In the first year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the French Third Republic began to invade Vietnam, and forced Vietnam to sign the Treaty of Saigon to obtain the three southern provinces of Vietnam. In the twelfth year of Tongzhi, France began to invade northern Vietnam and signed the second Treaty of Saigon with Vietnam.
In August of the ninth year of Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, the French invading army had occupied nine provinces in Vietnam, and the Nguyen dynasty of Vietnam was forced to sign the "Treaty of Hue" to accept the "protection" of France, and handed over Beiqi to French jurisdiction.
At this time, the Manchus did not want to give up on Vietnam, and the Qing government's attitude towards the Vietnamese issue was positive. This is not only the stake of the death of the lips and teeth, but also the consideration of showing the image of a great power through the relationship between the clan and the vassal. However, it is undoubtedly difficult to maintain the image of a great power embodied by the tributary system and the relationship between suzerains and vassals. This was first of all because the Qing government did not have the strength to confront the foreign powers.
Under these circumstances, Cixi, on the one hand, did not recognize the privileges that France had seized in Vietnam through unequal treaties, and on the other hand, ordered the authorities of Yunnan and Guizhou provinces to supervise the advance of the border defense forces, but stressed that "provocations must not be provoked by themselves." Under these circumstances, the main force of the Qing army entered Beiqi and seized a number of strategic points, and a major war with France was inevitable.
In terms of the strategic situation in Beiqi at that time, the French army could only control the line from Hanoi to Haiphong. Other strategic points were still occupied by the Qing army, and the strategic initiative was still dominated by the Qing army. In particular, Shanxi and Bac Ninh, which are relatively close to Hanoi, happen to clamp down on Hanoi on the left and right, so it can be said that as long as the Qing army is willing, it can enter Hanoi in two ways at any time. And for Vice Admiral Lone, commander of the French Expeditionary Force, if these two "nails" are not pulled out, France will always be in danger.
On the morning of the 12th day of the 11th lunar month of the ninth year of Guangxu, Lone Baba led the French army to carry the world's most advanced "Hatch Cash" machine gun at that time, as well as more than 40 artillery pieces, more than 10 large and small gunboats, and of course, more than 6,000 local Vietnamese troops.
At that time, the Qing army in Shanxi had only more than 5,000 people, including Liu Yongfu's 3,000 Black Flag Army, and more than 2,000 local Vietnamese soldiers. Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army was a local battle, and Liu Yongfu knew that the French army far surpassed the Qing Army's troops and banner army in terms of weapons and equipment and military quality, and the number of French troops far exceeded that of the Qing Army. And the Qing army now not only does not have a navy, but also has only more than a dozen artillery pieces, which are still old-fashioned breech-loading guns, and the spears are all old-fashioned breech guns. In a word, the armament is too poor.
In this case, Liu Yongfu defended Shanxi on the one hand, and on the other hand, he complained to Bac Ninh, hoping that the Qing army in Bac Ninh would besiege Hanoi in order to achieve the goal of "encircling Wei and saving Zhao".
Fighting broke out on 15 November, and the French army reached the outskirts of Shanxi by land and water, thus beginning the opening battle of the Sino-French war, the Battle of Shanxi. At the beginning of the battle, the French army used artillery to violently bombard the forward positions of the Qing army, and Liu Yongfu ordered the whole army to retreat, attracting French infantry to attack the city. Gu Ba really took the bait, and as soon as he saw the Qing army retreating, he immediately ordered the French army to attack Shanxi from the east gate.
As soon as they approached the east gate, more than 1,000 Black Flag troops who had been ambushed immediately came out and engaged the French army in close combat. The French army was immediately plunged into a vicious battle. In this case, Guba could only order the French to retreat, and then let the navy land and seize the embankment of the Red River. Liu Yongfu was too poorly armed and ultimately failed to recapture the embankment position. The first day of fighting ended with nearly 400 casualties among the Black Flag Army and more than 200 casualties among the French troops.
