Record 4 postponements
As planned, at the 200th Anniversary of the completion of Vinh Te Canal (1824-2024) held in mid-November 2024 in Chau Doc City (An Giang), Vinh Te Canal will receive the record of "The longest manually dug canal in Vietnam".
By applying technology and comparing many reliable historical sources, several recent research projects have proven that 200 years ago, Vinh Te Canal set a record for both the number of times and the duration of construction delays.
From comparing the perpetual calendar, many researchers have converted the time recorded in the old way in the Nguyen Dynasty's historical books (usually recording months, rarely recording days) and then applied the rule of rounding months to events that only recorded months, thereby determining that Vinh Te Canal was completed after 53 months of construction (December 15, 1819 - May 1824). However, during this time, there were 4 postponements and the construction postponement time was up to 43 months, accounting for 81.13% of the total time.
The first postponement was from March 1820 to January 1821, the main reason being that King Gia Long passed away and King Minh Mang had just ascended the throne.
Immediately after ascending the throne to replace his father, King Minh Mang granted 16 graces. The postponement of mobilizing troops and people to dig Vinh Te canal was also part of the policy of the newly enthroned king.
The second postponement from January 1821 to March 1822 was due to the outbreak of an epidemic that today, according to world medical documents, coincided with the first global pandemic, which lasted for 4 years (1817-1823). The book "Dai Nam Thuc Luc" also recorded: "Now that the epidemic is circulating, it is appropriate to let the army and people rest and suspend all work."
The third postponement was from March 1822 to February 1823 due to an epidemic outbreak in Gia Dinh. And the fourth postponement was from April 1823 to February 1824 due to the impact of flooding on the Mekong River.
According to many researchers, up to now there has been no historical source showing that any contemporary project had the same number of times and days of suspension of operations as the Vinh Te canal project.
Real mining time 10 months
From the determination of the delay time, new studies also determined that the actual time to complete the digging of Vinh Te Canal only took 10 months. This point is different from the data that some sources have long said that the digging "lasted for 5 years". However, this new opinion is quite convincing both scientifically and practically.
Dr. Chau Huu Hau (An Giang) in his research work: "Thoai Ngoc Hau and the Vinh Te canal digging project" affirmed that there were 3 canal digging phases with a total digging time of 10 months.
According to calculations based on Nguyen Dynasty historical documents, Mr. Hau said that the total length of the canal was actually dug 37,190m because there was a section connecting to the existing Giang Thanh River... Of which, the first digging time was 3 months (December 15, 1819 to March 15, 1820); the second time was also 3 months (February 1823 to April 1823); the third time was 4 months (February 1824 to May 1824).
In the first excavation, it was led by Nguyen Van Thoai (1761-1829), Phan Van Tuyen (1763-1831), later given the national name Nguyen Van Tuyen and Nguyen Van Ton (1763-1820).
In the second excavation, the commanding personnel were different between the two official historical sources of the Nguyen Dynasty. “Dai Nam Thuc Luc” recorded that the Governor and Deputy Governor of Gia Dinh citadel at that time were Le Van Duyet (1764-1832) and Truong Tan Buu (1752-1827). Meanwhile, “Dai Nam Chinh Bien Liet Truyen” recorded Nguyen Van Thoai and Tran Cong Lai (?-1824). In the third excavation, there were Nguyen Van Thoai, Nguyen Van Tuyen and Tran Cong Lai.
Although there are differences in some characters among historical documents, they all have one thing in common: they record that the command of digging Vinh Te canal was carried out by a group of generals, not the role of an individual.
