Quang Trung Nguyen Hue was a plain-clothes hero who brought down two reactionary feudal cliques of Trinh and Nguyen, made heroic feats over the Siamese and Qing invaders and realised the nation’s aspiration for national independence in late the 18^th century.

Nguyen Hue’s ancestors in the far past belonged to the Ho family in Quynh Doi village, Quynh Luu district, Nghe An region. Later, a branch of the family moved to Hung Nguyen and Nghi Xuan districts. In accordance with the elders in Hung Thai, Hung Nguyen, people of the Ho family in Hung Thai used to go to Nghi Xuan to recognise their relatives every year. In the attack on the north in the sixth month of the Lunar Year of the Goat 1655, the Nguyen army captured seven districts south of the Lam river (Nghe An) and sent the inhabitants there down to the south for land reclamation. Old history says that, four generations before, Nguyen Hue’s forefathers had been among those immigrants. At first, they settled in Tay Son Nhat hamlet, Quy Ninh district, Quy Nhon township. Not until Nguyen Phi Phuc’s generation (also known as Ho Phi Phuc) did they move to Kien Thanh hamlet, Tuy Vien district (present day Kien My village, Binh Thanh commune, Tay Son district), Binh Dinh province. Nguyen Phi Phuc and his wife Nguyen Thi Dong had three sons: Nguyen Nhac, Nguyen Lu and Nguyen Hue, and a daughter.

Nguyen Hue was born in 1753. In his childhood, he was called Thom and, later, Binh. All three of them were taught by teacher Hien, a dissident opposing the harsh policy of Truong Phuc Loan, who defected to Quy Nhon and set up a school in Yen Thai.

In accordance with Hoa Bang in ‘Quang Trung, a National Hero,’ Nguyen Hue had curly hair, thick skin, shining eyes and a bell-sounding voice who was very swift, strong and brave. ‘A Brief Story of Tay Son,’ describes that "at night, the light from his eyes lights the mattress when he sits there without candle."

In the spring of 1771, the land of Tay Son became pulsated with activity. A red banner of 10 metres long was raised high and slogans shouted to take the wealth of the rich to distribute to the poor, and an edict listing the crimes of Truong Phuc Loan was heard everywhere. People of all walks, no matter if they were Kinh or Thuong, actively took part in the insurrection. From the Tay Son insurrection, Nguyen Hue became an excellent leader of the peasant movement in the 18^th century and one of the greatest national heroes.

"In plain clothes he raised the red banner

Helping people in national construction, his merit was immeasurable."

(‘Mourning’ by Le Ngoc Han)

Nguyen Hue was a military genius. In military activities, he took the initiative in concentrating his forces to launch attacks on the most sensitive strategic targets in a continual, sudden, fast and fierce way that gave the enemy no time to regroup.

In 1777, Nguyen Hue took his troops to Gia Dinh and destroyed the stronghold of the Nguyen killing Nguyen Phuc Duong and Nguyen Phuc Thuan. After the victory, he entrusted hise generals to govern Gia Dinh and returned to Quy Nhon.

In 1785, being informed of the invasion of the Siamese troops, Nguyen Hue took a big army to Gia Dinh. In some of the first battles, the Tay Son troops withdrew to lure the enemy troops into a pre-arranged ambush. When the Siamese troops landed at Rach Gam and Xoai Mut (west of My Tho) all of a sudden they were attacked fiercely by Tay Son troops from all sides. Fifty thousand troops and more than 300 warships were destroyed. Only a rump of some thousand troops survived who made their route through the mountains to go home.

The great battle against 200,000 Qing troops was a wonder. In late 1788, the Qing troops led by Soun Che-y captured Thang Long citadel. The front force of the Qing troops made a deep crush to Ha Nam. Surrounding Thang Long citadel was a system of firm posts such as Ha Hoi, Ngoc Hoi, Khuong Thuong, etc.

On December 21, 1788 upon hearing an urgent message from Ngo Van So, Nguyen Hue held a ceremony next day in Phu Xuan to ascend the throne, taking the royal name of Quang Trung and immediately ordered his troops to march on Thang Long.

By January 15, 1789, the Tay Son army already gathered at Tam Diep. In ordering his troops to celebrate Tet (lunar new year’s day) in advance, Quang Trung told them: "Let’s enjoy the New Year in advance and when the spring comes we shall enter Thang Long and celebrate the spring festival there. Mark my words, that is what will happen".

