Quang Trung

By Mike Lord

At the end of the 18th century villagers in Vietnam were in revolt against the oppression, land seizure and hardship caused by feudal landlords. Three brothers from a small village, Tay Son in the south of the Vietnam start an insurgency movement and begin by overthrowing the corrupt Nguyen dynasty in the south, and then the rotten Trinh dynasty in the north, but they remained subservient to the Le Emperor in Thanh Long (Ha Noi today). One of the brothers, Nguyen Hue, showed great aptitude for military action, and defeated the 20,000 invaders sent by the monarchy in Siam, in the Mekong delta who had been summoned by the sole surviving prince of the defeated Nguyen dynasty.
The Le Emperor gives his youngest daughter, Princess Le Ngoc Han, in marriage to Nguyen Hue and they move the capital city to Phu Xuan (now Hue city). Shortly after the Le Emperor in Thanh Long dies, and his son takes over as Emperor, assuming he can ignore the Tay Son movement. He is removed and flees to Beijing to meet the Manchu Tsing Emperor, whom he persuades to restore him as Emperor. The Manchu Tsing Emperor, Kien-Lung, who with visions of restoring Vietnam as colony of China, appoints Governor Ton Si-Nghi (Soun Che-y) with a 200,000 strong Tsing invading force. Nguyen Hue declares himself Emperor Quang Trung and he leads the Tay Son troops who move quickly to Thanh Long and they defeat the Tsing invaders in just a few days, cementing the position of Quang Trung as a supreme military leader.
Emperor Quang Trung begins both agricultural and educational reform, supported and advised by his knowledgeable wife, but he dies suddenly aged just under 40. The grieving Empress lives only seven years longer herself, but writes some of the most stirring and beautiful poetry about her love for the Emperor.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Lord
• Release date: May 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311563903

Mike Lord

Mike had worked in sub-Saharan Africa for over 25 years, and in south and east Asia for another 25 years. He was an expert in the development of livelihoods for disadvantaged farmer families, who often live in remote and mountainous areas.Mike has now retired and has written three historical novels, and has just completed another based on the family of the Emperor Quang Trung, who is still revered all over Vietnam.

Book preview

Butterfly Books

Quang Trung

&

The Tay Son Rebellion,

And the role played by his wife

Princess Le Ngoc Han.

Written by Mike Lord

© Kevin Michael Lord, 2014

http://www.authormikelord.com

Mike Lord asserts his right to be the author of this historical novel.

Front cover © Adam Norton, 2014 ([e-mail])

ISBN 9781311563903

I would like to pay tribute to Dr Nguyen Khac Vien (1913-1997) who was in fact a paediatrician graduating from the Paris Medical University in 1941, but who became a party member formerly in charge of external propaganda and statements to foreign press for the fledgling Government in Vietnam at that time. He was also author of a well researched ‘Vietnam – A Long History, Revised edition published by The Gioi Publishers in 1993’ and from where I derived a lot of the basic history for this novel. In 1992 Dr Nguyen Khac Vien was awarded the Grand Prix de la Francophonie by the French Academy.

I would also like to stress that this book is an historical novel and not a history book. There have been various opinions expressed and articles published about Emperor Quang Trung and his wife Princess Le Ngoc Han, which I have deliberately ignored. This book is not my own opinion, but a novel of what might have been.

Thanh Long palace

It was early morning and Han was reluctant to open her eyes. She could hear noises and activity just outside the door of her room, so she stretched and got out of her bed. She shared her room with two sisters, both older, and they were already dressed and had gone to the kitchen. But in her mind she thanked them both for allowing her an extra few minutes.

She made her way to the washing area, which was on the ground floor, splashed her face, and then back in her room hurriedly changed from her pyjamas into her working dress. She did not button her collar as she knew it would be getting hotter later, but she brushed down her long ao-dai (pronounced ou zie) dress which almost reached the floor, with loose trousers worn underneath, and wriggled her feet into sandals. She wore nothing on her head, and just left her long hair tied by a small ribbon on the back of her head.

Princess Le Ngoc Han lived in the Kim Tien pagoda which was a part of the complex of the Thanh Long palace. As she approached the kitchen area Han noticed a lot of activity, and a maid came running out through the wide kitchen door with a bowl which she placed in front of Han on a large reed mat on the floor, and then disappeared quickly back to the kitchen. Han smiled and sat cross legged on the floor for breakfast. Her food quickly disappeared with the assistance of chopsticks and a small ceramic spoon.

The breakfast room was a large area, with open sides in each of the walls to allow the air to circulate. The pillars and the ceiling were washed in lime so that the light in the room was good. Outside she could see the gardens that ran alongside the main building. She knew she was expected to get up and do something, but could not help sitting back for a moment or two. She was 14 and quite tall for her age. She had long black hair, as most of her friends and sisters, and wondered for a while what she would achieve in life. She had five sisters and of all the girls she was the youngest, and three had already been married and two had small babies. She wondered briefly whom she would marry, and only hoped that her father would choose a kind man.

The maid who had brought the breakfast bowl came back into the room, fussing to get the reed mat rolled up and put away.

‘What’s the fuss?’ Han asked.

The maid did not stop working, but said, ‘Last night some men arrived from Phu Xuan, miss, and your father has instructed that we provide lunch for them today.’

‘Where is my father, now?’ another question.

‘He’s in the garden, and some of the men who arrived are with him, miss,’ the maid said already out of breath, but she still did not stop working as she rolled up the mat.

Princess Han had intended to go into the garden, and also check on the animals that were kept in the surrounding buildings, so now she got up and left the breakfast room. It was mid-morning and still not too hot, although late summer. She decided to go and see the animals first before somebody detailed her to do something else, and suddenly remembered that one of the sows was due to produce a litter of piglets soon, maybe today, maybe already! She ran quickly through the open doors into the garden and turned sharply right to go the animal buildings, almost colliding with a man.

‘I beg your pardon,’ said a male voice, and Han looked up to see the smiling face of a tall man with broad shoulders, wearing military clothes, who was standing in the shade of the building and looking at the well laid out and carefully tended gardens. Han held her hands together in front of her face, bowed and backed away, muttering an apology, and continued to run on towards the gardens and the animal buildings, without a backward glance. She found the head man.

‘Good morning, Miss Han,’ Hung said. Han had known this man all her life, and in many ways he had become one of her greatest friends. He was small in stature, but with broad shoulders, and Han knew he had been working in the palace since he was a young boy. His knowledge of most things relating to plants and animals was tremendous,