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Haakon Brunell is the CEO and Co-founder of Carbon Crusher, a Norwegian company turning traditional road construction on its head. Carbon Crusher refurbishes existing roads using bio-based binders and on-site recycling to create carbon-negative, cost-effective, and more durable infrastructure. In this episode, Haakon shares how their "Crushing-as-a-Service" model and SkyRoads AI platform reduce emissions, increase road longevity, and drive down costs. He explains why roads are both a climate problem and a climate opportunity—and how Carbon Crusher plans to sequester a gigaton of CO₂ by 2035.MCJ is an investor in Carbon Crusher, having participated in the company's seed round back in 2022 when it emerged from Y Combinator. Guest hosting for the first time on this episode is MCJ Partner, Thai Nguyen. Enjoy the show! In this episode, we cover: [02:23] Launching Carbon Crusher out of Y Combinator[05:22] An overview of Carbon Crusher[06:15] Roads as a climate problem and carbon sink opportunity[08:21] Emissions from traditional road refurbishment[09:41] Carbon Crusher's 3 pillars: crushing, bio-binders, and AI platform[12:52] Why roads are now stronger, cheaper, and greener[14:14] Customer mindset in a conservative industry[17:49] Origin story from winter-damaged roads in Norway[21:12] Performance in both cold and hot weather climates[22:53] Customers include cities, counties, and private road owners[26:12] SkyRoads AI helps digitize and plan road maintenance[28:45] Challenges: regulation and conservative decision-making[30:53] Vision: sequestering a gigaton of CO₂ by 2035Episode recorded on May 13, 2025 (Published on June 23, 2025) Enjoyed this episode? Please leave us a review! Share feedback or suggest future topics and guests at info@mcj.vc.Connect with MCJ:Cody Simms on LinkedInVisit mcj.vcSubscribe to the MCJ Newsletter*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Step into the in-between. This segment dives into the rich, transformative power of liminal spaces—those borders and boundaries where identities and experiences defy tidy categories. Our speakers will share deeply personal stories of hybridity, multiplicity, and fluidity, offering insights from lives lived beyond the binary. These talks challenge conventional thinking and celebrate the voices of those who have always thrived in the margins. Don't miss this bold exploration of the spaces where possibility begins. About Queering Talks From the beginning, Town Hall has been a space for meeting the needs of our city—hosting concerts, book talks, and new ways to connect. This January, we're thrilled to launch Queering Talks: In Between, Out in Front, Always Been, curated by Dr. Jen Self (they/them), founder of the UW Q Center. This bold new series reimagines the traditional lecture format through a queer lens, challenging ideas about who speaks, who listens, and who is centered. Built around three themes—In Between (exploring fluid identities and spaces), Out in Front (centering changemakers leading justice and equality movements), and Always Been (highlighting the historic contributions of queer visionaries)—this series promises to inspire, expand perspectives, and celebrate inclusivity. Join us in sparking meaningful conversations and building a community that values growth and connection. Read more on our blog: https://townhallseattle.org/queering-talks/ Dr. Jen Self (they/them) is a therapist, educator, performer, and writer whose work lives in the third space—the liminal zone where identities, systems, and possibilities collide and transform. As the founding director of the University of Washington's Q Center, Jen reimagined what it means to create community healing spaces by centering a queer intersectional praxis. Jen knows that macro changes take place in our everyday decisions and actions. Their career spans decades of racial and gender justice work as a therapist, educator, strategist, program innovator, and truth sayer, navigating—and disrupting—institutions to make them more humane and transformative. Jen's current projects include writing everything from maps on napkins to a memoir, co-leading The Racial Healing Project, and co-creating the Queer Leadership Lab. Darrow Brown lives at the crowded intersection of Black, gay, male, spouse, parent, and friend.  Public service employee, therapist, DJ and recent East Coast transplant are some of the busy and sometimes pothole-filled intersecting streets. Darrow gnaws, perhaps chronically, on what it means to embrace and sit with perfect imperfection. He uses storytelling – his self-proclaimed superpower – to build connections and help develop fertile relationships and thriving human beings. Thai Nguyen was born and raised in the 206 in West Seattle, occupying the straight mess of being a queer-cis male. Thai works as a peer counselor and an aspiring social worker. He focuses on lived experience as a means to break down barriers and reimagine social norms. Thai seeks to spotlight authentic community experiences and needs to diversify our dreams for the world we could build for each other.

A look at President Trump's 1st day in office; Thai Nguyen talks new book and how to best embrace your heritage; Dynamic country duo Locash talks new music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A look at President Trump's 1st day in office; Thai Nguyen talks new book and how to best embrace your heritage; Dynamic country duo Locash talks new music Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Shadow Shorts, Thai Nguyen, Director of Innovation at Hensel Phelps / Diverge, and Shadow Partners, Senior Advisor, and Head of Marketing, Jeff Echols talk about creating a culture of innovation. Want more access to KP? KP is also spending more time in the Shadow Partners Community. He's posting his thoughts and responding to questions. If you want more access to KP, the Shadow Partners Community is where to get it. Join here-> ⁠https://shadowpartners.co/strategic-partner-network

