The Nguyen Dynasty's maritime defense security policy in the first half of the 19th century 1802 - 1858 - 9

Also according to the regulation of 1838, every year, boatmen and rowers who had previously been ranked excellent, average, or common but were not sent on public work would be re-examined by the officer in charge to reward or punish: "If the study shows progress, like before the common class, now the common class, before the common class, now the excellent class, then follow the previous rule, and those who remain the same, not advancing or retreating, will still be allowed to continue to receive their positions. If they were previously excellent but now the common class, before the common class but now the common class, before the common class but now the common class, then the officer in charge will report to them, all will be beaten immediately with 80 lashes, forced to study hard, wait to be re-examined later, if they are still lazy and do not achieve the expected level, then immediately report to the court to impeach, the sea officers will be demoted, the soldiers will be shackled as a warning" [69, pp. 431-432].

Regarding practical testing , the quality of boat driving and pole-riding is tested by the State through practical sea trips.

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According to the regulations, the boatmen who passed the theoretical examination in the previous year, and were sent to sea many times in the following year, were all cleared, or "even if only once, but it was sent abroad, or even if it was not sent abroad but encountered unusual winds and waves and the boat was in danger, and knew how to take charge of the situation and finally cleared, they were all excellent, and those who were sent twice a year, not near or far, and were cleared all the time, were average. Those who were sent once and cleared were second class; those who were not cleared were poor class" [69, p.432]. With this regulation, the practice and effectiveness of sea missions (including patrolling activities) also became a measure to evaluate the quality of boatmen and sailors.

Before 1840, the examination and assessment of the merit of boatmen were conducted regularly every year, both to find new boatmen and sailors who were knowledgeable about the sea route and to help those who had participated in previous examinations to consciously improve their knowledge for the examination in the following years, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the sea route.

From December 1840, because he realized that each year's examination period was "too short, afraid that it would not be possible to detect whether the person's talent was good or bad", Minh Mang followed the request of the Ministry of Public Works and changed it to 3 years per examination, using the years of Ty, Mao, Ngo, and Dau as the examination periods [69, p.883].

During the three years of an examination, the reward and punishment rules are stipulated: those who “have been sent to sea five times or more are all cleared; or even if they have been sent twice, but all are sent abroad? Even if they have not been sent abroad, but suddenly encounter unusual storms, the boat is dangerously tilted, but they alone support it, when going and stopping properly, making the boat safe, are all excellent. Those who have been sent three or four times, all are cleared, or once sent abroad and cleared are of second class. Those who have not been cleared at all are of poor class. In the capital, the Ministry of Public Works and the Admiral , the Deputy Commander of the Navy ; in the provinces, the Governor , or the Chief of Staff , the Military Commander , and the Council examine the facts, and in 3 years, those who are currently in charge of steering the boat, their past achievements are examined, divided into each class, and a list is made and submitted to the Ministry of War to decide on rewards and punishments” [69, p.883].

With the effort to build a team of professional boat drivers and sailors, who were trained and tested strictly and systematically, the Nguyen Dynasty achieved certain results in the quality of steering during sea voyages. That is why Minh Mang was proud of the effectiveness of the navy when he saw that: "The Westerners always boasted to other countries that they were good at steering large ships across the sea like flying. Now our army also knows how to steer ships across the sea no less than their forte, which has made them discouraged" (1840) [69, p.829].

* Strengthening training in naval warfare is also one of the fundamental measures to build an elite naval force.

The knowledge of naval warfare of the Nguyen Dynasty is the summary of the practical battle experiences of the first kings of the Gia Long and Minh Mang dynasties, the inheritance of military experience from the Nguyen lords and the knowledge gained from

The foreign missions of the court officials. Therefore, the naval warfare method combined traditional military elements with modern Western naval warfare techniques, which the Nguyen Dynasty actively learned and improved: “Although the country is peaceful, we should not forget about fighting, our dynasty's military system, fighting with elephants, fighting on land, we are all well-versed, but fighting underwater, we are still not used to it, I [Minh Mang] often asked the envoys who returned from overseas missions, they all said that of the Western countries, only Hong Mao and Malikon are good at naval warfare, when sailing, they must either go against the wind or with the wind, they are always quick, adapt to the situation, extremely agile, we should really imitate them” (March 1838) [69, p.318].

Among the first kings of the dynasty, Gia Long and Minh Mang were the ones who spent a lot of time and effort studying Western naval warfare. In particular, Minh Mang was aware of the need to compile them into documents to teach in a standardized manner. He not only discussed them many times but also directly taught naval warfare to the current mandarins, especially Truong Dang Que. In March 1838, Truong Dang Que and the mandarins were taught by the king about naval warfare knowledge and experience to prepare for compiling books: “Look, like poetry and books to teach students, and the scriptures to teach the army, it has always been like that, but for underwater battles, there have not been any books made for people to study. I [Minh Mang] also know a few Western methods, I want you to think carefully, make them into books, and let the soldiers study them day and night” [69, p.318]. In September 1839, Truong Dang Que was shown a naval map of the Western Ocean by Minh Mang and was thoroughly instructed on the battle tactics on the map. From the knowledge he was taught, Truong Dang Que received it to train the naval officers.

One point that needs to be emphasized is that the idea of ​​compiling and the knowledge in the book all came from the head of the country, King Minh Mang. That affirms the talent, leadership role as well as the constant awareness of naval training of this talented king.

That knowledge of naval warfare can be summarized in 6 main contents: Content 1 : tightening naval discipline.

