 It would also eliminate any possible threat to Japanese supply lines by the remnants of the Beiyang Fleet.The Qing naval base at Weihaiwei had been designed with the assistance of German military advisors, and was regarded by western observers as superior to Hong Kong.Captain William M. Lang, a British military advisor seconded to the Beiyang Fleet, had boasted that the base was impregnable as late as autumn 1894, and had scoffed at rumors that the Japanese were planning to attack it.