Feng Zicai

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Feng Zicai (Traditional Chinese: 馮子才, Simplified Chinese: 冯子才, Pinyin: Féng Zǐcaī, Wade-Giles:Feng Tzu-ts'ai) (1818-1903) was a bandit in Guangxi, China who later became a general in the Imperial Army during the Qing dynasty. In 1867 he established his base of command in Nanning where he worked to fight bandits, rebels, the Hmong, and other groups threataning the Qing Empire in south China and northern Vietnam. When the Sino-French War broke out in 1884, he was placed in command of a chiefly Zhuang armed force in South China, of which most were from the local peasantry and some of Feng's retired imperial troops. He was responsible for the defense of, and counterattack at, Zhennanguan Pass in Guangxi province, during a French incursion over the border in March 1885. He employed over 50,000 local peasants to build a wall across the pass, and positioning several batteries along the ridges over looking the pass. The original attack by the French was fierce and resulted in the capture of several batteries, pushing back the Chinese defenses. The following day, Feng Zicai and his two sons led a counter-attack in which they engaged the French in hand-to-hand combat to great success, destroying over a thousand of the two thousand strong French army. Feng followed up this victory with an attempted assault on the French position at Ky Lua, in front of Lang Son citadel on the Tonkinese side of the border; although the attack was repulsed, the acting French commander ordered a retreat. Soon after, the French signed a peace treaty with China.

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