In the eyes of the French government, China, which has a vast territory and a large population, has gradually improved with the Westernization Movement, is like a scary tiger in the Far East. Since intervening in Vietnam, France has not attached much importance to the Chinese army, but the Chinese Navy, which is well-known in Europe, is a heart-wrenching problem for France.

Due to the secret report from the French officer Riege, who served as the "Ship Management Foreign Shipping Officer" in China in advance, the French government took diplomatic actions and initially eliminated the possibility that the "Dingyuan" and "Zhenyuan" ironclad ships ordered by China in Germany would return to China in a short time. However, the several modern fleets that already existed along the coast of China at that time were not considered by France.

The Beiyang Navy has the latest collision cruisers and Randall gunboats. The Nanyang Navy has several cruisers with strong firepower. The Fujian Shipbuilding Navy has made its mark in the conflict between the Sino-Japanese and Taiwan incidents. Although the Guangdong Navy is slightly weak, ships have already been active on the coast of Vietnam as early as after the Anye incident, and spy on the French army. As for the customs cruisers under the Chinese customs, they are even regular visitors on the coast of Vietnam.

Once a large-scale invasion is launched against northern Vietnam, no one can guarantee whether China will react fiercely. If China is completely angered, ships transporting troops and supply along the coast of Vietnam are likely to be attacked by Chinese warships. The small gunboats of the Tokyo detachment, even the warships of the Japanese Sea Detachment, have a great chance of winning when confronting several Chinese fleets, is also a problem that concerns the French.

In order to ensure that the Tokyo Expeditionary Force will not be threatened by the Chinese fleet during its operation, France is determined to form a fleet with sufficient strength to cover the offshores of Vietnam.

Although this fleet was escorting the Expeditionary Force of Wave Slip, it was independent of Wave Slip's command, which was tantamount to eye-dropping on Wave Slip, who wanted to be the first person in Jiaozhichi.

It takes some time to go from the military port on the south bank of France to Vietnam. Bo Wai, who is determined to be the boss, is determined to take advantage of this time difference and establish his position in Tonkin.

"We must take over Tonkin in full before the end of the summer. I have received local orders that require us to clear all the resistance forces holding weapons in Tonkin, whether it is the Vietnamese, the Black Flag Army, or the Qing army. So, we must act immediately!"

In mid-June, with the aggregation of his land military force, Bo Hua issued an order to attack his subordinates with confidence, and the first target was naturally Hanoi.

Faced with the upcoming French army, the Black Flag Army stationed in Hanoi were also full of confidence. The victory a month ago made them believe that with the benefit of the city, the French would definitely be defeated.

Unlike the soldiers' enthusiasm burst out, Liu Shaoqing seemed worried at this time.

"Father, the child thought we should give up Hanoi and retreat to Wilde."

"Why? The soldiers all have the confidence to defend Hanoi, why should they give up?"

"First of all, the French army's strength is far higher than before, and our strength advantage has been lost. In terms of weapons and equipment, the equipment that Tang Jingsong promised to supplement has not yet arrived, and our army will face the full suppression of the French army in firepower. Moreover, the French army can also obtain gunboat support on the water, and the original artillery in Hanoi has been damaged in the previous few battles. Therefore, even if we can defend Hanoi, we will face extremely heavy losses of troops. Now is the early stage of the war, and we cannot afford this loss. The most important thing is that if we have no choice, we have no need to fight the French to the death."

Liu Shaoqing paused and continued: "When in Huaide, Huaide had a four-pillar temple fort, which could reduce the surface threat from the French army. If we retreat, our army can further retreat to Shanxi and Xinghua. The initiative is entirely with me."

What his son said makes sense. Liu Yongfu, who was struggling to survive in troubled times, understood the importance of preserving his strength best. Therefore, on the grounds that there was insufficient ammunition, he urged Tang Jingsong to transport the promised weapons and ammunition to the front line as soon as possible, and at the same time, he led his soldiers to voluntarily withdraw from Hanoi.

The confidence of Boskaya occupied Hanoi increased significantly without any effort, and six measures were proposed - including building city walls, barracks, appointing and removing officials, recruiting mercenaries and using motorboats to block the river channels, etc., in order to further establish prestige.

"Your Excellency, due to the long-term war, there are fewer residents in Hanoi city now, and we may not be able to collect enough labor to build the city wall." The adjutant in charge of the execution reported.

