Lo Bac Duc

The old chronicles say

His troops were convicts, and the Shiji states the result outright: General Phuc Ba led convicts, the road was long, and he arrived after the appointed time; when he joined Lau Thuyen, he had only a thousand-odd men left. A thousand-odd men, set beside the hundred thousand in the edict that sent the army out. At Phien Ngung, Lau Thuyen chose the advantageous ground on the south-east side for himself, and Phuc Ba camped on the north-west.¹

When Lau Thuyen set fire to the city at dusk, the battle turned on one sentence: the Viet had long heard of Phuc Ba's name; it was dark, and they could not tell whether his troops were many or few. He set up his camp and sent envoys to call for surrender, gave seals to those who came over, and let them go back to call others out too. The harder Lau Thuyen attacked and burned, the more he drove the enemy into Phuc Ba's camp, and at first light the whole city surrendered to Phuc Ba. He questioned the nobles who had surrendered, only then learned where Lu Gia had gone, and sent men after him.¹

In his closing verdict on the account of Nam Viet, Sima Qian sets him beside Duong Boc: Lau Thuyen gave rein to his desires, grew slack and arrogant, and went astray; Phuc Ba, fallen into dire straits, only grew richer in stratagems, and turned misfortune into good fortune. And the closing line: the turns between success and failure are like a braided cord. The man who arrived late with a thousand-odd men is the one who received the whole city.²