Han Lin’er

In 1367 the Song pretender Han Lin’er felt so threatened by the Mongols at his headquarters at Chuzhou that he decided to flee to Nanjing for protection. Escorted by one of Zhu’s men during the trip, Han died by drowning when his boat capsized—an event perhaps contrived by Zhu. In…

…mixed Manichaean-Buddhist secret-society leader named Han Lin’er; Han in the central Yangtze valley, under a onetime fisherman named Chen Youliang; Xia in Sichuan, under an erstwhile general of the rebel Han regime named Ming Yuzhen; and Wu in the rich Yangtze delta area, under a former Grand Canal boatman named…