The identity of Han Lin'er, the Xiaoming King, was extraordinary. To be precise, he can be regarded as the founding king of the Red Turban Army. Why is he the founding king?
(Stills of Han Lin'er)
The Red Turban Rebellion was able to develop, and Han Shantong was indispensable. Han Shantong launched a peasant uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and his approach was the same as that of the leaders of the peasant uprising in history. It is the use of religion for propaganda. When the lives of ordinary people are in dire straits, they always hope that the gods will save them and free them from the sea of suffering. So in such a situation, the leaders of the peasant uprising are very effective in carrying out religious propaganda. At that time, Han Shantong publicized it in this way, and he went around preaching that "Maitreya was born" and "the Ming King was born". When he said this, he actually made himself Maitreya Buddha, a Ming King.
In addition, Han Shantong has a more brilliant propaganda plan, saying that he is the eighth grandson of Emperor Huizong of Song. Say this campaign is wonderful. It is because after the Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty, in fact, the people have always missed the Song Dynasty. Because in the eyes of the people at that time, the Mongols were foreign. The Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Song Dynasty, and the people of the Central Plains were colonized. In addition, Emperor Huizong of Song was an emperor who had been captured by the Jin Dynasty. The Jin Dynasty, like the Mongols, was a foreign race. Therefore, the common people were more sympathetic to Emperor Huizong of Song. And since Han Shantong was the eighth grandson of Emperor Huizong of Song, after the imperial family, and after the poor imperial family, the support he received was very great.
In addition, Han Shantong also had a brilliant propaganda method, that is, he took advantage of the fact that the common people were very superstitious about the Mandate of Heaven and released a Mandate of Heaven. He first, together with Liu Futong, released a folk song "Stone man with one eye, provoking the Yellow River to rebel". The speed of the folk song is very widespread, very fast, and there is such a sentence being said everywhere. Then, they buried a stone man in the river channel, and inscribed the sentence "The stone man has one eye and provokes the Yellow River to rebel." Then the people dug it out while digging the river channel. In this way, it is immediately confirmed that the folk song said.
(Han Santong stills)
These three things that Han Shantong did were the most typical things that ancient peasant rebels often did. These three things made Han Santong become a god-like being, everyone was extremely supportive of him, and his prestige became very high.
Unfortunately, although Han Shantong made great publicity, his movements were also too big, and at once it attracted the attention of the government, and the local county ordered troops to surround and suppress him, and soon arrested and killed Han Shantong.
It can be said that Han Shantong died before he was born.
After Han Santong's death, Liu Fucong became the leader of the rebel army. However, because Han Shantong had an extremely high prestige, Liu Futong actually did not dare to accept this head, so he helped Han Lin'er up and let Han Lin'er become the King of Ming. That is, the Ming King who Han Shantong preached before, "The Ming King was born".
From this point of view, we can also see that Han Lin'er is just a "second generation of bandits", just because Liu Futong is limited to Han Shantong's great prestige, and Han Lin'er is just a puppet who supports Han Lin'er. Because if Liu Futong himself came to take the lead, he would not have the ability to summon the people. If Han Lin'er is allowed to take over the head, then what Han Lin'er represents is the god-like Han Shantong, so that everyone will also support this army.
(Liu Futong stills)
However, Liu Futong hugged Han Lin'er, but he was not convinced by him. Why not be convinced of him? One is because he wants to be the boss himself. The army was formed by him, and the command was his own command, so that he was not the boss, and he must have been very unhappy in his heart. After all, if the Jiangshan is laid in the future, it will be Han Lin'er who will sit in the Jiangshan, not him to sit in the Jiangshan, and he will definitely be uncomfortable in his heart. Second, Han Lin'er actually has no ability of his own, and he can neither command wars nor handle administration. It's just that he has a name on him.
Therefore, when Liu Futong established Han Lin'er as the King of Xiaoming, he began to calculate how to oust Han Lin'er from power.
Of course, although Han Lin'er is the "second generation of bandits", he is also very dissatisfied with his own puppet status, and he wants to make his own decisions. Therefore, he also mobilized his subordinates to fight with Liu Futong and wanted to suppress Liu Futong.
However, they could not wait for them to infighting with each other, and the Yuan Dynasty was already a large army. The Yuan Dynasty's army was too strong, and soon Liu Futong and Han Lin'er fled in all directions. In the end, Han Lin'er and Liu Futong fled to Anfeng. Anfeng became the last stronghold of the Red Turban Army and became a dangerous city.
(Zhu Yuanzhang stills)
In desperation, Han Lin'er had no choice but to ask Zhu Yuanzhang for help.
Zhu Yuanzhang actually had doubts in his heart about going to rescue Han Lin'er. Because at that time, he was being attacked by Chen Youyi, and his situation was also very dangerous. And at that time, Liu Bowen also advised him not to go. However, he recognized an important problem. Saving Han Lin'er can gain the support of the people of the world, and even replace Han Lin'er's position. So, even if he was very busy, he sent someone to the rescue. In fact, at that time, there were still people plotting against Han Lin'er, and Zhang Shicheng sent Lü Zhen to attack Anfeng and kill Liu Futong. In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to kill Lü Zhen and rescue Han Lin'er, winning him a lot of support.
Even so, Zhu Yuanzhang also felt that Han Lin'er was a hot potato, because not long ago he was called "King Wu", so he could not tolerate Han Lin'er's existence. Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang sent someone to pick up Han Lin'er to Ying Tian, he died "accidentally" falling into the water while crossing the river.
In short, Han Lin'er has been someone else's puppet all his life, but he has only borne a reputation.
(References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Records of the Ming Dynasty)