Slaying the Qing: My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

"Your Excellency, give me the truth: can Suzhou Prefecture still be defended? If it can, all three thousand elite Eight Banner troops in Suzhou Prefecture will be under your command."

If we cannot hold the line, I will have no choice but to order my sons to take their families and flee for their lives immediately.

Since the Taiping Rebellion began, the Taiping rebels have captured many Manchu cities.

They are extremely hostile to us Manchus, and countless of our people have been massacred by the Taiping rebels. I cannot allow the tens of thousands of our people in Suzhou to suffer the same fate again!

General Kuiyu of Jiangning said with a serious expression.

Imperial Commissioner and Governor-General of Jiangnan, He Chun, shook his head: "We can't hold it, we simply can't hold it. I only have a little over ten thousand Green Standard Army soldiers at my disposal. Even if we add three thousand elite Eight Banner soldiers, it probably wouldn't be enough to fill the Taiping rebels' teeth."

I have now truly witnessed just how powerful the Taiping Rebellion's firearms are. No army in our Great Qing has ever been equipped with such advanced firearms.

I have already decided that I must submit a memorial to Your Majesty, earnestly requesting Your Majesty's approval to purchase large quantities of foreign firearms and build a powerful army that uses only firearms. Only in this way can we deal with the Taiping Rebellion and have any chance of pacifying it.

Otherwise, my Great Qing Dynasty would truly be in danger.

"So what should we do now?" Governor-General Yi Liang of Liangjiang frowned deeply.

Among the nine governors-general of the Qing court, the Governor-General of Liangjiang ranked second only to the Governor-General of Zhili, making him a true regional governor.

Even though He Chun, as the imperial envoy, was in charge of military affairs in Jiangnan, he still had to give Yi Liang some face.

"Your Excellency, for now, we are afraid we can only temporarily avoid the Taiping Rebellion."

The Taiping Rebellion is powerful; we must preserve our strength. We'll fight them once we've trained a much stronger army!

He Chun suggested.

"Abandoning Southern Jiangsu, are we going to go to Northern Jiangsu?" Yi Liang's face was very ugly.

Although Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi provinces were all under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of Liangjiang, the most economically developed and prosperous region among these three provinces was undoubtedly southern Jiangsu.

Originally, the Viceroy of Liangjiang's office was located in Jiangning.

After the Taiping army captured Nanjing and renamed it Tianjing, Hong Xiuquan directly used the Viceroy of Liangjiang's office as the Heavenly King's Palace.

The Viceroy of Liangjiang's office had no choice but to relocate to Suzhou Prefecture for temporary refuge.

But now, they can't even stay in Suzhou Prefecture anymore!

In Anhui Province, the entire Yangtze River region was under the control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Even the provincial capital, Anqing, was lost. The Anhui Provincial Governor's Office had no choice but to relocate to Luzhou.

In Jiangxi Province, although most areas, including the provincial capital Nanchangfu, were still under the control of the Qing government, Jiujiangfu and Nankangfu in the north, as well as the northern part of Raozhoufu, were controlled by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Last year, the Taiping Army even besieged Nanchang City, trapping Zeng Bohan, the leader of the Xiang Army, inside the city.

If the Tianjing Incident hadn't broken out, causing internal turmoil within the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Shi Dakai might have already captured Nanchang City and killed Zeng Bohan.

"Your Excellency, I suggest we go to northern Jiangsu! There's a Nian Rebellion in northern Anhui. The Nian Rebellion has submitted to the Taiping Rebellion. Although they don't obey the Taiping Rebellion's orders, they are still enemies of our Great Qing."

In Jiangxi Province, the Hunan Army and the Jiangxi Army were fighting against the Taiping Rebellion. Zeng Bohan, however, was also ambitious. He was using the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion to expand his own power base. Many local officials in Jiangxi Province had already sided with Zeng Bohan.

Only northern Jiangsu, including Huai'an Prefecture, Xuzhou Prefecture, and Haizhou, remained under the control of the imperial court.

Furthermore, northern Jiangsu is backed by Shandong and Henan provinces. Although there was also Nian Rebellion in Henan, the situation in Shandong was still under control.

If we can't hold Jiangsu Province, we can retreat to Shandong Province. We could even retreat further back to Zhili Province.

He Chun offered his suggestions.

The Qing officials, who were in charge of regional administration, were all dumbfounded, seemingly not expecting Hechun to be so pessimistic.

"How could it come to this! Can the Taiping Rebellion really shake the foundation of our Great Qing?" Zhao Dezhe, the governor of Jiangsu Province, looked dejected.

