The Scramble for Asia: Colonialism in the Far East in the 19th Century
"...the victories of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps over the poorly-coordinate Guangxi Army in the Luc Nam Valley were hailed in Paris, but European public opinion was shocked by reports of French atrocities including massacres of Tonkinese villages, summary executions of Chinese soldiers, and other deprivations including mass rape, torture and the impressment into pseudo-slavery of civilians and captives alike. The Kep Massacre in particular roused British public opinion against France when it emerged that exhausted and frustrated French soldiers, having suffered heavy casualties taking the fortified village, bayoneted every wounded Chinese they could find. The French street, for its part, steeled its resolve upon hearing of Chinese bounties for French heads, and volunteers for further battalions to be sent overseas spiked after the discovery of a cache of French heads in a captured Chinese camp.
The Guangxi Army pulled back towards Dong Song and Bac Le, both meant to defend the paths towards their main base at Lang Son, which would be the primary target of General de Negrier as autumn approached. Pressure from the Black Flags and the Yunnan Army against French positions in western Tonkin, particularly Hung Hoa, led to a debate about whether it was best to push northeast and drive the Chinese out or consolidate positions; Boulanger eventually won the argument for aggressiveness, stating, "My great wish is for our brave soldiers to have Christmas dinner on Chinese soil!" Preparations began to be made then, with new conscripts and new supplies, to push ahead to Lang Son within two weeks, with de Negrier receiving a signal that the Far East Squadron was ready to redeploy from Cam Ranh and break the Chinese sea threat..."
- The Scramble for Asia: Colonialism in the Far East in the 19th Century
The Guangxi Army pulled back towards Dong Song and Bac Le, both meant to defend the paths towards their main base at Lang Son, which would be the primary target of General de Negrier as autumn approached. Pressure from the Black Flags and the Yunnan Army against French positions in western Tonkin, particularly Hung Hoa, led to a debate about whether it was best to push northeast and drive the Chinese out or consolidate positions; Boulanger eventually won the argument for aggressiveness, stating, "My great wish is for our brave soldiers to have Christmas dinner on Chinese soil!" Preparations began to be made then, with new conscripts and new supplies, to push ahead to Lang Son within two weeks, with de Negrier receiving a signal that the Far East Squadron was ready to redeploy from Cam Ranh and break the Chinese sea threat..."
- The Scramble for Asia: Colonialism in the Far East in the 19th Century