The Red Turban Army was the main force that the people rose up against the Yuan Dynasty in the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, and was initially launched in conjunction with folk religions such as MingJiao, Maitreya Buddhism, and White Lotus Sect. Because of the red flag, the head is tied with a red scarf, also known as the "red scarf" or "Red Army", and because of the incense burning to gather the crowd, it is also called the "incense army". The background of the Red Turban Army originated from the political corruption, heavy taxes and natural disasters in the last years of the reign of the Yuan Shun Emperor, and initially originated in the Jianghuai area north of the Yangtze River south of the Yellow River.
The background of the Red Turban Army began with political corruption, heavy taxes, and natural disasters in the last years of the reign of the Yuan Shun Emperor. It originally originated in the Huai River Valley, with Han Shantong and Liu Futong as the leaders. Han Shantong used the White Lotus Sect as a link to publicize the "birth of Maitreya" and "the birth of the Ming King", and became acquainted with Liu Futong, a native of Fuyang, Anhui. (Shan Tong proposed: "The world is in chaos, Maitreya Buddha is born, and the Ming King is born.") The people of Jianghuai, Henan Province, believed in it."
The four-class system of the Yuan Dynasty
In May of the eleventh year of the Yuan Dynasty (1351), The Yuan Shun Emperor used Jia Lu to rule the Yellow River and used a large number of people, causing dissatisfaction. After Jialu opened the river, Han Shantong and others decided to use this opportunity to launch an uprising. They spread the folk song "Stone Man Has One Eye, Provoking the Yellow River To Rebel", and at the same time secretly chiseled a one-eyed stone man and carved on its back the words "Mo Dao Stone Man One Eye, This Thing Is Anti-Heavenly", and buried it on the river near the Huanglinggang that was about to be excavated. In April of the eleventh year (1351), shortly after Jialu opened the river, migrant workers dug out the cyclops, and the news went away, and the people's hearts floated in the north and south of the great river.
Mo Daoshi man has one eye, and this thing is the opposite of the world
Han Shantong, Liu Futong, Du Zundao, and others decided to launch an uprising at Yingshang (present-day Anhui), but when the incident broke out, Han Shantong was arrested and killed, and Liu Futong took Han Lin'er, the son of Shantong, out of the siege and occupied Yingzhou (present-day Fuyang, Anhui), and many people joined in, gaining momentum in Anhui and Henan, while other uprisings in the north, such as Sesame Li in Xuzhou, Peng Da, and Guo Zixing in Haozhou (in present-day Fengyang, Anhui), all revolted in the Red Turban.
In February 1355 (the 15th year of the reign of Emperor Yuanshun), Liu Futong welcomed Han Shantong's son Han Lin'er from The Mountains and rivers to Bozhou as emperor, with the name of the state Song Dynasty and the change to Yuan Longfeng. He also took advantage of the propaganda effect of "the birth of the Ming King" to call Han Lin'er "Xiaoming Wang". The Red Turban Army throughout the Central Plains was temporarily under the leadership of the Great Song Dynasty. In 1357 (to the 17th year of Zheng), Liu Futong made a major strategic decision, dividing his troops into three northern expeditions, and the soldiers pointed directly at Dadu.
The Red Turban Army's Northern Expedition to the Eastern, Central, and Western Third Route Army marched
The Northern Expeditionary Army was divided into three roads: the Eastern Route Army from Shandong, the Middle Route Army from Shanxi, and the Western Route Army from Shaanxi, with the goal of encircling and capturing The Capital of Yuan. The Eastern Route Army was very smooth at first, successively capturing the important towns of Dezhou and Cangzhou in Hebei, and all the way to Tongzhou, the southern gate of the Yuan capital. Emperor Yuan Shun panicked in most capitals and planned to flee north. The situation is very good for the Red Turban Army. Unfortunately, the other two Northern Expeditionary Forces failed to give effective cooperation, resulting in the lone army of the Eastern Route Army going deep, the supply of grain and grass was difficult, and it was difficult to last, and it was finally defeated by the Yuan army and returned to Shandong.
