At the beginning of May 1351, Liu Futong and Han Shantong instigated 3,000 White Lotus Sect, Mingjiao followers and more than 100,000 Huanglinggang river workers to oppose the Yuan under the guise of "the birth of Maitreya Buddha" and "the birth of King Ming", and the slogan of "Mo Dao Shiren has one eye, inciting the Yellow River to rebel against the world".
Han Shantong, the leader of the White Lotus Sect in Luancheng, Zhaozhou, was very excited when he saw the success of the incitement, and immediately summoned Liu Futong, Du Zundao, Luo Wensu, Han Yan'er and other leading brothers and 3,000 members of the sect to gather in Bailuzhuang in Yingshang (now Yingshang County, Fuyang City, Anhui Province), kill cattle and horses, swear blood oaths, sacrifice heaven and earth, and prepare for an incident. In order to boost morale, Han Shantong claimed to be the eighth grandson of Zhao Ji of Song Huizong and should be the lord of China, while Liu Futong claimed to be a direct descendant of Liu Guangshi, a famous anti-Jin general in the Southern Song Dynasty, and should assist the old master to restore the Zhao and Song dynasties. The Chinese pay attention to the right name in doing things, and everyone saw that they came from an extraordinary background, and their confidence doubled, and their emotions suddenly became excited. So everyone publicly recommended Han Shantong as the "King of Ming", and prepared to choose a day to fight against the Yuan.
Han Shantong, Liu Futong and others are taking an oath in the Bailuzhuang Association, but there are cowards and fearful people among the believers, who are worried that they will be raided and exterminated if they do this desperate thing, and in order to clear their hands on rebellion, they actually sneaked out to report to the official. After hearing the report, the government quickly sent troops to encircle and suppress, a team of Yuan soldiers entered the village to suppress it, Liu Futong and others escaped by luck, but Han Shantong was unfortunately arrested and immediately beheaded on the spot for public display. Han's wife Zhao and son Han Lin'er took advantage of the chaos to escape, and then fled to hide in the Wu'an Mountains near Xuzhou to avoid being searched and arrested by the Yuan army.
On May 3, Liu Futong, who escaped, was forced to revolt in advance, and the soldiers were all wrapped in red scarves and burned incense to worship the Buddha, so they were called the "Red Turban Army", and some historical materials called it the "Xiang Army". Liu Futong's army happened suddenly, the Yuan court was defenseless, and was hit by the Red Turban Army, which connected Yingzhou, Luoshan, Shangcai, Huoshan, Zhengyang and other prefectures and counties with a broken bamboo, and the momentum was greatly boosted.
Liu Futong and others were bent on restoring the world of the Great Song Dynasty, and played the banner of "3,000 tigers, straight to the land of Youyan; Longfei Ninety-Five, reopening the sky of the Great Song Dynasty", vowed to "trample the traces of the Great Song Dynasty, and the hatred of the Snow Cliff Mountain", and called on the Han people all over the world to gather under this banner and make concerted efforts to expel the Mongol Tartars and restore the Han family.
The Asu army from Eastern Europe is known for its fierce and good warfare, and is a sharp weapon in the Mongolian army.
After Liu Futong rebelled against the Yuan, the Yuan court was greatly frightened, and Emperor Yuan Shun ordered the Privy Council to lead 6,000 elite Asu troops and various Han troops to Yingshang.
Historically, Asu is also known as Alan, Mongolian also calls them Asuti, Asut, belonging to the Persian-speaking Scythian Sarmatians, generations of nomadic herders in the north of the Caucasus and the lower reaches of the Don River, and later migrated to the mouth of the Volga River in Derbent, and its ethnic group is known for its strength and good warfare.
In 1221, when Genghis Khan went west, he sent his fierce general Subutai to lead his army north from the Caucasus, sweeping the local Asu, Kuman, Bolgar (now Bulgaria), and Germanic forces. In 1239, the Mongol Great Khan Ögedei made another expedition to the west, and the Asu tribe was completely subjugated by the more fierce Mongol army, and the whole country submitted to the Mongol court. Subsequently, the Aso army from Eastern Europe served the Mongols on the battlefield, fought bravely and skillfully, and performed many miraculous feats.
The Iranian historian Rasht recorded in his book "Historical Collection" that the Azov people were a Persian-speaking people who later converted to Orthodox Christianity, and their bodies were tall and burly, with brown hair and blue eyes, high noses and deep eyes.
