Lam Sơn uprising (1418–1427) '' (平吳大誥), a proclamation hymn of Vietnamese independence from the
Ming dynasty in 1428 During the
Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam, Lê Lợi led an uprising against the rule of the
Ming dynasty in 1418, after resistance forces of two
Trần dynasty princes
Trần Ngỗi and
Trần Quý Khoáng were crushed by the Ming army. He joined a secret
Taoist swearing commentary in Lũng Nhai, Thanh Hoá in winter 1416, with other 18 men, who all swore they would fight against the Ming Chinese and restore Vietnamese independence and sovereignty. The
Lam Sơn ("blue mountain") campaign began on the day after
Tết (Lunar New Year) in February 1418. In November 1424, the Lam Sơn captured the
Nghệ An citadel in a surprise attack from their base in Laos, leading to the retreat of the ethnic-Vietnamese Ming commander
Lương Nhữ Hốt (Liang Juihu) to the north. From their new base in high-density population Nghệ An, Lê Lợi's rebel forces captured the territory in modern-day central Vietnam, from
Thanh Hoá to
Đà Nẵng. By August 1426, the Lam Sơn rebellion launched an offensive to the north with new forces against a fresh Ming army commanded by
Wang Tong in charge of defending northern Vietnam. The new Ming ruler, the
Xuande Emperor, wished to end the war with Vietnam, but his advisors urged one more effort to subdue the rebellious province. Consequently, the Ming sent a large army of approximately 100,000 men to Vietnam. After the pivotal
Battle of Tốt Động – Chúc Động in October 1426, the Ming dynasty withdrew by 1428. By early 1427, Lê Lợi's forces had controlled most of northern Vietnam, advancing as far as the southern tip of modern-day
Guangxi. Following negotiations with the Ming, Lê Lợi selected
Trần Cảo as a puppet king of Annam who nominally ruled from 1426 to 1428. Lê Lợi granted a land reform in 1429 that took lands from people who collaborated with the Chinese and distributed them among landless peasants and soldiers. He distrusted many of his former generals, resulting in the 1430 execution of the two generals Trần Nguyên Hãn and Phạm Văn Xảo that is considered by Vietnamese historians as a political purge.Lê Lợi's reign would be short-lived, as he died in 1433. commemorating a campaign against rebels in
Sơn La, 1440.
Lê Thái Tông (ruled 1433–1442) Lê Thái Tông (, ruled 1433–1442) was the official heir to Lê Lợi. However, he was just eleven, so a close friend of Lê Lợi, Lê Sát, assumed the regency of the kingdom. Not long after he assumed the official title as Emperor of Vietnam in 1438, Lê Thái Tông accused Lê Sát of abuse of power and had him executed. In December 1435, Thái Tông ordered general Tư Mã Tây to subdue the
Tày chief Cầm Quý who having a ten-thousand army of raiders in the northwest region. In January 1436, the emperor ordered to make roads and canals from northwest region to the capital for showing the superior power of the Imperial court to the local tribes men. From 1437 to 1441, tribe men from
Ai-Lao crossed the
Annamite Range, raided in Thanh Hóa and southern Hưng Hóa (now
Sơn La province) with the help of the local raiders led by Nghiễm Sinh Tượng were suppressed by the Imperial army. The Lê dynasty started treating hostilely to the ethnic minorities in western region. On a stone monument that was carved in 1439 under Thái Tông's reign said
"Bồn-Man (
Muang Phuan)
barbarians were against our assimilation, they need to be exterminated to their roots, and with the Sơn-Man (
Mường and
Chứt)
barbaric raiders, we need to eliminated all of them,..." According to a
Mạc–
Trịnh version of
Complete Annals of Đại Việt, the new Emperor had a weakness for women. He had many wives, and he discarded one favorite after another. The most prominent scandal was his affair with Nguyễn Thị Lộ, the wife of his father's chief advisor Nguyễn Trãi. The affair started early in 1442 and continued when the Emperor traveled to the home of Nguyễn Trãi, who was venerated as a great Confucian scholar. Shortly after the Emperor left Trãi's home to continue his tour of the western province, he fell ill and died. At the time the powerful nobles in the court argued that the Emperor had been poisoned to death. Nguyễn Trãi was
executed as were his three entire relations, the normal punishment for treason at that time.