Last time we spoke about the final battles to push the Qing forces out of Tonkin. The Qing, Black Flag and Vietnamese forces were fighting bitterly, on the open field and as guerillas to kick France out of Tonkin. The guerilla activity led to bloody months at the isolated outposts of Thai Nguyen, Hung Hoa and Tuyen Quang. To dislodge the Qing army from Tonkin, the French attacked them at Nui Bop and seized Lang son thus saving the outposts from being taken. After securing their outposts the French recommenced their offensive attacking Hoa Moc. But the Qing and Black Flag forces erected a siege at Tuyen Quang, to which the French beat them again. Then at Dang Dong, the French finally pushed the Qing forces across the Gate of China back to their homeland. The war over Tonkin was fierce, costing countless lives and all for a war never officially declared, but was it all won and done? Well we are about to find out.   #47 The Sino-French War of 1884-1885 part 4: Of War and Peace   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. General Francois Oscar de Negrier took his 2nd brigade and absolutely smashed the remnants of the Guangxi army at Dang Dong, sending them fleeing back into their homeland. For good measure the French literally blew up the Gate of China, also known today as the “Gate of Friendship” which was the border between Guangxi and Tonkin. The customs building, walls, gate itself, all of it was blown sky high. Once this was done the 2nd brigade pulled back to Lang Son at the end of February of 1885. Thus by March the the Guangxi army had been pushed out of Tonkin by General Oscar, while the Yunnan army had been defeated heavily at Tuyen Quang and Hung Hoa by the 1st brigade of Giovanninelli.  Despite the sweeping victories, the Qing were not truly defeated by any means they still held considerable forces across the border. General Briere de L'isle thought about launching an offensive against the nearest target within China, such as the military depot at Longzhou, but he did not have enough men to really pull it off, he had to wait for reinforcements. Reinforcements would arrive in mid march. He sat down with his officers and devised a course of action. It was agreed the 1st brigade would attack the Yunnan army to push them beyond the Yen Bay while the 2nd brigade would hold its position at Lang Son.  The Guangxi Army in the meantime was rebuilding its strength and by March 17th had been bolstered to 30,000 men. Soon the Guangxi army was pressing upon the Tonkin border with two major camps at Yen Cua Ai and Bang Bo with over 9 separate military commands. At Yen Cua Ai were 10 battalions led by General Feng Zicai, around 7500 men strong. Behind Yen Cua Ai in the village of Mufu, 2-3 kms away were another 7000 men led by Generals Su Yuanchun and Chen Jia; another 15kms behind Mufu at the village of Pingxiang was another 7000 men led by General Jian Zonghan and Fang Yusheng. 50 kms to the west AT Aiwa village was 3500 men led by Wei Gang. 15 kms east in at Cua Ai sitting just a toehold within Tonkin was 3500 men led by General Wang Debang. And overall commander of the Guangxi army, General Pan Dingxian was at Haicun, over 30 kms behind Mufu village with 3500 men. General Oscar had around 1600 men to hold Lang Son, yes it was not looking good for the french boys. On March 22nd, Feng Zicai led a raid against a French outpost at Dong Dang. That said outpost was held by forces under Lt Colonel Paul Gustave Herbinger, someone we spoke a tiny bit about in a previous battle who made the rather idiotic decision to outflank the enemy by going way too far around, so far that his superior simply sent another force to attack the enemy. Herbingers french foreign legionnaires fought off the raid once the rest of the 2nd brigade came up to support his outposts defense. Upon driving off the raiders, General Oscar decided it was a good idea to strike back. He hoped to take the enemy by surprise and led the men to cross over to the Zhennanguan pass which held the Guangxi encampment at Bang Bo. Oscar did not intend for a major offensive against Guangxi province, his simple aim was to raid them back and give some breathing room for Dong Dang.  Oscar left a single company of the 2nd African battalion with some batteries to hold Lang Son and the 23rd battalion to hold Dong Dang which would act as his supply line as his main body marched to Zhennanguan. On March 23rd, 1600 men with 10 artillery pieces made their way. The next day the French were met with fierce resistance when they approached Zhennanguan. There they found the Guangxi army utilizing outwork fortifications. Along with the defense, Wang Debang sent his force from Cua Ai to launch a counterattack hitting the French right flank. Oscars men were able to repel the counterattack and seize the outworks and the next day he had his men launch an attack against the enemy's main at position of Bang Bo. He planned to hit the front while simultaneously sending men to sweep around the rear. The frontal defensive line of Bang Bo held a long trenchline which the french named the Long trench. To attack the front, Oscar sent the 111th battalion led by chef de bataillon Francois Leon Faure and for the rear attack, the 2nd legion battalion of chef de bataillon Digeut and the 143rd battalion of chef de bataillon Farret. Herbinger who was leading the 3rd regiment was ordered to guide Diguet and Farret to perform their rear attack maneuver. Unfortunately a thick fog hit the area causing Herbinger to get lost. Oscar, unaware of Herbingers plight mistook a Guangxi army column moving towards the Long Trench to be Herbingers 2 battalions, and promptly ordered Faure to launch his frontal attack.  Fauvre's 111th formed their line and charged into the fray. They immediately came under intense fire from Feng Zicai's infantry manning the Long trench and other Guangxi units manning nearby hills. Within seconds several officers were killed. Two companies made it to the trench and after a very short hand to hand fighting match were fleeing from a major counter attack led personally by Feng Zicai. The carnage was intense, and what saved many of the fleeing French was the Guangxi army's resolve to behead the wounded and plunder them of their arms.  Meanwhile to the right of the battlefield, Ferrets 143rd battalion and Diguets 2nd legionnaires leapt into the fray of battle, several hours longer than expected. They quickly seized a Qing held fort. At 3pm, Pan Dingxin after watching the 111th battalion flee for their lives saw Herbingers command and tossed a counterattack their way. Herbingers command was nearly encircled, in fact a single company of the 143rd battalion led by the Irish officer, Captain Patrick Cotter were completely encircled. Harbinger ordered the men to retreat and leave Captain Patrick's company behind, but the French foreign legionnaires ignored the order and charged at the Qing to break free the company. Despite the company being able to break free, Captain Patrick was killed in the action. Gradually Digeut and Farret's men fell back, performing a fighting withdrawal to keep the Qing onslaught at bay best they could.  During the chaos, the 3rd legion battalion of Lt Colonel Schoeffer had been ordered to stay on Tonkinese soil around Dang Dong to protect their flanks found themselves fighting desperately to keep a line of retreat for the incoming french. Schoeffer's men had to fight off both flanks enabling the rest of the army to fight their way back down the middle. General Oscar was leading the rearguard to try and maintain morale and was successful at stopping a complete rout of his forces. Oscar spent the majority of the late afternoon quelling disorder amongst differing commands, trying to keep the men together. The entire brigades morale was dropping as was their ammunition, so Oscar called for a general retreat back to Lang Son. On the night of March 24th they camped at Dong Dang  exhausted and shell shocked. Sergeant Maury of Digeuts 2nd legionnaires had this to say about the feelings of the men.  “The night was very dark. The soldiers marched in complete silence. We felt cheated, ashamed, and angry. We were leaving behind us both victory and many of our friends. From time to time, in low murmurs, we established who was missing. Then we relapsed into the silence of mourning and the bitterness of loss. And so we reached Dong Dang, without being disturbed. We slept in the field hospital huts, after drinking some soup. We were harassed and hungry. We had not eaten all day, and had drunk nothing since morning except a single cup of coffee. In spite of my weariness, I spent a troubled night. My spirits were haunted by the day's memories, by images of the fighting and phantasms of our misfortunes. I was shaken with spasms. I trembled as I have never done on the battlefield. I lay down, but was unable to sleep.” The French had 74 deaths, 213 wounded, amongst the dead were 7 officers. They estimated the Qing casualties to be around 1650. The defeat shocked France who were becoming accustomed to victory reports. Oscar kept the men marching back to Long San, as their coolies all abandoned them creating a sever supply issue. The Guangxi army pursued them the entire way, leading to another battle at Ky Lua on march 28th. This time the French had rested a bit and took up defensive positions behind earthworks. The rationale for the battle was to hold onto the road to Long San for as long as possible and they managed to repel an intense attack from the enemy. The French saw 7 deaths with 38 wounded but inflicted severe casualties upon the pursuing enemy. The French claimed to have seen over 1200 corpses scattered around the battlefield and perhaps wounded over 6000 Guangxi soldiers if its to be believed. Towards the end of the carnage, Oscar was severely wounded in the chest while helping his scouts find Qing positions. He was forced to hand command over to the most senior officer, Herbinger. At this point many officers had commented on his lackluster performance during the undeclared war, he had seriously messed up on quite the occasions. It seems Herbinger began his command in a rather panicked state, for despite the fact they had battered the Qing pursuers, he was convinced they were going to encircle the brigade at any moment. Against the majority of his officers' protest, he ordered the 2nd brigade to abandon Lang Son on the night he took command. They were to retreat to Chu and initially they were divided marching in two columns with Herbingers going towards Thang Moy and Schoeffer's going to Dong Song. Herbinger began to fear the men towing the artillery would slow down his retreat so he ordered the artillery pieces tossed into the Song Ki Cong river alongside their brigades treasure chest. At the same time Herbinger send a runner over to Briere de l'isle over in Hanoi claiming he did not have enough ammunition to fight a second battle for Lang Son and that he was retreating. His claim of not having enough ammunition would later prove to be incorrect.  Both Herbinger and Schoeffer forced a intense pace for their marches and by the time the men reached Thang Moy and Dong Song they were exhausted. Briere de L'ilse upon receiving the message from Herbinger was shocked he abandoned Lang Song. He prompted sent word back to Paris about the ordeal. The next day Briere de l'isle sent a message over to Herbinger demanding him to hold his position at Thanh Moy and Dong Song. Herbinger thought it insane to do so, but he obeyed the orders nonetheless.  On the 30th, the French prepared their defenses at Thanh Moy and Dong Song. Herbinger tossed some cavalry patrols to figure out where the Guangxi army would hit them from and they came back with reports they were heading down the Mandarin road south of Lang Son. Harbinger sent word to Briere de l'isle, stating he believed the enemy would soon encircle them. The French defenders were told by Herbinger to fasten their bayonets and hunker down. Now it seems Herbinger's nerves were shot, because on the night of the 30th he told his fellow officers he believed they were all going to be massacred the following morning. He went to bed at 8pm and an hour later he began to hear firing from forward outposts. It would turn out to be a false alarm, but one officer rushed over to Herbinger to wake him up and report the action to which Herbinger allegedly said “'I'm sick, and the column is just as sick as me! Leave me alone!' Meanwhile Briere de l'isle was receiving Herbingers panicked reports throughout the night and he reluctantly gave Herbinger permission to retreat back to Chu at 10pm if in his words “if the situation demanded it”. That was more than enough for Herbinger who immediately ordered a retreat to Chu that very night. Harbinger's message back to Briere de l'isle read this 'I will take advantage of the night and the moon to retire, in conformity with your instructions”. And so the men packed up and began their trek from Thang Moy and Dong Song linking up along the way. Schoeffer's force were attacked by some Qing patrols, but it did not amount to much. Harbinger yet again, ordered artillery pieces to be spiked and abandoned believing they would slow down his column. However the gunnery officers disobeyed the orders and kept carrying the pieces all the way safely to Chu. At dawn the on the 31st, the Guangxi army caught up to the French near the village of Pho Cam, just as Herbinger received reinforcements, a squadron of Spahi cavalry. Upon seeing the cavalry, the French officers and soldiers rejoiced, seeking to direct them to charge into the forward Guangxi army patrols to break them down a bit, but Herbinger forbid a charge and instead ordered the retreat to continue at pace. Now, while Herbinger thought the entire Guangxi army was coming after him, this was not the case. Back on the 29th, the bulk of the Guangxi army was actually retreating back towards Zhennanguan. That was until some Vietnamese caught up to them, giving them reports the French were shockingly abandoning Lang Son and in a full retreat. General Pan Dingxin could not believe it, and he immediately ordered his battered army to turn around to seize Lang Son. Once Lang Son had been taken he sent out smaller forces to skirmish with the retreating French to prod them along, because the reality was his army was in no condition to fully attack them. When he received word his skirmishers were hitting the French around Pho Cam, he ordered his main body to occupy Dong Song and Bac Le, knowing they were undefended. Thus Herbinger had unknowingly lost everything gained during the last offensive to kick the Guangxi army out of Tonkin! On April 1st, the 2nd brigade finally got to Chu, exhausted and bitterly demoralized. Briere de l'isle had ordered the 1st brigade to depart Hung Hoa for Chu and told Colonel Gustave Borgnis Desbordes to take command of the 2nd brigade. On the 2nd of April Colonel Desbordes relieved Herbinger of his command and issued the following order to the 2nd Brigade,  “In view of General de Négrier's serious wound, I have been asked to take provisional command of the brigade. I have arrived with fresh troops and ammunition. I have been told by the general-in-chief that there is to be no further retreat. We are to remain here at all costs. And that is precisely what we shall do.” Minecraft Ompf sounds. Now the 1st brigade had not sat by idle while all the chaos and disorder befell the 2nd brigade. Back on March 23rd, the 1st battalion led by chef de bataillon Simon were ordered to depart from Hung Hoa to perform a preliminary reconnaissance of the village of Phu Lam Tao. The reason for this was because the French had been receiving reports the Black Flags along with remnants of the Yunnan army had begun occupying it. Simons men, 1000 strong went to the village discovering the reports to be true. Simon ordered his men to attack and disaster struck. According to Lt Colonel Bonifacy the troops quickly fell into disorder, tossed their equipment down, including rifles and fled the scene. A military report of the operation indicated 400 uniforms and large quantities of arms were abandoned. The French suffered around 50 casualties. Now while this was by no means a large engagement nor that significant of a defeat, in combination to the disastrous Long San retreat, it would lead to a devastating effect for France. The situation these two combined events created is known as the “Tonkin affair”. Briere de L'isle while in Hanoi had begun to plan moving his HQ over to Hung Hoa where he further planned to launch an offensive against the Yunnan Army believed to be still operating around Tuyen Quang. However the disastrous retreat of Herbinger combined with the defeat of Simon's force. This led Briere de l'isle to believe the entire Red River Delta region was threatened and he sent a fateful telegram, under duress which made its way to the French government on the 28th, here is the Lang Son Telegram, “ I am grieved to tell you that General de Négrier is seriously wounded and Lạng Sơn has been evacuated. The Chinese forces advanced in three large groups, and fiercely assaulted our positions in front of Ky Lua. Facing greatly superior numbers, short of ammunition, and exhausted from a series of earlier actions, Colonel Herbinger has informed me that the position was untenable and that he has been forced to fall back tonight on Dong Song and Thanh Moy. All my efforts are being applied to concentrate our forces at the passes around Chu and Kép. The enemy continues to grow stronger on the Red River, and it appears that we are facing an entire Chinese army, trained in the European style and ready to pursue a concerted plan. I hope in any event to be able to hold the entire Delta against this invasion, but I consider that the government must send me reinforcements (men, ammunition, and pack animals) as quickly as possible.” The telegram created a political crisis, the stock market plunged and many called for Jules Ferry to resign. Ferry dove into a heated debate calling for the need to avenge the loss at Lang Son and to secure Frances hold over Tonkin. To do this, Ferry demanded 200 million francs to be handed over to the army and navy which met a bitter rebuttal from George Clemenceau who absolutely tore Ferry for everything. Here is a bit of his speech, “We're completely finished with you! We're never going to listen to you again! We're not going to debate the nation's affairs with you again! We no longer recognise you! We don't want to recognise you!You're no longer ministers! You all stand accused (long pause) of high treason! And if the principles of accountability and justice still exist in France, the law will soon give you what you deserve!' A motion of no confidence was immediately tabled and  Ferry was voted down 306 to 149. Ferry left in absolute disgrace as all of Paris blew up blaming him for what became infamously known as “the tonkin affair”. The humiliating blow saw Henri Brisson become Prime Minister who started his premiership by trying to negotiate a peace with the Qing dynasty. Meanwhile back over in Formosa, the French were still effectively blockading its northern territory. The war in Formosa had never quieted down, Liu Mingchuan as you might recall received reinforcements in the form of Anhui and Xiang army units, by April of 1885 he had 35,000 men. They were also armed with more modern firearms such as the Lee Model 1879 rifle, Winchesters, Remingtons and Mausers. The french considered these forces to be the cream of the Qing military, well dressed, well armed, and noticeably tall and sturdy. Liu Mingchuan did not stop there, he began hiring more local Hakka militiamen and head-hunting Formosan aborigines.  On the other side the Formosa expeditionary corps had also been bolstered, now 4000 men strong led by Lt Colonel Jacque Duchesne who had gained fame serving a major defeat to Liu Yongfu's black flag army at the battle of Yu Oc. The two opposing forces skirmished quite often, until January of 1885 when a real offensive began. Duchesne ordered his men to seize Yeuh-mei-shan known as “la table” to the french. The offensive started out rough due to terrible torrential rain. The French and Qing forces fought for days at a place known as Fork Y, but in the end Duchesne's men were able to push the Qing out of the way and they continued to march upon La Table. By February La Table was seized and the Qing forces bombarded their position by mid february until the French silenced their artillery using their own. In March Duchesne launched a second offensive, successfully breaking the Qing encirclement of Keelung, delivering an outstanding outflanking maneuver. Duchesne's men pushed the Qing past the Keelung river losing 41 men dead and 157 wounded, while estimating they inflicted up to 1500 casualties on the enemy. The French seized numerous forts the Qing had built up to surround Keelung at Shih-ch'iu'ling, Hung-tan-shan and Yeuh-mei-shan, renaming them La Dent, Fort Bamboo and fort La Table.  It was an incredible French victory given the odds, but these feats were done at the same time as the famous Siege of Tuyen Quang and thus remained largely unknown to the French public. Alongside this, Duchesne's victories enabled Admiral Courbet to follow them up by landing marine forces from the Keelung garrison to capture the Pescadore islands in late March. Controlling the Pescadore islands allowed the French to thwart Qing reinforcement of Formosa, thus France was gradually consolidating its control over the entire island. But this also came right smack dab in the middle of the Herbinger Lang Son retreat disaster. Admiral Courbet almost had to evacuate Keelung to take the forces over to Tonkin to save the situation, but the peace talks had begun before he could do so. Imagine that, a French controlled Taiwan? What the alternate history peeps would do with that one I do not know.  So things were not going well for France, the French public were losing their minds over the Tonkin debacle forcing them to the peace table. However, things were going wildly worse for the Qing dynasty. Because if you can remember way back when, before we began this French adventure, the Qing were having troubles with Japan over Korea. The Gapsin coup had occurred in December of 1884 drawing the Qing attention towards the threat of Japan. Things in Korea were beginning to get much worse and to be honest, as grand a success as Herbinger had delivered the Qing during his disastrous retreat, in truth the Guangxi army was decimated by the war. Yes they grabbed their positions back within Tonkin, but holding them was another matter entirely. To add to their misery it looked like they were going to lose Formosa, thus Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the Qing envoys to the peace table.  The Qing sent Li Hongzhang to meet with Jules Patenotre and they opened up by agreeing to the provisions of the Tientsin Accord. The French would get their protectorate over Vietnam, but they were to drop the longstanding demand of reparations for the Bac Le ambush. Negotiations carried on into April of 1885 where they finally agreed to a preliminary peace protocol and an immediate ceasefire in Tonkin and Formosa. The French agreed to life their rice blockade and the Qing finally agreed to pull out the Yunnan and Guangxi armies from Tonkin with an official deadline stated for May of 1885. The Qing also made sure to pressure Liu Yongfu and his Black Flag Army to withdraw from Tonkin so he did not screw up their peace deal. By June of 1885 the new Tientsin Accord was signed.  A by product of this war, was the absolute destruction of a capable Vietnamese resistance movement. France added Tonkin and Annam to their holding of Cochinchina and would seize Cambodia by 1887 thus creating French Indochina. By 1893 Laos would also be added after the Franco-Siamese War, thus creating a large French Far east colonial empire. It would not be until the Pacific War whereupon France would lose its iron control over southeast asia.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. And so, France had won an undeclared war over the Qing dynasty and in the process would control a large portion of Southeast Asia, known to them as French Indochina. The Qing had been dealt yet again another humiliating blow. 

