The battle is celebrated in Vietnamese national history as it ended 1,000 years of Chinese rule over Vietnam dating back to 111 BC under the Western Han dynasty.

[2] Ngô Quyền was born in 898 AD in Đường Lâm (modern-day Sơn Tây District, Hanoi of northern Vietnam) during the Tang dynasty.

[4] In 722, Wu Ridai and his family migrated to Aizhou (Modern-day Thanh Hoa Province) after the defeat of Mai Thúc Loan.

Ngô Quyền calculated that the Southern Han would sail down the Bạch Đằng River to unload their troops right in the middle of Giao Châu to do the most damage.

When the hundreds of Southern Han ships were punctured and caught against the deadly traps, Ngô Quyền led his forces in the attack.

Hundreds of trapped ships were burned and sabotaged and thousands of Southern Han soldiers were killed, while some managed to retreat and were chased out relentlessly by the forces of An Nam.

[12] But his new realm quickly succumbed to prolonged civil conflict, beginning with internecine struggles between members of the Dương and Ngô families, who continued to alternate in power until the mid-960s.

It had a powerful effect on the people of the time, as well, for it directly led to the abandonment of T'ang-style political titles and to the proclamation of the first Vietnamese "king" of the tenth century.