Outbreak of the Red Turban Rebellion

Timeline

1. 1351Middle and lower Yellow River · Yellow River basinThe Yuan court conscripted 150,000 laborers for river control works; officials embezzled their rations, and compounded by years of floods, droughts, and famine, the river workers and disaster victims suffered unbearably, laying a broad social foundation for the uprising.
2. 1351Yingshang, Yingzhou · Anhui ProvinceHan Shantong and Liu Futong led White Lotus followers to rise at Yingyang in Yingzhou, wrapping their heads in red turbans and using red banners as signals, proclaiming the advent of the Ming King and the restoration of the Great Song. After Han Shantong was killed, Liu Futong continued to lead the uprising.
3. 1351Jianghuai and the Yellow River basin · ChinaAfter the Yingzhou uprising, Xu Shouhui, Guo Zixing, Zhima Li, and others successively raised forces at Qihuang, Haozhou, Xuzhou, and elsewhere; Red Turban power expanded rapidly, and the late-Yuan peasant war spread like wildfire.