Last time we spoke about the Sino-French War at Sea. Admiral Courbet's Far East Squadron dealt a decisive crushing blow to the Fujian Fleet at the battle of Fuzhou. 9 ships were sunk with another 12 severely damaged, forcing the Qing to toss the Nanyang fleet to meet the French menace. However the corrupt nature of the Qing fleets led to a disastrous situation and Admiral Wu of the Nanyang fleet would be quite a victim to it. He attempted to scare the French away, only to be attacked, then hunted down until his forces fled to Zhenhai Bay. The French erected a rice blockade trying to starve out their enemy and it seemed the Qing navy had nothing left to fight them off with. Meanwhile the Tonkin campaign was still a blood bath as the French forces tried to dislodge the Qing and Black Flags from the region.   #46 The Sino-French War of 1884-1885 part 3: The Great Push out of Tonkin   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. General Oscar de Negrier spent considerable time thwart guerilla efforts against French outposts such as the ones at Thai Nguyen, Hung Hoa and Tuyen Quang. He dispatched Colonel Jacques Duchesne to neutralize Yu Oc to relieve the trapped garrison at Tuyen Quang. Duchesne managed to dislodge the black flag units there, but raids made by Qing, Vietnamese and Black flag units remained a constant nuisance. Tonkin was turning into a nightmare, the French needed quick victories before the Qing Yunnan and Guangxi armies coming over the border into Vietnam could consolidate control over northern Tonkin. The French military high command began to debate the issue and this led to the Army Minister General Jules Louis Lewal to order Oscar to launch a campaign against Lang Son. Lang Son was where the Guangxi army had established its main hq. From Lang Son the Guangxi forces ambushed some French Foreign legion forces east of Chu village at a place called Ha Ho. The legionnaires were able to fight their way out from a Chinese encirclement, but the casualties suffered were high. General Oscar tried to pursue the enemy, but they retreated to Dong Song with ease. At this point the Guangxi army knew their HQ at Lang Son was to be the next major target for a French offensive so the Qing tried to gain a toehold in the Luc Nam valley by sending 12,000 troops over a hill called Nui Bop.  Atop the Nui Bop hill, the forces led by General Wang Debang, a victor of the Bac le ambush event created a fortified camp. To support the men Wang Debang had his forces fan out, plundering all the nearby villages for food supplies, thus earning the hatred of them. This led some farmers and villages to come to the French on December 23rd, alerting them of the Guangxi army's presence atop Nui Bop. The news of 12,000 enemy units so close to their forward position at Chu threatened the French campaign soon about to launch against Lang Son in January, thus Oscar knew he had to neutralize them. Oscar took a force of 2000 men, drawn from the 1st and 2nd brigades of the Tonkinese expeditionary corps and began a offensive. Instead of directly marching east from Chu, Oscar decided to sweep to the southern bank of the Luc Nam river to try and outflank the enemy's left flank. To make sure the Qing did not see this coming he diverted a smaller force led by Chef de Bataillon Diguet to approach directly from Chu.  The main body departed Chu at 6am on January 3rd, making a arduous trek, until they came across the northern bank of the Luc Nam river, but it unfortunately was higher in tide than expected. The crossing took the French nearly 3 hours, and in that time Qing scouts saw them and reported the incoming attack thus the element of surprise was all but lost. Nonetheless, the French main body broke into 3 lines advancing towards the Qing left flank which was within the Phong Cot valley and ready for the fight. The French skirmished with the Qing within some heavy bush and had little trouble pushing them further back up the hill area. Soon the hills around Phong Cot were cleared. Oscar believed the Qing forces were greatly demoralized and decided to seize Phong Cot's town before midnight. They found the town abandoned, but the next morning came under heavy counter attacks, supported by artillery from a western fort. The Qing counterattacks were repelled, though at great cost and now Oscar pressed towards the village of Tay Toun which held a hill with a fort. The Qing seemed to be in disarray, allowing for a French bayonet charge across their trench defenses there. By 11:15am the French had taken the camp and found Krupp field artillery pieces, large quantities of modern rifles and war materials abandoned. What became known as the battle of Nui Bop amounted to 19 dead and 65 wounded for the French while they claimed to have found 600 dead Qing bodies and caused significantly higher casualties alongside it. The French soldiers scoured the battlefield for hours, using pistols to finish off wounded Qing soldiers, killing at least a dozen in this fashion. Oscars victory was outstanding, given he was greatly outnumbered. French military commanders estimated he had won a battle with the odd's being 1 out of 10 for a French victory. Having neutralized Nui Bop, General Brière de l'isle was not able to perform an offensive against the main Guangxi army base at Lang Son. It was going to be a 10 day march just to get to the frontline of Lang son, a march where the troops would being carrying all their equipment and provisions through heavy bush. Briere de L'isle knew all too well how formidable such a trek would be and waited until February gathering as many coolies as he could muster to help. Throughout January he got together 7200 troops and 4500 coolies. His Tonkinese expeditionary force held two brigades: the 1st led by Colonel Ange-Laurent Giovanninelli and the 2nd led by general de brigade Oscar.  On february the 3rd they began their long trek setting out from Chu, going over the Deo Van mountains to Cao Nhiat without seeing enemy units. The next day saw the first action at Tay Hoa. The 2nd brigade who were leading the march, found themselves face to face with a large fort. Oscar ordered the large fort to be seized as it threatened their campaigns timetable, and had his 3rd regiment to advance towards it. Lt Colonel Paul Gustave Herbinger leading the 3rd regiment of the 2nd brigade made an elaborate flanking maneuver that saw his forces exhausted and wasting valuable time. Oscar greatly annoyed by this, then simply ordered the 3rd French Foreign Legion battalion of the 4th regiment to attack the fort. The legionnaires scrambled up the mountain paths and quickly seized the fort as Herbinger's men continued to trek towards it looking foolish as hell. French casualties were 18 dead and 100 or so wounded, the heaviest the French had suffered to a single engagement up to that point in the war. The next day, the French assaulted a assortment of forts defending the Guangxi army camps at Dong Song and Ha Hoa. The 1st brigade hit the left sides while the 2nd took the right side. French soldiers tossed dynamite onto garrison barrack roofs, fired upon Qing trenches and unleashed hell with artillery to keep the enemy confused and dazed. On the 6th Dong Song was taken by late afternoon with very low casualties incurred for the French. Most of the Qing forces fled Dong Song heading through Pho bu valley towards Lang Son. The loss of Dong Son threatened the Guangxi Army's right wing holding a position at Bac Le, forcing them to pull back up the Mandarin road to Thanh Moy. Meanwhile at Dong Song, the French resupplied, taking great stores from the Guangxi army and continued their march by February 11th, coming into contact with the enemy at Pho Vy. The Qing were easily dislodged from the village by Herbinger's regiment, but soon he was met with a heavy counterattack that forced General Oscar to pull up reserves to help him. On february 12th, the French made it to Bac Vie, just a few km's south of Lang Son. Giovanninelli's 1st brigade was leading the way and took the brunt of the initial assault against the Qing lines of defense. The battle was fought in a thick fog, allowing the Qing forces to mount daring counterattacks that nearly repelled Giovanninelli's entire brigade. But the French were able to break through the center of the Qing defensive lines, isolating two wings who routed and began fleeing to Lang Son. The French received 30 deaths and 188 wounded or their efforts, the highest casualties of the campaign.  The next day the French forces entered Lang Son as the Guangxi Army had abandoned its main hq, only putting up rearguard actions as it did so. The Guangxi army was falling back towards the Chinese border, but put up a strong defensive position in the small town of Dong Dang within Tonkinese territory. In the words of Briere de L'isle about the Lang Son campaign, issued on February the 14th after capturing Lang Son “You have hoisted the French flag above Lạng Sơn. A Chinese army ten times your numbers has had to recross the frontier in complete rout, leaving in your hands its standards, its arms and its ammunition. It has been forced to abandon to you or to disperse in the mountains the European equipment on which it had so heavily relied to block our march. Glory to all of you who successfully measured yourselves with this army in the actions of the 4th at Tay Hoa, the 5th at Ha Hoa, the 6th at Dong Song, the 9th at Deo Quao, the 11th at Pho Vy, the 12th at Bac Vie and the 13th at Lạng Sơn, and chased it, despite its vigorous resistance, from the formidable positions which it occupied! Honour also to the officers charged with bringing up the food and ammunition trains. It is thanks to their devotion and indefatigable energy that you have been able to eat, and that our advances were not longer delayed” Now while the Lang Son campaign was coming to an end, back over at the isolated outposts of Thai Nguyen, Hung Hoa and Tuyen Quang, things went to shit again. As soon as Tuyen Quang was relieved during the battle for Yu Oc and the French pulled out, the Yunnan army and Black Flag went right back to work attacking it. Tuyen Quang was given a new garrison, 630 men strong led by Marc-Edmon Domine. Liu Yongfu's ever annoying Black Flag Army, roughly 3000 men strong at this point, were joined by a Yunnan Army force 9000 men strong led by Tang Jingsong. Tuyen Quang held a fortress, not too large in size, lying on the western bank of the Clear River next to the town of Tuyen Quang. The town held a citadel, barrack buildings, 300 yards of walls and was surrounded by wooded hills. The wooded hills made it extremely difficult for the garrison as enemy snipers were able to fire from their cover. When Dominee got the garrison job, he immediately went to work building a blockhouse on a hill 300 meters south of the towns citadel, defended by some French foreign legionnaires.  In early november the Yunnan Army made its way down the Red River, advancing upon Tuyen Quang building small encampments in villages as they did. By december, the Yunnan forces built 3 enormous fortified camps at Thanh Quan, Ca Lanh and Phu An Binh, for the purpose of raising a siege of Tuyen Quang. The French only saw minor skirmishes up to this point, then in January of 1885, the Qing and Black Flag forces began to squeeze the supply lines going to Tuyen Quang. On the 31st the Yunnan army began its initial attack, which was met with considerable losses. They would launch attacks again on the 10th of january and 26, but not meeting much success. Thus they began the age old tradition of sapping to mine the walls of the fortress. By the 27th their sappers had gone to work sapping towards the blockhouse. 3 days later the French foreign legionnaires knew they would be mined so they abandoned the blockhouse and the Yunnan forces quickly seized it. The Qing used the blockhouse as an advanced position to set up artillery to hit the French fortress, bombarding them nearly every day. The French were met with cannon, mortar and rifle fire from all sides of their position. Domine posted his best snipers along walls trying to inflict casualties on the attackers and occasionally used his artillery to hit the enemy. However the Qing snipers using the wooden hills were impossible to hit, but they inturn were not very successful at hitting the french.  The Qing continued to sap around the French walls, hoping to cause a large breach, but the French were well prepared for this. French counter sappers broke into the Qing tunnels on the 11th of february causing a underground revolver fight, that must of been terrifying. The French tried to flood the tunnel, but by the night of the 12th, the Qing exploded mines under a part of the fort walls. Luckily for the French the mine was weakened by the flooding, not resulting in a large enough explosion to breach. The next day another mine was exploded and this one did cause a 50 foot breach in a southwest part of the walls of the citadel. The Qing surged for the breach and were met by French foreign legionnaires who kept them at bay. By the 17th the Qing brought their artillery closer up to dislodge the legionnaires who were forced to pull back from their foxholes.  On the 22nd, the Qing delivered a major assault after they exploded a mine in another part of the walls acting as a feint to get the defenders to leave the 50 foot breach. The Qing surged again into the breach, but were repelled by a countercharge led personally by Dominee. Then a 3rd mine was exploded taking down 60 yards of wall, signaling a decisive moment. Hundreds of Qing forces surged out of their siege trenches towards the large breaches, met by rapid French rifle fire. As terrifying as it was for the outnumbered French in their trenches they managed to keep the Qing at bay. The breaches were too large, it seemed all was hopeless for the defenders, but word was received that Lang Son had just been seized. General Briere de L'isle left 3000 men to garrison Lang Son and  personally led the 1st brigade of Giovanninelli back to Hanoi and raced upriver to relieve Tuyen Quang. As he made his way, additional forces from Hung Hoa joined him giving him a total strength of 3400 men. The French knew the Black Flags and Yunnan army forces had established yet again a strong encampment at Yu Oc, this time in its gorge near the village of Hoa Moc. Briere de l'isle took the men directly through the Yu Oc gorge, forcing the Qing to mount a defense in Hoa Moc. Liu Yongfu took command of the combined forces there, 6000 strong manning 3 lines of trenches, with their flanks resting on the Clear River to the east and a rough mountain to the west. It was a well positioned defense, forcing the French to attack directly from the front. On the morning of March 2nd, the French approached what looked like deserted trenches, there were no signs of the enemy. Giovanninelli sent a platoon over to check it out and they were met with a volley at point blank range killing and wounding 30. Seeing the enemy, Giovanninelli opened up his artillery upon the left flank and sent a battalion forward to assault it. The Qing responded by exploding a mine in front of their trenches devastating an Algerian unit leading to the assault failing. Another assault was formed, but once they came within rifle fire the Qing overpowered them sending them reeling back.  Giovannenilli redeployed his artillery to hit another section of the first trench lines and then tossed a 3rd assault which broke through a section of the forward trenches. This prompted Liu Yongfu to launch a counterattack against the French left flank to try and distract them from advancing more, but it was driven off with heavy losses. The casualties had mounted up heavily for both sides and by night time it was unknown whether the French would have enough power to break through during the morning. Briere de l'isle and Giovanninelli were shocked by the enemies resistance and in the words of Lt Huguet, “The general-in-chief was sitting behind a bank, anxious, his head in his hands, surrounded by his staff, perhaps wondering whether he would have to retreat. Colonel Giovanninelli, who valued the life of the humblest soldier as dearly as his own, was pale and shaken as he watched the lines of bloodstained stretchers file past him, and kept exclaiming in a strangled voice, 'My children! My poor children!' The bullets whistled incessantly in the close air, and the groans of the wounded men lying in the rose bushes, inside the bamboo groves, and against the sides of the enemy works, rose ever more distinctly”. That night, Liu Yongfu ordered his forces to make a counterattack to try and take back the lost front line trenches. The French responded with a bayonet charge leading to a night brawl of hand-to-hand lighting until the Qing were driven off. The next day Giovanninelli was forced to bring up all the reserves and ordered an entire brigade assault against the stretch of forward trench lines still held by the enemy. The French began at a trot, then went into a full blown charge expecting to be met by a halestorm of volley fire, but instead found the trenches deserted. Liu Yongfu had pulled out after the failed night attack, leaving the way to Tuyen Quang clear. It was a bloody fight. The French had 76 deaths and 408 wounded, the highest casualty rate and largest loss of life in a single days fighting for the war. 6 officers were dead, 21 wounded, countless men would be tossed onto gunboats only to die in hospitals in Dap Cau and Thi Cau. It was a decisive victory as Liu Yongfu and the Yunnan army lifted their siege of Tuyen Quang, withdrawing further west. Briere de L'isle entered the brutalized outpost on March 3rd , and as told to us by Captain Jean-Francois-Alphonse Lecomte, “We approached the fortress. At the head of a group of officers we saw a captain with a long white beard, who was flourishing his cane and dancing an impromptu jig. The first man he met in the relief column was a bugler. He threw his arms around him. Then he embraced the second bugler. The band tried to keep its dignity, but to no avail. He then abandoned the buglers and fell on the neck of the first drummer. For a moment the drum stood between him and the object of his affections, but eventually he managed to plant two loud kisses on the drummer's cheeks. Then he made for the general-in-chief. There was a sudden hush, as when an orchestra falls silent at the end of a dance. He recovered himself, solemnly clicked his heels, and saluted General Brière de l'Isle. We recognised Captain de Borelli. "Good afternoon, Captain, how are you? We're delighted to see you!" "Indeed! Me too! Especially as I only just escaped being killed this morning!" The men of Tuyen Quang had 50 dead and 224 wounded during their defense of the town. It was estimated by the French that the Black Flag and Yunnan forces suffered 1000 deaths and 2000 wounded during the siege and battle of Hoa Moc. The fight to save Tuyen Quang would become the defining image of the Sino-French War and placed second only to the Battle of Camerone in 1863 for the roll of battle honors of the French Foreign Legion. Now when Briere de l'isle grabbed the 1st brigade to relieve Tuyen Quang, he left the 2nd brigade of Oscar to occupy Lang Son, but also to press forward to rid Tonkinese soil of the Guangxi Army. General Oscar had 2900 men and knew the enemy had left a last toehold at Dong Dang. That toehold turned out to be an extremely formidable one. They established a position on a 300 meter limestone plateau rising west of the Mandarin road and just a bit north of Dong Dang leading to what is known as “the gate of China”. The gate of china was a border gate, think of a less grand Great wall of China, that sits atop a large sheer cliff. It can only be climbed from its western approach and it was very well defended with artillery positions on its summit. The Guangxi army's position along the hills east of the Mandarin road were covered by numerous elevated infantry and artillery positions making it extremely difficult to attack head on. For a force to seize this they would need to assault the limestone massif and to do that one would first have to seize the town of Dong Dang. The town itself was the weakest point of defense for the Guangxi army, it held low lying buildings. There were also forts in the villages to the west of Dong Tien, That ke and Pho bu.  Oscar led the men out of Lang Son on February 23rd going up the Mandarin road. Along the way his vanguard reached the village of Tham Lon and the hamlet of Ban Vinh. There they engaged a small group of Guangxi units who were patrolling the area. They quickly fled to warn their forces at Dong Dang of the incoming attack. The French forces had to fight their way up the rest of the Mandarin road, being assaulted on their left and right flanks. The Guangxi army's artillery for once held a distinctive advantage because of the cliff positions and took a toll upon the French. This forced the French to assault multiple hills along the way to neutralize the artillery pieces until they fell upon the western town forts.  Upon seeing the defenses of the Guangxi army, Oscar knew they had to get them off the limestone massif. To attack that though, Dong Dan had to be seized, but to take that without losing half of his men he needed to neutralize the western forts. Oscar began by bombarding the forts with his artillery from a long range. Once the forts were silenced he turned his artillery upon the hills east of the Mandarin road, the idea was simple, he was trying to edge in with his artillery while avoiding as much of the enemy's as possible. By 3pm the western forts and their defenders seemed sufficiently battered, so Oscar ordered Lt Colonel Herbinger to seize them. The Guangxi defender upon seeing the charging French left the forts, opening the path to Dong Dang. The French began bombarding the towns buildings lighting them ablaze and leaving just a small amount of Guangxi units trying to skirmish. Herbinger ordered his men to assault the town and they began to advance over a km of open ground where the Guangxi army artillery atop the summit could fire down upon them. As the French marched towards the outskirts of the town they were met with intense artillery fire and the men hesitated. Their officers leapt from their horses, to push the men out of the firing range and this drove them into a charge of the blazing town. The soldiers charged wildly and disorderly through the town trying to get at the few Chinese skirmishes as their officers barked orders at them, but it was to no avail as the French soldiers were running for their damn lives under intense artillery fire and now the heat of fire from the town itself. The Guangxi skirmishers scared out of their mind fled the town and the French officers eventually regained their mens composure.  From here Herbinger ordered his men to march forward up the slopes towards the massif. They were met with intense artillery fire and men began to fall as they scrambling up the slopes as fast as they could. Despite mounting casualties, the French continued until they hit the most forward trench positions and only when a entire French battalion tossed its strength did the Guangxi defenders give way. The Guangxi army's right wing fell back to That Ke as the French continued towards the summit of the limestone massif. They reached the summit, finally gaining the vantage point and began to fire down upon the enemy near the Mandarin road. Now all that remained was a enemy position northeast of Dong Dang which blocked the advance up the Mandarin road. The French seized a hill due north of Pho Bu and began to use their artillery on it to hit the enemy. Seeing the right flank of the enemy fleeing to That Ke, Oscar ordered two forward companies to pursue them, while others seized the village of Cua Ai and finally the Gate of China. A french battalion reached the Gate of China which was protected by two flanking forts and trenches along the slopes of its neighboring hills. However all the forces allocated to these defensive positions had been moved forward at the offset of battle and when they ran back the French gave them little time to rally. Their lines quickly broke, allowing legionnaires to occupy the Gate of China with relative ease. The rest of the brigade gradually took Cua Ai, the hills east of the Mandarin road and all met up at the Gate of China as the Guangxi army fled to its homeland.  Believe it or not, the French claim to have lost 9 men dead and nearly 50 wounded, during this chaotic battle. The Guangxi army casualties are unknown but were probably in the hundreds. After clearing the Qing forces from Tonkin territory, the French literally blew up the Gate of China on february 25th. The Qing customs building, Tonkin-Guangxi border, were all destroyed. Oscar placed a wooden placard on the ruins inscribing in Chinese the words “'It is not stone walls that protect frontiers, but the faithful execution of treaties' I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The French had kicked the Qing forces finally out of Tonkin, so the war must be over right? One would think so, but there were still some surprises to occur in the undeclared Sino-French War of 1884-1885.

