Đinh Bộ Lĩnh
As a youngster growing up in Hoa-Lư Nguyễn Bặc befriended Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, and eventually they and another village kid named Đinh Điền, Trịnh Tú and Lưu Cơ.In their early teenage years the three sworn-brothers and children of neighboring villages achieved notoriety for constantly playing war-games. As time passed, the power of the Đinh Bộ Lĩnh's gang in Hoa-lư became legendary. In the early 960s Vietnam was thrust into chaos due to the petty wars of the Twelve Feudal-Warlords (Thập-nhị Sứ-quân). Naturally, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and his peasant-warriors were compelled to involve themselves in the struggle. Because of their weaknesses Đinh Bộ Lĩnh decided to lead his followers into an alliance with an ethnic Chinese named Trần Lãm, the feudal warlord who had control of Bố-hải Port, the commercial center of the kingdom. The alliance, formed in 963 A.D., turned out to be Đinh Bộ Lĩnh's wisest move. Đinh Bộ Lĩnh soon transformed his Hoa-Lư warriors and Trần Lãm's mercenaries into a force to be reckon. With his sworn-brothers, Nguyễn Bặc and Đinh Điền, as his most trusted commanders and advisers, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh began setting out conquering the other eleven feudal warlords to unite the kingdom. Trần Lãm, who was more concerned with the commercial prospects of the conquest than with the unification of Vietnam, gladly and financial supported Đinh Bộ Lĩnh's ambitious plan. As Đinh Bộ Lĩnh's highly disciplined army crushed one warlord after another, people began referring to the three sworn-brothers and four other of Đinh Bo Lĩnh's assistants as the Seven Heroes of Giao-châu (Giao-châu Thất Hùng).