There is gold in the stones, and saints in the people.

- Turkish proverb

The Gong family lived a small life in the bamboo alley of Jinling City, not seeking to be rich and rich, but to be safe and healthy. Even so, their lives were not peaceful, and there was nowhere to vent the resentment and resentment in their hearts.

A son of the Gong family is called Gong Bingliang. He usually does a little business and has a lot of contact, so he gets acquainted with the backbone of the White Lotus Sect, who is secretly preaching.

The White Lotus Sect is a secret religious association that has been circulated among the people in Jiangnan since the Great Song Dynasty.

In 1133, Mao Ziyuan of Wu County, Jiangsu Province of the Southern Song Dynasty established the White Lotus Confession Hall in Dianshan Lake in Kunshan, simplifying and unifying the Buddhist confession ceremony, changing it to be taught by master and apprentice, and belonging to the sect.

The White Lotus Sect was originally a branch of Buddhism, worshipping Amitabha Buddha and advocating the recitation of the Buddha's precepts (no killing, no stealing, no fornication, no lying, and no drinking, collectively known as the five precepts), in order to go to the Pure Land of the West in the next life, so it is called the White Lotus Sect.

The leaders and leaders of the White Lotus Sect used the teachings of the White Lotus Sect scriptures to oppose darkness, pursue light, and that light will eventually defeat darkness to propagate that "the catastrophe is coming, the heavens and the earth are dark, the sun and the moon have no light", and "the yellow sky will die. The heavens will be born", "the world will change greatly", calling on believers to make their homes from all over the world, regarding the relationship between the faithful as a brother-sister relationship born and raised by parents, and advocating that believers support each other's property and help each other, and that men and women are equal. These slogans directly reflect the interests and urgent demands of the broad masses of peasants. Therefore, the White Lotus Cult was extremely attractive to the poor peasants.

As soon as the White Lotus Sect was born, it was banned by the Southern Song Dynasty. However, because of its simple teachings, simple practices, and conforming to the wishes of the common people, the White Lotus Sect developed very rapidly, spreading widely in the southern part of the Yangtze River, and even to the northern regions under the rule of the Mongols, becoming a huge social force.

After the Great Yuan unified the whole country, the White Lotus Sect was recognized and rewarded by the imperial court and entered its heyday. During this period, the White Lotus developed into an independent religion and became the largest religious sect outside of Buddhism.

In addition to praying for the blessings and longevity of the Dayuan royal family and people with status, the White Lotus Sect Confession Hall also did a lot of good deeds and official duties. Through missionary efforts to collect money, many White Lotus confession halls have become ancestral businesses from generation to generation, both economically and faithfully, constituting a powerful alien force hidden in the lower strata of the society of the Great Yuan Empire.

After entering the middle of the Great Yuan Dynasty, incidents of rebellion in the name of the White Lotus Sect continued to occur, which attracted the great attention of the Great Yuan Imperial Court.

In June 1308, the imperial court issued a ban on the White Lotus cult. In 1311, Da Yuan restored the legitimacy of the White Lotus Sect. In 1322, the activities of the White Lotus were again restricted.

As a result, the White Lotus Sect organizations in many places had a strong hostile attitude towards the Great Northern Mansion.

The ruling class spent all its days on alcohol and extravagance, became increasingly corrupt and degenerate, disregarded the life and death of the people, and oppressed and exploited the people with unprecedented cruelty, causing the Great Yuan Dynasty to enter a period of madness before its demise.

Han Shantong was a Han Chinese from Luancheng, Zhaozhou (present-day Luancheng, Hebei Province). His ancestors were forcibly relocated to Yongnian (present-day Yongnian, Hebei Province) by the government because of their activities in the White Lotus Sect. Han Shantong hated the high-flying Mongols and was determined to drive out the Tatars and restore the Han land.

While farming in his hometown, Han Shantong privately spread the White Lotus Sect among the peasants, quietly publicizing to the people: Maitreya is about to be born, and King Ming is about to be born.

Liu Futong was born in a wealthy family in Liu Xiao Town, Fuyang, Anhui Province. When he grew up, Liu Futong served as the inspector of Zhugao Town (located in today's Funan County, Anhui Province), and was upright and righteous.

The government ruled brutally, the people in southern Henan and northern Anhui were devastated, complaining, and all kinds of contradictions were unprecedentedly acute. In such a social background, Dayuan's Qincha Jialu did not succeed in blackmailing the Liu family's rare beast, Bailu, so he changed the river in the name of repairing the river and demolished the mansion compound of the Liu family.

The hatred of the country and the family prompted Liu Futong to make up his mind to rebel and insist on destroying Dayuan.

