The land chosen by history

(Baonghean) - I think that the authorities through the periods have always recognized that Truong Thi is a land that has all the favorable factors of time and place to form an administrative center, or an economic - political - cultural capital in Vinh city, the center of the North Central region. This is also one of the places that preserves and continues the typical historical and cultural values ​​of Nghe An homeland.

To build the Truong Thi Railway Factory in the early 20th century, the French colonialists had to dig a large amount of earth and rock to fill the project. This location formed today's Goong Lake.

The urban officer of Truong Thi ward, who took me to every corner of the neighborhood, is a talkative person who also likes to learn about history. “I graduated in construction, my job is not related to history or policy, but I am curious, I find out about anything interesting or strange right away” - Mr. Nguyen Minh Thuy, who took me on the tour, shared.

Indeed, thanks to Thuy's curiosity and love of exploration, I had the opportunity to see with my own eyes one of the important vestiges of the French colonial period remaining on the sediment-rich land of Truong Thi. That was when Thuy happened to come to block 9, entered Dau Doan Vinh's house and was surprised to see the yard of the house paved with a very strange type of concrete, from the color of the pebbles, the cement layer, the materials were all different from the types of concrete he had known.

After careful inspection and inquiry, the homeowner told him that the concrete was cast during the French colonial period. It was used as the foundation for horse stables in the old days. Not only the yard, but also the entire house of Mr. Dau Doan Vinh was located on that old concrete foundation.

Mr. Dau Doan Vinh (right) introduces Mr. Nguyen Minh Thuy to the concrete foundation that was once used as a horse farm during the French colonial period. Mr. Vinh's house is now located entirely on this special concrete foundation.

Thuy took me to that special house, and Mr. Vinh, the owner of the house, said that the concrete layer was half a meter thick. According to his grandparents and mother, during the French colonial period, this entire area was a horse farm. Mr. Vinh, 43 years old this year, said that he did not know when his family moved to live here, but when he was born, he saw the concrete layer under the floor. The surrounding households, because of their conditions, renovated and built new houses, but his family, because of difficulties, kept the house unchanged.

Truong Thi Ward was officially established on August 21, 1982, but strangely for this land, through the years and periods, it has always been chosen by history to form an administrative, cultural - economic - political center. Going back in history, Truong Thi was once associated with the place name Dung Quyet. Since the 16th century, Dung Quyet has been known as the highest mountain in the region, and the local people also called it Ru Quyet. At that time, Dung Quyet area had 2 villages: Thuong village and Ha village. In the early years of the 20th century, Dung Quyet was renamed Yen Dung, and Yen Dung included two villages: Yen Dung Ha and Yen Dung Thuong.

The Examination School is located in the southeast of Nghe An citadel, in Ha village, Yen Dung Thuong commune, Chan Loc district, Yen Truong canton. In 1802, King Gia Long - Nguyen Anh, after overthrowing the Tay Son dynasty, established a ruling regime. Gia Long revived feudal education, restored Confucianism, and reorganized the examination system to select officials to supplement the ruling apparatus at all levels. In 1807, King Gia Long moved the Nghe An Provincial Examination School from Lam Thanh to Vinh Doanh.

Mr. Nguyen Minh Thuy examines a concrete structure on Tran Quang Dieu Street believed to be part of the Truong Thi Railway Factory left over from the French period.

At first, the school was located in the Southeast of Nghe An citadel. Later, it was rebuilt with laterite and bricks in Thuong village (Yen Dung Thuong), Yen Dung commune - the current headquarters of the IV Military Region Command. The Huong examination school at that time had a perimeter of 193 truong (about 800m), surrounded by a 1.8m high laterite wall. The Nguyen Dynasty held 42 Huong examinations here, recruiting 802 bachelors, of which 562 were from Nghe An.

In 1908, also on the land of Truong Thi today, the French colonialists built the Indochina railway car repair workshop, later called Truong Thi Railway Factory, with the third largest scale in Indochina.

