Lam Sơn uprising

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Lam Sơn uprising
Khoi nghia lam son 500 01 (1) (Copy).jpg
Date1418–1428
Location
Result

Lam Sơn rebel victory.

Belligerents
Ming Dynasty
Lan Xang (1422–1423)
Vietnamese Lam Sơn rebels
Commanders and leaders
Li An
Fang Zheng

 
 (POW)


 
Mu Sheng
 
 
 (POW)
Lê Lợi
 
 
 



Nguyễn Chích

Trịnh Khả

The Lam Sơn uprising (Chinese: 藍山起義; Vietnamese: Khởi nghĩa Lam Sơn) was the nationalist rebellion led by Lê Lợi in Ming province of Jiaozhi from 1418 to 1427 against Ming occupation of Vietnam

Background[]

The Chinese Ming empire destroyed the Ho regime in 1407 and put the Vietnamese under Ming colonial rule. However, they met fiercely resistance from the former Tran royal family, led by Prince Tran Ngoi. Although the rebellion was defeated, the rebellion of Tran princes created a great inspiration for Vietnamese nationalist movements; the Tran princes became martyrs; Yongle underestimated the Vietnamese love for independence; and other 31 revolts occurred from 1415 to 1424 against the Ming rules before the rebellion of Lê Lợi in 1418.[1] The Ming occupying army of Jiaozhi consisted at least 87,000 regulars, scattered in 39 citadels and towns in Northern Vietnam.[2]

Revolt in Thanh Hóa 1418-1423[]

On 7 February 1416, a group of 18 men included Lê Lợi and Nguyễn Trãi, secretly met in the jungle near Lam Son, swore to stay together until the final victory.[3]

In Tết 1418, Lê Lợi raised the revolt flag against the Ming rule in Lam Sơn, Thanh Hóa. He proclaimed himself as Bình Định vương (平定王; "Prince of Pacification"). Lê Lợi divided his army into small bands of partisan fighters, utilized the guerrilla tactics to fight against regular Ming units.[4]

In February, a Ming army under general Ma Ji attacked into Lam Sơn, but was ambushed by the Lam Sơn partisans near Chu River.[5] A betrayer led the Ming army the way to Lam Sơn, which attacked Lê Lợi in surprise.Lê Lợi's nine-year-old daughter was seized and sent to Yongle's harem.[4]

In 1419, Lê Lợi's force attacked and seized a Ming garrison near Lam Sơn.[5]

In late 1420, led an Ming army to attack Mường Thôi, but was defeated. The Lam Sơn partisans also gained the control of the upper Mã River.[5]

In early 1422, a large Ming army under General Chen Zhi marched to the Mã River valley to attack the Lam Sơn rebels.[6] A Laotian army with 30,000 men and 100 elephants from Lan Xang approached down the valley from the opposite direction,[7] joined with the Chinese force to besiege the Vietnamese.[8]

In 1423, because of exhaustion and lacking of foods, Lê Lợi was forced to disband his partisans and sued for peace, and returned to Lam Sơn.[5][6]

Capture of Nghệ An and southern provinces[]

One of his comrades, Nguyễn Chích, suggested that they would move to the south to the province of Nghệ An.

In December 1424, the Lam Sơn partisans seized the citadel of Vinh.

In June 1425, Lê Lợi's generals Lê Sát and Lưu Nhân Chú attacked Thanh Hóa. In the south, the Lam Sơn army under defeated a Ming army in modern Quảng Bình and then marched through modern Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên, and gained control of the southern lands.[9]

By the end of 1425, the Lam Sơn army had already liberated all lands from Thanh Hóa to Đà Nẵng.

Pushing north[]

In 1426, Zhu Zhanji proclaimed a general amnesty and abolished all taxes in Jiaozhi, except for land taxes to be paid in rice, needed to supply Ming garrisons.[10]

In September, Lê Lợi sent his armies led by his generals, Trịnh Khả, , Đỗ Bí, , , Đinh Lễ, Nguyễn Xí, to advance to the Red River Delta and the Sino-Vietnamese borders. Lê Lợi installed a man named Trần Cảo as king of Dai Viet.[9]

Battle of Tốt Động-Chúc Động[]

The Ming army under general responded by counterattacking the Vietnamese in Ninh Kiều, south of Hà Nội. On 4 December, 54,000 Ming troops engaged 3,000 or 6,000 Vietnamese troops in the Battle of Tốt Động – Chúc Động.[11] The battle ended with a decisive Vietnamese victory. Most of Ming firearms and weapons were captured.[12]

Siege of Đông Quan[]

On 8 December, the Lam Sơn army laid siege of Đông Quan (Hà Nội), the Ming stronghold on the Red River Delta, then captured it in January 1407.[12] Cai Fu, a Ming commander-in-chief and an engineer, surrendered to Lê Lợi and taught the Vietnamese how to make siege weapons.[13]

