[1] Some traditional Vietnamese history scholars considered him the founder of the Triệu dynasty while some contemporary historians contest that he was a foreign invader.

[3][4] In June or July 196 BC,[5] Emperor Gaozu of Han dispatched Lu Jia to recognize Zhao Tuo as king of Nanyue.

Zhao Tuo retaliated by proclaiming himself Emperor Wu of Nanyue and attacking the neighboring kingdom of Changsha, taking a few border towns.

In 181 BC, Zhou Zao was dispatched by Empress Lü to attack Nanyue, but the heat and dampness caused many of his officers and men to fall ill, and he failed to make it across the mountains into enemy territory.

[7] Having mobilized his armies for war with the Han dynasty, Zhao Tuo found the conquest of Âu Lạc both "tempting and feasible".

[9] The Records of the Grand Historian mention neither King An Dương nor Zhao Tuo's military conquest of Âu Lạc; just that after Empress Lü's death (180 BCE), Zhao Tuo used his own troops to menace and used wealth to bribe the Minyue, the Western Ou, and the Luo (Âu Lạc) into submission.

[10] The campaign against the Âu Lạc inspired a legend whose theme is the transfer of the turtle claw-triggered crossbow from King An Dương to Zhao Tuo.

[16] Zhong Shi had Mỵ Châu show him her father's sacred crossbow, at with point he secretly changed its trigger, thus neutralizing its special powers.

[14] He stole the turtle claw, rendering the crossbow useless, then returned to his father, who thereupon launched new attack on Âu Lạc and this time defeated King An Dương.

[13] Zhao Tuo subsequently incorporated the regions into his Nanyue domain, but left the indigenous chiefs in control of the population with the royal court in Cổ Loa.