The Middle Route Army encountered the greatest resistance, the marching speed was slow, and when the battle reached the same time, the Eastern Route Army had been defeated back to Shandong, and the goal of encircling Most of the capital could not be achieved. They had to fight from Shanxi to the Mongolian steppe, and from the grassland to Liaoyang in the northeast, and even once to the territory of Goryeo, but in the end, because they fought alone, logistics could not be guaranteed, and the whole army was destroyed under the combined attack of the Yuan army and the Goryeo army. The situation encountered by the Western Route Army was very similar to that of the Middle Route Army, which was also a lonely army, poor logistics, and outnumbered enemies, defeated by the main force of the Yuan Army, and finally entered Sichuan, where it was annexed by rebel armies of other local factions. The Northern Expedition of the Red Turban Army achieved nothing due to its dispersed strength and empty rear, but the Northern Expedition dealt a heavy blow to the decadent rule of the Yuan Dynasty and accelerated its demise.
It was almost time to pack up and prepare to go back to his hometown to herd sheep- Emperor Yuanshun
Zhu Yuanzhang, as the strongest inspirational emperor in China, was also an important leader of the nominal Red Turban Army, and finally he unified the various separatist forces in Jiangnan and the Northern Expedition, and finally achieved the ultimate goal of the Red Turban Army to unify the whole country.
As a disseminator and user of secret religions, Zhu Yuanzhang was well versed in his ways, and in order to strictly prevent anyone from following the example of the Red Turban Army in using secret religions to start a rebellion, in the third year of Hongwu, he issued an edict banning the White Lotus and other religions. In the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu (1394), he ordered the Ministry of Rites to show the world and forbade it again. He also enacted specific laws and regulations to punish proselytizing who violated orders.
Secret religions are not scientific, and everyone must not believe it - Zhu Yuanzhang
In the "Great Ming Law" officially promulgated in the seventh year of Hongwu (1374), it is said: "All teachers and witches falsely descend evil gods, write spells and curse water, pray for the saints, call themselves Duan Gong TaiBao and Shi Po, falsely call Maitreya Buddha, White Lotus Society, Mingzun Sect, Baiyun Sect, etc., should be the left way of chaos and righteousness, or hide images, gather incense and gather the crowd at night, pretend to do good deeds, stir up the people, hang the leader, and each staff for the followers, and flow for three thousand miles."
Zhu Yuanzhang was born into poverty and understood the hardships of the people, so he also paid attention to recuperation and recuperation, vigorously engaged in resettlement of tuntian and military tuns, built water conservancy, reduced or exempted taxes, measured the land of the whole country, checked the household registration, and so on, and also severely punished corrupt officials and lawless nobles. Under his rule, social production gradually recovered and developed, and the common people finally got rid of the suffering of war and chaos and lived a self-sufficient life. The Chinese people are the most industrious and happy, not a last resort, and no one will follow the ambitionists to rebel.
In the last years of the Yuan Dynasty, Shandong was the most fiercely contested area between the Red Turban Army and the Yuan Dynasty army, and the economic damage after the war was quite serious, although after a period of recuperation in the early Ming Dynasty, until the late Hongwu period, the resettlement of displaced people and the resumption of production were still difficult problems for the imperial court. After Taizu's death, Zhu Di, the King of Yan, raised an army from Beiping (present-day Beijing) to seize the throne and launched the Battle of Jingnan. The Shandong area has become an important battlefield again, and production that has not yet fully resumed has been seriously destroyed.
In the Battle of Jingnan, Shandong became an important battlefield again
In the Shandong area at the beginning of Ming Chengzu's reign, most of the people were trapped, the merchants were not accessible, and they were devastated. The imperial court was very clear about this situation, and Zhu Di once said: "The people of the north today, if people are seriously ill at the beginning, are good at conditioning, and they can be safe." Otherwise, the disease will get worse. So the night fist is also. As for the "Shunmin" in The areas of Beiping, Yongping, and Baoding, who "supplied Travain" in the "Jing Difficulties", Zhu Di was able to think of giving some special privileges and exemptions after seizing the throne, but the Shandong region was not among them. Therefore, in Yongle, when the starving people of Shandong needed relief, many places had no storage of millet in warehouses, and had to "save it for the relief in the nearby military guards."
In the years that followed, several major disasters broke out in Shandong. In the fourth year of Yongle (1406), a locust drought occurred in Jinan Province, Shandong Province. Epidemics are prevalent among starving people. In the same year, the Qingzhou capital Le'an and other prefectures reported as many as 713,840 mu of land. In the later period of Yongle, the Ming Dynasty spent a lot of money to build Beijing, repair the Huitong River, and conquer Mongolia in the north. The continuous requisition of servitude, coupled with successive years of natural disasters, has made the people miserable. Shandong is one of the most burdened areas, coupled with years of floods and droughts, farmers feed on tree bark and grass roots, sell wives and beards, and the old and young are displaced, unable to make a living. In the seventeenth year of Yongle, "the famine in Shandong, Henan, and Shaanxi was still in drought, until the bark of trees was peeled and grass roots were dug... The old and the young move, they turn the road upside down, and they sell their wives and beards in order to survive."
