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Not long after Liu Yongfu led the Black Flag Army to settle down in Baosheng, they encountered the incident of the French colonial authorities sending troops to invade Tonkin.

It turned out that although France had already occupied six provinces in Cochinchina, it was not satisfied and soon extended its claws of aggression to Tonkin.The vanguards of this invasion were the French merchant Du Buyi and the French captain An Ye.

1. The Dubuyi Incident

As early as 1861, Du Buyi had come to Hankou, China to do business, and later went to Yunnan for trade many times. In 1871, he came to Mengzi and Manhao in Yunnan with the intention of surveying the Red River waterway, and then took a boat along the Red River to Hanoi.When passing through Baosheng, the base of the Black Flag Army, he was treated with courtesy by Liu Yongfu.

Through this voyage, Du Buyi learned that a waterway connecting Yunnan and Hanoi could be established along the Red River.In 1872, Dobuyi returned to Paris and asked the French Navy Colonial Ministry to allow him to travel to Hue, the Vietnamese capital, on a gunboat of the French naval squadron stationed in Jiaozhi. His goal was to force the Vietnamese government to agree to France's lease of its territory in order to create a route connecting Vietnam and Yunnan.The Navy Colonial Office expressed support for his plan and instructed the Governor of Jiaozhi to help him. After a period of preparation, at the end of March 1873, Du Buyi brought four ships and more than 150 people to Hanoi via Yunnan Province in China.

At first, Du Buyit exchanged letters with local officials in Hanoi in an attempt to establish good relations. Later, he learned that Vietnamese officials had a bad impression of him because they suspected that he was colluding with Huang Chongying, and took advantage of his absence to detain some of his accomplices who stayed in Hanoi.

Infuriated, Du Buyi put away his hypocritical mask, led his entourage to the streets with weapons, and demanded the return of his detained accomplices from Vietnamese officials. He then unscrupulously burned Vietnamese official notices, attacked Vietnamese soldiers, and imprisoned Vietnamese officials.

He also threatened local Vietnamese officials while on his way to Yunnan, China for trade:

"If you try to block our way, I will kill you all with a machine gun. If you let us pass, we will become the best friends in the world."

He ordered the shooting at the Vietnamese fortifications and the burning of rafts along the river as a demonstration. When passing through the Guansi Pass where the Black Flag Army was stationed, Du Buyi was ready to turn against the Black Flag Army because he thought the Black Flag Army was asking too much for the food he sold to him: "If you try to mess with me, I will annihilate you from Lao Kai to Hanoi."

Du Buyit's perverse behavior angered Hanoi officials, who said they would stop his unreasonable behavior and posted notices to expel Du Buyit.Because Dobuyit arrogantly opposed the warnings of Vietnamese officials and showed no intention of restraining himself, the Vietnamese government sent people to meet with the French Governor of Cochin, Dupere, asking him to send warships to Hanoi to help expel Dobuyit.

On the other hand, Dubuy also asked Dupere for assistance to counter the increasing pressure from the Vietnamese government.

Dupere responded to this:

On the one hand, he wrote a letter to Du Buyi, asking him to leave Hanoi first to ease the conflict between the two sides; on the other hand, he considered taking this opportunity to send troops deep into Tonkin, and the officer Du Pere selected to lead this army was Captain An Ye.

2. An Ye occupied Hanoi

Dupere's official mission to An Ye was mainly to investigate the reasons why Du Buyit opposed the Hanoi authorities and the accusations made by the Hanoi authorities against Du Buyit, and to understand Hanoi's foreign trade situation.

However, after An Ye arrived in Hanoi from Saigon with 56 soldiers and four small boats, he posted a notice on November 5, in which he added the mission of expelling pirates and robbers.

This was naturally opposed by the Hanoi authorities, who pointed out:

"An Ye's only mission is to judge and expel Du Buyi, not to interfere in state affairs."

In response to this, on November 15, An Ye posted a "Letter to the People of Tokyo" in Hanoi, claiming that in addition to resolving the Du Buyi incident, "my mission has another purpose, which is mainly to protect business and open this country and its rivers (referring to the Red River) to all countries under the protection of France."

