The Battle of Yingkou (Japanese: ) was a land battle of the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895) was a conflict between China and Japan primarily over influence in Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the po ...

between the forces of

Meiji Japan The is an era of Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization b ...

and

Qing China The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu people, Manchu-led Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin (1616–1636), La ...

, fought outside the

treaty port Treaty ports (; ja, 条約港) were the port cities in China and Japan that were opened to foreign trade mainly by the unequal treaties forced upon them by Western powers, as well as cities in Korea opened up similarly by the Japanese Empire. ...

town of

Yingkou Yingkou () is a coastal prefecture-level city of central southern Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, on the northeastern shore of Liaodong Bay. It is the third-smallest city in Liaoning with a total area of , and the ninth most populo ...

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

. It is sometimes referred to as the Battle of Niuzhuang or Newchwang.

Background

Following the capture of the

walled town The following cities have, or historically had, defensive walls. Africa Algeria * Algiers * Ghardaïa * Timimoun Egypt * Al-Fustat * Cairo * Damietta See List of Egypt castles, forts, fortifications and city walls. Ethiopia * Harar Libya *A ...

of Haicheng, near

Liaoyang Liaoyang () is a prefecture-level city of east-central Liaoning province, China, situated on the Taizi River. It is approximately one hour south of Shenyang, the provincial capital, by car. Liaoyang is home to Liaoning University's College of Fo ...

in the

Liaodong Peninsula The Liaodong Peninsula (also Liaotung Peninsula, ) is a peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. It is located between the mouths of the Daliao River (the ...

, Manchuria by the 3rd Division of the

Japanese First Army The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army. It was raised and demobilized on three occasions. History The Japanese 1st Army was initially raised during the First Sino-Japanese War from 1 September 1894 – 28 May 1895 under the command of ...

on 13 December 1894, Qing forces made four attempts in December and January 1895 to retake the town. This was the only Chinese offensive of the war, and all four attacks were unsuccessful. Military operations were hampered by deep snow and extremely severe winter weather. On 10 January 1895, the

Japanese Second Army The was an army of the Imperial Japanese Army. It was raised and demobilized on four occasions. History The Japanese 2nd Army was initially raised during the First Sino-Japanese War from September 27, 1894, to May 14, 1895, under the command o ...

launched a three-pronged attack on the walled city of Gaiping. Although the defenders resorted to freezing water on an incline to make it difficult for the Japanese to approach the walls, the city quickly fell. This severed the Qing lines of defense, and positioned the Japanese to strike either north to the ancient capital of

Mukden Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provi ...

, or west to the capital of Beijing.

The battle

Following the last attempt to retake Haicheng, Qing forces reinforced the port city of Niuzhuang with approximately 20,000 men, including a large force of cavalry. Another Qing force of around 20,000 men reinforced

to the north, and on 1 February Viceroy

Liu Kunyi Liu Kunyi () (January21, 1830October6, 1902) was a Chinese official who came to prominence during the government suppression of the Taiping Rebellion and was active in the following Self-Strengthening Movement in the second half of the nineteen ...

arrived to assume overall command of Qing military operations. Liu launched an attack with 16,000 men against the Japanese forces at Haicheng on 16 February. The attack was repulsed with a loss of 150 men killed and wounded. However, when news of the capture of Weihaiwei on 12 February by Japanese forces reached the Qing army, the attack was discontinued. Demoralized, many of the Qing forces began to desert. On 28 February, Japanese forces under General

Nozu Michitsura Marshal (Japan), Field Marshal The Marquis was a Japanese people, Japanese Field Marshal (Japan), field marshal and leading figure in the early Imperial Japanese Army. Biography Nozu was born in Kagoshima as the second son of a low-ranking '' ...

began a counterattack against Liaoyang and Niuzhuang, beginning with an artillery barrage and followed with an infantry offensive across a wide front. The Qing forces were driven in disorderly retreat to the northwest towards

Jinzhou Jinzhou (, ), formerly Chinchow, is a coastal prefecture-level city in central-west Liaoning province, China. It is a geographically strategic city located in the Liaoxi Corridor, which connects most of the land transports between North Chin ...

