On 6 June 1895, in the wake of the Imperial Japanese Army's successful landing and occupation of northern Taiwan, President Tang Jingsong fled the island.

The true figure was probably around 3,000 men, but the insurgents were stiffened by a force of 600 Black Flags, who now fought the Japanese for the first time during the campaign, and also deployed cannon and machine guns on the city walls.

The division was ordered to halt at Chiayi and wait until Prince Fushimi's northern expedition went ashore at Pa-te-chui before resuming its advance.

He asked that no Formosan should be punished for having taken up arms against the Japanese, and that all Chinese soldiers still in Taiwan should be treated hospitably and repatriated to Canton or Amoy.

On 12 October the Japanese cruiser Yoshino arrived off Anping, but Liu Yongfu refused to go aboard, perhaps fearing treachery.

Meanwhile, the brigade's advance guard dislodged an insurgent force numbering around 4,000 men and armed with repeating rifles from the village of Mao-tau, to the south of the So-bung-go River, but suffered relatively high casualties in doing so.

On 15 October Nogi's column closed in on the important port of Takow (Kaohsiung), but discovered that the Japanese navy had beaten it to the punch.

Two days earlier, on 13 October, the Takow forts had been bombarded and silenced by the Japanese cruisers Yoshino, Naniwa, Akitsushima, Hiei, Yaeyama and Saien, and a naval landing force had been put ashore to occupy the town.

Foiled of their prize, Nogi's men pressed on, and captured the town of Pithau (埤頭; modern-day Fongshan District) on 16 October.

The Japanese sailors did not recognise Liu Yongfu, but announced that they intended to arrest seven supposed Chinese labourers aboard the British vessel who were unable to give a satisfactory account of themselves.

Indignant at being boarded on the high seas, the captain protested vigorously at this illegal search, and when the merchant ship reached Amoy all its passengers, including Liu Yongfu, were allowed to go ashore without further hindrance.

Admiral Arichi Shinanojo, the Japanese fleet commander in the invasion of Formosa, was shortly afterwards forced to resign as a result of a subsequent British complaint to Japan.

Eventually two missionaries of the English Presbyterian Mission, James Fergusson and Thomas Barclay, agreed to make the perilous journey from Tainan to Lieutenant-General Nogi's headquarters at Ji-chang-hang, a few miles south of the city.

Nogi, unsurprisingly, was wary of possible Chinese treachery, but eventually decided to march on Tainan that night and enter the city early the following morning.

[10][7] Barclay and Fergusson later related their adventure to William Campbell, another member of the English Presbyterian Mission, who gave the following description of their tense ordeal: The sun was just setting when all the needful preparations were made, but not an hour was to be lost; and, therefore, taking the stamped document with them, my colleagues went out from the Great South Gate on their errand of mercy.

The stars were shining brightly, and stillness reigned everywhere, till the party was startled by the ping of a rifle, and the loud challenge of a Japanese sentry.

The time occupied by that long march back again was, indeed, an anxious one; and as the missionaries drew near and saw the city gates closed, their hearts sank within them lest some fatal interruption had taken place.

My colleagues looked behind, and saw only a wall of loaded rifles; in front, but there was no hopeful sign; and the strain was becoming almost insupportable, when the Great South Gate was swung wide open.

The capitulation of Tainan put an end to serious Formosan resistance and effectively inaugurated the era of Japanese colonial rule in Formosa.