In this battle, with the strategy of "swift fight, swift win," Quang Trung made the choice of time and space that most surprised the Qing troops who were too self-confident and satisfied with their first results and indulged in the preparation for the Tet festival.

On the 30^th night of the 12^th month of the Lunar Year, the main force of the Tay Son army crossed the Day river and captured the outpost of the enemy, opening the offensive. On the third day of the Lunar New Year the Tay Son army encircled the post of Ha Hoi and forced the enemy to surrender. In the next two days, the decisive attack was launched on the post of Ngoc Hoi. The battle at Ngoc Hoi - Dam Muc of the Tay Son army smashed the most sensitive post of the enemy. Soon afterward, the post of Khuong Thuong was captured. The post’s commander killed himself and Soun Che-y, the Qing commander-in-chief, made route to flee home. At midday of the fifth day of the Lunar New Year of the Rooster, king Quang Trung, whose military coat was dyed black by ammunition smoke, entered Thang Long with his victorious army.

Nguyen Hue was also a far-sighted politician. From the immediate aim of a peasant movement to topple the oppressive regime of the Trinh and Nguyen feudal cliques, he became conscious of the national task of reunifying the country and driving out the invaders. He strongly denounced the crime of partitioning the country: "Each of the families set up its own boundary and ruined the order and the country which is hard to rebuild…" (‘Edict on Ascending the Throne’).

In 1786, Nguyen Hue sent his troops to the north again with the slogan "support the Le dynasty to destroy the Trinh." The Trinh was isolated and the north was retained easily. Nguyen Hue said to Nguyen Huu Chinh: "I took tens of thousand of troops here and just fought a battle to pacify the people… What can prevent me from proclaiming myself emperor or king? It is because of my favour to the Le dynasty that I do not take that post!" (‘Chronicles of the Le Dynasty’). Nguyen Hue was aware that the people and intellectual circle in the north were still fond of the Le dynasty, and he agreed to get married with princess Ngoc Han of the Le and returned to Thuan Hoa. In 1787, after Vu Van Nham took troops to the north and killed Nguyen Huu Chinh at his order, Nguyen Hue still assigned Le Duy Can the nominal post of head of State (giam quoc). Nguyen Hue only came to the throne to replace the Le dynasty when Le Chieu Thong revealed his treason and invited the Qing to plunder our country.

Politically, Nguyen Hue’s success resulted from the wide support of talents throughout the country. Army generals who supported him were Tran Quang Dieu, Vu Van Dung, Dang Tien Dong, Ngo Van So, and others. When in Thang Long, he won the hearts and minds of a number of discontented scholars such Ngo Thi Nham, Phan Huy Ich, Nguyen The Lich, Doan Nguyen Tuan, Nguyen Thiep etc, who were talented and knowledgeable of the situation. In Phu Xuan, Nguyen Hue received the whole-hearted collaboration from Tran Van Ky, a famous intellectual, who helped him to organise the administrative apparatus and introduced to him a number of talents.

In the field of external relations, Nguyen Hue was very witty in dealing with the northern feudal regime. Although the Qing were so shamefully defeated that:

Nguyen Hue took initiative in making peace with them after the victory and recognised their symbolic authority so as to prevent them from taking revenge. The Qing dynasty recognised Quang Trung as the king of the country and abandoned their scheme to gather the treasonous exiles and make use of them to invade our country once again.

In 1799, upon the successful end of the resistance, Quang Trung issued the edict on agriculture to take back landless peasants who were wandering about the country to reclaim unused land. He also abolished a number of heavy industrial and commercial taxes and expanded trade for the merchants and handicraftsmen. Business relations with foreign countries were opened up.

Quang Trung also strove for building and developing a national culture, promulgating an edict on organising schools to encourage the set-up of schools in communes. Importance was attached to the national spoken language. He ordered the Nom (Sino-Vietnamese) to be used as the official language of the country. Also, he ordered the establishment of an institute to translate books in Chinese into Nom. Official documents of the kingdom began to be written in Nom, step-by-step.

When the people in Van Chuong village in Hanoi asked for the installation of a doctorate stele in Van Mieu (Temple of Literature), Quang Trung himself wrote on their petition:

Unfortunately, when the country was making good steps forwards, with great prospects, Quang Trung suddenly passed away on September 16, 1792 at the age of 39.

By NGUYEN QUANG AN and GIANG HA VI