Page:Eminent Chinese Of The Ch’ing Period - Hummel - 1943 - Vol. 1.pdf/257

Rh Imperial army under the command of whom he later followed to Nanking in pursuit of the rebels. After the death of Hsiang, in 1856, Fêng fought many battles in and around Nanking under the command of Chang Kuo-liang (see under ) who died in May 1860. Then, at the head of some three thousand men, Fêng garrisoned the strategically important town of Chinkiang and there he fought relentlessly in 1863. In the following year, when the Imperial forces made a general attack on Nanking, Fêng and his troops recovered (May 13) Tan-yang, Kiangsu. Soon thereafter his contribution toward the suppression of the Taipings was rewarded with the hereditary rank of Ch'i-tu-yü, and with the Yellow Jacket.

Fêng Tzŭ-ts'ai was appointed in 1862 to the post of provincial commander-in-chief of Kwangsi, and assumed the post in 1865, after subduing remnants of the Taipings in Fukien and Kwangtung. As soon as he reached Kwangsi he dispatched troops to the provincial borders which had been in a state of unrest since the Taiping Rebellion. Within two years the northern and northwestern borders were tranquilized, but in the spring of 1867 the northern frontier was again disturbed by the incursion of a Miao tribe from Li-po, Kweichow. Advancing on Ch'ing-yüan (I-shan), and then on T'ai-p'ing, Fêng repelled the Miao and restored order in that area. Late in 1868 he led troops to Lung-chou on the southwestern border of Kwangsi. This region had been under the control of a powerful rebel leader, Wu Ya-chung 吳亞忠 [終], who had fled to Annam in the summer of that year. In August 1869 Fêng and his main troops marched on the Langson 諒山 region, Annam, and there exterminated Wu's forces by the end of the year. Upon his triumphal return to Kwangsi Fêng was given the additional hereditary rank of Yün-ch'i-yü. In 1875 he was transferred to Kweichow as commander-in-chief of the provincial troops. Four years later he was summoned to Peking for an audience, and was then sent to Kwangsi to assist the local authorities in connection with border defense. In 1881 he was transferred back to Kwangsi but retired a year later owing to illness. Three years later, however, he was recalled to active service to resist the advance of the French army in Annam.

At this time France was following a policy of active encroachment in northern Annam, or Tongking. Ever since 1862, when France was ceded Saigon and three provinces in Cochin China, she had been extending her influence over Annam. In 1874 the king of Annam was forced to sign a treaty of "peace and alliance" with France, in which was ceded, among other rights, permission to navigate the Red River from the sea up to Yunnan. But China refused to relinquish suzerainty over Annam, or to open Yunnan to French trade. France herself was then recuperating from the effects of the Franco-Prussian War and so, for more than five years, did not press the issue. In 1880 and 1881, however, the French government adopted an aggressive policy towards northern Annam in spite of the protests of, then minister to Paris. In April 1882 a French expeditionary force under Commandant Henri-Laurent Riviére (1827–1883) took Hanoi. From 1882 to 1884 several attempts at a peaceful settlement of the Annam issue fell through. In the meantime an undeclared war was on. The Chinese government ordered troops to advance to strategic points in Annam from Yunnan and Kwangsi, and secretly encouraged a bandit leader in Tongking, Liu Yung-fu 劉永福 (another ming 義, T. 淵亭, 1837–1917), to attack the French. At the suggestion of a Chinese official, T'ang Ching-sung 唐景崧, Liu moved his army, known as the "Black Flags", to the vicinity of Hanoi and attacked that city. In a battle west of the city Riviére was killed (May 19). As a result, the French government sent large reinforcements to Hanoi, and forced Liu Yung-fu to retreat westward. With Liu thus removed, the French were now face to face with the Chinese army. In March and April 1884 the French defeated large concentrations of Chinese troops in Tongking. Partly owing to this defeat, Prince Kung (i.e.,, q.v.) and several other Grand Councilors were accused of being incompetent and too conciliatory toward the French, and so were removed. Many officials in Peking clamored for war.

Just then was trying to negotiate peace with the French envoy, Commander (later Admiral) Frangois-Ernest Fournier (福祿諾, b. 1842), and the two signed a convention on May 11, by which Li agreed to recognize French interests in Tongking, and to the opening of Yunnan and Kwangsi to French trade. Li also agreed to withdraw from Tongking the Kwangsi troops by June 6 and the Yunnan troops by June 26. He did not dare, however, to make public this agreement to the 245