The Red Turban Rebellion was a large-scale peasant uprising that erupted in the late Yuan Dynasty. At that time, various domestic conflicts were becoming increasingly acute, and the long-suffering common people, having reached a point of desperation, finally rose up in revolt, with peasants from different regions quickly joining in response. Although the Red Turban Rebellion ultimately ended in failure, it fundamentally shook the rule of the Yuan Dynasty and laid a solid foundation for the later establishment of the Ming Dynasty government.
During the later years of the reign of Toghon Temür, the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial court became extremely corrupt. The emperor neglected state affairs, spending his days indulging in debauchery within the harem, allowing Empress Ki to seize control of the government and persecute loyal officials. To satisfy his lust, he sent agents across the land to forcibly collect beautiful women for his pleasure, while the people dared not speak out in anger. If the sovereign himself behaved so disgracefully, what could be expected of his ministers? Local governments at all levels invented various pretexts to impose exorbitant taxes and levies on the common people. Compared to the early Yuan period, the tax burden on the populace by the late Yuan had increased twentyfold, yet the government still faced annual fiscal deficits. To address the immediate financial crisis, the Yuan rulers resorted to a desperate measure: issuing large quantities of paper currency nationwide. This led to currency devaluation, rampant inflation, and widespread suffering, intensifying social conflicts to a breaking point.
Mongolian nobles brutally exploited people of all ethnic groups, with the oppression of Han Chinese commoners being the most severe. Large tracts of farmland were seized by Mongolian aristocrats, leaving peasants who lost their means of survival with no choice but to become servants or maids in wealthy or official households. This greatly intensified ethnic conflicts within the country.
At the same time, even those peasants who still owned a few meager plots of land fared no better. During the reign of Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yellow River suffered from devastating floods year after year, leaving the crops in the fields completely destroyed. On top of that, plagues ran rampant, and the common people either starved to death or died of disease.
Seeing that the situation had spiraled beyond control, Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty had no choice but to appoint Jia Lu to oversee the taming of the Yellow River. The river control project was massive in scale, requiring enormous amounts of manpower, material resources, and financial expenditure, which placed a tremendous burden on the common people. For those already living in dire poverty, this was nothing short of adding insult to injury. During this process, 150,000 civilians were conscripted as laborers to participate in the river works. These laborers were forced to engage in intense physical labor every day, while the authorities took the opportunity to embezzle their food rations, leaving them to work on empty stomachs. Filled with deep grief and indignation, the laborers were on the verge of a large-scale uprising.
In early May 1351, Han Shantong and Liu Futong launched a massive peasant uprising in Yingzhou, Anhui. Because the rebel forces all wrapped their heads in red scarves, this uprising became known as the "Red Turban Rebellion." In August of the same year, Xu Shouhui and Zou Pusheng led an uprising in Qizhou, Hubei, also using the Red Turban banner as their rallying cry.
During the Yellow River management project, the oppressed laborers, unable to bear the burden any longer, grew increasingly agitated. Han Shantong and Liu Futong, assessing the situation, believed this was the perfect opportunity to launch a rebellion. They first fabricated a folk rhyme containing these two lines: "A stone man with one eye stirs the Yellow River, and all under heaven will rise in revolt." They then spread this rhyme widely among the people, especially targeting the laborers working on the river. Initially, the laborers were skeptical of the rhyme, but soon after, they unexpectedly unearthed a stone man from the riverbed, with the very words "A stone man with one eye stirs the Yellow River, and all under heaven will rise in revolt" carved on its back. This was, of course, a trick orchestrated by Han Shantong and Liu Futong, but it successfully won over the people's hearts. Upon seeing the stone man, the laborers were utterly astonished, believing that the rebellion was heaven's will, which greatly boosted their courage.
Han Shantong and Liu Futong, seizing the opportune moment, immediately organized these laborers to launch an uprising. Han Shantong claimed to be a descendant of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, while Liu Futong declared himself a descendant of Liu Guangshi, a famous general who resisted the Jin during the Southern Song Dynasty. Pledging to unite as sovereign and subject, they vowed to overthrow the tyrannical Yuan Dynasty together and restore the Song Dynasty. From the very beginning, the rebel army gathered over three thousand people. Under the leadership of Han Shantong and Liu Futong, they assembled in Yingshang County, Yingzhou, and began their oath-taking ceremony for the uprising.
