In late of 1426, after consecutive losses, Ming dynasty’s troop had to fortify in Dong Guan and waited for reinforcement. After being reinforced, Wang Tong, the general commander of Ming troop gathered his forces to prepare for strategic counter attack aiming to destroy our main force surrounding Dong Guan, gaining advantages and attacking the headquarters of Lam Son troop and crush the insurrection. Understanding the enemy’s plan, though being inferior in strength, Lam Son troop made full use of their advancing posture, actively waged a number of battles, destroyed a large number of their troops and put them completely in passive position.

With the ambush in Tot Dong – Chuc Dong, our troop destroyed more then 50 thousand enemy troops, captured numerous horses and weapons; totally put down the enemy counter attack and forced them to remain in Dong Guan waiting for another reinforcement. The battle left us many valuable lessons on ambushing, manifested in the following points:

1. Creating firm, dangerous, flexible disposition and wining the decisive battle.

After being reinforced, Ming troop in Dong Guan mounted up to more than 90 thousand. With this powerful strength, Wang Tong divided his troop into three groups occupying Co So port, Thanh Oai district and Sa Doi bridge as springboard for his strategic counter attack. Facing a strong and aggressive enemy, Lam Son troops tried to avoid the enemy strong points but still kept their advancing posture, step by step broke down the enemy attacking force; creating a firm posture to destroy a huge amount of enemy and smash down their counter attack attempt. To implement the plan, our troops, on one side held the most important places; on the other side, carried out a number of attacks to annihilate the enemy in Co Lam, Thanh Oai; created pressure to force the enemy to withdraw to Dong Guan. By this time, the enemy’s counter attack posture had been narrowed. If they dared to attack our garrison in Cao Bo, they could only start from Co So and had two directions, namely: Ninh Kieu – Chuc Dong – Tot Dong – Yen Duyet – Cao Bo; and Ninh Kieu – Chuc Dong – Dai On – Cao Bo. So, with disposition creating activities, our troops set up a firm, dangerous and flexible disposition for ambushing which stretched from Chuc Dong to Tot Dong and lured the enemy to the decisive battle. That was the unique talent of the commanders and the decisive factor to the victory of the battle. The second battle field which took place at Chuc Dong was a hidden and dangerous place close to Ninh Kieu where both  groups of the enemy had no choice but to cross by. The fields there were not as muddy as those in Tot Dong but there were high mountains, dense forest which was favourable for ambushing troops and shaping attacking formation. According to operation plan, task of troops in Chuc Dong was to collaborate with the main ones in Tot Dong to split the enemy formation, attack the rear of the enemy and block up their withdrawing line at Dong Guan. One distinctive art of creating disposition was also manifested in choosing this battle field because the open area between Tot Dong and Chuc Dong was large enough to occupy tens of thousands of troops. In reality, when the front part of the enemy entered Tot Dong, their rear one fell into our ambush in Chuc Dong. Not only thoroughly studying and creating attacking disposition, the commanders of Lam Son troop also decided to deploy all of their force in Ninh Kieu to Cao Bo. This move further encouraged Wang Tong to advance his troop to our ambush position. When the battle started, Lam Son troop from all directions simultaneously appeared and destroyed the enemy made them panic and abandoned their position in chaos to the muddy fields and be easy targets for our troops. Part of the enemy ran to Ninh river intending to return to Dong Guan but again fell into our ambush position. Countless of them was killed and drowned.

2. Reasonably organizing and deploying troops to block, split and destroy the enemy part by part and then completely annihilate and broke down the enemy attack.

Participating the operation, there were about ten thousand Lam Son troops in comparison with more than 90 thousand ones of the adversary. It was obvious that the enemy was overwheming. For this reason, it was unwise for Lam Son troops to engage the enemy face to face. To overcome this challenge, the commanders  made full use of the natural features of the terrain to deploy their troops in order to double their effectiveness while reducing the numbers of troops involved. By fully aware of the enemy plan, the commanders of Lam Son troop divided their force into small groups to ensure flexibility and secrecy in ambush for quick attack, division and annihilation. In addition, they used a sufficient part to engage the head of enemy when they got to Tot Dong. At Chuc Dong, the troop laid a strong force which was able to divide and block the enemy at Tot Dong field, creating condition for the main force to destroy the enemy. So, troop deployment in the battle was very reasonable, scientific and appropriate. Though being much more inferior in strength, Lam Son troop made full use of natural features,  deployed troops reasonably, hence creating a huge synergy and defeating the attacks of Wang Tong.

3. Flexible and creative in leveraging the enemy plan.

After preparing disposition for the ambush, commanders of Lam Son troop closely monitored all activities of Wang Tong troop. Knowing that they were to use the fire of cannon as the signal for their two armies to speed up and start their plan of attack. By analyzing the enemy plan, commanders of Lam Son troop decided to leverage the enemy plan to counter the them. As expected, in the early of 7^th November 1426, Wang Tong departed his main troop. When the two enemy armies came to Tot Dong and Ninh Giang Bridge, Lam Son troop fired their cannon. Misunderstanding that this is their order, the enemy accelerated and fell into our ambush position. At this time, our troop remained still. The enemy was subjective that their plan was secret and they could take Lam Son troop by surprise. When the two enemy armies got into our ambush position, Lam Son troop simultaneously appeared from their hidden position and engaged the enemy. Being taken aback, the enemy got unprepared, panic and dispirited right from the beginning of the battle. In contrast, by actively luring the enemy to prepared combat order, Lam Son troop was highly spirited and overwhelmed the enemy from the early stage of the battle to defeat them.

In the event of the modern salvation war, there may have new advances in the art of war, weapons and equipment but the lessons drawn from the Tot Dong – Chuc Dong operation are still of value and need upholding in the new situation.

Senior Colonel, MA. Mai Van Quang and Major, MA. Vu Binh Tuyen

Vietnam Military History Institute