Early years Initially, the question of who was to be regent for the young emperor was awarded to the chancellor (
Vietnamese:
thái sư)
Lý Đạo Thành and the
Empress Mother Thượng Dương, but she was soon dismissed by Lý Nhân Tông after the influence from the emperor's natural mother Ỷ Lan. Later the Empress Mother Thượng Dương and her 76 imperial maids were imprisoned in the Thượng Dương palace; they ultimately were killed and buried in the tomb of Lê Thánh Tông. After the Empress Mother's assassination, Ỷ Lan was entitled Empress Mother Linh Nhân and replaced the Empress Mother Thượng Dương in the position of regent for the emperor. Concerning the death of the previous empress mother, the historian
Ngô Sĩ Liên commented that "although having a devotion to Buddhism, Ỷ Lan was too ruthless in killing the innocent empress mother, and also remarked that the chancellor Lý Đạo Thành was transferred to a position in the southern border likely because he advised against Ỷ Lan's murder of Thượng Dương. Once Ỷ Lan became regent on behalf of Lý Thánh Tông during his military campaign in
Champa, she continued to prove her ability in successfully assisting the emperor in ruling the country, together with the chancellor Lý Đạo Thành and the commander-in-chief
Lý Thường Kiệt. In the second month of 1117, following Ỷ Lan's advice, Lý Nhân Tông issued an edict prohibiting people from killing buffaloes, reasoning that since buffalo were essential for farming, the death of buffalo would seriously affect many people who depended on the crops that were tilled by the now-dead buffalo; therefore, a criminal accused of killing buffalo and the occasional accomplice had to be heavily punished. The chancellor Lý Đạo Thành was also famous for his competence and righteousness that helped the young emperor Nhân Tông to maintain the prosperity of the country and the strength of the Lý army. Afterwards Lê Văn Thịnh was promoted to the position of chancellor in 1086. However the new Chancellor soon lost his position in 1096 after a controversial case of treason, was stripped of all titles, and banished. King Lý Nhân Tông decided to stay one step ahead by ordering the generals Lý Thường Kiệt and
Tôn Đản to launch a military campaign under the pretext of "rescuing Chinese people from the cruel reforms." In 1075, the Vietnamese army led by Lý Thường Kiệt attacked the
Lian and
Qin provinces of Song China while another army led by Tôn Đản besieged the citadel of
Yongzhou. Although Lý Thường Kiệt succeeded in defeating the Song reinforcements intended for Yongzhou, the Song army and people in the city were still able to stand the besiegement for 40 days and inflicted high casualties on the Vietnamese forces. As a result, when the Vietnamese army finally ended the siege of Yongzhou, the Vietnamese generals decided to get revenge by killing more than 58,000 people in the city. Several sources estimate that the total number of people killed by Viet troops during this campaign totaled 100,000. After an initial, rapid advance, the Song forces were stopped by the Vietnamese defense along the
Như Nguyệt River led by Lý Thường Kiệt. to battles and the harsh weather of Đại Việt. The Song army retreated after occupying a vast region near the border between the two countries; however, this region was gradually returned to the Đại Việt after several diplomatic efforts made by the Vietnamese envoys
Đào Tôn Nguyên and Lê Văn Thịnh. In the south, hostilities soon flared between Đại Việt and Champa. Appointed for the position of commander-in-chief of the Vietnamese army by Lý Nhân Tông, Lý Thường Kiệt often personally commanded operations in the southern border where he defeated the army of Champa several times with the last victory in 1104, only one year before his death in 1105. The success of Lý Thường Kiệt during his military campaigns against the kingdom of Champa helped Lý Nhân Tông to stabilize the southern region for the later years of his reign. ==Family==