On April 3, 1881, in Tokyo, Vietnam, the commander of the French army, Miller, was frowning in his office, looking at the telegram sent from China, and cursing angrily in his mouth: "This group of stupid politicians knows that they are urging me to attack, and they obviously know nothing about military affairs, but they are half the way around the world, sitting in the office, looking at the map of one in 100,000, and they still want to instruct me to do this, to do that, who is the commander of the army?" Anyway, I will never attack Lang Son until reinforcements and equipment arrive at the end of this month. Hmph, stupid donkeys! I know that I will talk to me about politics and politics, and I am a soldier, so I know how to do it according to military laws, and I will go to politics with him! ＂

Seeing the general so furious, the clerks and guards next to him were naturally silent.

The telegram, which made Millet furious, was dictated by Gambida himself this morning, and the telegram repeatedly stressed the importance of successive victories of the French army in stabilizing public opinion, maintaining popular confidence, and creating a favorable environment for negotiations. Based on such political considerations, the telegram demanded that Miller resume the offensive, and the peaceful atmosphere on the battlefield in Vietnam for the past two months made all parties in the country very dissatisfied, and Gambida believed that the truce would affect the morale of the French soldiers for too long, and at the same time give the Chinese army enough time to organize defense, which would be detrimental to future offensives.

The telegram's Zuihou also pretended to quote a newspaper report, suggesting that some domestic officers, such as Lieutenant General Frey, believed that the reason why the French army was stagnant was because the commander, Lieutenant General Miller, was not enterprising enough and was too afraid of the enemy, and so on.

The whole telegram was full of ignorance of the situation in Vietnam, and speculation about the malice of Miller himself, and it was no wonder that Miller was so angry.

However, after scolding and scolding, Mi Le also felt a lot of pressure after calming down. Every time his army captures a place, it has to pay a lot of casualties, and the public opinion in the country does not know the difficult situation here, and those reporters who accompany the army, seeing that the troops have not moved for two months, will naturally have something that they do not understand, and the reports sent back to China will not have anything good. From this point of view, a victory is indeed needed to calm public opinion.

After thinking about it, Miller decided to fight a battle to calm public opinion. He sighed in his heart: "I never imagined that I would actually fight for political needs." ＂

So where to fight?

Zuihou, he chose Taiyuan. Taiyuan is located between the eastern and western lines, on the left side of Lang Shan, and if you defeat Taiyuan, you will be able to ensure the safety of the flanks when attacking Lang Son in the future, which is also a strategic location. In addition, this area is famous for its tea production, and the land is soft, making it difficult to build a strong defensive position.

In the previous Battle of Shanxi, the French army had hundreds of dead or seriously wounded and disabled, and due to Miller's established plan, it was necessary to ensure that the two main brigades were fully organized. Bishuo's Third Brigade had already been transferred once before, and only about 2,000 men remained, so he had to draw 500 men from Miller's own Fifth Brigade.

At the same time, there was also an important measure, in view of the defection of some Vietnamese soldiers in the Battle of Shanxi, which greatly damaged the trust of the French army in the indigenous forces, Miller had to order that the indigenous infantry battalion would only be responsible for some miscellaneous tasks, such as building fortifications, maintaining local law and order, etc., and would not participate in major military operations. This is precisely the use of China's use of Emperor Side to establish a provisional government.

After several days of preparation, the French army began to advance in the direction of Taiyuan. The main attack was carried out by Nigri's 2nd Brigade, with the 1st and 5th Brigades acting as cover, alerting the Chinese troops in the Lang Son direction.

At the same time, the information of the French dispatch was quickly transmitted to Taiyuan and Lang Son.

Thai Nguyen is an important town in the central part of northern Vietnam, and from here to Lang Son in the east, forming a watershed in the topography of northern Vietnam. To the south of this watershed is a plain stretch of the Red River Delta, with a network of water and rice paddies. Beyond this watershed is a dense area of mountains and mountains.

Wu Changqing, commander of the Fourth Division of the Training Army, was discussing countermeasures with his subordinates Zhang Yao and Xu Zhanbiao. Although he was born in the army, he loves to read, loves to learn, has a high level of education, and his first-hand articles are no worse than his masters, and people have always called him a Confucian general.

At this time, he took the secret telegram sent from the headquarters, which was clear and vague, telling him to "hold on for a while, choose the opportunity to reorganize the army and retreat, retreat to Baosheng, and then make a conclusion." ＂

The action has been clearly explained, but the purpose is vague and unclear, but Wu Changqing judged from experience that this is luring the enemy to go deeper! It seems that the command has made a strategic layout, but since it is not clear, it is naturally for the sake of secrecy, so there is no need to publicize it itself.

Thinking of this, he put away the secret telegram, and then said: "The French army is strong, the people who come are not good, and the ground here is soft, so it is difficult to build strong fortifications. simply shrank the whole army in Taiyuan City, relying on the high walls to fight the enemy. ＂

Zhang Yao asked: "Shizuo, since the French army is attacking me, do you want to send a telegram to the Lang Son headquarters for help?" ＂

Wu Changqing thought to himself: "Everyone else has made it clear, let me guard it, and then find an opportunity to slip away, how can I do this extra move and send troops to reinforce it?" But that's not clear yet. ＂

So he shook his head: "Since the command already knows that the French army is going to attack my Taiyuan, if you want reinforcements, you will naturally send troops, and we will stick to it." ＂

A day later, the French approached Taiyuan, and after a night's rest, Negri ordered an attack.