At the same time, An Ye also proposed five terms of negotiation to the Hanoi authorities and threatened to use force against them if they did not accept these terms. The Hanoi authorities responded by insisting that An Ye had no right to discuss anything other than the matter of Dobuyi.

On November 19, An Ye sent an ultimatum to the Hanoi authorities, threatening that if they did not accept his conditions before dark, he would capture Hanoi and capture the governor.On November 20, An Ye, with the assistance of Du Buyi's armed men, led more than 100 people to attack Hanoi. Hanoi Governor Nguyen Tri Phuong and his son Ma Lin organized resistance.During the battle, the prince consort Lin, who was supervising the battle at the southeast gate, was killed by the French artillery shells. Nguyen Tri Phuong was also shot and wounded. The defenders fled in panic, and the French easily captured Hanoi and captured Nguyen Tri Phuong. Later, Nguyen Tri Phuong died of hunger strike in anger.

After the incident, the Vietnamese government ordered the Commercial Maritime Administration to send a written note to the French commander and the envoy in Gia Dinh, requesting a peaceful resolution of the conflict between the two sides and that the French side should order An Ye to return the provincial capital of Hanoi.

For this reason, French colonial official Huo Daosheng wrote to An Ye, expressing his dissatisfaction with his reckless behavior of sending troops to occupy Hanoi without authorization:

You were sent to expel a certain adventurer and try to reach an understanding with the Annan officials. Instead, you linked yourself to this adventurer and, without warning, fired with shrapnel at people who had not attacked you and were defenseless. Did you ever think of the shame this would bring on you and us if people knew about it? This is an irreparable harm both to you personally and to the purposes that France wants to achieve... Your instructions did not ask you to do this.

However, An Ye, who was blinded by victory, ignored this and instead sent his subordinates to ask the Vietnamese government for its response to the trade agreement he proposed.

Under his pressure, the Vietnamese government dismissed all local officials in Hanoi, regardless of whether they were alive or dead.He appointed Chen Dinhsu as the governor-general of He Ninh, Nguyen Trong Hoa as the governor-general, and Zhang Jiahui as the provincial governor, and took some local officials to He Noi to negotiate with An Ye. An Ye did not stop there, he also issued an order to the provinces of Tonkin to set up checkpoints, remove river barriers, and announce the three articles of the commercial agreement.

Soon, An Ye sent troops to capture four provinces including Haiyang, Ningping, etc., and Tonkin was in danger.

3. The First Battle of Paper Bridge

An Ye's wanton expansion of aggression made the weak Vietnamese government panic. They sent Li Jun as plenipotentiary representative and Nguyen Van Xiang as deputy representative to Hanoi together with the French representative Huo Daosheng to participate in the negotiations between France and Vietnam:

On the one hand, Huang Zuoyan was ordered to supervise the military affairs of Tonkin, strengthen the defense of various places, and wait for the results of the negotiations between the two sides. Huang Zuoyan was ordered to supervise the military affairs of Tonkin, and Liu Yongfu became his subordinate. Before this, Huang Zuoyan had recommended Liu Yongfu to the Vietnamese government many times because of Liu Yongfu's meritorious service in assisting in the pursuit of Huang Chongying, so the two had a good relationship.

Now that a powerful enemy was at hand and the Vietnamese government troops were no match for An Ye, Huang Zuoyan then transferred Liu Yongfu to resist An Ye.

At this time, Liu Yongfu had already accepted the post of Xinghua Baosheng Defense Commissioner granted by the Vietnamese government, and was operating Baosheng as the base of the Black Flag Army. Therefore, he knew that the fate of himself and the Black Flag Army was closely linked to the Vietnamese government, and that they would live and die together. An Ye's invasion of Tonkin would threaten his and the Black Flag Army's survival and safety, so he was willing to drive the French army out of Tonkin.

