Van Khoi Le

Once upon a time that was the time the country was reigned by Minh Mang king. A poor boy but had great health. He worked as a ferryman at Thien ta port. When he was born he had three red moles on his stomach, people said that was rare signal. The rumor about his red moles spread to mandarins who thought that the boy would be an insurgent when he grew up. Therefore, they planned to arrest. The boy was informed, he escaped to a highland, Cao Bang province. He urged others to join with him and fought against the royal. Huu Khoi Nguyen was one of his fellows. He was young but had great health and bravery.

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Their power grew up so fast. In the short time, they had occupied whole Cao Bang province and opened out surroundings. The recent king feared, he ordered Van Duyet Le a powerful general to pacify. Though soldiers fought bravely, they repeatedly lost the battle. At last, they were forced to defend in the capital. Van Duyet Le feared that he could lose the capital. Therefore, he asked others to prepare a fest to pray god for helping. That night, god went into his dream and said:

“Tomorrow, wherever you see blue flame, you have to try your best to break in the place. I will help you at the place”.

The next day, Van Duyet Le notified soldiers. At midnight, a thundering noise appeared, soldiers saw a blue flame in the place where rebles stationed. They tried them best to break into the place. Course, they caught hundreds of people who were rebels’leaders. The ferryman and Huu Khoi Nguyen were also arrested people.

When they were escorted to execution place. Van Duyet Le saw a hefty and handsome man and he felt sorry to him So, he asked people to bring the man to. He asked:

“What’s your name?”

“Huu Khoi Nguyen”, replied the man.

“What’s your talent?”, he asked.

“Tie tiger in forest and catch crocodile in water”, replied the man.

Then Van Duyet Le saved the man’s life. Huu Khoi Nguyen became underling of Van Duyet Le and changed his name to Huu Khoi Nguyen. Every job he always made his master satisfied and he had his master’s trust in a short time. His strength and bravery made others respect him. Wrestlers and martial arts masters respected him as their master.

One day, a foreign mandarin of Xiem, a neigbor country came to Gia ding. Van Duyet ordered Huu Khoi to make up as a soldier and show the foreign mandarin his talent. Hungry tigers were caged. Van Duyet asked Huu Khoi to opened cages and fought against the tigers but he was not allowed to kill but tie them. The foreign mandarin and Van Duyet would sit on tower to see.

After drum sounds, Huu Khoi appeard with only shorts in his body. He carried an iron rod and a pig's thigh, approached a cage and opened. The tiger was too ferocious, it leaped over him as he opened the cage. Huu Khoi, because of surprise, beat the tiger a hit. The tiger was knocked out. It died.

While foreign mandarin respected Huu Khoi, Van Duyet pretended that he was angry and asked people bring Huu Khoi out to kill. Huu Khoi stood on his knees immediately and prayed to have another chance. Then he carried the pig’s thigh and opened another cage. He and the tiger wrestled in drumming sounds. After long time, he kicked the thiger on his stomach. The tiger was knocked out but it didn’t die. He used a rope and tied it. Then, he shouldered the tiger to bottom of tower and waited for next order. Van Duyet was satisfied and the foreign mandarin, now, more respected him.

From trusting to loving, Van Duyet adopted him to be his son. Van Khoi Le was his new name. He felt grateful to his master but he also didn’t forget his fellows who had been died. He thought about a day he would revenge. From the time he was Van Duyet’s adopted son he was Van Duyet helped to have high position. Besides, he helped himself to have many suporters. While the way to power was opening, Van Duyet died.

Minh Mang king had never liked Van Duyet because when Gia Long king nearly died he wanted to replace replace the heir. He wanted to change Minh Mang for the oldest prince but Van Duyet showed his opinion that he supported the oldest prince. Minh Mang was angry as he heard that. Therefore, from the time Minh Mang became the king, he promised with himself that he would kill Van Duyet when he had a chance. But that moment, Van Duyet held in his hand great power. Therefore, the king had to keep him calm and not to do any foolish thing. Now, Van Duyet had died, Minh Mang appointed his his wife’s father, Bach Xuan to replace Van Duyet. He asked him to find Van Duyet’s crimes to have a reason to punish him though he had died.

Bach Xuan was wicked. When he came to Gia dinh province, he immediately searched for crimes then judged Van Duyet in abuse of power. He killed some relatives of Van Duyet, the others were detained. Painful for his master’s fate and he had to saw each person who supported him was killed. The hatred grew up.

One day, he and his friend, Hung was called to Bach Xuan. Xuan Nguyen knew that they were people Van Duyet trusted much. Bach Xuan asked:

“You both have followed Van Duyet for many years. You know for sure about his crimes, aren't you?”, “talk to me his crimes”.

Van Khoi couldn’t be patient any more, he scolded:

“Posterity dares to not respect to him, a powerful general who have devoted to the country very much. If he is still alive, you also can not to be his tea servant”.

Bach Xuan was very angry when he heard that word. He thundered to ask soldiers detain him and planned to kill him. But, Van Khoi did not stay in the prison much time. That night, he escaped and immediately grouped others and fought against royals. Mandarins in the province were prisoned. Bach Xuan was wetted by petroleum and was burned front of Van Duyet’s tomb.

Though he wasn’t ready yet, he had to continue. He and his friends started fighting against the king. They called people to join them and in the short time, they had neighboring provinces. Minh Mang forced generals to fight them. Because number of insurgents was small and had to separate, they lost provinces quickly. At last, they had to go in Phien An citadel to defend. Soldiers rounded them but they could not break in beacause the citadel was very firm. Though Minh Mang wanted caught immediately but soldiers couldn’t and the thing made Minh Mang unsatisfied.

One day, Minh Mang wore as a normal and strolled in a field in the west of castle. The king saw children playing battle game. Some of children built a citadel and tried to keep the citadel not to be broken in. The others tried to break in but they couldn’t. Then they had an idea that they stacked straw on a cart and burned. They pulled the cart toward the citadel and of course, the children had the idea won. Minh Mang went back the castle at one and said generals the way to attack Thien An citadel and they could break in the citadel after that. Van Khoi and his friends was caught and prisoned. They had their end after that

THE END

"Translated by Hung Nguyen"

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