In February 1853, at the Meeting of the High Leaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the leaders of the uprising began to discuss the next step of the march. At this time, Xiang Rong was leading his troops and horses to attack the outer positions of the Wuchang Taiping Army. Yang Xiuqing commanded many attempts to thwart the Qing army, but maintaining this state for a long time was bound to be in big trouble.
On the agenda, Hong Xiuquan proposed to go north to Henan, directly attack the hinterland of the Central Plains, and wait for the opportunity to continue the north to attack Beijing. Shi Dakai believed that turning around and attacking Sichuan, after all, the country of Tianfu was rich and abundant, which was conducive to the supply and expansion of troops. However, Yang Xiuqing believes that he should go down the river and aim directly at Jiangning. Several princes were red in the face, and finally Yang Xiuqing came up with his big trick - God possession, which completely ended the controversy.
Although in the end Yang Xiuqing used his own special means to win this round, it has to be said that Yang Xiuqing's decision-making is undoubtedly the most secure and appropriate among these people. Not to mention Shi Dakai's autistic marching strategy, just Hong Xiuquan's plan. If the Taiping Army left the Yangtze River, it would go north to Henan. Then in the land of the Central Plains, the Taiping Army is likely to be surrounded and suppressed by hundreds of thousands of troops in the north of the Qing court. Once the rear road was cut off, the Taiping Army had no supplies, and in the face of the Qing court's heavy troops, the future of the Taiping Army was worrying.
On February 9, 1853, the Taiping Army abandoned Wuchang, which had been held for more than half a month, and began to march eastward. According to legend, Hong Xiuquan rode a golden and grand dragon boat, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of troops, with a huge momentum and momentum. The Taiping Army still divided its troops into two roads, one by land and one by water. Shi Dakai, as the vanguard of the whole army, acted as a sharp blade. On February 12, the Taiping Army captured Huangzhou and on the 13th occupied Pushui, which was very fast. However, Xiang Rong's reaction at this time was also very rapid, he detected the movement of the Taiping Army withdrawing from Wuchang early, and on the 13th, he chased after Wuchang County, at which time the Taiping Army's rear guard had just crossed Wuchang County.
At this time, Zhang Fu, the governor of Jiangxi, was ordered by the Xianfeng Emperor to strictly guard the dangerous towns of Tianjia and Wuxue at the junction of Hubei and Jiangxi. However, Zhang Fu had no soldiers and horses in his hands, and Zhang Fu, who was suffering from no soldiers, pushed the defense to Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang. On February 10, after Lu Jianying arrived in Jiujiang, he hurriedly ordered Shouchun Commander Enchang to lead more than 2,000 people to Wuxue to prevent the blockade. At that time, the Qing army gathered 5,000 soldiers and horses in Wuxue Town, and Xiang Rong also led his troops to desperately rush to Tianjia Town and Wuxue Town, trying to join Lu Jianying and attack the Taiping Army back and forth. However, at half-hour on the night of the 15th, the Taiping Army told Xiang Rong with absolute strength: he was delusional. The Taiping Army advanced by land and water, and the Qing army camp collapsed one after another, which was unable to stop the Taiping Army's fierce offensive, and the Qing army was annihilated by more than 4,000 people. When Lu Jianying heard the news, he was frightened and took his 400 guards and fled to Nanjing in a hurry.
The Taiping Army then killed Ben Jiujiang. Qingbao, who was the commander-in-chief of Jiujiang Town at the time, felt that he only had 2,000 people and could not hold it at all, so he turned his head and ran. Later, Xiang Rong gave him perjury, which avoided the scourge of killing his head. On February 18, after the Taiping Army conquered Jiujiang without bloodshed, it quickly advanced into Anhui. On February 24, the Taiping Army first broke through the small isolated mountain fortress outside Anqing City, and then broke through the defense of Anqing City, and Jiang Wenqing, the inspector of Anhui, was killed. The resistance of the Qing army in Anhui was broken in front of the Taiping Army like a stick of paper. On the 26th, it captured Chizhou, on the 28th it occupied Tongling, and on March 4, it conquered Wuhu. When the Qing army heard about the Taiping Army's troops, they took the road and fled, and did not dare to engage them at all. Interestingly, Lu Jianying's ship ran slowly, and was almost captured by the vanguard of the Taiping Army. Lu Jianying almost ran all the way, losing the city all the way to the ground. Poor emperor of the first generation, the concubine teacher of the Xianfeng Emperor at that time, was beaten like a lost dog by the Taiping Army.
At this point, as soon as the emperor arrived in Nanjing, while sorting out the defense, he secretly ordered people to transport his family and family funds to Beijing. Lu Jianying, who deeply felt that his time was short, naturally wanted to keep the people's fat he had scavenged. This matter is much more important than the defense of the city!!!