After receiving the order, Liu Yongfu led hundreds of Black Flag Army soldiers to Luocheng, ten miles away from Hanoi City, to set up camp. Huang Zuoyan and his Vietnamese officers and soldiers set up camp two or three miles behind.

The two sides agreed that the Black Flag Army would serve as the vanguard to kill the enemy, while all logistical matters would be handled by the Vietnamese government troops.

Huang Zuoyan also issued a reward: 150 taels of silver would be rewarded for beheading a French soldier, 10 taels would be added for one stroke (a symbol indicating the rank of French officers), and 20 taels would be added for two strokes.

When An Yeh set out from Saigon to Hanoi, he led only 50 soldiers. After arriving in Hanoi, he received armed assistance from Du Buyi's men, and his total force was no more than 100. Therefore, on the eve of the attack on Hanoi, An Yeh wrote a letter saying: "I will use 180 men to attack the 7,000 people in the city at dawn tomorrow."

Within a month after the capture of Hanoi, An Ye had not been able to receive any reinforcements, but had to send troops to attack and occupy Haiyang and other places, leaving even fewer troops in Hanoi.

When the Black Flag Army came to challenge, An Ye was negotiating with Chen Tingsu. He hurried out of the city to meet the enemy. Because it was Sunday, most of the French soldiers were on vacation. An Ye only gathered more than 20 soldiers and dragged a mountain cannon out of the city.

At first, the Black Flag Army pretended to be defeated and retreated, luring An Ye to the place where they set an ambush. An Ye fell into a pit on Luocheng Dam, and after he had used up all the bullets in his pistol, he was beheaded by the Black Flag Army. An Ye's deputy Benny led a dozen people to search on another embankment, but was also ambushed and killed near the Paper Bridge. The survivors fled back to Hanoi in a panic.

The Chronicle of Li Weiye's Expedition states:

"In December 1873, An Ye and Barney were killed with only about a dozen people each."

In April of the eighth year of the Guangxu reign (1882), Liu Yongfu and Huang Guilan talked about this battle and also said:

"In October of the 12th year of the Tongzhi reign, the French had already captured Hanoi, with only a hundred French soldiers, a hundred Xiangshan warriors, and a hundred Huizi warriors. The soldiers sent by Yongfu to support them were also only a few hundred. A few miles away from the city, the French came out to fight. Their troops were scattered, with a few people working together, and they were good at using firearms. From Chen to You, Yongfu set up an ambush, attacked with swords and spears, and killed five judges and more than ten real ghost soldiers. Yongfu lost only one team leader and six brave men. They retreated into the city, and if the southern officials had not negotiated peace, they could have been wiped out."

From this we can see that in the First Battle of Paper Bridge, the Black Flag Army annihilated only a few French soldiers, at most no more than a dozen.

The small scale of the First Battle of Paper Bridge can also be seen from the rewards and official appointments given to Liu Yongfu by the Vietnamese government afterwards.

At the beginning, the King of Vietnam did not think highly of the victory of the First Battle of Paper Bridge:

"Liu Tuan lured An Ye to his death, which was a trick he came up with. If we were to fight him in a fair fight, I think we wouldn't be able to last long."

For this reason, Liu Yongfu was not given much reward and his promotion was not high. Vietnamese historians said:

In March of the 13th year of the Tongzhi reign, "Liu Yongfu was approved to be promoted to the deputy commander of the regiment. The regiment was promoted three ranks from the captain down, and all soldiers on the march were rewarded with silver taels and coins (345 taels of silver and 3,000 coins) to record their merits in the Zhiqiao battle."

Liu Yongfu's resume also states: After killing An Ye in battle, "with the recommendation of the governor-general and the order of the king, Liu Yongfu was awarded the title of deputy commander and continued to serve as the Baosheng Defense Envoy."

Liu Yongfu was awarded the title of Baosheng Defense Envoy for helping to suppress Huang Chongying, so what he received this time was only an honorary title of a military commander.The so-called Deputy Admiral of Sanxuan was awarded to him after he participated in helping to suppress Huang Chongying and Li Yang.

