People were very angry with the Yuan leaders of China at the time. They were Mongolian people, but most Chinese were Han. Many people started fighting the government. The Yuan army would stop them but hurt many people as they did. Then more people joined in fighting the government. Zhu was one of these. An army destroyed his temple and he started joining the people fighting against them in 1352. He quickly became a leader and joined his fighters with the Red Turbans. In 1356, he took Nanjing and made it the capital of his own small country. He made laws and kept his people mosty safe, so many more people left to join him. This made him even stronger.