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列傳二百四十九
Biography 249
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丁汝昌衛汝貴弟汝成葉志超
Ding Ruchang; Wei Rugui; Ru Cheng, his younger brother; and Ye Zhichao
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丁汝昌，字禹廷，安徽廬江人。 初隸長江水師，從劉銘傳徵捻，積勳至參將。 捻平，賜號協勇巴圖魯，晉提督。 光緒初，留北洋差序，赴英國購兵艦，曆法、德各營壘廠局，還綜水師。 八年，朝鮮與美議互市，請蒞盟，汝昌與道員馬建忠東渡監約。 既而朝軍譁變，焚日使署，遂率濟遠、揚威二艦赴仁川、漢城護商，而日軍已先至，汝昌還請益師。 隨統七艦以濟，薄王京，與吳長慶及建忠謁李應罡，執以歸。 九年，授天津鎮總兵。 會越南南定陷，乘兵艦往江平及欽州白龍尾，徼循海口，賞黃馬褂。 十四年，定海軍經制，命為海軍提督。 軍故多閩人，汝昌以淮軍寄其上，恆為所製。 總兵以下多陸居，軍士亦去船以嬉，又值部議停購船械，數請不獲，蓋海軍廢弛久矣。 二十年，賞加尚書銜。
Ding Ruchang, whose style was Yuting, came from Lujiang in Anhui. He first served in the Yangtze River navy, joined Liu Mingchuan in suppressing the Nian rebels, and rose through merit to adjutant. After the Nian were suppressed, he received the honorific Xieyong Batulu and was promoted to provincial commander-in-chief. Early in Guangxu, he stayed on with the Beiyang command, traveled to Britain to buy warships, toured military camps and arsenals in France and Germany, and on returning assumed overall direction of the fleet. In year eight of Guangxu, Korea negotiated commercial treaties with the United States and requested a Chinese representative at the signing; Ruchang and Circuit Intendant Ma Jianzhong sailed east to oversee the pact. Soon afterward Korean troops mutinied and burned the Japanese legation; he took the Jiyuan and Yangwei to Inchon and Seoul to protect merchants, but the Japanese had already landed, so Ruchang withdrew to seek more troops. He then led seven vessels across, closed on the capital, and with Wu Changqing and Ma Jianzhong paid a visit to the Daewongun Yi Ha-eung, seized him, and escorted him back. In year nine he was appointed commander of the Tianjin garrison. When Nam Dinh in Vietnam fell, he sailed to Giang Thanh and Bailongwei near Qinzhou, patrolled the coastal approaches, and was awarded the yellow riding jacket. In year fourteen the permanent naval establishment was set, and he was appointed commander-in-chief of the navy. The fleet had long been dominated by Fujian men; Ruchang, a Huai Army officer placed above them, was perpetually hamstrung. Regimental commanders and below mostly lived ashore; sailors likewise left their vessels for leisure; and with the ministry halting orders for ships and ordnance, repeated petitions went unanswered—the navy had been run down for years. In year twenty he was given the nominal rank of a ministry president.