But the Taiping Army also made the fatal mistake of not jumping out of the rogue mentality and not occupying a city for a long time. Once captured, after carrying the materials from the official warehouse, the city was immediately abandoned. This allowed Xiang Rong and Hechun's pursuers to follow all the way, and finally formed the Jiangnan battalion. Threaten the security of Tianjing.
On March 4, the Land Forces of the Taiping Army captured Wuhu, and the Water Forces also engaged in a duel with the Qing Dynasty's Jiangnan Water Division. After a day of fierce fighting, the Taiping Army finally defeated the Qing army's marine division and gained control of the water road. When the Taiping Army passed through anhui territory, due to its strict discipline, it was quite supported by the people along the river in Anhui. A large number of young people joined the Taiping Army and became the backbone of the later force. On March 7, 1853, Li Kaifang, as a former enemy commander, led the vanguard army to the jubao gate of Nanjing City and defeated the newly established regimental training forces. Subsequently, the main forces of the Taiping Army arrived one after another.
Jiangning (Nanjing) Was the most important political and military center of the Qing court in Jiangnan, and after hearing the news of the Taiping Army's attack on Jiangning, the Xianfeng Emperor had trouble sleeping. However, at this time, the treasury was empty and the troops were insufficient, and the Xianfeng Emperor had no way to save the current situation except for his own anxiety and anxiety. Jiangning Province is a fortified city that is easy to defend and difficult to attack, with Zhongshan in the east and the Yangtze River in the west. To the south is a continuous mountain range, and to the north is Tangpo Lake. But first of all, the Qing army lost control of the water, so the Qing army could only passively deal with the land attack of the Taiping Army, and could not engage the Taiping Army on the water. At the same time, the scale of Jiangning Province far exceeds that of Wuchang, with a circumference of the city of 96 miles, 13 city gates, and Jubao Gate is one of the four gates of the south city.
In terms of defending the city, Yang Wending, the governor of Jiangsu, raised several times, which gathered more than 5,200 officers and men. Among them, 3,000 were deployed in Yuhuatai, and they were at odds with each other outside the city. However, after Lu Jianying ran back to Nanjing, he sealed all 13 city gates with earthen bags, which made the Qing army outside the city panic and uneasiness, and the general cheng Sanguang, who was responsible for the defense outside the city, saw that the governor did so, so he led his troops to abandon Yuhuatai and all withdrew to the defense of the city. The Yuhuatai defense line was defenseless and was easily taken by the Taiping Army. In addition, Yang Wending also forcibly ordered the recruitment of township braves, ordered the gentry to have money to pay, some people to do people, and raised more than 10,000 township braves in many ways, but these soldiers and horses could only be strong and strong at best, and in fact there was no way to fight like officers and soldiers. However, the great war was imminent, and Yang Wending could not care so much.
On March 8, Lin Fengxiang led the main force of the Lu Division to arrive outside Nanjing. He immediately ordered his troops to begin to deploy along the walls of Nanjing. The Qing army was suddenly extremely nervous, and the guns and artillery did not stop, in fact, the Taiping Army did not enter the attack range of the Qing army at all. Lin Fengxiang led the soldiers and horses to garrison outside the Yifeng Gate and was responsible for the siege operations on the northern front. Li Kaifang was still outside the Jubao Gate, in charge of the southern front. Huang Yiyun was in charge of the battle west of the city outside the Dry West Gate, while Zhu Xikun led his troops to first capture Zhongshan, and then camped outside the Chaoyang Gate to take charge of the eastern front.
On March 9, the Taiping Army stationed on the southern front used the heavy artillery abandoned by the Qing army to set up cannons on Bao'en Temple and bombarded many city gates at the south gate. On March 11, the Jubaomen City Tower was destroyed by the Taiping Army, frightening Lu Jianying into sending people to make cowhide soft blocks and bamboo rows to resist the Taiping Army's artillery fire. On March 12, the Taiping Army's marine division troops on the surface of the Yangtze River in Nanjing were moored on the line from Dashengguan to Xiaguan Wharf. The land and water joint camp was tens of miles, and this completely encircled the Qing army to death. At this time, the Xianfeng Emperor was already impatient with his mentor and had already ordered him to be dismissed from his post, but because of the blockade of the Taiping Army, this will was not sent to Lu Jianying.
At this time, Lu Jianying was already poor in his donkey skills, and he chanted and worshiped the Buddha all day long, hoping that the Buddha would open his eyes and save his life. He also wanted to send someone to Jiuhua Mountain to meet the martial monks, but no one dared to go out of the city to do this. After Yang Xiuqing arrived at the front line, he learned from the experience of attacking Changsha, that is, Wuchang, in the early stage, and believed that a strong attack was not advisable, so he repeated the technique and began to dig tunnels. At the same time, Yifengmen was selected as the target of the cave blast, and the engineering battalion carried out civil engineering work day and night. Since the site of the engineering battalion's operation is Jinghai Temple, there are Qing spy infestations next to it. On the 13th, Qing spies went up to the city and reported that the Taiping Army was digging tunnels. The Qing army then used the ground to listen to the hair (that is, to bury the large cylinder in the soil in reverse, and the soldiers listened to the sound in the cylinder) to confirm the direction of the Taiping Army's excavation. However, due to the heavy rain at that time, it was difficult to listen to the ground, and the Taiping Army was able to carry out the construction smoothly. However, the commanders of the Qing army were so indifferent that they did not counterattack the Jinghai Temple and sabotage the excavation work of the Taiping Army.