The Nguyen kings, especially Minh Mang, highly valued military discipline and considered it a factor that created the strength and effectiveness of naval warfare. In battle, when the navy "heard the sound of drums, they advanced, not because the enemy was very strong, temporarily retreating, hearing the sound of gongs, retreating, even if the enemy was defeated, they were not greedy for profit and advanced recklessly, and

When the fleet advances or retreats, it is either as fast as a bird flying or as slow as a crab crawling, but there is never a time when there is no order to be strict. The soldiers only fear the general, not the enemy. They do not dare to go too fast, and they also try to go slowly. When advancing or retreating, they must be connected to each other, only then will the work be done" (March 1838) [69, p.318].

Content 2 : emphasizes the ability to control the speed of the oarsman in battle. That is because the speed of the boat directly affects the effectiveness of the shooting. When the enemy boat loses the battle, the navy boat pursues, normally the enemy boat will raise the sail to make the boat run faster, hoping to escape. However, in reality, to avoid bullets, the enemy boat sometimes suddenly lowers the sail to slow down the boat, the bullets will miss. In this situation, the navy boat must know how to handle it, quickly lower the sail to reduce the speed because if "our army does not respond

"If we hurry, our boat will take advantage of the wind to pass, and the gun will be in vain" [69, p.318].

Not only that, with the arrangement of weapons on the boat, "there are few guns placed at the bow of the boat, but many on both sides" 1 requires the flexibility and ability to control the speed of the boat driver when the boat is fighting. That is because, the boat driver "if he does not know how to run appropriately, then the boat will encounter the enemy and go 2 , how can he kill the enemy, at that time, it is only important that the boat driver knows how to steer, and the shooter shoots appropriately, then only then will it be successful" [69, p.318].

Content 3 : Emphasize the ability to respond flexibly in naval combat situations. In combat, naval ships and enemy ships, although facing the same situation, must have completely different ways of handling it. According to naval warfare, "if the enemy occupies the windward side, of course they will take advantage of the situation to chase and attack us, then our ships will pretend to lose, take advantage of that, let go of the rope, gradually turn the sails and sail away, then our guns will take advantage of the opening to shoot back. If we occupy the windward side, we should chase slowly, do not force them too quickly, then they will not be able to fight back. Similar things can be deduced" (September 1839) [69, p.565]. Regarding the incident of broken masts and broken anchors, if "our ships unfortunately have broken masts and broken anchors, then

1 Guns placed at the bow of the boat are most effective in situations where the navy ships attack head-on or chase the enemy ships from behind. Guns placed on both sides of the boat are more convenient in a two-ship parallel battle.

2 When chasing an enemy ship, if the boat driver cannot control the speed and follows the momentum of the speed, the navy ship will pass the enemy ship, then the gunfire will be ineffective.

"We should immediately run to the enemy's ship, abandon our ship and jump over to capture [the enemy's ship], and make [it] our own. If the enemy's ship's mast or anchor breaks, even though our ship is facing strong winds, we should only circle around to shoot, and not get close. There are many similar incidents, and we must practice them in advance during normal times so that when the incident comes, we can deal with them" (March 1838) [69, p.318].

Content 4 : Correctly identify important shooting targets.

According to Minh Mang, “the naval warfare during battle, shooting at the enemy has three essentials: one is to shoot at the rudder; two is to shoot at the mast; three is to shoot at the general in the boat”. That is because “the rudder is used to make the boat stand firm, without the rudder the boat will not be stable, and it will not sink, so shooting at the rudder is the best. A boat with a mast can move, without a mast the boat cannot move. But a boat with three masts, unlike a rudder which only has one, so shooting at the mast is second. The general is the one who gives orders in a boat, if the general is lost, the soldiers will have no one to follow, so shooting at the general is third. If the hull of the boat is hit, the enemy will suffer very little damage, that is a low rank” (April 1840) [69, p.688].

Content 5 : Using fire magic and water magic in naval warfare.

Also using fire attack method, but with deep understanding and confidence in his knowledge of naval warfare, Minh Mang proposed a more effective method than the courtiers' method in the discussion between the king and the Ministry of War in 1840. According to Minh Mang, in the "15 Water Guards, one should choose a talented diver. Whoever can dive in one breath and travel a distance within the range of a crossbow arrow (ie two miles), I will reward him generously, waiting for the time when it is needed. If you encounter an enemy ship, let it dive into the water to the enemy's boat, use fire to burn it, the resin on the outside of the boat, the vapor catches fire from the gunpowder, it will definitely spread, no boat will not be destroyed. As for swimming on the surface of the water and wanting to use fire to burn the enemy's boat, like the fire attack method in the collection " Tru Hai ", will you not be shot to death by the enemy, how can you burn the enemy's boat. Quan Thien Boi is a jar

"The sea, but boasting in literature, claiming to be talented. I myself see it as just child's play" (February 1840) 1 [69, p.659].

Content 6 : Water battle in naval battle.

The most popular naval battle formation under the Nguyen Dynasty was the water battle formation, which was regularly practiced in the early spring naval exercises. Water battle was a popular form of combat for the naval forces of European countries. This was a battle formation in which two sides of warships were deployed on the water, carrying out the battle mainly with the skills of the sailors and soldiers on the boat. The boat-to-boat battle formation required a large water surface, at which time the sea or large rivers were the suitable terrain. Under the Nguyen Dynasty, this form was widely applied and the water battle was mainly against the sea with the formations of the " Chinese-shaped battle formation ".

“ The Rectangular Snake ” , “ Two Dragons Fetching Water ”, “ The Three Talents ” 1 [54, p.399-