1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 300: Slaughtering all the Qing demons in the city!
The Taiping army attacked Jiangning from the Hanxi Gate and Shuixi Gate on the west wall and the Jubao Gate on the south wall. The southwestern district of Jiangning City, along with the Qing government offices such as the Jiangning County Government Office, Shangyuan County Government Office, and Jiangning Prefecture Government Office in that area, were all captured by the Taiping army.

Although the Jiangning district captured by the Taiping Army was only a relatively small part of the city, its area was even smaller than that of the Eight Banners garrison city in Jiangning.

However, the southwestern district of Jiangning City, which was occupied by the Taiping Army, was the core urban area of ​​Jiangning City, and most of the main force of the Qing Army in Jiangning was gathered here.

When the Qing soldiers and civilians in the southwest district of Jiangning City saw that the Taiping rebels had actually entered the city, they either turned around and ran away or knelt down and begged for their lives.

With the entry of the Taiping army, the defense system of the southwestern city of Jiangning completely collapsed, and the overall situation of Jiangning City was settled.

Not long ago, Qi Suzhao, the provincial governor of Jiangning, was discussing the defense of Jiangning City with General Xianghou and Governor Lu Jianying. He was slumped in the main hall of the provincial governor's office. A few stray hairs had fallen from his usually meticulously combed braid and were sticking messily to his sweaty forehead.

The shouts, running, and wailing from the streets outside the provincial governor's office grew closer and closer, these noisy sounds like heavy hammer blows to Qi Suzhao's heart.

The defenses of Jiangning, painstakingly built up by the Manchu and Han officials, crumbled like paper lanterns under the relentless onslaught of the Taiping army.

An unprecedented, utter fear gripped Qi Suzhao, draining him of all his strength and dignity as a lowly regional official and a second-rank official of the court.

"Master! Master! The Taiping rebels have already crossed Flower Market Street! Hurry up!" The Qi family servant, who used to act arrogantly and domineeringly in Jiangning City, rushed in, his voice trembling.

"Prepare the sedan chair! Go...go to Mancheng! Quickly! Go to the small gate!" Qi Suzhao hurriedly ordered them to head to the small gate on the west wall of Mancheng, which was closest to the provincial governor's office.

No matter the laws and regulations, no matter the court's rules, nothing could overcome Qi Suzhao's instinct for survival at this moment.

As expected, the servants in the household of a high-ranking official, Qi Suzhao's servants were all very clever.

They knew that the governor's sedan chair was not only too conspicuous, but also heavy and difficult to lift, so they did not prepare the sedan chair that Qi Suzhao used to ride in. Instead, they found a small blue cloth sedan chair that they used on a daily basis.

Completely limp and powerless, Qi Suzhao was practically lifted up by the servants and stuffed into the small blue sedan chair, leading his family straight to the small gate on the west wall of Jiangning Mancheng.

Qi Suzhao let out a high-pitched, hoarse voice filled with extreme terror, constantly urging and cursing the servants carrying the sedan chair: "Hurry up! Hurry up! If we're slow, your master will die at the hands of those long-haired bandits! You won't get away with it either!"

The servants agreed as they carried the sedan chair, panting and staggering forward. Fearing discovery by the Taiping army that had stormed into the city, they didn't even dare to carry lanterns.

Under the cover of darkness and the shadows cast by the fires burning throughout the city, he ran desperately toward the northeast of the city, tripping over the protruding blue stones several times, which drew curses from Qi Suzhao.

Helpless, the servants of the Qi family didn't even bother to stop and pick up their shoes that had been lost, and had to continue carrying Qi Suzhao barefoot towards the small gate on the west wall of Jiangning Mancheng.

The small blue sedan chair lurched violently. Since becoming an official, Qi Suzhao had not ridden in such a small and bumpy sedan chair for a long time.

