[6] Catherine Churchman (2016) suggests that perhaps due to massive influences of indigenous preexisting non-Chinese Li Lao drum culture (c. 200–750 AD) that stretching all the way from the Pearl to the Red River in Southern China and Northern Vietnam, Sinitic immigrants from the north and people with Sinitic ancestry in the areas had gradually accustomed themselves with local culture.

[citation needed] Lý Nam Đế established his capital at Long Biên (modern-day Hanoi), surrounded himself with effective leadership in military and administrative scholars.

Lý Nam Đế built many fortresses at strategic locations throughout Vạn Xuân to fend off potential threats from Han in the north and from the Champa Kingdom in the south.

Lý Nam Đế's army were caught off guard, and his court was forced to abandon Long Biên and flee westward into the neighboring western highland.

Lý Nam Đế realized that his illness would not enable him to rally the troops and accomplish a successful resistance against the imperial Chinese forces.

In February 548, he relinquished imperial authority and transferred his power to his older brother Lý Thiên Bảo (co-ruler from 548 until his death in 555) and Triệu Quang Phục (r. 548–571), who was his best lieutenant and general.

[10] By April 548, while suffering from serious disease for months, Lý Nam Đế died somewhere in Northwest Vietnam between the Red and the Black River when local Qiūlǎo (鳩獠) or the Qūlǎo (屈獠) tribesmen assassinated him in hope of warding off the invading Liang army.