By chance, Liu Futong became a follower of Han Shantong's White Lotus Sect. The two of them sat under the oil lamps and talked freely, enumerating the sins of the Great Yuan Mansion, and jointly advocating the overthrow of foreign rule.

In 1351, the Great Yuan Dynasty forcibly conscripted 150,000 laborers to build the embankment of the Yellow River, which then flowed through northern Anhui.

Han Shantong and Liu Futong believed that the time had come for an uprising. They made up the ballad of "Stone Man with One Eye, Inciting the Yellow River to Rebel in the World" in advance and spread it around. At the same time, they buried a stone man with "one eye of the stone man" engraved on his back in the river in advance, inciting the Yellow River to rebel against the world.

The migrant workers dug up the stone figures while building the dam to collect soil. Suddenly, the hearts of the people on the construction site began to fluctuate. Everyone began to believe that there really was a god in the world.

Han Shantong and Liu Futong took the opportunity to incite migrant workers to revolt in Yingshang (i.e., Yingshang County, Anhui Province). In order to cater to the psychology of the common people nostalgic for the Great Song Dynasty and show the legitimacy of his leadership of the struggle, Han Shantong declared that he was the eighth grandson of Song Huizong of the Great Song Dynasty.

For a time, people from all over Anhui and Henan came to join him. They gathered together, slaughtered black oxen and white horses, swore an oath to heaven and earth, and prepared to launch an armed uprising, but they were suddenly suppressed by the local army.

Han Shantong was unfortunately arrested and died. His wife and son, Han Lin'er, fled to Wu'an Mountain (present-day Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province) and went into hiding.

Liu Futong and others broke out of the siege, regrouped the rebel army, and occupied the city of Yingzhou (today's Fuyang, Anhui Province).

At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the great peasant uprising officially broke out.

Liu Futong and others defeated the Dayuan army that came to suppress them, and quickly occupied many towns in Anhui and Henan. Because the rebel army wrapped a red scarf on its head as a symbol, it was called the Red Turban Army.

The flames of the uprising quickly spread across the country.

The Dayuan court was greatly shocked, and hurriedly ordered the Tongzhi Privy Councillor Shi Heguo and Bal Chi, who were supervising the management of the river migrant workers, to lead 6,000 curly-haired and blue-eyed Asu soldiers (the Han people called them blue-eyed Huihui or green-eyed Huihui) and various Han armies to attack Liu Futong.

The three of He, Chi Bald and Xu Zuocheng of Henan Province did not concentrate on fighting and indulged in wine. Subordinate sergeants also plundered everywhere and harmed one party.

Seeing the large number of Red Turban soldiers from afar, he raised his horsewhip, turned around and ran, and shouted, "Abu! Ab! (Mongolian, meaning to go)

Dayuan's army collapsed without a fight.

The Azo people from the northern foothills of the Caucasus did not accept the water and soil of the Central Plains, nor could they fight in the waters, and many people died of disease.

Later, Xu Zuocheng was questioned and killed by the imperial court. He also died in Shangcai in southern Henan.

In order to eliminate the Red Turban Army, Emperor Yuan Shun sent his younger brother Timur, the right prime minister, Kuanchege, the king of Wei, and Dorji, the fourth grandson of Badr, to lead more than 100,000 guards to suppress it.

An army led by Dorji captured Shangcai, Henan, and captured Han Yan'er, one of the leaders of the rebel army.

In the first month of 1352, Liu Futong's rebel army broke free from the encirclement and suppression of the Great Yuan army and advanced to Kaizhou (today's Puyang, Henan Province).

Guo Zixing, a native of Dingyuan, Anhui Province, responded to Liu Futong's call for an uprising and led thousands of people to capture Haozhou (the area around today's Fengyang County, Anhui Province).

Zhu Yuanzhang, a 25-year-old young monk from Haozhou, saw his future and hope from the rebel army with his keen eyes. He resolutely defected to Guo Zixing's command and became a junior petty official.

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in the winter of 1328 in a poor peasant family in Guzhuang Village, ranking fourth in the family and eighth among the brothers in the family, so the earliest name was Zhu Chongba, and later changed to the fashionable and atmospheric Zhu Yuanzhang.

Due to the poverty of his family, Zhu Yuanzhang had no way to go to school and study, so he herded cattle for the landlords in the village since he was a child.

From 1343 to 1344, there were droughts, locust plagues, and plagues in Haozhou. In less than half a month, his father, mother and eldest brother passed away one after another, leaving only 16-year-old Zhu Yuanzhang and his second brother. In desperation, he ran to the temple to be ordained a monk and became a little boy begging everywhere.

