The Ming Dynasty was the last unified Central Plains dynasty established by the Han people in Chinese history, with a total of 12 generations, 20 emperors, and 294 years.

The territory of the Ming Dynasty encompassed the Han Dynasty, reaching the Sea of Japan in the northeast, the Outer Xing'an Mountains, and then shrinking into the Liaohe River Valley; reaching the Gobi Desert in the north, and then retreating to the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty; reaching Hami in Xinjiang in the northwest, retreating to Jiayuguan; bordering the Gulf of Bengal in the southwest, and then turning back to the territory of present-day Yunnan; and setting up a guard station in the Qinghai-Tibet region, and also recovering Annam, the land area of the Ming Dynasty reached about 10 million square kilometers at its peak.

In the Ming Dynasty, the handicraft industry and commodity economy flourished, commercial market towns and capitalism sprouted, and culture and art showed a trend of secularization. The Ming Dynasty is a great unified dynasty after the Han and Tang dynasties, the Ming Dynasty has no relatives outside the Han Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, the Son of Heaven guards the country, and the king dies.

When Zhu Yuanzhang first set the world, the founding of the country was intended to be in the middle of the country, and even to pray for the sky, it was to get the Ming Dynasty, indicating that the name of the Ming King inherited from Han Shantong and Han Lin'er father and son, known as the Ming Dynasty in history. The source of the name of the Ming Dynasty is Mingjiao, and some of the Ming Christians under Zhu Yuanzhang use the Ming as the name of the country to show their orthodox status.

In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, politics was corrupt, the Mongol rulers were brutal, and the vast majority of the people were oppressed like never before. The Yuan court requisitioned more than 100,000 peasants and soldiers to control the floods of the Yellow River, and the control of the river and the change of money led to the outbreak of the Red Turban Army uprising.

The Red Turban Army in the Red Turban Army Uprising was also called the Red Army among the people, and they were formed by the combination of the three major folk religions that were more prevalent at that time. When they were preparing to go to war during the uprising, they always carried red flags and red cloth scarves tied to their foreheads.

In the late Yuan Dynasty, the society was turbulent, and the Mongolian aristocracy treated the Han people as if they were domestic animals, and they tried many means to take the land for themselves and replace the Han way of life with their own way of life, so that it caused very serious damage to the social order. A large number of Han Chinese became their slaves, and the taxes imposed by the government continued to rise, and the punishments became more severe. A lot of fertile land for growing food was forced to be taken out, and for a time the people's lives became very difficult and difficult.

As the rulers, the Mongolian nobles kept looting the people's fat and people's ointment, and even looked for folk beauties for their own selfish desires. As a result, the land was wasted, the human dignity of the people was trampled on, and their lives were not guaranteed. In the end, the Han Chinese had only two paths to follow, or they continued to endure the torture of the Mongol aristocracy and the unequal system, and then died a painful death in the end. Or take up your own weapons and fight hard, at least then there is still hope to struggle and live. It is precisely because of such an unsightly tragic scene that there is a Red Turban Army composed of the three religions of the people.

The Red Turban Army is literally an army with a turban wrapped around its head, the Red Turban Army was composed of peasants in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, and people fought back under the brutal rule, but in the end it ended in failure, and Zhu Yuanzhang also joined the ranks of the Red Turban Army.

In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, due to the ignorant rule of the Mongolian aristocracy, the social situation at that time was chaotic and the people were not able to make a living. The Mongolian aristocracy adapted to the life of herding, and a large amount of fertile land was no longer used for grazing, but was no longer used for food crops, and the people not only did not have enough to eat, but also had to endure more and more taxes levied by the government, even if they wanted peace and security.

The uprising of the Red Turban Army changed the lives of the people, helped the people to resist, and changed the situation of oppression of the people, and the uprising of the Red Turban Army hit the power of the Mongolian aristocracy in the Yuan Dynasty, clearing some obstacles for Zhu Yuanzhang's future accession to the throne for the emperor. The Red Turban revolt was unsuccessful, but it lasted for twelve years, during which time it eroded the foundations of the Mongol aristocracy and facilitated the emergence of a new dynasty.

After the Yuan Dynasty became a sect, there were nine emperors, and the internal struggle of the imperial family was very fierce, and the politics became more and more corrupt, and the people suffered great disasters. After the last emperor, Emperor Yuan Shun, came to the throne, he was desolate and brutal, the treasury was empty, prices soared, the people could not bear it, and peasant uprisings broke out in many places.

There was a peasant named Han Shantong in Hebei, his grandfather was a teacher, and he once used the form of preaching to secretly organize peasants to rebel against the Yuan Dynasty. After Han Shantong grew up, he continued to organize the White Lotus Society, gathering many suffering peasants to burn incense and worship Buddha.

Han Shantong said to them: "Now that the world is in turmoil, the Buddha will send Maitreya Buddha down to earth to save the people." This legend soon spread to Henan and Jianghuai, and the people were looking forward to the day when Maitreya Buddha would really come down to earth.

It just so happened that at this time, the Yellow River burst at the Baimao embankment, and it encountered heavy rain for more than 20 days in a row, flooding, and the people on both sides of the river suffered serious floods. Someone suggested to the imperial court that the place where the breach was broken, and that a river channel be dug in Huanglinggang to dredge the river. The Yuan Dynasty recruited 150,000 migrant workers and 20,000 soldiers from the 13th Route including Bianliang and Daimyo to open the river in Huanglinggang.

The river repair project began, and the migrant workers were forced to work day and night under the scorching sun and heavy rain, but the funds allocated by the imperial court for the opening of the river were deducted by the officials who controlled the river. The migrant workers who repaired the river could not even eat enough, and they complained.

