On March 23, the French army launched a large-scale military operation, and the French army on the western front launched an offensive against Lintao, and Nigri, who was in charge of the eastern front, led the main force of the first brigade of more than 1,000 people, taking advantage of the fog to sneak into Zhennanguan.

After half past ten o'clock in the morning, the fog in the pass dissipated, and the French army saw this situation and decided to divide the troops into two routes: the main force advanced along the Dongling, and the other advanced along the pass valley in front of the pass. In addition to this road, the French army also had a group of nearly 1,000 men deployed on the highlands southeast of Zhennan Pass as a reserve and served as a guard in the direction of the oil pass.

"Report, the French army is coming......"

Although Feng Zicai came to lure the snake out of the hole before, the French army came a little suddenly because of the fog, so he immediately ordered: "Immediately ask General Su to come to answer, and then let General Wang lead his troops to intercept the enemy from the flank and rear." "General Su is Su Yuanchun who is stationed in the shogunate, and General Wang is Wang Debang.

"Inform Xiaoqi and attack with the old man to meet the enemy!"

"Yes!"

Although Feng Zicai was mentally prepared, the shape was far worse than he imagined. The artillery fire of the French army was very fierce, and the sound of artillery shook the sky, and the valley was heard seventy or eighty miles away. Because the five castles on the East Ridge had not yet been completed, the defense was low, and even if Feng Zicai arrived, the French army still captured three of the five castles.

"General, the French artillery fire is fierce, we can't resist it!"

French shells fell on the positions, sand and smoke dispersed, and the soldiers suffered heavy losses.

Feng Zicai saw that the shape was becoming more and more critical, and shouted: "Brothers, I know that the battle is hard, but if we let the legal person break through to the customs, what face will we have to see the fathers and villagers in Guangxi again." What is the use of the common people raising our gang? …… Swear to live and die with the position! ”

"Swear to live and die with the position!" Seeing that Feng Zicai personally supervised the formation, the soldiers didn't care so much, they worked hard one by one, and they were very heroic.

While Feng Zicai was resisting the enemy head-on, Wang Xiaoqi led his troops to follow Feng Zicai's previous orders, went around the back of the enemy along the path, and immediately began to attack. However, because of the terrain, the effect of the attack was not obvious, but it still contained the firepower of the French army on the front to a large extent, which greatly reduced the pressure on Feng Zicai's troops and gave him a rare respite.

However, the current situation is still very dangerous, and Feng Zicai has no troops to adjust. Later, after racking his brains, he remembered that the chief soldier Chen Jia still had several battalions of people stationed in Pingxiang. Feng Zicai wrote an invitation and asked Chen Jia to come to discuss. Chen Jia was recuperating from his injuries, but seeing that the situation was urgent, he did not dare to delay, and immediately asked for the opinions of his subordinates.

"What are your thoughts on going to war?"

The lieutenant general disagreed, and said: "My lord, we are not his subordinates Feng Zicai, this battle has been fought so far, of course, we can go or not." Besides, you're injured right now......"

There are those who disagree, of course, there are those who agree, and for a while, in the military tent, you say everything and I say, it is very noisy.

Chen Jia lowered his head and was silent, and after careful consideration, he said: "It's not good not to go, Feng Bangban has the right to mobilize the whole army, and now he is not giving an order to transfer me, but asking me to post, which already gives me a lot of face." You know, this face is given by people, don't give it a shame when you arrive! Pass my general order, and the whole army will set off! ”

At about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Su Yuanchun, Chen Jia and others led their troops to rush to reinforcements. Soon, Jiang Zonghan and Fang Yousheng also rushed to hear the news. Among them, Chen Jia led his troops to garrison the No. 4 and No. 5 forts, which had not yet been captured, and then stormed Dongling. The rest of the divisions were in a similar situation, resisting fiercely and fighting fiercely. The Qing and French sides were evenly matched, with equal casualties.

