Battle of Phu Lam Tao
Encyclopedia
The Battle of Phu Lam Tao (23 March 1885) was a politically-significant engagement during the Sino-French War
(August 1884–April 1885), in which a French Zouave
battalion was defeated by a mixed force of Chinese soldiers and Black Flags.
The battle took place three weeks after the end of the Siege of Tuyen Quang
, in the course of a French reconnaissance of positions occupied by troops of Tang Ching-sung
's Yunnan
Army and Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army
. French accounts of the battle are curiously reticent, suggesting that things had gone badly wrong.
In the wake of the relief of Tuyen Quang, General Louis Brière de l'Isle, the general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
, drew up plans for a campaign against the Yunnan Army by a column of 5,000 French and Algerian troops, 2,000 Tonkinese auxiliaries and 460 mules and horses. The campaign would be launched from the major French base at Hung Hoa. Chef de bataillon Simon's 1st Battalion, 1st Zouave Regiment, which had only recently arrived in Tonkin, was ordered to make a preliminary reconnaissance of the village of Phu Lam Tao, reported to have been occupied by strong elements of the Yunnan Army. On 23 March 1885 Simon reached Phu Lam Tao and discovered that the village was held by a force of Yunnan regulars and Black Flags ('pirates', as the French called them). Simon ordered his battalion to attack.
The fullest account of the action was given by Paul Sainmont, an officer in chef de bataillon Mignot's battalion of the 2nd Zouave Regiment, which had accompanied Simon's battalion to Tonkin:
According to Lieutenant-Colonel Bonifacy, who discussed the battle years later with officers who had been present, the troops fell back in disorder, throwing away their haversacks and rifles. Bonifacy commented that the zouaves, fresh from Algeria, should not have been given such a mission until they had acclimatised themselves to conditions of war in Tonkin.
The Chinese sources claim that the Yunnan Army and the Black Flags won a clear victory at Phu Lam Tao. According to the Yunnan Army's official report, its forces at Phu Lam Tao were attacked by the French on 23 March, the attack was defeated, and the French abandoned their dead on the battlefield and retreated in panic into the jungle. The report added that the French retired from the area on 24 March, abandoning 400 uniforms and quantities of weapons and maps.
's heavy defeat on 24 March 1885 at the Battle of Bang Bo by the Guangxi Army. The coincidence led Brière de l'Isle to conclude, wrongly, that the French were facing a concerted offensive by both Chinese armies. This conclusion helped to set the pessimistic tone of his notorious 'Lang Son telegram' of 28 March 1885, despatched in the wake of Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Gustave Herbinger's Retreat from Lang Son
, which toppled the government of Jules Ferry
in the Tonkin Affair
and brought the Sino-French War
to a speedy end in circumstances of considerable embarrassment for France.
The Thanh May district remained in the hands of Vietnamese bandit concentrations until October 1885, when General Roussel de Courcy, who succeeded Brière de l'Isle in command of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
in May 1885, mounted a large-scale attack on their positions with 5,000 French troops, driving the bandits back up the Red River to Thanh Quan.
Sino-French War
The Sino–French War was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin . As the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war...
(August 1884–April 1885), in which a French Zouave
Zouave
Zouave was the title given to certain light infantry regiments in the French Army, normally serving in French North Africa between 1831 and 1962. The name was also adopted during the 19th century by units in other armies, especially volunteer regiments raised for service in the American Civil War...
battalion was defeated by a mixed force of Chinese soldiers and Black Flags.
Background
Siege of Tuyen Quang
The Siege of Tuyen Quang was an important confrontation between the French and the Chinese armies in Tonkin during the Sino-French War...
, in the course of a French reconnaissance of positions occupied by troops of Tang Ching-sung
Tang Ching-sung
Tang Ching-sung was a Chinese general and statesman. He commanded the Yunnan Army in the Sino-French War , and made an important contribution to China's military effort in Tonkin by persuading the Black Flag leader Liu Yung-fu to serve under Chinese command...
's Yunnan
Yunnan
Yunnan is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the far southwest of the country spanning approximately and with a population of 45.7 million . The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.Yunnan is situated in a mountainous area, with...
Army and Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army
Black Flag Army
The Black Flag Army was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border from Guangxi province of China into Upper Tonkin, in the Empire of Annam in 1865. They became known mainly for their fights against French forces in...
. French accounts of the battle are curiously reticent, suggesting that things had gone badly wrong.
In the wake of the relief of Tuyen Quang, General Louis Brière de l'Isle, the general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin campaign taking part in campaigns against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies during the...
, drew up plans for a campaign against the Yunnan Army by a column of 5,000 French and Algerian troops, 2,000 Tonkinese auxiliaries and 460 mules and horses. The campaign would be launched from the major French base at Hung Hoa. Chef de bataillon Simon's 1st Battalion, 1st Zouave Regiment, which had only recently arrived in Tonkin, was ordered to make a preliminary reconnaissance of the village of Phu Lam Tao, reported to have been occupied by strong elements of the Yunnan Army. On 23 March 1885 Simon reached Phu Lam Tao and discovered that the village was held by a force of Yunnan regulars and Black Flags ('pirates', as the French called them). Simon ordered his battalion to attack.
