Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...
Warlord
Warlords are individuals who exercise military, Economy, economic, and Politics, political control over a region, often one State collapse, without a strong central or national government, typically through informal control over Militia, local ...
operating from
Guangdong
) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...
and throughout the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by South China, in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan island, Taiwan and northwestern Philippines (mainly Luz ...
in the late 18th century. He later became a general and naval commander of the Tay Son dynasty in Vietnam.
Chen was born to a fisherman's family in Lianzhou, Guangdong (modern
Hepu County
Hepu (), alternately romanized as Hoppo, Hopu or Hop'u, is a county under the administration of Beihai City in southeastern Guangxi, China. It borders Lianjiang (Guangdong) to the southeast, Bobai County to the northeast, the Gulf of Tonkin to t ...
,
Guangxi
Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...
). In October 1780, his fishing vessel was shipwrecked near northern Vietnam, and he had to stay there.
When the Tay Son brothers conquered northern Vietnam, he was forced to join the Tay Son army in 1783. He was very skilled at sailing and was later appointed as general. He was the commander of Tay Son navy and helped Tay Son against the threats from the sea. From 1788 to 1799, he ordered his four subordinates,
Mo Guanfu
Mo Guanfu (, ; Vietnamese: ''Mạc Quan Phù'', ?–1801) was a powerful Chinese pirate throughout the South China Sea in the late 1700s.
Mo was born to a woodsman's family in Suixi County, Guangdong. He was kidnapped by the pirates in 1787. H ...
,
Zheng Qi
Zheng Qi (; died 899), courtesy name Yunwu (蘊武), was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty, serving briefly as chancellor in 894 during the reign of Emperor Zhaozong. He was known for writing poems filled with puns ('' xiehouyu'') that s ...
,
Liang Wengeng
Liang may refer to:
Chinese history
* Liang (state) (梁) (8th century BC – 641 BC), a Spring and Autumn period state
* Wei (state) (403–225 BC), a Warring States period state, also known as Liang (梁) after moving its capital to Daliang
* ...
(梁文庚) and
Fan Wencai
Fan commonly refers to:
* Fan (machine), a machine for producing airflow, often used for cooling
* Hand fan, an implement held and waved by hand to move air for cooling
* Fan (person), short for fanatic; an enthusiast or supporter, especially with ...
(樊文才), all Chinese pirates, to launch frequent attacks on the southern coast of
Qing China
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the Ming dynasty ...
.
Chen also played an important role during the civil war between Tay Son and the
Nguyen lords
Nguyễn (阮) (sometimes abbreviated as Ng̃) is the most common surname of the Vietnamese people.
Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as ''Nguyen''.
By some estimates 30 to 39 percent of Vietnamese peopl ...
. After the Tay Son army was utterly beaten by the Nguyen lords in 1801, he fled to Guangdong and surrendered to Qing China. The
Jiaqing Emperor
The Jiaqing Emperor (13 November 1760 – 2 September 1820), also known by his temple name Emperor Renzong of Qing, personal name Yongyan, was the sixth emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fifth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. He was ...
pardoned
A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...
him because he was forced into piracy due to Tay Son's forced conscription and allowed him to reside in
Nanxiong
Nanxiong (), historically Namyung, Namhung, and Nanhsiung, is a county-level city of northern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, bordering Jiangxi to the north, east and southeast. It is under the administration of Guangdong Province.
...
further away from the coastal areas.
See also
*
Pirates of the South China Coast
Pirates of the South China Coast () were Chinese pirates who were active in the north-western coasts of the South China Sea from the late 18th century to the 19th century, mainly during a 20-year period from 1790 to 1810. After 1805, the pirates ...
*
Tây Sơn military tactics and organization
The Tây Sơn rebel army incorporated during the three decades of its existence (from 1771 to 1802) new and unconventional ideas of tactics and organization. Logistic and tactical aspects like intelligence analysis, troop co-operation, transport a ...