"It doesn't matter, we can use the women in the city. In addition to the city wall, we also need to build a solid fort on the other side of the Red River to guard against the attacks of the Black Flag Army."

"As for your order! Your Excellency." The adjutant immediately recorded the order.

"Also, how is the matter of recruiting local armed forces?"

"It went very smoothly. We learned that there was originally a bandit armed force in Tokichi called the 'Yellow Flag Army'. They failed in the fight against the 'Black Flag Army' for territory, so they had a deep hatred with the 'Black Flag Army'. We have reached preliminary contact with them, and they are willing to cooperate with us to eliminate the 'Black Flag Army' on the condition that the three provinces of Xuanhua, Xinghua and Shanxi will be left to them to manage in the future."

Bo Hua sneered after hearing this, "The greedy monkeys. But it doesn't matter. Now we can agree to them first. When we clean up the armed forces in Tonkin, if these monkeys make any further requests, they will be wiped out together."

After being recognized by the highest commander, the French quickly selected five companies of soldiers from the "Yellow Flag Army", led by Captain George Flaviano, an adventurer from Greece. George had been a mercenary captain in the colonies and had rich experience. Bosch also equipped these infantry with horses to patrol the French army in order to rest.

At this time, Liu Yongfu had led the main force of the Black Flag Army to retreat to Shanxi, and at the same time, troops were still left to dig trenches from Henoi to Shanxi - Huaide Prefecture and Danfeng County.

On June 20, the gunboats of two Tokyo detachments dispatched by Bohua went up to Ruixiangshe, where the confluence of the Dihe River and the Red River during the patrol, and encountered six Black Flag Army's artillery sailboats, and the two sides immediately fought fiercely.

This was the first time Boxet had fought with the Black Flag Army since taking office. The Black Flag Army's small sailboat was only equipped with 200 kilograms of bore cannons. It was okay to threaten the merchant ship. If you want to fight, you could not fight against the 160 mm naval cannons on the French ship. As a result of the battle, it fell down on one side - two Black Flag Army's sailboats were destroyed, and the French ship was not damaged at all, and they won a small victory.

The advantage on the water surface has become more and more determined to Boshe's strategic determination to use gunboats to block the river. Three days later, the two gunboats were dispatched again and went forward to Fuli River and Dihe River for reconnaissance. However, this reconnaissance was very failed. Not only did the Black Flag Army not find it, it was almost stranded because of the shallow water.

Faced with the threat from the French army on the water, the Black Flag Army, which lacked naval troops, was helpless. Moreover, this time they could not even count on the Qing court. Because the Qing Dynasty was about to face more serious strategic pressure from the water.

In the summer of 1883, on the blue South China Sea, a large warship from afar was sailing, facing the scorching sun, sailing towards the Vietnam coast at a high speed. The tall freeboard, dense gun doors, and rapid speed, the warship seemed to be emitting murderous aura all over the body. The red, white and blue tricolor flags raised on the flagpole at the tail of the ship even more showed the unusualness of this warship.

A soldier who described a thin soldier standing on the deck of the flybridge in front of the chimney in the middle of the warship, from the awe-inspiring eyes cast at him by the people around him, it is easy to see that he is the master of the ship. On his face, which was very ferocious and ugly due to his mouth and nose, he showed a calm and meditative expression, and his deep eagle-like gaze was staring at the coastline ahead.

Courbet is here.

It is completely different from He Luoxian and Bohua. When Courbet received the appointment, he did not have much excitement or joy.

Courbet's personal position is opposed to this war with arrows in its heart, at least he is not very interested in the war between the Qing Dynasty and belongs to the "anti-war faction" in the French Navy. He is also leading a fleet of the French Navy to test new weapons and new tactics - the Navy Experimental Detachment, hoping to gain some technical advantages over other powerful countries. Compared with the war with China, Courbet clearly believes that the work of the test fleet is more meaningful.

But as a loyal professional soldier, he had to obey the appointment of the state.

Courbet came with a maritime force that was stronger than any other powerful Far East navy. In addition to the fleet's flagship "Baya", the other main battleships include the "Alma"-class armored cruiser "Adalangde", the second-class cruiser "Reynolds", the "Keons", and the "Amilin", the notification ships "Baswar", the "Crocodile" class gunboat "Wilcat", the "Virer", the "Yishbi", the transport ships "Drake" and the "Sonny".

In addition to the large warship, his experience as the principal of the Mine School made Gu Ba have a unique relationship with weapons such as pole and thunder.

