Legendary heroes in Ninh Binh: King Le (Le Hoan)
- Background.
Le Dai Hanh, whose last name is Hoan, was the founder of the Early Le Dynasty of Dai Co Viet, ruled Dai Co Viet for 24 years, died at Truong Xuan Palace, Hoa Lu, at the age of 65.
The king was from Ai Chau (Thanh Hoa), worked as a mandarin for the Dinh dynasty under King Dinh Bo Linh, and rose to the position of Thap Dao general. In 979, official Do Thich killed King Dinh Bo Linh and his son Dinh Lien. The second son Dinh Toan succeeded the throne at the age of 6. Le Hoan became Regent and proclaimed Viceroy. On this occasion, the Song state sent troops to invade Dai Co Viet in 980. The Queen Mother of the Dinh dynasty ordered Le Hoan to choose brave men to fight the Song army and appointed Pham Cu Lang as Great General. The court was having a meeting to discuss, Pham Cu Lang led other generals into the palace, advised the court to make Le Hoan king, the Queen Mother of the Dinh dynasty agreed.
- Careers.
Growing up, Le Hoan followed Nam Viet King Dinh Lien, had a liberal personality, and had great ambition. Warlord Dinh Bo Linh praised him as a wise and brave man who would surely be able to do the job, so he assigned him to take charge of 1,000 soldiers.
In October 979, Queen Do Thich killed Dinh Tien Hoang and Nam Viet King Dinh Lien in the palace yard. Duke Dinh Nguyen Bac, Foreign Minister Dinh Dien, and Le Hoan welcomed King Dinh Toan to the throne and honored Dinh Toan’s mother, Duong Thi, as Queen Mother. King Dinh Toan ascended the throne when he was only 6 years old; Le Hoan became regent and took charge of the country’s affairs, claiming the title of Viceroy. Cong Nguyen Bac, bordering Dinh Dien, Pham Hap suspected that Hoan would do something unfavorable to the little king, so he raised troops, divided the waterway into two, and wanted to advance to the capital to kill Le Hoan.
Le Hoan completely cut down his army and fought with Dinh Dien and Nguyen Bac in Tay Do. Dinh Dien and Nguyen Bac fled and brought out the navy to fight. Le Hoan took advantage of the wind and set fire to the warship, beheaded Dinh Dien, forced Nguyen Bac to make a crib, took him to the capital, and then beheaded him. When Pham Hap heard the news, he lost his temper and ran back to Cat Loi village in Bac Giang. Le Hoan chased after him, captured Pham Hap alive and brought him back to the capital.
Then, receiving news that the Song army was preparing to invade, the queen mother ordered Le Hoan to choose brave men to fight, taking the Nam Sach Giang man Pham Cu Lang as the general. When the court was discussing plans to deploy troops, Pham Cu Lang and other generals all wore battle clothes and went straight to the Noi Palace, telling everyone that Le Hoan was worthy of leading the army. The Queen Mother saw that everyone was willing to submit, so she ordered a long robe to be put on Le Hoan’s body, inviting him to the throne. From then on, he ascended the throne as Emperor, changed his reign name to Thien Phuc in the first year (980), and appointed Dinh Toan as King of Guards. Le Hoan also posthumously appointed his father as Truong Hung Vuong and his mother Dang as Queen Mother.
- Historic battle:
- Defeated the Song invaders in 981
- Diplomatic:
In August 980, King Song issued an order to invade Dai Co Viet and sent Lu Da Ton to bring a letter. In October of the same year, King Le Hoan was about to send troops, assigned the position of Giang Cu Vong, Vuong Thieu To sent a letter to Song pretending to be a letter from Ve Vuong Dinh Toan, asking him to succeed his father and give an official order; the intention of delaying the Song dynasty’s troops.
The Song Dynasty sent Truong Tong Quyen to bring a letter to reply: The Dinh family has been passed down for three generations, I want Toan to be the general and the khan to be the deputy. If you don’t have any talent and are still a child, you should tell your mother and children and their relatives to go to your father’s side. When they come to worship, there will be a special ceremony and the ceremony flag will be given to you. Now there are two paths, you should choose one. King Le Hoan did not listen.
- Developments
The Song Dynasty used the Lan Chau Doan Luyen Envoy as Ton Toan Hung, the Bat Tac Envoy as Thich Hau, the Ta Giam Mon Ve general as Thoi Luong as General Manager of Luc Lo Binh Ma, from Ung Chau road; The Prime Minister of Ninh Chau was Luu Trung, An Bi Kho Su was Gia Thuc, and the Queen of the Palace of Quan Quan Mons was Vuong Soan, who held the position of General Manager of the Marines, Soldiers, and Horses on the way to Quang Chau. Again, Ngo Xuong Due was used as Tri Giao Chau Hanh Doanh Thong Tuc position. Toan Hung group resigned; The King of the Song Dynasty, Thai Tong, issued an edict for his departure, causing Luong Quynh to hold a banquet in Ngoc Tan garden to send him off.
