[3] During Tết (Lunar New Year) of 1418, Lê Lợi raised the revolt flag against Ming rule in Lam Sơn, Thanh Hóa.

Lê Lợi divided his army into small bands of partisan fighters and utilized guerrilla tactics to fight against regular Ming units.

[5] In the next year, a large Ming army under General Chen Zhi [zh] marched to the Mã River valley to attack the Lam Sơn rebels.

[8] In 1422, due to exhaustion and lacking of provisions during the battle, Lê Lợi was forced to disband his partisans and sued for peace by paying gold and silver and promise the Ming administration not to renew insurgency; he then returned to Lam Sơn.

[11] In September that year, Lê Lợi sent his armies led by his generals, Trịnh Khả, Lý Triện, Đỗ Bí, Lưu Nhân Chú, Bùi Bị, Đinh Lễ and Nguyễn Xí to advance on the Red River Delta and onward the Sino-Vietnamese border.

[10] The Ming army under General Wang Tong [zh] responded by counterattacking the Vietnamese rebels in Ninh Kiều, south of Hà Nội.

[13] On December 8, the Lam Sơn army laid siege of Đông Quan (Hà Nội), the Ming stronghold on the Red River Delta, and captured it in January 1427.

[13] Cai Fu, a Ming commander-in-chief and an engineer, surrendered to Lê Lợi, and began teaching the Vietnamese how to make siege weapons.

On 29 December 1427, Wang Tong accepted Nguyễn Trãi's terms of orderly withdrawal with "the solemn oath of eternal friendship.

[20] According to legend, during the Fourth Era of Northern Domination, Emperor Lê Lợi was boating on Hoàn Kiếm lake when a giant turtle (Rùa Thần Kim Quy) surfaced who revealed itself as bearing a divine sword, Thuận Thiên.