The authorities had already heard rumors of this matter and suddenly arrived to suppress it. Han Shantong was unfortunately captured and later died a heroic death, while Liu Futong and others led the rebel army to break through the government forces' encirclement and began a campaign of conquest across the region. Before long, many towns in Anhui and Henan provinces were occupied by the rebel forces.
Afterward, the people of Xuzhou, Qizhou, Dengzhou, and other regions responded one after another, leading to a continuous wave of uprisings large and small across the country. In early the following year, Guo Zixing also launched a peasant uprising in Haozhou, Anhui, and it was within the Red Turban Army led by Guo Zixing that Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming Dynasty, rose to prominence.
In this situation, the Yuan Dynasty government quickly dispatched troops to suppress the rebellion. Initially, the rebel forces were weak and suffered successive defeats in battles against the Yuan army. Later, Emperor Shun of Yuan sent the Right Prime Minister of the Secretariat, Toghto, to lead a million Yuan soldiers to Gaoyou in Jiangsu to suppress the rebel army led by Zhang Shicheng. However, Toghto was framed by treacherous officials and had his military command temporarily revoked, leaving the million-strong Yuan army leaderless, and they were ultimately routed by Zhang Shicheng's rebel forces.
After this, the rebel army advanced triumphantly, leaving the Yuan dynasty government unable to cope. In 1355, Liu Futong and Han Shantong's son, Han Lin'er, led the rebel forces to establish the Great Song regime in Bozhou, Anhui. Although Han Lin'er was nominally installed as emperor, the true power behind the Great Song regime was Liu Futong. Han Lin'er was young and lacked military command experience, so all matters, big and small, were decided by Liu Futong.
After the establishment of the Great Song regime, Liu Futong led the rebel army across the Yellow River and defeated the Yuan forces. By the end of the year, the Yuan army launched a massive attack on Bozhou, but Liu Futong's troops repelled them, turning the crisis into safety. The following year, under Liu Futong's command, the rebel army split into three routes and began a northern expedition. After two years of fierce fighting, the rebels finally captured Kaifeng in 1358, and the Great Song regime subsequently moved its capital there, bringing them one step closer to restoring the Song dynasty. At this point, the Red Turban Army's power had reached its peak.
The Yuan dynasty government, sensing an immense threat from the Red Turban Army, could no longer remain indifferent. Emperor Shun of Yuan dispatched a large force to suppress the rebellion. In May of the following year, Kaifeng was besieged by Yuan troops. Three months later, Kaifeng fell to the Yuan army. Tens of thousands of officials and their families from the Great Song regime, along with five thousand rebel soldiers, were taken captive. Han Lin'er, under the protection of Liu Futong, fled to Anfeng. The Great Song regime suffered heavy losses and was never able to recover its strength.
In 1363, Zhang Shicheng dispatched his general Lü Zhen to besiege Anfeng, cutting off its food supply. After all the grain within Anfeng's walls was consumed, the dire situation even led to cannibalism. In utter desperation, Liu Futong had no choice but to seek help from Zhu Yuanzhang. By then, the rebel army led by Zhu Yuanzhang had grown exceptionally powerful; he crushed Zhang Shicheng's forces and successfully rescued Han Lin'er and Liu Futong.
With Zhu Yuanzhang's support, Han Lin'er remained the nominal emperor of the Great Song regime, but he had become a figurehead. In 1366, Liu Futong died in battle against Zhang Shicheng, and soon after, the Great Song regime collapsed, marking the failure of the Red Turban Rebellion. This uprising lasted a total of thirteen years and spread across much of China. Although it did not directly overthrow the Yuan Dynasty, it left the Yuan's rule hanging by a thread. Without the foundation laid by the Red Turban Rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang would not have been able to successfully eliminate the Yuan Dynasty and establish the Ming Dynasty later on.