Right here, with the birth of the Truong Thi - Ben Thuy industrial zones built by the French, there were tens of thousands of workers working, and the first working class was formed in Vinh in particular and Nghe An in general. At the time when the French colonialists promoted their colonial exploitation policy, the Truong Thi Railway Factory alone gathered up to half a thousand workers from all over.

Until the end of the 20s of the last century, when the workers' movement and the patriotic movement grew stronger, to lead the struggle of the mass forces, the Vinh Provincial Party Committee and the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee were established at the same time. And at the Truong Thi Railway Factory, a Party cell was formed. Together with the Party cells of workshops and factories such as: Sawmill, Match Factory, Ben Thuy Port and rural Party cells: Loc Da, Yen Dung, Duc Thinh... workers of the Truong Thi Railway Factory created a strong revolutionary movement in early 1930, contributing greatly to the Nghe Tinh Soviet movement 1930 - 1931.

Also on the land of Truong Thi - Yen Dung Thuong at 12 o'clock on August 21, 1945, an event that excited the people of Nghe An was when the siren at Truong Thi Railway Factory blew repeatedly to celebrate the victory of the uprising to seize power of workers, farmers and laborers of Vinh - Ben Thuy. The government had officially returned to the people.

Entering the period of resistance against the French colonialists, the people of Truong Thi - Yen Dung carried out the scorched earth resistance. Therefore, the factories, workshops, and industrial zones of Truong Thi - Ben Thuy were partly destroyed, and some were evacuated to the mountains to continue building workshops to manufacture weapons against the enemy.

The victory of our people's war against the French colonialists was also the time when the whole country entered the period of resistance against the American imperialists. In 1975, the war ended, the North and South reunited, but people could no longer recognize the once bustling Truong Thi land. The hamlets of Mo Mit, Cau Nai, Quan Lau, or the Bac Ky worker hamlet, Tay Den street were only reed fields with few people.

In his memoirs, Mr. Nguyen An Toan, 84 years old, in block 9, Truong Thi ward, said that in 1968 he was one of the first 7 people to move to settle in this area (now block 9). Everything was deserted, with overgrown grass among bomb craters.

Mr. Nguyen Van Thuan, 82 years old, also living in block 9, said that right on the land of Truong Thi, there used to be a large Tay River running along the railway factory. "Time and the concentration of residential areas have made this river disappear," said Mr. Thuan. Mr. Thuan even said that after 1954, in Truong Thi, there was a cluster of overseas Vietnamese who had returned from Thailand and Laos under the State's support policy.

The family of Mr. Nguyen An Toan, grade 9, was one of 7 households that moved to live in Truong Thi land in 1968.

New life revived after the war, new residential areas of Truong Thi were continuously formed on the foundation of history. All remaining traces were also demolished to make way for a new stage of development. However, occasionally one can see concrete blocks and construction components of old industrial factories on the streets or in residential areas. And as a deliberate choice of history, Truong Thi continued to become the central administrative area of ​​Nghe An. This is the place where the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council, People's Committee, and National Assembly Delegation of Nghe An are located.

Mr. Nguyen Tat Thien - Chairman of Truong Thi Ward People's Committee also said that this land is also the gathering place of nearly 80 agencies and departments from the Central Government, Nghe An Province and Vinh City. "Truong Thi also has a particularly important cultural work, which is the Uncle Ho Monument and Ho Chi Minh Square, the heart of Vinh City, a gathering place for people from all over the province and friends from all over. That is a special choice of history that only our ward has. Currently, the ward has 16 residential blocks with 3,799 households, the proportion of well-off and rich households accounts for 75%" - Mr. Thien proudly shared.

A section of Truong Thi Street running through the ward has the same name.

Returning to the young man who loves to explore, Nguyen Minh Thuy led me around Nguyen Tat Thanh Park and stopped by Goong Lake. “No matter how much life changes, this lake still remains. The formation of the lake was due to the French digging the land to build the Truong Thi Railway Factory” - Thuy showed understanding.

In an afternoon of gentle autumn sunshine on the street, we occasionally stopped on small streets shaded by green trees. I remained silent listening to the urban officer of Truong Thi ward passionately explaining about each concrete block and rock that we encountered. He must have loved those streets very much. They were so soft.

To Van