Zhu Yuanzhang joins the Red Turbans

May 1352

An orphaned peasant from Anhui, who had survived the plague in a Buddhist monastery by begging for alms, joined Guo Zixing's Red Turban band as a foot soldier. His intelligence and ferocity drew attention from the start. Within fifteen years he would unite the rebel factions, expel the Mongols, and crown himself founding emperor of the Ming as Hongwu.