repelled with outgunned Lê-Trịnh matchlocks. Conflicts in 1580–1583 From 1580 to 1583, Lê-Trịnh and Mạc forces engaged small to moderate-size conflicts along the Mã River. In November 1580, Mạc Kính Điển died and his brother, prince Mạc Đôn Nhượng succeed the military ruler of the Northern dynasty. The Mạc regime began declining and these were the last of the Northern dynasty's southward offensives. Conflicts in 1584–1589 In 1584, the new Northern emperor Mạc Mậu Hợp succeed the throne when he was child. The monarchy and the government had become more unstable. Military lord Trịnh Tùng commanded the Southern army, which launched five raids into Northern dynasty territories, causing severe damage to the economy and weakening the Mạc regime. Trịnh Tùng also hired the Wokou pirates as mercenaries, raiding the coastal area and port cities in Northern territories. The last stand of Northern dynasty (1592–1593) In February 1592, the Southern dynasty launched a large northward offensive against the Northern Mạc. Trịnh Tùng and his general Nguyễn Hữu Liêu, Trịnh Ninh, Hoàng Đình Ái, Trịnh Đồng, Trịnh Đỗ, Hà Thọ Lộc and Ngô Cảnh Hựu commanded 60,000 troops, captured towns and cities beyond south of the Red river. Mạc Mậu Hợp sent all of his troops to resist the Southern army, but was defeated. In 14 November 1592, Lê-Trịnh army captured three western province Lào Cai, Yên Bái and Phú Thọ. In 25 November, Trịnh Tùng's forces arrived Hải Dương, where they arrested and executed Mạc Mậu Hợp and his son Mạc Toàn. The Mạc remnants fled to the mountainous Bắc Cạn, Cao Bằng provinces, where they remained active. In April 1593, the southern emperor Lê Thế Tông was welcomed back to Đông Kinh (Hanoi). Aftermath The Lê monarch, after 59 years war with rival Mạc, returned back to the throne of Đại Việt. However, the Ming dynasty of China still only recognized the Mạc regime in Cao Bằng as rightfully ruler of Dai Viet. In 1597 Lê Thế Tông sent emissary Phùng Khắc Khoan to Beijing for renewing relation with China, who supports the Mạc dynasty. At the result, the Chinese Ming dynasty recognized both Lê and Mạc as the legitimate rulers of Vietnam, and in 1644 they officially re-recognized the Lê monarch as "king of sovereign Vietnam". The remnant Mạc monarch in Cao Bằng province recruited Tai-speaking mountain tribes into their army. They also brought the Vietnamese Nôm script adoption