Lê Nhân Tông (ruled 1442–1459) With the Emperor's sudden death at a young age, his infant heir Bang Co was made emperor - although he was the second son of his father, his older brother Nghi Dân had been officially passed over due to his mother's low social status. Bang Co assumed the throne as
Lê Nhân Tông (黎仁宗) . Thánh Tông encouraged the spread of Confucian values throughout Vietnam by having "
temples of literature" built in all the provinces. There, Confucius was venerated and classic works on Confucianism could be found. He also halted the building of any new Buddhist or Taoist temples and ordered that monks were not to be allowed to purchase any new land. Lê Thánh Tông introduced reforms designed to replace the
Thanh Hoá oligarchy of Dai Viet's southern region with a corps of bureaucrats selected through the Confucian civil service examinations. Following the
Chinese model, he divided the government into six ministries: Finance, Rites, Justice, Personnel, Army, and Public Works. Nine grades of rank were set up for both the civil administration and the military. A Board of Censors was set up with imperial authority to monitor governmental officials and reported exclusively to the emperor. However, governmental authority did not extend all the way to the village level. The villages were ruled by their own councils in Vietnam. With the death of
Nguyễn Xí in 1465, the noble families from Thanh Hóa province lost their leader. Soon they were mostly relegated to secondary positions in the new Confucian government of Thánh Tông. However, they still retained control over Vietnam's armies as the old general, Đinh Liệt, was still in command of the army. In the same year, Vietnam was attacked by
Ryukyuan pirates from the northeast. This was dealt with by sending additional forces to the north to fight the pirates. Thánh Tông also sent a military force to the west to subdue the Ai-lao mountain tribes that was raiding the northwest border.In 1469, all of Vietnam was mapped and a full census was taken, listing all the villages in the Empire. Around this time the country was divided into 13 dao (provinces). Each was administrated by a Governor, Judge, and the local army commander. The emperor Thánh Tông also ordered that a new census should be taken every six years. Other public works that were undertaken included building and repair of granaries, using the army to rebuild and repair irrigation systems after floods, and sending out doctors to areas afflicted by outbreaks of disease. Even though the emperor, at 25, was relatively young, he had already restored Vietnam's stability, which was a marked contrast from the turbulent times marking the reigns of the two emperors before him. Article 344 of the Nguyen dynasty code and Article 305 of the Le dynasty code both forbade self-castration and castration of Vietnamese men. Self-castration of Vietnamese men was banned by Lê Thánh Tông, the emperor, in 1464. The Vietnamese under Emperor Le Thanh Tong cracked down on foreign contacts and enforced an isolationist policy. A large amount of trade between Guangdong (
Leizhou Peninsula and
Hainan) and Vietnam happened during this time. Early accounts recorded that the Vietnamese captured Chinese whose ships had blown off course and detained them. Young Chinese men were selected by the Vietnamese for castration to become
eunuch slaves to the Vietnamese. It has been speculated by modern historians that Chinese who were captured and castrated by the Vietnamese were involved in regular trade between China and Vietnam instead of being blown off course, and that they were punished after a Vietnamese crackdown on trade with foreign countries. A 1499 entry in the
Ming Shilu recorded that thirteen Chinese men from
Wenchang including a young man named Wu Rui were captured by the Vietnamese after their ship was blown off course while traveling from
Hainan to
Guangdong's Qin subprefecture (
Qinzhou), after which they ended up near the coast of Vietnam, in the 1460s, during the
Chenghua Emperor's rule (1464–1487). Twelve of them were enslaved to work as agricultural laborers, while the youngest Chinese man,
Wu Rui (吳瑞) was selected by the Vietnamese court for castration since he was the only young man in among the thirteen and he became a eunuch at the
