The Age of the Sea Falconsthem.”^47 Among the projectile weaponry was the “fired ball”, an ef-
fectively destructive device in combat.^48 The shell was made from pig
iron, filled with gunpowder and ten other smaller balls cast in the same
technique and positioned inside the large one. Therefore, emergence of
the Nguyen fleets was partly due to their ability to forge cannon with
western assistance like that of Jean de la Croix.^49 Such advanced firearm
production allowed Cochinchina to successfully repulse the Trinh’s
seven great campaigns between 1627 and 1672.
When the Tayson brothers rebelled in 1771, their firearms came
from different suppliers and were strengthened by their own innovative
deployment. Westerners were always expected to be the most important
firearm providers. While very few records could quantify the weaponry
imported by the Tayson, their intensive use of gunpowder and artillery
suggests the acquisition of a considerable number. They also organized
saltpeter production in Tran Ninh, Nghe An, Cao Bang, Hung Hoa, and
Tuyen Quang.^50 This resulted in an abundant supply of gunpowder,
as was clearly reflected during the 1786 siege of Hue where their op-
ponents, the Trinh, ran out of gunpowder after two hours fighting, and
were annihilated.^51 Such successful uses of artillery paved the way for
the Tayson’s notable triumphs against Nguyen Cochinchina, Siam, and
Qing China, and resulted in Tayson supremacy during the 1780s.
Arms procurement often also had a naval angle. In 1778, when a
British merchant came to Quy Nhon, the Tayson heartland, on the ship
Amazon, he was asked to provide two ships for military operations. The
Tayson even suggested the possibility that Bengal government could
send a military expert to train their army and lend a fleet in exchange for
the use of some land.^52 Other westerners observed that the warships and
weapons the French sold to Nguyen Phuc Anh terrified the Tayson. The
- Dao Duy Tu, Ho truong khu Co [The Secret Art of War] (hereafter: HTKC), trans.,
Nguyen Ngoc Tinh & Do Mong Khuong (Hanoi: Cong An Nhan Dan, 2001): 451. - HTKC, 452–53.
- Charles B. Maybon, Les Européens en pays d’Annam [The Europeans in Annam],
trans. Nguyen Thua Hy (Hanoi: The Gioi, 2006): 67. - Sun Laichen, “Saltpetre Trade and Warfare in Early Modern Asia”, in Anthony
Reid, Fujita Kayoko, and Shiro Momoki (eds), Offshore Asia Maritime Interactions
in Eastern Asia before Steamships (Singapore: ISEAS, 2013): 159–60. - HLNTC, 81.
- Maybon, Les Européeens, 114–15.