Chi Lang Pass

A valley nearly 20 kilometers long and only about 3 kilometers wide lies in the way of any army marching down from the north toward the heart of Đại Việt, an old name for Vietnam. On one side stands a limestone cliff, straight up, too steep for men or horses to climb. On the other side rises a range of earth mountains, just as steep. The Thương River runs along the valley floor. Scattered across the valley are small rocky hills that stand in the middle of the road like natural checkpoints.

Whether an army could pass, history has already answered. The answer is no. At least four times in four hundred years, some of the strongest armies in Asia marched into this valley, and they did not come out by the road they had taken in.

The valley is Chi Lăng Pass. The heritage site lies in Lạng Sơn province, in the Chi Lăng area. It has 52 sites spread along nearly 20 kilometers of the Thương River valley, on land of more than 2,400 hectares. The state ranked it a national heritage site in 1962.

Many people call Chi Lăng an open-air museum of history. The name is not an official title, but it is right about one thing: history is easy to see here. The land has kept its shape. Mã Yên Mountain still stands. The cliff shaped like a demon face still looks down on the valley. It takes little imagination to picture what happened here.

To understand Chi Lăng, it helps to know the three most important battles.

In 981, the general Hầu Nhân Bảo led his army down the northern land route. He served the Song, the dynasty then ruling China. Emperor Lê Hoàn sent men to pretend to lose, and they lured the general into the valley. Hầu Nhân Bảo was caught in an ambush and killed at Chi Lăng. His army broke apart and withdrew.

In 1285, the Great Prince Hưng Đạo, Trần Quốc Tuấn, faced the Mongol cavalry, a force that had shaken both Europe and Asia. He did not meet it head on. Instead he set traps for horses along tens of kilometers. The traps took away the cavalry's great advantage, its mobility. A general named Nghê Nhuận was killed at Chi Lăng. He served the Yuan, the Mongol dynasty then ruling China. Once more, an army had been stopped here.

Then came 1427.

This is the battle that made Chi Lăng a name the nation remembers. For 20 years the country had been occupied by the Ming, the dynasty then ruling China. Lê Lợi, who led the Lam Sơn uprising, was now close to victory. The Ming sent a huge relief force of 150,000 soldiers in two columns. Liễu Thăng commanded 100,000 coming down from Guangxi. Mộc Thạnh led 50,000 coming from Yunnan.

Liễu Thăng was the stronger and more aggressive commander, and he did not know he was walking into a trap.

Lê Lợi sent the general Trần Lựu to pretend to lose and fall back. Step by step, Trần Lựu drew Liễu Thăng into the valley. On the 20th day of the ninth lunar month, the Ming cavalry reached the foot of Mã Yên Mountain. The bridge ahead was suddenly destroyed. At once, hidden troops rose on all four sides. The general Lê Sát killed Liễu Thăng on the slope of this mountain.

The news that Liễu Thăng had been killed spread. Mộc Thạnh withdrew his army as soon as he heard it. Vương Thông was the chief commander of the Ming army in Thăng Long, the city now called Hanoi. He no longer had any hope of relief and had to accept peace talks. The 20 years of Ming occupation came to an end.

All of this began with one decision: to use the ground of this narrow valley well.

Mã Yên Mountain takes its name from its shape, which looks like a horse's saddle. Standing near it, you can picture that day. The Ming cavalry moves into the narrow corridor. The bridge is gone. There is no way to retreat and no room to spread out in wide lines. Hidden troops on Mã Yên and the mountains around it fire down from all four sides.

History records that moment in very few words: Lê Sát killed Liễu Thăng. But on the spot, the size of that moment is easy to sense.

On the cliff to the west, a bare hollow of rock shows against the green of the forest around it. It has the shape of two eyes and a nose. This is Mặt Quỷ Mountain, the demon face, and it is the source of the name Quỷ Môn Quan. The Đại Nam nhất thống chí, a geography book of the Nguyễn dynasty, writes of this place: "The pass road is narrow, the mountain rock steep and high, the terrain dangerous and cruel. There are stones like the heads of ghosts and demons, so it was given this name."

A saying handed down from the Chinese side goes: "Quỷ Môn Quan, ten men go, only one returns." The saying is not about ghosts. It is about the terrain.

People here do not fear the demon face. They regard it as the guardian spirit of the pass. Given the long history of Chi Lăng, they have reason to believe so.

Below Mặt Quỷ Mountain stands Quỷ Môn Temple. The temple has three rooms and is laid out in the shape of đinh, a Chinese character shaped like the letter T. It still holds two royal decrees, one from Emperor Duy Tân in 1909 and one from Emperor Khải Định in 1924. Those two decrees confirm that the Nguyễn court recognized this temple more than a hundred years ago.

Every year, on the 10th day of the 10th lunar month, a festival is held here to mark the victory at Chi Lăng. The year 2026 is the 599th anniversary of the battle. In 2027 it will be exactly 600 years.

Six hundred years. And the valley is still here, still telling its story to anyone who stops to listen.