First of all, let us see why the Sino-French war broke out?
In the first half of the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty and France were still two non-adjacent countries, and there was nothing to do with their interests. But since Napoleon III came to power, France has increased its pace of expansion overseas, and its expansion in the Indochina Peninsula is no exception. In 1858, the French colonial forces occupied Danang in the Nguyen Dynasty (now Vietnam), and in 1859 they occupied Bien Hoa, Dingxiang, and Jiading. By 1867, the Nguyen Dynasty basically controlled the territory of Nanqi. Since the Nguyen Dynasty was a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty, the French invasion of Annan also planted the seeds for the future Sino-French war.
But these are not all the factors that led to the outbreak of the Sino-French War. There was still one fuse, and this fuse appeared in the first paper bridge battle in 1873. The French colonial army in Annan in the 1870s turned their attention to the northern Nguyen Dynasty. And prepare to send troops to occupy Hanoi. At that time, the Ruan Dynasty chaos in the north became a pot of porridge, not only the French colonial army but also Liu Yongfu's black flag army and a large number of insurgents. In order to survive, Liu Yongfu brought the black flag army to rely on the Nguyen Dynasty to help the Nguyen Dynasty deal with various enemies. The Nguyen Dynasty was also willing to accept Liu Yongfu. At the end of November 1873, the French army effortlessly defeated the Nguyen Dynasty army, which was 35 times its own strength. Then Liu Yongfu led the Black Flag Army to defeat the French colonial army that invaded the northern part of the Nguyen Dynasty in December 1873.
In this battle, the scale of the battle was originally small. The French army had less than a hundred people participating in the battle, and the losses on both sides were not large. But Liu Yongfu's small victory was tantamount to a bolt from the blue for the French colonial army in the Indochina Peninsula. Because before that, the French colonial army in Annan usually had a hundred or ten people in various places, but now the situation is different. In addition, it was only two years after the Franco-Prussian War was fought in France at that time, and it had not yet emerged from the shadow of the Franco-Prussian War. The situation in France also restricted the conditions for it to project large-scale troops to the remote Indochina Peninsula. The French colonial army wanted to conquer Annan’s Nguyen Dynasty and the entire Indochina Peninsula without any effort.
As the French army intervened in Beiqi again in the late 1870s, and formally peeped into Yunnan in 1882, the Qing Dynasty was inevitably involved in this dispute. Finally, in 1884, the Sino-French war officially broke out (in fact, neither side declared war).
So was the Sino-French war undefeated for the Qing Dynasty?
So far, many people believe that the Sino-French War was originally victorious in the Qing Dynasty, but because of the incompetence of the Qing court, they asked themselves for bullying. Although they were victorious, the Sino-French New Covenant signed The Qing Dynasty placed the identity of a defeated. So is this the fact? The answer is not.
Generally speaking, there is usually such an argument that the Qing Dynasty is undefeated in the Sino-French War, that is, the collapse of the French Ruffery cabinet caused by the victory of Zhennanguan in the later period of the Sino-French War, which prevented France from fighting again. Power. Let's take a look at this argument, that is, the collapse of the French Cabinet of Jufféry brought about by the victory of Zhennanguan and ultimately made France lose its combat power.
Scholars often argue about the number of losses of the French Army in the Zhennanguan Victory, but it is a generally accepted view that the Zhennanguan Victory caused the collapse of the French Cabinet of Ruffery. But in fact, it was the unprovoked withdrawal of the French army after the capture of Lang Son, which triggered the collapse of the Ruffery cabinet. But no matter how you say it, it is true that Ruferi’s cabinet has collapsed under the influence of the Sino-French war, but is the impact really that big? This had to be combined with the situation in France at that time.
We all know that France entered the period of the Third Republic after the Franco-Prussian War. In the 70 years that the Third Republic has dominated France, France has successively replaced 108 cabinets from 1871 to 1940. The cabinet is changed very frequently, which means it is changed every eight months on average. This situation is still rare.
Because of the wrestling between the various factions in France at that time, any disturbance will trigger the butterfly effect, and the "assist" in the propaganda of France's overseas competitor, Britain, is even more so. The Zhennanguan Dajie is a typical example. And earlier, the Soyaro, the fuse of the Second Opium War in 1856It also triggered the collapse of the French cabinet at that time.
Then, after the collapse of the Ruffery cabinet, will France no longer have the power to fight? No, then France paid another 50 million francs to the French colonial army there in order to continue the war to the end. At the same time, the counterattack made by the Qing army after the Zhennanguan victory was exhausted. For example, Liu Yongfu's 1st, due to various combat and non-combat attritions led to very limited military strength, and the number of recruits convened by multiple parties was insufficient. Thousands of people, resulting in an offensive and defensive dilemma due to insufficient strength. In addition, the Qing court also suffered from financial constraints. At the same time, with the increase of French troops, the Qing army's strength in strength was also weakened. The original plan to recover Bac Ninh and Hanoi had to be abandoned.
In addition, in the entire Sino-French War, the Qing army lost more and less victory on land. Before the victory of Zhennanguan, the French army had mastered the important towns of the Nguyen Dynasty. At the time of Zhennanguan victory, the French army had already reached the border of the Qing Dynasty. The weak position of the Qing army on the sea also led to the threat of France in Taiwan and Penghu. The Nguyen Dynasty of Annan and his own Taiwan and Penghu area can only guarantee the same problem.
In the end, the reconciliation after Zhennanguan's victory was really helpless.
As mentioned earlier, France still wants to continue the war after the collapse of the Juffery cabinet. In addition, France also intends to send a fleet to attack Dagukou by taking advantage of the sea dominance that the French army gained on the battlefield after the Majianghai battle. At this time, the Qing Dynasty was constrained by the North Korean Renwu Incident and other factors. . If the war continues, no one can guarantee whether the humiliation of 1860 will be repeated. With the victory of Zhennan Pass, the Qing Dynasty also had some room to speak at the negotiating table. At the end of the Sino-French War, the Qing Dynasty also achieved at least part of its goals. However, if the Qing Dynasty continued the war, not only would it not be able to protect its own vassal state, but also the Taiwan and Penghu region.
And if the Qing Dynasty only negotiated peace out of fear of France, then the Qing Dynasty would not send troops to fight with France at first, and even win over Liu Yongfu and his Black Flag Army. What's more, the Qing army also formulated a plan to recover Bac Ninh and Hanoi. The reason why the Sino-French War gave people a feeling that they should have been victorious is that since the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty has rarely won wars with the foreign powers. During the Sino-French War, although the Qing army said that it lost more and less victory, it also Some good victories have been won, such as the victory at Zhennan Pass. If the Qing Dynasty had the ability to fight and become the final winner of the war, it would not be so anxious to seek peace.
Of course, some people think that the Qing Dynasty did this to defend and suppress Han. However, since the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army uprising, the Qing Dynasty has acquiesced to the fact that the Han power gradually became the pillar of the Qing Dynasty. Historically, after the Sino-French War, the Qing Dynasty did not contain the growth of Han Chinese. Before the Sino-French War in 1875, the Qing court was also ordered by Li Hongzhang and Shen Baozhen to build Beiyang navy and Nanyang navy to defend the sea. Therefore, this argument is also difficult to gain a foothold.
