Skip to main content

Story 6: Tri Cao Nung

All kings desired that whole the country they dominated was a united entity. King Thai Tong Ly was also one of them. Along the time he ruled the country, Dai Viet, he had had many policies to achieve his purpose. One of policies was political marriages. Princesses were sent and married with patriarchs who lived in the north highland of the country and the king also married with daughters of patriarchs. The king ordained them and let them manage the area but they had to obey the king. Therefore, the king didn’t need any fighting to force them to obey him.
Nung family had ruled provinces in the north highland long time. When Thai To Ly had been king he had ordained Ton Loc Nung to manage Thang Do area and his brother, Ton Loc Nung to manage Van Nhai area and his sister’s husband, Duong Dao to manage Vu Lac (now the areas were Cao Bang and Lang Son province)
When King Thai Tong Ly ascended the throne in 1038, Ton Phuc Nung killed the others and ruled their areas. He thought that the area was distant from the capital and besides, that was near Tong, the country was ready to help him whenever he requested. Phuc showed that he didn’t obey the king. He trained soldiers and established a new country, named Truong Sinh and Cao Binh (now Cao Binh, Hoa An district, Cao Bang province) was the new capital. He called himself Thanh Hoang emperor. His wife, A Nung, was ordained to be queen and his oldest son, Tri Thong Nung, was ordained to be Nam Nhai king. Phuc used to attack other areas and made borders were chaotic.
In 1039, the king sent a messenger coming and asking him to obey the king. Phuc not only didn’t listen but also dishonored the messenger. King Thai Tong Ly was angry, he himself brought solders to and fought Phuc. The way which led to the area was distant and craggy but that couldn’t stop them. When they arrived, Phuc knew that he and his soldiers couldn’t fight against the king and his soldiers. Therefore, Phuc and his family ran into the forest. They burned all camps to show the king his intent that he would fight against till he died. Soldiers of the king chased after them and caught Phuc and his oldest son. Phuc and his son were caged and brought to the capital. They were cut off their head at one when they arrived to the capital. That was a message the wanted to send others who planned to stand up him would had the same end. But, Phuc had another son, Tri Cao Nung, had escaped with his mother.
In 1041, Tri Cao Nung and his mother grouped underlings and regained Thang Do area. They established a new country, named Dai Lich. The king ordered general to fight them and it took no long time for the general could catch Tri Cao Nung and brought to the capital. The king didn’t want to kill him because he had killed his father and his brother. Therefore, he pardoned him and gave him a position named “Quang Nguyen Muc” (the position his father had had). He was responsible for management the area his father had managed and besides, Tu Lang area (Trung Khanh) though he was only 16 years old. He and his mother stood on their knees and promised that they would obey the king. In 1043, when Tri Cao Nung tributes to the king, the king ordained him to be the lord of the area he ruled. The king, besides, gifted him a new name, Thai Bao. Thought that his kindness would make Tri Cao Phung felt grateful but the king was wrong.
In 1048, Tri Cao Nung betrayed. He got the northwest of Cao Bang area by force. Another time, he established a new country with name, Dai Nam. He requested to king of Tong to merge into Tong. But, the king of Tong didn’t accept. King Thai Tong Ly ordered soldiers to attack them. That time, Tri Cao Nung requested to reconcile. He committed that he would not annoyed the borders which between his area and the country and he only expand his land in the side abutting with Tong. From that time, Tri Cao Nung attacked Tong.
Chinese history had written that Cao from the south brought soldiers coming and fighting Tong. He had wins in any where he arrived to. Besides, he was helped by people who were in other side of border, especially, he had allies, Tri Trung Nung and Kien Hau Nung who were also landlords and had same family name. Their power was tronger and stronger.
In 1052, Tri Cao Nung attacked Hoanh Son barrack then went in Ung Chau district, killed Tran Cung the mandarin of the area. That time, he established new country named Dai Nam. He called himself Emperor Nhan Hue. Then he attacked Quang Dong and Quang Tay and captured 9 districts. That was a large area. Later they went to attack Ho Nam. The name of Tri Cao Nung spread largely that made the king of Tong worried.
Then Dich Thanh, one of best general of China that time, brought soldiers to fight against them. Dich Thanh was a great general who had passed many fighting. So he was enough wisdom to solve Tri Cao Nung. Tri Cao Nung knew that he would lose. He sent a messenger to Dai Viet to pray King Thai Tong Ly to help him. King Thai Tong Ly ordered generals to go to the border and helped them at there. But they still didn’t arrived to the border Tri Cao Nung had lost and hid himself in Dai Li, a small country at Van Nam, the country had a long border with Dai Viet. King of Dai Ly scared That Tri Cao Nung would deprive his power and besides, he feared king of Tong. Therefore, he ordered servants to cut off Tri Cao Nung’s head later. The head was put into a box and was sent to king of Tong. That time, Thai Tong Ly had died and Thanh Tong Ly ascended the throne.
After Tri Cao Nung died, Thanh Tong Ly reclaimed the area which had managed by Tri Cao Nung and gave to others to manage. From that time, the border became peaceful.
THE END
"Translated by Hung Nguyen"

Read more: 
-----

Comments

BÀI ĐĂNG ĐƯỢC XEM NHIỀU

List of Vietnamese fairy tales

Vietnamese  fairy tales includes many stories as Tam and Cam; So Dua; Hundred – knot- bamboo tree... which were spread in folk. Each stories has  its own meaning. I think I can not translate exactly each word into english but I will try my best to convey its meaning to you. Hope you like them!

