Kep Campaign

Part of the Sino-French War, Tonkin Campaign

The battle of Kep, 8 October 1884

Date	2 to 15 October 1884
Location	south of Lang Son, northern Vietnam
Result	French victory

Belligerents

France

Qing dynasty

Commanders and leaders

General François de Négrier

Lieutenant-Colonel Donnier

Empress Dowager Cixi

Wang Debang

Pan Dingxin

Strength

2,800 men

6,000 men

Casualties and losses

The Kep Campaign (2 to 15 October 1884) was an important campaign in northern Vietnam during the opening months of the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885). A force of just under 3,000 French troops under the command of General François de Négrier defeated a major Chinese invasion of the Red River Delta launched by Pan Dingxin's Guangxi Army in successive engagements at Lam (6 October), Kep (8 October) and Chu (10 October and 11 October).

During the spring of 1884 the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, under the command of General Charles-Théodore Millot, routed China's Guangxi Army in the Bac Ninh campaign (February 1884) and completed the French conquest of the Red River Delta by capturing Hung Hoa (March 1884), Thai Nguyen (May 1884) and Tuyen Quang (June 1884). Hopes of an early peace with China were shattered on 23 June 1884, however, by the Bac Le ambush, in which a French column advancing to occupy Lang Son was attacked near Bac Le by a detachment of the Guangxi Army. On 23 August 1884, following the breakdown of negotiations to resolve the crisis between France and China, Admiral Amédée Courbet destroyed China's Fujian Fleet at the Battle of Fuzhou, inaugurating the nine-month Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). To avenge the defeat at Fuzhou, the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the commanders of the Guangxi and Yunnan armies to advance into Tonkin, defeat the outnumbered French forces there, recapture Bac Ninh and occupy Hanoi.

General Millot, whose health was failing, resigned as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps in early September 1884 and was replaced by General Louis Brière de l'Isle, the senior of his two brigade commanders. Brière de l'Isle's first task was to beat off a major Chinese invasion of the Red River Delta. In late September 1884 large detachments of the Guangxi Army advanced from Langson and probed into the Luc Nam valley, announcing their presence by ambushing two French gunboats of the Tonkin Flotilla, Hache and Massue, on 2 October. Although French casualties during this ambush were relatively high (1 officer killed and 32 men wounded), the attack deprived the Chinese of strategic surprise. Subsequent French reconnaissances identified three main Chinese concentrations. The Chinese right wing was deployed around the village of Kep on the Mandarin Road, the Chinese centre was at Bao Loc, and the Chinese left wing was at Chu, in the upper valley of the Luc Nam River. Brière de l’Isle responded immediately, despatching General de Négrier to the Luc Nam valley with nearly 3,000 French soldiers aboard several vessels of the Tonkin Flotilla. De Négrier's mission was to attack and defeat the Chinese detachments before they could concentrate.

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