Inside the cramped sedan chair, Qi Suzhao was thrown about, feeling dizzy and disoriented. He didn't even know when or where his official hat had fallen off; he hadn't been wearing it before getting into the sedan chair.

Qi Suzhao gripped the sedan window tightly, his knuckles turning white. Through the gap in the loosely drawn curtain, he saw scattered soldiers, panicked civilians fleeing, and shadowy figures holding knives and spears, their heads wrapped in red turbans.

Qi Suzhao yanked his head back sharply, quickly pulled the curtain tighter, closed his eyes, and trembled like a leaf in the autumn wind, muttering prayers that the long-haired men hadn't seen him.

The sedan chair was bumpy, but it was really fast.

Before long, the blue sedan chair came to an abrupt stop, nearly throwing Qi Suzhao, whose stomach was churning from the jolting, out of the chair.

Before Qi Suzhao could speak, the servant of the Qi family asked him to get out of the sedan chair: "Master, we have arrived at the small gate of the Eight Banners garrison city! Please get out of the sedan chair and speak with the Manchu lord on the city wall."

Qi Suzhao tumbled and crawled out of the sedan chair, and before him was the Mancheng Xiaomen, which was higher and more solid than the city walls of Jiangning.

The small gate tower was brightly lit by torches, and the tower was filled with the shadowy figures of Manchu soldiers in full armor. Their swords, spears, arrows, and the dark muzzles of cannons gleamed coldly in the firelight.

At this moment, Qi Suzhao didn't even bother to straighten his clothes. He staggered to the tightly closed city gate, raised his head, and shouted with all his might towards the city wall: "General Xianghou! General Xianghou! It's me! I am Qi Suzhao, the Provincial Governor of Jiangning! The Taiping rebels have breached the city! Open the gate and let me in! Open the gate!"

At this time, General Xianghou of Jiangning was not at the small gate, but at the Xihua Gate, which was not far from the small gate. The guard at the small gate was Dexiang, the Eight Banners Assistant Commander. Dexiang recognized Qi Suzhao and sent a banner soldier to the Xihua Gate to inform Xianghou of this matter.

Before long, the amiable figure of General Jiangning, fully armed, appeared at the crenellations of the small gate tower.

Xianghou looked down at Qi Suzhao, the Jiangning Provincial Governor, who was now standing below the city, disheveled and without his official hat, his robes wrinkled. He had previously been on good terms with Qi Suzhao.

There was no trace of sympathy in Xianghou's eyes, only deep wariness and indifference.

The Manchu people of Jiangning had been bullying and oppressing the Han people for generations, and he knew better than anyone how much resentment had accumulated over the past two hundred years.

Who can guarantee that in this chaos, there aren't spies from the Taiping rebels or Han Chinese driven by hatred who infiltrated the city to act as inside agents for the Taiping rebels?

"Lord Qi!" Xianghou coldly called out to Qi Suzhao, who was wagging his tail and begging for entry into the Eight Banners garrison city seeking protection, "In the midst of the chaos, it is difficult to distinguish friend from foe! For the sake of the safety of the Jiangning Eight Banners garrison city, I must say that I cannot open the gate!"

Xianghou's cold and indifferent attitude was like that of a completely different person. Qi Suzhao was struck by lightning and could not believe his ears: "General Xianghou! I am an official appointed by the imperial court! You must recognize my old face, right?"

Xianghou interrupted Qi Suzhao without any politeness, his tone even carrying a hint of threat: "Lord Qi! As the provincial governor, you have a duty to defend the territory! How can you abandon Jiangning City and just leave? You must go back immediately, gather the defeated soldiers, organize the militia, and defend the city right here in the streets and alleys! If the bandits get close, neither of us can bear the consequences!"

General Jiang Ning's kind words extinguished Qi Suzhao's last glimmer of hope.

Qi Suzhao finally understood that in Xianghou's eyes, all the Han people, including himself, were untrustworthy potential threats and meat shields that could be used to kill outside the city.

