During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese navy owned 3 1 large warships and 23 torpedo boats (another 3 were launched and were being equipped). The ship is divided into Yokosuga, Wu and sasebo, and the total number is more than that of Beiyang Navy. According to the Regulations on the Registration of Naval Ships used by the Japanese Navy at that time, its ships were divided into type I (main ships capable of going out to sea), type II (torpedo boats), type III (old warships and training ships capable of going out to sea), type IV (transport ships, tugboats and other auxiliary ships) and type V (barges, cargo ships and miscellaneous ships) * * On the other hand, Beiyang Navy has 20 large warships. As for torpedo boats, the Japanese Navy has built 23 operational torpedo boats, Beiyang Navy 13. If you don't count the torpedo boats that are too small, such as Ding Yi and Yizhen, there are only seven torpedo boats that Beiyang Navy can use in naval battles, less than one-third of the Japanese navy. The Sino-Japanese War broke out in Yoshino, and the new cruisers ordered by the navy after Japan entered the parliamentary system era, not only the number of ships that the Japanese navy can fight at sea greatly exceeded that of the Beiyang Navy, but also the quality of its ships was higher than that of the Beiyang Navy, which was the most prominent in the cruisers as the main force of the fleet. According to the classification standard of the British Navy, among the 28 large warships that the Japanese Navy can go to sea, there are 3 armored ships, 10 cruisers and 15 gunboats. All its armored ships were purchased from Britain during the first naval expansion in 1875. They were old warships before the Sino-Japanese War. Most of the Japanese navy's 15 gunboats are made in Japan, including 3 in the 1970s, 9 in the 1980s and 3 newly built in the 1990s. As the backbone of the Japanese navy, only the "Zhuzi" of the same type as the cruisers "Chaoyong" and "Yangwei" of China Beiyang Navy was purchased earlier. Of the remaining nine cruisers, three were built in the late 1980s (Su Lang, Takashi Chihiro and Kaohsiung), and as many as six were built in the 1990s (Song Dao, Yandao, Li Qiao, Chiyoda, Yoshino and Qiujinzhou). In terms of volume, only "Zhuzi" and "Kaohsiung" cruisers have a displacement of less than 2,000 tons. Of the remaining 8 ships, 2,000-ton 1 ship, 3,000-ton, and 4,000-ton. It can be seen that the scale of the Japanese naval cruiser group exceeds that of the Beiyang naval cruiser group with a single ship displacement of more than 2,000 tons. In addition, on the whole, as many as half of the 28 main warships of the Japanese Navy were built in or after 1888. In addition to large warships, the Japanese navy had 23 torpedo boats in service before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Except for five cars made in the 1980s of 19, the rest are brand-new models made after 1892. Compared with the old Beiyang navy, the Japanese navy's warship equipment is very novel. When the Japanese navy went to Europe to receive the "wave speed" ship, the officers took a group photo on the ship. The Japanese navy not only has advantages in tonnage and ship age, but also has obvious advantages in warship design and single ship combat effectiveness. This advantage is concentrated on nine main cruisers. The nine main cruisers of the Japanese Navy were born after 1885. Influenced by the popular idea of attaching importance to the firepower density of ships in the world navy at that time, the nine warships not only had main guns at the bow and in the bow direction, but more importantly, a large number of auxiliary guns were densely installed in the middle of the ships, which made the warships have extremely fierce firepower when fighting in the opposite direction. However, the lack of auxiliary artillery force on the side is the common shortcoming of Beiyang Navy warships. In addition, following 1890, British Armstrong Company has successfully developed new 6-inch (152 mm) and 4.7-inch (120 mm) caliber rapid-fire guns, both of which are equipped with automatic recoil devices. After firing the recoil, the gun can automatically return to its original position with the help of the recoil mechanism, compared with the manual assistance of the recoil. Although the power of this kind of shell is not as good as that of the large-caliber naval gun above 200mm, with the extraordinary firing rate, the number of shells projected by a single gun per unit time is about 10 times that of the old-fashioned gun, which can quickly form terrible suppression firepower. The Japanese navy is keenly aware of this new weapon. Almost all Japanese warships that came out after 1890 were equipped with rapid-fire naval guns made in Britain, among which Chiyoda, Yoshino and Qiuping were warships with rapid-fire guns as the main auxiliary guns. Armstrong 120mm rapid-fire gun drawings of Japanese warship Yoshino. At that time, the navy was equipped with a small-caliber cannon called a small-caliber rapid-fire gun in addition to a large-caliber rapid-fire gun. The main purpose of this gun on large warships is to kill enemy personnel at close range, destroy superstructure and components, and attack approaching torpedo boats. And it is amazing