4. The watershed of Liu Yongfu’s fate

Although the scale of the First Battle of Paper Bridge was not large, it had a significant impact on Liu Yongfu's fate and the relations between China, Vietnam and France.

As for Liu Yongfu personally, before the first Battle of Zhiqiao, he had participated in the Guangxi peasant army for ten years, but in the end he was left without a place to stand and unable to survive.After entering Vietnam, he fought fiercely with hostile forces such as Huang Chongying for six or seven years, conquered a large territory, and was granted official positions of various levels by the governments of China and Vietnam, which was very different from before.

However, he saw that Vietnam was weak and poor, and faced with foreign threats day by day, and it was not a paradise. The titles he obtained in both countries were nominal and had no real significance.In the eyes of the two governments, he was still a bandit leader who had surrendered, wild and untamed, untrustworthy, and whose position was not solid. Once the French army attacked and Vietnam fell, how could the eggs in the nest be safe? He would have nowhere to hide.

For this reason, after he participated in the suppression of Huang Chongying in the early years of the Guangxu period, he pleaded with local officials in Yunnan and Guangxi provinces to allow him to return to China to make a living: "I would rather be a captain of a thousand troops in China than a governor of Vietnam."

But they were all rejected, and the future of the Black Flag Army was still bleak, and no one knew what their fate would be. After the victory of the first Battle of Zhiqiao, Liu Yongfu went from being a discriminated and surrendered bandit leader to a hero of the anti-French resistance that attracted the attention of thousands of people. The nature of the Black Flag Army also changed, from an ordinary peasant army to the main force to resist French aggression.

He linked his personal destiny with the great cause of resisting French aggression, became a backbone of the anti-French resistance that attracted the attention of the governments and peoples of China and Vietnam, and finally found his historical mission.

For Vietnam, ever since France sent warships to provoke in 1847, the Vietnamese government has been unwilling to sit idly by and watch the rampant aggression of the French army in order to safeguard its own territory and sovereignty, and has organized defense and resistance.However, the generals were incompetent, the army was corrupt, and they were unable to defeat the enemy in attack and unable to defend themselves.Although they were fighting on their own land and had the advantage of terrain, the thousands of Vietnamese troops armed with homemade rifles and cannons were no match for the hundreds of French troops equipped with foreign rifles and cannons. They were startled at the sound of gunfire and fled when bombarded. They allowed the French army to advance straight ahead, first occupying the six provinces of Cochinchina and then invading Tonkin. The fall of Vietnam was imminent.

The Black Flag Army launched an attack, the enemy chief surrendered, all the lost territory was recovered, and the enemy's brutality was curbed.The Vietnamese military and civilians saw hope in the anti-French struggle, found the backbone of the anti-French struggle, and strengthened their determination and confidence to defeat the enemy.

5. The Qing government’s change in attitude towards France

For the Qing government, the victory of the first Battle of Paper Bridge also gave it an opportunity to aid Vietnam in its fight against France. China and Vietnam had a feudal vassal relationship that lasted for more than 900 years. The two countries were connected by mountains and rivers, and they were interdependent and shared weal and woe. Of course, they did not want France to annex all of Vietnam.However, in the 1860s, when the French army annexed the six provinces of Cochinchina, Vietnam, the Qing government had just suffered a blow from the Anglo-French forces in the Second Opium War and was forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Tianjin and Treaty of Beijing. Then, the Qing government was busy suppressing the Taiping Rebellion, the Nian Rebellion, and ethnic minority uprisings in the southwest and northwest, and was unable to take care of Vietnam for a while, and the Vietnamese government did not ask China for help.

By the time the Qing government finally caught its breath, France's invasion of Cochinchina, Vietnam was already a foregone conclusion.

In 1870, the Qing government issued an edict to ask officials in Guangxi:

"The borders of Annan are fertile, such as the Xujiang River. In Annan, there are three provinces, which are no larger than a county in China. The country calls it Dongjing. In recent years, it is said that it has been occupied by France, which has stationed heavy troops and appointed officials such as admirals."