There are no idle fields in the four seas, and the farmers are starving to death
As early as the seventeenth year of Zhizheng (1357), Liu Futong sent Mao Gui to attack Jiaozhou, Laizhou, Yidu, Binzhou and other places, and since then this area has been under the control of the Red Turban Army, and Mingism has also penetrated deep into the people, until the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Mingism, as a secret religion spread by the people, maintained a great influence in the local area.
Tang Sai'er, a young woman in Putai County (now part of Binzhou City), grew up in such an environment where folk religion spreads, and began to recite Buddhist scriptures from an early age, calling herself "Mother Buddha". And she also slightly mastered martial arts and martial arts, imitating the Red Turban Army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, using the White Lotus Sect to contact the people, her husband Lin San, who was also a member of the Ming Sect and was likely to be the leader of the local Ming Sect, but died earlier, so the secret spread of the local Ming Sect was undertaken by Tang Sai'er.
Tang Sai'er sculpture in Binzhou, Shandong
The scope of Tang Sai'er's mission was not only in Putai, but on the eve of her uprising, in addition to Putai, Yidu, Zhucheng, Anzhou, Juzhou, Jimo, Shouguang and other prefectures and counties had developed a large number of religious congregations. Legend has it that when Tang Sai'er returned from a memorial service to her husband, she saw a stone box corner exposed in the stone scroll at the foot of the mountain, dug it out to see that there were heavenly books, swords and other objects in the box, and since then she has mastered spells, used excalibur, cut paper and horses to fight, and completely became a "Buddha mother" who was truly believed by the congregation. But this is obviously just Tang Sai'er's propaganda to spread the Ming Religion, but in fact, she can get the support of the people because she can really help the poor who have lost their livelihoods.
Heavy enlistment and years of famine provided favorable conditions for the development of folk religion in Shandong, and the peasants who were looking for a way to survive pinned their hopes on their belief in religion, and the number of believers developed by Tang Sai'er soon reached tens of thousands, which made the local government feel afraid and helpless.
Tang Sai'er's subordinates Dong Yangao, Liu Jun, Bin Hong, and others led more than 2,000 people to occupy the Yidu Stone Shed Village, with the red and white flag as the trumpet, and the momentum was growing. In the seventeenth year of Yongle (1419), Qingzhou Wei commanded Gao Feng to lead troops to encircle and suppress the shi shed village. Taking advantage of the favorable terrain of the Yidu Mountains, Tang Sai'er set up an ambush to lure the enemy deeper and introduced officers and soldiers into the Hulu Valley. In the narrow valley, Tang Sai'er led an ambush into the enemy position, defeated the officers and soldiers, and Gao Feng was also killed.
Unloading stone shed village - located in Qingzhou City, Yangji Township and Shangzhuang Township junction
The government, who had suffered a loss, then sent Sun Gong of The Thousand Households of Juzhou to solicit care. The rebels rejected Sun Gong and killed the officers and men who accompanied them. It's just that these things have been concealed and not reported by local officials, and they have adopted the strategy of suppressing if they can suppress them, and they can be appeased, but in the end, "the three divisions are imprisoned without fleas."
When such a major event occurred in the local area, the Yongle Emperor was shocked, and Shandong was the main road of Caoyun and the basis for supplying the Beijing Division. The Yongle Emperor then ordered Marquis Liu of Anyuan to be promoted to the rank of commander-in-chief, and liu Zhong was made deputy commander-in-chief, and 5,000 elite men and horses of the Beijing Division were selected to suppress it. Before leaving, the Yongle Emperor instructed him in person: "The thief has no water and lacks food, so when he sits in distress, do not try to attack closely." ”
In the eighteenth year of Yongle (1420), an official uprising was launched on February 11. After the Tang Sai'er uprising, the Ming government urgently ordered Qingzhou Weidu to command Gao Feng to surround the shishi shed village in an attempt to eliminate the rebel army. As soon as the Ming army reached the end of the shishi shed village, Tang Sai'er suddenly launched an attack at night, killing Gao Feng and others on the spot, and annihilating all the Ming troops in a state of chaos.