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朝亂再起，汝昌欲至濟物浦先攻日艦，將啟行，總署電柅之。 逮日艦縱橫海上，海軍始集大東溝、鴨綠江口。 定遠為汝昌座船，戰既酣，擊沉其西京丸一艘。 已，致遠彈藥盡，被擊，總兵鄧世昌戰死。 自是連喪五艦，不復能軍。 汝昌猶立望樓督戰，忽座船砲震，暈而仆，舁以下。 汝昌鑑世昌之死，慮諸將以輕生為烈，因定海軍懲勸章程，李鴻章上之，著為令。 旅順陷，汝昌渡威海，是時兩軍相去二百二十餘里，朝士爭彈之，褫職逮問。 鴻章請立功自贖，然兵艦既弱，坐守而已。
When unrest erupted in Korea again, Ruchang meant to strike Japanese warships first at Chemulpo, but as he was preparing to sail the Zongli Yamen telegraphed to hold him back. Only after Japanese vessels dominated the sea did the fleet finally mass at Dadonggou and the Yalu estuary. Ruchang fought from the Dingyuan; as the battle intensified, his force sank the Japanese Saikyo Maru. Soon the Zhiyuan ran out of ammunition and was hit; Regimental Commander Deng Shichang was killed in action. After that five ships were lost in succession, and the squadron could no longer function as a fighting fleet. Ruchang still stood on the fighting top directing the battle; suddenly a blast on his flagship stunned him and he collapsed, and men carried him below decks. Mindful of Shichang's death, Ruchang worried officers would treat rash suicide as glory; he drafted naval regulations on discipline and encouragement, Li Hongzhang submitted them, and they were issued as standing orders. After Lüshun fell, Ruchang withdrew to Weihai; the two forces were then more than two hundred li apart, court critics clamored for his blood, and he was dismissed and placed under arrest. Hongzhang pleaded that he be allowed to redeem himself in battle, but with the fleet already crippled he could only hold his position.
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逾歲，日軍陷榮城，分道入衛。 汝昌亟以木簰塞東西兩口，復慮南岸三台不守、砲資敵，欲毀龍廟嘴台砲，陸軍統將戴宗騫電告鴻章，責其通敵誤國，不果毀。 待援師不至，乃召各統領力戰解圍。 會日暮大風雪，汝昌盡毀緣岸民船，而南北岸已失，日艦入東口猛攻，定遠受重傷，汝昌命駛東岸，俄沉焉，軍大震，競向統帥乞生路，汝昌弗顧，自登靖遠巡海口。 日艦宵入口門，擊沉來遠、威遠，眾益恐。 道員牛昶炳等相鄉泣，集西員計議。 馬格祿欲以眾挾汝昌，德人瑞乃爾潛告曰：「眾心已變，不如沉船夷砲台，徒手降，計較得。」 汝昌從之，令諸將同時沉船，不應，遂以船降，而自飲藥死，於是威海師熸焉。 事聞，諸將皆被卹，汝昌以獲譴，典弗及。 宣統二年，海軍部立，舊將請賜卹，始復官。
The next year Japanese forces captured Rongcheng and advanced into Weihai by separate routes. Ruchang hurriedly blocked the eastern and western entrances with rafts of timber; fearing the three south-shore batteries might fall and arm the enemy, he also wanted to spike the guns at Longmiao Corner, but Army Commander Dai Zongqian wired Li Hongzhang charging him with collusion and treason, and the guns were not destroyed. With reinforcements failing to appear, he called the various commanders to fight their way out. At dusk a blizzard struck; Ruchang scuttled every civilian craft along the shore, but both shores had already fallen and Japanese warships stormed in through the eastern entrance. The Dingyuan was crippled; Ruchang ordered her driven toward the eastern shore, and she soon sank. The fleet panicked and officers crowded the commander begging for their lives; Ruchang ignored them and went aboard the Jingyuan to patrol the harbor entrance. Japanese vessels entered the harbor mouth that night and sank the Laiyuan and Weiyuan; fear spread through the ranks. Circuit Intendant Niu Changbing and others from his home district wept together, while the foreign advisers met to deliberate. Ma Gelu wanted the men to force Ruchang's hand; the German adviser Ruineier whispered to him: "Morale has collapsed. Scuttle the ships, destroy the batteries, and surrender without a fight—that is the shrewder course." Ruchang agreed, ordered the commanders to scuttle their ships together, and when they refused he surrendered the fleet; he then took poison and died, and with that the Weihai squadron was wiped out. When word reached the court, the other commanders received posthumous honors; Ruchang, already under censure, was denied the usual rites. In the second year of Xuantong, after the Naval Ministry was created, veteran officers petitioned for posthumous honors on his behalf, and his rank was finally restored.
