With the judicious policies, the Dai Viet army in the Le So dynasty was stronger and more battle-hardened, timely fought back the invasions by foreign countries, prevented and destroyed all rebellious threats to revive the country.

After having won the victory in the assistance war against the Ming invasion, amidst many difficulties of a country after wars, together with intensively restoring the production, stabilising the society and completely developing Dai Viet, King Le Thai To made many crucial and appropriate policies on strengthening the army to protect the country. Following these policies, all kings in the Le So dynasty made creative and effective applications, gradually completed and intensively built the strong and battle-hardened armies to timely fight back any invasions to the borders by foreign countries, firmly protecting the homeland and territory; at the same time, proactively prevented and destroyed all rebellious threats, steadily maintaining the “peace and prosperity”.

Firstly, improving the regime of military conscription. To maintain the rules and law, oblige all officials and people to follow, improve the mobilisation of troops, and effectively solve situations on country defence, all kings in the Le So dynasty gradually completed the military conscription system with many advanced and suitable policies.

Notably, in the reign of King Le Thanh Tong, the military conscription was clarified, assuring the social justice, and defining each individual’s military service to the country. Accordingly, all localities updated the civil status every 3 years called little event, and every 6 years called big event; also, the State sent two military and civil mandarins of each class to localities to set up a military recruitment schools to review the inhabitants, and divide them into classes (military, militia, civilian, elderly, unaided and abandoned). If a family had 3 men, then 01 would be assigned to the military, 01 to the militia and 01 to the civilian class. If a family had 04 men, 02 would be to the civilian. If a family had 05, 06 men or more, 02 would be to the military and 01 to the militia to be mobilised when needed. “All inhabitants would be listed when they reached 18. Strong men were selected as soldiers first, others were recruited into the militia, staying at home to work in the fields. When the old and weak soldiers were discharged, they were replaced by the militia in the listed order. The mandarins in charge checked the books to recruit the soldiers”. Clearly, the Le So dynasty had strict and unified rules of civil status, clearly classifying inhabitants. Based on this policy, the State could clearly know their army, assuring both the regular elite troops and plenty of the reserve, which were readily mobilised whenever the country was in difficulty. In reality, in the year of Tan Mao (1471), in a short time, King Le Thanh Tong could mobilised 260,000 troops, timely giving the foreign countries who had recklessly invaded the Southern borders with proper punishment.

The advantage of the military service regime also showed no exception for anyone, including children of mandarins, assuring the justice, “strictly abiding by the laws”, and that everyone had equal duties and responsibilities for joining the army and protecting the country. The regime clearly stipulated that children of military and civil first and second grade mandarins; the eldest son of third grade mandarins; and grandsons of dukes, marquises, and earls being illiterate were recruited to soldiers of Embroidered Uniform Guard; illiterate sons of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade mandarins were recruited as Vu Lam guards. Paternal grandsons of seventh grade mandarins and below  would be conscripted into the army, etc.

It was seen that the recruiting methods in the Le So dynasty were clear and thought through. These were updated every three years, which seemed annoying but consistent, making inhabitants feel at ease. This regime helped organise the military units which were determined, battle-hardened and highly-skilled; all generals and soldiers went into battles for the sake of the country, their families, and for themselves, creating an invincible power to defeat all enemies.

The statue of King Le Loi in Thanh Hoa province

Secondly, building the regular and unified army. After achieving the independence, Dai Viet needed a great source of personnel to revive the country, with the vigilance, however, King Le Thai To withdrew 100,000 elite troops (out of 350,000), which were intensively managed in order to “defend the country”. Bringing into play such precious experience, King Le Thanh Tong conducted a comprehensive reform of the army, making the army compact but battle-hardened with the strong regular forces and large reserves ready to be mobilised if necessary.