Like Li Hongzhang, the Minister of Beiyang, Gu Ba was also a thunderbolt. Therefore, two 27-meter minecraft thunderbolts were specially incorporated into the Tokyo Detachment. This minecraft is still a rare object even in the French Navy. However, the small minecraft has limited coal loading and cannot achieve long-distance self-navigation. It can only be transported directly from the Toulon military port to Vietnam by the first-class transport ships "Mei Ha" and "Annanren".

In addition, in order to increase alertness to China's coastal areas, the armored cruiser "Triumph" and the first-class cruiser "Dujutuluyin" were also sent from Europe to the Far East to join China and the Japanese Sea Detachment to increase its deterrence against China's coastal areas.

At the end of July, most of the ships of the Tokyo Detachment of Courbet had arrived in Vietnam and concentrated in the picturesque sea defense anchorage.

On July 30, the top figures in the invasion of the Three Heads, He Luoxian, Bohua and Kurbet gathered in the coastal defense to hold the first joint meeting.

"I think that we should abandon the gradual occupation of the cities in Tonkin, concentrate our superior forces and attack directly." Speaking of this, Ho Luomang stood up and pointed to a point on the map. "Hui! According to the plan I submitted to the country before, we will adopt the method of surprise attacks on the sea landing and directly occupy the capital of Vietnam and force it to surrender."

After saying that, He Luomang turned his attention to Courbet and Boshe.

Unlike Major General Bo Hua, the commander-in-chief of the Tokyo Expeditionary Force, who had greatly rectified military laws, prepared logistics supplies, and organized the construction of fortifications after taking office, who seemed to be very enterprising, the Chief of Civil Affairs of the Three-headed Politics, He Luoxian, was considering overall strategic issues more.

Shortly after taking office, Ho Luoxian proposed a top-secret combat plan to the French Navy and Colonial Ministers. In this plan, Ho Luoxian planned to first politely and then military forces according to diplomatic traditions - first to issue an ultimatum to the Vietnamese government, demanding the expulsion of the Black Flag Army and recognize France's protection of Vietnam. If the Vietnamese government refuses this, it will temporarily ignore the Black Flag Army and conquering northern Vietnam, and simply concentrate its efforts to hit Vietnam's heart, the capital of Hue, and force it to surrender.

Since Hue is just in the middle and waist of Vietnam's narrow territory, it is far away from the southern Jiaozhizhina colony where France stationed troops and Hanoi, coastal defense and other places in the north. There is no way to attack directly from land, so there is no way to attack directly from land, so it can only be a surprise attack on the sea. The French government took a cautious attitude towards this plan and decided to wait for the naval general Courbet to arrive in Vietnam for on-site inspection before discussing the feasibility of the maritime attack on Hue.

Courbet, who had learned about the entire plan in advance, said at this time: "I agree with this plan. Yesterday I had checked the terrain along Hue on the spot to fully meet our needs for landing operations. According to my inference, we can transport two thousand soldiers to the shore at one time."

Courbet originally did not want to fight the Qing Dynasty. If he could force Vietnam to surrender according to Ho Luomang's plan and minimize the war crisis, he would like to see.

With the support of the Navy, it was finally time to see the wave slip.

"Okay." Bohua shrugged, "I agree. But unfortunately, because the surrounding area of ​​Hanoi is still unstable, we will be attacked by the Black Flag Army at any time, so I cannot draw troops from Hanoi."

Bohua is the only militant among the three. He doesn't want the soon-to-be-winning military achievements to be captured by He Luomang and Courbet.

"Oh! Hell!"

"Sorry, you should understand the situation in Hanoi. If I draw the soldiers out, who can guarantee that the Black Flag Army will not attack again? Do you want us to repeat the mistakes of An Ye and Li Weiye?"

Seeing that he could not convince Bo Hua, He Luoheng had to find another way: "Okay, I will dispatch troops from the Jiaozhizhina colony, but I cannot transport artillery. I hope that the General can draw a part of the artillery in Hanoi."

You should not be too despicable. Although you are reluctant, if you refuse at this time, it will be difficult to get along in the future. So Bohua agreed to transfer an artillery company equipped with four artillery pieces from Hanoi to He Luomang.

In fact, the negative and uncooperable practice of Wave Slip is the superficial reason that the Hanoi garrison is not sufficient and cannot be split and allocated. In fact, Wave Slip is trying to make a small calculation and want to show it before the two of them.
Chapter completed!