The initial battle was successful, and the Tang Sai'er rebel army was greatly enhanced. She used the unloading stone shed village as a base, and soon occupied the county towns of Juzhou and Jimo, attacking the government and rich landlords. People in various places east of Qingzhou responded to the uprising, "destroying the officials and burning the warehouses", opening warehouses to help the poor, and the team quickly grew to more than 20,000 people, which shook the Beijing Division. The masses in various places east of Qingzhou responded one after another, and more than a dozen rebel armies appeared in Yidu, Zhucheng, Anqiu, Juzhou, Jiaozhou and other prefectures and counties. Among them, the larger ones are the two teams of Bin Hong and Dong Yangao. In this way, the peasant uprising centered on the unloading shed village was vigorously launched.
After Tang Sai'er won the initial battle, he used the unloading stone shed as a base to continuously attack the official officials, bullies, and landlords in the nearby state capital. Wherever Tang Sai'er went, the officials fled for their lives, and other rebel armies responded. According to local records, Shouguang, Anqiu, Jiaozhou and other places all had activities to combat the Ming army, such as "destroying officials and burning warehouses", and one after another urgent documents flew to the Beijing Division. In order to control the situation, the Yongle Emperor sent a minister to the unloading stone shed to recruit security, and Tang Sai'er angrily beheaded the envoy.
Jingying, also known as the three major battalions, including the five battalions, the three thousand battalions and the Shenji battalion, was the main force of the Ming Dynasty
When the recruitment was unsuccessful, the Yongle Emperor sent Liu Zhong, the commander-in-chief of the "Jingying" and Marquis Liu Sheng of Anyuan, to command Liu Zhong to lead 5,000 elite troops to suppress it.
In the face of the rebel army led by Tang Sai'er, Liu Sheng believed that "the little thief will be pacified in a few days." On February 28, after Liu Sheng and Liu Zhongbing arrived in Yidu, they once again besieged the shishi shed village.
Taking advantage of the weakness of the enemy's arrogance and lightness, Tang Sai'er falsely surrendered on the grounds that "the village was full of food and there was no water", and transferred Liu Sheng's main force to the place where there was water in the east of the alert city, but he concentrated his forces and launched a surprise attack on the enemy battalion with weak defenses. At the end of the night, he attacked the enemy camp and killed Liu Zhong, the commander of the capital. When the enemy's main force arrived, Tang Sai'er had commanded the rebel army to move calmly.
At the same time, other rebel armies also fought against the Ming army, with the most fierce fighting in Anqiu City. At that time, more than 10,000 rebels from Anqiu, Juzhou, and Jimo besieged Anqiu City, and when they were about to capture it, Wei Qing, who was in charge of defending against Wukou on the shandong coast, commanded Wei Qing to lead his troops to arrive, causing the rebel army to suffer from the enemy in the belly and back, and finally failed. The local leader Zhao Huan was captured for righteousness, the rebels killed and wounded more than 2,000 people, more than 4,000 captured, all were killed by the Ming army, and his wife and children were confiscated as slaves by the government. In less than a month, the Tang Sai'er uprising was suppressed.
Although the peasant uprising led by Tang Sai'er lasted only more than 60 days, it killed two generals of the Ming Dynasty and won two major victories. After the failure of the Tang Sai'er Uprising, the Ming ruler sent Liu Sheng to command an army to pursue the rebel army that had broken through the shi shed village, and executed all the captured rebel generals. However, the leader of the rebel army, Tang Sai'er, had fled, which infuriated the Yongle Emperor and ordered Liu Sheng to be imprisoned, and all the senators, envoys, envoys, and officials of the counties where the uprising occurred were executed.
Drift away, nowhere to be seen
In order to prevent Tang Sai'er from becoming a nun and merging into the ranks of Daogu, the Yongle Emperor issued an order in March and May of the same year: "All nuns and Taoist priests in Beijing and Shandong are arrested and interrogated by the Beijing master." "All military and civilian women who have become nuns and Taoists, siguan jingshi." As a result, more than 10,000 nuns and Daogu were arrested and interrogated by Jingshi, but Tang Sai'er still "did not know the end."
Water can carry boats, but it can also cover boats
The peasant revolt led by Tang Sai'er not only effectively attacked the rule of the Ming Dynasty, but also shocked the Ming Dynasty, which seized power through the peasant uprising. In order to maintain its rule, the Ming Dynasty had to make some concessions to the oppression and exploitation of the peasants. According to the Ming Dynasty, "It is the month, and qing and lai are hungry." The "second year (1421) Chengzu" decreed that it would not be convenient for the people and not to rush the affairs; seventeen years ago, it would be endowed to save the grain from the land that had been destroyed last year. ”
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