Last time we spoke about the descent into full scale war between the Qing dynasty and France because of the Tonkin campaign. The French sought to annihilate the Black Flag Army, knowing full well it might entice the Qing to war and so it did. The Tonkin campaign saw the battle of Bac Ninh which led to direct confrontation with Qing forces and soon both sides hit the negotiating table. The Tientsin accord was agreed upon, but no set deadline for the Qing withdrawal led to more conflict and it seems full scale war had finally kicked off. Admiral COurbet was ordered to hit Fuzhou and there he smashed the Fujian fleet utterly embarrassing the Qing dynasty leading to panic, chaos and outrage amongst the Chinese people. How will things change going forward now that France had landed a death blow to one of the Qing dynasties fleets? Could the sabers of war be sheathed?   #45 The Sino-French War of 1884-1885 part 2: The Sino-French War at Sea   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. The battle of Fuzhou certainly made a splash. 9 Qing warships were sunk, several others were severely damaged and possibly 2-3 thousand Qing forces were killed. Admiral Courbet then went about the Min River bombarding all the forts and batteries he could before making his exit utterly humiliating the Qing. Now until the battle of Fuzhou the Qing and French were playing footsy under the table when it came to a full scale declared war. Basically everything up until now could be seen as an undeclared war. To give a example of this, think about China and Japan from 1931-1937. They were to be blunt fully at war, but neither side wanted to officially acknowledge it to the international community for a variety of reasons, thus it could be seen as an undeclared war. Here to we see France and the Qing dynasty not wishing to make formal declarations of war, for a variety of reasons. Now while it would remain undeclared, it by no means meant they were not at war.  News of the catastrophe and destruction of the Fujian Fleet were met with public outrage in China. Mobs began to attack foreign concessions, and in Europe the mood was sympathetic to the Chinese cause. The British, Germans and American military's began to extend their hand to the Qing dynasty offering advisers. Perhaps it was less about the Qing plight and more so to stick the middle finger to the French, as one does, but its the thought that counts. Over in Hong Kong, still a colony of the British empire, dock workers began to refuse to repair French warships like La Galissonniere in september of 1884. La Galissonniere had received some hits in August and came in for some work, but a strike occurred in September. Now a large reason for this was Chinese workers refusing to work and by proxy it hindered the British dock workers. Things got dicey and some riots and fights broke out prompting British authorities to deploy forces to defend their dockyards and workers from continuous harassment from Chinese. This by no means was organic by the way, the Qing government were pulling strings of their citizens to cause such conflicts to hinder any aid to France.  Now Admiral Courbet was given orders to smash Fuzhou, which he did, but if the Qing continued their “defiance” he was also ordered to go smash the port of Keelung in northern Formosa, modern day Taiwan. These actions of course were done to push the Qing to get their forces out of Tonkin as pertaining to the Tientsin Accords. Well the Qing were not budging, so Keelung was put on the menu. Admiral Courbet argued vigorously not to launch a campaign against Formosa, and instead to target major ports in the Liaodong region like Port Arthur or Weihaiwei. The French military planners thought these prospects to difficult to hit as the Far East Squadron was not large by any means and Keelung was a much easier target. In mid september the French cabinet after deliberating the issue decided to launch attacks against Keelung and Tamsui. Their rationale in the end was that the towns held nearby coal mines that could be seized to provide the Far East Squadron a wartime base. Thus on October 1st, Lt Colonel Bertaux-Levillain, haha that last name again, landed at Keelung with 2250 men taken from the Tonkin Campaign forces. They were to be called the Formosa Expeditionary Corps. They sailed out of Saigon escorted by the Far East Squadron and came ashore as Courbet's forces bombarded the shore batteries and Qing forces trying to mount a defense. The French casualties as usual were claimed to be small, 4 deaths and 12 wounded while the Qing casualties according to Formosans were around 100 dead and hundreds wounded. The first week of October saw French forces occupying several hills around Keelung and they sent scouts to look at the Pei-tao coal mines.  The imperial commissioner responsible for the defense of Formosa was Liu Mingchuan who could only watch helplessly as the French bombarded 3 shore batteries in the port of Keelung and began to prod the Pei-tao coal mines as his 2000 or so Qing troops were overwhelmed. Now knowing the French would likely hit Tamsui as well he tried to establish better defenses there by planting torpedo mines in the river approach and creating boat and stone barricades. He also armed locals to try and augment his Qing forces. These locals were known as Hakka hillmen and they were armed with primitive matchlock rifles, but despite being undergunned were deemed very brave warriors. Tamsui was protected by two forts west of the city, the White fort and a still under construction Fort neuf. The French were unable to enter the Tamsui River due to the barricade and mines and thus began bombarding the two forts on October 2nd. The forts and warships exchanged fire, but as usual the outdated cannons in the forts were no match and were silenced quickly. Testimony from a Canadian Presbyterian missionary named George Mackey, had to add this one being Canadian myself, who was housed in Tamsui said this of the bombardment. “When the bombarding began we put our little children under the floor of the house, that they might not be alarmed. My wife went out and in during these trying hours. I paced the front of the house with A Hoa, while shot and shell whizzed and burst all around us. One shell struck a part of Oxford College, another a corner of the Girls' School, and still another a stone in front of us, and sent it into mid-air in a thousand atoms. A little to the west of us another went into the ground, gouging a great hole and sending up a cloud of dust and stones. The suction of one, as it passed, was like a sudden gust of wind. Amid the smoke from forts and ships, and the roar and thunder of shot and shell, we walked to and fro, feeling that our God was round about us.” The French bombardment was not very precise and while the two forts had been neutralized, countless shells hit the town and surrounding area endangering civilians. The French followed up the bombardment by landing ashore forces to seize the forts from which they then could begin operations to blow up the mines and barricades in the riverway. Now the Qing defense of the city was led by General Sun Kaihua and General Zhang Gaoyuan. They expected the French to come from the direction of the seized forts and began to set up defensive lines and trenches to meet this. The Far East squadron anchored near the harbour entrance to support the men as they marched. However disaster struck. The men marched and many landed ashore at some beaches, but the sand dunes further inland made it impossible for the ships to see over them to support the mens offensive. As the French marched over the dunes, expected to see large rice paddy field terrain, it was actually thick woods and ditches everywhere. General Sun Kaihua was making great use of the terrain concealing his men everywhere he could and they ambushed the French as they made their way through the brush. The forward French units were thrown into chaos, quickly screaming for backup as General Zhang Gaoyuan sent his forces to smash their left flank. Zhang's men were able to push the French left flank into the main bodies position leading to the firefight extending to the entire French formation. The Qing and French forces were separated by a distance of around 100 meters. While most of the French forces kept the volley system accordingly, many sailor forces too excited by the mayhem began mindlessly firing into the brush wasting ammunition. French officers screamed to stop. General Zhang kept up the momentum by ordering his forces to push the French left flank even further into the main body. Meanwhile General Kaihua motioned forces to hit the French right flank. The entire French frontlines were engulfed in a battle between them and unseen enemies in the brush. After an hour of engagement, 2/3rd of the French ammunition had been used and casualties were mounting. The French commanders ordered the men to make a fighting withdrawal as General Zhang and Sun ordered their men to try and cut off the left and right flanks escape. By midday, the French were in full retreat back to the warships, nearly 1/10 were wounded, many dead. It was estimated the French had 17 deaths and 49 wounded. Captain Garnot of the formosa expeditionary corps had this to say about the failed attack, “There is no doubt that the main reason for the repulse was that the landing force was too small, but poor tactics also played their part. There was no vanguard to cover the advance of the line of battle. The firing line advanced without a preliminary reconnaissance into difficult terrain, under fire from Chinese snipers who were well dug-in and protected. Confusion and lack of direction was evident in the conduct of the battle. The courage and dash shown by our officers and sailors, who had not been trained for a land battle, cannot conceal the fact that we opened fire in a disorderly manner; that the reserves came up to join the line of battle prematurely, without orders; and that our troops lost our heads, firing wildly at the enemy and using up their ammunition in a few minutes. Infantry tactics cannot simply be improvised, as our landing companies learned by bitter experience.” Later on 6 French soldiers had their heads placed in the Tamsui markets, allegedly done by the Hakka hillsmen. The French commanders sent word to General Sun demanding they be buried. The French defeat at Tamsui heavily bolstered the hardliners back in the Qing court. The court convened in late october and Empress Dowager Cixi decided the undeclared war against France would continue until France agreed to withdraw their indemnity demands for the Bac Le ambush. The Qing relayed peace terms on November 5th, but they included some major demands such as outright canceling the Tientsin Accord; having France abandon their protectorateship over Annam and Tonkin and allowing the Qing to continue to occupy Lang Son, Lao Cai an Cao Bang. The mediator between the Qing and France, British foreign secretary Lord Granville said of the terms “the Chinese terms are those from a victor to the vanquished” and he promptly refused to even transmit them to France. Because of the setback the French were only able to enforce a limited blockade of the northern portion of Formosa as the Formosa expeditionary corps awaited further reinforcements. In January of 1885 command over the corps was handed over to Colonel Jacques Duchesne who augmented them with two additional battalions bringing a total strength of around 4000 men. However also because of the Qing victory, Liu Mingchuan was augmented by over 25,000 reinforcements taken from the Xiang and Anhui armies, the veteran troops of Zeng Guofan and Li Hongzhang.  As grand as the ground forces boost was to Formosa, on the naval front things were entirely different. The Nanyang Fleet asked for some warships of the Beiyang Fleet to augment their strength to fight the French, but the commander of the Beiyang Fleet, Li Hongzhang himself denied the request. Again, none of the fleet commanders wished to risk any of their advanced ships to face the French and the commanders adamantly did not want other commanders to use their ships for that matter. This created a major divide in the fleet. The northern fleets and southern fleets refused to cooperate and in fact did a lot to oppose another. For example, the French Navy would obviously be operating more so in the southern sea, thus one would imagine the Qing would focus their overwhelming naval strength there. However the northern fleets would hinder this greatly by draining southern China of resources, warships and of course sailors who they began to enlist en masse. This all led to the benefit of the French Navy. Meanwhile the Far East squadron was receiving reinforcements beginning in 1884 and by february of 1885 was a lot stronger. Now in mid January of 1885, the Nanyang Fleet was ordered to try and relieve the French naval blockade of Formosa. On January 18th, the cruisers Nanchen, Kaiji, Nanrui, frigate Yuyuan and sloop Chengqing departed Shanghai for Formosa. The commanding admiral was Wu Ankang and he was supposed to receive additional aid in the form of the Chaoyong, Yangwei of the Nanyang fleet and two cruisers from the Beiyang fleet, but like I said, Li Hongzhang refused to release them and instead diverted them to Korea where Yuan Shikai was busy quelling the Gapsin coup. Admiral Wu's group sailed south hesitantly, fearing an actual engagement. In fact Admiral Wu had hoped by just publicizing the fact his force was enroute to Formosa would lead the French to pull out. When this failed to occur, Wu literally turned his ships around high, tailing it for the port of Ningbo. However the French had received word of the sortie and literally leapt at the chance of engaging such an enemy. Admiral Courbet sailed out of Keelung's water with the ironclads Bayard, Triumphant, cruisers Duguay-Trouin, Eclairuer, Nielly, gunboat Aspic and the troopship Saone. The French were not exactly certain where to find the enemy and first looked into the mouth of the Min River in early February. Not finding the enemy, the French then sailed north along the Chinese coast. On February 8th, Courbet's force were running low on coal so he was forced to dispatch the Duguay-Trouin back to Keelung. On the 10th the French squadron reached Chusen island and by the 11th they entered the Yangtze river scaring the batteries at Wusong, but still no sight of the enemy fleet. The French then received word from Qing newspapers that they had actually passed the Qing fleet on their way north and that they were near Sanmen Bay. Courbet immediately set sail south and by the 13th entered Shipu Bay where they caught sight of the Qing fleet. The French immediately bore down upon their enemy as the Qing took up a V formation led by Admiral Wu's flagship Kaiji. The French were exhilarated upon seeing the Qing formation coming right at them primed for a battle and then as the Qing closed in they suddenly broke formation and scattered. 3 Qing cruisers fled south, with Courbet offering pursuit while the Yuyuan and Chengqing fled further into Shipu bay. According to American naval officer L. C Arlington who was aiding the Nanyang Fleet he said “Admiral Wu had a personal grudge against the captains of the Yuyuan and Chengqing and deliberately tried to sacrifice them to save the rest of his flotilla”. The Qing cruisers were faster and thus outran their French counterpart, leading Courbet to turn right back around to hunt the Yuyuan and Chengqing. On the night of the 14th, the French sent torpedo launches under the cover of darkness which got with 100 meters to the two ships before they were spotted. The Qing began to use rifle fire against the small boats as the French crews frantically tried to spar torpedo the Yuyuans hull successfully crippling her. One French sailor died to rifle fire as they made their escape. Arlington was actually aboard the Yuyuan that night and had this to say about the event as he witnessed the spar torpedo hit and a shell lobbed at the nearby Chengqing. “The scene that now occurred almost beggars description. Some tried to lower the boats, some rushed between decks to try and save their possessions, many jumped overboard into the sea. It was, in fact, everyone for himself, and the devil take the hindmost. When I had time to realise what had really happened, a strange scene was unrolled before me. Just ahead of us lay the little Ching-ching slowly settling down beneath the waters; she had been attacked by the same torpedo boat that had sunk us. Our own ship was gradually sinking, her guns just level with the water's edge. Along the shore and in the water about us were seamen, soldiers, chickens, ducks, geese and baggage of every description. The fault rested entirely with the Chinese—even at the last moment, had they made any attempt to repel the torpedo boat they might have warded off the catastrophe, and possibly sunk the enemy instead. No such attempt was made, and the French escaped scot-free” The next morning the French scouted the bay finding the two Qing warships had sunk. Admiral Courbet continued to hunt for the wandering Nanyang fleet and on February 25th received orders to implement a “rice blockade”. This was to be a naval blockade against the sea transport of rice to Shanghai. By the 28th, Courbets squadron made it to Zhenhai bay enroute to Shanghai where he received reports  the Nanyang fleet was hiding in the bay. He hunted until march 1st until at long last he found some Qing warships and low and behold it was the 3 cruisers of Admiral Wu Ankang. Alongside the 3 cruisers were 4 other ships, the sloop Chaowu, wooden transport Yuankai and 2 gunboats. The entrance to the bay was likewise filled with sunken chinese junks blocking it. Courbet performed a reconnaissance with one of his ships, the Nielly which was met with Chinese shore battery fire and a few of the Chinese warships. The Nielly was nearly hit a few times, but managed to perform the survey and return to her squadron.  Courtbet met with his fellow officers and came to the conclusion attacking the Nanyang fleet within range of their harbor defenses was too large a risk to take. Instead he elected to perform a naval blockade of Zhenhai Bay. For over a month, a few ships of the Far East Squadron at any given time held the blockade, thus forcing over 7 Nanyang fleet warships to be stuck in the bay and useless to the war. The French claim this was a strategic victory, but the Qing saw it as a defensive victory for themselves, because of the thwarting of the Nielly from their point of view. Our American friend Arlington gives a colorful account of what occurred. According to Arlington, when Admiral Wu Ankang's 3 warships showed up to Zhenhai Bay, the authorities there begged him to leave so the French would not attack them all. Instead Wu threatened to take his ships up the Ningbo river to leave them high and dry to fight the French off by themselves. When the French appeared in front of Zhenhai bay the authorities demanded Wu sail out to attack the French using the 7 warships available, but he refused to do so. Arlington states that was a wise decision, because they would have been annihilated. While the blockade was going on, Britain officially closed off Hong Kong and other held concessions from the Far East Squadron to hinder them. The French in return upheld their rice blockade strategy against the Yangtze River, hoping to start out northern China. As far as the great battles of the sea were concerned that would actually be the end of it for the most part.  Now taking a look back to the land campaigns, after the naval battle of Fuzhou, Empress Dowager Cixi had given the greenlight for the undeclared war to kick off. This resulted in Qing forces from Guangxi and Yunnan provinces to advance into Tonkin to give battle with the French. General Millot's health took a turn for the worse and he submitted his resignation back in September of 1884, his last order of the day had describing himself as quote “a sick and disappointed man”. He was relieved by General Louis Briere de L'isle which greatly annoys me as I now will have to narrate that entire name each time haha. Little known fact I am married to a Quebecois woman who is throwing up hearing my anglo ass narrate so many french terms and names. Briere de L'isle's first task was to thwart the Qing forces invading the Red River Delta system. By late september a large Guangxi Army were advancing from LangSon into the Luc Nam Valley and managed to ambush two grinch gunboats, the Massue and Hache on October 2nd. They managed to kill one officer and injured 32 men, but the ambush did give up the element of surprise. French scouts reported 3 large groups of Qing forces: one around the village of Kep along the Mandarin road; one at Bao Loc; and one at Chu in the upper valley of the Luc Nam River. Briere de L'ilse deployed General Oscar de Negrier with 3000 troops to hit the Luc Nam Valley before the Qing could concentrate their forces. The Guangxi force was led by Generals Wang Debang and Pan Dingxin, two officers who were part of the Bac le ambush. The forces at Kep were led by Fang Yusheng and Zhou Shouchang while the forces at Chu were led by Su Yuanchun and Chen Jia. General Oscar transported his forces using gunboats to quickly hit the separate forces before they could consolidate. Oscar would lead men to his Kep with the bulk of his troops while his subordinate Lt Colonel Donnier took a column to hit Chu. Once Oscar had won at Kep he would then either help at Chu or move on to hit Bao Loc. On October 8th, Oscar's men smashed the forces at Kep sending them fleeing, and quickly got back to his gunboats to join Donnier at Chu. The battle of Kep saw the French losing 32 killed and 61 wounded and claiming to have inflicted 1600 casualties upon the Qing. This meant Donnier could be patient and await the reinforcements before seriously engaging the enemy at Chu, but on October the 10th his men were drawn into a bloody two day battle at Chu. Donnier was victorious, though it was a costly one, he had 21 deaths and 92 wounded while claiming to have killed 100 Qing and wounded a few hundred.  After these two victories, the Qing fell back to Bac le and Dong Song while the French consolidated their positions at Kep and Chu by reinforcing them with a total of 7200 soldiers and 4500 coolies. While Briere de l'ilse was consolidated and supplying his forces at Chu and Kep he also began ordering resupply missions to the outposts of Tuyen Quang, Thai Nguyen and Hung Hoa. The outposts were being continuously harassed by Liu Yongu's Black Flags and the invading Yunnan forces. These more isolated outposts began seeing attacks from the Yunnan army beginning on october 12th and by the end of the month the garrison at Tuyen Quang saw 170 of its 550 men unfit for duty.  Throughout october the French gunboats were trying their best to resupply the outposts, but the Black Flag Army occupied Yu Oc, which was between Tuyen Quang and Hung Hoa, thus cutting it off. By early november the French knew the lack of supplies getting through was becoming dangerous. The gunboat crews were continuously sniped at causing many fatalities. This led Briere de L'isle to launch at attack to dislodge the Black Flags at Yu Oc, while simultaneously making a resupply run for Tuyen Quang. Lt Colonel Jacques Duchesne was sent with roughly 700 men to take a small flotilla of junks escorted by 4 gunboats to land 7 kms above Yu Oc. The troops landed on november 18th and spent the day marching to Yu Oc, never seeing the enemy. At dawn on the 19th, the vanguard of the French column began to come under fire, but they could not pinpoint the enemy's location as a result of the deep bush. Duchesne ordered the front units to fan out a bit and they quickly found a Qing forward line of defense. For two hours a firefight ensued as the Qing gradually prodded different parts of the French column. At 10am a forward French legionnaire companies found a Qing fort that was firing down upon the French vanguard force. The legionnaires fixed bayonets and charge the fort coming out of a ravine. The Qing defenders fled their defenses before the French could surround them disappearing into the bush. The fighting continued on with the French gradually pushing forward until they found a citadel. The French quickly neutralized the citadel and thus the way to Tuyen Quang was opened again for resupply. The fighting cost the French 10 dead with 37 wounded, for the Black Flags and Yunnan forces the losses were estimated to be much higher. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. The French had basically won the war at sea, but the land forces had to fight bitterly against the Black Flag, Vietnamese and Qing forces in Tonkin. Would the French be able to push the Qing and Black Flags out of Tonkin to claim it for themselves?

