After the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War and the signing of the humiliating Treaty of Shimonoseki, Japan, having tasted the sweetness of success, wanted to seize the Dongsha Islands by force, and then annex the Xisha Islands and the Nansha Islands. Zhang Zhidong, the Minister of Military Affairs, firmly advocated war and went to Guangzhou as an imperial commissioner to prepare for war, thus becoming a thorn in the eyes of the Japanese.