A suburban area, April...

(Baonghean) - About 3 km from Ben Thuy bridge, down to the sea, there are 9 small hamlets located next to each other on the left bank of Lam river, as if separating themselves from the noisy and bustling city to preserve the traditional village features from ancient times. Green grass dikes, cool green bamboo-shaded village roads, green sedge fields, deep green mangrove forests, small boats anchored by small fishing hamlets... It seems that Hung Hoa people are very conscious of preserving the beauty of their homeland from the time when General Chu Huy Man - an outstanding son of the homeland set out on the revolutionary path.

Extracurricular History lesson of Hung Hoa Primary School students at General Chu Huy Man Memorial House.

On a sunny spring day filled with Lam River, unable to resist the charm of the bamboo groves and dikes in Hung Hoa, we turned into Hoa Lam fishing village, as if lost in a distant past. Below the riverbank, dozens of small boats with their oars resting leisurely on the beach. Next to the old bamboo grove, many villagers were sitting and chatting or lying leisurely on hammocks or parachute hammocks tied from one bamboo trunk to another. Seeing me surprised by the leisurely atmosphere in the middle of the day here, Mr. Dau Xuan Thuong, Head of Hoa Lam village, said that this April is the time when the tide rises, meaning the water rises and falls at the same rate, and fishermen are considered "out of work". Because only when the water rises and flows strongly or when the water falls strongly, then fishermen go down to the river to catch fish and shrimp.

Knowing that Hung Hoa (belonging to Vinh City, formerly Yen Luu Commune, Yen Truong Commune, Hung Nguyen District) is a commune lying horizontally with the saltwater and freshwater basins pushing each other on the Lam River. This feature also affects the ecological environment and the living characteristics of the people here. That is why it is very interesting that Vinh City has a famous place called Hung Hoa mangrove forest. Saltwater intrusion also makes the land here for generations sour and barren. In the memoirs of General Chu Huy Man, he once wrote: "Yen Luu is a land of sour saltwater. Year after year, the people here have to fight many challenges to have a bowl of rice and a piece of clothing.

The hard life has brought people together, arduous but generous. The characteristics of the saltwater intrusion have also given this place a unique aquatic species: the earthworm. Mr. Dau Xuan Thuong said that in the 7th and 8th lunar months every year, when the weather starts to change from sunny to rainy, the earthworms appear in great numbers. The earthworms are not only a specialty dish, the earthworm sauce is now 400,000 VND a bottle, but for the people of Hung Hoa, the earthworm dish also reminds them of the early days of the revolution. Mr. Thuong introduced to us that in Phong Thuan 1 hamlet, there is still a living witness of today's Hung Hoa, the old Yen Luu. That is Mr. Dinh Thanh, a pre-uprising cadre, who was present and witnessed the historic earthworm catching nights, and is also one of the few people that General Chu Huy Man often talked to every time he returned to his hometown.

Mr. Dinh Thanh was once a militia captain who, with spears and sticks, went to Dang Can's house to confiscate the village chief's seal and to Dinh Phuong's house to arrest two Southern Dynasty spies during the 1945 General Uprising to seize power in Yen Luu; now he is 93 years old, 70 years in the party. Mr. Thanh just returned from cycling along the Hung Hoa ecological road, and when he met us, he happily chatted with us right away...

That in the 1929 season, there were a lot of worms, so people in Yen Luu village lit torches to collect them to make fish sauce, to make food to dispel the daily hunger and hardship. Realizing that the nights of catching worms were "heavenly timing", and the fields of worms were "favorable terrain" to support the "blindness" of secret agents and the feudal colonial government, Chu Van Dieu (another name of General Chu Huy Man) and other young people in the village who were enlightened early mobilized people to gather to spread revolutionary ideas.

During that season, every night, people went out to the fields to catch worms. The “red seeds” took this as an opportunity to gather villagers and give speeches. Mr. Dinh Thanh still remembers that the young man Chu Van Dieu also took advantage of the funerals of the villagers to deceive the village leaders, gather and propagate the lessons of the revolution. That was at the funerals of Mr. Treo Hoan, Mr. Nuoi Bu, Mr. Kinh of Mung village, the late Cung Phien, the late Nuoi To, Mrs. Xin Hop...

Starting from the nights of the rươi season and such activities, the lessons of "National independence, farmers having fields, factories for workers", of "overthrowing feudal landlords"... planted in the farmers and workers the seeds of a bright path, turning Yen Luu commune with deep fields and salty water into a red revolutionary address with a milestone being the rally with about 300 participants on the night of October 29, early morning of October 30, 1929 at Phu Pagoda Cemetery.

The rally marked a turning point in a vibrant period in which the people of Yen Luu were armed with revolutionary ideology. Then, in 1930, the year the Communist Party of Vietnam was founded, a party cell was born in Yen Luu, and the young man Chu Van Dieu became a party member and a leader of the movement in its infancy. Also from that season, along with his homeland and country, a son of Yen Luu village entered the revolutionary season.

With extraordinary courage and bravery, with intelligence and revolutionary qualities that were directly led and tempered by the vibrant practice of the Vietnamese revolution and President Ho Chi Minh, the young man Chu Van Dieu of the ancient Yen Luu land became one of the famous generals under the Ho Chi Minh era: In 1958, he was promoted to the rank of Major General, in 1974, he was promoted to Senior General, in 1980, he was promoted to General. Since then, Hung Hoa land, the hometown of General Chu Huy Man, the general with the highest party membership in the history of the Vietnamese revolution, has been called by many people with an admiring name: the General's hometown!

