There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 362 Nanjing Recapture

On his way to quell the rebellion in the city, General Jiangning was captured alive by a group of wealthy servants and local ruffians.

It's really outrageous!
Moreover, with Fu Chang arrested, the entire city of Nanjing was thrown into complete chaos.

Those two hundred Manchu soldiers who fled earlier were not stupid at all.

Since they had already abandoned their own general, regardless of whether Fu Chang had escaped or not, they had to spread the word that Fu Chang had been captured alive.

The Jiangning General has been captured alive. Regardless of who captured him, the Nanjing Eight Banners are now leaderless. Even the recently captured Jiangning Deputy Commander Gengyinsu is no longer of any interest; those who could escape have all fled.

When Ailonga, the general of Xuzhou, saw the Eight Banners troops on several sections of the city wall beginning to flee in organized groups, he realized that something terrible was about to happen.

He immediately stepped forward to stop them, but he couldn't stop them at all. Ailonga's Xuzhou soldiers numbered less than two thousand in total, and a thousand of them had been sent to guard Mancheng.

Currently, the ratio of Eight Banner soldiers to Xuzhou soldiers on the outer city wall of Nanjing is roughly three to one.

The soldiers from Xuzhou were Han Chinese soldiers under the Qing dynasty, and they didn't even have the status of Manchus, which made them even less confident.

The defenses of Nanjing's outer city wall have completely collapsed.

Upon hearing the news of Fu Chang's capture, Ailonga, though the information was fragmented and unclear, realized that the outer city wall's defenses were doomed. He ceased his attempts to struggle and, with the hundred or so personal guards he had managed to muster, immediately withdrew from the outer city wall.

It was only then that Chen Lin and his group, who were in the outer city of Nanjing, finally realized that something was wrong.

How did Nanjing suddenly collapse in its defenses, with the inner city, outer city, and the entire city falling into chaos?

Chen Lin and other Han army intelligence personnel, as well as the inside agents they had recruited, were all caught off guard.

There was no other way. Nanjing was already in chaos, and regardless of whether they were prepared or not, they had no choice but to launch an attack on the spot.

In the outer city of Nanjing, multiple fires broke out at the same time. The fires were not very large, but they burned very fiercely, producing thick black smoke, which clearly indicated that someone had deliberately added fuel to the fire.

But by then no one cared. Knowing that all was lost, Elonah was desperately trying to escape towards another section of the city wall, hoping to break through and escape in the chaos.

Those Eight Banners soldiers from Nanjing first went to Manchuria, intending to take away their families, wives, children, and all their belongings and valuables.

The latter is especially important; without money, even if they escaped Nanjing, they would still have a hard time saving their lives.

"What? Nanjing has fallen into chaos!"

Nie Yu looked at the urgent telegram handed to him by the telegraph soldier. It didn't even have a time mark on it, which clearly meant it had just been sent and that the person was really in a hurry.

Upon leaving his own command tent, the King of Han, he saw thick smoke billowing from the walls of Nanjing.

Nie Yu took out his binoculars and looked around; there wasn't a single ghost on the city wall anymore.

No, what the hell is going on here?
Not only was Nie Yu bewildered, but the Han army lookouts who had received the firsthand news were equally bewildered. They had been watching the situation on the Nanjing city wall the entire time, and suddenly they saw all the Qing soldiers in chaos, throwing things everywhere, and some even being pushed off the city wall.

Then, in the chaos, these Qing soldiers disappeared. It seemed they had gone down from the city wall, as if something major had happened in the city.
Nie Yu asked, "Where is General Yang? What is General Yang doing now?"

The telegraph operator replied, "General Yang has already dispatched troops not long ago."

Goodness, Yang Fang reacted pretty quickly, immediately sending out troops without hesitation, without even considering whether it was a trap.

It should be said that Yang Fang was certain that this was not a trap set by the Qing army.

It wasn't just the information about the Han army's inside agents that made Yang Fang so confident. He believed he had 30,000 strong troops, while Nanjing only had a few thousand Qing troops. He thought that if the Qing army dared to use a trap to lure the Han army into attacking the city, the Han army would dare to take Nanjing in one battle.

In the face of absolute power, any schemes and tricks are futile.

Nie Yu left the command tent and went to the watchtower to observe, where he saw that Yang Fang's army had just captured the Nanjing city wall.

There was no resistance in Nanjing. The only thing that happened was that the Han army's vanguard climbed the city walls and then, with the help of their inside collaborators, opened the city gates.

Chen Lin and his spies were speechless, as was Yang Fang, the Han army general who had just captured Nanjing.

Nanjing, the majestic city of Nanjing, is a place where tigers crouch and dragons coil!

It's fortunate that the chaos was during the day, otherwise Yang Fang would have had to wake up his soldiers in the middle of the night to seize Nanjing.

The outer city wall of Nanjing was completely controlled by the Han army, and the main force of the Han army then filed into the city.

The first thing to do after entering the city was to suppress the rioters and hooligans. Anyone who took advantage of the chaos to smash, loot, burn, or vandalize was killed immediately.

After beheading dozens of thugs, these opportunistic looters finally came to their senses.

The Han army then split into several groups, each heading to capture the prefectural school, the examination hall, the offices of the Governor-General of Liangjiang and the General of Jiangning, as well as the offices of the prefect and county magistrates, the prefectural treasury and the county treasury. The Qinhuai River "scenic area" was also brought under military control and suppressed, and no one was allowed to act recklessly.

After all the government offices, warehouses, and schools were captured, the main force of the Han army gathered in Mancheng.