In the fall of 980, the Song army departed; In December 980, the Song army defeated more than 10,000 Dai Co Viet troops.
Spring, February, year 981, Hau Nhan Bao, Ton Hoang Hung went to Lang Son, Tran Kham To went to Tay Ket, Liu Trung went to Bach Dang River. King Le Hoan personally acted as general and ordered his soldiers to drive stakes to block the Chi Lang River. The book “Vietnamese history” records: The king made himself a general to fight against the attack, and sent good soldiers to put wood to block the river mouth.
King Le Hoan built a citadel called Binh Lo to fight the Song army. In June 1300, Tran Quoc Tuan (Tran Hung Dao) mentioned this citadel in his instructions when he was about to die: “In the past, Emperor Trieu Vu built the country, the Han emperor sent troops to attack, and the people made a wild and great plan. The army went out to Kham Chau and Liem Chau to attack Truong Sa and Hunan, while the small army attacked the rear. That was a time when the Dinh and Early Le dynasties used talented people, the southern land was strong but the north was not tired, weakened, both top and bottom were one heart, the people’s hearts did not leave, they built Binh Lo citadel and defeated the Song army…”.
In the summer of 981, the Song army fought with the Vietnamese army. The Song army killed more than 1,000 people, captured 200 ships, and stationed troops in Ba Bo. The Song dynasty’s envoy, Hau Nhan Bao, and his advance army advanced deeply and were defeated. Ton Toan Hung’s army traveled by water and road to Da-La village, but did not meet Hau Nhan Bao, so he returned to Ba Bo.
King Le Hoan ordered his soldiers to disguise themselves to lure Hau Nhan Bao and behead him. The book “Vietnamese history” records: sent someone to surrender and captured Nhan Bao. The book An Nam Zhi Lung records: Le Hoan pretended to surrender to lure the enemy, Nhan Buu fell for the trick and was harmed.
Tran Kham To heard the news that the navy had lost the battle and led his troops home. King Le Hoan took advantage of the victory and chased away, but Kham To’s army lost heavily, more than half died, corpses were all over the field, he captured the generals Quach Quan Bien and Trieu Phung Huan and brought them to Hoa Lu. Since then, the country has been very quiet.
- Post-war
After the war, Vietnam was at peace. We gave King Le Hoan the title Minh Can Ung Van Than Vu Thang Binh Chi Nhan Quang Hieu Emperor. The king sent envoys to the Song Dynasty to pay tribute to the land and offer an apology. Jiangnan transferred the Song Dynasty’s envoy, Hua Trong Tuyen, to bring up the story of Nhan Bao’s defeat and death. King Song issued an order to withdraw his troops and sent envoys to reprimand Liu Cheng, Jia Thuc, and Vuong Soan. Insects were sick to death, Soan was killed in Ung Chau, and Ton Hoang Hung was also murdered at the market.
- Defeat Champa
While the Vietnamese people belonged to the royal court in the Central Plains, in the South, the Champa people soon built an independent and self-reliant nation in 192. Living in the narrow and small South Central valleys, the Champa kingdom has strengths in navigation and handicraft industries, but lacks large delta regions. Therefore, since the founding of the country, Champa continuously conducted military activities with Dai Co Viet. In 803, King Chiem ordered general Senapati Par to bring troops to invade An Nam and besiege the south of Cuu Chan district. In 979, the Champa army, led by Ngo Nhat Khanh, organized a powerful naval force to attack Hoa Lu by sea, but was destroyed because of a storm at Than Phu mouth.
In 982, Le Hoan sent Ngo Tu Canh and Tu Muc to visit Champa and be captured by Champa king Be Mi Tax (Paramesvaravarman). Le Hoan was angry, ordered the construction of warships, repaired weapons, became a general to fight, and beheaded Be Mi Tax in battle. Champa lost big. Captured alive countless soldiers, as well as talented women in the palace of hundreds of people and a monk from Thien Truc, took precious objects and brought them back, and collected tens of thousands of gold, silver and treasures; leveled the citadel, destroyed the temple, and after a year returned to the capital.” Song history said that Le Hoan sent an envoy to offer 93 Champa prisoners to the Song king to demonstrate the strength of Dai Co Viet. When the dynasty The king went to fight Champa, went through Dong Co mountain to Ba Hoa river, the mountain road was dangerous and difficult to travel, so he ordered a new port to be dug. Once dug, public and private were both convenient.
Also in Song history, in 990, Le Hoan led his army to attack Dia Ly district (Cham Thanh), capturing many soldiers and civilians and confiscating many assets. In 995 and 997, Champa troops moved to attack Dai Co Viet border, Le Hoan had to send troops to chase them away.
- Ending.
In the spring, March, 1005, Le Hoan died in Truong Xuan Palace, called Dai Hanh Hoang De, later used it as a temple without changing it, and the court buried him in Truong Yen mountain mausoleum. His sons Le Long Dinh, Dong Thanh Vuong, Trung Trung Vuong, and Khai Minh Vuong fought for 8 months, leaving the country without a master. People remember him as a wise, brilliant, talented king who was grateful to his country.
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