Last time we spoke about the beginning of the Tonkin campaign of 1883-1886. Henri Riviere picked up after Garnier and got himself killed on the Paper bridge. In the face of a unauthorized and failed Tonkin Campaign, that should have been the nail in the coffin. But a new administration took hold in France and they were certainly more gung-ho about colonizing southeast asia. General Bouet picked up after Riviere, but he was met with some failure and uninspiring victories. He quit his job and it fell to Admiral Courbet to continue France's campaign to take all of Tonkin. However to defeat the Black Flag Army of Liu Yongfu was a tricky thing as the Qing were covertly supporting them. France had to decide if she would continue, for if she did it might mean another war against the Qing dynasty.   #44 The Sino-French War of 1884-1885 part 1: Battle of Fuzhou   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Admiral Courbet just received reinforcements in the form of 10,000 men, 6 gunboats and orders to attack Liu Yongfu and the Black Flag regardless of how it might drag the Qing dynasty into war. The Black Flag Army had set up camp in the fortified city of Son Tay which lay a few km's south of the red river. The city fort was in a pentagonal formation with walls 11 feet high, surrounded by a deep moat and within the center was a citadel. The french scouts estimated the fort had well over 100 cannons, this was not going to be a walk in the park as they say.  Liu Yongfu and the Black Flag Army knew the French would approach Son Tay from the east using their gunboats along the Red River. This was because the Black Flat had hired european engineers in advance to convert the town north of Son Tay blocking its approach into a impregnable strongpoint. Large dykes, water filled ditches, bamboo palisades and trenches surrounded it and offered the Black Flag Army extremely well positioned defensive lines. Thus to take a northern route meant the French would have to take Phu Sa. Liu Yongfu had roughly 3000 veteran Black Flag soldiers , 7000 local vietnamese troops led by Prince Hoang Ke Viem and an additional 1000 Qing troops led by Tang Zhiong. Hoang Ke Viem's men manned the citadel, Tang Zhiong's were inside the city and the walls and field were Black Flag Army's responsibility.  On the other side, Admiral Courbet deployed 9000 of his men for the campaign against Son Tay, distributed into two columns led by Colonel Belin and Bichot. Belin would lead 3300 men consisting of 2 Turco battalions, 1 marine battalion, some Cochinchinese riflemen, 1 foreign legion battalion, 3 marine artillery batteries and 800 Tonkinese rifleman. Bichot's group consisted of 3 marine battalions, some Cochinchinese riflemen, a fusilier-marins battalion and 3 artillery batteries. Both columns departed from Hanoi on December 11th. Bichot's group were transported up the Red River by the 6 gunboats and made it ashore on the western bank of the Day River, where they secured a pathway for Belin's column to march. By December 13th both columns met up 5 km's away from the forward defensive lines of Son Tay. On December 14th the French advanced from the east towards the Phu Sa positions, beating back some Black Flag sorties against their flanks. They opened fire with their artillery for 2 hours upon the Phu Sa gun placements. Then 2 forward battalions seized the most forward defensive position at Phu Sa, but from there they found no way to keep pushing forward. During this action the French had 68 men dead and around 250 wounded. Thus in a single day Courtbet had lost more men that Bouet or Riviere in all their battles put together.  Liu Yongfu hoped to exploit the French losses by ordering a night raid. This however turned into a disaster and not only did he loss many men to the combat, others began to abandon Phu Sa, fleeing for Son Tay. On the 16th Courbet ordered the men to try and prod Son Tay from the northwest. The French artillery softened up the defense before Coubet personally rode out to the forward position well within the Black Flag Army's fire range. Courbet led the men to attack the western gate of Son Tay which was demolished by artillery and explosives. Li Yongfu's men quickly withdrew into the citadel as the French stormed into the city. By this point it seems Liu Yongfu knew it was too dangerous to defend the city so he ordered his men to evacuate under the cover of darkness. The French had suffered 83 deaths and a few hundred wounded while the Black Flag were estimated to have nearly 1000 killed and another 1000 wounded if French sources are ever to be believed. The Vietnamese and Chinese troops had evacuated well in advance of the French storming the city and thus played only a minor role in the battle. Now the terrible losses the Black Flag did incur had significant consequences going forward. Liu Yongfu felt his men had intentionally been tossed to the lions by the Chinese and Vietnamese and he determined going forward that he would not again expose his army so openly. Liu Yongfu took his army from Son Tay over to Bac Ninh. Now at this point Admiral Courbet officially handed command of the land forces over to General Charles Thoedore Millot. Millot would take command of the 10,000 man force which included 2 Brigade commanders who had recently made their marks so to say in history. General Louis Briere de L'isle, the former governor of Senegal commanded the 1st brigade and the 2nd brigade was commanded by Foreign Legion general Francois de Negrier who had quelled an Arab rebellion in Algeria.  Now in Bac Ninh the 3000 strong Black Flag Army would have very powerful allies. The Qing governor of Guangxi province, Xu Yanxu was commanding over 20,000 Qing forces with his subordinates Zhao Wo and Huang Guilan. The soldiers were veterans of the Anhui and Xiang armies, ie; Li Hongzhang and Zeng Guofan's old forces. Half of the Qing forces were deployed along the Mandarin Road southwest of Bac Ninh and the other half were deployed east of Bac Ninh along the Trun son and Dap Cau mountains. General Millot gave each brigade two marching regiments each containing roughly 3 infantry battalions a piece. The 4 commanders of each regiment were Colonels Defoy, Belin, Duchesne and Bertaux-Levillain, interesting last name there haha. Now despite the numerical superiority, the Chinese forces were quite demoralized and Liu Yongfu intentionally was going to keep his Black Flag units out of the real fray of danger, and these factors came out to play in the battle.  The two brigades were to approach Bac Ninh from two different locations: the first brigade would depart from Hanoi and the 2nd brigade from Hai Duong. Millot's primary objective was to capture Bac Ninh, but he also hoped to annihilate the Qing forces in the process. To manage this he planned to seize some river crossing around Bac Ninh so the Qing forces would be unable to escape. These crossing were found north of Bac Ninh at Dap Cau and Phu Cam which led to Lang Son and Thai Nguyen respectively. On March 6th, the 1st brigade were ferried from Hanoi up the Red River to land just due south of some Qing defensive lines along the Mandarin Road. On land the 1st brigade marched  along the northern bank to head southeast of Bac Ninh to a village called Chi. Meanwhile the 2nd brigade advanced from Hai Duong going along the southern bank to Song Cau where they attacked some Qing forward positions at Do Son and Ne Ou. While the 2nd brigade met the enemy on land, their gunboat support went around behind the Qing lines close to Phu Lang to begin bombarding them. Upon seeing the French gunboats positioning, the Qing forward units made a withdrawal to Bac Ninh. This allowed the 2nd brigade to occupy some minor forts and gradually move towards Chi to meet up with the 1st brigade. The 2 brigades united and advanced upon Bac Ninh by March 12th. Forces of the 1st brigade pushed the Qing out of Trung Son while forces of the 2nd brigade seized the village of Xuan Hoa. The Qing made little resistance at these outpost, basically abandoning them when the French came into visual proximity. Then at 4pm the 2nd brigade alongside their gunboat support attacked Dap Cau just east of Bac Ninh. The arrival of the French at Dap Cau threatened the Qing's left defensive lines. The Qing's escape routes to Lang Son were being severed off by the seizure of Xuan Hoa, Lang Buoi and now Dap Cau. Thus the only concern the Qing commanders were thinking of was how to quickly withdraw their men to Lang Son before the roads were completely cut off. The Qing resistance began to collapse as a result, morale had dropped and many were routing. The French regimental commanders saw the Qing's left flank were breaking and believed they could encircle a large part of the Qing forces. At 5pm the French commanders noticed the Qing flag still flew atop the citadel tower at Bac Ninh, but between the city, Dap Cau and Trung Son all that could be seen was fleeing Qing soldiers. The 2nd brigade attacked Bac Ninh the next morning, capturing large sums of ammunition and curiously enough fully functioning modern Krupp artillery pieces that looked so pristine, they figured none had even fired a shot. Without waiting for the 1st brigade to come from Trung Son, the 2nd brigade forced their way into the city of Bac Ninh. In the meantime the efforts to encircle the fleeing Qing had been thwarted by tenacious rearguard actions by Qing forces fighting out of Dap Cau. Thus the majority of the Qing forces were able to escape north along the banks of the Song Cau river. While the Qing fled the French gunboats bombarded them inflicting heavy casualties.  General Millot was nowhere near done trying to trap the escaping Qing forces and send his two brigades after them. The 1st brigade pursued the enemy as far as Thai Nguyen where they inflicted casualties upon the Qing, Vietnamese and Black Flag forces until march 19th. The 2nd brigade annihilated a Qing rearguard force at Phu Lang Thuong and chased a large portion of the Qing right flank as they went to a town called Kep. Millot then called his two brigades to return to Bac Ninh by March 24th. The French state they had 9 deaths and 39 wounded while claiming to have killed 100 enemy units and a few hundred wounded.  The defeat of the Qing forces was an enormous embarrassment for the Qing dynasty and thus for its true leader, Empress Dowager Cixi. The Qing court and people of China met the news with shock, mostly because they had heard that for a few months the Black Flag Army had managed to inflict heavy casualties upon the French, but their professional forces had utterly failed. Empress Dowager Cixi in her rage punished several Qing officials, such as the governors of Guangxi and Yunnan, Xu Yanxu and Tang Qiong. Both men were dismissed from their posts, meanwhile the field commanders at the battle of Bac Ninh, General Huang Guilan and Zhao Wu were disgraced. Huang Guilan committed suicide at Lang Son on March 14th as a result of his shame while some of his chief of staff, Chen Degui and Dang Minxuan were beheaded in front of their troops at Lang Son on May 26th.  Now before the major losses, the Qing court had been debating the issue of whether or not they should wage a undeclared or declared war against France or keep out of Vietnam completely. The leader of the moderates was Li Hongzhang who sought diplomacy while the leader of the hardliners was Zhang Zhidong who continuously called for full-scale war. After losing Son Tay and now Bac Ninh, Empress Dowager Cixi began to see no other way to solve the situation than diplomacy and thus Zhang Zhidong lost favor and Li Hongzhang won it. Cixi ordered Li Hongzhang to begin talks, which would occur at Tianjin with Captain Francois-Ernest Fournier. The French demanded China withdraw her forces from Vietnam and respect Frances protectorate over Annam and Tonkin. This would mean China was officially relinquishing its suzerainty over Vietnam, which they capitulated. The result was the Tientsin accord of May 11th 1884.  