Qi Suzhao stood frozen in place, his face ashen.

Behind him came the ever-approaching sounds of killing and raging flames; before him stood the cold, solid city gates, refusing him any chance of survival.

This once-powerful regional official was now truly like a stray dog, with nowhere in the vast city of Jiangning to find refuge.

Despair and immense fear finally overwhelmed Qi Suzhao. He felt a sweet taste in his throat, and a mouthful of blood spurted onto the cold ground of Xihua Gate in the city. He then lost consciousness.

"master!"

As soon as Qi Suzhao collapsed, his family rushed over to check on him.

After checking for breath, they found that Qi Suzhao had already died. The Qi family felt as if the sky had fallen.

The reason why the Qi family servants were willing to risk carrying Qi Suzhao to the foot of Mancheng was that they hoped Qi Suzhao could lead them into Mancheng for refuge.

General Xianghou of Jiangning refused to allow Han people into the Manchu city, and Qi Suzhao was already dead. Enraged, the servants of the Qi family revealed their true colors, dragging the Qi family members into a nearby house and venting their anger on them. Afterwards, they took the initiative to find Taiping soldiers who had entered the city and offered up the Qi family members to beg for their lives.

After entering the city, the Taiping army did not stop there. Yang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan and other Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leaders who had been through many battles knew in their hearts that the real tough nut to crack was the Manchu city southeast of Jiangning.

Yang Xiuqing still remembers his vow in Zhang Bu's "Proclamation to Punish the Hu" in Hunan: "I swear to kill the Eight Banners and bring peace to the nine provinces."

Yang Xiuqing's inability to personally lead the battle at Mancheng in Jingzhou has always been a great regret. Now, the massacre of Mancheng in Jiangning is a great opportunity for Yang Xiuqing to make up for his regret, fulfill his vow, and consolidate his prestige.

The next morning, before the smoke of battle had even cleared from the fall of the outer city of Jiangning, an even greater storm was already brewing around Mancheng, in the southeast corner of Jiangning.

After a brief rest, the Taiping soldiers who entered the city charged into Mancheng, Jiangning, in accordance with the command of the Heavenly Father.

The Taiping soldiers searched and killed the remaining Qing soldiers along the way, with shouts of battle and the sound of gunfire never ceasing.

The defenses of the outer city of Jiangning collapsed last night, and the Taiping army, which was rampaging through the city, encountered almost no resistance and was already at the gates of Jiangning.

The fortress of Mancheng in Jiangning, with its high walls and deep moats, was one of the last two obstacles for the Taiping Army to sweep across Jiangnan, and also a place where more than two hundred years of hatred and fear converged.

Facing the swarming Taiping army that was pouring down the city, General Aisin-Gioro Xianghou of Jiangning, standing on the Xihua Gate, was already drenched in sweat. He looked at the Taiping army surging in like a red tide outside the city, his fingers gripping the cold crenellations. The Jiangning city wall, which was nearly ten feet higher than the outer city, with its thick walls and dense crenellations, was his last resort.

Thanks to the fact that the Eight Banners troops stationed in Jiangning did not participate in the defense of the outer city and had been holed up inside the Manchu city since before the war, the Eight Banners troops in Jiangning suffered almost no losses and remained fully organized.

Before the war, Jiangnan Admiral Hong Zhufu, who was stationed at Yuhuatai, not only did not defend Yuhuatai, but also led his personal guards to transfer all the guns and ammunition originally intended for defending Yuhuatai to Mancheng in Jiangning.

Jiangning City has no shortage of soldiers or ammunition.

This was the only thing that Xianghou, who was deeply surrounded by the Taiping Army, could be thankful for.

Upon arriving at the Xihua Gate, Qin Rigang, Hu Yihuang, Lin Qirong, Chen Chengrong, Lin Fengxiang, and other fierce generals of the Heavenly Kingdom led their followers in drinking the sacred wine personally bestowed by Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King. The high saints sang in unison: "May the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother protect us and annihilate the Qing demons!"

