Place
The Marsh of One Night
A marsh by the great river where, the tale says, the citadel of Chu Dong Tu and Tien Dung rose to the sky and the ground sank in a single night; five centuries later it became Trieu Quang Phuc's base.
At a glance
- Also known as
- The Marsh of One Night — the name the people gave it after a whole citadel rose to heaven in a single night; five hundred years later Tran Ba Tien twisted it into the marsh of robbery in one night1
- Location
- By a great river: the royal army camped at Tu Nhien bank, still across that river, and night fell before it could cross. The sandbank beside the marsh was called Man Tru and the market Tham1
- Type
- A marsh wide and deep, its mud hard to march an army into, passable by dugout canoe; the people built a shrine there1
About the place
Legend has it
Before it was a marsh the place was a citadel that appeared in a single night. Chu Dong Tu and Tien Dung planted a staff and set a hat on top for shelter, and by the third watch there appeared walls and gates, jewelled towers, treasure halls, storehouses, shrines, immortal boys and jade maidens, officers and guards; by morning the people around were bringing incense, flowers and food and offering themselves as subjects, and it was a separate kingdom. The Hung king took it for his daughter's rebellion and marched against her, camping at Tu Nhien bank across the river. At midnight a great wind rose, flinging sand and tearing up trees, and the citadel and all who followed them rose into the sky at once, the ground sinking into a great marsh.1
The old chronicles say
Five hundred years later the marsh became a base. The Liang emperor sent Tran Ba Tien south with an army and Ly Nam De appointed Trieu Quang Phuc to resist him; Quang Phuc took his troops and hid in that very marsh. It was wide and deep, its mud hard to march an army into, and he used dugout canoes to dart out in raids, seizing supplies to draw the war out and wear the enemy down; for three or four years the two sides never crossed spears. Ba Tien sighed a pun: in the old days it was called the marsh of rising to heaven in one night, now it is the marsh of robbery in one night.1
When the Hou Jing revolt broke out, the Liang emperor recalled Ba Tien and left the army to a deputy. Quang Phuc fasted, raised an altar in the middle of the marsh and burned incense in prayer; a divine being — one version says plainly that it was Chu Dong Tu — came down on a dragon, said that where he had risen to heaven the power remained and that he had come to help, then drew off a dragon's claw and gave it to him, telling him to fix it to his helmet and win wherever he struck. Quang Phuc broke the Liang force, cut down Ba Tien's deputy on the field, and afterwards made himself Trieu Viet Vuong. To the compiler the marsh was no relic but a holy place still in working order.1
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