To follow this up, 3 weeks later the new French Minister to China Jules Patenotre negotiated a revised treaty of Saigon. It was called the Treaty of Hua, done between France and the Nguyen dynasty which officiated the protecorateship of Annam and Tonkin. In essence it was the stepping stone to simply making Vietnam a colonial possession of France. The treaty was signed on June 6th of 1884 and followed up by a symbolic show where the French melted down a seal that was given to the previous Nguyen Emperor Gia Long by the Qing emperor. Now while the treaty of Hue and the Tientsin Accord should have ended all the conflict, well it did not. No it seems, Mr. Fournier was a bit of a moron when it came to diplomacy and he royally messed up with the Tientsin Accord. The crucial mess up was, while the accord stated the Qing had to withdraw their forces from Vietnam, it never stated a deadline. The French began to demand the Qing withdraw immediately, while the Qing argued they could not withdraw until all minor articles of the said Tientsin Accord were not concluded. Long story short it was a paradox of a situation and the Qing were simply using the accord's other minor issues to maintain their forces where they were. The entire situation was met with uproar from the Chinese public, and this bolstered Zhang Zhidong and the hardliners against Li Hongzhang who began calling for his impeachment. Now as much as I love Li Hongzhang, he sort of messed up during the Tientsin Accord agreement. He hinted to the French the Qing withdrawal would occur, but that it might see a few snags, this was verbally done of course. Thus the French assumed and it was a he said she said type of situation that the Qing forces would immediately withdraw and of course they didn't.  Thus on the ground, in early June a French force led by Lt Colonel Alphonse Dugene advanced to seize the cities of Cao Bang, That Khe and Lang Son. His forces formed a long column starting at Phu Lang Thuong as they advanced along the Mandarin Road heading to Lang Son, Phu Xuyen, Kep and Cau Son by June 15th. The march was grueling, it was extremely hot and some flooding made their way difficult as they had to continuously build bridges. They were forced to set up camp around Cau Son and a smaller town called Bac Le for a few days and when they continued their march they began to realize they were being watched by scouts. They sent out advance patrol parties and some of these were fired upon, but they had no way of knowing who was attacking them. It could be Nguyen forces, Qing forces, Black Flags or simple bandits for all they knew. Dugenne intended to continue nonetheless and by June 22nd they were on their way to Lang Son. At this point Dugennes men came up to a river and on the other side were Qing troops. Neither side fired upon another, and Dugenne figured they were stragglers from the Qing forces that fought at Bac Ninh. Thinking they would not oppose him he gave orders to cross the river, but little did he know, on the other side were 4600 Qing soldiers armed with modern arms like rapid-firing Remington rifles. Now both sides were well aware of the Tientsin Accord, but back in China, all the bickering against Li Hongzhang led to no official orders for the men to withdraw from Tonkin. In fact their regimental commander, Wang Debang's last orders were to hold their positions. On June 23rd, an advance guard led by Captain Lecomte crossed the river as some Qing infantry began to take up defensive positions on a hill 250 meters behind the river. The French went over the river unmolested, but as soon as they landed on the other side all hell broke loose. The Qing fired intentionally over their heads to scare them off, but Lecomte reacted by ordering his men to begin flanking the Qing. The French troops charged up the hill as the Qing pulled back, allowing the rest of the French forces to cross the river by 11am. Meanwhile a few hours prior, around 9am, three Qing envoys showed up to Dugenne with letters. The letters were from the Qing commanders in the field explaining to Dugenne, while they understood the Tientsin Accord articles, their officials' last orders were to hold their position so they were in quite a pickle. They requested Dugenne send a message back to Hanoi to seek further instructions.  Now Dugenne should have complied with this, but instead he sent word back to the Qing commanders at 3pm stating he would continue his march up the Mandarin road. Allegedly Dugenne did this because he assumed the Qing would just pull to the side and allow his force to pass. Dugenne gave orders to his men not to open fire explicitly unless he ordered them to do so and they marched. For quite some time the march went unmolested until the French were going around the Nui Dong Nai cliffs. Suddenly the Qing forces who had been shadowing the French column open fire upon both their flanks. The French vanguard deployed as best as they could as Dugenne tried to order a bugler to sound a ceasefire call, but it was to no avail. The Qing sounded their own bugles ordered more men to join the battle forcing Dugenne to plan a defense. Now Dugenne was leading 450 French troops and 350 Tonkinese auxiliaries, and to add insult to injury many of his forces were not veteran troops. His men formed a square formation, digging trenches and by the late afternoon had repelled multiple attacks and led some minor counter attacks. During the night the Qing brought forward more forces occupying the heights surrounding the French and in the morning attacked all sides of the French square. Dugenne made several counterattacks, but without significant numbers nor artillery support he knew they would soon be encircled and annihilated. By 11am he ordered a withdrawal to Song Thuong, abandoning the baggage trains and fighting each step they took. Despite the intense situation, the officers managed to keep the men orderly, and the withdrawal was done effectively. General Millot received word of Dugennes plight on June 23rd and immediately dispatched the 2nd brigade to save them. The 2nd brigade reached Dugenne's column near Bac Le on the 27th and set to make a counterattack to repel the Qing forces back to Song Thuong. However just as General Negrier was about to issue orders he received word from Millot ordering him to get everyone back to Hanoi at once. The French had suffered 22 deaths and 70 wounded during the ambush and allege they inflicted 300 casualties upon the Qing. News of what was called the Bac Le Ambush reached France prompting Jules Ferry's government to demand a apology in the form of indemnity payments and immediate implementation of the Tientsin accord from China. The Qing sought to further negotiate, but refused to apologize or pay an indemnity. Negotiations began again, but the mood in both France and China was pure outrage and the sabers of war were rattling. While negotiations were still going on the French government sent orders to Admiral Courbet to take his recently established Far East Squadron to give battle to the Qing navy at Fuzhou.  Admiral Courbet's Far East Squadron during late August consisted of 13 ships only a fraction of what it would be a bit later on; He had 5 ironclads on hand though they were all over the place performing missions, there was Bayard his flagship, Sharp, Atalante, Trimphanate and La Galissonniere. He also had cruisers Duguay-Trouin, Villars, D'Estaing, Volta, gunboats Lynx, Aspic, Vipere and two torpedo boats. The Qing Fujian Fleet had 11 western style ships and 11 chinese war junks in the region. The Qing flagship was the wooden corvette Yangwu, followed by scourt-transports: Fupo, Ji'an, Yongbao, Chenhang, Yixin, wooden gunboats: Zhenwei, Fuxiang, Jianshen and Fusheng and 12 Chinese war junks. In terms of crews the French would have 1780 vs 1040 for the Qing. In terms of firepower the French were overwhelming better armed with the Qing having only a few ships that were capable of return fire. Overall command for the Qing was led by imperial commissioner Zhang Peilun. Admiral Courbet arrived at the Fuzhou anchored near the port of Fuzhou on August 22nd, observing the Qing fleet deployed with a northern group of 8 ships and a southern group of 3 ships. Courtbet placed his squadron between these clusters and observed his enemy. The Qing ships were seen to swing with the tides, prompting Courbet to plan for his attack to commence at the top of the tide roughly around 2pm the next day. He deduced the Qing ships would swing away from his fleet presenting their vulnerable sterns. The Qing northern group seemed to be protecting her dockyards while the southern group seemed to be protecting a customs building. Assuming the Qing would not change their formations, Courbet hoped to begin battle at 2pm with his torpedo boats first then cannon fire by the rest. The next day, neither side made any attempt to redeploy or mess with the other and by 1:30pm the French crews were preparing for battle. The Qing seemingly did nothing upon witnessing the French clearly preparing their ships for a fight by 1:45pm, but at 1:55pm Qing mineboats began advancing towards the French ships. Courbet immediately raised flags for attack commencement, 5 minutes before the expected timetable. Torpedo boat no.46 surged forward hitting the Yangwu with a Spar Torpedo. For those of you who don't know what this is, picture a extremely long pole poking infront of your ship with a bomb on its end. The idea is quite simple you rush head first towards an enemy ship jab the pointed pole at the hull of a ship and detonate the bomb on the end using a fuse. Takes a lot of balls to pull this off to be sure. The bomb damaged Torpedo # 46's boiler and ruptured the hull of Yangwu. Meanwhile Torpedo boat #45 tried to do the same action to Fupo which was less successful in her venture.  As the two torpedo boats made their daring escapes under fire the French cruisers and ironclad Triomphante began opening fire. The Yongbao, Feiyun, Fushen, Jiansheng, Ji'an and Chenhang were lit ablaze or sunk from shellfire. Only the Fupo and Yixin survived the onslaught, forced to flee upriver as they were chased by the gunboats, Lynx, Vipere and Aspic. The Zhenwei received a shell hit from Triomphante causing a large explosion. Before the carnage had unfolded, the Qing had concentrated their fire upon the Volta, which Courtbet was forced to use as his Flagship as the Bayard did not make it in time for battle. The Qing clearly did this in order to kill Courtbet hoping it would be a decisive victory. Several crew aboard the Volta were killed or wounded, a roundshot smashed through her bridge nearly killing the captain Gigon. By 5pm the fighting had died down, but during the night the Qing made several unsuccessful fireship attacks. The next day Courbet ordered his ships to land some companies ashore to set up explosives to destroy the Fuzhou dockyards, but upon seeing the Qing left infantry to defend them was forced to cancel the plans. Instead he had his fleet begin bombarding the dockyards and outer buildings, but was unable to completely destroy the yards. The ships stayed at anchor another day as the Qing attempted a night torpedo attack as the gunboat Vipere who was anchored on the outside of the formation. Searchlights picked up the torpedo attempts and they were fired upon until they gave up. On August the 25th, Courbet took his forces down the Min River with Triomphante and Duguay-Trouin leading the way. For two days he had his forces bombard some Qing shore batteries defending the approach to Fuzhou followed by forts at the Jinpai pass. In the end the French had 10 deaths, 48 wounded due mostly to sniper fire with two ships receiving light damage. The Qing lost 9 ships completely with the others running aground, severely burnt or damaged in various other ways. The estimated death toll was estimated to be between 2000-3000. The Qing put up a memorial shortly after the war commemorating a list of 831 sailors and soldiers killed on the 23rd, but the list does not include deaths incurred during the Min River voyage. The captain of the flagship Yangwu, had abandoned his ship prematurely and was beheaded later for cowardice. Countless men lost their jobs, like the governor-general of Fujian and Zhejiang He Jing, the governor of Fujian Zhang Zhaotong and the director general of the Fuzhou dock yard He Ruzhang. Zhang Peilun who made no significant effort to direct the Fujian Fleet was degraded and replaced by our old friend General Zuo Zongtang.  The battle of Fuzhou, put simply was a shitshow for the Qing. There were numerous factors that led to the humiliating defeat. A major factor was Germany making excuses not to send the new Dingyuan and Zhenyuan over in time. Also the Fujian Fleet received absolutely zero help from the other fleets despite Zhang Peilun pleading for help from the Beiyang Fleet, Nanyang Fleet and Guangdong fleet, even with direct orders from Empress Dowager Cixi in hand. These fleets all had respective commanders who were loathe to see any of their assets damaged and thus held back. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. Incompetency and corruption led to a huge loss at the battle of Fuzhou. Now the Qing dynasty had really gotten herself into a mess and a full scale war with France was only beginning and about to get a whole lot worse.

