Last time we spoke about the Sino-French War at Sea. Admiral Courbet’s Far East Squadron dealt a decisive crushing blow to the Fujian Fleet at the battle of Fuzhou. 9 ships were sunk with another 12 severely damaged, forcing the Qing to toss the Nanyang fleet to meet the French menace. However the corrupt nature of the Qing fleets led to a disastrous situation and Admiral Wu of the Nanyang fleet would be quite a victim to it. He attempted to scare the French away, only to be attacked, then hunted down until his forces fled to Zhenhai Bay. The French erected a rice blockade trying to starve out their enemy and it seemed the Qing navy had nothing left to fight them off with. Meanwhile the Tonkin campaign was still a blood bath as the French forces tried to dislodge the Qing and Black Flags from the region.   #46 The Sino-French War of 1884-1885 part 3: The Great Push out of Tonkin   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. General Oscar de Negrier spent considerable time thwart guerilla efforts against French outposts such as the ones at Thai Nguyen, Hung Hoa and Tuyen Quang. He dispatched Colonel Jacques Duchesne to neutralize Yu Oc to relieve the trapped garrison at Tuyen Quang. Duchesne managed to dislodge the black flag units there, but raids made by Qing, Vietnamese and Black flag units remained a constant nuisance. Tonkin was turning into a nightmare, the French needed quick victories before the Qing Yunnan and Guangxi armies coming over the border into Vietnam could consolidate control over northern Tonkin. The French military high command began to debate the issue and this led to the Army Minister General Jules Louis Lewal to order Oscar to launch a campaign against Lang Son. Lang Son was where the Guangxi army had established its main hq. From Lang Son the Guangxi forces ambushed some French Foreign legion forces east of Chu village at a place called Ha Ho. The legionnaires were able to fight their way out from a Chinese encirclement, but the casualties suffered were high. General Oscar tried to pursue the enemy, but they retreated to Dong Song with ease. At this point the Guangxi army knew their HQ at Lang Son was to be the next major target for a French offensive so the Qing tried to gain a toehold in the Luc Nam valley by sending 12,000 troops over a hill called Nui Bop.  Atop the Nui Bop hill, the forces led by General Wang Debang, a victor of the Bac le ambush event created a fortified camp. To support the men Wang Debang had his forces fan out, plundering all the nearby villages for food supplies, thus earning the hatred of them. This led some farmers and villages to come to the French on December 23rd, alerting them of the Guangxi army’s presence atop Nui Bop. The news of 12,000 enemy units so close to their forward position at Chu threatened the French campaign soon about to launch against Lang Son in January, thus Oscar knew he had to neutralize them. Oscar took a force of 2000 men, drawn from the 1st and 2nd brigades of the Tonkinese expeditionary corps and began a offensive. Instead of directly marching east from Chu, Oscar decided to sweep to the southern bank of the Luc Nam river to try and outflank the enemy’s left flank. To make sure the Qing did not see this coming he diverted a