Art of the sino-french war
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During late 1883 a war erupted between the French, Chinese and Vietnamese troops. It was a war that may have caused over 15000 deaths on all sides. It was fought in Vietnam on both land and sea, with Frances navy taking out many of the Vietnamese ships within the first few months. There was also a lot of strikes on coastal fortifications by the French. By the end of the year the French were on the offensive and asked china to pull their troops out of Vietnam. While doing this the French was also trying to persuade other European nations to join their cause to take Vietnam. The Qing government halted negotiations with France and the Chinese minster told the French minster that they were no match for the full scale of china. With this the French were able to halt constructions being done to two battleships being made by the Germans for the Chinese as these would threaten them in the long run. The French eventually started to establish their hold on some regions of Vietnam by setting up posts (Garrisons) in the regions. The French then decided to attack the region of Tonkin because they knew that would force the Chinese to back down. Their first assault on Son Tay went south as many French were killed and they were thrown back to their defensive line. During the night the Chinese commander decided to use the French commander’s defeat to wipe them out but this also ended in heavy casualties on the Chinese side. The French finally took son Tay with the use of artillery which they used to take the defenders out. In 1884 reinforcements had arrived for the reinforcement of the offensive line. Within that spring they had captured both the cities of Hung Hoa and Thai Nguyen. This put the Chinese in a bad position, so they declared negotiations between china and France. The French agreed to the treaty of Hue and they renewed trade and commerce in the region. This agreement still put china in a bad position, as the French were able to set up their troops in strategic positions in Tonkin. The treaty was broken on June 23 1884, when the Chinese ambushed the French battalion on its way to set up garrison in border villages. The French were furious, this resulted in the cease of the treaty of Hue. A fleet of ships was then commanded to attack a Chinese harbor that had the fleet of the Chinese military. This was also known as the battle of Fuzhou. Over 9 Chinese ships were sunk within hours. The French then decided to put more pressure on the Chinese by taking strategic points in Vietnam, but this ended in failure with many French dead and minimal Chinese dead. In 1885 January the French General heard of movements between the Chinese army and them in Tonkin. The capture of Lang son was next on the list but in order to disrupt this the Chinese army through themselves at a nearby village only to be defeated by the French army. A month later the French army was on the move to Lang son. In order to get their French army had to travel over very rough terrain such as mountains and hilly plains. But on top of this the Chinese were also guarding the area at which they were travelling The French sent approximately 3000 soldiers at the Chinese and successfully defeated them. In February 1885 the French were trapped in their own bay by a French blockade. The French considered attacking but thought otherwise due to the defences of the bay. The French Army was then subject to a success and a very costly one at that, this happened just south of Lang Son. The French army arrived and after fighting the Chinese retreated. With this the French were able to send their troops to help with the confrontation between the French and the Chinese at Tuyen Quang. This garrison was being attacked and needed reinforcements. The reinforcements had encountered a defensive line of Chinese. When they attacked, they suffered major casualties. After the reinforcements had arrived at Tuyen Quang, a message was sent to Lang Son ordering the troops stationed there and the commanding officer to head north towards the border. When they reached the border they were not able to gain any victories so with that they had to return to Lang Son. A stalemate was reached, but even with this the French army was exhausted and not strong enough to oppose an attack from the Chinese army. When reinforcements finally arrived in March the French General was able to push on and break the stalemate. Yet still the French had had mere numbers compared to china. With this battle of Bang Bo commenced with the French losing many troops and the supporting army backing them fleeing. Along with this the French were outnumbered, Unsupplied, yet still when the Chinese army attempted to advance to take Lang Son the French held on and killed many of the Chinese army. Though the French general was injured the leadership was passed on to a Lieutenant Colonel. But he was scared and set the French army in full retreat, the Chinese army could not follow as they were also battered and tired. With this it was said as a victory for the Chinese forces. Yet still the French still had a plan, and even still didn’t affect that the Chinese were going to win the war. One final battle was an attack by the Chinese on a French position which the French defeated, and when word that a peace treaty was being signed the troops on both sides with that marking the last battle of the Sino French war. . |
Art of the Sino-french war