Lord Trinh Trang

At the mouth of the Nhật Lệ River, the tide rose and fell every night. In the camp on the north bank, torches flickered, and a salty sea wind slipped between the rows of tents. Then a rumor ran from tent to tent, quiet but chilling. Someone back in the north was plotting a revolt. That news fell to Thanh Đô Vương Trịnh Tráng, who had to decide whether to stay or go. It was the spring of 1627, and with that campaign a long war began.

Trịnh Tráng was born in 1577. He was the eldest son of Lord Trịnh Tùng, who bore the title Bình An Vương. Trịnh Tráng was a lord, not an emperor. It was the age of vua Lê chúa Trịnh. The words mean the Lê emperors and the Trịnh lords. The emperor sat on the throne, while the lord stood beside him, helping him and running the country.

In 1623, Trịnh Tùng fell gravely ill. The officials agreed on Trịnh Tráng as successor. His younger brother, Trịnh Xuân, refused and rose in revolt, and the revolt was put down. A few days after his father died, Trịnh Tráng took his place. The news reached Mạc Kính Khoan, whose family still held the land of Cao Bằng. Kính Khoan marched tens of thousands of soldiers down to Gia Lâm. That was right beside Thăng Long, the city now called Hanoi. Trịnh Tráng had to take the emperor to Thanh Hóa. In the eighth month of that year, he turned back and crushed the army of Kính Khoan at Gia Lâm. Only Kính Khoan himself escaped. That winter, the emperor named Trịnh Tráng Grand Marshal in charge of the affairs of state, with the title Thanh Đô Vương. The lord later sent troops up to Cao Bằng many times, but the Mạc held on to those mountains.

Further south lay Thuận Hóa and Quảng Nam. Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên governed them. The Nguyễn lords were a noble family who ruled southern Vietnam from the 16th to the 18th century. The Trịnh court sent men to demand taxes. The Nguyễn lord refused. He said the two regions of Thuận Quảng had lost their harvests for many years, and the people were hungry. Early in 1627, Trịnh Tráng sent Lê Đại Nhậm south again with an edict from the emperor. It ordered the Nguyễn lord to send his son to court, along with 30 bull elephants and 30 seagoing ships. The Nguyễn lord would not accept. He replied that tribute to the Ming had always been only gold and kỳ nam. The Ming were the dynasty then ruling China. Kỳ nam is a highly prized kind of agarwood, a fragrant wood burned as incense.

In the third month of that year, Trịnh Tráng took the Lê emperor along and sent his army and fleet south. His general Nguyễn Khải set up camp on the north bank of the Nhật Lệ River. Across the river, Tôn Thất Vệ commanded the southern forces, with Nguyễn Hữu Dật overseeing the battle. The southern cannons opened fire and drove back the Trịnh vanguard. That night, southern boats rode the tide in and fired on the camp of Nguyễn Khải, throwing it into disorder. Trịnh Tráng pushed forward and drove the Nguyễn back. But then Nguyễn war elephants blocked the way, and the Trịnh army suffered very heavy losses.

Then the rumor came. People said the brothers Trịnh Gia and Trịnh Nhạc were plotting a revolt in the north. In truth, men working for Nguyễn Hữu Dật had spread that story on purpose. Trịnh Tráng grew suspicious. Fearing for the capital behind him, he pulled his army back. So ended the first campaign south. But the struggle between the two families had only just begun, in the very years Trịnh Tráng held power. Later generations called it Trịnh Nguyễn phân tranh, the division between the two families.

The south knew the northern army would come back. Đào Duy Từ was recommended to the Nguyễn lord to run military affairs. He proposed building walls. In the third month of 1630, soldiers and villagers raised a wall from the foot of Trường Dục mountain to the sandbanks of Hạc Hải. It was finished in just over a month. The next year came the Nhật Lệ wall, more than 3,000 trượng long. One gun was set at every trượng, and iron chains were stretched across the river mouth. In time, that wall became the Nguyễn lord's strong line of defense.

Late in 1633, Trịnh Tráng again took the emperor along and led a great army and fleet himself to the mouth of the Nhật Lệ. The Nguyễn troops drove stakes to block the river mouth and raised an outer wall to shield the main one. The Trịnh lord waited for promised troops from Quảng Nam. Nguyễn Phúc Anh had made that promise, but the troops never came. After more than a week, the Nguyễn soldiers charged out from behind their walls. The Trịnh army broke and had to retreat north.

In the following years, the two sides fought back and forth over the land of Bố Chính, winning and losing it, while the Trường Dục wall held firm. In 1655 the Nguyễn army in turn crossed the Gianh River and struck north. The Trịnh troops lost several battles in a row, and with them a whole region south of the Cả River.

Yet in Bắc Hà, the northern land once called Đàng Ngoài, the order of the emperors and the lords grew firm. In Thăng Long, Confucian learning carried on steadily, and the court still held examinations to choose men of talent. In village classrooms under thatched roofs, teachers lectured and pupils chanted their letters every morning. On the southern frontier the war drums sounded, while in the villages the rice pestles thudded each evening.

In 1645, Trịnh Tráng asked the emperor to grant his second son, Trịnh Tạc, the right to succeed him. Trịnh Tráng died in the fourth month of 1657, at 81 years old. He had held power as lord for about 34 years. He was among the Trịnh lords who ruled for a long time. Later generations gave him the posthumous title Văn Tổ Nghị Vương.

The war that opened that spring outlasted him by many years. At the mouth of the Nhật Lệ, where a rumor once slipped past rows of torchlit tents, not a single torch burns now. Only the sea wind blows in, and waves wash softly onto the sand.