At this time, Wang Debang also led his troops to attack the right flank of the French army from the oil pass, and at the same time attacked Wenyuan City, fought fiercely with the enemy for several hours, successfully pinned down the maneuver of the enemy's reserves, and cut off the enemy's communication line for transporting arms and food for a time, effectively cooperating with the battle of Dongling.

After nightfall, Feng Zicai took advantage of the opportunity to further adjust the deployment. Su Yuanchun's troops assisted Feng Jun to guard the long wall, Wang Xiaoqi's troops guarded Xiling, Chen Jia's troops guarded Dongling, and Jiang Zonghan and Fang Yousheng's troops guarded the peak of Daqing Mountain. Feng Zicai also sent people to fly with a large order to transfer the five battalions of Feng Jun stationed in Kuoba to copy the left flank of the French army.

On the morning of March 24, Negri, who was holding his breath, commanded the French army to attack again in three directions, and at this time he called his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Elminga, to his side and said: "Lieutenant Colonel, now that Daqingshan is foggy again, you lead a group of soldiers to take advantage of the fog to raid the big fort at the top of Daqingshan." If we can take this vantage point, we can win the battle. ”

Alminga hesitated, but agreed to Negri's order.

Waiting for Daqing Mountain Ai Ermingjia to find that this is simply impossible, the terrain here is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and Feng Zicai is afraid that this place will be lost, so Jiang Zonghan and Fang Yousheng are deployed here.

Elminga also didn't want to disobey Nigri's orders, so he still launched a sneak attack, and the result can be imagined. had to retreat.

At 11 o'clock in the morning, Nigri found that there was no movement in Daqingshan, and thought that Lieutenant Colonel Erminga had already succeeded, so he secretly rejoiced in his heart and immediately issued an order to bombard the frontal fortifications of the Qing army with heavy artillery fire, in an attempt to cover the French troops advancing along the valley to approach the long wall, and cooperate with the French army in Dongling to break through the position of the pass in front of the pass in one fell swoop.

For a while, cannonballs rained down, turning the long wall into a sea of fire. The French army swooped down, and the Qing army stubbornly resisted.

Su Yuanchun, who was in charge of defense, saw that his subordinates had suffered heavy casualties, and he was anxious, so he said to a general: "You go and ask Lord Feng if you can retreat first." ”

When the general heard this, he had a bitter gourd face, but he still went to ask for instructions, but his words became very tactful, and said: "My lord, Admiral Su, please ask the seniors, it is already difficult to defend this place, can you retreat to Pingxiang and fight again?" ”

Feng Zicai glared and said angrily: "Phew! There is a long wall here, there is still a danger to defend, what to defend when retreating to Pingxiang? This time he was defeated, and the old man thought that he had no face to go back to see the people of Liangguang! You go back and tell your Admiral Su that you are young and have a great future, and if you want to retreat, you will secretly retreat, and do not shake the morale of the army. I'm old, and I'm going to die on this wall with the soldiers. ”

Seeing Feng Zicai's resolute attitude, he knew that the persuasion would not succeed, so he had to go back to see Su Yuanchun, and as soon as he said it, although Su Yuanchun was not happy, he could only stay and defend with him.

The French offensive became more and more fierce, and the shells fell beside Feng Zicai from time to time, and his nephew felt that it was very dangerous, so he said: "Marshal, you should stand back a little." ”

"What kind of retreat, what kind of battle will you fight if you are afraid of shells? If you dare to say anything that shakes the morale of the army, I will kill you! Feng Zicai ordered the commanders of all departments at this time: "Those who retreat, no matter what general or army, will be punished!" And they set up checkpoints on all roads to intercept the deserters. Feng Zicai and Wang Xiaoqi did what they said, and those who dared to escape were punished by beheading, regardless of their official rank. For a time, the morale of the army was greatly shaken, and the morale of the army was greatly raised.