Han Shantong decided to seize this opportunity and mobilize the masses. He first sent hundreds of disciples to work as migrant workers to pick up the river, and spread a folk song on the construction site: "The stone man has one eye, inciting the Yellow River to rebel against the world." ”

The migrant workers didn't understand the meaning of this ballad, but when they heard the words "world is anti" in it, they felt that a better day was coming. When the river opened to Huanglinggang, a few migrant workers dug and dug and dug up, and suddenly dug up a stone man. Everyone gathered curiously to take a look, only to see that there was one eye on the stone man's face, and they couldn't help but be stunned. This new thing quickly spread among the hundreds of thousands of migrant workers, and everyone thought in their hearts that what the folk song said had really come true, and since the stone man came out, the day of the world's rebellion would naturally come. Needless to say, this stone figure was secretly buried there by Han Shantong in advance.

The people were agitated, and Han Shantong had a partner, Liu Futong, who said to Han Shantong that now the Yuan Dynasty oppresses the people so badly, and the people still miss the Song Dynasty, and if the banner of restoring the Song Dynasty is raised, there will be more supporters. Han Shantong agreed with this proposition very much, and announced to everyone that Han Shantong was not originally surnamed Han, but surnamed Zhao, and was ranked according to generation, and was still the eighth-generation grandson of Song Huizong; Liu Futong was also a descendant of Liu Guangshi, a general of the Southern Song Dynasty. They said so well that the people couldn't help but believe it.

Han Shantong and Liu Futong chose a day, gathered a group of people, killed a white horse and a black cow, and sacrificed to heaven and earth. Everyone pushed Han Shantong as the leader, known as the king of Ming, and agreed on a day to revolt in Yingzhou, and wrapped his head in a red scarf as a mark of the rebel army. When he was taking the oath in blood, someone leaked the news, and the government sent soldiers to arrest Han Shantong and take him to the county yamen to be killed. Han Shantong's wife took his son Han Lin'er and escaped from the government's pursuit and went to Wu'an to hide.

Liu Futong escaped from the encirclement, gathered the peasants who had agreed to revolt, and captured some strongholds such as Yingzhou. It turned out that the migrant workers who opened the river in Huanglinggang got the news and also killed the river officials, and they all defected to Liu Futong's team. Because the rebel soldiers wore red scarves on their heads, the people at that time called them the Red Army, and in history they called it the Red Turban Army, and in less than ten days, the Red Turban Army had grown to more than 100,000 people.

When the Yuan Dynasty heard Liu Futong's momentum, they panicked and hurriedly mobilized the Asu Army and several Han armies composed of 6,000 Semu people to suppress the Red Turban Army. The Asu army was originally an elite team of the Yuan Dynasty, but at that time, it was already very corrupt, the generals only knew how to drink and have fun, and the soldiers robbed everywhere.

As soon as they encountered the Red Turban Army, before they could fight, the main general took the lead in waving his whip, rode backwards and fled, and kept shouting: "Abu, Abu!" Abu means to go, and the soldiers below also scattered and fled when they saw the main general fleeing.

A month later, Liu Futong's Red Turban Army captured a number of cities in succession. The peasants in the Jianghuai area have long been influenced by the White Lotus Society, and when they heard Liu Futong's uprising, they responded one after another, like Xu Shouhui in Qishui and Guo Zixing in Haozhou, all of whom rebelled under the banner of the Red Turban Army, and some who did not play the banner of the Red Turban Army, like Zhang Shicheng in northern Jiangsu.

Emperor Yuan Shun sent the prime minister to concentrate the kings and the people of the provinces, mobilized the troops of the Western Regions and the Western Fan, known as one million, to besiege Zhang Shicheng's rebel army that occupied Gaoyou, and Gaoyou City was besieged. When the rebel army was in danger, the Yuan Dynasty suddenly broke out in civil strife, and Emperor Yuan Shun ordered the removal of the official titles of Toto. The million-dollar army lost its commander, and the whole army collapsed without a fight.

After the Yuan army was dispersed, Liu Futong's northern rebel army took the opportunity to attack and break the Yuan army. In February of the following year, Liu Futong took Han Shantong's son Han Lin'er to Bozhou to officially claim the emperor, the country name was Song, and Han Lin'er was called King Xiaoming.

After Han Lin'er and Liu Futong established the government in Bozhou, they divided their troops into three routes and went out on the Northern Expedition. The Western Route Army, led by Li Wu and Cui De, attacked Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Sichuan; the Eastern Route Army, led by Mao Gui, approached the capital of the Yuan Dynasty from Shandong and Hebei; and the Middle Route Army, led by Mr. Guan and Potou Pan, fought from Shanxi to Liaodong and cooperated with the Eastern Route Army to attack Dadu.

The Three Northern Expeditionary Armies have made great progress, and Mao Gui's Eastern Route Army has been fighting all the way to the capital of Yuan. Liu Futong personally led the army to capture Bianliang, and took Han Lin'er, the king of Xiaoming, to Bianliang and designated it as the capital. The Red Turban Army was huge, the Yuan Dynasty panicked, gathered the landlords' armed forces to step up the suppression, the Three Northern Expeditionary Army lost successively, and Bianliang fell into the hands of the Yuan Army.

The Yuan Dynasty used the high-ranking official Houlu to recruit Zhang Shicheng, and after Liu Futong protected King Xiaoming and fled to Anfeng, he was attacked by Zhang Shicheng, and Liu Futong died in the battle. After twelve years of fighting, the Northern rebel army was finally defeated.