There are 2 incorrect ideas for Dai Viet:
1. Village Militia: description say, "the backbone of Dai Viet army is peasants"!? This is wrong. Base on Vietnamese history documents like Đai Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư. Backbone of Dai Viet is Farming Soldier under "Ngụ Binh Ư Nông" systerm, it is translated as "Soldier stay in farm during peace time". They are professional soldiers, who serve in army from 16 to 60 (mostly entire his life). Those soldier will be give land for farming with no tax, all profit from farm is belong to them. Note, farmers in Medieval Vietnam are middle class in social system, not low class, thus you can call them "small landlord". Below farmer is self who work in farmer's farm. The rest of time, those farming soldier training martial art with supervisor from imperial army and each 3 month of yeah, they come to barrack for tactic training. When a farming soldier retire, he must let his son continue his military job or gorverment will take their land back, in Vietnamese history, some odds happen when a family don't has son, they let their daughter join army. And in Vietnamese history, many farming soldiers were promoted to Imperial Guards, if they are just militia, they will never become a imperial guard.
2. Don Dien: or Đồn Điền, is actually as same as Ngụ Binh Ư Nông, because the farm which give to farming soldier is called "don dien", the farming soldier is called "don dien quan" in Vietnamese. They're actually overlapping on Ngụ Binh Ư Nông. I think this idea should be replaced by Galley tradition warfare. In Vietnamese history, especially since 15 century, backbone of Dai Viet army is Navy (despite mostly on river and coast), and most warships are galleys, only Tây Sơn Rebel build European-based ship of the line with 50~66 canons.
1. Village Militia: description say, "the backbone of Dai Viet army is peasants"!? This is wrong. Base on Vietnamese history documents like Đai Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư. Backbone of Dai Viet is Farming Soldier under "Ngụ Binh Ư Nông" systerm, it is translated as "Soldier stay in farm during peace time". They are professional soldiers, who serve in army from 16 to 60 (mostly entire his life). Those soldier will be give land for farming with no tax, all profit from farm is belong to them. Note, farmers in Medieval Vietnam are middle class in social system, not low class, thus you can call them "small landlord". Below farmer is self who work in farmer's farm. The rest of time, those farming soldier training martial art with supervisor from imperial army and each 3 month of yeah, they come to barrack for tactic training. When a farming soldier retire, he must let his son continue his military job or gorverment will take their land back, in Vietnamese history, some odds happen when a family don't has son, they let their daughter join army. And in Vietnamese history, many farming soldiers were promoted to Imperial Guards, if they are just militia, they will never become a imperial guard.
2. Don Dien: or Đồn Điền, is actually as same as Ngụ Binh Ư Nông, because the farm which give to farming soldier is called "don dien", the farming soldier is called "don dien quan" in Vietnamese. They're actually overlapping on Ngụ Binh Ư Nông. I think this idea should be replaced by Galley tradition warfare. In Vietnamese history, especially since 15 century, backbone of Dai Viet army is Navy (despite mostly on river and coast), and most warships are galleys, only Tây Sơn Rebel build European-based ship of the line with 50~66 canons.