Of the 30,000 Manchu bannermen in the city, more than 5,000 fled. These 5,000 bannermen scattered and escaped, and the Han army simply couldn't spare enough manpower to capture them. Even Ailonga took advantage of the Han army's distraction in capturing the fleeing bannermen, broke through the encirclement in the chaos, and disappeared without a trace.

There were still more than 25,000 Manchu people left in the city. They had not had time to escape and could no longer escape.

To prevent more Manchu bannermen from escaping, the Han army had sealed off all the major gates of the outer city wall that could be blocked. No matter how hard you tried to run, you couldn't possibly escape Nanjing.

Knowing they couldn't escape, the more than 20,000 Manchus gathered in the city, intending to hold out for one last time.

At the gates of Nanjing, two rows of people were already standing. The leader of the row on the left was Yuan Shu, the prefect of Jiangning, who had just cut off his queue and was still wearing the clothes of a pseudo-Qing official. Behind him were the Jiangning magistrate, the Jiangning sub-prefect, the Jiangning county magistrate, and several other officials of Jiangning Prefecture, including the county magistrate of Jiangning and the county magistrate of Shangyuan.

Yuan Shu is the oldest among them, and he is exactly seventy-one years old this year.

The big man had already said beforehand that they didn't need to kneel, so Yuan Shu was willing to cut off his queue and surrender to the big man.

Nie Yu still showed some respect to this person, not only because the other party was old, but also because his official reputation was decent, and also because this guy had a good older brother.

His elder brother was Yuan Mei, arguably the most famous of the three great families of the Qianlong and Jiaqing eras. Yuan Mei's most important contribution to the Han Dynasty was his opposition to foot binding, which he considered a "bad custom that led to the downfall of the nation."

Unfortunately, this literary giant passed away in Nanjing two years ago.

Nie Yu rode a tall horse into the city, with Yuan Shu leading the officials of Nanjing on the left and Chen Lin leading the merchants and gentry of Nanjing on the right, all of them paying their respects to and welcoming the Prince of Han.

Even after entering the city, Nie Yu still felt that it was somewhat absurd.

With his 30,000 troops besieging Nanjing, he had considered that Nanjing could be captured, but at least he would have to try various methods, such as siege warfare, using coffins to blow up the city, and frontal assaults. He would have to fight a few real, hard-fought battles.

But in reality, Nanjing inexplicably took over its own territory.

All the tactics used by the Han army were futile, and the spies they sent in didn't even play a significant role.

"Everyone is free of charge!"

After entering the city, Nie Yu felt that riding a horse was too high and mighty, so he simply dismounted and walked instead, and asked the people who came to greet him to stand up.

Before they had taken more than a few steps into the city, a messenger rushed in to report: "Your Majesty, the city's treasury, government offices, and academy have all been captured. The general is currently besieging the Manchu city. There are more than 20,000 Manchu bannermen in the city. The general requests permission to use heavy artillery to bombard the city?"

Nie Yu raised his hand: "Granted. Finish this quickly. Arrest those who are willing to surrender and wait for a public trial. Kill those who don't surrender on the spot!"

The two outcomes are essentially the same: the Tartars who are publicly tried will both die.

It's nothing more than dying in front of the people, giving off one last bit of energy to appease public grievances and anger.

Nanjing was captured just like that. The Manchu city, which was still resisting in the inner city, was also captured by the Han army before evening after Yang Fang used heavy artillery to forcibly collapse the city walls.

Of the 25,000 Manchu bannermen, one-third died, all of them killed after the Han army stormed into the Manchu city and resisted.

Yes, anyone who still held weapons and refused to kneel and surrender was considered to be putting up a stubborn resistance and was executed on the spot by the Han army.

They killed nearly a third of them, and the rest couldn't take it anymore, so they all lay on the ground, too afraid to move.

These Manchu bannermen were all captured and imprisoned in one place, while the women and children were imprisoned in another.

In the evenings, Han soldiers would bring thin porridge to the women and children to keep them alive and prevent them from starving to death.

As for the male Tartar prisoners, they weren't given even a drop of water, let alone a bowl of thin porridge. They were going to be killed anyway, so why waste food and water?

The public trial came quickly, on the third day after the Han army captured Nanjing.

Thousands of Manchu bannermen were all sent to Caishikou.

There was no questioning about the crimes, because as Manchu bannermen, these guys naturally didn't treat the people of Nanjing as human beings, and their crimes were already too numerous to count.

Nie Yu personally acted as the executioner. Seeing that the time was almost up and the onlookers were all indignant, he threw out the token.

"The time has come, execute!"

"Pfft!"

With a single stroke, countless Tartar heads fell to the ground.

"it is good!"

The people cheered and applauded in unison.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

The executioners responsible for beheading were mostly local Nanjing executioners. They usually beheaded prisoners, and it was rare for them to behead the Manchu bannermen. They were all very strong and volunteered to behead them.

He downed a bowl of strong liquor, sprayed it onto the ghost-headed cleaver he had just used to behead someone, then rubbed his hands together: "Come on, next one, don't keep the neighbors and the old man Han waiting."

Someone shouted, "Fifth Brother, when you're about to chop off their heads, can you do it one beheading at a time? Don't let these damned Tartars die too quickly."

The executioner, known as Fifth Brother, waved his hands repeatedly, saying, "That won't do. In this line of work, the key is to cut the head off in one stroke. Cutting it one stroke at a time not only wastes the knife but also ruins our reputation and skills."

After saying that, he swung his sword again, and another fine head fell to the ground.

"it is good!"

Amidst the gushing blood, the people once again loudly praised.

Some people even took out steamed buns and dipped them in the blood.

He didn't seek to cure diseases or exorcise evil spirits; he simply hated the Tartars and wanted to devour their flesh and blood.

(End of this chapter)