Vietnamese imperial palace in Thang Long for nearly one fourth of a century. After years of serving the Vietnamese as a eunuch slave in the palace, he was promoted to a position with real power after the death of the Vietnamese ruler in 1497 to a military position in northern Vietnam as military superintendent since his service in the palace was apparently valued by the Vietnamese. However the
Lạng Sơn guard soldier Dương Tam tri (Yang Sanzhi) (楊三知) told him of an escape route back to China and Wu Rui escaped to
Longzhou after walking for 9 days through the mountains. The local ethnic minority
Tusi chief Wei Chen took him into custody, overruling objections from his family who wanted to send him back to Vietnam. Vietnam found out about his escape and sent an agent to buy Wu Rui back from Wei Chen with 100 Jin in payment since they were scared that Wu Rui would reveal Vietnamese state secrets to China. Wei Chen planned to sell him back to the Vietnamese but told them the amount they were offering was too little and demanded more however before they could agree on a price, Wu was rescued by the
Pingxiang magistrate Li Guangning and then was sent to
Beijing to work as a eunuch in the Ming palace at the Directorate of Ceremonial (silijian taijian 司禮監太監). The
Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư records that in 1467 in An Bang province of Dai Viet (now
Quảng Ninh Province) a Chinese ship blew off course onto the shore. The Chinese were detained and not allowed to return to China as ordered by Le Thanh Tong. This incident may be the same one where Wu Rui was captured. A 1472 entry in the
Ming Shilu reported that some Chinese from
Nanhai escaped back to China after their ship had been blown off course into Vietnam, where they had been forced to serve as soldiers in Vietnam's military. The escapees also reported that they found out that more than 100 Chinese men remained captives in Vietnam after they were caught and castrated by the Vietnamese after their ships were blown off course into Vietnam in other incidents. The Chinese Ministry of Revenue responded by ordering Chinese civilians and soldiers to stop going abroad to foreign countries. These 100 men were taken prisoner around the same time as Wu Rui and the historian Leo K. Shin believes all of them may have been involved in illegal trade instead of being blown off course by wind. The over 100 Chinese men who were castrated and made into eunuchs by the Vietnamese remained captives in Vietnam when the incident was reported. Both the incidents of the young Chinese man Wu Rui and the more than 100 Chinese men being castrated and used as eunuchs point to possible involvement in trade according to historians John K. Whitmore and Tana Li which was then suppressed by the Vietnamese government instead of them really being blown off course by the wind. Under the order of Lê Thánh Tông, the official historical text of the Lê dynasty,
Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (大越史記全書), was compiled and finished in 1479. The 15-volume book covered the entirety of Vietnamese history at that point, from the
Hồng Bàng dynasty to the enthronement of
Lê Thái Tổ.
Hồng Đức's campaigns against Champa and Lan Xang (1471–1480) (red) and vassals (light red) and
Champa (purple) during the reign of
Lê Thánh Tông (1460–1497) after
White Elephant War and
Cham–Vietnamese War (1471).In 1471, Lê Thánh Tông
conquered Champa and captured the Cham capital
Vijaya, ending independent Cham rule in the south. The
Kingdom of Champa was reduced to a small enclave near
Panduranga (modern day Phan Rang–Tháp Chàm) and
Kauthara (now Nha Trang) with many Chams fleeing to
Cambodia. Lê Thánh Tông created a new province out of former Cham land and allowed ethnic Vietnamese settlers to settle it. The conquest of the Cham kingdoms started a rapid period of expansion by the Vietnamese southwards into this newly conquered land. The government used a system of land settlement called
đồn điền (
屯田). From 1478 to 1480, Lê Thánh Tông led an expedition against the kingdoms of
Lan Xang and
Lanna in today
Laos and
Northern Thailand. Laotians were overwhelmed, their capital
Luang Prabang was captured. Laotians retreated to the jungles, where they waged two-years of guerrilla warfare against the Vietnamese. The expedition ended inconclusively, many Vietnamese soldiers died because of the hostile climate and rampant diseases; The Vietnamese forces were unable to suppress the Laotian guerrillas, and then the Laotians were able to recapture their capital.
