concentrate on this point. 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. The zouaves did not lack energy or bravery, but night came on and the enemy was now in too great numbers. 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. According to Lieutenant-Colonel Bonifacy, who discussed the battle years later with officers who had been present, the troops fell back in disorder, throwing away their haversacks and rifles. Bonifacy commented that the Zouaves, fresh from Algeria, should not have been given such a mission until they had acclimatised themselves to conditions of war in Tonkin. The Chinese sources claim that the Yunnan Army and the Black Flags won a clear victory at Phu Lam Tao. According to the Yunnan Army's official report, its forces at Phu Lam Tao were attacked by the French on 23 March, the attack was defeated, and the French abandoned their dead on the battlefield and retreated in panic into the jungle. The report added that the French retired from the area on 24 March, abandoning 400 uniforms and quantities of weapons and maps. Casualties The casualties suffered by the French in this action are disputed. According to Lecomte, who dismissed the affair as an unimportant skirmish, Simon's battalion suffered 'around a dozen' casualties. According to Sainmont, French casualties were around 40 to 50 dead and wounded. According to Nimier, French casualties were 6 dead and 29 wounded. Nimier's figures were accepted several decades later by Thomazi, the historian of the French conquest of Indochina. Significance The significance of the engagement at Phu Lam Tao was that it took place one day before General François de Négrier's heavy defeat on 24 March 1885 at the Battle of Bang Bo by the Guangxi Army. The coincidence led Brière de l'Isle to conclude, wrongly, that the French were facing a concerted offensive by both Chinese armies. This conclusion helped to set the pessimistic tone of his notorious "Lạng Sơn telegram" of