Tune in to hear how Hensel Phelps ensures they extract insightful data and meaningful action from the typical 30-35 point solutions per project. Like many contractors, Hensel Phelps struggles with the proliferation of construction point solutions that make up the modern tech stack. Join host Matt Sprague and Hensel Phelps' Director of Innovation, Thai Nguyen, as they cover this sticky subject while talking about: Using an autonomous robot for night work Connecting point solutions with pay apps FedRAMP-approved general contractor management solutions Leading a corporate venture capital (CVC) within an established org Subscribe: ConnectedConstructionShow.com

Diversity isn't just about gathering diverse people; it's gathering diverse perspectives that create a culture of success for the company, its employees, and its customers. In today's episode of the Be Better podcast, Donald is joined by broker realtor at Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate Premier, Thai Nguyen, to discuss his approach to creating a diverse culture (and how you can do the same.) Company culture is not by accident; it's by design. Thai was a sales agent when he first took over the company. That prior experience helped him understand the environment that creates great workplace culture. His agent perspective helps him understand how his agents feel and what issues they encounter. His office maintains a culture that seeks the personality and skills of the people within it to make them better agents; a good culture is composed of team players.  Creating a team that values diversity: Look at how diverse the company is, not just across the company but specifically in leadership. Actions speak louder than words. While there might be initiatives and values on paper, ensure those are reflected in the company's behavior. Create event and training opportunities for employees to make their workplace a more inclusive environment where everyone can perform their best. It's not diversity of culture; it's diversity of thought. Thai listens to his agents for the best ideas, and he looks to everyone to contribute meaningful ideas based on their unique perspectives, and that's how he grows diversity within the company. For new hires, spend time with the organization's agents (not just leadership.) The owner might sell you on an idea of the company, but the agents will tell you whether or not an owner's words live up to expectations.  Thai's final takeaway? When you walk into the company, your gut feeling about whether or not it's the right fit for you is probably correct. Listen to your heart - it'll tell you if you belong there. Be Better Episode Resources: Visit Thai's company website to contact him for more information and follow his team on Facebook.  Like, subscribe, and listen to the Be Better podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and anywhere else podcasts can be found. You can help build a better world. Help Better Homes and Gardens fight homelessness across the world by donating at bhgre.com/newstory. With a goal to raise $100,000 by the end of 2022, your contributions will go directly to supporting those affected and helping build a world with homes for everyone. This episode is brought to you in part by Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate. Looking for a new role that allows you to become your own boss, create your own schedule, and have excellent income potential without the headache of starting a new business? Become an agent with Better Homes and Gardens® Real Estate, an American icon trusted in all things related to the home. Explore career options at bhgrecareer.com/.

In this week's episode of the Future Construct Podcast (1 hour interview), we are excited to feature Joseph "Roee" Shua-Haim, Founder and CEO at Hathaware (@Hathaware). He graduated with a B.S. in Civil Engineering from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in the summer of 2016. After graduating, Joseph moved to NYC and began his career as a structural engineer. Soon enough, Joseph took on an opportunity to shift into project management in RE development. Since making the shift, Joseph has managed over $85M in ground up developments.At Shadow Ventures, the focus is on investing in startups in tech-nascent markets where strategic capital is scarce. Their process and closed ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, designers, and developers are driven by both experience and technology to radically change how startups start and investors finish. In Part 2 of this podcast, we are excited to feature Thai Nguyen, Director of Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) at Hensel Phelps (@HenselPhelps). Thai has more than 20 years of experience in the architectural and construction industries. As Director of VDC, Thai drives the innovation of construction processes for Hensel Phelps, one of the United States' largest employee-owned general contracting firms. In this role he leads VDC initiatives for all of Hensel Phelps' district offices, managing a team of more than 80 individuals. This team provides company-wide leadership in VDC systems, tools and processes. They continually expand the use of virtual design and construction tools within Hensel Phelps, and within the Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) industry.Highlights of Joseph and Thai's interviews with host Amy Peck (@AmyPeckXR) include:The evolution of what's being built and opportunities for mid-size companies to bring technology in and improve processesHow Joseph's developing Hathaware based on insights from conversations with customersSome of the unique challenges of bringing in new software to a large companyTalent out of the BIM world that's leading innovation, and how that may be causing a shift in new innovation roles within Hensel Phelps and other companiesSHOW NOTES 0:50  Amy Peck introduces Joseph "Roee" Shua-Haim, Founder and CEO at Hathaware.10:31  So you're here and you've created this software, you're in the accelerator program now. Where do you see the evolution of what you're building, and some of the opportunities for mid-size companies to bring technology in and improve their processes?13:25  So you also mentioned another thing that can be a trap the founders often fall into, which is too many bells and whistles, trying to make things too fancy and future rich. When you're talking to customers, what are some of the things you're hearing that are informing how you're developing Hathaware?21:18  Amy Peck introduces Thai Nguyen, Director of Virtual Design and Construction at Hensel Phelps.27:10  You mentioned some of the unique challenges of bringing in new software to a large company. There are a lot of legacy systems. Is part of your job just understanding how are you going to be able to bring in new technology and what systems do you need to alter or change to allow for all of this new technology?39:28  Your CIO and CTO are two completely different functions. I've seen this pattern of talent out of the BIM world, that's leading innovation. You're comfortable on a job site. Have you seen a shift in that, because having a CIO or CTO is pretty foreign to our industry?

Comment changer l'approche du voyage dans laquelle les habitants s'identifient ? Voilà une question que nombreuses destinations se posent aujourd'hui. Van Thai Nguyen avec l'entreprise familiale TTB Travel a réussi à rassembler la communauté locale autour de la fierté nationale et à proposer des expériences en immersion avec les racines et la vraie identité de son pays, le Vietnam. Son engagement est tel aujourd'hui qu'il publie même un manifeste pour le tourisme durable au Vietnam avec l'espoir que de nombreuses parties prenantes du tourisme le rejoigne dans cette démarche. Pour plus d'informations, cliquer ici: https://ttb-travel.com Sans plus attendre, Je vous invite à faire une pause dans un lieu confortable et calme au contact de la nature pour prendre le temps de découvrir ces acteurs engagés dans la transition écologique Bonne écoute. Vous avez des Questions, remarques ou suggestion d'invités. Envoyez moi un mail à podcastxperientiel@gmail.com.

Join us for a joyful conversation with the talented and loving fashion designer, creative director and TV host, Thai Nguyen! Thai shares stories from childhood, growing up in Vietnam, discovering fashion, how we felt lost for years and how he found himself again. We talk about mental health and his ongoing coming out journey. He also shares his passion for bringing Vietnamese culture and fashion to the mainstream. Thai Nguyen graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in 2002 and right away, joined BCBG Max Azria. Soon after, he ventured to create his own eponymous label.Thai's designs have been featured in fashion's top publications and graced the red carpets including the Met Gala, the Oscars, the Grammy Awards, and countless movie and television premieres. Thai's dresses have appeared in Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair and on clients such as Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Cindy Crawford, Alison Brie, Lala Anthony, Leona Lewis, Kristen Bell, Kelly Marie Tran, Juliette Lewis, Nicole Scherzinger, Laverne Cox, and Jasmine Tookes. Recent projects for Thai include representing Vietnam as one of 50 international judges on The World's Best on CBS and Say I Do on Netflix. Connect with ThaiIG: @ThaiNguyenAtelierhttps://www.instagram.com/thainguyenatelier/Watch Say I Do! https://www.netflix.com/title/81014405LINKS N' THINGS: Thanks to our friends at ADT for making it possible for us to share these stories in a safe and secure place, At Home. https://www.adt.com/AtHomeHello Makers!If you're a maker and would like to be considered for a Maker Moment on At Home, please send us a DM on social and fill out this questionnaire. We can't wait to see what you're making!https://bit.ly/hellomakerCheck out our first Makers Episode!https://athomepodcast.net/episodes/makersText 310-496-8667 with your questions for #AtHomePodcast !If you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe, rate and share with a friend! Thank you for being a part of the At Home community! Connect with Linda & Drew: instagram.com/athomeinstagram.com/imlindorkinstagram.com/mrdrewscott#AtHomePodcastTHEME SONG BY: Victoria Shawwww.instagram.com/VictoriaShawMusic Chad Carlsonwww.instagram.com/ChadCarlsonMusic MUSIC COMPOSED AND PRODUCED BY:Rick Russohttps://www.instagram.com/rickrussomusicSpecial thanks to all our At Home homies: PRODUCERS:Brandon AngelenoHanna PhanPOST AUDIO ENGINEER:Chris CobainDIGITAL PRODUCER:Cortney EwonusWEBSITE:Wesley FriendSERIES PHOTOGRAPHER: Dennys Ilicwww.instagram.com/dennydennSponsored by:ADT: It's important to have not just a beautiful home -- but a smart and safer home.https://www.adt.com/AtHomeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This June on At Home, Linda and Drew chat all about renewal, what it means to them and what they're focusing on. There's lots happening despite their attempts to try to finally slow down a little. So they catch up on what has been working for them and bring in experts (HGTV’s Hometown, Erin & Ben Napier on building community; Nedra Glover Tawwab on setting boundaries and finding peace; Dr. Shefali on Reawakening your true self; and White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy on climate optimism!) all throughout this month to continue to guide them in creating a happy, healthy home. MENTAL HEALTH ALL YEAR ROUNDLet's keep mental health awareness conversations going! Check out all of Mental Health Coalition’s Project 1-2-1 chats where 31 guests and experts hopped on IG live everyday in May to talk about the importance of everyone having someone to talk to. https://www.instagram.com/tv/COnR_k1jDYS/?utm_medium=copy_linkHAPPY PRIDE MONTH! Find a way to celebrate love in all its forms!If you or someone you know might be struggling, our friends at Trevor Project are dedicated to providing resources:https://www.thetrevorproject.org/get-help-now/Let’s keep CELEBRATING AAPI CULTURE May was a time of celebrating AAPI heritage. Check out our friend, Thai Nguyen who shares stories of his heritage through fashion! https://instagram.com/thainguyenatelier?utm_medium=copy_link Text 310-496-8667 with your questions for #AtHomePodcast !If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe, rate and share with a friend! Thank you for being a part of the At Home community! Connect with Linda & Drew: instagram.com/athomeinstagram.com/imlindorkinstagram.com/mrdrewscott#AtHomePodcastTHEME SONG BY: Victoria Shawwww.instagram.com/VictoriaShawMusic Chad Carlsonwww.instagram.com/ChadCarlsonMusic MUSIC COMPOSED AND PRODUCED BY:Rick Russohttps://www.instagram.com/rickrussomusicSpecial thanks to all our At Home homies: PRODUCERS:Brandon AngelenoHanna PhanPOST AUDIO ENGINEER:Chris CobainDIGITAL PRODUCER:Cortney EwonusWEBSITE:Wesley FriendSERIES PHOTOGRAPHER: Dennys Ilicwww.instagram.com/dennydennSponsored by:ADT: It’s important to have not just a beautiful home -- but a smart and safer home.https://www.adt.com/AtHome

In today's episode, Gina discusses the theme of self-awareness in the context of anxiety. Recognizing you suffer from anxiety is a critical step of self-awareness that contributes much to our anxiety recovery. A number of tools are recommended for further increasing your self awareness for furthering your anxiety recovery.  Ideas from Thai Nguyen article: Jan 11, 2016 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254669 FEELINGS LISTS: http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/assess/feelings.html Join the NEW ACP SUPERCAST PREMIUM AD-FREE MEMBERSHIP https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com/adfree Listen to the entire back catalog ad-free and more! https://anxietycoaches.supercast.tech To learn more go to: http://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com Join our Group Coaching Full or Mini Membership Program  Learn more about our One-on-One Coaching What is anxiety? Quote: Self awareness is the ability to take an honest look at your life without any attachment to it being right or wrong, good or bad. – Debbie Ford

In today's episode, Gina discusses the theme of self-awareness in the context of anxiety.  Recognizing you suffer from anxiety is a critical step of self-awareness that contributes much to our anxiety recovery.  A number of tools are recommended for further increasing your self awareness. Please visit today's sponsor TruNiagen New customers can save twenty dollars on a three-month supply by going to https://TruNiagen.com and entering promo code acp at checkout! Ideas from Thai Nguyen article: Jan 11, 2016 https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/254669 FEELINGS LISTS: http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/assess/feelings.html Join the NEW ACP SUPERCAST PREMIUM AD-FREE MEMBERSHIP https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com/adfree Listen to the entire back catalog ad-free and more! https://anxietycoaches.supercast.tech To learn more go to: http://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com Join our Group Coaching Full or Mini Membership Program  Learn more about our One-on-One Coaching What is anxiety? Quote: Self awareness is the ability to take an honest look at your life without any attachment to it being right or wrong, good or bad. – Debbie Ford

Welcome to Episode 37 of the SFDC Consultant Podcast. My name is Emeric and today I happy to share this very productive conversation that I had with Thai Nguyen, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Inspire Planner. We spoke about building AppExchange applications, finding customers and positioning your solution in the marketplace. I really enjoyed this discussion, as we got the chance to really get into detail on some aspects of running an AppExchange business. Now, enjoy my conversation with Thai. Links: Inspire Planner Website: https://inspireplanner.com/ Inspire Planner AppExchange Listing: https://appexchange.salesforce.com/appxListingDetail?listingId=a0N30000000prucEAA These are some of my favourite SFDC Consultant Episodes:

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.09.02.276592v1?rss=1 Authors: Sonkusare, S., Breakspear, M., Pang, T., Thai Nguyen, V., Frydman, S., Guo, C., Aburn, M. J. Abstract: Facial infra-red imaging (IRI) is a contact-free technique complimenting the traditional psychophysiological measures to characterize physiological profile. However, its full potential in affective research is arguably unmet due to the analytical challenges it poses. Here we acquired facial IRI data, facial expressions and traditional physiological recordings (heart rate and skin conductance) from healthy human subjects whilst they viewed a 20-minute-long unedited emotional movie. We present a novel application of motion correction and the results of spatial independent component analysis of the thermal data. Three distinct spatial components are recovered associated with the nose, the cheeks and a respiratory component. We first benchmark this methodology against a traditional region-of-interest based technique. We then show significant correlation of all the physiological responses across subjects, including the thermal signals, suggesting common dynamic shifts in emotional state induced by the movie. Finally, we show that thermal responses were significantly anti-correlated with the positive emotional content of the movie thus an index of emotionally-driven physiological response. In sum, this study introduces an innovative approach to analyse facial IRI data and highlights the potential of thermal imaging to robustly capture emotion-related changes in ecological contexts. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info

Three fabulous men, Thai Nguyen (clothing designer), Gabriele Bertaccini (chef), and Jeremiah Brent (interior designer), all work together to make a dream wedding come to life within one week. This show has plenty of love, tearjerking moments, and the happiness of a couple on their special day. Today, we will discuss reality television and the differences between this show and other reality shows that people may see today.  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kilig-in-circumstances/support

In this episode, I speak with Thai Nguyen, the Executive Director of Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, a non-profit based in Vietnam that focuses on wildlife rescue, veterinary care, and rehabilitation of pangolins and other critically endangered species, and by helping Save Vietnam's Wildlife (https://www.svw.vn/) you can directly protect critically endangered species such as pangolins, otters, leopard cats, and binturong.