The battle
What happened next is difficult to establish, as the French sources skate over the engagement in silence or make only the barest of allusions to it. Agence Havas, the official French news agency, announced merely that Simon's battalion had made a reconnaissance towards Phu Lam Tao and had suffered several casualties, but there was clearly more to the affair than that. It is certain that the zouave battalion attacked Phu Lam Tao and was repulsed, and very likely that the repulse was ignominious.
Today the 1st Battalion, 1st Zouave Regiment was at grips with the soldiers of Luu Vinh Phuc in the Thanh May district near the village of Bang Huyen.
The pirates arrived there in bands chased from Lang Son by de Négrier and from Tuyen Quang by Brière de l'Isle, to concentrate on this point. Our comrades fought furiously all the evening of 23 March, and after nightfall the garrison of Hung Hoa, which was watching this spectacle from the top of the citadel, saw the glare from the flames which were devouring two or three neighbouring villages, and could guess that action had been joined on a fairly wide front.
The zouaves did not lack energy or bravery, but night came on and the enemy was now in too great numbers. They were forced to regain their cantonments on the left bank of the Red River, in good order, having vainly made several furious assaults on the fortified pagoda of Bang Huyen under an extremely murderous fire.
According to Lieutenant-Colonel Bonifacy, who discussed the battle years later with officers who had been present, the troops fell back in disorder, throwing away their haversacks and rifles. Bonifacy commented that the zouaves, fresh from Algeria, should not have been given such a mission until they had acclimatised themselves to conditions of war in Tonkin.
The Chinese sources claim that the Yunnan Army and the Black Flags won a clear victory at Phu Lam Tao. According to the Yunnan Army's official report, its forces at Phu Lam Tao were attacked by the French on 23 March, the attack was defeated, and the French abandoned their dead on the battlefield and retreated in panic into the jungle. The report added that the French retired from the area on 24 March, abandoning 400 uniforms and quantities of weapons and maps.
Casualties
The casualties suffered by the French in this action are disputed. According to Lecomte, who dismissed the affair as an unimportant skirmish, Simon's battalion suffered 'around a dozen' casualties. According to Sainmont, French casualties were around 40 to 50 dead and wounded. According to Nimier, French casualties were 6 dead and 29 wounded. Nimier's figures are probably correct, and were accepted several decades later by Thomazi, the historian of the French conquest of Indochina.Significance
The significance of the engagement at Phu Lam Tao was that it took place one day before General François de NégrierFrançois de Négrier
General François Oscar de Négrier was one of the most charismatic French generals of the Third Republic, winning fame in Algeria in the Sud-Oranais campaign and in Tonkin during the Sino-French War .- Early career :Born in Belfort, France on October 2, 1839, De Négrier served with Marshal...
's heavy defeat on 24 March 1885 at the Battle of Bang Bo by the Guangxi Army. The coincidence led Brière de l'Isle to conclude, wrongly, that the French were facing a concerted offensive by both Chinese armies. This conclusion helped to set the pessimistic tone of his notorious 'Lang Son telegram' of 28 March 1885, despatched in the wake of Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Gustave Herbinger's Retreat from Lang Son
Retreat from Lang Son
The Retreat from Lang Son was a controversial, and almost certainly unnecessary, French strategic withdrawal in Tonkin at the end of March 1885 that brought down the government of the French premier Jules Ferry and brought the Sino-French War to an end in circumstances of considerable...
, which toppled the government of Jules Ferry
Jules Ferry
Jules François Camille Ferry was a French statesman and republican. He was a promoter of laicism and colonial expansion.- Early life :Born in Saint-Dié, in the Vosges département, France, he studied law, and was called to the bar at Paris in 1854, but soon went into politics, contributing to...
in the Tonkin Affair
Tonkin Affair
The Tonkin Affair of March 1885 was a major French political crisis that erupted in the closing weeks of the Sino-French War. It effectively destroyed the political career of the French prime minister Jules Ferry, and abruptly ended the string of Republican governments inaugurated several years...
and brought the Sino-French War
Sino-French War
The Sino–French War was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin . As the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war...
to a speedy end in circumstances of considerable embarrassment for France.
The Thanh May district remained in the hands of Vietnamese bandit concentrations until October 1885, when General Roussel de Courcy, who succeeded Brière de l'Isle in command of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
Tonkin Expeditionary Corps
The Tonkin Expeditionary Corps was an important French military command based in northern Vietnam from June 1883 to April 1886. The expeditionary corps fought the Tonkin campaign taking part in campaigns against the Black Flag Army and the Chinese Yunnan and Guangxi Armies during the...
in May 1885, mounted a large-scale attack on their positions with 5,000 French troops, driving the bandits back up the Red River to Thanh Quan.