After singing and praying, Qin Rigang, Hu Yihuang, Lin Qirong, Chen Chengrong and other brave generals of the Heavenly Kingdom led veterans from Guangxi and Hunan, carrying ladders, and rushed towards Donghua Gate without hesitation.

They attempted to seize Jiangning Mancheng in one fell swoop and sweep away the evil influences and filth in Little Paradise.

"Where are the musketeers and the gunners?!" Xianghou's hoarse roar echoed from the city wall.

The Manchu soldiers in Jiangning had all heard about the Manchu city of Jingzhou to some extent, and they knew that the Taiping soldiers below the city would not let them and their families in the Manchu city go.

This battle was a battle for their life or death, and there was no way to avoid it.

Driven by their belief in protecting their families, the Manchu soldiers in Jiangning Manchu City, for once, shed their usual playboy ways and began to resemble human soldiers.

Almost all the able-bodied Manchus in the city were mobilized.

Women and children were driven to move logs and stones, while the old and weak set up large cauldrons in the city to boil that foul-smelling, boiling excrement into a golden liquid.

Although they had shed their usual frivolousness and gained a bit of courage, these Manchus had long since become rusty in their archery and horsemanship skills. They couldn't even draw a bow, or simply didn't know how.

Therefore, the Eight Banner soldiers on Xihua Gate were mostly armed with firearms, and those who used bows were rarely seen.

"God protect us! Kill the Qing demons!"

The vanguard of the Taiping army, attacking the city, surged into the entire city like a red torrent.

Before the battle even began, the defenders on the city walls had already begun to waver.

Xianghou drew his sword and roared, "Those who retreat will be executed! The Manchus are here! The whole city is here! Only then can our families live! At my command, fire the guns and cannons!"

Xianghou's shout barely stopped the Eight Banners soldiers guarding the city from making any move.

After the Taiping army, which was attacking the city, filled in the moat and set up ladders on the trenches, Xianghou ordered the gunners and musketeers on the city walls to fire their guns and cannons.

After two or three rounds of gunfire, the Taiping army suffered heavy casualties as they filled the moat, erected ladders, and crossed the moat.

"Damn it! How come these Qing devils' guns and cannons are so accurate?!"

Lin Fengxiang, a veteran of countless battles, had an extremely keen sense of battlefield awareness and quickly noticed that something was wrong with the Qing army's guns and cannons on the city wall of Xihua Gate.

Previously, Qing army cannons were not this accurate or had such a fast rate of fire at this distance.

Previously, Lin Fengxiang had only ever seen the elite musketeers under the command of Peng Gang, the Northern King, fire volleys with such accuracy and speed. Of course, the elite musketeers of the Northern Palace fired their volleys with greater precision and order than the Qing army musketeers at Xihua Gate.

"It's a self-propelled flintlock musket! How did these damned Qing devils end up using self-propelled flintlock muskets?"

During the fierce battle in Wuxuan East Township, Lin Qirong, who often fought alongside Peng Gang, quickly realized what was happening.

The Qing soldiers on Xihua Gate were indeed using flintlock muskets.

The city of Jingzhou fell, and no one, young or old, survived. News reached Jiangning that the Taiping army was advancing down the Yangtze River and heading straight for Jiangning.

In order to protect themselves, General Xianghou of Jiangning, Admiral Fuzhu Hong'a of Jiangnan, and other Manchu generals pooled their money to urgently purchase more than 900 second-hand flintlock muskets and 32 second-hand naval guns salvaged from foreign gunboats in Shanghai and Ningbo, almost wiping out the stock of foreign guns in Shanghai and Ningbo.

Seeing that Jiangning Mancheng was difficult to capture in a short time, Yang Xiuqing cut his losses and ordered a retreat. Instead of launching a full-scale attack, he switched to the traditional Taiping Army tactic of using tunnels to capture Jiangning Mancheng.

