Where is Tra Vong Base?

Worshiping the temple of Quan Lon Tra Vong Huynh Cong Gian, Ward 1, Tay Ninh City.

On the map of Tay Ninh, we can still see Tra Vong stream with its source from Mo Cong commune, currently flowing through hamlet 3, Tra Vong - where there is a mausoleum and temple of Quan Lon Tra Vong. Then the stream flows to Tra Hiep hamlet, bordering Thanh Tan commune (Tay Ninh city), converging with Ta Hop stream, whose source is Ky stream, to become Tay Ninh canal, leisurely flowing through the city.

But this is only the image of the central area of the base. Because according to the description in the book "Tay Ninh 30 years of loyalty and resilience", the scale of the base is really "immense". That is: "The boundary of Tra Vong area: in front is the South, from the center about 18 km away from Tay Ninh town as the crow flies, there are small forests mixed with open spaces, sparse oil forests to dense pine forests bordering Cambodia.

On the right, there is a mixture of forests and grasslands, with National Highway 22 running across, about 8 km from Tra Vong as the crow flies. On the left, there is also a mixture of forests and grasslands, with the Kedon dirt road to Ka Tum (now DT785), about 12 km from Tra Vong forest...”.

The book also describes the functional areas in the base. Such as the military area (office of Squadron 11), the area of provincial agencies, the residential area. And, if we consider the dependent areas that also protect the base, the scale of the base is very large, even overflowing the national highways 22B and DT 785.

That is from Suoi Tra Vong hamlet, flowing through Truong hamlet of Duoc Hoa Binh (now Hao Duoc) on the right side of the center. The old Tra Vong hamlets and the new Tra Vong hamlets are located right in front. Behind are the inner Dau Lon hamlets, Ky hamlets, up to Bau Van Lich, now in Thanh Dong commune, Tan Chau district. On the left are the upper Khedol hamlets, the lower Khedol hamlets... leading to Ba Hao hamlet, now in Tan Thanh commune, Tan Chau district.

Thus, the base covered a large area, now part of the districts: Tan Bien, Tan Chau, Chau Thanh and the whole city of Tay Ninh. Except for Tan Chau, the remaining districts and cities all have many temples and shrines to worship the great mandarin Tra Vong. Most notably, since 1997, thanks to the discovery of the people and the attention of the Department of Culture and Information, the tomb of Mr. Huynh Cong Gian was built in Hamlet 3, Tra Vong Commune.

The temple of Huynh Cong Gian (Tra Vong Mandarin) on Phan Chau Trinh Street, Thai Vinh Dong Hamlet of the former Thai Hiep Thanh Commune (now Tay Ninh City) has a pair of parallel sentences written in Chinese characters:

- Nhat Tao produced talented people, sacrificed themselves for the country, and became famous in the region.

- Ta Duong eliminates barbarians, favors the dead, and the righteous spirit permeates the mountains and rivers.

The pair of willows were offered by the physician Nguyen Ngoc Diep. And a Tay Ninh poet, Hy Dam, translated it into Vietnamese as:

- Nhat Tao showed his power, heavy water, light body, glorious name recorded in history/

- Tra Vong stopped the invaders, loyal and upright, spreading the righteous spirit throughout the mountains and rivers.

(Old Tay Ninh, 1972).

Comparing the Chinese version and the translation, readers may find some parts of the translation not quite as intended. However, both authors were contemporaries, born around the beginning of the 20th century, so the translation must have been as intended by the authors themselves. They also lived in an urban area controlled by Saigon, so their writing had to be careful and deliberate to avoid arousing suspicion from the authorities.

The above parallel sentences are probably related to the biography of the great Mandarin Tra Vong, which is also kept in the above temple. Accordingly, Huynh Cong Gian was born in the year of Nham Dan (1722), and died in the year of Nham Dan (1782) at Tra Vong fortress. His hometown was Nhat Tao village, Tan An province (now Long An ). At the age of 27, he and his younger brother (Huynh Cong Nghe) and some militiamen went to the mountainous area of Tay Ninh to settle down and establish a village.

On this new land, they established three hamlets: Tan Hoi, Tan Hiep and Tan Lap. This Tra Vong land, when the royal court established the administrative system (Tay Ninh prefecture - 1836), belonged to Thai Binh commune, Hoa Ninh canton of Tan Ninh district.

If the above biography is correct, then Huynh Cong Gian was 27 years old, that is, in 1749. And, counting from the time the Tay Ninh revolutionary forces established the Tra Vong base, it was about 200 years (1749-1948). In those two hundred years, there were many stories of Tay Ninh people fighting against foreign invaders.

From the very ancient time of "Tra Vong to stop the invaders" until the Nham Tuat peace treaty (1862) when the three eastern provinces had to be ceded to the French, there was Kham Tan Tuong who disobeyed orders and led his army into the forest to establish An Co palace to fight the French. Then, just four years later (1866), the Truong Quyen - Pu Kom Po army defeated the French army again, defeating them in Tra Vong.

At the conference on October 17, 2023, many revolutionary veterans and historical witnesses expressed their valid opinions. Many ancient places of the heroic Tra Vong forest were named, such as May Rac field, Ca Ngua pond, Sen Rung pond, etc. After the delegates conducted a field survey, the conference unanimously chose the location at May Rac field.

This place currently has a land area managed by the Tay Ninh City Military Command. From this result, the District Party Committee will soon submit a report to the competent authorities to recognize the historical-cultural relic "Location of the Provincial Party Committee base in Tra Vong forest (1948-1950)". This location is currently in Thanh Xuan hamlet, Mo Cong commune.

Road through Hamlet 3, Tra Vong.

Now, let’s turn back to the research pages of the conference “Revolutionary Base in Tay Ninh during the Liberation War (1945-1975)” (People’s Army Publishing House 2002). In which there is a speech by Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long - former Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee. The article is titled: “Tay Ninh Provincial Party Committee leads the construction and protection of Tra Vong Base during the resistance war against French colonialism”. Here the author clearly calls it Tra Vong Base (not just the Provincial Party Committee base).

Remember, in 1999, the Department of Culture also proposed and was recognized by the Ministry of Culture - Sports and Tourism as a national relic "Tay Ninh Provincial Party Committee Base in Boi Loi". Until 2020, Trang Bang Town Party Committee published the book "Legendary Boi Loi Base", only then did we see the stature of a "Boi Loi Secret Zone" or "Legendary Boi Loi Base".

This event shows that the person who compiled the relic dossier may have fallen into the situation of “seeing the trees but not the forest”. Therefore, the Boi Loi Base relic was not found in the list of historical and cultural relics in Tay Ninh. If so, in the future, if the relic is named “Provincial Party Committee Base in Tra Vong Forest”, it may miss a more important relic, the Tra Vong Base.

This is also what the Tan Bien District Party Committee sent to the District People's Committee and the District Party Committee's Propaganda Department (dated November 4, 2022) directed very correctly: "determine the location and location of Tra Vong Base to have a basis for preparing a dossier to propose the classification of a historical relic and the construction of the Tra Vong Base Relic Area".

Tran Vu

Source: https://baotayninh.vn/o-dau-can-cu-dia-tra-vong--a173739.html