Sông Bạch Đằng
The river Bạch Đằng (vietn. Sông Bạch Đằng , also Bạch Đằng Giang ) is an approximately 30 km long watercourse in the delta of the Red River in northern Vietnam . It is the last section of the northernmost estuary of the Red River and the connected Thái Bình . The estuary is influenced by the tides and is navigable by seagoing vessels.
course
The river (or river section) emerges south of Uông Bí from the Đá Bạc (or Đá Bạch ), which bends south at this point ( ⊙ ). As a rule, in Vietnamese parlance, the section running to the east is still referred to as Đá Bạc and the subsequent section running south as Bch Đằng.
The Đá Bạc was previously formed about 15 kilometers further to the west, southeast of Mạo Khê and north of Lại Xuân , through the reunification of the Kinh-Thầy rivers Sông Ha and Đá Vách ( ⊙ ).
After the transition to the Bạch Đằng, the river forms the border between the district of Quảng Yên (formerly Yên Hưng ) in the province of Quảng Ninh in the east and the district of Thủy Nguyên in the urban province of Haiphong in the west. East of the core city of Haiphong, the river flows into the Gulf of Tonkin ( ⊙ ) at the islands of Đảo Hà Nam and Cát Hải at the southwest end of Halong Bay .
The Đá Bạc has a southern branch over almost its entire length, the Sông Giá , which is 18.5 kilometers long . At the Phà-Rừng shipyard, this finally joins the main stream (now Bạch Đằng) ( ⊙ ), but the Sông Chanh tributary branches off at the same level as the river . Together with the main Bạch-Đằng arm (also called Nam Triệu ), this delimits the aforementioned island of Đảo Hà Nam.
Shortly before it flows into the sea, the Sông Cấm, coming from the west, joins the Bạch Đằng ( ⊙ ). This river is an earlier branch of the same estuary. The port of Haiphong, the most important cargo handling point in northern Vietnam, is located on its banks. The mouth of the Bạch Đằng (also called B Formch Đằng – Cấm estuary in combined form ) is therefore of great importance for Vietnam's shipping as part of the heavily frequented sea route to Haiphong.
Since the beginning of 2014, the approximately 5-kilometer-long Tân Vũ – Lạch Huyện bridge has been under construction, which, once completed, will span the entire Bạch-Đằng estuary from the core city of Haiphong to the island of Cát Hải.
Historical and military importance
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Coming from the north - China - the waterway Bạch Đằng - Đá Bạch - Kinh Thầy - Sông Đuống was the fastest connection to Hanoi . The Bạch dieng was the place for Chinese invaders who wanted to avoid the overland route through the border area, which is difficult to access where they first reached Vietnamese territory. As a result, the estuary was often contested throughout history. Twice (938 and 1288) the Vietnamese were able to defeat the Chinese in combined sea and land battles with an ambush tactic and thus secure their independence, which is why the Bạch Đằng plays a central role in the history of the country.
In the first battle in 938, the Vietnamese forces under Ngô Quyền defeated the southern Han troops , thereby ending Chinese rule over Vietnam, which lasted around a thousand years . At low tide, the Vietnamese rammed sharpened stakes into the (at that time still quite flat) estuary area, thus blocking off all entrances to the river. At high tide, the piles were not visible below the surface of the water, so that the Chinese fleet could be lured into the river. When the water sank again, the ships hit the piles and started leaking. The fleet, rendered immobile, was then surrounded and defeated by the Vietnamese.
In 981 another battle took place between the Vietnamese under Lê Hoàn and the troops of the Song dynasty , which, however, brought no decision. The Vietnamese were nevertheless able to prevail, as the land army deployed parallel to the fleet was wiped out in difficult terrain.
The second great Vietnamese victory was achieved in the third battle of 1288 against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty . The Vietnamese leader Trần Hưng Đạo , a member of the Trần dynasty , used the same stake tactics as he had used 350 years earlier, this time only being able to intercept and destroy the enemy fleet on the way back. As a result, the Mongols made no more attempts to conquer Vietnam and, like the Chinese emperors before them, contented themselves with paying tribute.
In later centuries the river was dammed and greatly altered in its course. When celebrations to mark the anniversary of the battles took place in North Vietnam in the 1960s , the original course of the water and the exact location of the fighting had been forgotten.
The river also played a role in later conflicts: During the Indochina War , French warships (including the cruiser Duguay-Trouin ) went up to the Đá Bạch to provide support fire with their naval artillery at the Battle of Mạo Khê (late March 1951) .
Individual evidence
- ↑ see for example Yvan Bettarel et al .: Viral distribution and life strategies in the Bach Dang Estuary, Vietnam , In: Microbial Ecology , July 2011, Volume 62, Issue 1, pp. 143–154
- ↑ GeoNames : Sông Đá Bạc , Sông Bạch Đằng
- ↑ see for example Jean-Pierre Lefebvre et al .: Seasonal variability of cohesive sediment aggregation in the Bach Dang – Cam Estuary, Haiphong (Vietnam) , In: Geo-Marine Letters , April 2012, Volume 32, Issue 2, pp. 103– 121
- ↑ roadtraffic-technology.com: Tan Vu-Lach Huyen Highway and Bridge, Vietnam
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↑ Bruce M. Lockhart, William J. Duiker : The A to Z of Vietnam , Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, p. 37 ( Bạch Đằng River );
Danny J. Whitfield: Historical and Cultural Dictionary of Vietnam , Scarecrow Press, 1976, pp. 15/16 - ↑ Patricia M. Pelley: Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past , Duke University Press, 2002, pp. 182ff
- ↑ Spencer C. Tucker: The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History , ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 497 (entry " Hoang Hoa Tham, Operation ")