After the Taiping Army withdrew from Guilin, it effortlessly occupied Xing'an, and then killed Ben Jeonju with great fanfare, arriving in Jeonju on april 15. At this time, Cao Xiepei and Yang Yinghe, the general of Zhizhou, who were guarding the city, led 500 people to defend the city, and Wu Changxian, the capital of Baoqing, Hunan, also led 400 soldiers to be transferred to Guizhou, a total of about 900 people, and the troops were extremely empty. In order to defend the city, Cao Xiepei recruited vigilante groups, and forcibly recruited women to the city to boil porridge, releasing prisoners from the city to fight against the Taiping Army, with a total strength of more than 1,000 troops.
In fact, at that time, the Taiping Army had no intention of attacking Jeonju, planning to cross the border peacefully and quickly get rid of the pursuing troops, the Army Army only went around the city, and the water army forward had reached Jeonju Town's Yidu. The jeonju defenders did not dare to go out of the city to provoke. The Taiping Army's front line had been too long, but there was a Qing army guarding the city who did not understand the current affairs and believed that there were reinforcements from Guilin, so it provoked the end of the war.
At that time, Feng Yunshan, the king of the South, was sitting on a yellow palanquin carried by his subordinates and passing outside Jeonju City, when an artillery soldier in Jeonju saw that there was a yellow palanquin in the rear, knew that it was a giant of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and could not help but fire a cannon at the yellow palanquin. This artilleryman was indeed a sharpshooter, and with just one shot he hit the yellow car, and feng Yunshan, the southern king of the car, was seriously injured by the Qing army's artillery, and the cannon was too sharp, and this was also paid off, and the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan was also greatly angered by this cannon, causing the entire taiping army to be indignant, Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing decided to order the division to attack the city for revenge, and the front troops that had already crossed the border drove back one after another, and they were bound to wash the whole state in blood, so Yang Xiuqing ordered all the Taiping soldiers to return to the division to attack the city of Jeonju.
The Taiping army first besieged the city from the east, west and south of Jeonju City, although there were not many defenders in Jeonju City, but the city wall was strong, the western city wall was one zhang, five or six, the eastern city wall was also as high as zhang 23, the city wall every 20 to 30 steps away there was a small room that could accommodate ten people, the city gate was built of stone, plus the defenders were well prepared, and there were prisoners released to fight, and there were women in the city who helped to cook porridge and boil tung oil, tung oil neutralized and shang pine resin or dung, so that the Taiping army used Lü bus many times. The siege of yunti was repelled by the Qing army, the Qing army defending the city poured hot tung oil porridge down, or soaked bamboo tubes to shoot hot tung oil into the Taiping army that besieged the city, the wounded Taiping army skin and flesh were rotten, but there was no medicine, so there were many casualties, the Taiping army besieged for 10 days, still did not attack jeonju city, the Taiping army swore for this, after breaking the city, it would flatten jeonju city and leave no prisoners of war.
At that time, Yu Wanqing and Liu Changqing, the Qing commanders who had been following the Taiping Army from Guilin, led more than 10,000 Qing soldiers, and because they were afraid of the momentum of the Taiping Army, they were stationed outside the west gate of Jeonju City, and in order to save their own lives, they had been watching the battle in Lubanqiao in the west of the city and Taipingpu in the north of the city, and never dared to engage the Taiping Army. Cao Xie pei saw that the isolated city was in danger, and used blood letters three times to rescue Yu Wanqing and Liu Changqing, but Yu Wanqing and Liu Changqing always ignored it. Due to the limited number of Qing troops in the city, as the Taiping Army continued to step up its offensive, it felt powerless to support it. At this time, the Taiping Army stationed at the Jeonju Jiangxi Guild Hall used the window of the stage in front of the door to set up a cannon position to shoot the shells into the city of Jeonju, and the Qing army defending the city saw that there were shells flying and did not dare to look up, and the Taiping Army began to organize people and horses to dig tunnels when the Qing army could not take care of the guards here.
On April 16, 1852, the tunnel was dug, the Taiping Army buried under the city wall with a coffin filled with 16 quintals of gunpowder, with a loud "boom", the city wall was blown open for more than two inches, the Taiping Army took advantage of the smoke of gunfire, launched a charge, and attacked the city in one fell swoop, and immediately after entering the city, it began to search around for the enemy, killed the thousand general Ye Yonglin, and killed The General Zhang Zhifu and the former state Mu Ruilin on the spot. Zhizhou Cao Xiepei curled up under the bottom of the yicang in the east of the city when the city was not broken, and was killed on the spot after being searched out by the Taiping Army, and after the Taiping Army entered the city of Jeonju, it was not finished until noon the next day, after the destruction of the city, more than 1,000 defenders did not survive.
After capturing jeonju City, the Taiping Army rested in the city for three days, and then continued to march to Yongzhou, Hunan Province.
The saying that "the Taiping Army washed jeonju city in blood" is widely circulated, and there are also different sayings among the people.
According to the records of the Qing dynasty, the Taiping Army once slaughtered the city in Jeonju: "The whole state was broken, the thieves slaughtered it, and more than 6,400 men and women died", and "the corpses were blocked in the way, and it took three days to stop".
According to research, before the Battle of Jeonju, the Qing army had already opened the city to let the people escape from the small south gate, and there were only more than 1,000 people left in the city. The people who had previously left the city must have safely passed through the well-fortified positions of the Taiping Army, and it was impossible that 6,000 people would be slaughtered.
The Qing army had a total of more than 1,000 corpses after the war, of which 700 or 800 corpses were left by Qing soldiers, which showed that not many non-combatants were killed by the Taiping Army at that time, and from the number of defenders, it can be seen that there was no slaughter of the city in the whole state.
According to the "Chronicle of Jeonju County", at that time, there were about 500 soldiers in the city, and Wuchang Xianfeng, the capital of The Baoqing Association in Hunan, was transferred to Gui, and there were 400 soldiers led by him, adding up to about 900 people. In order to defend the city, Cao Xiepei hurriedly recruited vigilante groups, and forcibly recruited women to the city to boil porridge, released the prisoners in the prison to help the battle, and the total strength of more than 1,000 troops, comparable to the number of defenders killed by the Taiping Army.
"Tucheng" is said to be a statement that the Qing army vilified the Taiping Army, or it was aimed at the Qing military officials and those who helped defend the city.
Therefore, the local old people believe that the Qing troops who are guarding the city are deserved to be killed. In fact, in order to avoid hurting the people, before the war, the Taiping Army released a wind, and all the people who fled from the small south gate were not killed, so there were basically no ordinary people in the city during the war, so that the local people today also called the small south gate of the whole state "Shengmen". After the Taiping Army entered the city, although it burned down the houses and pawnshops of the powerful landlords, it did not burn down the houses of the people, and even the yamen did not burn. It can be seen from this that the truth about the Taiping Army's "slaughter of the city" is not what the Qing people said, there are 6400 people.