Truong Dinh - Death

Death

By February 1864, Admiral Bonard had accumulated sufficient reinforcements to attack and seize Định’s main strongholds in the Tan Hoa and Go Cong areas. He inflicted heavy casualties on the partisans and forced them to retreat in disarray. Định reorganised his troops and procured more firearms from the local Chinese in order to resume his guerrilla campaign. He attempted to widen his support base by distributing leaflets as far as the regional centres of Saigon and My Tho, calling on nghĩa quân from other provinces to join the common struggle. By this time, the French were able to keep Định and the other resistance leaders constantly on the move, aided by a growing network of local informants. In 1863, a famine had broken out, and resistance forces were increasingly unable to find food. With the court providing no practical support, the French gradually wore down the partisans. Định retreated into the marshes of Bien Hoa, where he attempted to reorganise his forces.

On August 19, 1864, with his remaining guerrillas facing serious supply problems and suffering from hunger, Định was betrayed by a former follower and ambushed by French forces. Wounded and facing imminent capture, Định committed suicide. His 20-year-old son Truong Quyen, attempted with modest success to carry on his father's struggle. A new base was set up in Tay Ninh. It allowed more room for tactical manoeuvring but still depended on supplies being carried north from Tan Hoa. Quyen was eventually killed and in 1874, long after the southern insurgency had been crushed, Tu Duc granted a monthly allowance in grain and cash to Dinh's widow Le Thi Thuong, who had returned to her native village in Quang Ngai, which at the time was still in independent Vietnamese territory. The ration of 20 francs and 60 litres of rice was substantial, because the monthly salary of a ninth-rank mandarin was only 18 francs and 48 litres of rice.