The French offensive has always been fierce, sometimes already approaching the long wall, or even climbing it. Seeing this situation, Feng Zicai was old and strong, held a spear and shouted, and led his two sons to jump out of the long wall, rush into the enemy formation, and start a white-knives fight. Seeing that the commander was taking the lead, the officers and men of the whole army opened the gate together and rushed towards the enemy. The French, battered, began to retreat and were knocked out of the valley.

At noon, the 5th Battalion Feng Army, led by the guerrilla Yang Ruishan and Dusi Mai Fengbiao, rushed from Mosha Village to Longmen Pass, and suddenly appeared behind the French flank, dealing an unexpected blow to the attacking enemy. After a fierce battle to the death, the French wolf Bèi in the middle retreated to the valley. At the same time as the fierce battle on the long wall in front of the pass, Chen Jia and Jiang Zonghan successively led their troops to repeatedly fight for the three fortresses of Dongling occupied by the French army. Until the evening, after defeating the enemy's reinforcements and destroying its convoys, Wang Debang's troops attacked the right side of the French army from outside the pass, and cooperated with the defenders of Dongling to recapture all the enemy-occupied fortresses.

At this time, Wang Xiaoqi's troops had also repelled the enemy attacking along the Xiling Ridge and outflanked the enemy from the Xiling Ridge. The French army was surrounded on three sides, suffered many casualties, could not provide backup, ran out of ammunition, and began to break up on all fronts. As a result, Negri had to order a retreat, the French army left hundreds of corpses, and the wolf fled back to Wenyuan.

Zhennanguan won a great victory, killing and wounding nearly 1,000 elite enemy troops, and seizing a large number of guns and dry food. On the same day, the Qing army on the Western Front, under the command of Cen Yuying, won a victory at Lintao, and the situation in the Beiqi War took a fundamental turn.

After the defeat of the French army on the eastern front through Zhennanguan, the number was less than 2,000, and they rested in Wenyuan for a while. Negri felt unsafe, so he ordered the main force to withdraw hastily to Lang Son and join up with the reinforcements who had already arrived there, bringing the total number to about 4,500 men.

Feng Zicai did not give the defeated enemy a chance to breathe, and on March 26, he personally led his troops and Wang Xiaoqi's troops out of the pass to attack Wenyuan, and informed Wang Debang's troops to copy the enemy's right flank by the small road. Wen Yuan defended the enemy and poured out to fight, and when the battle was not long, the leader of the defending enemy was shot and fell off his horse, and the rest of the people fled, and the Qing army immediately recovered Wen Yuan. At this time, the Yue Nan rebels who were ordered by Feng Zicai also increased the attack and harassment on the communication lines from Langshan to Nayang and Tunmei, posing a great threat to the rear of the French army.

Negri tried to hold on to Lang Son and wait for more reinforcements to arrive before attacking Zhennan Pass again, and made three deployments: First, the main force held a high ground to the north of the donkey drive to ensure that the donkey was driven and shielded Lang Mountain. Second, a part of the army was deployed on the south bank of the Qijiang River, guarding the main transportation routes leading to Gusong and Tunmei. Third, the old and weak soldiers were organized into "castle squads" and stationed in the walled bunkers of Lang Son City.

Feng Zicai in view of the fact that Lang Son is a military important place in northern Vietnam, if he does not rush to attack first, it will be difficult to break through, and believes that the French army has been defeated in successive battles, and his heart is already cold, and it is easier to achieve success than to attack openly and lose more soldiers. Therefore, in Wenyuan, he had a secret discussion with Su Yuanchun and others, and finally decided to use regular soldiers to attack and drive the donkey, and surprise soldiers to secretly take Langshan.

On March 27, Feng Zicai sent Yang Ruishan to lead his troops to make a detour, cross the Qijiang River at night, and sneak to Langshan at dusk the next day, scattering all over the city.

