vietnamese documentation challenges the french assertions. the imperial records, written communications between gian and định, and the account of the southern insurgency written by a resistance figure named nguyen thong support the contention that định's guerrillas operated independently of huế and in violation of its orders. the imperial records hold that tự đức immediately ordered the insurgents to disband, fearing that their actions were an obstacle to his plan of negotiating the return of the lost territory. the records assert that tự đức ordered his officials to prevent the insurgents from returning to independent vietnamese land and to arrest those who did so. messengers were sent from huế into the south with the intention of discouraging the insurgents, rather than fomenting resistance.