Siege of Xương Giang[]

In March 1427, the Ming citadel of Xương Giang in at the modern city of Bắc Giang was being besieged. Ming Chinese and Muslim POWs and defectors provided the Vietnamese manufacturing and launching siege weapons such as primitive tanks (fenwen che), Muslim counterweight trebuchet (Xiangyang pao or Huihui pao), hand cannon (huopao).[14] The siege took six month and the citadel felt to Vietnamese hands.[14]

On March 29, 1427, around 120,000 Chinese reinforcements led by and Mu Sheng advanced into Jiaozhi from Yunnan and Guangxi, included 10,000 crack troops who had followed Zheng He on his expeditions.[15]

Battle of Chi Lăng and victory[]

In September, Liu Sheng's force was defeated by Lê Lợi at Chi Lăng Pass. Liu Sheng himself was executed.[16]

On 29 December 1427, Wang Tong accepted Nguyễn Trãi's terms of orderly withdrawal with "the solemn oath of eternal friendship."[17] After this confirmation, Lê Lợi repatriated 86,640 Ming prisoners to China and disarmed them of all of their weapons.[18]

In 1428, Lê Lợi became Emperor of a restored Dai Viet, and ordered his comrade-in-arm Nguyễn Trãi to write the Binh Ngo Dai CaoGrand Pronouncements.[19]

Legend of Hoàn Kiếm Lake[]

According to the legend, in early 1428, Emperor Lê Lợi was boating on the Hoàn Kiếm lake when a Golden Turtle God (Kim Quy) surfaced and asked for his magic sword, Heaven's Will. Lê Lợi concluded that Kim Qui had come to reclaim the sword that its master, a local God, the Dragon King (Long Vương) had given Lợi some time earlier, during his revolt against Ming China. Later, Emperor Lê Lợi gave the sword back to the turtle after he finished fighting off the Chinese. Emperor Lê Lợi renamed the lake "Hoàn Kiếm", meaning Lake of the Returning Sword, to commemorate this event.

References[]

  1. ^ Tsai 2011, p. 182.
  2. ^ Anderson 2020, p. 92.
  3. ^ USAFA 1998, p. 208.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b Tsai 2011, p. 184.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Taylor 2013, p. 182.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Tsai 2011, p. 185.
  7. ^ Simms 1999, p. 47-48.
  8. ^ Stuart-Fox 2006, p. 20-21.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b Taylor 2013, p. 184.
  10. ^ Taylor 2013, p. 183.
  11. ^ USAFA 1998, p. 209.
  12. ^ Jump up to: a b Sun 2006, p. 85.
  13. ^ Sun 2006, p. 86.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Kiernan 2019, p. 196.
  15. ^ Sun 2006, p. 88-89.
  16. ^ Sun 2006, p. 88.
  17. ^ USAFA 1998, p. 210.
  18. ^ Sun 2006, p. 89.
  19. ^ Baldanza 2016, p. 80.

Bibliography[]

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  • Baldanza, Kathlene (2016). Ming China and Vietnam: Negotiating Borders in Early Modern Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/cbo9781316440551.013. ISBN 978-1-316-44055-1.
  • Hall, Daniel George Edward (1981), History of South East Asia, Macmillan Education, Limited, ISBN 978-1-349-16521-6
  • Kiernan, Ben (2019). Việt Nam: a history from earliest time to the present. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-190-05379-6.
  • Miksic, John Norman; Yian, Goh Geok (2016). Ancient Southeast Asia. Routledge.
  • Simms, Peter and Sanda (1999). The Kingdoms of Laos: Six Hundred Years of History. Curzon Press.
  • Stuart-Fox, Martin (2006). Naga Cities of the Mekong: A Guide to the Temples, Legends, and History of Laos. Media Masters. ISBN 978-981-05-5923-6.
  • Sun, Laichen (2006), "Chinese Gunpowder Technology and Đại Việt, ca. 1390–1497", in Reid, Anthony; Tran, Nhung Tuyet (eds.), Viet Nam: Borderless Histories, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 72–120, ISBN 978-1-316-44504-4
  • Taylor, K.W. (2013). A History of the Vietnamese. Cambridge University Press.
  • Tsai, Shih-shan Henry (2011). Perpetual happiness: The Ming emperor Yongle. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-98109-1.
  • United States Air Force Academy (1998). WLA: War, Literature & the Arts. Department of English, United States Air Force Academy.
  • Wade, Geoff; Sun, Laichen (2010). Southeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century: The China Factor. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-9971-69-448-7.
  • Whitmore, John K. (1985). Vietnam, Hồ Quý Ly, and the Ming (1371-1421). Yale Center for International and Area Studies.
  • Woodside, Alexander (2009). Lost Modernities: China, Vietnam, Korea, and the Hazards of World History. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-67404-534-3.
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