Haw wars  The Haw Wars () were fought against Chinese quasi-military forces invading parts of Tonkin and the Siam from 1865–1890. Forces invading Lao domains were ill-disciplined and freely plundered Buddhist temples. Not knowing these were remnants of the aftermath of the Taiping Rebellion led by Hong Xiuquan, a heterodox Christian convert, the invaders were confused with Chinese Muslims from Yunnan called "Haw" (Lao: ຮໍ່; Thai: ฮ่อ; RTGS: "Ho"; Mandarin Chinese: "Hui"). Forces sent by King Rama V failed to suppress the various groups, the last of which eventually disbanded in 1890. During the latter half of the 19th century, bands of Chinese warriors known as "flag gangs" ravaged large areas of northern Laos. Outlaws and freebooters, the flag gangs were fleeing the suppression of the Taiping rebellion in China. Tonkin (now northern Vietnam) was invaded first, when units of the "Black Flags" and the rival "Yellow Flags" crossed the China-Vietnam frontier in 1865 and set up bases in the upper reaches of the Red River Valley. Over the next twenty years the Black Flags and their leader, Liu Yongfu, were to acquire a certain legitimacy and fame in the service both of the Vietnamese King, Tự Đức, and of the Qing monarch for their struggle against French imperialism in Tonkin. In contrast the Yellow Flags, under the leadership of Huang Chung-ying, failed to acquire any legitimacy and, pursued by a combination of Vietnamese, Black Flag, and Qing forces, were broken up and defeated. In 1875–1876, following the capture and execution of Huang Chung-ying by the Qing-Vietnamese forces, the surviving Yellow Flag remnants fled westwards into the upper part of the Black River Valley where they harassed the townships of the semi-independent Tai-speaking federation of Sip Son Chu Tai (or Sip Song Chau Tai – Twelve Tai peoples,) today part of northwestern Vietnam) and northeastern Laos. Further to the west, starting about 1872, bands of defeated rebels fleeing the Qing reconquest of Yunnan also began drifting across the frontier into Laos, then a tributary state of the Kingdom of Siam. These new bands, distinguished by "Red Flag" and "Striped Flag" banners, moved south to occupy nearly all of northern Laos.