Jiangning Mancheng draws water from the Qinhuai River, and is surrounded and protected by moats on the east, west, and south sides. Only the Qingxi River on the north wall is dry and without a moat, making it easier to dig tunnels.

Of course, although the north wall of Jiangning Mancheng lacked a moat due to the drying up of Qingxi, the back gate of the north wall of Jiangning Mancheng was also sealed off year-round.

Upon learning that there was no moat outside the north wall of Mancheng in Jiangning, Yang Xiuqing decisively set the main attack direction on the north wall.

As for the back gate of the north wall of Mancheng in Jiangning, it has been blocked for many years and is insignificant. In any case, after the wall is breached, we can directly enter Mancheng through the gap.

In the following days, the Taiping army focused on controlling Jiangning City.

The Taiping army no longer launched assaults on the heavily fortified and heavily armed Manchu city of Jiangning, but instead fired cannons from time to time as a feint attack, engaging in a standoff with the Eight Banners troops inside the city.

Deep underground, the holy soldiers of the various temples, all miners by trade, wielded picks shirtless, and soil, like black blood from beneath the earth's veins, continuously flowed from the tunnel entrances.

The Taiping Army's various earthen garrisons had accumulated rich experience in siege warfare through tunnels. When attacking the Manchu city of Jiangning, the Taiping Army's earthen garrisons used the "gourd tunneling method," first digging a main tunnel that could only accommodate one person at a time, and then expanding the medicine room at the front end. Every foot of tunneling required wooden supports to prevent collapse.

The Taiping army under Shi Dakai, stationed in the occupied area of ​​Anhui, learned that the main force was attacking the fortified city of Mancheng in Jiangning.

Shi Dakai generously transported the newly trained artillerymen of the Wing Palace, along with cannons and cosmetics, by water to Jiangning, where they were handed over to Yang Xiuqing for use in attacking the Manchu city of Jiangning.

After half a month of digging, the Taiping Army's earthen camp successfully excavated four tunnels leading to the north wall.

Yang Xiuqing attached great importance to the battle to attack the Mancheng of Jiangning. He specially ordered the selection of the best gunpowder to be used to blow down the north wall of the Mancheng of Jiangning so that the city could be captured in one battle. He also personally went to the front-line camp to inspect it.

In the center of the camp at the front line of the northern wall of Jiangning Mancheng, the Taiping soldiers of the Tu Camp were selecting gunpowder specially allocated by Yang Xiuqing.

These gunpowders were all high-quality powder seized in Wuchang and Anqing.

Several large pots nearby were boiling tung oil, and the pungent smell of gunpowder and sulfur mixed with the tung oil filled the air.

The soldiers of the local army are further screening and distributing the high-quality rouge allocated by Yang Xiuqing.

Then, these reselected and mixed gunpowders were carefully packaged into bamboo tubes soaked in tung oil, and then strung together with cotton thread to form a blasting cord.

Suddenly, all the busy sounds in the camp stopped abruptly with the announcement, "The Ninth Prince of the Eastern Kingdom has arrived!"

"His Majesty the Eastern King has arrived!"

The news of the Eastern King's arrival shattered the camp like a thunderclap.

All the busy figures froze instantly, then knelt down like wheat fields blown down by a strong wind.

It's Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King!
Unusually, Yang Xiuqing did not ride in the royal carriage, but instead rode a strong black steed, escorted by a group of guards from the East Palace, to the front-line camp.

Wearing an apricot-yellow dragon robe and a black satin cloak, Yang Xiuqing's face was calm and composed, except for his slightly narrowed eyes, which were sharp as a hawk's. He slowly swept his gaze over the mountains of gunpowder in the camp, the crisscrossing trenches, and the Heavenly Kingdom soldiers kneeling on the ground, not daring to look up at him.

