Battle of Bạch Đằng River (938)
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At the Battle of Bạch Đằng River in 938 the Vietnamese forces, led by Ngo Quyen, defeated the Chinese invaders and put an end to Chinese imperial domination of the Vietnamese.
In 937, Liu Yan, the Southern Han ruler, jumped at the chance to intervene in Vietnam again after the death of the Vietnamese patriot Duong Dinh Nghe. He had been foiled by Dinh Nghe in 931, but now that Dinh Nghe was dead, he thought the time was ripe for another try. He placed his own son, Liu Hung-ts'ao, in command of the expedition, naming him "Peaceful Sea Military Governor" and "King of Giao." He hastily assembled an army at Sea Gate, where he personally took charge of the reserve force. He ordered Hung-ts'ao to embark the army and sail to Giao.
By the time Liu Hung-ts'ao arrived in Vietnamese waters with the Southern Han expedition, Hung-ts'ao's plan was to ascend the Bạch Đằng River and to place his army in the heart of Giao before disembarking; the Bạch Đằng was the major riverine route into the Hong River plain from the north.
Quyen anticipated this plan and brought his army to the mouth of the river. He had his men plant a barrier of large poles in the bed of the river. The tops of the poles reached just below the water level at high tide and were sharpened and tipped with iron. When Hung-ts'ao appeared off the mouth of the river, Quyen sent out small, shallow-draft boats at high tide to provoke a fight and then retreat upriver, drawing the Chinese fleet after in pursuit. As the tide fell, the heavy Chinese warboats were all caught on the poles and lay helplessly trapped in the middle of the river. Quyen attacked vigorously. More than half the Chinese were drowned, including Hung-ts'ao. When news of the battle reached Sea Gate with the survivors, Liu Kung wept openly. He collected what remained of his army and returned to Canton. The Southern Han never attacked the Vietnamese again. This victory ended China's long domination of Vietnam and began Vietnam's period of "relative autonomy." Quyen's tactic would later be copied by Tran Hung Dao against the Mongols in a later battle at Bạch Đằng River in 1288.
The Bach Dang victory in 938 put an end to the period of Chinese imperial domination. In 939, Ngo Quyen proclaimed himself king of Annam, established his capital at Co Loa (previously a capital in the 3rd century BC) and set up a centralized government. It was the first truly independent Vietnamese state.
