About Francis Garnier's death, there are different opinions. In 1973, Adrien Balny d’Avricourt wrote that the fatal attack on Garnier by Black Flags pirates was urged by the court which had never failed to apply the policy of duplicity. While the Vietnamese Veritable Records Dai Nam thuc luc recorded, Emperor Tự Đức’s intention was to solve the crisis with negotiation, and his order to Hoàng Kế Viêm and Tôn Thất Thuyết to prepare for military actions was reluctant and out of his distrust to French people. Hoàng Kế Viêm and Tôn Thất Thuyết were acting with deliberate calculation when they made sure that Liu Yongfu would cooperate and encouraged him to launch the attack, which exceeds the authority.
