Tuyên Quang

Tuyên Quang stands beside the Lô River, the waterway connecting the northern mountains with the Red River plain. Its valleys formed a meeting ground for lowland Vietnamese and the communities of the highlands. The river carried people and goods southward, while the surrounding ridges gave local rulers defensible positions in a country of forests and narrow valleys.

During the sixteenth-century struggle between the Mạc and the restored Lê dynasty, the Vũ family established a power base in Tuyên Quang. Vũ Văn Uyên and Vũ Văn Mật held the region and supported the Lê cause against the Mạc. Their successors, known as the Bầu lords, continued to govern this northern territory as dynastic wars divided the country. In the nineteenth century Tuyên Quang was also affected by Nông Văn Vân's rising against the Nguyễn court, whose forces were challenged across the northern frontier.