DBA Armies

Ngo Qyen defeated a Chinese invasion in 938 and was proclaimed king of Dai Co Viet. Afterwards, Vietnam (still called Annam “pacified south” by the Chinese) remained independent, except for a brief Ming Chinese occupation 1407-1427. The army was based on a regional peasant militia, “the Ten Circuit Army”, decimally organised, wearing distinctive leather- covered hats and armed with spear and light round shield or with bow: plus a Chinese-influenced standing army of court troops called “Sons of Heaven” or “Permanent Troops”, armed with halberd, sword, bow or crossbow. To draw a more recent parallel, these could be thought of as equivalent to Viet Cong and NVA respectively. Tactics stressed archery, ambushes, raids on supply routes and the use of elephants (some of which had a 2-tier platform for an unusually large number of fighting crew). Handguns were used from 1390 and thought better than Chinese. References: The Making of South East Asia George Coedes, Ancient Vietnam: History and Archaeology A. Schweyer.