Кейінгі Ле әулетінің негізін қалаушысы Ле Лợi

Founding Emperor of the Later Lê dynasty

Lê Lợi (, chữ Hán: 黎利; 10 September 1385 – 5 October 1433), also known by his temple name as Lê Thái Tổ (黎太祖) and by his pre imperial title Bình Định vương (平定王; "Prince of Pacification"), was a Vietnamese rebel leader who founded the Later Lê dynasty and became the first king of the restored kingdom of Đại Việt after the country was conquered by the Ming dynasty. In 1418, Lê Lợi and his followers rose up against Ming rule. He was known for his effective guerrilla tactics, including constantly moving his camps and using small bands of irregulars to ambush the larger Ming forces. Nine years later, his resistance movement successfully drove the Ming armies out of Vietnam and restored Vietnamese independence. Lê Lợi is among the most famous figures of Vietnamese history and one of its greatest heroes.

From the mid 1300s, Đại Việt faced serious troubles that damaged much of the kingdom. The fourteenth century ecological breakdown led to a social crisis as the ruling Trần dynasty weakened. Even in the capital, Thăng Long, turmoil broke out in 1369–70, provoking a princely coup and a short, bloody civil war. From the south, the Chams under Chế Bồng Nga repeatedly fought against Đại Việt, and even sacked Thăng Long in 1371. In 1377 Champa defeated and killed Đại Việt's king Trần Duệ Tông in a battle near Vijaya, then marched north and against sacked Thăng Long four more times from 1378 to 1383. The repeated destruction of a radical intellectual and reformer, Hồ Quý Ly (c. 1336 – 1408). In 1399 Hồ Quý Ly deposed the Trần royal family and declared himself as ruler of Đại Việt. This provoked a response from the Ming dynasty, who invaded Vietnam under the pretext of restoring the deposed Trần dynasty. In 1406 215,000 Chinese troops crossed the border commanded by generals Zhang Fu and Mu Sheng; they quickly defeated Hồ Quý Ly's army, conquered Vietnam, and renamed the country Jiaozhi. The Ming Chinese began building up their colonial administration in Jiaozhi Province, encouraging the Ming Confucian ideology, bureaucratic and Classic Chinese study to the local people, forced the Vietnamese to wear Chinese clothes and adopt Chinese culture. The Ming government enjoyed some support from the Vietnamese, at least in the capital of Thăng Long, but their efforts to assert control in the surrounding countryside were met with stiff resistance. A general popular dissatisfaction with the colonial arrangement seems clear. Between 1415 and 1424, 31 uprising and revolt leaders against the Ming emerged in Lạng Giang, Nghệ An, Hanoi, Ninh Kiều, Lạng Sơn and other prefecture capitals where the Ming troops were stationed.

Within a month of taking the throne, Emperor Zhu Gaozhi (r. 1424–1425), Zhu Di's son and successor, issued a proclamation indicating a dramatic change of Ming policy in Jiaozhi. calling for "reform", he abolished the collection of commodities. In other initiatives, he moved to end Zheng He's voyages, and he downgraded the role of the military. He wanted to consolidate the core of what had been achieved by his father and grandfather but had no taste for costly adventures. He recalled Huang Fu from Jiaozhi and lowered the priority of holding that distant place. After only one year as emperor, Zhu Gaozhi died suddenly of a heart attack, but his son and successor, Zhu Zhanji (r. 1425–1435), continued his father policies. In late 1424, news of the new emperor's proclamation and of Huang Fu's recall prompted Lê Lợi to set out on a new trajectory. He returned the resistance movement as the rebel leader in the Thanh Hoa highlands. Lê Lợi rebuilt his partisan army, follow his comrade, Nguyễn Chích to march south through the mountains into Nghệ An, where they ambushed a Ming force in Quỳ Châu district. The Lam Son partisans advanced to Con Cuong district on the upper Cả River. By the end of 1424, Le Loi's rebels had forced the Ming army being clustered in Vinh, which is provincial capital of Nghệ An. Le Loi recruited thousands soldiers from ethnic minority in the highland west of the Cả River delta for his army. His forces then defeated an army of ethnic minority troops who had joined the Ming cause. Then they headed east down into the coastal lowlands of Nghệ An. He sought to convince the densely ethnic Kinh population areas in Nghe An by demonstrating discipline and refraining from exactions. In 1425, as the Ming court was preoccupied with the death of one emperor and the accession of another, Lê Lợi led armies both to the south and to the north. In the south, his soldiers under Trần Nguyên Hãn defeated a Ming army in modern Quảng Bình and then marched through modern Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên, and gained control of the southern land. In the north, Lê Lợi's men captured a Ming supply fleet in northern Nghệ An, then pursued the Ming force in Thanh Hoa and besieged them at Tây Đô. Nguyễn Trãi, a Confucian scholar who was a comrade of Lê Lợi, helped him mapped the army's strategy and tactics. By the end of 1425, Lê Lợi's Vietnamese rebels liberated all land from Thanh Hoa to the south, and besieged all the Ming forces in the region.