Guangxi was asked to send officials to investigate all the situations and report the facts. The governor of Guangxi dispatched the prefect Xu Yanxu to investigate the area around Lang Son and report the situation of France occupying six provinces in Cochinchina. However, after the report was submitted, the Qing government did not take any action.

In 1872, Guangxi sent troops to Vietnam to assist in the suppression of the rebellion. The French colonial authorities actually protested to the Qing government in their capacity as the emperor of the Vietnamese government.

Guangxi Governor Liu Changyou said:

"The French did not say (the Gui army aided Vietnam), but reported to the Trade Office, saying that I was harboring evil intentions and intended to break the alliance."

In 1873, when An Ye was raging in Hanoi, the Gui army that was aiding Vietnam was fighting in Taiyuan and other places. Their forces were far larger than those of the French army and they could easily stop the rampant French army.

However, the Qing government strictly prohibited the Gui army that aided Vietnam from getting involved in the Franco-Vietnamese conflict:

"The Guangdong Army is suppressing the Vietnamese bandits inside and outside the borders, and has nothing to do with France. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will inform the French envoy to follow this instruction and not to cause any more trouble."

Later, when they heard that the Black Flag Army had killed An Ye, the Qing government issued another decree:

"The Guangdong defense forces in western Vietnam have invaded Cao Bang and Lang Son provinces. Ruilin and others have informed the French consul not to invade. The Guangdong troops there will not advance into Hanoi to avoid mutual suspicion and damage to peace."

These examples show that the Qing government at that time believed that it was powerless to fight against France and stop France's aggression in Vietnam, so it had to turn a deaf ear and stay out of it.

However, the Qing government had no choice but to adopt this attitude, and was actually unwilling to accept something that seriously damaged the prestige of the suzerain state and endangered the security of China's southwestern border.

Therefore, when the news spread that Liu Yongfu had killed An Ye in battle and curbed the French invasion, it attracted the attention of the Qing government, which gradually led them to form the goal of aiding Vietnam in its fight against France by helping Liu.

6. Impact on France

For France, since it first provoked Vietnam in 1847, for more than 20 years, the French army only needed to dispatch a limited number of warships and hundreds of troops to harass Vietnam's river and coastal areas at will, defeating the other side and forcing them to surrender and cede land and pay compensation.

Even Du Buyi despised the government, humiliated the people, acted tyrannically and recklessly in Hanoi, relying on more than a hundred armed men under his command. And An Ye was even more arrogant, leading only a few dozen soldiers to run rampant in Tonkin. If this situation could continue, France would not have to spend much effort to occupy all of Vietnam.

However, the Black Flag Army's killing of An Ye in battle was like a bolt from the blue, shattering the French invaders' wishful thinking and making them realize that without mobilizing sufficient manpower and material resources, the French invaders would not be able to defeat the resistance of the Vietnamese military and civilians and easily annex all of Vietnam.

In 1870-1871, France suffered a crushing defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and was forced to cede Alsace and Lorraine to Germany and pay an indemnity of 5 billion francs.

Although France paid off this indemnity in 1873 by borrowing extensive public debt from the French people, it placed a heavy burden on the country's finances.The French government had to pay up to 340 million francs in interest on these new debts each year, plus other expenses caused by the war, totaling 730 million francs per year, accounting for 40% of the country's normal expenditure budget.

Politically, France at that time was engaged in a struggle between royalists and republicans. The different political views and intrigues of each faction seriously weakened the decision-making and administrative capabilities of the French government.This shows that France was still a relatively weak country, both politically and economically, and was unable to send more troops to invade Tonkin, Vietnam. Instead, it had to curb its ambitions of aggression. "Therefore, the French would not dare to swallow up Vietnam for more than a century."

If the Black Flag Army had been defeated in the First Battle of Paper Bridge, the development of history would have been much simpler. Perhaps there would have been no Sino-French War, nor would there have been the later national hero Liu Yongfu. However, Liu Yongfu won, but it was only a small victory and did not fundamentally solve the problem of French invasion of Vietnam. So, things became complicated.

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