After Zhu Yuanzhang joined the rebel army, he repeatedly made meritorious achievements in battles, and was respected and trusted by Guo Zixing, and married his adopted daughter Ma Shi.

At this time, Liu Futong took Han Lin'er to Bozhou, established the Great Song Kingdom, established Han Lin'er as the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty, named King Xiaoming, and named Han Lin'er's mother Yang as the queen mother.

Han Lin'er is known as the ninth grandson of Huizong of the Song Dynasty, mainly to cater to the national feelings of the Han people, saying that he has achieved the restoration of the Great Song Dynasty. The title of King Xiao Ming is also to cater to the prophecy of the White Lotus Sect that "King Ming was born", indicating that the darkness has passed and the light will come immediately.

After Guo Zixing's death, Zhu Yuanzhang took over the military power of the rebel army as his son-in-law, and appointed Han Lin'er as the left deputy marshal, which was used to recruit the people who missed the Great Song Dynasty and a large number of White Lotus believers.

They actively planned and strategized to launch an even greater uprising to expel the Tatars who occupied the Han land and reclaim the Central Plains that had been ruled by foreign races such as the Khitans, Jurchens, and Mongols for more than 430 years.

The imperial court again ordered Timur to lead 300,000 elite soldiers into Shahe, Hebei.

In the case of repeated failures in sending troops to suppress Liu Futong's rebel army, Totokh adopted the strategy of attacking the two flanks, the Xuzhou rebel army and the Nanyang Xiangxiang rebel army, to achieve the goal of isolating Liu Futong's rebel army.

Emperor Yuan Shun listened to the slander and even issued an edict to cut off the military power of Tokto.

As soon as the edict arrived in the barracks, the million-strong army was scattered for a while, and it collapsed without a fight. From then on, the Great Yuan army lost its advantage, and there was no more strength to suppress the rebel army, so it could only rely on the landlords' armed forces to maintain the rule of the Great Yuan.

On the 14th and 15th days of the eighth lunar month in 1356, many shops in Jinling (present-day Nanjing, Jiangsu Province), which had been renamed Jiqing City, were suddenly filled with small round cakes that had never been seen before. The round cake is the size of the palm of your hand and is filled with a variety of fillings.

Gong Bingliang's shop is located at the head of Bamboo Alley. The shop also sells round cakes. When he saw some poor people who couldn't afford to buy small round cakes, he would take a few wrapped in paper and give them generously.

A group of Mongol patrols came over, and when they saw the little round cake, they were very curious, so they stepped forward and asked, "What is this?" ”

Gong Bingliang replied: "This is a moon cake, an offering to worship the moon on the 15th of August." ”

The Mongol soldiers thought that the rules and etiquette of the Han Chinese were particularly cumbersome and complicated, so they lifted their guard and stopped interrogating.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, every household brought out moon cakes and melons and fruits, placed them on the table of the Eight Immortals, and worshiped the moon in the sky. Then, the family sat around the table of the Eight Immortals and drank and admired the moon together.

The Mongol soldiers thought it was amusing and gathered together for a glass of wine. One cup was not addictive, and I drank another glass. In this way, drinking glass after glass, the Mongolian soldiers could not stop the car.

Gong Bingliang took his family to worship the moon and worship the sky, picked up a piece of moon cake, broke it and prepared to share it for everyone to taste, and a cotton note fell from the moon cake, which read: "Please kill the Tartar soldiers living in your house tonight." ”

The Mongol soldier did not recognize Chinese characters and asked suspiciously, "What is that?" ”

Gong Bingliang replied with a smile: "This is the stuffing of moon cakes." Those who eat it can have a family reunion in the coming year. The Moon Lady will also bless a lifetime of peace. ”

The Mongolian soldiers believed it and grinned and laughed: "You Han people pretend to be ghosts all day long, it's really funny!" ”

When he was young, some of the Mongol soldiers were drunk, some were snoring and falling asleep, and some were still drinking and frolicking.

The people of each family squeezed each other's eyes, touched each other's elbows, and all understood. Taking advantage of the negligence of the Mongol soldiers in the dark night, they took out wooden sticks hidden in the quilts and killed many Mongol soldiers.

Having completed the task of killing their enemies, the common people quickly walked out of their homes and excitedly asked each other, "Is your family killed?" ”

"Killed! What about yours? ”

"Of course they were killed!"

So, people beat gongs and drums and crackled firecrackers.

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang led the rebel officers and soldiers of the brigade to enter the gate of Jiqing with shouts and shouts, and joined forces with the people in the city to wipe out all the Mongolian soldiers who were usually arrogant and domineering.

In order to commemorate the victory, the Han people have since had the custom of eating moon cakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15.

