The heroic clan in the homeland of Hoang Sa Fleet

Ly Son island district has more than 40 clans whose members participated in the heroic troops obeying the royal order to sail to Hoang Sa and Truong Sa to exploit products and set up sovereignty markers over territorial waters, whose names are still famous today.

Ly Son island district, Quang Ngai province, has an area of ​​only 10 km2 but has up to 10 historical and cultural relics at national and provincial levels. Of which, more than half of the relics, churches, and valuable documents of clans are directly related to the history of Vietnam's sovereignty.Malein the Paracel and Spratly Islands.

Since childhood, little boy Vo Van Ut, the sixth generation descendant of Hoang Sa Captain Vo Van Khiet, had heard his ancestors tell stories about their ancestors' voyages to conquer the East Sea on the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.

Among the countless stories told by his father, Ut was especially impressed by the image of a 15-meter long, 4.5-meter wide sailboat that every year in February and March of the lunar calendar, the ancestors of his family left Ly Son island and headed straight to Hoang Sa to exploit products, set landmarks, and measure the waterway. In August, when the Northeast monsoon came, the Hoang Sa team returned to the seaport of Hoi An or Thuan An (Thua Thien Hue) to submit to the royal court.

The youngest son, now nearly 60 years old, recalls: "My ancestors still tell us that before everyone left for their mission, the clan's church held a ceremony to pay respect to soldiers, also known as the military departure ceremony, to encourage the young men to confidently fulfill the mission assigned by the royal court. Any family whose members went to Hoang Sa was exempted from annual taxes, and the village provided food subsidies including rice, salt, cooking oil, drinking water... In addition, the village also had a land fund for local people to rent until the harvest season, when they paid taxes to raise funds to support the heroic army every year."

The Vo Van family is preserving documents showing that their ancestors joined the heroic army to Hoang Sa to carry out missions since 1786. Based on Han Nom documents found in the family, Captain Vo Van Khiet was the Ly Son man who commanded the Hoang Sa team the earliest. Following Mr. Khiet was Captain Vo Van Phu who went to Hoang Sa in 1803. In addition, the Vo Van family also had many people who went to Hoang Sa, typically Vo Van Hung - who was mentioned many times in the official history books of the Nguyen Dynasty as a guide for the navy and a recruiter, sailors...

Not only the Vo Van clan, in Ly Son island district there are also the Pham Quang, Pham Van, Dang, Nguyen clans... all of whom have many generations of soldiers serving in Hoang Sa for many centuries.

The Pham Quang clan had captain Pham Quang Anh who went to Hoang Sa in the year At Hoi (1815) under King Gia Long to measure the waterway. The Pham Van clan, in addition to the naval captain Pham Huu Nhat, also had many famous people who went to Hoang Sa such as: Navy captain Pham Van Nguyen who went to Hoang Sa in the year At Mui (1835) to bring soldiers and boatmen to transport materials to build temples and erect stone steles on Hoang Sa island.

Mr. Pham Thoai Tuyen, nearly 70 years old, the fourth generation descendant of the Captain of the Hoang Sa Navy, Pham Huu Nhat, was moved: "When I was a child, I heard my grandfather and father tell me that at that time, because the means of going to sea were still primitive, countless people in the family followed the royal order to go to Hoang Sa and Truong Sa to do duty and sacrificed in that sea area. Before their relatives left, the family prepared banh u, banh it wrapped in square almond leaves, rice balls wrapped in banana leaves, and dried areca leaves to make food to save for a long time."

As someone who has a deep understanding of the Hoang Sa fleet, artisan Vo Hien Dat (80 years old) in Tay village added: "Since the Nguyen Dynasty, the brave soldiers of the island before going to Hoang Sa, in addition to enough food for 6 months, they did not forget to bring 3 rattan ropes and a mat. When encountering an accident at sea, their teammates used rattan ropes to tie the mat, wrapped the body of the unfortunate person with a card with their full name, and threw it into the sea, hoping to drift back to their homeland."

The most concrete and vivid evidence is the precious Hoang Sa order that has been preserved by the Dang family for 175 years and is directly related to Vietnam's sovereignty.Maleon the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs awarded a certificate of merit to the Dang clan for their achievements in fighting to protect the sovereignty of the sea and islands.

The order is the first official order issued by the Quang Ngai provincial mandarin to Mr. Dang Van Siem and Mr. Duong Van Dinh, clearly stating that on April 15, the 15th year of Minh Mang (1834), a fleet of 3 boats was sent to guard Hoang Sa island.

To remember the merits of the Hoang Sa team in the past, it has become a village custom that every year in the second and third lunar months, the people of Ly Son organize a ceremony to pay tribute to their ancestors who sacrificed their blood and bones to sail out to the East Sea to affirm the sovereignty of the Fatherland. In the eulogy of the Hoang Sa soldiers (1815), which is still preserved by the clans for future generations: "The soldiers who obeyed the court's orders to protect the territorial waters of the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos risked their lives for the Fatherland. They were loyal and steadfast in their manly spirit. They were determined to protect the borders and territories despite the storms and frost, the rain and wind, and vowed to protect the borders and territories...".

Dr. Nguyen Dang Vu, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Ngai, affirmed that the official history books, Nguyen Dynasty records, along with the system of church relics, mausoleums and thousands of Hoang Sa soldiers' graves on the island, are living proof that generations of Ly Son went to Hoang Sa and Truong Sa many centuries ago.

According to Express