 With the Yuan dynasty crumbling , competing rebel groups began fighting for control of the country and thus the right to establish a new dynasty . In 1363 , Zhu Yuanzhang eliminated his arch rival and leader of the rebel Han faction , Chen <unk> , in the Battle of Lake Poyang , arguably the largest naval battle in history . Known for its ambitious use of fire ships , Zhu 's force of 200 @,@ 000 Ming sailors were able to defeat a Han rebel force over triple their size , claimed to be 650 @,@ 000 @-@ strong . The victory destroyed the last opposing rebel faction , leaving Zhu Yuanzhang in uncontested control of the bountiful Yangtze River Valley and cementing his power in the south . After the dynastic head of the Red Turbans suspiciously died in 1367 while a guest of Zhu , there was no one left who was remotely capable of contesting his march to the throne , and he made his imperial ambitions known by sending an army toward the Yuan capital Dadu ( present @-@ day Beijing ) in 1368 . The last Yuan emperor fled north to <unk> , and Zhu declared the founding of the Ming dynasty after razing the Yuan palaces in Dadu to the ground ; the city was renamed Beiping in the same year . Zhu Yuanzhang took Hongwu , or " Vastly Martial " , as his era name . 
