![]() ![]() Peasant rebellions sprang up and were brutally quashed, and bandits terrorised the countryside. ![]() ![]() As government control broke down, petty warlords battled for power. In the 1340s, the Mongols’ already-fragile rule of China was disastrously shaken by a series of natural disasters. China at the time was under the rule of an unstable and short-lived dynasty of Mongol emperors descended from yet another world-changer: Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan. The man who would become the Hongwu Emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, was born an ordinary peasant in impoverished central China of the 14th century. One of these men, who is as well known to a billion people as his contemporary Henry IV is to those who learned Shakespeare in school, was the founding emperor of China’s Ming dynasty. Their names are known their stories told and retold until they acquire the patina of myth. They became the conquerers, the kings, the emperors. Despite the personal cost, despite the suffering of others, these men achieved their greatness. ![]() Every now and then history throws up a true changemaker, a person of such determination and selfish ambition that his desire leaves an indelible mark on the world. ![]()
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