The Trung sisters, soon to become famous as rebel leaders against Chinese and eventually regarded as national heroines of Vietnam, had been born into a military family in a rural Vietnamese village.

Their father was a prefect of Mê Linh, a rural district (huyện) of present Hanoi; therefore the sisters had grown up in a house well-versed in the martial arts.

They have also witnessed the cruel treatment of the Viets by their Chinese overlords.

The Trưng sisters have spent much time studying the art of warfare, as well as learning fighting skills.

When a neighboring prefect came to visit Mê Linh, he had brought with him his son, Thi Sách, who met and fell in love with Trưng Trắc during the visit, and they were soon married.

With Chinese rule over the region of resent northern Vietnam growing extremely exacting, and the policy of forcible assimilation into the Chinese mold, Thi Sách had taken a stand against the Chinese, conspiring with other nobles to throw off the yoke of the Han dynasty, whose bureaucratic rule threatens indigenous Vietnamese feudalism.

The response of the local Chinese official was to execute him as a warning to all those who contemplate rebellion.

His death spurs his wife to take up his cause and the flames of insurrection spread.

After successfully repelling a small Chinese unit from their village in CE 39, Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị had assembled a large army.

Within months, they have taken back many (about 65) citadels from the Chinese, and have liberated Nam Việt.

They become queens of the country, and manage to resist subsequent Chinese attacks on Nam Việt for over two years.