Bắc Ninh Campaign

Bắc Ninh campaign
Part of the Tonkin Campaign
The capture of Bắc Ninh, 12 March 1884
Date 6 to 24 March 1884 Location Bắc Ninh, northern Vietnam Result French victory
Belligerents
France	Qing dynasty Black Flag Army
Commanders and leaders
Charles-Théodore Millot Louis Brière de l'Isle François de Négrier	Xu Yanxu Huang Guilan Zhao Wo Liu Yongfu
Strength
10,000 soldiers, 6 gunboats	20,000 Chinese soldiers 3,000 Black Flag soldiers
Casualties and losses
9 killed, 39 wounded	around 100 dead, 400 wounded

The Bắc Ninh Campaign (6–24 March 1884) was one of a series of clashes between French and Chinese forces in northern Vietnam during the Tonkin campaign (1883–86). The campaign, fought during the period of undeclared hostilities that preceded the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885), resulted in the French capture of Bắc Ninh and the complete defeat of China's Guangxi Army.

In March 1884, following their victory at Sơn Tây in December 1883, the French renewed their offensive in Tonkin under the command of General Charles-Théodore Millot, who took over responsibility for the land campaign from Admiral Amédée Courbet in February 1884. Reinforcements from France and the African colonies had now raised the strength of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps to over 10,000 men, and Millot organised this force into two brigades. The 1st Brigade was commanded by General Louis Brière de l'Isle, who had earlier made his reputation as governor of Senegal, and the 2nd Brigade was commanded by the charismatic young Foreign Legion general François de Négrier, who had recently quelled a serious Arab rebellion in Algeria.

The French target was Bắc Ninh, garrisoned by a strong force of regular Chinese troops of the Guangxi Army. The commander-in-chief of the Chinese forces at Bắc Ninh was Xu Yanxu (徐延旭), governor of Guangxi. Elderly and in poor health, Xu remained at Lạng Sơn and delegated the operational command of the Chinese army to his subordinates, Huang Guilan (黃桂蘭) and Zhaowo (趙沃). Huang and Zhao, veterans of the Anhui and Hunan armies respectively, were disinclined to cooperate. The Chinese had about 20,000 troops around Bắc Ninh. Half of the Chinese army was deployed astride the Mandarin Road southwest of Bắc Ninh. The other half was deployed east of Bắc Ninh on the Trung Sơn and Đáp Cầu heights, protecting the southern approaches to Bắc Ninh and covering the vital river crossings to Thái Nguyên and Lạng Sơn at Phú Cẩm and Đáp Cầu.

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