Bach Dang Stakes at Quang Yen

On a spring morning in 1288, the Bạch Đằng River lay quiet. The tide was at its peak, and the water stood high.

On that water, more than 600 warships of the Yuan Mongol army advanced in neat ranks, under their commander Ô Mã Nhi. The Yuan were the Mongol dynasty then ruling China. This army had fought dozens of battles in Central Asia, in China and in Persia. It believed this one would be won like all the others.

What the Yuan did not know was that hundreds of stakes had been driven into the river out of sight, in every branch of the water. They were made of lim and táu, two very hard woods. When the tide fell, the stakes rose into view. The Yuan boats caught on them, split open and sank. Troops lying in ambush on both banks rushed out together. On April 9 of that year, in a single day, about 60,000 Yuan soldiers were wiped out, and Ô Mã Nhi was taken alive. The third Yuan Mongol invasion of Vietnam was over.

That ground is still there, in the Quảng Yên area of Quảng Ninh province. It is the Bạch Đằng Historic Site, and it is one of the places in Vietnam that still keep direct physical traces of the victory of 1288. These are not books or paintings. They are real wooden stakes, which have lain in the earth for more than 700 years.

To see why wooden stakes mattered so much, it helps to know the river. The Bạch Đằng is about 32 kilometers long, with many side branches, and its tide rises and falls very strongly. That was the key. Whoever laid out the battlefield had to know exactly when the tide would rise and when it would fall, and to time it exactly. The stakes had to be set in the right place and at the right depth. At high tide they stayed hidden under the water. At low tide they stood high enough to pierce the bottoms of the boats.

The man who laid out the battlefield was Trần Quốc Tuấn, who held the title Great Prince Hưng Đạo. Many people know him as Trần Hưng Đạo.

But a legend recorded on a stele at the site says he did not find this tactic alone. In early 1288 he came to the Rừng ferry landing to study the ground. An old woman sold drinks there, under a quếch tree on the riverbank. She told him the schedule of the tides and the shape of the riverbed. After the great victory, he went back to look for her and could not find her. Moved to find such love of country in an ordinary person, he asked the Trần emperor to honor her with the title Vua Bà. He also had a shrine built at the foot of that same quếch tree. The Trần dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1225 to 1400. This is a folk legend written on the stele, not official history. Yet it reflects something real: the victory at Bạch Đằng was the strength of a whole people, from a gifted general to ordinary villagers.

And that quếch tree is still there. It is still green, more than 700 years after the battle.

Inside the site stands the Bạch Đằng Museum, with more than 1,000 artifacts. They include original wooden stakes, shields, a command horn, and pieces of warships from the opposing fleet. Three themed rooms tell the whole story of the three battles of Bạch Đằng.

Bạch Đằng was not one battle but three, spread over three and a half centuries.

The first came in 938. The Southern Han were a Chinese kingdom of that time. Ngô Quyền defeated their fleet, led by Hoằng Tháo, using the very same tactic of hidden stakes working with the tide. Hoằng Tháo died in the battle. That victory ended more than a thousand years of rule from the north, and it opened an era of independence and self-rule for Đại Việt. Đại Việt is an old name for Vietnam.

The second came in 981. Emperor Lê Đại Hành led the resistance against the Song army. The naval battle on the Bạch Đằng River drove the Song back, and the country kept its independence. The Song were the dynasty then ruling China.

And the third, in 1288, is the one most directly tied to the stake fields at the site.

At the Yên Giang stake field, the stakes that were driven into the riverbed in 1288 are still here. The field was discovered in 1953, at the mouth of the Chanh River. Archaeologists dug in several rounds, until 1988. Each stake is between 2.6 and 2.8 meters long and 20 to 30 centimeters across. Some are displayed in pits where water is pumped in to preserve them, so that visitors can see them up close.

Lim and táu are among the hardest woods there are, and the most durable when kept underwater. That is why, after more than 700 years, these stakes still have their shape. Scientists from Vietnam and abroad agree that the stakes belong to the Trần period. In June 2024, experts from UNESCO and the organization ICOMOS came in person to survey the field, and they reached the same conclusion.

The site has not one stake field but three, at three different river mouths. The Yên Giang field is at the mouth of the Chanh River. The Vạn Muối field was discovered in 2005, at the mouth of the Rút River. The Má Ngựa field was discovered in 2010, at the mouth of the Kênh River. Three fields at three river mouths show that Trần Quốc Tuấn laid out his battlefield across the whole network of rivers, blocking both the advance and the retreat of the Yuan boats. This was a carefully planned military tactic, not a lucky battle.

After the stake fields, the path leads on to the Trần Hưng Đạo Temple and the Vua Bà Shrine. The temple was moved to its present site in 1936. It keeps many royal decrees from the emperors of the Nguyễn dynasty, and couplets praising the merit of Hưng Đạo Vương. The Nguyễn dynasty reigned from 1802 to 1945. The Vua Bà Shrine was built in the Trần period and restored in 2001. And the ancient quếch tree still stands there, casting its shade over the shrine courtyard.

The last stop on the route is the Rừng ferry landing. It was here that Trần Quốc Tuấn stood to study the ground, and later gave the order to attack on April 9. Looking out over the water of the Bạch Đằng, you can see why people call this the greatest naval victory in the history of Vietnam.

In July 2025, UNESCO recognized the Yên Tử complex, together with Kiếp Bạc and related heritage sites, as a World Cultural Heritage property. The complex carries the mark of Trần Hưng Đạo. It is the ninth property of Vietnam that UNESCO has inscribed. And the Bạch Đằng stake fields were among the things that international experts came in person to see, to measure and to confirm before that decision.

The objects here are real, and the stakes among them are more than 700 years old.