On March 28, Feng Zicai, Su Yuanchun, Wang Debang, and Wang Xiaoqi advanced forward one after another, forcing the donkey to drive the donkey in three ways: Feng Zicai and Su Yuanchun led the main force to attack the front; Wang Xiaoqi's troops and Feng's army attacked the west; Wang Debang's troops attacked the east. Relying on the strong fortifications on the high ground north of the donkeys, the French army put up a stubborn resistance and stopped the Qing army's attack. In view of the strong fortifications on his left flank and front, and the difficulty of defending the terrain to the east, Nigri decided to have Elminga lead an army to launch a counterattack against Wang Debang's troops in the east.

At about 2 o'clock in the afternoon, Feng and Su took advantage of the enemy's mobilization of troops and the weakening of the frontal defense force to launch another fierce attack. In the fierce battle, Nigri was seriously wounded by a bullet in the chest, and Erminga, who took over the command, immediately ordered a retreat to the south bank of the Qi River. The defenders of Lang Son cut the pontoon bridge in a panic, causing some French troops to fall into the water and drown in the rout. After that, the French army retreated to Lang Son City and immediately deployed to retreat south in two directions.

At dawn on March 29, the main force of the Qing army waded into the Qijiang River and advanced to Langshan. Prior to this, Yang Ruishan, who was lying in ambush outside the city, took advantage of the sleeping French army and suddenly launched an attack. The French army in the city was in a hurry, and there was chaos. Yang Ruishan and other governors led the battalion members Ben and Yongding, and the ants attached to it, split the city gate, and started a hand-to-hand fight with the French army. The French army responded in a hurry, suffering heavy casualties and the remnants fled south. The Qing army pursued for more than 20 miles, searched the mountains as they entered, and captured many enemies from the valley.

In the process of recovering Langshan, the Qing army killed and wounded nearly 1,000 French soldiers and seized a large amount of ordnance and materials, and Yang Ruishan alone captured more than 30 large and small artillery pieces. Langshan was ke, and the Qing army took advantage of the victory to pursue southward by two roads, east and west.

On March 31, Chen Jiabu and Wang Debang on the East Road conquered Gusong, and Feng Jun on the West Road conquered Tunmei and forced Langjia. The French army fled to the area of Langjia and the bow of the ship like frightened birds.

Seeing that the shape in front of him was very good, the Vietnamese rebels who were originally watching began to join in, while the rebels who were originally ordered by Feng Zicai were more active.

Huang Tingjing, the governor of Bac Ninh, gathered more than 20,000 righteous people from all walks of life, built the banner of the Feng army, and volunteered to pick up rice and serve as a guide, and accompanied the army to help suppress it, or split up to attack. The people of Hanoi, Hai Duong, Tai Nguyen, Saigon and other places also brewed uprisings, hoping that the Qing army would move south as soon as possible to drive out the French invaders.

Feng Zicai decided to personally lead the entire army of the Eastern Front to attack Bac Ninh and Hanoi in mid-April. Tang Jingsong's department was also preparing to go out to herd horses and attack Taiyuan. Guangdong, on the other hand, prepared to send troops out of Qinzhou to attack Guang'an along the east coast of Beiqi. More than 30 battalions of the Yunnan Military Affairs Department of Bao Chao's headquarters are advancing towards Longzhou and are ready to enter Vietnam at any time. The Dian army on the western front has also recovered Guangwei and other places, and is developing an offensive towards Xinghua.

On the evening of March 27, the French Prime Minister Jofferry, who was in Paris, was a little restless, and the secretary walked in with a pale face.

"How's the battle going?" Ruferi asked, already having an extremely bad premonition in his heart.

"Defeated ......"

Ruferi couldn't believe it, and seemed to lose all his strength in an instant, and sat down in his chair, helpless.

"Mr. Prime Minister......" the secretary called.

After a long time, Ru Feili, who was already in a state of limbo, finally had a reaction, and said in a hoarse voice: "What should we do?" ”