Revealing the Vietnamese military general who turned a remote rural area into a bustling commercial port

In our country's history, there is a recorded story of a martial general who openly reclaimed a remote rural area and turned it into a bustling trading port, bustling with buyers and sellers, famous in the 18th century.

In the book Bien Hoa - Dong Nai past and present (Dong Nai General Publishing House - 2005), historical researchers have presented two major events in the late 17th century and throughout the 18th century. Those two events are: "The construction of the Tran Bien Temple of Literature in At Mui 1715, the opening of national education in the South and the fact that Nong Nai Dai Pho (Hiep Hoa Island) became an important trading port of the Southern region. ".

Pho Islet trading port is the busiest center of trade and foreign trade in the Southeast region, founded by Tran Bien, Admiral General Tran Thuong Xuyen (1655-1725) - a talented military general. The priest was honored by King Minh Mang and Thieu Tri as Superior God and revered by the people of Dong Nai - Gia Dinh region called Duc Ong. People set up temples to remember the merits of their predecessors opening up a new land in the Southern region. Every year, on the 20th day of the 10th lunar month, they hold solemn offerings. The most special is Tan Lan communal house (located on the banks of Dong Nai river, in Hoa Binh ward, Bien Hoa city) where for a century, Monsignor Tran Thuong Xuyen has been worshiped.

In April 1679, Lord Hien Nguyen Phuc Tan was informed that there was a group of Chinese soldiers led by Marine General Duong Ngan Dich and Deputy General Hoang Tan defending Long Mon and General Tran Thuong Xuyen and Deputy General Tran An Binh. Defending the provinces of Cao, Loi, Liem in the Guangdong region, after unsuccessfully raising the flag of "Manu Phuc Minh", he took 3,000 soldiers on 50 warships and fled to the South "praying to be a commoner".

Lord Nguyen and his court discussed: "At that time, there was a change in Bac Ha. Besides, they had just arrived from far away, the truth was unknown, and their clothes and language were different, so it was difficult to resolve it immediately. But they were In the end, he ran over, and expressed his honesty, which in meaning could not be refused; besides, Dong Pho (another name for ancient Gia Dinh land) of Cambodia, has fertile land with thousands of people. miles, the court did not have enough free time to take care of it, so it was better to take advantage of their strength and assign them to reclaim land to live in. That was also a way to do three things. Thinking so, the court organized a search. Considerately treated, approved to maintain the position, conferred a title on the mandarin and then ordered him to go to Nong Nai (Dong Nai) to do business and try his best to exploit the land." (Gia Dinh Thanh Thong Chi - volume 3: Cuong Viet Chi).

So Duong Ngan Dich's Long Mon group followed the Dai and Tieu estuaries to My Tho (now in Tien Giang province) to settle; Tran Thuong Xuyen's group Cao, Loi, Liem followed Can Gio seaport into the Dong Nai river basin at Ban Lan section (now Bien Hoa city) to settle down.

The Chinese people led by Tran Thuong Xuyen who settled in Bien Hoa were mostly soldiers, along with wealthy Dai Minh merchants and aristocrats from the Hainan, Fujian, Chaozhou, Hakka, and Guangdong groups. During the early settlement period, soldiers and servants of these Chinese people cleared land for cultivation to solve the problem of food and essential food for life. After that, only a part continued to work in agriculture, most of the remaining Chinese began to find ways to restore their traditional occupations such as stone mining, ceramic production, and manufacturing of household items. ... The forte and most popular is doing business, opening restaurants... "General" Tran Thuong Xuyen and other businessmen have a higher and broader vision. They saw that the not very large island located in the middle of Phuoc Long River (ie Dong Nai River) had a very favorable position in trading with the waterway system from North to South, to Cambodia and to the Southwest region. . In particular, this island was soon home to handicrafts such as: mat weaving, silk weaving, pottery, bronze casting, sugar cooking, flour making, wooden furniture making...

So the rich Chinese merchants left Ban Lan and moved to the island to start a business. And with his prestige, "Tran Thuong Xuyen recruited Chinese traders to set up streets, with tiled roofs, lime walls, towering pavilion, brilliant river, glorious sunlight, connecting for five miles, divided into three streets, the big street is paved with white stone, the horizontal street is paved with laterite, the small street is paved with green stone, the whole street is as flat as grindstone, merchants gather, boats going to sea and river all come and go. The sails are moored, the ends of the boats are moored next to each other, it's truly a metropolitan place. There are more rich merchants doing business here, some of them are known throughout the country" (Gia Dinh Thanh Thong Chi - volume 6 Stronghold of will).

Nong Nai Dai Pho was formed to attract not only Chinese merchants, but also Western, Japanese, Malay, Cha Va... merchant ships to trade and sell. Therefore, this commercial port has quickly become a commercial center that provides very good import and export services. With extensive experience in the market, Chinese merchants settled on Pho Island have organized a network to collect all kinds of agricultural and forestry products in Dong Nai throughout the Long Thanh, Nhon Trach, and Vinh Cuu areas such as: rice, Wood, ivory, deer antlers, medicinal herbs, honey, beeswax, tea, sugar, crayfish, blood cockles, sand, stone, mats, ceramics... form an active source of goods supplied with a system suitable warehouse. At the same time, imported porcelain, silk, burlap, traditional medicine, copper, temple decoration materials, incense, paper, gold, silver...

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