Dương Ngạn Địch


Dương Ngạn Địch was a Chinese adventurer.
Dương Ngạn Địch was a general of Ming China, and swore allegiance to Koxinga. His position was Chief Commander of Longmen. In 1679, after the Revolt of the Three Feudatories was put down by Qing dynasty, he led 3000 soldiers and 50 ships came to Đà Nẵng together with Hoàng Tiến, Trần Thượng Xuyên and Trần An Bình, and surrendered to Nguyễn lord. Dương Ngạn Địch and Hoàng Tiến were sponsored to Mỹ Tho by Nguyễn Phúc Tần, where Địch served as chief of a small Chinese community.
His fleet sailed to Vietnam to leave the Qing dynasty in March 1682, first appearing off the coast of Tonkin in north Vietnam. According to the Vietnamese account, Vũ Duy Chí 武惟志, a minister of the Vietnamese Lê dynasty came up with a plan to defeat the Chinese pirates by sending more than 300 Vietnamese girls who were beautiful singing girls and prostitutes with red handkerchiefs to go to the Chinese pirate junks on small boats. The Chinese pirates and northern Vietnamese girls had sex but the Vietnamese women then wet the gun barrels of the Chinese pirates ships with their handkerchiefs which they got wet. They then left in the same boats. The Vietnamese navy then attacked the Chinese pirate fleet which was unable to fire back with their wet guns. The Chinese pirate fleet, originally 206 junks, was reduced to 50-80 junks by the time it reached south Vietnam's Quang Nam and the Mekong delta. The Chinese pirates having sex with north Vietnamese women may also have transmitted a deadly epidemic from China to the Vietnamese which ravaged the Tonkin regime of north Vietnam. French and Chinese sources say a typhoon contributed to the loss of ships along with the disease.
Địch was murdered by his assistant Hoàng Tiến in 1688. Tiến then revolted against Nguyễn lord but was put down.