When the Asu people were nomadic in the northern foothills of the Taihe Mountains, they lived next to the Turkic-speaking Kipchaks. In a western expedition launched by the famous Mongolian generals Jebe and Subutai, the Asu and Kipchaks joined forces to resist the enemy and fought fiercely with the Mongol army, and it was difficult to distinguish the victory or defeat for a while. The Mongols played a divisive trick and sent an envoy with a generous gift to the Kipchak chieftain, saying: "We are a brother tribe, of the same culture, of the same species, and from the same clan, while the Azov are of a different race. Let us form an alliance! If you want treasure, I can give it to you, as long as you don't help the Azov people, leave the Azov people to us!" The Kipchaks forgot their righteousness, accepted the advice of the Mongols, and betrayed the Azovs, who fought side by side, and the Azovs were slaughtered and plundered by the barbarian Mongols, and the Kipchaks who betrayed their allies did not end well, and after the Mongol army conquered the Azov tribe, they immediately turned their horses and attacked the Kipchaks, and Rasht said: "The Mongols suddenly attacked the Kipchaks, and when they saw each other, they killed one by one, and took back all the property given to the Kipchaks." 。
The Mongols then incorporated the remnants of the Asu and Kipchak armies, and fought with the Mongol army as a servant army, which was famous for its bravery and good fighting, and became a sharp sword for the Mongol Empire to conquer all directions. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Yan Timur was a Kipchak, so he looked at the Asu army from the Kipchak steppe, and the Asu army also strongly supported Yan Timur, and when he fought for power and profit with the Mongolian magnates in the capital, Yan Timur regarded the Asu army as his own cronies.
As an elite of the Mongolian army, after the Asu army entered the Central Plains, it fought for the Mongolian Yuan Empire in the east and west, and repeatedly performed miraculous feats. Then, like all the armies that have been specially cared for and pampered, the comfortable days of singing and dancing, gentleness and wealth for decades, coupled with the influence of Confucianism, have made this iron-blooded army from the Eastern European steppes "known as fierce and good at riding and shooting" become arrogant and lazy. The will to fight has dropped rapidly, and military discipline has become even more sloppy, and the thieves who have taken the good and taken the plunders of property are no worse than the robbers who rob homes and houses.
According to history, the generals of the Asu Army, the Privy Council, and the Zhihe Gang were addicted to alcohol, and they were often drunk like mud, and the soldiers did not do anything to train, did not do their job, and went out in groups to loot, completely forgetting the responsibility of the officers and soldiers to catch and steal. When the Asu army drove to Yingshang and confronted the Red Turban Army led by Liu Futong, when the general saw that the opponent was full of swords and guns, people shouted horses and neighed, the army was neat, and the formation was terrifying, he was terrified and did not dare to fight. General Heguo took the lead in escaping, and the Asu soldiers under his command went up and down, naturally not to be left behind, everyone scrambled to be the first, rode their horses and galloped, of course, in the opposite direction of the Red Turban Army's position. Seeing that the Asu army was fleeing without a fight, the Red Turban Army took advantage of the situation to chase closely, broke the Yuan army, captured countless people, and won the first big victory after the army. After that, the two armies fought, and the red turban soldiers all shouted "Abu, Abu" as a mockery, and the matter of "Abu" became a joke as soon as the general Heguo fought, and it was known to women and children in the Huaixi area.
Although the general Hewu escaped from Yingshang by luck, but in the subsequent battle of Shangcai was defeated and died, in the end, it was difficult to escape, the Asu army under his command, because of the water and soil adaptation, more than half of the people died of the epidemic, and the war dead were even more innumerable, and the Henan Province Zuo Cheng Xu Zhizhi who assisted in the suppression was also dismissed and executed by the Yuan court because of repeated defeats.
Liu Futong took advantage of the victory to wave the army to capture Bozhou, captured and beheaded the Yuan Xuzhou soldiers and horses, and in June of that year, he made another drum to connect Xiangcheng, Zhenyang, Queshan and other places, and sent generals to lead the division to attack Wuyang, Yexian and other prefectures and counties...... The Red Turban Army was a blockbuster, destroying the Asu Army, which was known as the elite, repeatedly breaking through the Yuan armies from all walks of life, and shocking the Central Plains.
[Picture from the Internet]