Looking for old traces of the old Ro wharf

A corner of Ro town today.

I dare to tell a little story: One autumn morning in 1933, an old scholar led a young boy on foot along National Highway 30 (now National Highway 46), then turned down to Ro ferry across Lam River to Thanh Chuong district office located in Ro beach area of ​​Vo Liet Ha commune. The first time he went to the district office, the young boy was delighted to observe Ro market held on the riverbank with a 2-storey house of a Vietnamese-Chinese merchant. The district office was a large building, in front of which was a square pond, a few horses leisurely grazing on the roadside, in front of the main gate were bustling soldiers, soldiers in green uniforms and officials coming and going... In the district office grounds, there was an ancient royal poinciana tree paired with a white jade tree blooming fragrant flowers.

Seeing his wife's teacher from Hue, the district chief Pham Ngoc Bich enthusiastically welcomed him. After the old scholar explained the reason for visiting his eldest son, who was "following the communists" and was being imprisoned in the district prison, Pham Ngoc Bich asked the kitchen to cook duck porridge for the teacher and called the young prisoner to sit next to him, then loudly said: "Eat the porridge! Respect the teacher, you promised me that you were foolish enough to follow the communists, if you don't follow them anymore, I will let you go home!" The young prisoner was silent, then suddenly brushed aside the bowl of porridge that the soldier was holding back, then turned around and bowed his head before the old scholar. District chief Pham Ngoc Bich was furious, trying to suppress his polite voice: "Look, teacher, he is very stubborn. The sentence has been made, he is about to be transferred to Vinh prison, if he doesn't promise, I cannot save him, I hope you understand!" The old scholar gently said goodbye to the district chief and then left the duck porridge unfinished, pulling the little boy with him, not forgetting to tell the young prisoner to take care of himself...

12 years later, after escaping Kon Tum Prison, the young prisoner immediately returned to his hometown and became one of the members (Nguyen Dinh Tung - judicial member) of the first revolutionary government apparatus of Thanh Chuong district, working right in the district office in Ro. The old scholar was my grandfather and the little boy who followed him was my father.

It has been 90 years. I returned to Ro to find the vestiges of the old district office space, which witnessed the uprising spirit for the right to live of the people in the lower Thanh Chuong district from the Soviet movement of 1930 - 1931 to the August Revolution of 1945. The Thanh Chuong district office area along with the offices, prisons, water tanks... in my father's memory, is now only remembered by the memorial stele erected hidden behind Ro market. Except for an empty space in front of the memorial stele, the district office land is now full of houses. Mr. Phan Chinh Tam - Chairman of Vo Liet commune said that the commune is also planning to rewrite the complete terrain of the old Thanh Chuong district office space to prepare for Ro to be upgraded to a town in the near future. No one knows why it is called Ro, but the once bustling Ro beach area, thanks to the largest Ro market in the area, has now had truly vibrant developments, proving the prime location that the French chose to make the center of governance of the district.

Ro space is considered the space of Trung Duc - Vo Liet village today with a size of about 4 square hectares. In which the old district office area occupies about 1 hectare. If Ro market had not moved from the riverbank to the pond in front of the old district office, then if investment had been made to relocate the houses and restore part of the district office, that would have been a highlight for Trung Duc village, which now has the shape of an urban area thanks to the mushrooming services. Ro market is now a major trading hub for the whole region, local products include river fish, green tea and traditional noodle dishes whose craftsmen resolutely maintain the manual method to retain the rustic flavor of the products.

The traffic in Trung Duc village is also considered the best in Vo Liet commune. Passing through the well-built welcome gate marking the cultural unit, both sides of the asphalt road leading to the village center are crowded with signs of all kinds of services. The tiny village is full of food, beer, coffee shops... enough to see how the people's lives have improved. The descendants of the tenant farmer who worked for the Chinese-Vietnamese merchant or the descendants of the horse-drawn carriage driver for several generations of district magistrates who were awarded the eighth-rank rank still live on the old house foundation. Mr. Tran Van Sau, now 75 years old, pointed out the small square yard and said: "Hey, in front of my house was the district jail! When I took power in 1945, I was only 6 years old, I don't remember much, but I was very happy. The district magistrate's family, the deputy, handed over the seal to the revolution and then returned home. The district magistrate's office was used as a house by the provisional revolutionary government, we children often went there to play. It was very majestic and beautiful!"

