In exchange, the French waived the remainder of the war indemnity imposed by the Treaty of Saigon that ended the Cochinchina Campaign in 1862.
[1][2] The governor of Cochinchina, Admiral Marie Jules Dupré, who had authorized both Garnier's disastrous expedition and Philastre's cleaning up operation, requested his own recall soon after and brought a copy of the treaty back to France.
His main concern had been recognition of the 1867 occupation effected by his predecessor, Admiral Pierre-Paul de La Grandière, and this had been accomplished.
In May 1875, the French chargé-d'affaires in Peking informed Prince Gong in a note in which he also requested the Chinese government to stop armed bandits entering Tonkin from its territory and to open a port for trade along the Red River in Yunnan.
At the time the Black Flags, an armed group of Chinese, was in control of the upper Red River, rendering the clause opening it to trade inoperative.