On February 9, 1853, the Taiping Army left the three towns of Wuhan and began to march east along the river, with the goal of attacking Nanjing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties.
The Taiping Army is no longer what it used to be, and it is no longer the untargeted rabble-rouser that wandered around without any purpose. At that time, the Taiping Army's strength grew rapidly, and it had expanded to hundreds of thousands of people, and to a certain extent, it began to surpass the Qing army on the front line, and a certain superiority appeared, ending the military passive situation of trying to survive, running east and west, and fighting everywhere since the Jintian Uprising.
The Taiping Army divided the water army and the land division into two roads, echoed each other, cooperated with each other, and marched along the Yangtze River in tandem and went straight to Jinling.
The Taiping Army's army division, commanded by the generals Hu Yihuang, Li Kaifang, and Lin Fengxiang, marched east along the banks of the Yangtze River, hunting with flags along the way, whimpering with military trumpets and rumbling cannons.
The marine division was led by Tang Zhengcai, the leader of the Yuezhou boat people, and the warships were connected for tens of miles, with masts lined up and white sails like clouds, like a hundred boats competing for the current, riding the wind and waves, and invincible. The land and water army was under the unified command of Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King. Shi Dakai, the Wing King, Qin Rigang, the King of Yan (who was then the Heavenly Official), Luo Gang, the commander of the left side of the temple, and Lai Hanying, the fourth commander of the right side of the temple, were the deputy commanders, and they took the warship down the river to the east and sailed towards Jiangnan.
The "Outline of the History of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" records that all the generals of the Taiping Army, plus their dependents, claimed to be 500,000, and the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan rode in a "dragon boat" and issued orders in the middle.
From Wuchang to Nanjing, there are about 1800 Huali. On the river defense line of more than 1800 miles, the Qing army was mainly concentrated in important towns such as Jiujiang in Jiangxi, Anqing in Anhui, and Wuhu in Anhui. The Taiping Army's land and water armies went down the river, breaking through the bamboo, and successively conquered strategic towns such as Jiujiang, Anqing, and Wuhu, causing the Qing army's painstaking river defense system to quickly collapse.
On March 8 of the same year, after a long journey of one month, the Taiping Army Division fought a hard battle of more than 1,000 miles, and the first soldiers came to the city of Nanjing.
The day after the army arrived at the city of Nanjing, the Northern King Wei Changhui and the Wing King Shi Dakai personally led the Xiao generals Li Kaifang, Lin Fengxiang, Ji Wenyuan, etc., to set up 24 camps in the area of Xishan Bridge in the south of the city, and immediately launched a powerful offensive. The Taiping Army set up artillery at the highest point of the Pagoda of Bao'en Temple outside the South Gate and bombarded the Qing troops defending the city with fierce artillery fire.
Nanjing since ancient times rich and prosperous, known as the land of gold powder of the Six Dynasties, is the political, economic and military center of the Qing court in Jiangnan, not only stationed with heavy troops, but also the scale of the city is grand, like a dragon and a tiger, its city defense is far more solid than Wuchang, according to records, Nanjing City alone has 13 city gates.
However, at this moment, the city of Nanjing was weak, and the entire city was defended by less than 20,000 troops, most of whom were temporarily recruited brave dings, and the elite regular army of good warriors, the Eight Banners, was only about 5,000.
The supreme commander of Nanjing Was Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, who had no strategy, no courage, no military knowledge, and only knew how to whitewash Taiping and deceive the superiors and deceive the subordinates. After the defeat of the Hubei army and the retreat to the old nest in Nanjing, he did not go out all day, neither handling government affairs, strengthening the city defenses, nor deploying defensive forces. When the Taiping Army fired artillery bombardment of the city of Nanjing, Lu Jianying still lived in seclusion, and instead of actively organizing the defenders to resist, he burned incense in his residence to worship the Buddha, asked the bodhisattva for protection, and sent heavenly soldiers to sweep away the Taiping Army. Jinling City has such a dimwitted and incompetent supreme commander, is there any reason why it will not be breached?
On March 12, the Taiping Army's marine division also arrived outside Jinling City and was stationed in Xiaguan and other places. The entire surface of the Yangtze River was controlled by the Taiping Army. After the land and water army met, the so-called impregnable city of Nanjing was surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Taiping troops on all sides, stretching for tens of miles from outside the city to JiangdongMen, and everywhere were Taiping soldiers wearing long hair and red scarves. The Qing army, which was guarding the city, looked at the flags outside the city, the swords and guns were lined up, and the people shouted horses, and they were all afraid and frightened.
