Li Hongzhang and the Beiyang Fleet

He was the Qing dynasty’s last patch-up man. Amid suspicion between the emperor and empress and the encirclement of foreign powers, he single-handedly held up the Beiyang Fleet. From the dream of being Asia’s mightiest navy to its defeat in the Yellow Sea, he poured his life’s work into a fleet, only to watch the dynasty’s last shred of dignity sink beneath the waves with the setting sun, as he lay wounded and mocked at Shimonoseki.