Mr. Dinh Thanh, a pre-uprising cadre of Hung Hoa commune (Vinh city) talked with reporters.

Walking on the ecological road along the Lam River through Hung Hoa Commune, the road now named after General Chu Huy Man, former member of the Politburo, former Vice Chairman of the State Council Chu Huy Man, you will feel many interesting things about Hung Hoa land today. Leaving behind the bustling urban space, a peaceful and prosperous rural space, formerly called Yen Luu, opens up as far as the eye can see. Being a purely agricultural commune on the outskirts of the city, with both an area of ​​​​saltwater from the encroachment of seawater and a low-lying area - a water pocket of Vinh City, with no industrial facilities, Hung Hoa still leaves in the visitors' minds the image of a beautiful and rich countryside, with a rich and prosperous rural landscape and a prosperous life for the people.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Quynh Phuong, a cultural officer of the commune who accompanied us, introduced many convincing features of the economic development process. Hung Hoa still maintains a natural environment that is both charming and poetic, green and clean. Hung Hoa people also turn difficulties into favorable advantages to get rich on their own land. On the green dike and the sandbank in the middle of the river, herds of hundreds of buffaloes and cows leisurely graze.

The vast alluvial plains of green grass are food for Hung Hoa farmers to raise and develop large cattle herds, now the whole commune has 951 animals. Households raising many animals like the family of Mr. Tran Van Can and Ms. Chu Thi Huong (Phong Thuan 1 hamlet) once had 25 animals, including 10 cows, each year raising animals alone brought in an income of 120 - 150 million VND. The most spectacular change that Hung Hoa people still admire to this day is the outstanding success, creating a strong change by turning the saline, alum-rich, barren fields into billionaire shrimp fields.

Mr. Nguyen Quang Nguyen (Phong Hao hamlet), a "billionaire farmer" - the name often mentioned by local people, is one of the pioneers in converting sedge fields in the acid sulfate fields into shrimp ponds since the late 1990s and early 2000s. According to Mr. Nguyen, from some initial shrimp ponds that were highly effective, realizing that the saltwater flooded fields made it difficult to grow crops, but had advantages in raising saltwater shrimp, Hung Hoa people boldly proposed the policy of converting farming content to shrimp farming. When the shrimp farming project went into trial in 2001 with only 5.6 hectares of success, Hung Hoa farmers gradually broke the monoculture of rice to invest in shrimp farming to get rich.

Some households have boldly invested in renovating dozens of hectares of abandoned fields outside the planning to raise shrimp. Mr. Nguyen affirmed: Raising shrimp is like playing a big gamble, either winning big or losing big, fortunately Hung Hoa people are diligent in learning and equipping themselves with science and technology, so there are few risks. That said, once spending hundreds of millions of dong for initial investment, people cannot help but rely on science and technology staff. And moreover, they dare to think, dare to do and dare to invest big to do big business. That is why, up to now in Hung Hoa, there have been hundreds of households raising shrimp, in which Phong Thuan and Phong Hao hamlets, the proportion of households with shrimp ponds accounts for 1/2, in Phong Yen hamlet, most households have shrimp ponds. Mr. Nguyen said, some households have even risen to both raise shrimp and sell shrimp feed and stand out as consumers.

During the shrimp seasons when the shrimp are not affected by diseases, the appearance of "billion-dollar farmers" is not rare, and shrimp farming households earning an annual income of 200 - 500 million VND is not uncommon here. There are some households earning over 1 billion VND per year. Spectacularly, by 2015 the shrimp farming area in the planning area had reached 137 hectares, with that area in 2014 the brackish water shrimp output in Hung Hoa was 235 tons, worth 19,551 million VND. Being a purely agricultural commune, a water-center area, with almost no factories or industrial works, but the total budget revenue in 2014 of Hung Hoa reached 7,492 million VND, with the same natural conditions, this is not easy, even unimaginable for other localities at the same time...

Returning to the story with Mr. Dinh Thanh, the pre-uprising cadre still holds many memories of the General of his hometown, having met and talked directly with him many times. Mr. Thanh said that General Chu Huy Man was an exemplary communist, every time he returned to his hometown, he advised the children of Hung Hoa to be self-motivated and strive to rise up, only then would it be sustainable, worthy of being a revolutionary homeland, and truly the descendants of Uncle Ho.

Mr. Thanh contemplated that among the generals of the Vietnam People's Army, General Chu Huy Man was born into the most difficult family circumstances: 14 months after his birth, his father passed away. He was the youngest son in a family of 8 siblings. Since childhood, he witnessed his mother having to sell two older sisters, the rest went to work as servants, yet he always studied and rose up to grow up with the Vietnamese revolution and made exceptionally outstanding contributions, becoming one of the most meritorious generals in the revolution. The spirit of not being afraid of hardship, eager to study, rising up in all circumstances, is a priceless gift, a spiritual legacy that the General left for the children of his homeland, a driving force for Hung Hoa to rise up in sour fields and salty water to produce sweet fruits like today.

Ngo Kien