Hong Xiuquan led hundreds of thousands of Taiping troops from Wuchang to Nanjing, and the Battle of Nanjing was the first time since the Ming Dynasty that the Han army completely annihilated an Eight Flags Army, and it was also the most annihilated battle of the Eight Banner Army in one campaign.
The leader of the Eight Banner Army in Nanjing at that time was the Manchurian Red Banner Minister of Chincha and the Governor of Liangjiang, general Xianghou of Jiangning. It is also the largest garrison of the Eight Banners Army in the southeast region, with 3,000 Manchurian armor and 1,000 Mongolian armor, a total of 4,000 Eight Banner Army garrisons, plus more than 20,000 family members and slaves.
On January 28 of the third year of Xianfeng, Li Kaifang, the vanguard of the Taiping Army, rushed to the city of Nanjing, and Wang Shiduo called the Taiping Army: "Breaking the River and Ning day, the mouth is called two million, seven or eight hundred thousand people are enough to count, from the outside of the city to the Jiangdong Gate, there is an endless view, more than ten miles across the river, looking straight ahead, all red-headed people."
The Taiping Army bombarded the city walls and gates day and night with thousands of pounds of cannons, and began to dig many tunnels, using a large amount of gunpowder to bombard the city, and the heavens and the earth in the city were in full riot. On February 10, the Taiping Army exploded in three tunnels, and under the combined action of artillery and tunnel explosives, the Taiping Army finally broke through from Yifengmen, but was counterattacked by the Eight Banner Army, and the invading Taiping Army commandos were annihilated.
Subsequently, the Taiping Army made another breakthrough from the Jubao Gate, but the Eight Banner Army retreated into Mancheng to continue to hold, the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing personally commanded tens of thousands of Taiping Troops to launch an attack, all the Eight Banners Army went to the city to resist, even the women also took up swords and spears and shotguns, and the old man and children shouted to help.
The Eight Banners Army fought very wildly, the Taiping Army failed several attacks, piling up thousands of corpses under the city, and then the Eastern King continued to mobilize more Taiping Troops to launch continuous attacks to achieve a real breakthrough. After several days of fighting, some people in the city's Eight Banner Army had already "died of exhaustion."
Finally, the Taiping Army finally rushed into Mancheng, the leader of the Eight Banner Army, Xiang Hou and others committed suicide, Hong Xiuquan ordered the whole city to arrest the flag people, capture a man and woman, old and young, and reward silver 5 taels, and finally killed all 20,000 flag people in the city. However, the Taiping Army's nanjing offensive also lost tens of thousands of veterans.
Because although the Taiping Army has 700,000-800,000, but the real combat troops are only more than 100,000 people, the others are family members and various ordinary people drawn along the way, Nanjing lost tens of thousands of combat soldiers in the First World War, and then launched a western expedition to capture Anqing, Jiujiang, Wuchang and other places, but also to protect the safety of Nanjing, so only 20,000 people can be sent to the Northern Expedition, losing the best opportunity, which also indirectly led to the final defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.