In late March 1427, around 120,000 Chinese reinforcements led by Liu Sheng and Mu Sheng advanced into Jiaozhi from Yunnan and Guangxi, included 10,000 crack troops who had followed Zheng He on his expeditions. At first, Lê Lợi commanded the residents be moved Lạng Giang, Bắc Giang, Quy Hoa, Tuyên Quang to segregate Ming troops. He knew Liu Sheng kept the main forces, so he sent Le Sat, Le Nhan Chu, Le Van Linh, Dinh Liet to wait at Chi Lang, and at the same time commanded Le Van An, Le Ly to take alternative forces to support. With Mu Sheng's forces, he knew Thanh was an experienced general and will be waiting for Liu Sheng's results before taking actions, so Lê Lợi commanded Pham Van Xao and Trinh Kha entrenched all time. In September, Liu Sheng's 90,000 strong army was defeated in Chi Lang, himself was executed. Mu Sheng heard Liu Sheng was killed and beheaded so he scared and ran away. Pham Van Xao and Trinh Kha followed, killed 10,000 soldiers, arrested 1,000 ones and horses. Le Loi understood that Ming Jiaozhi was at its end. The Ming were unlikely to make any serious effort to reassert their control in Jiaozhi. By making Trần Cảo king, Lê Lợi satisfied the aim of restoring the Trần that had ostensibly led to the initial Ming intervention and that Zhu Zhanji now eagerly want to terminate further intervention. With imperial forces under siege, Ming could not be idle. Maintaining the appearance of empire required efforts to reinforce or to rescue the besieged remnants of Jiaozhi. After a six month siege on the Ming held citadel of Xương Giang, the citadel fell to Lê Lợi in October 1427, ended the war. The Xuande Emperor of the Ming dynasty decided to withdraw his army from Northern Vietnam. After this final victory, the Vietnamese repatriated 86,640 Ming prisoners to China and confiscated all their weapons. The defeat is considered by historian Ben Kiernan as the greatest policy disaster suffered by the early Ming empire. China would not again invade its southern neighbor for 360 years. According to a Ming report, Le Bi (黎秘), the chief eunuch of Lê Lợi and 10,000 Vietnamese were killed after Ming forces crushed and defeated their invasion in 1427 of a Chinese town in Guangxi.

Lê Lợi formally re established Đại Việt as the Xuande Emperor of the Ming Empire officially recognized Lê Lợi as the king of Dai Viet in 1431. In return, Lê Lợi sent diplomatic messages to the Ming imperial court, promising his loyalty as a nominate tributary state of China and cooperation, and paid 50,000 gold taels for obtaining investiture. The Ming imperial court accepted this arrangement, much as they accepted the vassal status of Korea under the Joseon dynasty. Lê Lợi briefly established good relations with Champa's king, Indravarman VI (r. 1400–1441). Lê Lợi renamed the capital, Thăng Long, to Đông Kinh, which later known as Tonkin. He embarked on a significant reorganization of the Vietnamese government, based on the old system of government which was developed during the late 14th century. He also elevated his longtime comrades and generals such as Nguyễn Trãi, Tran Nguyen Han, Lê Sát, Pham Van Sao, and Trịnh Khả to high official rank. The Le government rebuilt the infrastructure of Vietnam: roads, bridges, canals. Land distribution were awarded to soldiers that contributed in the war against the Ming Empire. He revived the classical examination and devised good administrative laws. With the peace returned, men released from the army service, included non Viet soldiers, were encouraged to settle in low density areas in the country, increasing rice production led population expansion during his reign, particularly in the coastal areas. From 1430 to 1432, the king and his army fought a set of campaigns in the hills to the west of the coastal area. Then, in 1433, he became sick and his health declined. On his deathbed he appointed his prince Lê Sát as the regent for his second son, who would rule after him as Lê Thái Tông. He was posthumously named as Thái Tổ. Internal palace politics quickly decimated the ranks of Lê Lợi's trusted counselors, Trần Nguyên Hãn committed suicide when he was being taken to the capital for investigating his suspected betrayal, Phạm Văn Xảo was executed in 1432 and Lê Sát, who ruled as regent for five years, was executed in 1438. Nguyễn Trãi was killed in 1442 (it was claimed he was involved in or responsible for the death of Lê Thái Tông). Only Trịnh Khả survived to an old age and even he was executed in 1451.

