vietnamese records show that when định disobeyed the court's orders, he was stripped of his position and titles: "trương định has refused to return to the exercise of his office, and he is accordingly removed from that function with loss of honorific titles." nguyen thong, a former mandarin who fought alongside định and corresponded with many other guerrilla leaders, agreed with the court records. according to thong, định's continued resistance resulted from local initiatives contrary to huế's explicit instructions. định's supporters implored him to disobey the edicts of 1862 that directed the partisans to end hostilities: "our people forced the westerners to retreat many times, and now that the court has made peace with them, they will surely kill us... since the court has settled with them, who will support us? let us unite to strike back at them, to take for ourselves a piece of land on which we can fight for our lives."