Zhu Hongzhang
Zhu Hongzhang (Chinese: 朱洪章; pinyin: Zhū Hóngzhāng; 1820? – 1895), born in Liping, Guizhou, was an eminent Han Chinese official and military general of the late Qing Dynasty in China. He joined the Xiang Army to fight against the Taiping Rebellion and to restore the stability of Qing, and was one of nine generals to lead a major force of 60,000, which occupied Nanjing in 1864. Commander Zeng Guoquan gave Zhu third class merit of recovery Nanjing out nine generals, and reported to Beijing's government to praise him, but other opinions state that Zhu should have received the first merit instead of Li Chendian.
The first wave offensive
On 19 July 1864, the attackers detonated explosives in a tunnel under Taiping Gate (太平), the wall failed for around 2–10 km, Zhu led 1800 soldiers through the breach into the city, but 460 were killed by the bombs of the weakened Taiping defenders, but Zhu's troops took Taiping on the following day. This won Zhu the Imperial yellow jacket merit.
References
- Hummel, Arthur William, ed. Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period (1644–1912). 2 vols. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1943.
- Porter, Jonathan. Tseng Kuo-Fan's Private Bureaucracy. Berkeley: University of California, 1972.
- Wright, Mary Clabaugh. The Last Stand of Chinese Conservatism: The T'ung-Chih Restoration, 1862 -1874. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1957.
- Third Battle of Nanking