In Lý-Trần Dynasty era, the problems of construction the naval base, set up the naval forces were in place. Specially, the Van Don port has an important role to protect the northeast sea of Vietnam. In 1077, the Vietnamese Navy fought the Battle of Cầu River against the Chinese Song Dynasty forces. This was the final battle China's Song Dynasty would fight on Vietnamese land or waters. The battle lasted for several months, and ended with the victory of the Vietnamese Navy and the loss of many Song's (Chinese) sailors. This victory demonstrated the successful tactics of war and active defense of the famous Admiral Lý Thường Kiệt who faced a naval force several times larger than his own.[2] The Song Dynasty lost a total of 80,000 soldiers/sailors and 5,19 million ounces of gold, including all costs of the war.[3]
The largest battles (officially recorded in history) were three naval battles (all three are called Battle of Bạch Đằng): Ngô Quyền against the Chinese Southern Han forces in 938 (killed over 100,000 and captured a thousands Chinese sailors, killed Chinese Prince Liu Hongcao);[4] Lê Hoàn against Song Dynasty in 981; and Trần Quốc Tuấn against Yuan Dynasty (Mongol) in 1288 (killed over 80,000 Yuan Mongol sailors, destroyed more than 400 Yuan ships, killed Sogetu, and captured Yuan Admiral Omar).[5]
One of the greatest victories in Vietnamese Naval history was the Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút in Tay Son dynasty, during which Nguyễn Huệ (Emperor Quang Trung) defeated the Siamese (Thai) naval force. The battle occurred in present-day Tiền Giang Province on January 19, 1785. Nguyễn Huệ's forces completely destroyed over 50,000 Siamese sailors and 300 warships.[6]
