the leader of guangc warship.

Guangjia, guangb and guangc are all Guangdong Navy. In 1894, the Guangdong Navy sent Cheng Biguang as the leader of the Guangdong warship, leading the three warships Guangjia, guangb and guangc to the north for the joint exercise. After the joint operation, the Sino Japanese war will break out, and the Guangdong warships will be kept as reserve forces. Bi Guang wrote to Li Hongzhang, governor of Zhili and Minister of Beiyang, asking to lead the Guangdong warships to the front line. Li Hongzhang and Xu Zhi organized the three ships into the Northern Fleet to fight. Bi Guang was ordered to lead the warship to protect the army eastward and fight with the enemy warships in Dadonggou. Once, Bi Guangli was in command of the battle on the guangc warship, and his abdomen was injured and his underwear was stained with blood.

After the Yellow Sea war, Li Hongzhang adopted the policy of "protecting ships and avoiding war" and ordered the Northern Fleet to retreat to Weihaiwei harbor and not to fight at sea. In January 1895, the Japanese army invaded Weihaiwei. At the end of the month, the north and South Fort of Weihaiwei fell into enemy hands. The Japanese Navy blocked the East and West ports of Weihaiwei, which were controlled by the sea and land

Chinese PinYin : Cheng Bi Guang