Le Chieu Thong’s real name was Le Duy Khiem, when he ascended the throne he changed his name to Le Duy Ky – the 16th and last king of the Trung Hung Le Dynasty, actually on the throne since the end of the 7th lunar month. in 1786 to the beginning of the month.
Thus, Le Chieu Thong was not only accused by history of being the kind of person who “brought the Manchu elephant back to the graves of his Vietnamese ancestors” to restore personal power, but Vietnamese people take great revenge against people related to the Mac Tay family. The stupid revenge actions of this traitor king were reported by Mr. Hoa Bang in the book “Quang Trung Nguyen Hue, national hero 1988-1792” as follows :
After almost a month, Thang Long fort was taken back, but King Le’s order only ordered soldiers to attack 5 Ung passes: Ung Hoa, Ung Thuong (Thuong Tin), Ung Tu (Tu Son) , Ung Thuan (Thuan Thanh). Ung Quang (Quang Oai) only. From Truong Yen (Ninh Binh) to the south, all are blocked and information cannot be communicated. According to An Nam Nhat Thong Chi, Le Chieu Thong – a narrow and hard man, after relying on the strength of the Qing army to take Thang Long, he always did things to pay favors and revenge to satisfy his inclination of love and hate. and only according to personal feelings, not with rational considerations to put the country first. At this time, Chieu Thong revealed his unworthy appearance. In November of the second year of Chieu Thong (Mau Than – 1788), King Le punished those who surrendered to Mac Tay. At that time, in the king’s family, there was a female servant who was married to General Tay Mac and was pregnant, but King Le ordered a cut down, a caesarean section, and the killing of both mother and innocent child. Chieu Thong himself ordered three of the royal uncle’s legs to be cut off and thrown into the middle of the palace market.
Not to mention things like: Killing Phan Nhu Tuy, protecting Tuyen Quang, because Tuy captured his brother Duy Luu and surrendered to Mac Tay and sentenced his son-in-law Duong Banh because Banh took the army from the king. . In addition, King Le also deposed Ngo Thi Nham and Phan Huy Ich and restored them to civilian status, removed Nguyen Hoan from his Duchy, appointed Phan Le Phien to the position of Academician East and Mai The Uong to the position of Teacher. These actions not only made people anxious and uncertain, but made the Queen Mother (King Chieu Thong’s mother) feel pain and anger. Before that, when the Queen Mother returned from the Manchus to Thang Long and heard about what King Le had done in anger, she became angry and said:
– I was so bitter that I asked him to save the army here. The country has been burned so many times that it takes revenge to destroy things like this! It’s broken!
After that, she cried and refused to enter the palace. Praying to the god Nguyen Huy Tuc for endless advice, she stopped. When giving awards and sharing positions, Le Chieu Thong only “sprung hooks” for his subordinates who died or stayed at home and encouraged his subordinates Dinh Du to the Ministry of Minister Binh Chuong Su, Le Duy Dao and Vu Trinh became its Head. Political Affairs. Nguyen Dinh Gian was promoted to Minister of Military Affairs, Secretary of the Privy Court, Nguyen Duy Hiep and Chau Doan Le were promoted to Co-Director of the Privy Court, Tran Danh An was promoted to Vice Admiral of the Royal Court, Le Quynh on promoted to Lieutenant Commander Truong Phai Hau . Therefore, many people are disappointed and discouraged.
In January of the Year of the Rooster (1789), Quang Trung withdrew his army to Bac Ha, defeated 290,000 Qing soldiers in a single battle and followed Le Chieu Thong and defeated the Qing army. Chieu Thong continued to urge the Qing Dynasty to consolidate. The Qing dynasty was partly afraid of Quang Trung and partly tired of fighting, only giving false promises to Le Chieu Thong but not sending troops. In April of that year, according to the words of Hoa Than and Phuc Khang An, Qianlong Nguyen Hue summoned the King of An Nam and received ambassadors from the Mac Tay dynasty.
In May of the year Nham Ty, the 57th year of Qianlong (1792), his son died.
Talk about Le Chieu Thong
Le Chieu Thong was the 16th and last king of the Trung Hung Le Dynasty. Among the incompetent and unscrupulous kings of Vietnam, Le Chieu Thong was the most cursed for his actions of “carrying elephants to the graves of his ancestors” and “carrying snakes to bite chickens”. If Tran Ich Tac is a “crook”, then Le Chieu Thong is truly a “crook”, because he was willing to give up his father’s fortune in exchange for honor and wealth for himself and to his family. And Le Chieu Thong was not only accused by history of being the type of person who “sold the country” to restore personal power, but he was also despised by contemporaries for what he did to take revenge against those who had connections with the regime.
According to ancient history, although Le Chieu Thong was an educated man, he was not a talented man. In addition, he is also a person who is greedy for power, a person who is willing to abandon his conscience, to stamp on his personality and even more stupidly, he wants to sell his country with the deception to depend on strangers for glory. That’s why, everywhere and at any time, if power is given to the wrong address by incompetent, personalityless, narrow, frivolous people… then it’s extremely dangerous.
