The Red Scarf Army Uprising was a peasant war that broke out in the eleventh year of Emperor Shun of the Yuan Dynasty (1351).
In the late Yuan Dynasty, the ruling class, dominated by Mongolian aristocrats, was very cruel in plundering and enslaving all ethnic groups, especially the Han people. They crazily annexed land and turned vast fertile fields into pastures. When Minister Boyan was rewarded with land, he
20,000 hectares. The big landowners "occupied the land extensively and forced the tenants to work", and the peasants lost their land and became slaves. The government imposed exorbitant taxes and imposed many kinds of exorbitant taxes. The national tax amount increased 20 times compared with the early Yuan Dynasty.
The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty spent extravagantly, collecting folk beauties everywhere and offering them to the Buddha for elixirs every day. The government's finances could not make ends meet, and they issued money indiscriminately, causing harm to the country and the people. In addition, the Yellow River was in disrepair for many years and burst its banks many times.
The tragic situation of "neighbors with ghosts". The fire of resistance ignited in the hearts of the people. The song "Beat three times a day, no matter what happens if you don't respond" is circulated in the society.
Under this situation, Liu Futong used the White Lotus Sect and the Maitreya Sect to secretly collude with the poor. In 1351, the Yuan Dynasty government forced 150,000 peasants to dig the Yellow River channel. The officials who supervised the river digging took the opportunity to deduct the "food money" from the river workers. The river workers suffered from starvation.
It was freezing, and the crowd was furious.
Liu Futong sent hundreds of believers as civilian workers to work at the construction site, spreading the song "The stone man with one eye will stir up rebellion in the Yellow River", and secretly carved a stone man with one eye and buried it at the construction site. After the migrant workers dug it out, they resisted
The fire suddenly ignited.
Liu Futong is from Yingzhou (now Fuyang, Anhui). He and another leader of the White Lotus Sect, Han Shantong from Yongnian, Hebei, have been secretly preaching in the northern region, publicizing "the birth of King Ming" and "the rebirth of Maitreya Buddha" to attract the masses. The stone man dug
When the time came, the time was right. Under the leadership of Han Shantong and Liu Futong, 3,000 people prepared for an uprising in Bailu Village, Yingshang County, Yingzhou. However, they were surrounded by enemies because of leaks beforehand, and Han Shantong died. Liu Futong organized the uprising masses after breaking through.
Wrapping his head in a red scarf, he conquered Ying (now Fuyang, Anhui), Luoshan (now Luoshan County, Henan), Shangcai (now Shangcai County, Henan), Zhenyang (now Zhengyang County, Henan), and Queshan (now Queshan, Henan).
Shan County) and other places.
"With a crowd of more than 100,000, Yuan's soldiers cannot resist them." There was such a poem circulating in the society at that time:
"Heaven sends an army of demons to kill the unjust, the unjust will kill the unjust, the unjust will kill the unjust, and all those who are unjust will be killed to bring peace." This reflects the social reality of class opposition and national oppression under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, and expresses the sentiments of the oppressed peasants.
Political ideal. Because the heads of the rebel army were wrapped in red scarves, they were called the "Red Scarf Army". They were also called the "Incense Army" because they burned incense and gathered people. Wherever the Red Scarf Army went, they opened warehouses to spread rice and helped poor farmers, and they won a lot of praise.
The people supported the Red Scarf Army. The masses joined the Red Scarf Army one after another, and the team quickly expanded to hundreds of thousands. Under the influence of the Red Scarf Army, farmers across the country responded one after another. Among the larger numbers were Xu Shouhui from Qishui (now Xishui, Hubei Province).
, the Zhima Li tribe in Xiao County (now northwest of Xiao County, Anhui), the Buwang San tribe in Nanyang, the Meng Haima tribe in Jingfan, the Guo Zixing tribe in Haozhou (now east of Fengyang, Anhui), etc.
In order to overthrow the reactionary rule of the Yuan Dynasty, the rebel army put forward the slogan of "Ming" versus "Dark" ("Ming" refers to the rebel army; "Dark" refers to the rule of the Yuan Dynasty) to encourage the masses to fight against the feudal government. In 1355, Liu Futong led the army
He captured Bozhou (today's Bozhou, Anhui) and established Han Lin'er as the "Little Ming King", with the country name "Great Song", the historical name "Later Song", and the reign name "Dragon and Phoenix", and established a peasant revolutionary regime. After several battles, he defeated Dafa.
Badulu's army launched a counterattack and even approached Dadu. The southern Red Army won victories in Hunan and Hubei. Zhu Yuanzhang inherited the position of Guo Zixing, who died of illness, and crossed the Yangtze River to occupy Jiqing (today's Nanjing). In the 17th year of the Yuan Dynasty,
(1357), the Yuan army generals in the north led by Chahan Timur, Polo Timur, Li Siqi, etc. (but at that time they no longer listened to the central government's orders and acted independently) began to launch a counterattack against the Red Turban Army in the north.
There were also internal disputes and divisions, and the power gradually weakened. In 1363, the northern Red Army was defeated by Zhang Shicheng, who was emerging and demoted to the Yuan Dynasty. Liu Futong died in the battle. Han Lin'er defected to Zhu Yuanzhang and was subsequently killed. The southern Red Scarf Army general Chen Youliang died in
In 1360, he killed Xu Shouhui and took his place. After that, various heroes fought with each other and gradually lost the original nature of the Red Scarf Army.