After Lý Phật Tử was defeated by the Sui dynasty, the Việt land once again sank into smoke and fire. The invaders came, seizing fields, enslaving the populace for forced labor, conscripting young men into the army, and dragging women into the palace. The fields were desolate, the villages scattered, only the cries of children remained amidst the smoke and ashes.
But within that long night, a region still burned with the light of Hoan Châu, where the sun scorched the skin, yet the people's hearts burned like molten iron. Here, a dark skinned young man with eyes bright as stars, named Mai Thúc Loan, was known by the people as Mai Hắc Đế (The Black Emperor Mai).
One evening, seeing a group of common laborers chained and dragged away to pay tribute (cống) to the invaders, Mai Thúc Loan clenched a handful of earth, blood seeping through his fingers, red as the blood of his ancestors.
He spoke to his close friend, Đinh Hương:
"Do you see? Our people are no longer human, but merely weeds beneath the feet of the invaders. If no one dares to be King, then I, a commoner (kẻ áo vải), shall become King for the people!"
Đinh Hương was fearful:
"You are just a common man, what will you use to build a nation?"
Mai Hắc Đế looked up, his eyes like fire:
"With the earth, with the blood, and with the bare hands of these people! The people are the mountains, the people are the sky I am merely their calling voice."
In the year 722, the banner of Vạn An (Eternity of Peace/Safety) flew high. Righteous warriors from Hoan, Ái, Diễn, and Trường Sa, all the way to the South, answered the call. Three hundred thousand people, clothed in rags, barefoot, yet their hearts shone brighter than steel. On the peak of Lam Thành, Mai Hắc Đế held the banner, his voice echoing like thunder:
"I do not wish to be King for pleasure, but so that no one may be enslaved again! The Việt people must live with their heads held high beneath the sky, never bowing before the Northerners!"
The shout "Vạn An! Vạn An!" resonated like thunder throughout the Southern land.
The Tang army poured down like the sea. Mai Hắc Đế wore black armor, rode a black horse, and stood amidst the Lam mountains, crying out:
"Today, I fight the enemy, but I also fight the fear within the hearts of the Việt people! Live a worthy life, and die a worthy death!"
The drums of Lam Thành rumbled, swords flashed like lightning, horses neighed, and blood stained the plains red. Đinh Hương, though wounded, smiled:
"Do you see, Your Majesty, they fight for you, but truly, they fight for themselves."
Mai Hắc Đế replied amidst the smoke and fire:
"Yes, because Vạn An is not a dynasty, but an aspiration the aspiration to live as Việt people."
Three years later, the Tang invaders counter attacked. Lam Thành fell. Mai Hắc Đế was surrounded in the midst of the mountains. He looked at his fallen soldiers, his voice calm yet mournful:
"Kingship resides not in the robes and crown, but in the heart of the people who still dare to rise up. Today I fall, but tomorrow, others will continue my will."
He drew his sword and committed suicide. His blood soaked the earth, the citadel fell, but the people's heart remained.
The people of Hoan Châu erected a temple, honoring him as Mai Hắc Đế, the Black Emperor whose heart shone brightly as the full moon. Folklore recounts that whenever the dry Lào wind blows, the sound of drums and the shout of "Vạn An!" can still be heard in the Lam Thành area. That is the soul of Mai Thúc Loan, still patrolling the fields, keeping the flame that never extinguished in the hearts of the Việt people.
Mai Thúc Loan died, but the Việt people lived on. The nation was lost, but the eternal dream of peace was passed down through generations, until the day a man named Ngô again raised the tide on the Bạch Đằng River, ushering in independence for a thousand years.