Background to the outbreak of the Sino-French War:
In December 1883, France invaded The North of Vietnam, and then spied on the situation in China, and then wanted to use Vietnam as a springboard to invade China. In the imperial court, in the face of France's wanton behavior in Vietnam, the main war faction headed by Zuo Zongtang and the main war faction led by Li Hongzhang quarreled, but in the end, the main war faction had the upper hand. The Qing government sent troops to support Vietnam.
This was the background of the Sino-French War. So why is this war a "victory and defeat" campaign? Let's take a closer look.
In late March 1885, after the famous anti-French general Feng Zicai won the great victory at Zhennanguan, the qing government was excited and highly motivated, determined to take advantage of the victory to pursue, beat the French army, and formulated the following operational objectives.
◆ Feng Zicai is scheduled to lead the entire army on the eastern front to attack Bac Ninh and Hanoi in mid-April
◆ Tang Jingsong prepared to go out of herding horses and attack Taiyuan
◆ The Guangdong side is preparing to leave Qinzhou and attack Guang'an along the east coast of The North
At the same time, Yunnan Military Affairs Officer Pu Chao led more than 30 battalions of his unit to Longzhou, ready to enter Vietnam at any time
◆ After winning the great victory at Lintao, the Dian army on the western front recaptured Guangwei and other places, and took advantage of the victory to launch an attack on Xinghua.
From the above strategic objectives, we can see that the situation on the Side of the Qing Government is very good, and it is completely possible to drive out France and force France to withdraw its troops. However, contrary to expectations, in the imperial court, the main peace faction led by Li Hongzhang had the upper hand, and at their suggestion, the Qing government unexpectedly signed an armistice agreement with France on April 4, and issued an armistice withdrawal order with the front-line troops on July 7.
Under the excellent military situation, the Qing government suddenly announced the armistice and withdrew its troops, and missed a good opportunity, which made the main war faction and the front-line soldiers feel bitter and indignant, and the little warring states that had been hard to achieve were about to be abandoned. In this regard, Feng Zicai and other patriotic generals called Zhang Zhidong and jointly asked the Qing government to "discuss peace." At the same time, Zuo Zongtang and others of the main war faction also went to the imperial court to oppose China's advance withdrawal of troops.
Zhang Zhidong proposed: "An armistice is possible, but it is not possible to withdraw troops, and it is especially impossible to withdraw to the border." For, "I withdrew from the enemy and entered, and I was cunning in vain, and I could not be traced back." If we have to withdraw our troops, we must first withdraw the "troops of Keelung and Penghu before we can withdraw our troops." Yushi Zhao Ersun also proposed: "The legal person first made a decision to return Keelung, the Penghu Covenant, and set a date for the withdrawal of the division, and then I will withdraw the troops outside the customs as much as possible." ”
They believed that in this war, France was a defeated country, not a Qing government. Therefore, it is only right for them to withdraw their troops first. If China withdraws its troops from outside the border first, once France takes the opportunity to launch an attack, China will certainly not be able to resist. In addition, they also suggested that a segregation be set up near the border between Yunnan and Guizhou to avoid a direct confrontation with the French army and trigger an incident.
Feng Zicai, a famous anti-French general
However, although the main war faction explained the stakes to the supreme ruler of the Qing court. However, the Qing government was still unmoved, and they were extremely dissatisfied with the opinion of the main war faction that they should not withdraw their troops in the Vietnamese battlefield first, and forced the governor of Liangguang, Zhang Zhidong, and the governor of Yungui, Cen Yuying, to withdraw their troops as scheduled, so as not to cause trouble again. The idea of drawing a barrier was initially agreed, but later it was dismissed by The French opposition.
In short, under the domination of the mentality of rushing to discuss peace, the Qing government only cared about immediate interests and long-term interests, and was incompatible with the opinions of the main war faction, and the principle that it had repeatedly proposed and must "not harm the national system and not cause trouble in the future" has completely forgotten.
The reason why the Qing government, after winning the great victory at Zhennanguan, adopted Li Hongzhang's proposition of "taking advantage of the victory and reaping the rewards" and could not wait to sign an armistice agreement with France, resulting in the strange ending of "China is undefeated and defeated, and France is victorious without victory" is mainly due to the following reasons.
First, the Qing government always hoped to solve the problem through diplomatic channels.
After the outbreak of the Sino-French War, although the Qing government was forced to carry out military resistance, it never had the determination to resist the war, and even after winning the war, it still hoped to solve the problem through diplomatic negotiations, which had already shown its clues before.
On August 26, 1881, although the Qing government publicly declared war on France, behind-the-scenes negotiations continued intermittently. In December 1884, the General Taxation Department of the Chinese Customs and Excise Department of The Yingren Hurd and his helpers acted as Sino-French mediators, secretly negotiating with the French government. After bargaining, the Qing government repeatedly made concessions, and the differences between the two sides gradually narrowed. At this time, it was the time when the Qing government won the great victory of Zhennanguan.
At this time, the Qing government did not harden its attitude because of the military victory, so that the negotiations developed in a favorable direction for China, but disregarded the national interests and hastily signed an armistice agreement, completely burying the results of the bloody struggle of the military and the people on the front line.
Second, in order to recover Keelung and Penghu.
The French captured Keelung, Taiwan, on August 5, 1884, and on October 23, the commander of the French fleet, Gu Ba, announced the blockade of Taiwan. Although Liu Mingchuan, the governor of Taiwan, led the Qing army to fight bravely, in the end, due to insufficient troops and difficulty in military assistance, it failed to achieve the purpose of expelling the French army and recovering Keelung. In addition, on March 30, 1885, the day after the Qing army recaptured Langshan, the Lone Fleet invaded and occupied the Penghu Archipelago. This situation also became one of the reasons why the Qing government was eager to negotiate an armistice.
This shows that in order to recover Keelung and Penghu, it was also necessary to sign an armistice agreement and a Treaty of Tianjin quickly, because France regarded the Qing government as weak and deceitful, and insisted that it must withdraw its troops from Keelung and Penghu after the formal signing of the treaty.
Third, the financial crisis of the Qing government itself
During the Sino-French War, the Qing government spent a total of more than 20 million taels of silver, some people say more than 30 million. Due to the huge military expenditure and the inability to make ends meet, the Qing government had to borrow foreign debt.
According to statistics, from September 1883 to March 1885, it was directly used for military expenditure, and the foreign debt borrowed in the name of "Guangdong Haiphong", "Fujian Haiphong", "Aid to Taiwan And Vietnam" and other names totaled 8 times, with a total of about 17.6 million taels of Kuping silver. Faced with such huge financial expenditures and foreign debts, the Qing government also had to consider whether to carry out the war. What's more, the main peace faction headed by Li Hongzhang and Guo Songtao even warned the Qing court of the exhaustion of the people's wealth and the cause of civil unrest as one of the reasons for opposing war. So much so that later Zuo Zongtang said angrily: "Ten French generals are not as bad as one Li Hongzhang."
Therefore, the above is why the Qing government was eager to seek peace when it gained the initiative in the war.
Therefore, for the Qing government, the Sino-French War was a "victory and defeat" war.