Get ready for another healthy dose of inspiration on today’s podcast. Host Rick Howick was honored and fascinated by the testimony...

For the real heads and those with Los Angeles sympathies elsewhere...a stroke of fate from the football gods. Coincidentally recorded 5 years to the day since the founding of the club, special guests Tue Nguyen, Thai Nguyen — two of the architects of LAFC's crest — and Rich Orosco stop by the backyard in Expo Park. The occasion: to talk an origin story unlike any you've ever heard it before — from Austin to Saigon to New York: we talk about the foundation of a club that was both global and local from the jump. Come cry with us and marvel as we look back to the beginning.

THIS IS GOAL'S SEPTEMBER ADVENTURE SUMMARY Each month Marc and I share with you intimate details about our journey as a reminder that we are real humans on the other end of this microphone striving to experience our Get Out And Live motto. We will be wrapping up each month answering a series of questions about who, what, when, where, why, and how we are doing things in the hope to motivate you to "Just Go." If there is something specific you would like us to dive into more shoot us a DM or email. Don’t be shy, we do this for you! DM ME - INSTAGRAM EMAIL ME- CONTACT US Topics discussed are listed below but head to our website for some unedited real-life visuals. WHERE: Where are we adventuring? Answer: Cydny went to Dai Lai and Marc took a school service trip to build homes in Thai Nguyen. Here are some photos from Dai Lai. WHY: Why did this month feel adventurous? Answer: Cyd’s experience with motorbiking through Vietnam and Marc accepting that it’s okay to take it slow and settle. WHO: Who are we meeting and connecting with? Answer: Connecting with others that aren’t apart of the school system environment. Tiffany was introduced to us from Becca & Dan from HalfHalf Travel and Annastacia and Sean were introduced to us through Tiff. Sean is our new roomie for October and Annastacia runs all the big events in town! HOW: How are we staying inspired to continue adventuring? Answer: Thanks to the friends we have been making. Expats have similar personalities to us and are very motivating. WHAT:  What are the adventurous things are we eating? Answer: Seafood  What are the interesting things we have learned about the culture? Answer: Tiny chairs, bare feet, and no God Bless you’s  What are we obsessing over? Answer: Custom made everything! WHEN: When will we be adventuring next? Answer: Lombok, Indonesia and Hokkaido, Japan  GOALS: What are our GOALS for the next month. Answer: Working on the mindset of being okay with leaving our new home. Feeling confident that our new place is okay to leave so we can hop on more last-minute adventures more easily.

Thai Nguyen has been a 5-star chef, international kickboxer, and now writer at theUtopianLife.com & Spiritual Teacher; born in Vietnam, raised in Australia, completed my BA in Humanities/Theology in Texas.

It seems like some people are EVERYWHERE online... Huffington Post, Entrepreneur.com... you see their faces and stories everywhere! Thai Nguyen is one of those people who has been featured alongside big names like Mark Cuban and Barbara Corcoran, and in today's episode he reveals exactly how you can establish credibility and do the exact same thing as an entrepreneur.

Check for your Time Zone: 9:00 pm Atlantic, 8:00 pm Eastern, 7:00 pm Central, 6:00 pm Mountain, 5:00 pm Pacific. A dream is truly a journey of a thousand miles. Today let’s put our guest on the hot seat as we ask her to respond to the seven truths that can help carry someone as their chase and live out your dreams. In our studio this evening is a young lady, who took her dreams and turned them into reality. We’ll ask her to highlight what worked and what didn’t via a series 7 reality-check statements as driven home in a blog, “7 Truths to Remember as You Live Out Your Dream”, written by Thai Nguyen. We’d like to get her reaction to them.  Call in with your questions or comments. The number to the studio line is (657) 383-1766. "7 Truths . . .", courtesy of http://j.mp/1XFGhFV

JournalTalk has offered me the pleasure of interviewing some interesting people. People who have developed a habit of asking themselves tough questions, listening to the voice(s) within, and staying present to the answers that unfold. This week’s guest is a great example of such a guy. Thai Nguyen writes with a candid, authentic voice. His articles […]

Thai Nguyen is a freelance writer for the Utopian Life which talks about change, growth, & improvement. He has been a  5-Star Chef, International Kickboxer, now is a Writer & Teacher. His family fled Vietnam after the war, grew up in Australia, and completed his BA in Humanities/Theology in Texas. He writes about how to embrace growth, mastering your emotions, and overall becoming a better person on his Huffington Post blog. We talk about his varied background and how it has all tied together to bring him to where he is now. We then talk about the value of being flexible and being able to have skills in many areas. We then move to talk about how he found value only through his accomplishments and how he has moved more towards simply pursuing his curiosity and passion. He talks about the benefit of immersion, whether it be in learning Thai kickboxing and competing in record time or learning Spanish while being immersed in Peru. Finally we talk about how travelling and living abroad is the equivalent of a University degree. His joke: "How do you kill a vegetarian vampire? - With a stake to the heart"

Thai Nguyen wants to help you uncover your Utopian Life What We Talk About: •   Want to make a difference in the world? •   The 3 questions we need to ask ourselves: ◦                     What do I do with my life? ◦                     Why does it even matter? ◦                     How do I get there ? •   Why do some people never get going? •   What motivates YOU? Find your WHY. •   The power of "I choose" versus "I can’t" •   Replacing restriction with abundance •   How the Impostor Syndrome is holding you back •   The best way to overcome failure and achieve your goals   Thai was born in Vietnam and taken to live in a refugee camp in Indonesia before moving to Australia, where he resides today as the creator of The Utopian Life. In between, he’s managed to play Rugby at the National Championship in Canada, compete in Thai Boxing at the international level, work as a Professional Chef, and now pursue his Master's degree in Psychotherapy. He has overcome challenges of every sort with incredible persistence and commitment, and now his life’s focus is encouraging people like you to strive to find their unique purpose.   Want More Thai? You can read more of Thai's work here: •   Huffington Post •   Entrepreneur.com •   Mind Body Green “I believe that everything you do in life is either an expression of who you truly are or a distraction from who you truly are. Discovering who you truly are is the burning question in everyone’s soul.” - Thai Nguyen BONUS! Download Thai's Infographic at www.onairwithella.com/ 024-find-your-purpose

Thai Nguyen fled Vietnam with his family many years ago and were set up at a Refugee Camp. They later moved to Australia and as Thai became an adult, he wanted to know what a Utopian Life would be like. He set himself on a quest to determine what IS a Utopian Life. He shares with us his journey and … Read more about this episode...

Highlights from various past episodes on Creative Warriors including Jay Baer, Jordan Harbinger, Ted Coine, David Mead, Ben Newman, Kevin Swan, Thai Nguyen and Corwin Hiebert

Thai was a 6-month old baby when his parents fled persecution after the Vietnam War, they survived the terrifying boat journey and made it to refugee camp in Indonesia before being accepted into Australia. He’s been on a journey of self-discovery ever since. Having been a 5-Star chef who’s cooked for celebrities, an international rugby player and kick boxer, Thai is now finishing his first book. For more shownotes head over to www.uydmag.com/podcast/thai-nguyen See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Thai Nguyen is the founder of  The Utopian Life, which describes itself as "practical wisdom for personal evolution." Thai is living in Cusco, Peru, where he’s working on his first book all about mastering internal dialogues and the stories that shape our lives. He was born in Vietnam and grew up a refugee living in Australia after the war, studied Theology in Texas - and has since gone on to develop a love of entrepreneurship and exploration, of both ideas and the world. Thai loves to focus on the things that hold us back, and whether it’s taking that trip, making travel a bigger priority, or somehow figuring out that travel lifestyle, I’m excited to dive into Thai’s perspective on these topics and how it is he’s found himself in Peru, writing a book. A Quick Preview: What Thai is doing down in Peru, living not far from Macchu Piccu, in the mountains. How his varied background has led him down the path to explore life’s bigger questions. What it was like growing up as a Vietnamese refugee and how that effected his sense of self-identity. How travel gave Thai the outlet he needed to discover himself and escape a youth spent not fitting into society and rebellious behavior. Why Thai believes where he's landed, after several reinventions, is a place he feels confident in for the first time. Plus the one question he asks himself to know. Explore Further: The Utopian Life, Thai's website @ThaiWins on Twitter Credits Music credit: Intrepid Journey, by Aaron Static Become a Friend of the Show: Please subscribe and review! It just takes a second and you can help the show increase its rankings on iTunes just by this simple and quick gesture. We’d be grateful for a review. Leave one here. If you do, click here to let me know so I can personally thank you! Your Feedback If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or a question about an upcoming episode, email me! I’d love to hear from you. Thank you so much for your support!   The post 142: Exploring Self-Identity in Peru with Thai Nguyen appeared first on The Daily Travel Podcast.

Today I am opening a new page for the Write 2B Read podcast. Starting from today I will be featuring podcast listener interviews. This means that you will be part of the Write 2B Read podcast. If you would like to be interviewed for the show, please shoot me an e mail by clicking this link and tell me why do you think that you should be the one interviewed. This will help us know each other better and have a real-life examples from our peers. Today I am featuring the first listener interview. I spoke to Thai Nguyen and discovered that Write 2B Read got really unusual listeners! Thai is a Professional Re-inventer: a 5-Star Chef, International Kick-boxer, Writer, Speaker, Huffington Post contributor and Mindset/Life Coach... Now he also started writing his first book and that is what we will talk about in the interview. Actually Thai left everything behind and went to Peru in order to write his book. He will share his experiences, talk about his struggles and achievements as well as the future plans. We will discuss the process of writing the first book too. You can get more details and interesting info on Thai's webpage The Utopian Life. If the reason you have not written a book yet is that you have doubts or you simply don’t know where to start, then I am here for you. Please check out my coaching page to see what I can help you with. Please feel free to connect with me and other Write 2B Read listeners in the closed Facebook Group.  

Thai Nguyen is a self proclaimed professional re-inventor. He's a 5-star chef, an international kick-boxer, a writer, speaker, and mindset-transformation coach. Thai is the true meaning of a Lifestyle Entrepreneur. As Thai says, "making a living, living the dream." Thai's journey is incredible, from being a Vietnam refugee to now living in Peru writing his first book. In this chat with Thai there is plenty of inspi

Thai Nguyen teaches you how to reinvent your comfortable life into a life fulfilled by passion! In this podcast, Thai tackles the common issue among people who feel the urge to shift into the entrepreneurial field, but are afraid of losing their current life status. Thai discusses how to position yourself and understand the difference between your values and the vehicle that you have chosen. Resources: www.takeactionradio.com/taq33 www.theutopianlife.com

Listen Here: Professional Re-inventer, Thai Nguyen, is a 5-Star Chef, International Kickboxer, Writer, Speaker, and Mindset-Transformation Coach. Thai was born in Vietnam, his family fled the country after the war, and settled in Australia. Having lived in 6 different countries, Thai has met too many people with buried passions and dreams—his goal is help as many people […] The post Podcast: Flip Your Script: How To Reinvent Yourself & Live The Dream appeared first on JenningsWire.

Thai Nguyen is a writer & gypsy-entrepreneur currently living out of his backpack in Peru. Formerly, a professional chef, kickboxer, and teacher, Thai uses his different backgrounds to spark-off personal transformations for those who wish to reinvent themselves.

If you think that you need to start your journey of discovery and fulfilment from a privileged position or its never going to work then think again. Todays guest started his journey and I guess life in quite an unusual place, and it certainly was with no entitlement. Born in Vietnam, he was then taken to live in a refuge camp in Indonesia, before moving again to Australia, where he resides today. He has overcome challenges both financially and physically, with incredible persistence and commitment. He has played Rugby at the National Championship in Canada, competed in Thai Boxing at International level, worked as a Professional Chef at a 5-Star Hotel, and even run a small food business. He has completed a Bachelor of Humanities degree from The College At Southwestern in Fort Worth, Texas and is currently doing a Masters Degree. If that isn't impressive enough, then this man who seems to be born with an inherent talent to take action, has created his own website entitled the Wantrepreneur journey.com, where he encourages his readers and listeners to strive to find their unique self. As he says in his own words "I believe that everything you do in life is either an expression of who you truly are or a distraction from who you truly are. Discovering who you truly are is the burning question in everyone's soul." So let's find out today, how he found his unique self as I start joining up dots with the inspirational Thai Nguyen.  

Thai Nguyen, left Vietnam at 6 months old because of persecution.  He was raised in Australia and eventually landed in Thailand as a professional boxer.  While he was in Thailand, he met a missionary from Fort Worth, Texas and his life was changed forever.  He is now a Destiny Chaser!

Discover how creating a daily celebration can help you reach your dreams and rock your life in this interview with Thai Nguyen!