Vietnam Taiwan The Battle of Phu Lam Tao (23 March 1885) was a politically significant engagement during the Sino-French War (August 1884 – April 1885), in which a French Zouave battalion was defeated by a mixed force of Chinese soldiers and Black Flags.

In the wake of the relief of Tuyên Quang, General Louis Brière de l'Isle, the general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, drew up plans for a campaign against the Yunnan Army by a column of 5,000 French and Algerian troops, 2,000 Tonkinese auxiliaries and 460 mules and horses.

Chef de bataillon Simon's 1st Battalion, 1st Zouave Regiment, which had only recently arrived in Tonkin, was ordered to make a preliminary reconnaissance of the village of Phu Lam Tao, reported to have been occupied by strong elements of the Yunnan Army.

Our comrades fought furiously all the evening of 23 March, and after nightfall the garrison of Hung Hoa, which was watching this spectacle from the top of the citadel, saw the glare from the flames which were devouring two or three neighbouring villages, and could guess that action had been joined on a fairly wide front.

They were forced to regain their cantonments on the left bank of the Red River, in good order, having vainly made several furious assaults on the fortified pagoda of Bang Huyen under an extremely murderous fire.

[7] The significance of the engagement at Phu Lam Tao was that it took place one day before General Oscar de Négriers heavy defeat on 24 March 1885 at the Battle of Bang Bo by the Guangxi Army.