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衛汝貴，字達三，安徽合肥人。 從劉銘傳徵捻，累遷至副將，晉總兵。 事平，授河州鎮，李鴻章薦其樸誠忠勇，留統北洋防軍。 歷授大同、寧夏諸鎮，均未之官，統防軍如故。
Wei Rugui, whose style was Dasan, came from Hefei in Anhui. He followed Liu Mingchuan against the Nian rebels and rose step by step to vice commander, then regimental commander. After peace he was assigned the Hezhou garrison, but Li Hongzhang praised his plain loyalty and kept him in command of the Beiyang defense forces. He was repeatedly named to garrisons such as Datong and Ningxia yet never reported to any of them, and went on commanding the defense army as before.
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光緒二十年，日朝戰起，率馬步六千餘人進平壤，臨行，鴻章誡以屏私見，嚴軍紀。 至牙山，退成歡，與日軍相見，尋復趨平壤合大軍，與副都統豐紳阿頓守城南江岸。 平壤，朝舊京也，聞我軍至，爭攜酒漿以獻； 而軍士多殘暴，掠財物，役丁壯，淫婦女，汝貴軍尤甚，殺義定朝民，眾滋忿。 復蝕軍糈八萬運家，軍大譁，連夕自亂，互相蹈藉。 時馬玉昆血戰大同江，浮舟往援，敵稍卻。 玄武門嶺失，即竄走。 鴻章方據葉志超牒奏捷，俄而安東、鳳凰陷，踉蹌走岫岩，岫岩陷，走奉天。 朝士交章糾其罪，詔褫職逮問。 汝貴治淮軍久，援朝時年已六十矣。 其妻貽以書，戒勿當前敵，汝貴遇敵輒避走。 敗遁後，日人獲其牘，嘗引以戒國人。 明年，鏁送京師，按實，論死。
In the twentieth year of Guangxu, when war erupted between Japan and Korea, he led more than six thousand cavalry and infantry toward Pyongyang; before he left, Hongzhang warned him to put private interests aside and enforce strict discipline. At Asan he fell back to Seonghwan and clashed with Japanese troops, then hurried on to Pyongyang to join the main force; with Vice Commander Feng Shen'a he held the southern bank of the river below the city. Pyongyang had been Korea's old capital; when word spread that our troops had arrived, townspeople rushed forward with wine and food to welcome them; yet the troops were brutal—looting property, pressing men into labor, assaulting women—and Rugui's men were the worst, even killing civilians at Uijeongbu, so public anger mounted. He also diverted eighty thousand taels of army rations to ship home; the troops erupted in uproar and for nights on end rioted, trampling one another in the chaos. Ma Yukun was then fighting a bloody action on the Taedong; Rugui took boats to reinforce him and the enemy pulled back slightly. When Xuanwu Gate Ridge fell, he immediately bolted. Hongzhang was at that moment reporting victory on Ye Zhichao's word; soon Andong and Fengcheng fell, and Rugui fled in disarray to Xiuyan, then, when Xiuyan fell, on to Fengtian. Court officials filed memorial after memorial demanding his punishment; an edict stripped his rank and ordered him seized for trial. Rugui had led Huai Army troops for decades; by the time he marched into Korea he was already sixty. His wife wrote urging him not to stand in the front line; whenever he met the enemy Rugui turned and ran. After his rout the Japanese captured his correspondence and later cited it to admonish their own countrymen. The following year he was escorted in chains to Beijing; once the facts were established, he was sentenced to death.
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其弟汝成官至總兵。 援旅順，六統帥不相轄，汝成與趙懷益爭毆，鴻章函責之。 逮日軍至，姜桂題等猶力禦，而汝成已先遁。 詔逮治，未踪獲，乃籍其家。 後不知所終。
His younger brother Rucheng rose to regimental commander. During the relief of Lüshun the six commanders answered to no common superior; Rucheng brawled with Zhao Huaiyi, and Hongzhang wrote to rebuke them both. When the Japanese arrived, Jiang Guiti and others were still resisting fiercely, but Rucheng had already run away. An edict ordered his arrest, but he could not be found, so his family property was confiscated. Nothing more was ever heard of him.
