Chapter 219: Victory or Defeat (Part 2)

January 19, 1886.

Closely related to the battlefield were the long and arduous negotiations between the Black Flag Army and the French. The news of the Anglo-Japanese allied forces deploying to Guangdong clearly gave the French more confidence at the negotiation table. Craig threw a thick stack of negotiation documents on the table and said, “These are our latest terms.”

Liu Da, the merchant, ignored Craig’s display of force. He merely glanced at the thick stack on the table and said, “Our terms have been clear from the beginning!”

The two sides’ bottom lines in negotiations were utterly incompatible, yet Liu Da remained calm. He even said calmly, “Do you think what you can’t get on the battlefield can be obtained through negotiation?”

His French was fluent, and interestingly, both sides had previously worked for the Oriental Bank of Commerce, so they were well aware of each other’s negotiation tactics.

“Do you intend to turn the negotiation table into a battlefield?” Craig threatened bluntly. “The situation has changed drastically since we started negotiating! I’m continuing these talks out of respect for the friendship among China, France, and Vietnam!”

But Liu Da knew full well that Craig valued the interests of the Oriental Bank of Commerce and himself more than those of the French Republic, which would always be secondary.

Liu Da had no intention of engaging in word games. “What do you mean? That we should continue the war? Then I can only say that what can’t be obtained through negotiation is even less likely to be achieved on the battlefield. Your military adventure will surely end in failure, and then we can continue negotiations under new circumstances!”

Just as the Anglo-Japanese allied forces were an advantage for the French, the military adventure envisioned by Craig was also advantageous for the Black Flag Army—they had already learned about its details even before him.

Craig, as the chief negotiator, was almost the last to learn about this military adventure. In fact, within days of the decision to launch it, the Black Flag Army already knew everything about the operation, including the names and backgrounds of every company commander and platoon leader, as well as all details of the battle—down to the nicknames of each cannon.

This military adventure was decided unilaterally by the local military leadership, without the approval of the cabinet or the Navy and Army ministries. The military commanders, seeing the changing situation, tried to use this risky move to continue a hopeless war.

But in the eyes of the locals, this operation was hopeless. Although the Black Flag Army had withdrawn many experienced troops, it still retained several old infantry regiments and several new combat units in South Vietnam and China, with a total force of tens of thousands, equipped with excellent weapons.

Thus, at the instigation of many adventurers, all information about this operation was leaked to the Black Flag Army, who knew the details even earlier than the battalion commanders involved.

Among these people were those with vested interests; they had bet heavily on the operation ending quickly. If the war continued, they would surely lose everything and face bankruptcy.

There were also administrative officials in the Indochina colonies who had given up hope on military operations and were eager for peace to come soon. Some plantation owners likewise hoped that military actions would end quickly so they could regain their estates. All these people had been the strongest supporters of war two years earlier, but now they were the ones most desperate for peace. They hurriedly sold military secrets at the lowest possible price to help the Black Flag Army achieve victory. They knew full well that this military venture, involving 1,200 soldiers, had been decided unilaterally and illegally. If this attempt failed again, the war would surely continue, and the Black Flag Army had promised to open the Chinese market to their French friends as much as possible. Craig was one of the pitiful victims of betrayal; he had no idea how the Black Flag Army knew about the military operations and could only make a final desperate attempt: “Our troops are invincible!” Liu Daimai laughed, “We can wait for definite battle results before resuming negotiations!” By now, the 1,200 French soldiers involved in the operation were on the brink of hell. Every soldier showed a look of despair—they saw countless Black Flags, thousands of enemies emerging, and even more dishearteningly, they brought numerous cannons. Shells exploded above the troops, shrapnel flew everywhere, and bullets rained down on their formations. The mules pulling the cannons panicked and neighed loudly, running off in unknown directions. Blue uniforms were stained with blood. The Black Flag Army’s forces seemed several times larger than theirs. Officers fell one after another, and soldiers tried to attack repeatedly but were blocked by the hail of bullets. To secure a perfect victory, Liu Yongfu had gathered as many troops as possible—over 10,000 soldiers in a confined area. All combat-ready forces in the south rushed to seize victory. Every heavy weapon in the south, from Hotchkiss machine guns to rapid-fire mountain guns, was brought in for this final onslaught. Now, fiery serpents were rampaging through the French blue formations. Any determined resistance became utterly fragile in the face of this barrage of fire. Black Flag Army officers shouted in French, Vietnamese, and Algerian, “Surrender! Surrender!” Faced with such encirclement, the 1,200 soldiers were like eggs hitting rocks. In less than half an hour, half of them were killed or wounded. After several remaining officers failed in their attempts to launch a counterattack, they finally cried out, “We surrender! We surrender!” They found it an utterly humiliating scene—nearly a third of a French regiment, made up of Europeans, could not hold out for even an hour. But they had never imagined such an outcome. A year and a half later, the surviving officers were sentenced by a military court to five to ten years in prison for unilaterally launching military operations and undermining peace and friendship between China and France. They appealed repeatedly, but it wasn’t until World War I began that they were finally exonerated.

But for the Black Flag Army, such battles were of decisive significance; they marked the end of French military operations. Although there were nearly a hundred more military conflicts thereafter, resulting in hundreds of casualties on both sides, neither side was interested in engaging in another major battle. The Black Flag Army’s troops in Central and South Vietnam were gradually withdrawn, with some officers remaining to form new combat units. Even so, the Black Flag Army retained a considerable number of troops in Vietnam. As the quality of its units declined, the number of its troops in Vietnam continued to increase, reaching as high as 80,000 at its peak.