International Journal of Mathematics and Systems Science 2024, 7(2); https://doi.org/10.18686/ijmss.v7i2.4755

The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 was an important turning point in modern Chinese history. The defeat of the War aggravated the crisis of the Chinese nation and greatly deepened the degree of semi-colonization of China. The Battle of yellow sea was an important part of the Sino-Japanese War, in which the Beiyang fleet suffered heavy losses and completely surrendered the control of the Yellow Sea. However, in the course of the naval battle, the indomitable spirit of the officers and soldiers of the Beiyang fleet and their struggle with the enemy to the end were remembered by the world. One of the most familiar action among there struggle is the Zhiyuan under the leadership of Deng Shichang to sink the Japanese flagship “Yoshino”. How Zhiyuan acts in its final moments before its sunk has been the subject of academic attention and public discussion. With the first discovery of the shipwreck site of Zhiyuan in Dandong, Liaoning Province in 2015, the development of underwater archaeological technology, and the further in-depth archaeological work on the remains of Zhiyuan, more and more detailed information about the ship before its sunk process has been disclosed. This paper tries to reconstruct the whole process of the heroic martyrdom of the officers and men of Zhiyuan in the Battle of yellow sea through the empirical evidence of historical materials.