Decline of the Early period With the death of
Lê Thánh Tông, the Lê dynasty fell into a swift decline (1497–1527). Prince
Lê Tăng, the eldest of
Lê Thánh Tông's 14 sons, succeeded his father as
Lê Hiến Tông (黎憲宗). He was 38 years old at the time of his father's death. He was an affable, meek and mild-mannered person. Due to his short period of rule and that he didn't pass many significant reforms, his reign is considered to be an extension of Lê Thánh Tông's rule. The new emperor was known to historical annals as
Lê Hiến Tông. In early 1499, several high-ranking officials including Lê Vĩnh and Lê Năng Nhượng persuaded Hiến Tông to choose an heir in order to maintain the dynasty's and the nation's security and sustainability. Hiến Tông agreed; and although the emperor had two elder sons: Lê Tuân and Lê Tuấn, Lê Thuần was designed as
crown prince due to his deep interest in intellectuality and
Neo-Confucianism, which caused Hiến Tông to perceive him as being far superior to his two older brothers. He chose his third son,
Lê Túc Tông (黎肅宗) to be his successor. In 1504, Lê Hiến Tông died at 44 years old. The 17 year old Lê Thuần inherited the throne. The Confucian annalists portrayed him as a relatively good emperor who released many prisoners, stopping several construction works that posed heavy burden on his subjects, as well as reducing tributes from vassals and holding high-ranking officials in high regard. He was also said to have maintained harmony in the court and the whole country. In the other hand, the annals also recorded a revolt broke in
Cao Bằng, led by Đoàn Thế Nùng against the government. Lê Thuần sent troops to Cao Bằng, defeating and killing Đoàn Thế Nùng along with 500 rebels. However, he fell gravely ill and died just six months after assuming the throne.
Lê Uy Mục (黎威穆) was the second son of Emperor
Lê Hiến Tông. In 1505, as older brother of Emperor
Lê Túc Tông, he succeeded the throne, later known under
posthumous name Uy Mục hoàng đế (威穆皇帝). Lê Uy Mục was portrayed by
Neo-Confucianist chroniclers as being deeply contrasted to his predecessors Lê Thánh Tông, Lê Hiến Tông and Lê Túc Tông, who closely followed Neo-Confucianist principles in governing the nation. a shocking display of evil behavior. Lê Uy Mục was described by a Ming ambassador – as a cruel, sadistic, and depraved person, who wasted the court's money and finances to indulge his whims. Well aware that he was detested by his subjects, Lê Uy Mục protected himself by hiring a group of elite bodyguards to surround him at all times. Among them was
Mạc Đăng Dung, who became very close to the emperor and eventually rose to the rank of general. Despite his precautions, in 1509 a cousin, whom Lê Uy Mục had put in prison, escaped and plotted with court insiders to assassinate the emperor. The assassination succeeded and the killer proclaimed himself emperor under the name Lê Tương Dực.
Lê Tương Dực (黎襄翼),
posthumous name Tương Dực Hoàng đế (襄翼皇帝), proved to be just as bad a ruler as
Lê Uy Mục. He reigned from 1510 to 1516, all the while spending down the imperial treasury, and doing nothing to improve the country. He was heedless to the reaction that his taxes caused throughout the country. Later in his reign, he spent extravagantly in building many colossal palaces in the imperial capital,
Thăng Long. The most notable of those places was one known to the Vietnamese as
Cửu Trùng Đài (九重臺, trans. "Nine-Leveled Tower"), designed by the emperor's favoured architect
Vũ Như Tô. He also spent much time enjoying sexual activities with his concubines, many of whom were former concubines of Lê Hiến Tông and Lê Uy Mục. According to court chroniclers, he ordered the build of special boats for his nude concubines to row on large artificial lakes. As the result of the emperor's luxurious lifestyle and ignorance of state affairs, the people suffered considerable hardships. Many soldiers committed to build imperial palaces died due to diseases. His rule ended in 1516 when a group officials and generals led by Trịnh Duy Sản stormed the palace and killed him.
