Background
Artillery had been known in Vietnam since at least the 14th century. In the late 14th century, as the Trần Dynasty was at its weakest point prior to the Chinese invasion by the Ming Dynasty in 1407, Vietnam had been frequently troubled by incursions by the kingdom of Champa, which was located in modern-day central Vietnam. The latest incursion led by Chế Bồng Nga, widely regarded as Champa's greatest king, was killed by a gunshot in 1390. The Ming Shi (History of Ming) went as far as to claim that the Chinese learned the method of construction of "divine cannon" from the Vietnamese after they invaded Đại Việt (the then name of Vietnam) in 1407, although the historian Li Tana interpreted this as referring to a particular model of weapon, since Kublai Khan had used cannons in his invasion of Japan, and because cannons built in the 1370s were unearthed in northern China.
A later instance of cannon use came in 1593 after the split between the Nguyễn and Trịnh Lords. The families had been leading forces in the imperial service of the Lê Dynasty that was established after Lê Lợi expelled the Chinese and ended the Ming occupation in 1428. By the start of the 16th century, the power of the Lê family had evaporated and a series of Lê kings were enthroned and dethroned by the Trịnh family, who held de facto power. Furthermore, the Mạc of Mạc Đăng Dung usurped the throne and Trịnh and the Nguyễn fell out, leading to a three way power struggle. In 1558, the leader of the Nguyễn clan, Nguyễn Hoàng, whose sister was the consort of Trịnh Kiểm, persuade Kiem to send him to reclaim Thuận Hóa territory (modern-day Huế) from Mạc garrison force. Kiem agreed to send Hoang and his clansmen to Thuận Hóa.
During this time, Hoang still proclaimed his loyalty to the Lê Dynasty and the Trịnh Lords, and sent the annual taxes back to the Imperial Capital. In 1593 he led his army to the north to help Le force and lord Trịnh Tùng end the decades long campaign against the Mạc. The court records that the Mạc's fortifications were quickly crushed when Nguyen Hoang deployed "large cannons of all types" into battle. The scholar of Asian history, Keith Taylor, wrote of the Lê Dynasty annals and its portrayal of Hoang's cannon:"There is an air of the exotic and the marvelous in the northern annal's perception of Nguyễn Hoàng's arrival. He bursts with amazing wealth and a wonderful engine of war into a scene straitened by poverty and powerful enemies."
In 1620, the Nguyễn lords formally broke with the Trịnh, after Hoang's son and successor Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên refused to continue the annual paying of taxes to the capital, leading to a period of tension culminating in the Trịnh-Nguyễn War.
Read more about this topic: Artillery Of The Nguyen Lords
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