Early in the morning, French artillery began to bombard the city of Taiyuan. However, this is already the edge of the water network of the Red River Plain, and the river fleet can no longer support it, which has a great impact on the firepower of the French army, especially the heavy artillery firepower, so the French army needs to improve the accuracy of the artillery bombardment, and the guidance of hot air balloons has become indispensable.

All day, the French hot air balloons tried to find the location of the Chinese artillery positions, but apparently the Chinese had carefully arranged camouflage, which was difficult to distinguish from the air. The French had to concentrate their fire on the city walls, and in the afternoon, the south gate was blown open, and the French tried to attack the south gate, but the defenders, who had been hiding without a trace, suddenly came out of the ruins of gray bricks and tiles and fired at the French, while the artillery hidden on the west side of the city also began to threaten.

After a burst of gunfire, the French retreated, leaving dozens of corpses behind. Although there were some casualties, the Chinese artillery positions were exposed, and the French took the opportunity to shell the positions where they were located. But fortunately, the sky gradually darkened, affecting the view of the hot air balloon, and the Chinese army changed those artillery pieces, but those heavy guns were really inconvenient to drag, and Zuihou was still destroyed.

After nightfall, Wu Changqing ordered Xu Zhanbiao to lead a brigade, open the north gate and quietly withdraw.

The next day, the French army continued the attack, and in view of the lessons of the city of Shanxi, Negri was very cautious, and did not give the order to rush into the broken south gate in one go, but directed the artillery to continuously widen the gap, and then harassed the city from different parts at the same time.

He tried to exhaust the defenders and prevent them from judging the direction of their main attack.

On this day of fighting, there was no large-scale contact between the two sides, but only the constant repetition of destruction and repair, destruction and repair. But the entire city wall is already riddled with holes.

On the evening of the same day, Wu Changqing ordered all the remaining troops to withdraw from the city and retreat to the northwest.

Although the reconnaissance troops of the French army found the Chinese troops in retreat. But the main force of the French attack was only one brigade, and it was night, and Negri did not dare to pursue it for fear of a trap, and it was not until dawn that he took over the empty city and sent the good news to the rear.

Langshan, on Kuoma Mountain, Feng Zicai, the front-line commander of the Chinese army, was twisting his beard, watching the Qiqiu River in front of the mountain flow slowly, Yuan Shikai stood behind him and asked suspiciously: "General, do you really want me to go to Zhennanguan?" ＂

"Yes, the rear reports that a large number of mines have arrived at Zhennanguan, and the old man wants you to go and arrange and choose the most suitable minefield location. ＂

Yuan Shikai was a little puzzled: "Since the mines have arrived, why not directly bury this Langshan and cooperate with the defensive position, wouldn't it be more able to kill and injure the French army?" ＂

"It's still too far from China, too close to the sea. Well, if you don't understand, you'll naturally know later. Also, Wang Debang's brigade is also going with you. ＂

Yuan Shikai had no choice but to retreat, Feng Zicai looked at the endless rice fields in the south of the mountain, and thought to himself: "I wonder if the French will take the bait?" ＂

"I'm not going to take the bait! In the French army headquarters, Army Lieutenant General Miller was roaring angrily, "I will never fall into the trap of the Chinese!" This must be a ruse, how could it be possible to capture Taiyuan City in only two days! You must know that the Chinese army did not suffer any decent casualties at all, and such a retreat was completely premeditated. ＂

Porier, who was next to him, said with a little confusion: "But, Your Excellency, we can't rule out that the Chinese have indeed lost the courage to resist because of successive defeats?" ＂

Miller shook his head: "I didn't rule out this possibility, maybe I was too worried." But the Chinese also have an old saying that a gentleman does not stand under a dangerous wall, which means that a wise person does not stand in front of an unstable wall. The wall doesn't necessarily come down, but what about Weishenme taking such a risk? Since we are highly suspicious that the Chinese want to lure us north, what should we do as they wish? ＂

Porier was a little embarrassed: "But the capture of Taiyuan has been greatly exaggerated by those journalists, and now the newspapers in Paris have repeatedly praised Nigri, calling him a national hero." The prime minister also sent a special telegram for us to immediately attack Lang Son to defeat the Chinese in one fell swoop and let the children go home as soon as possible."

That's what Mile annoysed: "Our biggest enemy is not the Chinese army, but those Parisian officials, who talk nonsense, are irresponsible, and are a bunch of fanaticists." ＂

Miller took a breath and said as if taking an oath: "When the reinforcements arrive, the only goal is to capture Lang Son." After that, the offensive of the French army will end there. As long as I am here, the French army will not be in Vietnam, one more small step in the direction of China! ＂

Miller's wisdom and determination seemed to make China's strategy fail, but history played a joke, and a few days later the unexpected happened.