Yang Xiuqing saw that the city of Nanjing was towering, and knew that it was not easy to attack strongly, so he decided to change to wisdom first. One night, a taiping army came to the city disguised as Xiang Rongbing and called on the defenders to open the door, claiming that they were Xiang Rongbu soldiers and horses who had been ordered to come to the aid. The officer who guarded the city reported to Lu Jianying, the governor of Jiang, and Lu Jianying was full of joy and did not doubt that he was deceitful, thinking that the bodhisattva had appeared and that reinforcements had arrived and could be saved. Just as the order was being given to Kaesong, some aides dissuaded him, saying that this was a ruse by the Taiping Army pretending to be Xiang Rongbu to earn the city. Lu Jianying suddenly woke up and ordered the defenders to shell. The Taiping Army under the city, pretending to be the Qing army of Rongbu, was caught off guard and was blown up on horseback, suffering heavy casualties.
Yang Xiuqing saw that his wisdom could not be achieved, so he ordered a forced attack instead. Lin Fengxiang was ordered by the Eastern King to lead an earthen camp (composed of Mines from Daozhou and Chenzhou) to dig tunnels in a temple outside the Yifeng Gate. In order to divert the attention of the defenders, the Taiping Army gathered heavy troops outside the Shuixi Gate to contain the Qing army.
Just as the main defensive forces of the Qing army were turned to the Water West Gate, in the early morning of March 19, there was a loud noise outside the Yifeng Gate, which turned out to be the completion of the excavation of tunnels by the Taiping Army's earthen camp, detonating mines and collapsing a corner of the city gate, with a gap of more than two inches long. The defenders were horrified and knew that they had been caught in the Taiping Army's ruse, but it was too late. The fierce general Lin Fengxiang led a death squad and bravely ascended the city in the smoke of gunfire, and in the fierce battle, the Qing army's generals Cheng Sanguang and Shen Nai were beheaded by the Taiping Army.
After the death squad broke into the city, they immediately divided into two roads, one rushing in the direction of the Drum Tower and the other in the direction of Jilong Mountain. Along the way, the Taiping Army was marching, just happened to meet the Governor of Liangjiang, Lu Jianying, the Governor of Qing Liangjiang, who was riding a palanquin from the General's Mansion of Jiangling back to the Governor's Office of the Governor of Liangjiang, and before he reached the provincial palace, he met the Taiping Army commando team on a narrow road, although his guards desperately resisted and were helplessly outnumbered, and the Governor of Tangtang Liangjiang fled to the small camp, but was still caught up by the Taiping Army and became the ghost under its sword.
The news of the murder of Lu Jianying, the great official of the feudal frontier, quickly spread throughout Jinling City. The already demoralized defenders fell apart. The main force of the Taiping Army immediately launched a strong attack from all directions. The roar of guns, shouts of killing, and cries came together, shaking the whole city, and the souls of those defenders who had been forcibly recruited fled without a fight.
However, the defender of the city, Xiang Hou, led more than 5,000 elite soldiers of the Eight Banners and tens of thousands of his dependents to hold out desperately, or called negative and stubborn resistance. This banner soldier is well-equipped, brave and good at fighting, and the families of the accompanying soldiers can also fight, refuse to surrender, and fight in blood. The fierceness of the Eight Banner Soldiers caused the Taiping Army to suffer heavy casualties, and finally used the corpses of the brothers killed in battle to form a "human ladder", and after being followed by the former servants, fighting with blood and paying a huge and tragic price, fang attacked the inner city of Nanjing.
During the melee, more than 20 Manchu and Mongolian generals, including the Qing general Xiang Hou, the deputy governor Huo Longwu, and the viceroy Fu Zhu Hong'a, as well as more than 5,000 Soldiers of the Eight Banners, were all killed.
According to historical records, the battle of Nanjing, the war deaths of both sides and the death of more than 150,000 Nanjing residents. After this bloody battle, the city of Nanjing was full of flames, smoke filled the air, corpses were strewn everywhere, and blood flowed like rivers, and the situation was unbearable to see.
By the evening of the 20th, the small remaining Qing army in the city was basically eliminated, and the Taiping Army finally occupied the whole city of Nanjing, achieving the biggest victory since the Jintian Incident.
After the capture of Nanjing, the Northern King and the Eastern King successively entered the city. On March 29, Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King, excitedly entered Nanjing surrounded and greeted by more than 100,000 people, and the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, which was once dominated by dragons and tigers, was finally trampled at the feet of a group of peasant rebels.
【Illustrations from the Internet】