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葉志超，字曙青，安徽合肥人。 以淮軍末弁從劉銘傳討捻，積功至總兵。 戰淮城被創，仍奮擊卻之，逐北天長，又敗之汊河，賜號額圖渾巴圖魯。 規南樂，戰德、平間，頻有功。 捻平，留北洋。 光緒初，署正定鎮總兵，率練軍守新城，為大沽後路。 後徙防山海關，李鴻章薦其優智略，予實授。 十五年，擢直隸提督。 越二年，熱河教匪亂，志超率師討之。 平建昌，連克榆林、沈家窩館、貝子廟，釋下長皋圍，進攻烏丹城，擒其渠李國珍磔之，賞黃馬褂、世職。
Ye Zhichao, whose style was Shuqing, came from Hefei in Anhui. Starting as a junior Huai Army soldier under Liu Mingchuan against the Nian, he earned promotion after promotion until he became a regimental commander. Wounded in action at Huai City, he still drove the enemy back; pursuing north to Tianchang he defeated them again at Chahe and received the honorific Etu Hun Batulu. He campaigned around Nanle and fought between Dezhou and Pingzhou, winning repeated distinction. After the Nian were suppressed he stayed with the Beiyang command. Early in Guangxu he served as acting commander of the Zhengding garrison, led trained troops to hold Xincheng, and guarded the rear approaches to Dagu. He was later shifted to defend Shanhaiguan; Li Hongzhang praised his strategic gifts and secured his formal appointment. In year fifteen he was promoted to provincial commander of Zhili. Two years later, when sect rebels rose in Rehe, Zhichao led an expedition against them. He pacified Jianchang and in succession captured Yulin, Shenjiawoguan, and Beizimiao, relieved the siege of Changgao, and advanced on Wudan City, where he seized the rebel leader Li Guozhen and had him executed; he was awarded the yellow riding jacket and a hereditary office.
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二十年，朝鮮乞師，鴻章令選練軍千五百，率太原總兵聶士成頓牙山。 志超遲留不進，鴻章責之，不得已啟行。 而日軍已據王京要隘，牙山兵甚單，駐朝商務委員袁世凱數約志超電請北洋發戰艦赴仁川，增陸軍駐馬坡。 鴻章始終欲據條約，恐增兵為彼藉口，勿許，並戒志超毋啟釁。 亡何，高升商輪運兵近豐島，被擊沉。 士成謂志超曰：「海道既梗，牙山絕地，不可守。 公州背山面江，勢便利，戰而勝，可據以待援； 不勝，猶得繞道出也。」 志超從之。 日軍偪成歡，士成以無援敗，趨公州就志超。 而志超已棄公州，間道出漢陽東，士成追及之。 當是時，大軍集平壤，乃卷甲而趨之，二日始至。 志超以成歡一役殺傷相當，鋪張電鴻章，鴻章以聞，獲嘉獎，賞銀二萬犒軍，拜總統諸軍之命。
In year twenty Korea requested aid; Hongzhang detached fifteen hundred trained troops and, with Taiyuan Commander Nie Shicheng, stationed them at Asan. Zhichao lingered and refused to march; Hongzhang rebuked him, and he set out only when he had no choice. Japanese troops had already seized the key passes around the capital, and the detachment at Asan was dangerously small; Yuan Shikai, China's commercial commissioner in Korea, repeatedly urged Zhichao by wire to request Beiyang warships for Inchon and more infantry at Mapo. Hongzhang clung to treaty arguments, fearing reinforcements would give Japan a pretext, and refused; he also warned Zhichao not to provoke a clash. Soon afterward the transport Gaosheng, carrying troops near Feng Island, was attacked and sunk. Shicheng told Zhichao: "The sea lanes are cut, and Asan is an exposed salient—we cannot hold it. Gongju lies with mountains at its back and the river before it—a strong position. If we win a battle there we can hold on for reinforcements; and if we lose, we can still slip away by another route." Zhichao agreed. Japanese forces pressed Seonghwan; without reinforcements Shicheng was beaten and fell back to Gongju to join Zhichao. Zhichao had already abandoned Gongju and slipped away east of Hanyang by a back road; Shicheng caught up with him there. The main army had by then concentrated at Pyongyang; he hurried there with his men and took two days to arrive. Zhichao wired Hongzhang claiming that casualties at Seonghwan had been roughly even; Hongzhang passed the report upward, and Zhichao received imperial praise, twenty thousand taels to reward the troops, and command over all the forces in the field.