Regarding the organisation and staff: the State divided into two tiers including the royal army and provincial corps. The royal army consisted of forbidden troops (known as royal guards) and Five Army Commanderies. The royal guards were tasked with protecting the capital and imperial palace, divided into units (vệ) and sub-units (sở) (each unit had 05 sub-units, each sub-unit had 20 squads (đội), each squad had 20 soldiers). The Five Armies were located in key regions of the country including Centre, East, West, South, and North (each had 06 units, each unit had 05 or 06 sub-units, each sub-unit had 05 squads, each squad had 20 soldiers). Beside, the King established provincial military commands (also known as provincial army). Each of the 13 provinces across the country was established with a military command which was responsible for the local order and security. Hence, in the Le So dynasty, there were no other armed forces but the army directly managed by the State. The organisation of the army consisting of 03 forces and 02 tiers (royal army and provincial corps) allowed the king to own strong forces to timely deal with all situations; especially, in all key defence directions, he had enough strength to protect the regions, which was ready to cooperate with the royal army to destroy all plots of invading the borders by foreign countries.

The unified and intensive strength of the army in the Le So dynasty was also shown when the king directly commanded and mobilised forces to quelled rebellions, and expelled foreign invaders. The commanders of the five armies just managed the records, personnel and training, didn’t have right to mobilise troops. To improve the efficiency of managing and commanding the army, the king established support ministries including the Ministry of Army, which consisted of two functional agencies of weapons and military affairs. Weaponry agency was responsible for weapons, equipment, guards, imperial equipage, rituals and other supports for the state and army. The agency of military affairs was tasked with selecting and examining soldiers, planning military operations, inspecting and drawing maps of mountains, rivers, routes, etc., reporting to the king to locate appropriate places for guarding posts across the country.

Owing to such detailed and scientific assignment and allocation of tasks and locations, despite the fact that there were hundreds of thousands troops sometimes, the king was able to control and steadily hold all factors, making throughout command from top to bottom. All soldiers were of one mind, completely performing when ordered, hundreds of thousands of people acted as one, multiplying the power by many times.

Thirdly, actively and proactively protecting the borders. Before the plots of invading the homeland by the foreign countries, plus the rebellious elements within the country, in order to safeguard the country and stabilise the situations, the kings of the Le So dynasty proactively protected the borders – the “fences” of the country. With his far-sighted policies on the borders, right after coming to the throne, on a time of quelling the rebels in the Da Giang highlands, King Le Thai To had his men carve into mountain a line of poetry i.e. For safe borders, make plans/For a peaceful country, create strategies. Highly raising the vigilance, under the reign of Hong Duc, King Le Thanh Tong issued a decree to commanders and vice commanders of units in far borders: “As leaders of a region, you must prepare for the unexpected and prevent the foreign invaders”. This shows that all kings in the Le So dynasty proactively saw the border guard as an intermediate and long term strategy in order to firmly and sustainably safeguard the territory, seas and islands of the country.

Implementing the policies on protecting the borders, immediately, the state sent several elite armed forces to coordinate with the local forces to protect all the far borders, timely preventing any border invasions by the Ming Dynasty in the North; meanwhile, strengthened the local governments in all borders of the West and South. Systems of posts, key ones in arterial roads in particular were upgraded to improve the defensive capability. Together, the border control services were strictly regulated: “Any border guards who didn’t make careful check, letting anyone reveal information or break into the borders to seek information would be punished with detention, imprisonment or death penalty”. As a result, for a long time, despite the Southern invaders’ covetous eyes, borders of Dai Viet were safely guarded, the country was much more prosperous, making “any foreigners respect and all barbarous tribes admire”. In the long run, the state made the maps of all towns in borders and the whole country. The king ordered the provincial administrators including the ones in the borders to make research of the features of all mountains, rivers, seas, islands, dangerous terrains and ancient legends within their domain, noting the details for the Ministry of Finance to make geographic maps. Therefore, the “Atlas of Hong Duc” – the first complete atlas of our country was born, making an advanced progress of the thought on protecting the territory and borders from afar. Together with the “Geographical Chronicles” by Nguyen Trai, this was a rich identification of mountains, rivers, seas and islands, a meticulous record of all areas, villages, products, soils and hydrological features. These were the first geological-historical works of our country, affirming the sovereignty, territories, borders and natural resources, which have been preserved until this day and into the future.

These judicious policies on building the army and safeguarding the country in the Le So dynasty assisted Dai Viet in maintaining the national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity for a long time, creating stable conditions for the country to gain prosperity. They are also the lessons with profound historical values which need to be continuously studied, applied and developed in the cause of building and safeguarding the Fatherland today.

HA THANH – VU TRANG