Nguyen Anh (Mighty Dai Viet Empire)

Nguyễn Ánh (阮暎), born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (阮福暎) was the last Nguyen lord in the Nguyen-Tay Son civil war. A nephew of the last Nguyễn lord who ruled over southern Dai Viet, Nguyễn Ánh was forced into hiding in 1777 as a fifteen-year-old when his family was slain in the Tây Sơn revolt. After several changes of fortune in which his loyalists regained and again lost Gia Dinh, he befriended the French Catholic priest Pigneau de Behaine. With Pigneau's help, he modernized his army to fight against Tay Son. However, he eventually lost the battle of Chau Doc and was executed by Tay Son troops.

History
Born on 8 February 1762, Nguyễn Ánh was the son of Nguyễn Phúc Luân and Nguyen Thi Hoan. Luan was the designated heir of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Khoát of southern Dai Viet. However, a high-ranking mandarin named Trương Phúc Loan changed Khoat's will of succession on his deathbed, and installed Luan's younger brother Nguyễn Phúc Thuần on the throne in 1765. Luan was jailed and died in the same year.

However, Thuan lost his position as lord of southern Dai Viet and was killed during the Tây Sơn rebellion led by the brothers Nguyễn Nhạc, Nguyễn Huệ and Nguyễn Lữ in 1777. Nguyễn Ánh was the most senior member of the ruling family to survive the Tây Sơn victory, which pushed the Nguyễn from their heartland in central Dai Viet, southwards towards Gia Dinh and into the Mekong Delta region in the far south. Nguyễn Ánh fled to Hà Tiên on the southern coastal tip of Dai Viet, where he met Pigneau de Behaine, a French priest who became his adviser. With Pigneau's help, he modernized his army to fight against Tay Son.

Asking for Siamese help
In February 1783, Tay Son king Nguyen Nhac asked brothers Nguyen Hue and Nguyen Lu to sent troops to the south. Nguyễn General Chau Van Tiep tried to stop them by using fire weapons but failed. Defeated, Nguyen Anh must escape to Định Tường and Chau Van Tiep went along the mountain road through Cambodia and to seek help from Siam.

During this period, Siam was at the time of prosper and had ambition to take over Cambodia and Gia Dinh to expand its borders. When they heard that Chau Van Tiep - a loyal servant of the Nguyen lord - seeked help, the king of Siam, Rama I, agreed.

Promised, Chau Van Tiep immediately send a letter informing the Nguyen lord. After discussing with Siamese generals in Ca Mau, in March 1784, Nguyen Anh came to Bangkok to have a meeting with King of Siam. He provide Nguyen Anh with support troops and a small invasion force.

The Tay Son reinforcements led by Quang Trung marched south from Quy Nhon and arrived in southern Dai Viet soon after. Quang Trung avoided a direct attack on a strong Siamese force at Sa Dec and tried to set up a trap. Quang Trung, anticipating a move from the Siamese, had secretly positioned his infantry and artillery along the Mekong River (Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút), and on some islands in the middle, facing other troops on the northern banks with naval reinforcements on both sides of the infantry positions.

On the morning of January 20, 1785, Quang Trung sent a small naval force, under a banner of truce, to offer to parley with the Siamese. After so many victories, the Siamese army and naval forces were overconfident. They went to the parley unaware of the trap. Quang Trung's ships dashed into the unprepared Siamese troops, preventing their advance or retreat. In the meantime, Tay Son artillery opened fire. The battle ended with a near annihilation of the Siamese forces, only 2000 to 3000 of the original expedition survived to escape back across the river into Siam. Nguyễn Ánh and his family members escaped and later went to Siam.

Modernizing his army
On 25 January 1787, Pigneau de Behaine on behalf of Nguyen Anh signed the Treaty of Versailles (1787) with France. According to the Treaty, the King of France agreed to send four warships and an army: 1,200 troops, 200 artilleries, and all kind of guns to fight against the Tay Son. If he managed to win against Tay Son, Nguyen Anh had to give France Hội An and Côn Lôn island, sovereignty over those territories would forever belong to France at the time of French troops occupy the islands. At that time, the French Revolution occurred, and French King did not implement supplies for Nguyen Anh, but Behaine has recruited French merchants to support Nguyen Anh.

The activities of giving money to Nguyen Anh or building and fixing Gia Dinh, Vinh Long, Chau Doc, Ha Tien, Bien Hoa, Ba Ria, training the gunners, organizing infantry and training soldiers in the European way and purchasing warships and weapons,... all were done by the French, which were recruited by Pigneau de Behaine. The consolidation of Gia Dinh with the help of the French helped Nguyen Anh's forces grow stronger and could match up against Tay Son. Nguyen Anh's troops was dragged out to fight Binh Thuan, Binh Khang, Dien Khanh; the troops of Nguyen Nhac repeatedly lost. Until 1791, Nguyen Nhac only governed Quy Nhon, Phu Yen and Quang Ngai.

After stabilizing the situation in the north, Quang Trung was determined to destroy the Nguyen's. He tried to reassure Nguyen Nhac and the people in the area headed by Nguyen Nhac to prepare for "Nam tiến" - "Southward expansion". During this time, Quang Trung oddly sent Vu Van Dung - the ambassador to Qing China to "ask" Qianlong for Guangdong and Guangxi. Many believed that was actually just a political trick. Quang Trung did not want to reclaim Chinese land because he knew he could not, or at least yet at that time. Moreover, he used some of the troops to disguised as pirates, attacking the Chinese sea border in the South China Sea so that the Qing Dynasty was engaged in diplomatic activity and defeating the pirates so that he had time to support Nguyen Nhac in the Southern battlefield. In preparation for the collaboration with Quang Trung, in 1792, Nguyen Nhac built many boats at Thi Nai gate to "Nam tiến". But at that time the wind was flowing in the opposite direction and were not convenient to battle, and they had to wait for the winter. Nguyen Anh took the opportunity with French and Portuguese troops and attacked the Thi Nai gate, burning many warships of the Tay Son. Nguyen Nhac didn't expect that, and must retreat to Quy Nhon.

Defeat
To revenge that battle, Quang Trung intended to launch a very large campaign, mobilizing more than 20 -30 thousand of navy troops, divided into three lines:


 * Nguyen Nhac along the road from Phu Yen to attack Gia Dinh.
 * Quang Trung's troops from Phu Xuan went straight through Lan Xang to Cambodia, from there, accompanied by Cambodian troops, back to Gia Dinh, preventing Nguyen Anh to espace to Siam.
 * Quang Trung's navy will advance to Ha Tien to land on the mainland to prevent Nguyen Anh from espacing into the South China Sea.

The battle happened on September 1792; and everything went on exaclty according to plan. As modernized as Nguyen Anh's troops might be, he did not expect Tay Son's troops would be as powerful. Both the land troops and the navy serverely attack Gia Dinh, forcing Nguyen Anh to flee to Cambodia to Siam through the Chau Doc River.

Little did he expect that dozens of Cambodian and Tay Son navy troops were ambushing on the banks of the river, waiting for Nguyen Anh. Just as he sailed across them, they striked and annihilated Nguyen Anh's boats. Nguyen Anh was captured and executed. Quang Trung officially ended the war and united the country under his rule.

How he is viewed
Today, Nguyễn Ánh is portrayed as a villain who wants to destroy the Tay Son dynasty and took over Dai Viet. However, he is sympathized by many historians due to the murder of his family by Tay Son. Nonetheless, he remains a controversy figure to talk about today.

"The circumstances made him who he is. You can't really blame him when his family was murdered by a rebel. He had his ambitions, however there's only one winner in a war."

- Tran Trong Kim