Legend of Luc Dau Giang

Witness of history

Luc Dau River is the last section of Thuong River, more than 10 km long, the widest part is more than 1 km, flowing close to the southwest of Van Kiep. The name Luc Dau River is because this section of the river receives water from Cau River, Thuong River and Luc Nam River above, and merges with Duong River below and flows into the East Sea by two large rivers: Thai Binh and Kinh Thay.

In the 13th century, the land of Van Kiep as well as the whole of Dai Viet was marked with the footprints and hooves of the enemy. Enemies from the North sent troops to trample and trample on the beautiful land of Dai Viet.

The fishermen and peaceful farmers of Dai Viet rolled up their nets, put away their hoes and plows, took off their brown shirts, donned their warrior uniforms, and drew their swords to go to battle. The day they gathered at Van Kiep, the Luc Dau River roared, its waves were red with mud. The Dai Viet warriors, under the command of Hung Dao Dai Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan, knew every corner of the Luc Dau River, every shallow and deep spot. They were determined to use the river as a grave to bury the enemy who had once stirred up trouble from Asia to Europe, and had caused many nations to fall.

It can be said that when mentioning the three great defeats of the Yuan-Mongol invaders, we are mentioning Van Kiep and Luc Dau. When mentioning Luc Dau and Van Kiep, we are remembering the glorious feats of the Tran Dynasty and Hung Dao Dai Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan!

In the first resistance war against the Mongol Empire in 1258, Luc Dau Giang was not mentioned, but the "thanh da" strategy - empty gardens and empty houses in this resistance war was used in the second resistance war.

In the second resistance war in 1285, Hung Dao Dai Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan directed the entire population to "clear the wilderness", causing the enemy to suffer from hunger and illness. Hung Dao Vuong led his troops to Van Kiep to capture the enemy's most important base - A Lo fort. Along with the victories at Tay Ket, Ham Tu, and Chuong Duong, the enemy's strength was exhausted, forcing them to retreat in the direction of Van Kiep. Here, Hung Dao Vuong directly commanded the interception at Luc Dau. The remaining enemy troops fled to Bac Ninh but were attacked by Tran Quoc Toan when Thoat Hoan's troops tried to cross the Nhu Nguyet River. Dai Viet's campaigns to hunt down the remaining enemy troops continued all the way to the north. Thoat Hoan had to crawl into a copper tube and be carried across the border by soldiers.

In the third resistance war of 1287-1288, the enemy mobilized 500,000 troops to enter Dai Viet. In Quang Ninh today, many fierce battles took place. The army of general Tran Khanh Du could not stop the navy of O Ma Nhi and Phan Tiep. They went up the Bach Dang River to Van Kiep to join forces. In early February 1288, the enemy army in Van Kiep reached 300,000. In early March 1288, Thoat Hoan abandoned Thang Long and moved his troops to Van Kiep to organize defense. Knowing that he could not break the Dai Viet's battle formation, Thoat Hoan ordered his men to lead the navy along the Bach Dang River first and then go behind to block the rear by land.

It was this decision of the enemy that caused the Tran Dynasty to deploy a classic battle formation of planting stakes on the Bach Dang River to surround and attack the Yuan-Mongol ships.

Three times entering Dai Viet, all three were defeated. Those victories were more or less associated with Luc Dau River and Van Kiep. The most obvious is the military festival on Luc Dau River that is still passed down to this day. In 1283, Hung Dao Vuong organized a military gathering with 200,000 troops and more than 1,000 warships to gather at Van Kiep. When the enemy arrived, the country was in danger, after the call of the Tran Dynasty, fishermen from all over put aside their work and gathered on Luc Dau River in front of Kiep Bac Temple.

The central location of Van Kiep base

According to the Management Board of Con Son - Kiep Bac relics, the book "Cong du tiep ky" once wrote about Luc Dau river: The river is in Chi Linh district, bordering Phuong Nhan, Yen Dung, Que Duong and Gia Dinh districts. This river is clean, the water is delicious, people call it Binh Than water. The rivers converge at Trieu Duong river to form a very large river. All 6 branches form Luc Dau river. In the middle of the river there is a sandbank called Dai Than beach. Feng shui experts call this type of land "luc long tranh chau", meaning 6 dragons fighting for 1 pearl.

The river spreads out in six directions, Luc Dau is always vast with waves. This is the source of water and alluvium for the fields. Luc Dau also plays an important role in water and land transportation. Therefore, throughout the history of fighting against foreign invaders, Luc Dau River has always been the central location of the Van Kiep base. After defeating the Yuan-Mongol invaders and bringing peace to the country, Hung Dao Vuong retired to his fief in Van Kiep.

Ancient history records that one day, Hung Dao Vuong and his servants used a small boat to tour the Luc Dau River. Hung Dao Vuong stopped the boat. Standing on the bow of the boat, he pulled out his sword and said: "This sword has been with me for almost my entire life. During the war, it was stained with the blood of the Mongols, and it once beheaded the dirty enemy Pham Nhan. Now I want to use the water of the Luc Dau River to wash away the stains on it." Having said that, he threw the sword into the river. Legend has it that at that stretch of river, a long sandbank that looked very much like a sword was later formed, and people called it Con Kiem, right in front of Kiep Bac Temple.

On the Luc Dau River today, many ritual activities associated with the Kiep Bac festival still take place, such as the memorial service and releasing flower lanterns, especially the military festival that has become a characteristic of the Con Son - Kiep Bac autumn festival. The Luc Dau River is also the burial place of the Yuan-Mongol soldiers, so today, in the memorial service, in addition to praying for the souls of the Dai Viet soldiers and civilians to be liberated, we also pray for the fallen enemy soldiers to find their way back to their homeland.

That is the morality of Vietnamese people, it has been like that for generations!