Ho Nguyen Trung

Citadel of the Ho dynasty or Tay Do castle
(photo source: culturemagazin.com)

Biography

Ho Nguyen Trung was born in 1374 at Vinh Loc (Thanh Hoa, Vietnam today) and died in 1446 at the Ming dynasty (China today). He was the first son of Emperor Ho Quy Ly and the grand brother of Emperor Ho Han Thuong. When Ho Quy Ly substituted Emperor Tran Thieu De in the ruling of country, Ho Nguyen Trung was ordered to construct the new capital of Great Ngu at Tay Do (Thanh Hoa today). In the war of resistance against the Ming aggressor, Ho Nguyen Trung constructed a defence perimeter from Da Bang (Ba Vi, Ha Noi today) to the Ninh river (at Nam Dinh today) and created guns that caused consternation for enemy. In 1407, Ho Nguyen Trung and his family were catured and brought to Nanjing. At the Ming dynasty, Ho Nguyen Trung became mandarin Li Cheng (黎 澄) and worked for creating guns in the ministry of construction. His son Li Shu Lin (黎 叔 林) and his grandson Li Shi Rong (黎 世 榮) were also mandarins of the Ming dynasty. The Ming army considered Ho Nguyen Trung the father of artillery. 

Note the dreams of the south oldster (南 翁 夢 錄) 

This work was wrote by Ho Nguyen Trung and published in the Ming dynasty in 1442 with the prefaces of mandarins Hu Heng and Sun Yu Xiu. In this work, Ho Nguyen Trung related the anas of the peoples of the Great Viet in the Ly and Tran dynasties.