Following the traces of King Quang Trung's 'female flower': Take a helicopter to visit Quang Trung's tomb

From the announcements of Associate Professor, Dr. Do Bang, on March 25, 1988, we, including Tran Viet Dien and Nguyen Quang Minh, visited Mr. Hong Hoai Le Van Hoang at his private home at No. 2, Alley 95 Van Xuan, Hue City, to learn about Ba Vanh Tomb. Through that, we revealed many remarkable information related to the 'female flower' of King Quang Trung.

In 2013, on the website of the Faculty of Tourism, Van Lang University, there was an article by Phan Quan titled Directions to find the tomb of Emperor Quang Trung in Hue. Through this article, the author provided a remarkable piece of information: “Now, we would like to contribute our ideas on a new direction to find the tomb of Emperor Quang Trung as suggested by author Phan Duy Kha. This is a story that we have come across that is related to the tomb of Emperor Quang Trung. I have a friend named T.D.S. Before 1975, he was a classmate at Hue University. He was drafted into the army and became a captain serving at the Command of Division 1 - Hue. Recently, I met him again and heard him tell a story related to the tomb of Emperor Quang Trung, which is very consistent with the argument of author Phan Duy Kha”.

The article stated that in April 1973, during a helicopter mission with 5 people:

Colonel, Commander of the 1st Regiment - 1st Infantry Division, the Colonel's aide, Captain T.D.S, the pilot and a civilian. When approaching Hue, the helicopter landed on a hill behind Hon Chen Palace (Thua Thien-Hue). The Colonel and the civilian got off and went into the forest behind the palace. The rest of the people remained on the helicopter. While waiting, the Colonel's aide said that he had found Emperor Quang Trung's tomb and that the Colonel was currently visiting that tomb. The discovery of Emperor Quang Trung's tomb was thanks to the Colonel's operations in this area, having contact with the local residents. However, the Colonel still wanted to keep it a secret for some reason. When the two returned to the helicopter, they did not say anything and the helicopter flew back to the Command Headquarters in Gia Le. After 1975, the Colonel disappeared and the story of Emperor Quang Trung's tomb was also forgotten.

The story of the old regime's officers landing by helicopter in Ngoc Tran mountain area in Hai Cat village (now Huong Tho commune, Huong Tra town) to visit Quang Trung's tomb was also told by Mr. Hong Hoai Le Van Hoang (a person who used to work under Mr. Pham Quynh, in the Royal Office of King Bao Dai). According to Mr. Le Van Hoang, in 1973, a colonel of the 1st Infantry Division invited him to board a helicopter to visit Quang Trung's tomb; he only said that the helicopter landed in Thien An area and he and the colonel went to pay homage to Ba Vanh mausoleum.

Thus, the above civilian could be Mr. Hong Hoai Le Van Hoang. After visiting Ba Vanh Tomb, it is possible that this group of 5 people continued to Hon Chen Temple as Phan Quan wrote. The colonel on the helicopter, visiting Ba Vanh Tomb with Mr. Hong Hoai Le Van Hoang was Colonel Vo Toan, Commander of the 1st Infantry Regiment. Mr. Toan knew that teachers Le Van Hoang and Phan Van Dat knew about Quang Trung's tomb, and he, during his military operations in the mountainous areas around Hue, had collected information about Quang Trung's tomb, provided by the people, so he invited Mr. Le Van Hoang to board the helicopter to help find out.

The "female flower" the king was carried to Ngoc Tran mountain?

When Mr. Hong Hoai told the story of the procession of the "flower" from Mieu Doi, we asked where it went, but he remained silent, as if he "had to hide it". Now, with the information provided by Phan Quan, we know that the "commoner" (Mr. Le Van Hoang) not only took the colonel and his aide to Ba Vanh mausoleum but also went to Ngoc Tran mountain to visit the tomb of King Quang Trung, which made us reconnect and hypothesize that this was probably the place where King Quang Trung's "flower" was buried after being carried from Mieu Doi in Thanh Thuy Chanh village. Because the original burial place of King Quang Trung's tomb could not be at Ngoc Tran peak. Ngoc Tran peak is on the north bank of the Huong River, not "vu Huong Giang chi Nam" (south of the Huong River) as the official history of the Nguyen Dynasty recorded.

Furthermore, at the “Ngoc Tran peak” there was Hon Chen temple in the past, worshiping Ponagar (Dien Phi, the Jade Princess) as recorded in O Chau Can Luc. If there had been a Dan Duong tomb of King Quang Trung at the Ngoc Tran peak, King Dong Khanh would not have “actively” restored this religious facility to “worship” the place where the enemy’s old grave was!

Thus, in our opinion, the place where the delegation of officers of the old regime visited mentioned above is not the original tomb of King Quang Trung but could be the place where King Quang Trung's "flower" was buried, after being carried away by the procession of the Tien Thien Thanh Giao in 1944 as Mr. Le Van Hoang once mentioned.

Tran Viet Dien - Thanh Nien Newspaper

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