Many legends and stories were told about Lê Lợi (magical sword, escaped death thanks to fox, ). In story help from fox, Lê Lợi was fighting Ming dynasty for Vietnam's independence. When he was defeated and ran, he saw a corpse of a woman on the way. Lê Lợi then dug a hole and gave her a proper burial, saying that if she protected him from getting captured, he would repay her. When the Ming soldiers were close, he hid in the bushes. The Chinese soldiers then sent dogs to sniff him out, but spotted within the bushes was a fox with a human face. The fox ran away and the dog followed, but those Ming soldiers killed the dogs for not doing their proper jobs. The soldiers then left, and Lê Lợi escaped capture. After he became king, he would return to that area and set up a shrine, conferring the woman the title of Hộ Quốc Phu Nhân, or Lady Protector of the Nation. The fox spirit eventually became a local god of the area. The most famous story concerns his magical sword. Much like King Arthur and his sword Excalibur, Lê Lợi was said to have a magic sword of wondrous power. One story tells that he obtained the sword, inscribed with the words 'The Will of Heaven' (Thuận Thiên) from the Dragon King (Vietnamese: Long Vương), a demi god to the local people, who decided to lend his sword to Lê Lợi. But there was a catch: the sword did not come straight to him in one piece. It was split into two parts: a blade and a sword hilt. First, in Thanh Hóa province, there was a fisherman named Lê Thận, who was not related to Lê Lợi in any way. One night, his fishing net caught something heavy. Thinking of how much money he would get for this big fish, he became very excited. However, his excitement soon turned into disappointment when he saw that his catch was a long, thin piece of metal which had somehow become entangled to the net. He threw it back into the water, and recast the net at a different location. When he pulled the net in, the metal piece had found its way back into the net. He picked it up and threw it far away with all its strength. The third time the fishing net came up, the same thing happened, the metal piece was once again caught in the net. Bewildered, he brought his lamp closer and carefully examined the strange object. Only then did he notice that it was the missing blade of a sword. He took the blade home and not knowing what to do with it, put it in the corner of his house. Some years later, Lê Thận joined the rebel army of Lê Lợi, where he quickly rose in ranks. Once, the general visited Lê Thận's home. Lê Thận's house lacked lighting, so everything was dark. But as though it was sensing the presence of Lê Lợi, the blade at the corner of the house suddenly emitted a bright glow. Lê Lợi held up the blade and saw two words manifesting before his very eye: Thuận Thiên (Will of Heaven). With Lê Thận's endorsement, Lê Lợi took the blade with him. One day, while on the run from the enemy, Lê Lợi saw a strange light emanating from the branches of a banyan tree. He climbed up and there he found a hilt of a sword, encrusted with precious gems. Remembering the blade he found earlier, he took it out and placed it into the hilt. The fit was perfect. Believing that the Heaven had entrusted him with the great cause of freeing the land, Lê Lợi took up arms and rallied people under his banner. For the next few years, the magic sword brought him victory after another. His men no longer had to hide in the forest, but aggressively penetrated many enemy camps, captured them and seized their granaries. The sword helped them push back the enemy, until Vietnam was once again free from Chinese rule. Lê Lợi ascended the throne in 1428, ending his 10 year campaign, and reclaimed independence for the country. The stories claim Lê Lợi grew very tall when he used the sword and it gave him the strength of many men. Other stories say that the sword blade and the sword hilt came together from different places, the blade fished out of a lake, the hilt found by Lê Lợi himself. The stories largely agree on what happened to the sword: One day, not long after the Chinese had accepted Vietnam as independent, Lê Lợi was out boating on a lake in Hanoi. The golden turtle, Kim Quy, advanced toward the boat and the king, then with a human voice, it asked him to return the magic sword to his master, Long Vương (Dragon King), who lived under the water. Suddenly it became clear to Lê Lợi that the sword was only lent to him to carry out his duty, but now it must be returned to its rightful owner, lest it corrupt him. Lê Lợi drew the sword out of its scabbard and lobbed it towards the turtle. With great speed, the turtle opened its mouth and snatched the sword from the air with its teeth. It descended back into the water, with the shiny sword in its mouth. Lê Lợi then acknowledged the sword had gone back to the Long Vương (Dragon King) and caused the lake to be renamed 'The Lake of the Returned Sword' (Hoan Kiem Lake) located in present day Hanoi. Countless poems and songs were written about Lê Lợi, both during his lifetime and in later years. Lê Lợi is looked upon as the perfect embodiment of the just, wise, and capable leader. All future Vietnamese kings were measured against the standard of Lê Lợi and most were found wanting. Every town in Vietnam has one of the major streets named after Lê Lợi, but in Hanoi the name is Lê Thái Tổ Street.