King Trieu Viet Vuong

By day, the whole marsh showed not a single wisp of cooking smoke. There was no human voice and not one footprint in the mud. Yet the people of the country called the man who held that marsh a king, the King of the Night Marsh. To understand why, the story has to go back more than 1,400 years.

The king's real name was Triệu Quang Phục. His father was the Grand Tutor Triệu Túc, one of the three officials at the head of the Vạn Xuân court. The family came from Chu Diên, a land later called Khoái Châu. Today it lies in Hưng Yên province. From the very first years, father and son followed the uprising of Lý Bí, also known as Lý Nam Đế. Under that emperor, the country was named Vạn Xuân, which means springs without end.

But the spring of the young country did not stay peaceful for long. Early in 545, the Liang dynasty to the north once again raised a great army. The Liang was a dynasty then ruling southern China. It sent Trần Bá Tiên, a general famous for his skill in battle, to attack Vạn Xuân. A war of resistance that would last five years began.

In 546, Lý Nam Đế withdrew to Khuất Lão. The place is now in Phú Thọ province. There he fell ill. He handed command of the army to Triệu Quang Phục and told him to keep defending the country. From then on, that burden rested on the shoulders of the general from Chu Diên. Two years later, Lý Nam Đế died at Khuất Lão, and the general had to carry on all the more on his own.

For a time, Triệu Quang Phục held out against Trần Bá Tiên, and neither side could win. But the Liang army was very large. Triệu Quang Phục understood that if he kept meeting it head-on in open fields, he could not hold for long. He chose another path, a more patient one. In 547, he secretly pulled his troops back to hold the Dạ Trạch marsh.

Dạ Trạch was a vast stretch of marshland. Reeds grew as thick as a forest and taller than a man. The plants were so dense that no path on foot could get in. Only small, light dugout canoes could reach the dry ground at its heart. Their crews poled through the reeds and slipped along each narrow channel. Triệu Quang Phục knew every one of those waterways by heart. He brought more than 20,000 people there and built a hidden base in the middle of the marsh.

A day at Dạ Trạch in those times went like this. When the sun came up, the water lay perfectly still, with only the wind threading through the reeds. No one lit a fire, not a trace of smoke rose, and the boats were hidden behind clumps of reeds. Anyone walking along the edge saw only green water plants and took the place for a wilderness long abandoned. Yet inside, the soldiers took turns training and working to provide their own food.

Then night fell, and the marsh woke up. The dugout canoes quietly left their hiding places. Their oars dipped very softly as they followed the channels out. The soldiers struck the Liang camps by surprise, took food and weapons, and slipped back into the marsh before dawn. Hidden by day, out by night, it went on like this night after night. People of old described this way of fighting in a short phrase. No shadow was seen as they came, and no form was seen as they went. That is also why the people of the country fondly called the general Dạ Trạch Vương, which means King of the Night Marsh.

Many times the Liang army threw its full strength against Dạ Trạch. It hoped to crush the resistance of the soldiers and people of Vạn Xuân for good, but every attack failed. The channels were just wide enough for a small dugout. The mud was deep, the water swirled, and the reeds closed in. Anyone who did not know the way was lost as soon as he stepped in. However skilled Trần Bá Tiên was in battle, he was helpless against an army that was there one moment and gone the next. The Liang troops grew wearier and weaker by the day. The forces of Triệu Quang Phục grew stronger the longer they fought. Later historians called this a strategy of prolonged warfare. They also saw Triệu Quang Phục as the first Vietnamese the histories record using guerrilla warfare.

On moonlit nights over the marsh, a strange tale was also passed around. Legend has it that this marsh belongs to an old love story, that of Tiên Dung and Chử Đồng Tử, long, long ago. The story goes that one night the god of the marsh, Chử Đồng Tử, came down riding a golden dragon. He gave the general a dragon's claw and told him to fix it to his helmet when he went into battle. This is a folk tale handed down, not something the histories truly record. But it shows how much people loved and trusted the general who held the marsh.

He went on waiting patiently, and his moment came. In 550, there was turmoil at the Liang court. Trần Bá Tiên was called home to put it down, leaving behind only a force under the general Dương Sàn. Seizing the chance, Triệu Quang Phục led his troops out of the Dạ Trạch marsh and launched one attack after another. The general Dương Sàn was killed in battle, the Liang army broke apart, and those who remained fled home. The five-year war of resistance came to an end, and the land of Vạn Xuân was at peace again.

From then on, Triệu Quang Phục ruled the country, and people called him Triệu Việt Vương. The country kept its lovely old name, Vạn Xuân, and he moved into the citadel of Long Biên.

In his home province of Hưng Yên, he is venerated in many places. One is Hóa Temple, in the Dạ Trạch area. Its main figures are Chử Đồng Tử and Tiên Dung. Beside them, the temple also honors Triệu Quang Phục. About two kilometers away stands another temple, devoted to Triệu Việt Vương alone. Every year, on the 12th day of the eighth lunar month, the people of his homeland hold a festival in memory of the king of this land. Tradition says it was the day he made offerings to his battle flag before leading his troops out.

The marsh of long ago has changed a great deal. But on an evening by the water in the Hưng Yên countryside, once the sun has gone down completely, the reeds still rustle. Perhaps somewhere in that wind there is still an oar dipping very softly. It belongs to a dugout canoe just leaving its hiding place, as the King of the Night Marsh begins his working day.