At the Battle of Bạch Đằng River in 938 near
Hạ Long Bay
Hạ Long Bay or Halong Bay ( vi, Vịnh Hạ Long, ) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular travel destination in Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam. The name Hạ Long means "descending dragon". Administratively, the bay belongs to Hạ Lo ...
in northern Vietnam the military force of the Vietnamese Principality of
Jinghai, led by
Ngô Quyền
Ngô Quyền ( vi-hantu, 吳權) (April 17, 898 – February 14, 944), often referred to as Tiền Ngô Vương (前吳王; "First King of Ngô"), was a warlord who later became the founding king of the Ngô dynasty of Vietnam. He reigned from ...
, a Vietnamese lord, defeated the invading forces of the Chinese state of
Southern Han and put an end to
centuries of Chinese imperial domination in Vietnam during the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen concu ...
period. It was considered the turning point in Vietnamese history.
Background
In October 930,
Southern Han, a Chinese state in southern China during the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen concu ...
period, launched an attack on the Jinghai circuit, which at the time was a Vietnamese principality controlled by the Viet
Khuc clan. The leader of the Khuc,
Khuc Thua My, was taken prisoner by the Southern Han Emperor
Liu Yan. In 931, the local general
Dương Đình Nghệ
Dương Đình Nghệ (Chữ Hán: 楊廷藝; pinyin: ''Yáng Tíngyì''; 874 – March 937; some sources record Dương Diên Nghệ, Chữ Hán: 楊延藝) was the jiedushi of Tĩnh Hải quân in around 931 AD.
He was a skillful, talented gen ...
raised a 3,000-men army of retainers and drove the Southern Han back to the borders of the Jinghai Circuit.
In 937, Đình Nghệ was assassinated by
Kiều Công Tiễn
Kiều Công Tiễn (chữ Hán: 矯公羡 or 皎公羨; ) (870 - 938) was a general in the court of Dương Đình Nghệ, a Vietnamese Jiedushi of Tĩnh Hải quân who took over the position in 931. In 937 Kiều Công Tiễn assassinated th ...
, a formal military officer. Đình Nghệ's son in law and also his general, Ngô Quyền, mobilized his army to overthrow Kiều Công Tiễn. Công Tiễn called Liu Yan for support. Liu Yan then put his son
Liu Hongcao in command of the expedition, granting him the titles ''Jinghai jiedushi'' and ''King of Jiao'', dispatching a fleet and sailing to the
Gulf of Tonkin
The Gulf of Tonkin is a gulf at the northwestern portion of the South China Sea, located off the coasts of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and South China. It has a total surface area of . It is defined in the west and northwest by the northern ...
, headed inland up
Bạch Đằng River, the water gate of Annam. Liu Yan himself led an additional force following his son's fleet.
Battle
In late 938, the Southern Han fleet led by Prince Liu Hongcao met Ngo Quyen's fleet on the gate of the Bach Dang River. The Southern Han fleet consisted fast warships carrying fifty men on each–twenty sailors, twenty five warriors, and two crossbowmen. Ngo Quyen and his force had set up massive stakes tipped with iron foiled points on the river bed. When the river tide rose, the sharpened stakes were covered by water. As the Southern Han sailed into the estuary, Vietnamese in smaller crafts went down and harassed the Chinese warships, luring them to follow upstream. When the tide fell, Ngo Quyen's force counterattacked and pushed the Chinese fleet back to the sea. The Southern Han ships now were stuck in the stakes and became immobilized. Half of the Han army were killed and drowned, including Liu Hongcao. When the news of the defeat reached
Liu Yan on the sea by his survived soldiers, he learned that his troops were not lucky, and then retreated back to
Guangzhou.
Aftermath
In spring 939,
Ngo Quyen proclaimed himself king and chose the antiquity town of
Co Loa as the capital. The Jinghai Principality ''
de facto'' became independent, and Vietnamese history comes into its own. Southern Han never attacked Annam again. The tactics of Ngo Quyen would be reused by Prince
Tran Quoc Tuan 300 years later against the Mongol-led
Yuan invasion in 1288.
See also
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Battle of Bạch Đằng (1288)
References
Citations
Bibliography
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External links
Xa Bach DangDong Hung Thai Binh Viet Nam
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle of Bach Dang (938)
Ngô dynasty
Bạch Đằng
Battles of Southern Han
938
10th century in China
Bạch Đằng
Bạch Đằng
10th century in Vietnam
Wars between China and Vietnam
Riverine warfare
Bạch Đằng
Military campaigns involving Vietnam
Invasions of Vietnam