the two battleships in port, and they remained in Germany for the duration of the Sino-French War. They were finally released in July 1885, and joined the Northern Seas fleet in October of the same year. Some Chinese historians have asserted that disunity in the Chinese command structure was an important factor in the Chinese defeat. The Chinese regional fleets and armies represented a considerable 'personal' investment of revenue and prestige that was used to leverage influence at court, and the respective fleet commanders were often loath to see these important assets diminished by war damage. The result, at Fuzhou, was that the Fujian Fleet received little help from China's three other regional fleets. Despite appeals from Zhang Peilun and direct orders from the Empress Dowager Cixi, the commanders of the Beiyang Fleet, the Nanyang Fleet and the Guangdong Fleet declined to send ships to reinforce the Fujian Fleet. Feiyun and Ji'an, two Fujian vessels which had been loaned to the Guangdong Fleet in 1882 to observe French movements in the Gulf of Tonkin, were sent back to Fuzhou in early August by Zhang Zhidong, the governor-general of the two Guangs, arriving just in time to share the fate of their comrades in the forthcoming battle. However, Zhang did not release any of his own Guangdong ships. Li Hongzhang defied an order to send two ships from the Beiyang Fleet to Fuzhou, and the Zhejiang governor Liu Bingzhang () refused to release the Nanyang ship Chaowu. Ships involved in the Min River actions France: China: French naval uniforms, 1884 The battlefield today See also Fuzhou Notes References Destelan, P., Annam et Tonkin: Notes de voyage d'un marin (Paris, 1892) Duboc, E., Trente cinq mois de campagne en Chine, au Tonkin (Paris, 1899) Ferrero, S., Formose, vue par un marin français du XIXe siècle (Paris, 2005) Huard, La guerre du Tonkin (Paris, 1887) Loir, M., L'escadre de l'amiral Courbet (Paris, 1886) Lung Chang [龍章], Yueh-nan yu Chung-fa chan-cheng [越南與中法戰爭, Vietnam and the Sino-French War] (Taipei, 1993) Rawlinson, J., China's Struggle for Naval Development, 1839–1895 (Harvard, 1967) Rollet de l'Isle, M., Au Tonkin et dans les mers de Chine (Paris, 1886) Thomazi, A., La conquête de l'Indochine (Paris, 1934) Vienet, R., 'Devant le champ de bataille de Mawei (Chine)', La Géographie, 1525 (June 2007), 31–53 Wright, R., The Chinese Steam Navy, 1862–1945'' (London, 2001) Fuzhou Fuzhou 1884 Military history of Fujian 1884