At the Battle of Bạch ÃÂằng River in 938 near Hạ Long Bay in northern Vietnam, the military force of the Viet-ruled domain of Ténh Hải quân, led by Ngô Quyá»Ân, a Viet lord, defeated the invading forces of the Chinese state of Southern Han and put an end to the Third Era of Northern Domination (Chinese ruled Vietnam). It was considered the turning point in Vietnamese history.
In October 930, Southern Han, a Chinese state in southern China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, launched an attack on the Jinghai circuit, which at the time was a Viet principality controlled by the Khúc clan. The leader of the Khuc, Khúc Thừa Mỹ, was taken prisoner by the Southern Han emperor Liu Yan. In 931, the local general Dðáng ÃÂình Nghá» raised a 3,000-men army of retainers and drove the Southern Han back to the borders of the Jinghai Circuit.
In 937, ÃÂình Nghá» was assassinated by Kiá»Âu Công Tiá» n, a military officer. ÃÂình Nghá»Â's son-in-law and also his general, Ngô Quyá»Ân, mobilized his army to overthrow Kiá»Âu Công Tiá» n. Công Tiá» n asked Liu Yan for support. Liu Yan dispatched his son Liu Hongcao in command of the expedition fleet, which sailed to the Gulf of Tonkin and headed inland up Bạch ÃÂằng River. Liu Yan led an additional force following his son's fleet.
In late 938, the Southern Han fleet led by Liu Hongcao met Ngô Quyá»Ân's fleet on the gate of the Bạch ÃÂằng River. The Southern Han fleet consisted fast warships carrying fifty men on eachâÂÂtwenty sailors, twenty five warriors, and two crossbowmen. Ngô Quyá»Ân and his force had set up massive stakes tipped with iron foiled points on the river bed. When the river tide rose, the sharpened stakes were covered by water. As the Southern Han sailed into the estuary, Viets in smaller crafts went down and harassed the Southern Han warships, luring them to follow upstream. When the tide fell, Ngô Quyá»Ân's force counterattacked and pushed the enemy fleet back to the sea. The Southern Han ships were immobilized by the stakes. Half of the Han army died, either killed or drowned, including Liu Hongcao. When the news of the defeat reached Liu Yan on the sea, he retreated back to Guangzhou.
In spring 939, Ngô Quyá»Ân proclaimed himself king and chose the town of Co Loa as the capital. This battle has been described as the point when Vietnamese history came into its own as the Jinghai Circuit achieved de facto independence.
In 1288, Commander-in-Chief Prince Trần Quá»Âc Tuấn, inspired by Ngô Quyá»Ân, employed the same tactic against the Yuan Dynasty during the Battle of Bạch ÃÂằng (1288). This engagement was a decisive ÃÂại Viá»Ât victory and was one of the last major engagements in the Mongol invasions of Vietnam. Both battles are widely considered to be among the greatest victories in Vietnamese history.