PC: More successful Keelung Campaign

So if the French had seized the Pescadores early on in the fighting (either shortly after or before landing on Formosa), would they have stood a better chance at comprehensively defeating the Chinese forces? To me, it seems like the Keelung Campaign as it played out IOTL could've been improved for the French at a great many junctions despite the seemingly endemic incompetence that plagued them throughout the Campaign.

And if there had been undisputed military victory on Formosa, would the seizure and occupation of the port towns provide a handy bargaining chip for the French as the war with China winded down?
 
IIRC, the French had trouble subduing the Chinese forces on Formosa due to the Chinese commanders continually reinforcing and resupplying by way of the Pescadores (which I think were seized at the very end of the French campaign), so it seems reasonable that if the Pescadores fall early on, the entire campaign would be more successful. But the wrench in the works is the staggering incompetence of the French commanders and whether or not they would've been able to recognize the strategic importance of the Pescadores early on in the conflict. But my knowledge of the Keelung Campaign just about ends there, so that's why I was asking around to see if it'd be plausible for the French to pick up their game, so to speak, and see the obvious.
 
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