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately ordered Jiqing City to be renamed Yingtianfu, and put forward a political program of "building high walls, accumulating grain, and slowing down the king".

However, the good situation of the Red Turban Army did not last long. The tide was quickly reversed.

From 1358 to early 1359, the Great Yuan armies led by Dorji and Chakhan Timur broke through Caozhou (now Heze) in Shandong and Datong in Shanxi, respectively, cutting off the connection between the Great Song regime and the Red Turban Army.

The Great Song regime fell into a situation of isolation and helplessness.

Chakhan Timur and Dorji moved to Hujiao (located in the northwest of present-day Xingyang City, Henan Province), sent troops from multiple routes, conquered Bianliang (today's Kaifeng, Henan Province), and captured Han Lin'er's wife, more than 5,000 Red Turban soldiers, and tens of thousands of family members.

Liu Futong and Han Lin'er broke out of the siege and rushed to Anfeng (located in present-day Dongtai, Jiangsu Province).

At this point, the Great Song regime had existed in name only.

In 1362, Dorji suppressed all the Red Turban armies in Shandong.

Anfeng's Great Song regime nominally only had Zhu Yuanzhang's Jiangnan Province.

Zhang Shicheng is a native of Xinghua, Taizhou, Jiangsu, because he could not bear the oppression of the salt police, he united 18 people to lead the salt workers to rebel against the Great Yuan, which is known as the Eighteen Biandan Uprising. He attacked Gaoyou, proclaimed himself King Cheng, founded the Great Zhou, and then made the capital Pingjiang (present-day Suzhou, Jiangsu Province). Later, he surrendered to the imperial court and became a pawn of Dayuan in suppressing the rebels.

In March 1363, Zhang Shicheng took advantage of the emptiness of Anfeng, the capital of the Great Song Dynasty, and led his army to attack Anfeng.

Liu Futong led the rebel army to put up stubborn resistance.

Han Lin'er hurriedly asked Zhu Yuanzhang for help.

Zhu Yuanzhang personally led the army to defeat Zhang Shicheng's army, rescued Han Lin'er and Liu Futong, and placed them in Chuzhou.

Zhang Shicheng captured Anfeng and proclaimed himself King of Wu. However, he was later repeatedly defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang's army, and his territory shrank day by day.

In January 1367, Zhu Yuanzhang sent his soldiers to welcome Han Lin'er and Liu Futong to Yingtianfu.

When Han Lin'er and Liu Futong passed through Guazhou, they encountered a strong wind and the boat they were riding capsized. Han Lin'er, Liu Futong and others drowned in the water.

In the autumn, Zhu Yuanzhang's army broke through Pingjiang City and sent the captured Zhang Shicheng to Yingtianfu for detention.

Zhang Shicheng hanged himself in prison.

In the winter of this year, Zhu Yuanzhang, who had already unified the south of the Yangtze River, ordered Xu Da to be the general of the conquest, and Pingzhang Chang Yuchun to be the deputy general, and led the 250,000 rebel army to officially swear in Yingtianfu, enter the territory of Henan from the Huaihe River Valley, and start the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains.

In order to win the support of the common people and reduce the resistance on the way to the Northern Expedition, Zhu Yuanzhang specially warned the soldiers before sending troops that they must not kill and plunder wherever the army went, and also put forward the slogan of "expelling Hulu and restoring China", which had a great appeal to all strata of the Han people.

Gong Bingliang was usually oppressed by the Mongolian soldiers, but now seeing that Zhu Yuanzhang's team not only drove away the Tartar soldiers, but also wanted to go north to the Central Plains, he took the initiative to join the army as a follower of the White Lotus Sect, and followed the main force led by Xu Da to set off to the north.

Gong Bingliang and his comrades-in-arms only took more than four months to capture the entire territory of Shandong.

The loss of Shandong caused the Great Yuan Dynasty to lose its solid left arm and was strategically at a military disadvantage of being passively beaten.

On the fourth day of the first month of 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang officially announced to the world in Yingtianfu: the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the year name Hongwu.

Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself emperor and decided to make Tianfu the capital.

The Ming Empire was formally established.

At the same time, everywhere the Ming army of the Northern Expedition went, the local people, whether rich or poor, had tears of excitement in their eyes, and warmly welcomed their troops.

Gong Bingliang has never felt so proud and proud that he is Han like he is today.

He has read a lot of history books since he was a child, and knows that his ancestors are from Bianjing in the Han region of the Central Plains, a slightly distant ancestor from Gongyi in Henan, and a farther ancestor from the Qiang region in the west.

"I'm going back to my homeland!"

Gong Bingliang's heart couldn't help beating wildly......