Even though he was a Han Chinese, at this moment, he appeared even more worried than the Tartars.

It must be admitted that the Manchus' long-term indoctrination program has been extremely successful.

"It has been more than two hundred years since our Great Qing entered the pass. We have experienced many great storms. Even the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories was quelled. Not to mention the small Taiping Rebellion."

However, the Taiping Rebellion is currently in a stronger position, so we need to retreat a bit and preserve our strength.

I have decided to leave Suzhou immediately and head to northern Jiangsu to continue my post.

I am irreconcilably opposed to the Taiping Rebels.

"I swear I will not rest until the Taiping rebels are wiped out!"

The Viceroy of Liangjiang, Yi Liang, looked as if he was ready to fight the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to the death.

His unwavering loyalty and courage undoubtedly earned him the admiration of the other ministers.

But the subsequent behavior of these high-ranking officials was truly astonishing.

The first to run away was General Kuiyu of Jiangning, whose rank was nominally the highest.

But he was also the most greedy and afraid of death.

After the meeting, Kuiyu immediately ordered all soldiers and Manchu civilians in the city to evacuate quickly to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Taiping Army when they attacked.

If you are unwilling to leave, you will bear the consequences yourself.

This was a serious matter. The Manchu people in the city already knew what would happen to the other Manchu cities after they were captured by the Taiping Army.

Now, the Taiping army is about to attack Suzhou. Seeing that the Qing army can't hold them off, the most important thing is to escape.

In a short time, a large number of Manchu bannermen fled Suzhou with their families.

Those with money could travel by carriage or boat to Songjiang Prefecture. From there, they would take a boat north to Tongzhou, then enter Yangzhou Prefecture, and from there head north to Huai'an Prefecture.

At present, Dexing'a, the Qing court's imperial commissioner and commander of the Jiangbei Camp, is leading tens of thousands of troops in a fierce battle with the Taiping Army's Northern Expeditionary Army in Yangzhou. The Taiping Army has retreated to Yangzhou Prefecture and several county towns.

They could take this opportunity to travel north through Yangzhou and head to northern Jiangsu.

After Kuiyu escaped, Hechun and Yiliang naturally wouldn't sit idly by and wait for their doom.

The two men fled with the remaining troops almost simultaneously.

However, Zhao Dezhe, the governor of Jiangsu Province, displayed great integrity. He claimed that he was appointed governor of Jiangsu Province by the imperial court, and that Suzhou Prefecture was his seat of government. As a local official, he had a duty to defend his territory; how could he abandon it and flee?

Therefore, Zhao Dezhe stayed behind and decided to defend Suzhou City to the death and fight the Taiping Army to the bitter end.

Upon learning that the Qing troops in Suzhou Prefecture had fled, the 1st Infantry Division of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Imperial Guard Corps and the 2nd Army of the Eastern Expeditionary Corps immediately set out from Changzhou Prefecture and headed straight for Suzhou Prefecture.

Because the Qing army had already fled, the Taiping army moved as if they were in an empty field. Wherever they went, Qing officials fled at the mere sight of them, allowing the Taiping army to easily control these areas.

Only during the attack on Suzhou City did Zhao Dezhe, the governor of Jiangsu Province, lead a group of yamen runners to resist.

However, after Zhao Dezhe was shot in the head by a sharpshooter from the Imperial Guard, the constables immediately threw away their weapons and knelt down to beg for mercy.

A Han Chinese civil official died in battle in Suzhou City, while the Tartar generals all rushed to escape.

I have to admit, this is a complete joke!

Although Zhao Dezhe appeared to be very principled, he seemed to have long forgotten his own identity and was content to be a slave to the Tartars. Or rather, he had already accepted the Tartars as masters and himself as a servant.

When the Taiping army captured Suzhou City, they did not forget to pursue the fleeing Qing army.

The Qing army and a large number of Tartars fled with their families, so they were naturally no match for the Taiping army.

Soon, the fleeing Qing troops were intercepted.

Apart from the high-ranking Manchu officials who fled on horseback beforehand, the rest of the Qing officers and soldiers fell into the hands of the Taiping Army.

Left with no other choice, they had to surrender.

And all the Tartar people who brought their families were also captured.

However, the Taiping army did not carry out a direct massacre as they had done in the past.

Instead, they were placed under guard in accordance with Hong Tian's orders.

These Tartars may have lived a life of luxury before. But now, they will all have to work on construction sites and in mines to atone for their sins and those of their ancestors!