Yes, it is impossible to tell all the destruction and loss of a time. But if the district office relic had been preserved, Ro would have been much more favorable in the process of establishing the town. Mr. Phan Xuan Dao, born in 1924, had many generations of roots here, was 21 years old on the day of the August Revolution, had a little education and was chosen to run the office for the new government of Vo Liet commune (at that time called Kim Bang commune) chaired by the revolutionary senior Ton Gia Chung, who came from a "noble family" but patriotic in Vo Liet commune. In 1947, Mr. Dao had just joined the army to fight the French. When Mr. Sau's daughter-in-law would prepare a pot of green tea for her father-in-law to receive guests, the story crowded with the memories of Mr. Dao and Mr. Sau, seemingly endless, about a time when the district office was bustling on the market and at the wharf, creating for the village in Ro a unique countryside flavor of the midlands of Thanh Chuong. Mr. Dao pointed to Mr. Sau and said: “Mr. Sau’s family here was originally a tenant farmer of Mr. Ngo Xuan Sinh (a Vietnamese merchant of Chinese origin). Mr. Sinh was good at French, and his family had 30 acres of rice fields. He was famous for his generosity and love for the poor. He knew French, so he also helped our revolutionary cadres a lot. It was just a pity that he was later classified as a landlord. Mrs. Ton Thi Que (later Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Procuracy) was sent to rescue him but it was too late.”... Mr. Ngo Xuan Sinh raised a white horse, and every afternoon he would gallop around the pond in front of the district office to entertain the children. The Ro market grocery store was also opened by him, with everything from fabrics to needles, thread, and lamp oil. His 2-story house with European architecture stood out next to the district office, but was later demolished.

The vermicelli and cake making profession in Trung Duc - was recognized as a Craft Village in 2007.

According to Mr. Dao, at that time, along with Mr. Sinh's horse, there was also a horse pulling the district magistrate's carriage. Whenever there was an important matter to attend to in the province, the horse-drawn carriage would carry the district magistrate down to the Ro ferry across the Lam River to get to Highway 15 where a car was waiting. Mr. Dao enthusiastically led me down the gentle village path towards the old Ro wharf. Mr. Phang, Mr. Bich, and Mr. Nam all used horse-drawn carriages in the same way. Mr. Nam (Truong Xuan Nam - the last district magistrate of Thanh Chuong district) was an easy-going person, sometimes letting the children run after the horse-drawn carriage across the river, so that he could hear the driver honk the car horn to welcome the district magistrate. Ro ferry is now a wharf for fishermen who have not yet settled on the shore. Across the road down to the wharf is the entrance to Tran Ap temple, worshiping the god of the river wharf. Now there is a house in the back palace that was later converted into a fertilizer warehouse. Now it is closed and the tiled roof is sagging. In the past, there was an incense burner that was still regularly used by the people. The old temple was as large and majestic as Bach Ma Temple on Thuong Duc. The district ladies also often came here to offer incense.

The district chief Truong Xuan Nam was fond of football, he even established a football team in which Mr. Dao was also a “player”, and was close to the son of the district chief Nam. This district chief was quite close to the people, often wearing a long dress and a turban, and using a walking stick to visit each house. The district chief’s wife was quite polite, often sneaking behind the district chief to play cards with the wife of the tax collector, the wife of the deputy and several wives of village officials. When the Revolution came, the handover of the seal and documents of the district chief Truong Xuan Nam to the revolutionary government took place very smoothly, Mr. Dao was also present to witness those historic moments.

On the left of the old district road, there is a rather impressive Ngu Phuc temple (communal house). This is where the French colonialists used steel wires to tie up patriots and expose them to the sun until they died. The temple now only has a ruined 3-room sanctuary, the front part has been divided for people to build kiosks, the other part has been rented out as a workshop for cutting and grinding stones to pave tombstones. The bricks, stones, beams and pillars were demolished and left to rot in the sun and rain, along with a mossy wall cracked by old elm tree roots. If Tran Ap temple is a place for spiritual and cultural activities of the people in Ro area, Ngu Phuc temple is a place for community activities of the old village. The people of Trung Duc village have repeatedly requested to restore the temple, but for many reasons it has not been realized.

Trung Duc - Ro village now has 209 households, of which 90 households cling to Ro market to develop trade and services. Many households have started their own shops from farming, gradually opened restaurants, expanded grocery stores, and become rich enough to buy trucks, tourist cars, and build spacious villas. The village also has a vermicelli and cake craft village recognized by the province with the number of households practicing the craft. According to the mother of the village chief Nguyen Dinh Nam, the vermicelli and cake craft entered Ro in the 1960s, and still maintains the manual method, so it is more popular than vermicelli and cake made by electric machines elsewhere. For example, the village chief Nam's family makes all the rice in a day, enough to cover expenses. Life is comfortable, the children of the village are taken care of and study hard, the number of excellent students who pass university and college entrance exams every year is the top in the commune.

Standing on Ro bridge now, looking into Trung Duc village, the newly built houses are surrounded by beautiful and charming village roads. Ro market is now open in the 30th month, bustling with people not only because of the abundance of products, goods, and services, but also because there is something that holds the memory of an old district center bustling with markets, boats, and ancient shops, pagodas... That land of rich culture also left a bright mark in the history of the country's indomitable revolutionary struggle with proud memories forever...