The commanders of the Tu camp, Lu Guojin and Zhang Xianyi, knelt on the ground, their voices hoarse with nervousness: "This humble servant pays respects to Your Majesty! Long live the Eastern King!"

Yang Xiuqing did not immediately tell them to get up, but instead reined in the horses and looked at the wooden buckets filled with rouge.

"These... are the beauties who will send the entire city of demon soldiers to their deaths tomorrow?" His voice was not loud, but it clearly penetrated everyone's ears.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Lu Guojin replied hastily. "These are all medicines made with the finest red powder selected according to His Highness the Eastern King's decree. They are very potent! The bamboo tubes have been soaked in tung oil, so they are not afraid of dampness underground. The wicks have also been tested and are guaranteed to be loud!"

Yang Xiuqing nodded, finally dismounted, and her boots made a soft crunching sound as they stepped on the gravel road.

He strolled over to a large pot of boiling tung oil, watching the bubbling, viscous liquid, and suddenly reached out and drew a gleaming knife from the scabbard of the swordsman beside him.

Everyone's heart tightened.

But then Yang Xiuqing dipped the tip of his knife into the boiling oil, stirred it slowly a few times, and then pulled it out, with wisps of blue smoke rising from the blade.

Yang Xiuqing raised his knife, his gaze sweeping over the faces of the Tu Camp soldiers who had finally dared to raise their heads slightly.

"Look carefully!" Yang Xiuqing's voice suddenly rose. "Is the oil hot? Is the knife sharp?"

"Hot! Sharp!" the holy soldiers responded instinctively, though their voices were somewhat uneven.

“That’s right!” Yang Xiuqing hurled the short blade back at Canhu, his booming voice like the clang of metal.

"No matter how hot the oil, it can't withstand the hard work of our brothers in the Tu Camp for half a month! No matter how sharp the knife, it can't break through the thick demon wall of Jiangning!"

Yang Xiuqing turned around abruptly, and with a wave of her arm, her cloak unfurled like a battle flag, pointing towards the dark outline of Jiangning Mancheng in the distance.

"Only you can break through it! Only you holy soldiers who have received true power from the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother!"

With that, Yang Xiuqing strode to a high point in the center of the camp: "I have given the order to the entire army! The moment the explosions start tomorrow, it will be the order for the general offensive! The first to charge through the breach will be promoted five ranks for officers below the rank of commander-in-chief! And four ranks for officers above the rank of commander-in-chief. After the city falls, you can choose the silks from the Heavenly Empire's treasury first! You can live in the best houses in the city first!"

The promise of ultimate material wealth ignited the most primal desires, and suppressed cheers erupted from the crowd.

But Yang Xiuqing's expression suddenly turned cold, instantly freezing all the cheers.

"but!"

Yang Xiuqing abruptly changed the subject, her gaze sharp as an ice pick, piercing everyone present.

"Where did things go wrong? Whether it was the medicine becoming damp, the fuse breaking, the timing being wrong, or backing out at the last minute..."

At this point, Yang Xiuqing paused, looked around at the Heavenly Kingdom soldiers kneeling on the ground, and continued.

"I don't need to lift a finger. Your brothers, yourselves, do it for me, for our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother, and kill that lazy fool, that cowardly coward! Do you hear me?!"

"I heard it!" The roar was like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing down, fear and fanaticism perfectly fused together.

Finally, Yang Xiuqing took a deep breath, pointed one finger to the sky, and with all his might, let out a shout that ripped through the night sky: "By the holy decree of the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother! Exterminate the Qing demon! Unify the country and share peace!"

"Exterminate the Qing demons! Share in peace! Long live the Qing! Long live the Qing! Long live the Qing!"

The Taiping army's front-line camp was in complete uproar. The Heavenly Army soldiers inside the camp were frantically banging on their tools and shields, their roars shaking the ground and terrifying the Manchu people throughout Jiangning.

