The story
In April 1288 the Vietnamese commander Tran Hung Dao destroys the fleet of the Mongol Yuan dynasty on the Bach Dang River, the same waterway where Ngo Quyen had won in 938. He plants iron-tipped stakes in the riverbed, lures the Yuan ships over them at high tide, and attacks as the water falls, trapping and sinking many. The Mongol prince Toghan, whose land army was already in retreat, withdraws from Dai Viet, ending the last of three Yuan invasions.
Kublai Khan, who had founded the Yuan dynasty in 1271, sent armies against Dai Viet in 1258 (under his predecessor), 1285 and 1287, as part of his campaigns in southern China and Southeast Asia. Dai Viet's Tran dynasty, led by the king Tran Nhan Tong and the general Tran Hung Dao, avoided pitched battle, withdrew from the capital Thang Long, used guerrilla tactics and the tropical heat and disease to wear out the invaders, and counterattacked. After the defeat, the Tran court sent tribute to the Yuan to avoid more war, but kept its independence. Tran Hung Dao is still honored as one of Vietnam's greatest national heroes.
Why it mattered
- It saved Dai Viet from becoming a Yuan province, as southern China had become.
- It made the Bach Dang tactic and Tran Hung Dao's name central to Vietnamese ideas of resistance to foreign invaders.
- It helped end Mongol attempts at conquest in Southeast Asia, which also failed in Java in 1293.
Sources
- Bach Dang River stakes (Archaeology Magazine) Archaeology Magazine
- Vietnam: The Tran dynasty Britannica
- The Mongol Invasions of Japan, 1274 and 1281 World History Encyclopedia
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