However, after three days of attack, the French army did not capture Shanxi, and during this period, the Qing army on the Bac Ninh side did not take any action, in fact, they cannot be blamed, because the imperial court issued an order that if the French army came to attack, it could fight back, and it was not said that the Qing army could take the initiative to attack. Under these circumstances, Liu Yongfu retreated on the night of 17 November, and Shanxi was lost.
When the news came back to Beijing, Cixi ordered the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Cen Yuying (Cen Chunxuan's father), to lead an army into Vietnam to reinforce Liu Yongfu, and the governor of Guangxi, Xu Yanxu, immediately led an army into Vietnam to reinforce Bac Ninh, and Zhang Shusheng, the governor of Liangguang, and Feng Zicai, the 66-year-old governor of Guangxi, were stationed in Zhennanguan as a reserve for the Qing army in Vietnam.
On the 26th day of the first month of the tenth year of Guangxu, Cen Yuying, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, led the army to Xinghua, Vietnam to meet with Liu Yongfu, and Cen Yuying asked Liu Yongfu to lead the Black Flag Army to Beining to garrison, and the original Qing army of 20,000 people was stationed in Beining, and Huang Guilan, the governor of Guangxi, was the supreme commander of Beining.
On the 10th day of February, 12,000 French troops in Hanoi, under the command of the new commander of the expeditionary force, Major General Miller, rushed to Bac Ninh by land and water. Miller's deployment was to cross the Xinhe River by land with 6,000 men and attack Bac Ninh from the front, so as to attract the attention of the Qing army. With 6,000 men by water, they went up the Taiping River to attack the relatively weak left flank of the Qing army.
The second major battle of the Sino-French War, the Battle of Bac Ninh, kicked off.
On 11 February, the French army by water arrived to attack Fulang and took the lead in attacking the 2,000 Qing troops stationed there. On the one hand, the defenders of Fulang fought back, and on the other hand, they urgently asked for help from Bac Ninh, but the reinforcements had not yet arrived, and Fulang had already fallen. Immediately afterwards, the French army by land conquered Chunshui, the southern gate of Bac Ninh. Immediately, the French army by water began to besiege Yongqiu. The Qing army stationed there was only more than 1,000 people, and they couldn't resist it at all, and they were taken down in less than an hour. Then the French dragged the artillery to the top of the hill and bombarded the city of Bac Ninh from a high position.
Huang Guilan couldn't hold Beining at this time, and immediately abandoned the city and fled, he ran, the Qing army collapsed, and Liu Yongfu could only retreat in the direction of Xinghua at this time. The Qing army was defeated like a mountain and retreated all the way to Lang Mountain. The French commander-in-chief Miller waved his division westward, attacking Taiyuan and Xinghua, where Cen Yuying was stationed. At this time, Cen Yuying had more than 10,000 people, and in this case, he could only hold on to the Sino-Vietnamese border. At this point, almost all of Vietnam was lost. When the news came back to Beijing, Cixi was furious and ordered Xu Yanxu to be dismissed from his post and asked Huang Guilan to die, and Dang Min to declare the law before the army.
Taking advantage of the defeat in Vietnam, Cixi also took the opportunity to depose Prince Gong. On March 13, Cixi suddenly issued an order to remove Prince Gong's title of "Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs" from the title of "Prime Minister and Minister of National Affairs" on the charge of "malaise and improper measures, which led to the defeat of Bac Ninh". At the same time, an order was issued to demote the ministers of military aircraft headed by Prince Gong from the Military Aircraft Department. This is the famous "Jiashen Yishu".
On the Vietnamese issue, Cixi transferred Pan Ding, the governor of Hunan, to be the governor of Guangxi, and Wang Debang, a famous general of the Hunan army, to act as the governor of Guangxi to prevent the French army, and at the same time ordered Li Hongzhang, the governor of Zhili, to negotiate with the French representative Frunore in Shanghai. After half a month of negotiations, on 17 April, the two sides finally signed the "Sino-French Concise Treaty." There is only one core condition, that is, the Manchus unconditionally give up the whole of Vietnam.
Cixi did not approve of this result, and issued an order to severely reprimand Li Hongzhang for losing power and humiliating the country, so Li Hongzhang was recalled, and the Second Sino-French War broke out.
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