At the Dien Bien Phu Historical Victory Museum, among thousands of artifacts and documents on display, there is a simple wooden wheelbarrow quietly located in a solemn position attracting visitors. The cart with “patterns” on the wheels belongs to the old farmer Trinh Dinh Bam from Thanh Hoa - a historical evidence - affirming the miraculous creativity and the strength of the Vietnamese people.
On Mr. Trinh Dinh Bam's wheelbarrow, which is currently on display at the Dien Bien Phu Historical Victory Museum, there are still patterns from the old altar.
More than 70 years ago, after Uncle Ho and the Politburo, the Party Central Committee decided to launch the 1953-1954 Winter-Spring campaign and Dien Bien Phu was chosen as the strategic decisive battle point, Thanh Hoa was seething with a "festival" mobilizing human and material resources to serve the battlefield. Thanh Hoa was then a remote area far from the battlefield but was identified as the key rear area providing food and provisions for the battlefield.
During the spring days of 1954, the road from Thanh Hoa to the Northwest was bustling with footsteps day and night. On the roads and rivers, soldiers and laborers from Thanh Hoa wearing camouflage forest leaves headed straight for Dien Bien Phu. “In the seemingly never-ending processions, laborers from Thanh Hoa were the largest: nearly 200,000 people. It was an image of a united bloc including men and women, the elderly and the young, people of all ethnic groups, Buddhists and Catholics in all the plains, midlands, mountains and seas... Wherever there were people, there were laborers”. Means of transporting food were also extremely diverse, from cars, wooden boats, bamboo boats, horses, elephants, bicycles, shoulder poles... especially the wheelbarrow invented by farmer Trinh Dinh Bam from Dinh Lien commune, Yen Dinh district.
Implementing the Central's plan, at that time, like tens of thousands of people, the young man Trinh Dinh Bam, just over 20 years old, enthusiastically competed in labor production to have food to serve the fiery battlefield. When mobilized to participate in transporting food, he was willing to leave his young wife and newborn child in his hometown to go on a mission. The luggage he brought to serve the resistance was a self-invented wheelbarrow.
Mr. Trinh Dinh Tan, son of Mr. Trinh Dinh Bam, shared: “When I was young, I often heard my father talk about the days of transporting grain, and the reason why he asked his ancestors for permission to take down the altar to make a wheelbarrow. Although he was a farmer, my father was quick and resourceful, and had the working capacity of 2 or 3 people. However, because of many siblings, the family was poor. On the day he was preparing to leave to transport grain, he kept worrying. The family did not have a bicycle, and if he only brought a pair of shoulder poles, he would not be able to carry much, and it would be easy to lose a lot of strength, and he could not go long distances. After much consideration, he thought of a vehicle that could be pushed and moved at the same time. Thinking was doing, the next day my father started building the vehicle. He searched for every piece of wood, plank... to build the vehicle. But when he was about to finish, a small piece of the wheel was missing. He searched all over the house but could not find it. When he felt helpless, he looked up at the family altar as if praying for help so that he could “find” the missing piece of wood. At that moment, a bold idea suddenly flashed through his mind - the altar board would be suitable?! But he quickly dismissed the idea - how could he do that!
“Despite his concerns, the idea of using the altar kept “clinging” to his mind. Until he discussed with his parents and siblings his thoughts - about whether it was possible to “sacrifice” the country when it was in danger, and then peace was restored, and a new altar could be built... That was unprecedented in the village, so everyone was hesitant. Because the ancestral altar at that time was also considered a family heirloom, passed down from generation to generation... Finally, after much hesitation and contemplation, my father also decided to burn incense and ask his ancestors to use the altar as a wheel to transport grain... Until his last years, when he recounted that story, my father said he did not think he did anything wrong and he believed that his ancestors had agreed and supported him during the days when he used a wheelbarrow to transport grain” - Mr. Trinh Dinh Tan said.
The wheelbarrow invented by the young man Trinh Dinh Bam at that time was in the shape of the letter A with a length of more than 200cm, the cart shaft was made of wood, had two bamboo legs and the wheels were assembled from 3 different pieces of wood, one of which was painted with gold and had clear patterns - and that was part of his family's ancestral altar.
According to preserved documents, with a homemade wheelbarrow, young man Trinh Dinh Bam participated in transporting food on the road from Sanh - Luoc food warehouse (Tho Xuan) to Pho Cong - Tram Luong (Ngoc Lac). Each trip, the wheelbarrow carried from 100 to nearly 300kg of food, every 3 days on a distance of more than 20km, throughout the first months of 1954 to serve the battlefield. It is estimated that Mr. Trinh Dinh Bam transported about 12,000kg of food to serve the Dien Bien Phu campaign. With that achievement, he was awarded a Certificate of Merit by the Inter-zone 4 Supply Council and was praised by the entire Thanh Hoa province.
People in Duyen Thuong village mentioned Mr. Trinh Dinh Bam and the wheelbarrow he invented with admiration.
Lighting incense on the family altar, gently cleaning the portrait of his late father, Mr. Trinh Dinh Tan confided: “After a period of time participating in the military service, my father returned to his hometown to work with his wife and children, enthusiastically producing. His whole life was hard, and in 1994 he passed away without any property. Up to now, it has been 70 years since the Dien Bien Phu victory and 30 years since my father passed away, but the things he did for the country at that time are still a source of pride for his children and grandchildren today.”
Leaving the house of old farmer Trinh Dinh Bam, I went to the communal house of Duyen Thuong village, where Mr. Nguyen Van Dam (78 years old), a village elder, led me to the village memorial house and introduced: “Mr. Bam is older than me. When he went to transport grain, I was still an 8-year-old child. But everyone in the village knows the story of Mr. Bam’s actions. I am very impressed and proud. He (Mr. Trinh Dinh Bam) and the wheelbarrow are forever beautiful “symbols”, living forever in the hearts of the people of Duyen Thuong”.
“During the years of resistance against the French, Yen Dinh was always the direct rear of the Northwest, Upper Laos and Dien Bien Phu battlefields. The entire district mobilized 4,000 people to join the army, more than 10,000 people to join the guerrillas and militia, 55,000 people to go to the frontline as civilian laborers... with only rudimentary means such as a pair of baskets, a shoulder pole or a bicycle, a wheelbarrow, the civilian labor force crossed mountains and waded through streams to transport thousands of tons of goods to the battlefields and participated in opening roads, building warehouses, building bridges and culverts... serving major campaigns, especially in the historic Dien Bien Phu campaign. The story of Mr. Trinh Dinh Bam in Dinh Lien commune with his noble actions to this day is forever a testament to the revolutionary tradition and patriotism of the land and people of Yen Dinh,” affirmed Mr. Hoang Trung Hung, Head of the District Party Committee’s Propaganda Department and Director of the Yen Dinh District Political Center.
Article and photos: Thu Trang
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