Nguyen Thien Thuat (1844-1926)

Nguyen Thien Thuat was a native of Xuan Duc village, Duong Hao district, (Now belonging to Xuan Dao village, Xuan Duc commune, My Hao district). He was born in a poor Confucian family but his martial art and literature talent was well-known throughout the district.

According to Nguyen’s family annals, he was blood-relation of Nguyen Trai and his ancestors settled in Xuan Duc. His father, Nguyen Tuy, whose pseudonym was Quang Phuong, won a high-school diploma in 1842 and worked as a teacher. His mother was a native of Di Su village of the same district. His family has six children – two daughters and four sons. He and his brothers took part in the Bai Say insurgence led by him. 

In 1870, he passed high-school finals. In 1874, because of his contributions in putting down rebellions in Kinh Mon district (Hai Duong), he was appointed the assistant chief of the district. In 1876, he won a bachelor’s degree and became chief of Tu Son. He was an upright mandarin with administration talent.

In 1879, he was assigned “Tan tuong quan thu” position. In 1881, he took the position of “Huong Hoa son phong chanh su” cum “Tan tuong quan thu of Son Tay province”. Therefore, he was often called Tan Thuat or Tan Dong (As he was a native of Dong (the east) province).

When the French invaded the North of the country, the Nguyen dynasty vilely surrendered the enemy. He twice disobeyed the court’s orders and determined to fight against French colonialism. First, he withdrew to Dong Trieu and recruited insurgents with Luu Vinh Phuc to fight against French colonialism. During this time, he often contacted with Dinh Gia Que, leader of Bai Say insurgent force developing in the delta. On November 12nd, 1983, his insurgent army attacked Hai Duong’s township and surrounded this locality. However, as his forces were still weak, he had to withdraw.

The second attack happened in late 1883. After the signing of the Harmand treaty, the royal court continued making concessions for the French colonialists. Tu Duc King ordered that military operations be stopped in Bac Ky (The northern part) and mandarins return to the capital to wait for assignments. Nguyen Thien Thuat led his troops to Hung Hoa (Tuyen Quang) and cooperated with Nguyen Quang Bich to defend his citadel. In March 1884, Hung Hoa was conquered, some commanders returned to the capital but he and some other commanders determined to fight against the French enemy. After Lang Son citadel was invaded in March 1885, he quit to Longzhou (China) to make military preparations to continue the fighting.

In July 1885, Ham Nghi King issued the Royalist imperial edict. He returned to establish Bai Say military base and led the insurgence against the French colonialists, continuing the cause of the Ding family (By then Dinh Gia Que had died). Ham Nghi King titled him as Bac Ky Hiep Thong General. Therefore, he was often called Hiep Thong mandarin. Many talented people followed him. He led the insurgent army and made use of guerilla tactics to resist suppressions by the enemy as well as attacked a lot of military posts and caused big casualties to the enemy.

Under his leadership, the Bai Say insurgence spread throughout Hung Yen province and some neighboring provinces. The resounding reputation of the insurgent army made the French colonialists very frightened. Along with recruiting new insurgents, Nguyen Thien Thuat promoted people’s patriotism. Due to the protection and assistance of people, the insurgence existed for five years (1885-1889). French had comments on him as followed: “Contemporary leaders of insurgences against the French often paid little attention to political activities among grassroots. Only Nguyen Thien Thuat tried to gather rural people in Bac Ky to take part in the national salvation”.

During this period, the French colonialists managed to expand their controlled areas and mobilized forces to carry out severe suppressions, which made the insurgent army weaker and weaker. Hoang Cao Khai, an unpatriotic Vietnamese, pretended to be on behalf of Dong Khanh King to seduce Nguyen Thien Thuat to surrender and promised to maintain his mandarin title. He wrote in the imperial edict that he refused. After that he handed over his power to his younger brother, Nguyen Thien Ke to continue the insurgence. He went to China to seek reinforcements and strengthen forces for his French resistance.

During his time in China, he often got contact with Ton That Thuyet and some other friends, including Nguyen Chi Thuong, his second son. After Thuong was arrested and banished to Con Dao Island, he, Cuong De and Phan Boi Chau went to Dong Kinh to establish "Viet Nam duy tan phuc quoc hoi" (Vietnam modernist and national recovery association) with an aim to liberate the country, improve people’s education and create favorable conditions to send Vietnamese students for studying abroad. He also sent other reliable people back to the country to recruit patriots and establish "Viet Nam cach mang quang phuc quan" (Vietnam’s revolutionary troops) to liberate the country.

He died on May 25^th, 1926 and was buried on the suburb of Nanning city of China’s Guangxi province where there was also the cemetery of soldiers, wounded soldiers from Vietnam to China taking treatment here.