Comment by u/redditnamesucks:

If anybody deserves the title "The most interesting badass in the world", Vương Chí Sình takes all the cake and some more.

Born Vàng Seo Lử, Chình was the youngest son of Vương Chính Đức, a noted warlord in the waning days of the Nguyễn dynasty when the French Empire and Qing Empire fought for control over Vietnam. His father was the King of Mèo, a title elected by the Mèo community (a branch of the Hmong people who live in North Vietnam), and he had a difficult job of trying to maintain his people's independence while making sure he provided to them. Ever a shrewd businessman, Đức found something everyone wanted.

Opium.

Đức became a noted opium seller, planting opium in his territory and sold it to the Chinese and French (who forced it down their Vietnamese subjects). And his most trustworthy associate was his son Chình, who followed him into China and French-controlled area to do trade. The young man grew up to be something of a gentlemen, blending the exotic charms of the native people with the style and decorum of high society, able to speak both French and Chinese fluently. He became so good, his father retired early, and he made a killing out of the drug trade, so much so that in 1903 he was able to build a massive palace in the middle of the jungle and named it "the White house" apparently because he thought he was on the same level with an American president and therefore should also have a white house.

However, his drug trading began to grab the French's attention, and by 1936 they were preparing to invade his turf by first building long walls to surround him. He responded by directly attacking the French, routing them in combat, making them so scared they never dared to venture into his territory. So they tried something new: they lured Đức and many noted Mèo leader to Hanoi and arrested them. Chình had to sneak into Hanoi, used his connection to try and free his father, not realizing most of his connections were ordered by the French to ask for more money and drain Chình's coffer, bankrupting him. And he was bankrupted.

With only a few coins left to his name, Chình turned to something else: gambling. He became a noted gambler, winning big on the horse race track, and in just a few days managed to gain a massive sum of 1,000 Indochina coin. He used that money to get acquainted to French high society in Indochina, particularly the head of the French intelligence Andre de Laborde de Monpezat, and managed to impress them so much they invited him to Paris to make his case. There he was said to become a sensation among Parisian high society, bed himself the daughter of a railway tycoon, and got into contact with the French government who gave his father a pardon with the signature of the president and a protected trip back home to Indochina.

With his father free, he became friend with the French for some times, and this put him in a tough spot when in 1940 the Japanese invaded French Indochina. Seeing that Chình controlled the strategic Đồng Văn area, the Japanese decided to invade him, burning villages and massacring many Mèo. That got him pissed, so he set up an ambush for the Japanese. At the battle of Phố Bảng, with only two dozen closed fighters, he routed two full companies of crack Japanese infantry, veterans of the war in China, and killed them all. The Japanese was so frightened they decided to sign a separate peace treaty with him, acknowledging his right as ruler of the Mèo, the Mèo's territory, allowing him to continue his business, and sending yearly tribute to him as compensation.

Now you may ask: why was the Japanese so spooked ? That was because of how Chình treated the Japanese. He was pissed at how the Japanese treated his people, and he took revenge. He beheaded every Japanese, stuck their heads on the poles, then chopped off every limbs and arranged them so that the head and the limbs looked like the sun on the Imperial Japanese flags. He then set up these poles along his border with a little note warning any Japanese who dared to come near. This little act of brutality secured the Mèo's independence until 1945

Years later, when the First Indochina war began, the Viet Minh had to send a delegations to Sình, asking for him to join force with them, because they too were afraid of him. Most "official" history said Chình agreed to join the revolutionary. In truth, he played both sides, agreeing to help both the French and Vietnamese as long as he could sell drugs in Hanoi. It was only in the 50s when he saw the wind changing that he switched to the Viet Minh's side completely. Thanks to this smart move, he managed to protect his people and would be awarded many title in the new Vietnamese government.

Like most badass, he got a pretty tame later life and would die peacefully in his sleep in 1962. His "White house" is still a famous tourist spot today and if you ever visit Vietnam, make sure to visit Hà Giang and the King of Mèo's palace