Since Lu Jianying allowed the city gates to put the monks living outside the city into the city, the Taiping Army sent hundreds of people to shave their hair and hide in the ranks of monks into the city of Nanjing. They were wreaking havoc and spreading rumors everywhere in the city, and the hearts and minds of the people in Nanjing city were in chaos. On March 19, the Taiping Army launched a general offensive, and a section of the city wall in the direction of Yifengmen was overturned by the sound of explosions in the sky, and in order to expand the effect, the Taiping Army also launched another round of fierce shelling on this section of the city wall, and suddenly a gap of about two inches wide was opened. After the explosion was successful, the Taiping Army immediately sent three or four hundred commandos to rush down the gap. At this time, the Qing army had already collapsed on its own, and the Taiping army rushed into the city without any effort. When Lu Jianying heard that the city gate had fallen, he hurriedly took a palanquin to enter Mancheng to hide, but Xiang Hou, the commander of Mancheng, did not allow him to enter regardless of his status as Lu Jianying's imperial master. Like a lost dog, Governor Lu had to return the same way and run in the direction of the small camp. Who knew that on the road, he was hit by the Taiping Army commando, and the car driver who carried the car immediately scattered and ran away when he saw this situation, leaving Lu Jianying alone to face the Taiping Army. The Taiping Army didn't care who it was, anyway, it was a qing demon official at first glance, and without saying a word, he cut down Lu Jianying. Poor Xianfeng Emperor's mentor, Lord Lu Jianying, the governor of Liangjiang, was thus killed by the taiping army pawns.
However, at that time, the landlord regiment in the city did not give up resistance, and the commandos entering the city encountered stubborn resistance, if it were not for the news that Lu Jianying was dead, which made the Qing army confused, otherwise the commandos who had just entered the city were likely to be driven out of the city by the Qing army. This is mainly because the number of commandos sent by Lin Fengxiang to attack the city is too small, and the follow-up troops have not been connected, but the Qing army is obviously more chaotic! At the same time, Li Kaifang and Huang Yiyun took advantage of the opportunity of the Qing army to dispatch troops to rescue Yifengmen and quickly launched an attack, and the Taiping Army first opened the breakthrough of jubaomen, and soon the ants attached themselves to the city. Subsequently, the Taiping Army completely occupied Jubaomen, and the Taiping Army of the brigade attacked the southern block of the city from the city gate. On the evening of the 19th, except for mancheng, all the cities of Nanjing were occupied by the Taiping Army.
The Qingjiangning general Xiang Hou led 8,000 soldiers to defend the city. Mancheng is the imperial city built by Ming Taizu in that year, wide and majestic. In order to die, Xiang Hou mobilized all Manchu women to enter the city to assist in defending the city, and the city was full of materials and ammunition. On March 20, after Yang Xiuqing entered the city of Nanjing, he personally commanded the attack on Mancheng. At dawn, the Taiping Army immediately launched a fierce offensive, and with the support of fierce artillery fire, the Taiping Army launched a general attack on Mancheng from all directions. The large number of Taiping troops pounced like a tide, and the Qing bannermen desperately unleashed guns and artillery to return fire on the Taiping Army. The Manchu women in the city were also helping to defend the city, and the manchu young and middle-aged people in the city were all dressed up, and the Taiping Army launched three consecutive rounds of offensives, killing more than a thousand people, and there was still no way to break through the city. The corpses under the city walls were getting higher and higher, and the soldiers behind them rushed up with the corpses, one after another, wave after wave.
Yang Xiuqing saw that the first round of troops suffered heavy losses, so he replaced this unit and used wheel warfare to continue to attack the city. The Taiping army continued to rush forward, while the strength of the defenders of the city gradually declined. Due to the continuous fighting all day, the combat effectiveness of these flag soldiers who had been in the battle position for a long time was seriously reduced, and the Taiping Army finally completely captured the west gate in the afternoon, and immediately broke through the entire city. Xiang Hou knew that the general trend was gone, so he immediately committed suicide. It was not until the evening that the Taiping Army killed all the remaining flag soldiers and completely controlled the city.
On March 20, 1853, the Taiping Army captured the city of Nanjing.
This is a new starting point, and he marks that the Taiping Army is about to begin to transform and upgrade, from the direction of liukouism to the development of base areas. The Qing court, on the other hand, felt more and more that the Taiping Rebellion was getting bigger and bigger, and seriously lacked the military strength and confidence to suppress its rapid expansion.
A revolutionary climax in China's modern history also began to take shape with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's establishment of the capital of Tianjing.