Commemorating the time the author went with the Museum staff to find the location where teachers and students of Hoang Le Kha Resistance School were stationed since 1962. During the war, the school moved to many places, sometimes on this side of the river in Ta Pang commune, sometimes on the right bank in Day Xoai commune. These two areas are now Phuoc Vinh commune and Bien Gioi commune, Chau Thanh district. The location where it stayed the longest was determined to be right near Bang Dung wharf. The specific location today is also a school - Phuoc Loc Primary School.
Most recently, in November 2023, the author returned to Phuoc Vinh to find the newly built relic site. It turned out that the ferryman at Bang Dung wharf was an old acquaintance - Ms. Ut Dan. She asked, did you know when Hoang Le Kha school was located here? - Yes! She replied. Because in 1962 she was only eight or nine years old, the same age as many of her friends at school. She asked again: - Did you go out on the day the stele house was inaugurated? She replied: - I really wanted to go out, but I was shy because no one invited me! That day, she also confided that this ferry wharf was established by her and her husband more than 40 years ago. Her husband was Mr. Muoi Hoi.
Oh, who wouldn't know Muoi Hoi in Phuoc Vinh? Like Mr. Tu Hiep - Vice Chairman of Phuoc Vinh Commune. And many other people. And not just Phuoc Vinh people; when asking Mr. Le Ba Que - Head of the Propaganda Department of Chau Thanh District Party Committee, he also knew about Mr. Muoi Hoi for a long time. Because he had come to this river many times to record old stories.
Another, older memory. When Bang Dung wharf was still home to the profession of raising snakehead fish. People set up cages along the riverbank, from Bang Dung wharf to the upstream. This profession was once prosperous, because the price of this fish was about 10 times higher than that of snakehead fish. However, this profession was a bit hard because it required many strict steps, such as the fish seeds had to be scooped up from the river. Or when feeding, it had to be small fish, not industrial food.
But several times after visiting, the owners of the snakehead fish rafts had to give up their business. The reason was that the river water was polluted and the fish died in large numbers. Now, after a dozen years, this profession no longer exists.
Bang Dung Ferry
I remember the first time I crossed Bang Dung wharf to Rach Tre hamlet of Bien Gioi commune, the ferry driver that day was Ms. Ut Dan. I was a bit surprised, because the ferry only had one passenger with a motorbike, but she still calmly started the engine to get across. That day, I pressed the camera to take a photo, now I take it out to look at it again. She has a round face full of kindness, wearing a hat with a pink strap, making her face even more radiant. This year when I met her again, she was still the same even though it had been 6-7 years. Or is it because she lives in a peaceful river area, with wonderfully clean air, that she is always blessed with good health?
Bang Dung Wharf is located on a winding river section, forming many small bays, so many boats passing by here also stop and anchor on the shore. Even fishing boats of fishermen often hide under the shade of the lush trees leaning out to the river. Therefore, around the wharf there are many very poetic miniature landscapes.
Asked, but no one has given a reasonable answer about the name of Bang Dung wharf, a name that sounds quite strange among the common names, such as Cay Oi, Cay Sao or Ben Lo Co. Looking back at the history of the land, the book Dictionary of Southern Administrative Place Names says that after the French occupied Tay Ninh (1862), they established new communes on the Tay Ninh border. On the left bank of the river, they established Tabel Yul commune. On the right bank, there was Khan Xuyen commune. Tabel Yul commune had 7 villages, including Ta pang Pro Sroc, which is now Phuoc Vinh commune. So here is a hypothesis! It is possible that this river wharf is the main wharf connecting the two new communes, so people took the name of Tabel Yul commune, misreading the following 2 syllables: Bel Yul, to form the name Bang Dung wharf.
Today, passing by Bang Dung wharf, no one can imagine that this peaceful and poetic river area was once the most fierce and arduous place for our army and people during the resistance wars. Not only the sweeps during the resistance against the French, but also after 1952, enemy planes searched and killed people and even cattle. That is why the name "Buffalo Shooting Plane" replaced Xep field. Then in the resistance war against the US, after the Northwestern region of Chau Thanh district was completely liberated in November 1961, Phuoc Vinh - the revolutionary base became an airstrike and free bombardment zone of the enemy. In the border protection war after 1975, this place was also the hottest spot of the entire Southwestern Border Front. The book History of the People's Armed Forces of Chau Thanh district (1975-2005) tells in detail about those battles. Especially, it describes our counter-attack campaign on the night of January 21, 1978. In which there is a passage: "The 1st platoon of the Border Gioi militia commanded by comrade Muoi Hoi participated in the formation of the 201st Regiment of the province...". That year, Mr. Muoi - Nguyen Van Hoi was the leader of the Border Gioi commune. This was the land that had hardly enjoyed a day of peace after the victory of April 30, 1975. Because since June 1975, the Khmer Rouge army had continuously provoked on the border. In Chau Thanh: "A local soldier company of Ro-Mia-Het district crossed the border to attack the East of Lo Co canal (Go Cao-Ba Cham) in the Border Gioi commune, Chau Thanh district, robbing and killing civilians...". At this time, although the policy from above was still very restrained, the leader of the Border Gioi commune, Muoi Hoi, and the militia deployed troops to protect their homeland. On June 11, 1975, his unit and C40 of Chau Thanh district fought the first battle, defeated the enemy company, captured 60 soldiers, and seized 40 guns (ibid).
On the Bang Dung ferry, on the Bien Gioi side of Rach Tre hamlet, there is the house of Mr. Muoi and his wife - a brave guerrilla in the past. No one expected that this simple man, who was a soldier of Chau Thanh C40 from 1967 to 1973 when he returned to Bien Gioi commune to become the Commune Team Leader, was the ferryman on Bang Dung ferry for over 40 years. He said that from around 1980-1981, he established the ferry to help people travel back and forth to do business. At first, it was a rowboat, then a rope ferry and now a motor ferry. Although it was called that, the ferry was only 3 meters wide and 5 meters long. For the past three years, after the Phuoc Trung and Ben Cay Oi bridges were built, there have been very few passengers crossing the ferry. While rambling on about the old fighting stories, he could not forget a memory, when he went to battle with the Chau Thanh female artillery platoon in the Ring formation to destroy the American Trang Lon. That night, his hammock was hung near Mai's hammock - a soldier of B13, and he listened to her confide. She said: "You fight to the death, right?" Yet after that battle (Go Noi, Ninh Dien), Mai sacrificed herself. And there are so many memories of many steadfast battles to protect the homeland that cannot be forgotten. Perhaps that is why, even though the ferry was empty of passengers, Mr. Muoi still stayed at this river wharf, as if to preserve the memories that seemed to be hidden somewhere on the waves of the Vam River.
Tran Vu
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