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志超意甚滿，日置酒高會，徒築壘環砲為守。 日軍诇至大同江，為我軍逐去，遂以屢捷入告。 時統帥居城中，日軍夾江而陣，兩岸相轟擊。 東南二路戰少利，志超莫敢縱兵，趣回城。 日軍乘間以濟，據山阜，左寶貴出御之，被巨創。 志超將私逸，寶貴不從，以兵監之。 寶貴自守玄武門嶺，矢必死，登城指麾，為砲所中而殞。 志超亟樹白幟乞罷戰，日人議受降，請帥兵歸，弗許，乃潛向北走。 朝兵銜之刺骨，於其出城時槍擊之，死者不可稱計。 日軍复要之山隘，兵潰，迴旋不得出，擠而死者相枕藉。 諸將盡委械而去，於是朝境內無我軍矣。
Zhichao grew complacent, held lavish feasts every day, and did nothing but pile up earthworks and ring the city with guns. When Japanese scouts reached the Taedong, our troops drove them back, and he reported one victory after another to Beijing. The commander stayed inside the city while Japanese forces deployed on both banks of the river and the two sides shelled each other across the water. On the southeastern fronts the fighting went slightly in China's favor, yet Zhichao would not commit his troops and ordered them back into the city. The Japanese seized a gap in the line, crossed the river, and seized the heights; Zuo Baogui went out to meet them and was badly wounded. Zhichao tried to slip away on his own; Baogui refused to allow it and set guards over him. Baogui held Xuanwu Gate Ridge himself, swearing to die there; he climbed the wall to direct the defense and was killed by shellfire. Zhichao hastily raised a white flag to sue for a truce; the Japanese talked of accepting surrender and letting him withdraw, but in the end refused; he then stole away north in secret. Korean soldiers hated him bitterly and fired on his men as they left the city; the dead were beyond counting. The Japanese blocked the mountain passes ahead; the army broke, could not turn back, and men died in heaps where the crush was thickest. Officers threw away their arms and fled, and after that no Chinese troops remained on Korean soil.
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志超奔安州，士成謂安地備險奧，可固守，弗聽。 迳定州，亦棄不守，趨五百餘裡，渡鴨綠江，入邊始止焉。 事聞，奪志超職，鴻章請留營效力，弗許。 次年，械送京師，下刑部鞫實，定斬監候。 二十六年，赦歸，歲餘卒。
Zhichao fled to Anju; Shicheng argued that its rugged terrain could be held, but Zhichao would not listen. He passed Dingzhou without stopping to defend it, raced more than five hundred li, crossed the Yalu, and halted only after he was back inside the frontier. When word reached the court, Zhichao was stripped of rank; Hongzhang asked that he be allowed to serve in camp, but the request was denied. The following year he was sent to Beijing in chains; the Ministry of Punishments verified the facts and sentenced him to death, suspended. In year twenty-six he was pardoned and sent home; a little over a year later he died.
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論曰：甲午之役，海陸軍盡覆，辱莫大焉。 汝昌雖有罪，而能以一死報國，尚知畏法。 汝貴、志超喪師失地，遺臭鄰邦，靦然求活，終不免於國典，何其不知恥哉？
The historian comments: In the jiawu campaign both the navy and the army were wiped out—a humiliation without parallel. Ruchang was guilty, yet he atoned with his life and still showed regard for the law. Rugui and Zhichao lost their armies and their territory, shamed China before its neighbors, yet calmly clung to life until the law caught them anyway—what could be more shameless?