"Take a break" American sailor Ma Jifen committed suicide because of the failure of Beiyang Navy

Last year was the 20th anniversary of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895/KLOC-0. In this team, in addition to the unyielding Beiyang Navy prefect Ding, there is also an American naval officer. Ma Jifen, a little-known foreign officer, once commanded the armored ship Zhenyuan of the Qing Dynasty and fought alongside the Japanese joint fleet in the Yellow Sea War.

Who's Ma Jifen? He is an American youth who risked his life for the China Navy. He died at the age of 37. 1860 12 13, Ma Jifen was born in a prominent military family in Pennsylvania, USA. /kloc-was admitted to Indianapolis naval academy at the age of 0/7, but when 1884 graduated, he didn't serve in the navy, but went home with a resettlement fee of 1000 dollars. This year, the Sino-French war broke out. Ma Jifen read in the newspaper that Li Hongzhang had set up a navy division in Fuzhou. He was very excited and decided to join the army in China. 1in April, 885, Ma Jifen sailed for four months and arrived at the port outside Tianjin. But as soon as he landed, the first news he heard was that the war was over. Ma Jifen was disappointed, but he still wanted to be a naval officer in China. So he handed the application letter to Li Hongzhang through the American vice consul. Li Hongzhang accepted his interview. The interview went well, but just when Ma Jifen thought that "success was just around the corner", Li Hongzhang suddenly asked about his age, and Ma Jifen replied that he was 25. Li Hongzhang said with a straight face, "Standing at 30", Ma Jifen can't bear this heavy responsibility. At Ma Jifen's repeated entreaties, Li Hongzhang agreed to let Ma Jifen serve in the China Navy, if he could pass the exam. Two days later, Tianjin Naval Academy held a "civil service examination" specially for Ma Jifen. Ma Jifen, who studied in the United States Naval War College for seven years, got only 60% of the papers correctly, which made examiner China very satisfied. However, Li Hongzhang still didn't trust that the torpedo boat was commanded by foreigners, and only let Ma Jifen be the instructor of Tianjin Ordnance Bureau. During his teaching in Tianjin Ordnance Bureau, Ma Jifen earned only 130 taels of silver a year. Although he is in a high position, he never takes kickbacks when buying weapons. In this way, Li Hongzhang began to give Ma Jifen an important task.

1894, the Sino-Japanese War broke out. Ma Jifen was appointed as Zhenyuan Battleship Band to participate in the Yellow Sea naval battle. On September 17, Ma Jifen changed from an instructor to a soldier for this war. Ma Jifen often suggested that "preemptive strike is the strongest". However, he found that China people's strategy is always to "avoid the enemy and protect the ship" and "focus on defense", which puzzled Ma Jifen. Zhenyuan was surrounded by three Japanese warships, and the ratio of Chinese and Japanese warships quickly changed from 12 to 8 12. At the same time, the warships commanded by Ding were riddled with holes under the attack of Japanese warships. Therefore, Ma Jifen ordered the town to approach the Japanese fleet to disperse the Japanese firepower. After being attracted, Japanese flagship Yoshino fired at Zhenyuan, and Ma Jifen ordered all four Krupp main guns to fire. As a result, the Yoshino lost its combat effectiveness, which led to the retreat of two Japanese ships. Ma Jifen, who was seriously injured and almost blind, witnessed a shocking scene: after the bomb exploded, Deng Shichang led the Japanese ship Zhiyuan and the Japanese ship Yoshino to escape. Then Ma Jifen was carried into the cabin in a coma, leaving a picture of his head wrapped in cotton yarn and covered in blood.

1February, 995 17, the Japanese army invaded Ahava, and the Beiyang Navy was wiped out. Ma Jifen heard a news that the China court accused his foreign adviser of causing the defeat of the war. Ma Jifen knew what this meant to him, so he hid on an American cargo ship and sneaked home.

After the defeat of China's navy, western public opinion believed that the Japanese navy was brave and good at fighting, while China's navy had poor command and low quality soldiers. In order to "prove" his comrades who fought alongside him, Ma Jifen began to give speeches everywhere. There is a passage in Ma Jifen's book "Sea Battle by the Yalu River": "The China Navy is not as greedy and incompetent as you say." Our compatriots always insult China's navy. However, only one corvette and one gunboat escaped. Most of China's navies are working hard against the Japanese fleet. Although we are at a disadvantage in technology, don't insult us again. We and the dead deserve the respect of our fellow Americans. "

People only look at the outcome of the war. Because Ma Jifen's brain was badly injured in the war, Americans thought he had some mental problems, his efforts were considered crazy, and his words were also considered as jokes. Ma Jifen's description of the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was news at first, and was later regarded as crazy. Ma Jifen himself showed some signs of madness in the hospital. His medical record reads: "The optic nerve in the right eye is damaged, the eardrum is damaged, and there are shrapnel in the ribs and buttocks."

On February 1995, 1 1, Ding, who was out of ammunition, refused the surrender of the Japanese army and Lei Natuo and committed suicide by taking poison. Ma Jifen didn't understand why Ding Zhifu, whom he respected, had such an experience: Ding Changru had been dismissed before his death; After his death, Emperor Guangxu also issued the imperial edict of "No burial". Thinking of the prefect, he wrote: "In the middle of the night, under the lonely lamp, I thought for a moment and drank silver carp and died. How did the old hero feel at that time? " 1February 997 1 1 I chose the day when Governor Ding died of illness and committed suicide in a hospital in new york. He left a note on his hospital bed: "My heart belongs to China and Beiyang Navy." According to Ma Jifen's wishes, when he was buried, he wore the uniform of Beiyang Navy, brought back the flag of China Navy-Huanglong Banner, and hung it on Zhenyuan Ship.

The back of Ma Jifen's tombstone is engraved with the national flags of China and the United States, and the front reads: "I want to erect this monument to commemorate a soldier who loved the motherland and gave his life for another national flag."