130 years ago today, on February 12, 1895 (January 18, 1895 lunar calendar), the famous patriotic general Ding Ruchang committed suicide and died. Martyr Ding Ruchang (1836.11.18-1895.2.12) was originally named Xian Da, the word Yu Ting, also known as the rain pavilion, sub-chapter. Originally from Fengyang County, Anhui Province, he was originally an old-fashioned army officer in the late Qing Dynasty. He was appointed as the Admiral of the Beiyang Navy by Li Hongzhang. During the Sino-Japanese War, he performed heroically on the battlefield. Under the surrendering policy of Li Hongzhang's "protecting ships from war" and surrounded by British, German and other foreign advisers around him, the Beiyang Navy under his command was forced to enter Weihai Bay and was not allowed to go to war. He allowed the Japanese to land on Rongcheng Mountain and occupied all the battery emplacements on both sides of Weihaiwei, leaving himself in a desperate situation. As a last resort, he committed suicide and died. At that time, the commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, while commanding the onslaught of the Beiyang Fleet, wrote to Ding Ruchang to persuade him to lead the fleet to surrender. Ding Ruchang firmly refused the enemy's persuasion to surrender, and handed the persuasion letter to Li Hongzhang to express his determination to resist the enemy. In order to crush the enemy's persuasion plot, he was determined to risk his life to break through the siege. On the night of February 6, 1895, Ding Ruchang, in order to play the role of torpedo boats of the Beiyang Fleet, responded to the sneak attack of the enemy's torpedo boats and ordered the left torpedo boat to lead Wang Ping to lead the torpedo boat team of the Beiyang Fleet to attack the enemy ship. However, Wang Ping was greedy for life and was afraid of death. When the artillery battle between the two After the Japanese ships were discovered, they immediately pursued them. As a result, some of the torpedo boats of the Beiyang Fleet were destroyed, some were captured, and all were destroyed. Under the increasingly critical situation, the Japanese siege became more violent. A few shameless generals who were greedy for life and feared death and lost their national integrity secretly colluded with the foreign soldiers Ma Gelu and Haowei and prepared to surrender. They teamed up and encouraged some soldiers and water braves to take the commander of the escort, Zhang Wenxuan, to the Zhenyuan ship and threatened Ding Ruchang to surrender. Ding Ruchang would rather die than surrender, and on February 10 ordered all ships to risk their lives to break through the siege, or sink the ship or destroy the guns. But except for the Dingyuan ship's pipe (captain) who ordered the ship to sink and committed suicide that night, the other generals were greedy for life and fear of death, refused to obey the order, and even prepared to surrender with the ship. On February 11, the Japanese army attacked Weihaiwei and the Beiyang Fleet on land and water, and the artillery fire was more intense. The Qing army fought hard day and night, exhausted, and the ammunition would be exhausted. Ding Ruchang finally ordered the ship to be bombed and sunk in pain, but was opposed by some generals. Ding Ruchang never surrendered, but he could not command, and he committed suicide in despair. On the morning of the 12th, Maglu, Haowei and others drafted a surrender document in the name of Ding Ruchang, surrendered the remaining eleven ships and the Liugong Island battery and military equipment, and surrendered to the Japanese army. Li Hongzhang spent a lot of money to manage the Beiyang Navy for many years, and it was shamefully destroyed in this way. Ding Ruchang, commander of the Beiyang Navy