Battle of Palan The Battle of Palan ( 1 September 1883 ) was one of several clashes between the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps and Liu Yongfu ' s Black Flag Army during the Tonkin campaign ( 1883 – 1886 ) . The battle , a French victory , took place during the period of increasing tension between France and China that eventually culminated in the Sino - French War ( August 1884 – April 1885 ) . Background . The Battle of Palan was fought two weeks after the Battle of Phu Hoai , in which General Alexandre - Eugène Bouët ( 1833 – 87 ) , the French " commandant supérieur " in Tonkin , had failed to defeat Liu Yongfu ' s Black Flag Army . Heavy flooding in mid - August had obliged the Black Flags to abandon their positions in front of the Day River and retreat behind the river . The key to their new positions were the villages of Phong ( or Phung ) , commanding the main road to Son Tay at its crossing of the Day River , and Palan ( also known as Ba Giang ) , at the junction of the Red and Day rivers . Under pressure from Jules Harmand , the French civil commissioner general in Tonkin , Bouët attacked the new Black Flag positions at the end of August to clear the road to Son Tay , the ultimate French objective . Bouët committed 1 , 800 French soldiers to this offensive . The French force consisted of two marine infantry battalions ( " chefs de bataillon " Berger and Roux ) , each strengthened by contingents of Cochinchinese riflemen , one marine artillery battery ( Captain Roussel ) and a battalion of Yellow Flag auxiliaries . The attackers were supported by the gunboats " Pluvier " , " Léopard " , " Fanfare " , " Éclair " , " Hache " and " Mousqueton " from the Tonkin Flotilla , under the command of " capitaine de vaisseau " Morel - Beaulieu . The battle . On 31 August the village of Palan , bombarded from the rear by the gunboats and attacked frontally by Berger ' s battalion , was captured without difficulty , and its defenders fled in disorder along the dyke . At dawn on 1 September the column advanced along a two - metre wide dyke which ran along the bank of the Day River towards its main objective : Phong , a principal point on the road to Son Tay . Its front and left were screened by heavy skirmish lines of Tonkinese and Cochinchinese riflemen . Meanwhile the gunboats ascended the Red River . " Pluvier " and " Fanfare " remained at the confluence of the Red and Day rivers to support an infantry company guarding Palan , while " Mousqueton " , " Éclair " and " Hache " moved up the Day to support the attack column . Three kilometres from Palan , the French began to exchange fire with the Black Flags , who numbered around 1 , 200 and were supported by 3 , 000 Vietnamese . The Black Flags , armed with modern Winchester rifles , displayed the greatest courage , and only gave ground foot by foot . The Vietnamese , by contrast , held back . Although they made a lot of noise , yelling and waving their flags and beating their gongs and drums in a warlike manner , they showed little enthusiasm for actually fighting . Finally the French reached a pagoda at the base of the dyke . The Black Flags had evacuated the pagoda before the French arrived , and fallen back to the centre of their position , which lay behind the earth embankment of a dyke four hundred metres further on . The Black Flags had crowned this embankment with a bamboo fence , and seven large and conspicuous black flags , embroidered in silver , flew side by side at regular intervals along the fence . Behind the dyke Liu Yongfu had his headquarters in a small pagoda with a blue tiled roof . The Black Flags had placed their few artillery pieces along the left and centre of this line , so that their fire could sweep the dyke path that led to their defences . In this position the Black Flags were almost invisible . The French could only see their large bamboo straw hats . They were firing from cover , with admirable discipline and stubbornness . Casualties began to mount in the French ranks . Bouët attempted to beat down the enemy fire . " Mousqueton " , " Éclair " and " Hache " took up positions on the Day River behind the dyke , and fired into the unprotected rear of the Black Flag line . Roussel ' s battery deployed along the dyke , behind the pagoda , and also attempted to bombard the embankment , but with little effect . Most of the French shells had been soaked by the rain which had been falling strongly since the previous evening , and buried themselves without exploding in the soil of the embankment . Eventually Bouët ordered Berger to assault the enemy centre , and sent over Taccoën ' s company from Roux ' s battalion to reinforce the attack . Berger directed Guérin de Fontjoyeux and Taccoën ’ s marine infantry companies to lead the attack , supported by a company of Cochinchinese riflemen , while the other two companies of his battalion gave covering fire from the pagoda . The assault was made across a stretch of flooded rice paddy . The three attacking companies advanced across the 600 - metre gap between the pagoda and the dyke in skirmish order through breast - high water , holding their rifles above their heads to keep them dry . The Black Flags soon distinguished the dark blue blouses of the marine infantry from the black jackets of the Cochinchinese riflemen , and concentrated their fire on the French troops . When the attacking wave was twenty metres from the dyke the bugles sounded the charge , and the two marine infantry companies stormed the embankment . Taccoën ' s company , leading the way , lost 5 men killed and 10 wounded in its approach . Guérin de Fontjoyeux ' s men suffered almost as heavily , and two lieutenants were also killed during the assault . But the attack was so rapid that around fifty Black Flags , who had been lying on their backs asleep , did not have time to get to their feet , and were pinned to the ground with bayonet thrusts . The surviving Chinese fled across the rice paddies . The French killed many of them with rifle fire as they fled . While Berger was storming the centre of the Black Flag line around Phong , Roux attacked and routed the Vietnamese on the left , burning down the straw huts nestling in the middle of the bamboos . The attack was led by his own Cochinchinese riflemen and the Yellow Flags , with Drouin ' s marine infantry company deployed behind them to stiffen their resolve . The defenders gave way rather than face the ferocious Yellow Flags , and the attackers were able to take advantage of the collapse of Liu Yongfu ' s right wing to sweep in towards the centre , where they captured the seven Black Flag standards . As usual , the Black Flags carried off most of their dead , but sixty bodies were abandoned , along with several hundred rifles . Before the scandalised French could stop them , the jubilant Yellow Flags beheaded the corpses , stuck the heads on long bamboo poles , and planted them on the embankment of the dyke . French casualties in the Battle of Palan were 16 dead and 43 wounded , mostly in the two marine infantry battalions that had stormed the embankment . The Black Flags abandoned 60 bodies on the battlefield , and their total casualties were probably several hundred dead and wounded . Aftermath . The Yellow Flag auxiliaries plundered a peaceful Vietnamese village shortly after the battle , and Bouët was forced to disband them . Many of the discharged Yellow Flags promptly joined Liu Yongfu ' s Black Flag Army at Son Tay . Three months later they would be fighting against their former paymasters . Significance . Although the battle was a clear tactical victory for the French , it brought little strategic gain . Liu Yongfu ' s Black Flags escaped to fight another day , and Liu Yongfu showed his disdain for the French by fortifying yet another defensive position a few kilometres back from the Day River . The French were no nearer to Son Tay than they had been before the battle . Bouët was criticised for failing to win a victory of annihilation , and resigned shortly after the battle . Many of his officers regretted his departure , recognising that he had inflicted two defeats upon the Black Flags in difficult circumstances and had avenged the French defeat at the Battle of Paper Bridge in May 1883 . But public opinion in France was anxious for a resolution of the Tonkin campaign , and although the French now installed a post at Palan , enabling their gunboats to patrol the Red River as far as Son Tay , this limited advance hardly satisfied Bouët ' s critics . More importantly , the battle hardened attitudes both in France and China , and hastened the slide into war . The French premier Jules Ferry substantially reinforced the Tonkin expeditionary corps , while the Chinese stepped up their covert support for the Black Flags in Tonkin .