Crisis and revolts At 14 years old, nephew of Lê Tương Dực, prince Lê Y, was enthroned as the new emperor
Lê Chiêu Tông (ruled 1516–1522). His growing power was resented by the leaders of two noble families in Vietnam: the Nguyễn, under Nguyễn Hoàng Dụ and the Trịnh, under Trịnh Duy Đại and Trịnh Duy Sản. After several years of increasing tension, the Nguyễn and the Trịnh left the capital
Hanoi (then called Đông Đô) and fled south, with the Emperor "under their protection". In 1524, Mạc Đăng Dung forces captured and executed the leaders of the revolt (Nguyễn Hoàng Du, Trịnh Duy Đại, and Trịnh Duy Sản). The revolt by the Trịnh clan and the Nguyễn clan was defeated for the moment. This was the start of a civil war with Mạc Đăng Dung and his supporters on one side and the Trịnh and the Nguyễn on the other side.
Thanh Hóa Province, the ancestral home to the Trịnh and the Nguyễn, was the battle ground between the two sides. After several years of warfare, Emperor Lê Chiêu Tông was assassinated in 1522 by Mạc Đăng Dung's supporters. Not long after, the leaders of the Nguyễn and the Trịnh were executed. Mạc Đăng Dung was now the most powerful man in Vietnam.
Usurpation of Mạc Đăng Dung The degenerated Lê dynasty, which endured under six rulers between 1497 and 1527, in the end was no longer able to maintain control over the northern part of the country, much less the new territories to the south. The weakening of the monarchy created a vacuum that the various noble families of the aristocracy were eager to fill. Soon after Lê Chiêu Tông fled south with the Trịnh and the Nguyễn in 1522, Mạc Đăng Dung proclaimed the Emperor's younger brother, Lê Xuân, as the new Emperor under the name
Lê Cung Hoàng. In reality, the new Emperor had no power. Three years after Mạc's forces killed his older brother Lê Chiêu Tông, Lê Chiêu Tông was pressured by Mạc Đăng Dung to hang himself on 18 June 1527 in Bắc Sứ garden.
Mạc Đăng Dung, being a scholar-official who had effectively controlled the Lê for a decade, murdered all the Lê imperial family members then proclaimed himself the new Emperor of Vietnam on 15 June 1527, ending (so he thought) the Lê dynasty (see
Mạc dynasty for more details). Mạc Đăng Dung's seizure of the throne prompted other families of the aristocracy, notably the Nguyễn and Trịnh, to rush to the support of the Lê loyalists. With the usurpation of the throne, the civil war broke out anew. Again the Nguyễn and the Trịnh gathered an army and fought against Mạc Đăng Dung, this time under the leadership of
Nguyễn Kim and
Trịnh Kiểm. The Trịnh and the Nguyễn were nominally fighting on behalf of the Lê emperor but in reality, for their own power.