in close-range naval battles. Beiyang Navy is mainly equipped with French Hotchkiss 47mm and 37mm caliber five-tube turret guns and 57mm caliber single-tube guns. Among them, five turret guns have fast firing speed, but short barrel, light ammunition, short range and relatively small power. Although the 57 mm caliber single-tube cannon has a long range and great power, it is large in size, strong in recoil and relatively low in firing rate. 1887, when the wave of buying and building ships by Beiyang Navy was about to subside, Hakka Company launched a newly developed 47mm caliber single-barrel gun (called protective rapid-fire gun by the Japanese Navy, which was divided into heavy 47mm caliber guns with 3-pound warheads and light 47mm caliber guns with 2.5-pound warheads without reentry machine), with more balanced firing rate, power and maneuverability. The Japanese navy is keenly aware of the value of this new weapon, and almost all the main battle ships purchased and built after 1887 are equipped with a large number of Hakka 47 mm heavy or light cannon as auxiliary firepower on board. The main warships of the Japanese navy also have a strong firepower advantage in close combat. The traction shell of Hakikesi 47 mm cannon (small rapid-fire gun) equipped by Yoshino is as important as artillery. Before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese navy made a revolutionary breakthrough in medium and large caliber artillery ammunition. /kloc-around 0/890, Tatsumi I, a Japanese naval officer who was in charge of designing and building ships such as Matsushima and Iwashima in France, stole a bitter sample of a high explosive invented in France. On this basis, the Japanese naval engineer Shimonoseki realized the homemade picric acid explosive in Japan through analysis and test. The picric acid explosive successfully trial-produced by Yasushi Shimei was called explosive by the Japanese Navy at that time, and was later named Sese gunpowder. After obtaining the high explosive, Shimei Yayun further weaponized the explosive and used it as the warhead filler of medium and large caliber naval shells, which is the first time in the world. Picric acid is a kind of yellow explosive, because it will produce extremely sensitive and explosive picrate when it comes into contact with metal, so it is a crucial technical difficulty to safely load this high explosive into metal warhead. After many experiments, Yayun even paid the price of almost bursting his wrist and bleeding, and finally overcame many difficulties. The solution of Xiajing Yayun is: firstly, paint the inner wall of the warhead with thick paint to form a colored isolation layer, and then wrap the explosive in a silk bag soaked in wax water to form an isolation layer to prevent picric acid from directly contacting the metal bullet. Finally, considering that the explosive power of explosives is 75 times that of black powder commonly used in the navy at that time, it is easy to be dangerous to completely fill the warhead with explosives, so a method of mixing a small amount of explosives with a large amount of black powder was adopted, and the black powder formed an isolation layer around the explosive bag to isolate picric acid from metal bullets. Before the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the British Armstrong 6-inch (152 mm) and 4.7-inch (120 mm) caliber rapid-fire guns, which were heavily equipped by the Japanese navy, began to use shells mixed with explosives and black powder, and the Japanese naval arsenal also specially developed a new type of in-mountain fuze to make the shells completely practical. During the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the two main artillery shells used by the Japanese navy, the ordinary Grenade on the left and the steel Grenade on the right, all belonged to armor-piercing projectiles, and both were equipped with modified bottom fuses in the mountains. Before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Japanese navy surpassed the Beiyang navy in the novelty of ships, the firing rate of artillery and the efficiency of ammunition, and its only shortcoming appeared in the power of warships. Or take the nine main cruisers of the Japanese navy as an example. Although their overall age is brand-new, there are many high-speed cruisers such as Yoshino, whose speed is as high as 23 knots, and some warships have serious power defects when they come out. For example, the French-designed Song Dao, Yandao and Li Qiao are new cruisers built by the Japanese Navy to contain China Dingyuan and Zhenyuan armored ships, with a design speed of 16 knots. However, the speed of the three ships is seriously attenuated due to the high demand for steam pressure by steam engines and serious problems such as boiler leakage. In July 1894, the highest speed was only 10.25 knots, 1 1.64 knots and 1 1.05 knots respectively. Chiyoda, built in Britain, has a similar problem. The design speed of the ship is 19 knots, while the maximum speed 1894 measured in July is only 1 1.5 knots. The speed of the main battle ship is too fast, and the speed is too slow when it is slow, which is extremely unfavorable for formation navigation and combat, and is a test of the tactical design ability of the Japanese fleet commander.