The Gathering Storm: Prelude to the Siege

In the spring of 1363, as the rain-washed streets of Yingtian (modern Nanjing) glistened under the rising sun, Zhu Yuanzhang—the future founder of the Ming Dynasty—marched his army toward Anfeng. This campaign would become a defining moment in the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty and the rise of new powers in 14th-century China.

The Red Turban Rebellion, led by figures like Liu Futong and Han Liner (the so-called “Little Ming King”), had already shaken the foundations of Mongol rule. By 1363, however, the revolutionaries were fractured. Anfeng, a city of symbolic importance as the capital of Han Liner’s short-lived “Han Song” regime, became the battleground where rival factions—Zhu Yuanzhang’s forces, Zhang Shicheng’s rebel army, and the remnants of the Yuan loyalists—clashed in a struggle for supremacy.

The Fall of Anfeng: A Descent into Hell

When Zhu Yuanzhang’s forces arrived, Anfeng had already endured a month-long siege by Lü Zhen, a general serving the rival warlord Zhang Shicheng. The city’s defenders, including the revolutionary leader Liu Futong and the teenage figurehead Han Liner, were pushed to unimaginable extremes.

Starvation turned Anfeng into a nightmare. With no food left, residents resorted to eating jingni—the sludge scraped from the bottoms of wells—and, eventually, the flesh of the dead. Historical accounts describe how corpses were exhumed, roasted, and consumed. By the time Lü Zhen’s troops breached the walls, Anfeng was less a city than a charnel house.

Lü Zhen, hardened by war, was reportedly shaken by the horrors he witnessed. His supposed rebuke to Han Liner—”For the sake of your pride, you’ve turned this place into hell”—underscored the human cost of the conflict. Yet his triumph was short-lived. Zhu Yuanzhang’s army, arriving like an avalanche, forced Lü Zhen into a hasty retreat, leaving behind a ruined city and a political vacuum.

The Fate of the Little Ming King

Zhu Yuanzhang’s encounter with Han Liner was laden with symbolism. The young pretender, trembling and speechless, was evacuated to Chuzhou—a move that effectively ended the Han Song regime. Though Zhu Yuanzhang publicly pledged loyalty, his smirk betrayed his true intentions. Han Liner’s eventual murder years later, likely orchestrated by Zhu, marked the final erasure of the Red Turban’s legitimacy.

The disappearance of Liu Futong remains one of history’s unresolved mysteries. Some records claim he died defending Anfeng; others suggest he was executed by Lü Zhen or even met Zhu Yuanzhang in a dramatic, unrecorded confrontation. What is certain is that his revolutionary flame had burned out.

The Strategist’s Gambit: Liu Bowen’s Warning

Behind the military campaign lay a deeper ideological struggle. Liu Bowen, Zhu Yuanzhang’s brilliant Confucian advisor, viewed the Red Turban movement as a dangerous heterodoxy. His infamous remark—”Why worship a child shepherd?”—referring to Han Liner, revealed his contempt for the millenarian beliefs that fueled the rebellion.

Liu Bowen’s opposition was rooted in Confucian disdain for the syncretic White Lotus teachings that birthed the Red Turbans. To him, Zhu Yuanzhang’s association with Han Liner was a political liability. Their quiet tension over the “Little Ming King’s” fate foreshadowed Zhu’s eventual break with his revolutionary past—a necessary step to claim the Mandate of Heaven.

Legacy: The Twilight of Rebellion, the Dawn of Empire

The Siege of Anfeng was more than a military engagement; it was a turning point in China’s transition from Mongol rule to the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang’s calculated rescue (and later disposal) of Han Liner allowed him to absorb the Red Turban’s remnants while distancing himself from their radicalism.

Liu Bowen’s prophecy—”This is only the beginning!”—proved correct. Within five years, Zhu Yuanzhang would defeat all rivals, declare himself emperor, and establish one of China’s most enduring dynasties. The horrors of Anfeng faded into memory, but its lessons shaped Ming statecraft: legitimacy required not just power, but a rejection of the chaos that birthed it.

Today, the siege stands as a grim reminder of war’s brutality and the pragmatism that forged imperial China. The vanished Han Liner, the enigmatic Liu Futong, and the ruthless ascent of Zhu Yuanzhang together weave a tale where survival demanded both swords and shadows.