Southern and Northern Dynasties (1533–1597) The Lê loyalists under Lê Ninh, a descendant of the Imperial family, escaped to
Muang Phuan (today
Laos). Marquis of An Thanh
Nguyễn Kim summoned the people who were still loyal to the Lê emperor and formed a new army to begin a revolt against Mạc Đăng Dung. Subsequently, Nguyễn Kim returned to Đại Việt and led the Lê loyalists in a sixty-year-long
civil war. In 1536 and 1537,
Nguyên Hòa sent two envoys to Beijing to ask the
Jiajing Emperor of the Ming dynasty to send an army to fight against the Mạc to
restore the Lê dynasty. Many Ming officials like Mao Bowen showed strong support for the Lê loyalists and urged Jiajing Emperor to prepare a military campaign. The Ming Emperor agreed. In 1527, the Vũ Văn clan in
Hà Giang and northern
Hưng Hóa rebelled against Mạc Đăng Dung and set up their own government. Vu Van Uyen and his family were called Bầu lords. In 1534, after Nguyễn Kim forces recaptured Thanh Hóa, Vũ Văn Uyên allied with Lê loyalists and the Ming army to fight against the Mạc dynasty. But Mạc Đăng Dung himself in 1540 went and surrendered the Ming army, wishing for peace. Mạc Đăng Dung ceded the northeast Vietnamese coastal to the
Ming dynasty in exchange for the promise that the Ming dynasty would never invade Vietnam again. The Chinese now recognized both Mạc and Lê legitimacy over Đại Việt and withdrew their army. Bầu Lords showed strong support for the Lê dynasty and refused to accept Trịnh family at the early stage of Trịnh–Nguyễn War. Later, they cooperated with the Trịnh. Bầu Lords lasted for nearly 200 years from 1527 to 1699. In 1542, Lê army from Muang Phuan recaptured
Nghệ An. Mạc general
Dương Chấp Nhất surrendered. After capturing the region of
Thanh Hóa and
Nghệ An, the Revival Lê dynasty eventually recaptured three-quarters of their former kingdom. Inasmuch as the Mac dynasty ruled the northern portion of Đại Việt while the Lê dynasty ruled the remainder of the country, this time became known as the period of
Northern and Southern dynasties. In 1545, Nguyễn Kim was poisoned by Dương Chấp Nhất, a surrendered general of the Mạc dynasty. The power of imperial court was then passed to Nguyễn Kim's son-in-law
Trịnh Kiểm who became the founder of the
Trịnh lords. Since then the emperor had only become a figurehead, Trịnh Kiểm and his successors were the
de facto rulers of the country and continued the war with the Mạc. The war had three actual fighting periods: 1533–1537, 1551–1564 and 1584–1592. During the early confrontation period, the Lê dynasty introduced personal firearms like matchlocks into their army and surprised the Mạc army.
Trịnh Tùng succeed his father in 1570, established the
Trịnh lords and launched a large-scale offensive against the Mạc army in January 1592. Unable to resist the forces of the Lê loyalists, in December 1592 the Mạc dynasty retreated to the north and established a new capital at
Cao Bằng Province allying with the
Ming dynasty of
China as a tributary nation against the Lê dynasty.
Restored Lê (1597–1789) In 1597, the Ming dynasty recognized the legitimacy of the Lê monarch. However, the Ming recorded that the Lê rulers were very dissatisfied with the Ming Empire because the Chinese also concurrently supported the Mạc dynasty. In 1589,
Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent envoys to the Lê court in
Thanh Hoá, asking the Vietnamese to join Japan's alliance against Ming China and
Joseon Korea. Hideyoshi hoped that a three-pronged attack on the Ming dynasty—with Japan from the north, Vietnam to the south, and other Southeast Asian nations to the southwest—would weaken the Ming army and allow the attackers to prevail. and his fleet sailed to Vietnam to leave the Qing dynasty in March 1682, first appearing off the coast of
Tonkin in
north Vietnam. According to the Vietnamese account, Vũ Duy Chí 武惟志, a minister of the Vietnamese Lê dynasty came up with a plan to defeat the Chinese pirates by sending more than 300 beautiful Vietnamese singing girls and prostitutes carrying red handkerchiefs to the Chinese pirate junks on small boats. The Chinese pirates and northern Vietnamese girls had sex but the women then wet the gun barrels of the Chinese pirates ships with their handkerchiefs. They then left in the same boats. The Vietnamese navy attacked the Chinese pirate fleet who were unable to fire back with their wet guns. The Chinese pirate fleet, originally 206 junks, was reduced to 50–80 junks by the time it reached
south Vietnam's
Quang Nam and the
Mekong delta. The Chinese pirates having sex with north Vietnamese women may also have transmitted a deadly epidemic from China to the Vietnamese which ravaged the Tonkin regime of north Vietnam. French and Chinese sources say a typhoon contributed to the loss of ships along with the disease. The Nguyễn court allowed Yang (Duong) and his surviving followers to resettle in
Đồng Nai, which had been newly acquired from the Khmers. Duong's followers named their settlement as "Minh Huong", to recall their allegiance to the Ming dynasty.