, offering only light and sporadic resistance. A portion of the Japanese army under Lieutenant General

Katsura Tarō Prince was a Japanese politician and general of the Imperial Japanese Army who served as the Prime Minister of Japan from 1901 to 1906, from 1908 to 1911, and from 1912 to 1913. Katsura was a distinguished general of the First Sino-Japanese W ...

pursued the retreating Chinese to the walls of Liaoyang by 3 March, while the main force with the 3rd and

IJA 5th Division The was an infantry division of the Imperial Japanese Army. Its call sign was the . The 5th Division was formed in Hiroshima in January 1871 as the , one of six regional commands created in the fledgling Imperial Japanese Army. Its personnel we ...

s under General Nozu reached Niuzhuang on 4 March. After a two-hour-long artillery barrage, Qing forces abandoned the walls of Niuzhuang with almost no resistance, fleeing into town. However, with further retreat cutoff, the Qing forces resorted to

urban warfare Urban warfare is combat conducted in urban areas such as towns and cities. Urban combat differs from combat in the open at both the operational and the tactical levels. Complicating factors in urban warfare include the presence of civilians and t ...

, contesting the city street-by-street in what was often hand-by-hand combat. However, by nightfall the fighting had ceased with a large number of Qing soldiers breaking through Japanese lines and fleeing into the countryside, and with the remainder (approximately 600 men) surrendering. As with previous campaigns, a large quantity of supplies and weapons were captured by the Japanese. Following the capture of the city, Japanese forces under General

Nogi Maresuke Count , also known as Kiten, Count Nogi (December 25, 1849September 13, 1912), was a Japanese general in the Imperial Japanese Army and a governor-general of Taiwan. He was one of the commanders during the 1894 capture of Port Arthur from Chin ...

and Lieutenant General

Yamaji Motoharu Viscount , was a lieutenant general in the early Imperial Japanese Army during the First Sino-Japanese War. Biography Early career Yamaji was born in Tosa Domain (present day Kōchi Prefecture) in what is now part of the city of Kōchi, where ...

attacked and captured the coastal forts protecting the entrance to the

of Niuzhuang, where Qing forces were attempting to regroup. On 6 March 1895, the Japanese forces proceeded to bombard the town of Tianzhuangtai on the opposite side of the

Liao River The Liao River () is the principal river in southern Northeast China, and one of the seven main river systems in China. Its name derived from the Liao region, a historical name for southern Manchuria, from which the Liaoning province, Liaodong P ...

, which they razed to the ground.

Aftermath of the battle

The capture of Yingkou marks the effective end of major combat on the Asian mainland in the First Sino-Japanese War, although the Imperial Japanese Army continued to push for permission from

Imperial General Headquarters The was part of the Supreme War Council and was established in 1893 to coordinate efforts between the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy during wartime. In terms of function, it was approximately equivalent to the United States ...

to continue on towards either Beijing or Mukden. On 24 March, the Japanese made an amphibious landing with several thousand troops on the Qing fortifications at Haichow in

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

, north of

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. The capture of these fortifications placed the Japanese within 50 miles of the strategic Grand Canal connecting Beijing with

Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...

. This applied more pressure on the Qing government to finalize discussions on ending the war, as did the Capture of the Pescadores near

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

at the end of March. Negotiations for the

Treaty of Shimonoseki The , also known as the Treaty of Maguan () in China and in the period before and during World War II in Japan, was a treaty signed at the , Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing China, ending the Firs ...

, which had begun on 20 March, were finalized by the Qing surrender on 17 April, ending the war.

References

*Chamberlin, William Henry. ''Japan Over Asia'', 1937, Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 395 pp. * Kodansha ''Japan An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1993, Kodansha Press, Tokyo * Lone, Stewart. ''Japan's First Modern War: Army and Society in the Conflict with China, 1894–1895,'' 1994, St. Martin's Press, New York, 222 pp. * Paine, S. C. M. ''The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895: Perception, Power, and Primacy,'' 2003, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA, 412 pp. * Warner, Dennis and Peggy. ''The Tide at Sunrise'', 1974, Charterhouse, New York, 659 pp. {{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Yingkou

Military history of Manchuria

1895 in China 1895 in Japan March 1895 events Urban warfare