Thuong Luong

Thuong Luong was common name of creatures which are in people’s imagines. They are distant relatives of dragons. While dragons are worshiped as gods, the gods ruled rivers and sea and the gods can make rains, Thuong Luong is not respected as dragons that the creatures are too amorous, combative, wild, and have bad behaviors. All most of them like to harm people.

The Tale of the Hundred - knot Bamboo tree

Once upon a time, there had a boy who was poor, had no field. Therefore, he found the way to work for a landlord. He was healthy, worked hard and great in working so the landlord wanted him to work for him long time without any pay. One day, he called the boy to come. "You are honest and healthy. If you agree to work for me in three years without pay, I will let you marry with my only daughter after that." The boy agreed. He believed completely. He worked very hard, help the landlord turn richer that he could build more houses, buy more fields and cattles. Then, time passed. Three years nearly crossed, the boy always remembered his master's promise while his master, the landlord didn't want to do his promise. He in secret had found another boy for his daughter, a son of another landlord in that area. Therefore, what he need was a reason to refuse the boy. One day, he called the boy to come. "You have worked very hard for three years, waken early, slept late....

Bài 1.5: Cách sử dụng at, on, in cho thời gian, ngày, tháng, năm, mùa.

Chào các bạn! Bởi vì mình có hay dich truyện và một vài thứ linh tinh khác nên thường bắt gặp ngày, tháng năm. Thật ra khôngkhó để sử dụng đúng nhưng mỗi lần cần đến mình lại phải tra lại tra cứu. Điều đó rất mất thời gian nên hôm nay mình viết một bài liên quan đến at, on, in + thời gian để giúp bạn nào chưa biết và giúp chính mình nhớ được cách sử dụng của các giới từ at, on, in và dạng thời gian được theo sau giới từ đó.

Bài 1.6: Động từ “to be”.

Động từ “to be” là một động từ đặc biệt và gần như có nhiều dạng thức nhất trong nhóm động từ. Vì vây, để giải thích rõ ràng ý nghĩa và các sử dụng động từ “to be” là một vấn đề khá phức tạp. Mình sẽ có gắng giải thích một cách dễ hiểu nhất cho các bạn.

The tale of "Banh Chung" and "Banh Day"

Once  upon a time, that had a king who was so old so he wanted to abdicate. He had had few wives who had given bird twelve sons. All of his sons had grown up and also were great people. The King was confused about choosing. “All of them are talent people. It is so difficult that I can choose a person and nobody can be jealous” said the King. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com “My Lord the king, we can have a contest” said a servant. “Oh, it is a good idea but what is subject of the contest?” said the king  “Meaning dishes, which we can put on ancestral altar” said the servant. “Great, let’s doing” said the king. The king called his son to come on and said:  “My sons, I don’t have many time and I want one of you to become the king. Now, anybody who can find dishes which not only are delicious but still have great meaning to put on ancestral altar will become the king.” 

My Chau and Trong Thuy

Once upon a time, there had a king, named An Duong Vuong. After many years fighting, he get a large area. The king planed to build a castle but whenever it had been built as tall as a men’s height then it was ruined. The king was unhappy. Therefore, the king had made an altar to pray God for few days until an early morning, a old man from seaside went to talk him God Turtle was going come to help him. The king was very happy and forced soldiers to wait on the seaside. The next day, in the water appeared a big gold turles toward seaside. The soldiers invited God Turtle to set sat on a big gold platter and brought to the king. The God Turtle told the king that the castle couldn’t have finished because of demons. God Turtle helped the king to kill the demons so all demons was killed. Besides, the God Turtle help the king design a castle look like a seashell with many gate levels. Half a month later, the castle had been finished. The king was very pleased but a little worry. He a...

The tale of great doctor

Once  upon a time, a doctor lived in a village who was solid expertise that he could find out and cured all diseases. Besides, he was a kind, honest man so people who lived in the village loved and respected him very much. They called him Mr. doctor. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com Meanwhile, a woman who lived in the village wanted to kill her husband to live with another man. One day, her husband had flu. The woman thought immediately about buying poison for him. She went to meet the doctor and priced but the doctor, in another hand, didn’t agree though whatever price she gave him. He said he would never used medicine to harm everyone. The woman had never given up, she still gave prices higher and higher that made the doctor saw clearly the woman would never given up until her husband was dead. Therefore, the doctor gave her tonic and said that if her husband drank that medicine he would never woke up. The woman was very happy; she went home and Slow-cooked medi...

Thi Kinh Bodhisattva

A  person had been born times, lived other lives. Each time being born, the person was always a monk or a nut, lived with strong religious belief. She or he had passed nine lives but still   didn’t reach Nirvana. At the tenth, the person was reborn in the form of a girl. She was daughter of a normal family who lived in Cao Ly and her name was Thi Kinh. Thi Kinh was a calm, kind-hearted girl. She was the person who loved her mother and father, using to help them homework. When she grew up, he parent let her married with a student whose name’s Thien Si. Thien Si was born in normal family, not richer than her family but he was very hard in studying. Therefore, Thi Kinh had nothing more pleased than undertaking all homework for her husband to have time to study. One normal night, Thien Si sat on floor reading book while his wife, Thi Kinh, was staying by sewing. Front their face was only an oil lamp. Later, Thien Si felt tired, he laid down his head was on his wif...