Trịnh–Nguyễn contention In 1620, Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên officially refused to send taxes to the court in Hanoi. A formal demand was made to the Nguyễn to submit to the authority of the court, and it was formally refused. In 1623 Trịnh Tùng died and was succeeded by his son
Trịnh Tráng. Trịnh Tráng made yet another formal demand for submission, and again Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên refused. Finally in 1627 open warfare broke out between the Trịnh and the Nguyễn. For four months a large Trịnh army campaigned against the Nguyễn army but were unable to defeat them. The result of this war was that Vietnam had effectively been partitioned into
northern and southern regions, with the Trịnh controlling most of the north and the Nguyễn controlling most of the south; the dividing line was the
Gianh River in
Quảng Bình Province. This border was very close to the
Seventeenth parallel (in actuality the
Bến Hải River located just to the south in
Quảng Trị Province), which was imposed as the border between
North Vietnam and
South Vietnam during the 1954–1975
Partition of Vietnam. illustration, warship of Lê dynasty es, were invented and widespread in Vietnam during the 16–17th century While the Trịnh ruled over a much more populous territory, the Nguyễn had several advantages. First, they were on the defensive and as such were more motivated to fight. Second, the Nguyễn were able to take advantage of their contacts with the Europeans, specifically the
Portuguese, to purchase advanced European weapons and hire European military experts in fortifications. Third, the geography was favorable to them, as the flat plains of the North suitable for large organized armies ended at Nguyễn-controlled territory; the mountains of the central highlands reach almost to the sea. After the first campaign, the Nguyễn built two massive fortified lines which stretched a few miles from the sea to the central highlands. The walls were built north of
Huế near the city of
Đồng Hới. The Nguyễn defended these lines against numerous Trịnh offensives which lasted till 1672.In 1633 the Trịnh tried attacking the Nguyễn by sea to avoid costly assaults on the great walls. However, the Trịnh fleet was defeated by the Nguyễn fleet at the battle of Nhat-Le. Trịnh Tráng staged yet another offensive in 1648 but at the battle of Truong Duc, the Trịnh army was again badly beaten by the Nguyễn. In 1773, the Tây Sơn captured
Quy Nhơn fort in 1773, gave them financial and manpower support, thus made the rebellion and became widespread. In 1774, Trịnh army from the north launched an offensive against the Nguyễn. Unable to fight two-front war, Lord
Nguyễn Phúc Thuần lost the control of Cochinchina, fled by ship to the
Mekong delta. Nguyễn's capital
Phú Xuân was captured by Trịnh lord. Nguyễn Phúc Thuần later was taken and executed by the Tây Sơn in 1777. The remnant Nguyen led by
Nguyễn Ánh with help from the French priest
Pigneau de Behaine (Bá Đa Lộc), he soon recruited his army by enlisted French, Cambodian troops and weapons, but mostly were defeated by the superior and more numerous Tây Sơn rebels four times, and Ánh went into exile in
Siam. The Tây Sơn rebellion were not content to simply conquer the southern provinces of the country.
