Quang Trung Nguyen Hue (Emperor Quang Trung Nguyen Hue) (1752-192):
In the late 18th century, our country was in an extremely complicated situation. The fact that the country was being partitioned into Dang Trong (or Southern region) and Dang Ngoai (or Northern region) during the last two centuries, left serious consequences and a threat of foreign aggression. In Dang Ngoai, Le Royal Dynasty was completely powerless with corrupt politics and miserable people, as the dictator Trinh Lord wielded absolute authority. In Dang Trong, the deterioration of the Nguyen Lord was also becoming worse. The uprising of the Tay Son Farmers’ Movement in 1771 met the requirement of historic inevitability and soon created a great prestige within the people. Fearing the Tay Son’s increasing influence over Thuan Hoa-Phu Xuan, Trinh Lord’s army conquered Phu Xuan in 1775 and dominated this land for over ten years, committing many crimes and atrocities on the people.
Being a younger brother of Nguyen Nhac (leader of the Tay Son Movement), Nguyen Hue played a very important role as general, particularly in the defeat of Xiem aggressors at Rach Gam-Xoai Mut front in 1785. In 1786, Nguyen Hue and his troops moved into Thuan Hoa and cleared the Trinh army out of Phu Xuan, though only for a few days. With the victory impetus, he then expanded the operation to the North. After annihilating the Trinh autocratic authority, Nguyen Hue handed over authority to Le King and withdrew his troops back to Phu Xuan.
In 1788, under the pretext of helping Le King, Man Thanh’s court (Qing Dynasty) sent its army, led by Le Chieu Thong, to our country. Upon being given the urgent news, Nguyen Hue had the Nam Giao Esplanade established for the heaven worshiping ceremony at Ban Mountain (Ban Son), Phu Xuan to declare his ascension to the throne. He took ‘Quang Trung’ as his dynastic title and further pushed his operations to the North to crush the foreign aggressors. With pre-eminent military genius, Quang Trung Nguyen Hue made a much celebrated major victory in the Spring of 1789, purging tens of thousands of aggressors and assuring the security of the country’s border areas, as well as creating again a peaceful life for the people. After that historic victory, Nguyen Hue immediately arranged political works in the North and returned to Phu Xuan with his great army. Over the following ten years (1789-1802), Phu Xuan was the capital of the united Dai Viet under the Tay Son Dynasty. Quang Trung Emperor promulgated and implemented many important internal and external policies here in order to construct and develop the country. The Tay Son Dynasty, led by Quang Trung Emperor, was a feudal reign bringing many glories for our nation at the latter half of the 18th century with Phu Xuan Capital City as its center.
The famous Battle of Bach Dang:
Vietnam News Agency Source
by Viet Hung
Vietnamese people celebrate the more successful victory of the Tay Son army led by General Nguyen Hue over invading Qing forces in 1789. Nguyen Hue is still revered throughout the country for unifying the north and south after 200 years of division, with his victories celebrated on the fifth day of Tet every year.
by Viet Hung
Vietnamese General Nguyen Hue had a gut feeling that a strike upon the Qing troops occupying Thang Long (Ha Noi) citadel during their lunar new year festivities would sweep the invaders out of the country once and for all.
Historians still marvel at how 36-year-old Hue achieved his victory given that he was based in Phu Xuan (Hue), more than 650km south of Thang Long, when he first learnt of the invasion of northern Viet Nam by the 200,000-strong Qing army.
On hearing the news one week after the invasion, Nguyen Hue immediately ordered that a platform be built on Ngu Binh Mountain where he appealed to his ancestors and the heavens to help him regain national independence, and declared himself emperor of the country.
The self-proclaimed king then marched his army northwards by sea and land routes for three weeks before arriving at Tam Diep Mountain Range in Ninh Binh Province, where he regrouped with his retreating troops from Thang Long and northern provinces.
After a briefing with his generals, who managed to withdrew their forces unscathed, Nguyen Hue ordered his 100,000-strong army to celebrate the lunar new year 10 days in advance.
He told his soldiers that their second Tet in Thang Long would be more joyous when the city was clear of the invaders.
The planned 10-day battle only took half this time thanks to Hue’s tactics of bypassing small outposts in favour of attacking only the key Qing positions.
On the fifth day of Tet most of the Qing forces in the citadel were either killed in battle or drowned when they tried to flee across the Hong (Red) River.
Rising force
Historians regard the victory as the peak of Hue’s military talent, but the Vietnamese people will never forget his earlier exploits, which ended the country’s 200-year division with the Trinh Lords ruling the north and the Nguyen Lords reigning over the south.
Nguyen Hue, born in 1753 on Tay Son farm in central Binh Dinh Province, was the youngest of four girls and three boys.
The three Nguyen brothers loved martial arts and rallied local youths to protect their farms from being harassed by troops of the Nguyen Lords.
Their insurrection sowed the seeds for more youngsters to join Hue, whose wise tactics and skilful martial arts soon made him an 18-year-old general of an invincible army.
Although the rival Trinh and Nguyen Lords wanted to annex each other, they shared the same ambition of wiping out the emerging Tay Son army led by Hue.
In 1773, the Tay Son troops stationed at Qui Nhon citadel, the provincial township of Binh Dinh, were surrounded by Trinh and Nguyen troops.
In response, Hue’s army swooped upon the nearby Phu Yen citadel and smashed the Nguyen troops waiting to invade.
The end result was stunning. The Nguyen troops withdrew further south while the advancing Trinh troops were forced to retreat to defend their line at Hai Van Pass.
Hue’s long-term vision of one Viet Nam made him the most feared warrior by both Nguyen and Trinh troops, who suffered losses in 1777, 1782 and 1783.
Lord Nguyen Anh’s repeated defeats at the hands of Hue caused him to call on Siam (Thailand) for help.
Some 50,000 Siamese troops and 300 warships attacked Gia Dinh Citadel (now HCM City) in June 1784 and then headed to the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta.
Three months later, Hue took his army from its base in Qui Nhon and smashed the entire Siamese invading forces in an ambush in My Tho Province.
Finally, in 1785, Hue drove the Nguyen Lords out of the country.
Unification
After the Nguyen Lords’ defeat Hue could not relax like his two brothers who were satisfied with their newly-conquered territories in Binh Dinh and southern Viet Nam.
Hue’s supporters urged him to move north to put an end to the domination of the Trinh Lords who had been abusing their power under the Le Dynasty.
Hue’s plan of defeating the Trinh Lords to save the Le King proved a useful political weapon in his first successful move on the capital of Thang Long in 1786.
His elimination of the Trinh Lords, ending nearly 300 years of domination, won him the heart of Princess Le Ngoc Han, daughter of King Le Hien Tong.
After Le Hien Tong died, Nguyen Hue made the former’s nephew, Le Chieu Thong, the new king.
But the reign of King Le Chieu Thong proved short-lived. He quickly turned into a puppet ruler whose strings were being pulled by Hue’s former advisor Nguyen Huu Chinh.
Chinh took the Le king to the Qing Court to ask for help to get rid of Nguyen Hue and his forces. The end result was Hue’s decisive 1789 Tet battle that dealt the final blow to the Qing invasion of Viet Nam.
Nguyen Hue’s political and military talents should have made Viet Nam more powerful than it had ever been, but his early death prevented the realisation of the country’s potential.
He died just four years after his famous Thang Long victory at the age of 39, leaving many ambitious administrative and economic reforms incomplete.
After Nguyen Hue’s death Nguyen Anh Lord regained control of the country and founded the Nguyen Dynasty in 1802 that lasted until 1945