Gò Đống Thây Relic

The Gò Đống Thây area today formerly belonged to the fields of Cự Chính - Nhân Mục village, a vast, dense swamp by the Tô Lịch River. Over thousands of years, this land was diligently reclaimed by the people into fields and villages, and had the folk name "Kẻ Mọc" comprising 12 villages, later also having the Sino-Vietnamese name Nhân Mục. The main road through the village was the Thượng đạo road into the imperial capital Thăng Long - the Lai Kinh road passing through Mọc villages and Nhân Mục bridge to enter Thăng Long citadel… At the beginning of the 15th century, the Ming army invaded our country, and the Hồ dynasty's resistance failed. The state of Đại Việt once again fell under foreign domination. In 1418, Lê Lợi raised the banner of uprising in the Lam Sơn mountainous forest region (Thanh Hóa), gathering the strength of the entire people to heroically resist the invaders for nearly 10 arduous years: "using the weak to fight the strong, using the few to oppose the many, using great righteousness to defeat cruelty, using utmost humanity to replace brute force."

In the battles to besiege and liberate Đông Quan citadel (present-day Hà Nội), the two opening victorious battles at Nhân Mục bridge (late 1426) destroyed a large Ming force stationed there. This event was recorded clearly in the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư: "On that day (20th day of the 9th month, Bính Ngọ year 1426), Lê Triện fought the Ming army at Nhân Mục, cut off more than one thousand enemy heads, and captured the Ming commandant Vi Lượng (Viên Lượng)"; "On the 6th day (10th month of Bính Ngọ - 1426), Vương Thông of the Ming brought old and new troops totaling 100,000 men, divided into three routes to attack our army. Vương Thông from Khâu Ôn crossed Tây Dương bridge (present-day Cầu Giấy) and stationed troops at Cổ Sở wharf… Phương Chính from Yên Quyết bridge (present-day Cầu Cót) stationed at Cầu Sa Đôi, Sơn Thọ; Mã Kỳ advanced from Nhân Mục bridge and stationed at Thanh Oai bridge. The enemy camps stretched for dozens of miles, banners covered the fields, and they thought one battle would capture all our troops. Lê Triện and Lê Bí ambushed troops at Cổ Lãm field (present-day Xốm), sent skirmishers to provoke attacks on the camps of Thọ and Kỳ, then pretended to be defeated and fled. The Ming army pursued, crossing the bank of Tam La bridge (present-day Ba La), where the fields were muddy with water; our ambush rose and struck the enemy from the side. The enemy got stuck in the mud; we cut off more than one thousand heads and pursued them to the head of Nhân Mục bridge. Enemy corpses lay scattered for dozens of miles; we captured more than 500 alive."

After the two fierce battles in 1426 mentioned above, local people have handed down to this day the names "Gò Thất Tinh", "Khu mả Thất Tinh", which gradually became the common name as today: "Gò Đống Thây" - meaning enemy corpses piled up into heaps and mounds.