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The re-enactment of the operation of Tay Son insurgent army at Tay Son – Binh Dinh Festival 2008 |
According to Le Trieu da su (Le Trieu chronicle), when leading the Tay Son army to march on Thang Long to fight against the Qing dynasty’s troops, Quang Trung Emperor asked his soldiers to form groups of three and they took turns to carry each other without stopping to relax. They could therefore operate at lightening speed.
Many believed there was such a special operation. In a group of three soldiers, two played as stretcher-bearers and the third could relax when being carried on a stretcher. They took turns to do this.
However, some doubted this might not be true because each soldier had to carry many items, such as weapons and provisions. Stretchering each other, thus, could slow down the journey; moreover, he who was stretchered also felt uncomfortable.
In a “study on Nguyen Hue’s military genius”, two authors Nguyen Luong Bich and Pham Ngoc Phung wrote: “Le Trieu da su said when marching on the north Nguyen Hue’s soldiers took turns to stretcher each other in groups of three.” This couldn’t be true because it was difficult to travel at a rapid pace when two had to carry the others.
They thought that stretchering each other was only an explanation for the lightening speed-operation of Nguyen Hue’s army. Two authors also supposed that there were groups of soldiers who were assigned to carry equipment and provisions and this caused some misunderstanding when people saw their operation.
This was a second-to-none operation with scores of soldiers. Many elephants, horses, and so-called stretchers were brought during the operation. These so-called stretchers must be called bamboo boats. They looked like small fishing boats which were made from bamboo trees with the length of 2.4 meters and the width of 0.8 meters.
Before being dried off, each bamboo boat was then plastered with a mixture of dodder, waste matter from buffalo or cows, and bark of a type of tree which produces resin.
Each group of three had a bamboo boat and they had to carry it during the operation. To easily carry the boat in which there were weapons, provisions, and equipment, a pole was tied along it and two soldiers carried it at both ends. Seeing from far distance, it seemed they were stretchering a person. It was sometimes used to stretcher those who were too injured or ill to walk.
When soldiers had to cross any rivers, the so-called “stretcher-boats” were the most convenient means of transport. From Phu Xuan to Thang Long the Tay Son rebel soldiers had to cross hundreds of rivers; whilst, there were not enough boats for all to cross the rivers at the same time and they also couldn’t swim because it was very cold.
Each small bamboo boat was used to carry three soldiers and weapons were used as paddles. Also, during the operation, these boats functioned as shelters when it rained. Another function of these boats was that they were used as shields to protect soldiers when they attacked the enemy.
The “stretcher-boats” with special functions contributed to not only the lightening-speed operation but the Ky Dau’s (Rooster) Spring victory in 1789. It proved the Quang Trung Emperor’s creativeness in military affairs.
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