A small party of six seamen and one civilian interpreter led by Aspirant Marc Hautefeuille captured the fortified city of Ninh Bình, at the time defended by 1,700 troops.

On 20 November 1873, the city of Hanoi was captured by Lieutenant Francis Garnier, who had been sent there with a small force to solve dispute pitting a French trader and his mercenaries against local authorities.

Thinking that the Espingole was still in Phủ Lý, Garnier sent 21 years old Aspirant Hautefeuille in a steam launch to the city to carry an order to attack Ninh Bình to Balny d'Avricourt.

[6] As the steam launch reached Phủ Lý on the evening, Hautefeuille was informed by Lê Van Ba, a pro-French local installed there as replacement for the previous prefect, that Balny and the Espingole had departed for Hải Dương earlier that day.

He promptly decided to destroy this one as well, and at 11:00 pm, he set out for Ninh Bình on the steam launch alongside his seven sailors, his interpreter and a local civilian who was to guide them to the city.

The small squad was soon surrounded by Vietnamese soldiers, who proceeded to march alongside them while pointing their spears and rifles, without daring to initiate hostilities and probably hoping to catch them alive.

Instead of bringing to Governor to his palace to write the letter of submission as previously stated, the young officer had him and the other mandarins tied up, and then sent a sailor to hoist the French flag on the citadel's tower.

The Lãnh binh proceeded to give them a guided tour of the fortress, while the 1,700 Vietnamese soldiers had been gathered in the courtyard, down on their knees, their head bowed down and their weapons on the ground besides them.

[14] As he came back to the palace where the mandarins were held captive, Hautefeuille found out that the Án sát of Ninh Bình had managed to flee and that the Governor now refused to take responsibility for the capitulation alone, out of fear about consequences.

[17] After having congratulated Hautefeuille, Garnier replaced his seven sailors with ten different ones and loaded his 4-pounder cannon on the Scorpion before departing for Nam Dinh on the next day, leaving the young officer in charge of the province.

He paid some visits to neighbouring villages, accompanied only by his interpreter, and distributed a large amount of the strings of cash coins he had found in the citadel, which soon rendered him quite popular with locals.

Hautefeuille and his 10 sailors remained in control of the province until 8 January 1874 when Lieutenant Philastre, who had been sent by France to terminate Garnier's rogue expedition, came to fetch them with a ship to bring them back to Saigon.