Yang Xiuqing looked with satisfaction at the army he had completely ignited with his kindness, power, faith, and desire. He nodded slightly, said no more, turned around, mounted his warhorse, and, surrounded by his guards, left the camp calmly and majestically, just as he had arrived.

That night, the Taiping army, with their troops on both sides, launched a full-scale attack on Jiangning City, just as they had done when they besieged Mancheng in Jingzhou, completely surrounding the city.

At dawn, the sky was just beginning to lighten.

Suddenly, more than 40,000 jin of gunpowder buried under the city wall of Jiangning exploded with a loud bang, the violent tremor like an earth dragon turning over.

The sturdy city walls of Jiangning were torn apart like paper toys.

Bricks, stones, earth, and wood, whether whole or incomplete, the limbs of the Manchus were thrown several meters into the air by a cloud of black and red smoke, and then crashed heavily to the ground.

The massive shockwave shattered the roof tiles of houses within a radius of several dozen feet. The nearby defenders didn't even have time to scream before their internal organs were shattered and they collapsed to the ground dead.

More than 800 Manchu soldiers and their families who were stationed at the northern wall of the city of Jiangning died on the spot, while others were seriously injured or unconscious.

After the sound, three gaps, each five or six zhang wide, were clearly visible in the north wall of Jiangning Mancheng.

Before the dust settled, a roar like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami erupted from the breach.

"God protect us! Slay all the Qing demons!"

The crimson tide finally crashed onto the embankment of Mancheng, Jiangning.

The Taiping vanguard consisted of seasoned veterans from Guangxi, working in groups of three. The swordsmen and shieldmen led the way with rattan shields, while the spearmen thrust from the center, and the archers and musketeers followed behind, firing precise shots. They skillfully surged into the breach, preparing to engage in street fighting with the Manchu troops inside the city of Jiangning.

Although the generals defending Manchuria, Jiangning General Xianghou and Jiangnan Admiral Hong Zhufu'a, had foreseen the worst-case scenario of the Taiping army attacking Manchuria, they had built barricades behind the breach using furniture and sacks filled with mud, attempting to resist step by step.

However, the massive shockwave from the more than 40,000 catties of high-quality gunpowder that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had gathered with all its resources had already shattered the barricades closest to the north wall.

Although the barricades at the rear were relatively intact, a well-constructed military fortification is useless without soldiers to defend it.

The loud bang just now shattered not only the north wall of Jiangning Man City, but also completely extinguished the fighting spirit that the Manchu soldiers and guards within the city had managed to muster.

The Manchus near the north wall were exposed for what they truly were; some were killed on the spot and terrified, while others scattered to the inner city of the Manchu city, which was the palace city built in Nanjing in the early Ming Dynasty, the Manchu city in a narrow sense.

When the Taiping Army attacked Teng County, Li Yiwen (Li Xiucheng), a military commander who joined the Taiping Army, charged forward like a wild horse, brandishing his sword and shield. He charged through the billowing dust and led his soldiers to be the first to scavenge through the bricks and rubble and climb into the city of Mancheng in Jiangning.

Li Yiwen entered the Manchu city of Jiangning as if he were in an empty land, until he chased the enemy to the vicinity of the inner city, where he encountered more than 300 Eight Banner soldiers hastily organized by Huo Longwu, the deputy commander of Jiangning, and Seboxing'e, the assistant commander of the Eight Banners.

More than 300 Eight Banner soldiers, under the supervision of Deputy Commander-in-Chief Huo Longwu and Assistant Commander Seboxing'e, attempted to put up a desperate resistance using the chest-high barricades.

Realizing that there were only about a hundred Taiping soldiers who had rushed to their barricades, the Eight Banner soldiers, under the personal supervision of Huo Longwu and Seboxing'e, barely managed to hold their ground.

They raised their muskets, matchlock guns, and rifles and fired sparsely at the approaching Taiping soldiers.

(End of this chapter)