End of the dynasty In 1782,
Trịnh Sâm died and passed the throne to his 5-year-old son
Trịnh Cán instead of his 19-year-old son
Trịnh Tông, who was demoted after his failed coup d'état attempt in 1780. Trịnh Sâm assigned
Hoàng Tố Lý (also known as Hoàng Đình Bảo) as Cán's regent. Trịnh Tông allied with the Three Prefectures Army (, ) to overthrow Trịnh Cán and kill Hoàng Tố Lý. The army then released the emperor's grandson Lê Duy Kỳ (also known as Lê Duy Khiêm) from imprisonment and forced the emperor to appoint him as the next successor. Trịnh Tông feared that the army's power would grow stronger. He secretly ordered governors of the Four Provinces (Kinh Bắc, Sơn Nam, Hải Dương, Sơn Tây) to march into the capital and dismiss the Three Prefectures Army. However the plan was discovered by the army and Trịnh Tông had to cancel it. Hoàng Tố Lý's subordinate
Nguyễn Hữu Chỉnh, after hearing about Tố Lý's death, took refuge in Tây Sơn. In 1786, king of Tây Sơn
Nguyễn Nhạc wanted to recover the old territory of Nguyễn lords captured by the Trịnh. He ordered
Nguyễn Huệ and Nguyễn Hữu Chỉnh to undertake the task. Nhạc warned Huệ not to attack
Bắc Hà. However, Chỉnh convinced Huệ to do so, under the slogan "
Destroy the Trịnh and aid the Lê" (, ) that would help them gain support from Bắc Hà people. Trịnh army and the Three Prefectures Army were quickly defeated. Trịnh Tông committed suicide. Emperor
Cảnh Hưng died of old age shortly after and passed the throne to Lê Duy Kỳ (emperor
Chiêu Thống). Nguyễn Nhạc, after having heard of Nguyễn Huệ's insubordination, hastily marched to Thăng Long and ordered all Tây Sơn troops to withdraw. However they intentionally left Nguyễn Hữu Chỉnh behind. Chỉnh chased after them and then stayed in his hometown in Nghệ An. After Tây Sơn's withdrawal, members of Trịnh clan, namely
Trịnh Lệ and
Trịnh Bồng, along with their supporters marched into Thăng Long and demanded Chiêu Thống to reinstall Trịnh lord. Chiêu Thống, whose father was killed by Trịnh Sâm, reluctantly agreed and assigned Trịnh Bồng as Prince of Yến Đô (, ). Emperor Chiêu Thống then sent a secret order to Nguyễn Hữu Chỉnh to come and save him. In 1787, Nguyễn Hữu Chỉnh marched North, defeated Trịnh Bồng and his supporters, ended the 242 years rule of Trịnh clan. In late 1787, Nguyễn Huệ, no longer served under Nguyễn Nhạc, sent
Vũ Văn Nhậm to invade Bắc Hà under the pretense of punishing Nguyễn Hữu Chỉnh for insubordination. Nhậm captured and executed Chỉnh in January 1788, emperor Chiêu Thống fled to the east of
Hong River. Vũ Văn Nhậm installed
Lê Duy Cận as Country Supervisor (, ) without Huệ's approval. Nguyễn Huệ accused Nhậm of treason and executed him, took over Bắc Hà.
Lê Chiêu Thống fled to China Lê Chiêu Thống sent envoy to the Imperial court of the
Qing Empire to ask for aid against the Tây Sơn. The
Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Empire under the pretense of restoring Lê dynasty dispatched a large force of 200,000 soldiers, to invade Northern Vietnam, captured the capital Thăng Long. At the beginning of the war, Nguyễn Huệ's troops retreated to the South and refused to engage the Qing army. He raised a large army of his own and defeated the invader in the Lunar New year Eve of 1789. Chiêu Thống and the imperial family fled north into China, never to return. The Lê dynasty finally ended after ruling Vietnam for 356 years. He went to
Beijing where he was appointed a Chinese mandarin of the fourth rank in the
Han Yellow Bordered Banner, while lower ranking loyalists were sent to cultivate government land and join the
Green Standard Army in
Sichuan and
Zhejiang. They adopted Qing clothing and adopt the queue hairstyle, effectively becoming naturalized subjects of the Qing dynasty affording them protection against Vietnamese demands for extradition. From this point on, Lê Chiêu Thống failed to receive support from the
Qing Empire of China any more. He was posthumously given the title Mẫn Đế (愍帝). Modern descendants of the Lê dynasty live in southern Vietnam. ==Culture, society, and science==