September 1, 1856—the third day of the eighth month in the sixth year of Bingchen of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
An autumnal air of desolation filled the Heavenly Capital. Just past the second watch, a troop of cavalry slipped quietly into the city. At their head was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Northern King, Wei Changhui, accompanied by more than three thousand elite men.
Chen Chengrong, one of Hong Xiuquan's confidants, had long been waiting before the city gate. He had even deliberately left the gates open.
"Northern King, you've worked hard."
"By imperial decree, I have come to punish traitors. I dare not speak of hardship."
After a brief exchange of courtesies, the great column of cavalry entered the city.
This was the height of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's power. The Qing Army's Jiangnan and Jiangbei camps had fallen one after another; the eastern and western expeditions had won sweeping victories. Though the northern expedition had failed, it had greatly broken the Qing Army's spirit.
Qing Army commander Xiang Rong had been literally angered to death. Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, drank for three days straight, and now slept especially soundly. He had even dreamed of the day he ascended the throne and became the true Ten Thousand Years.
Before the Eastern King's Mansion, great crimson lanterns hung high like two bloody heads—or a pair of blood-red eyes.
Whatever sort of man Yang Xiuqing was, he did treat his soldiers far better than Hong Xiuquan ever did.
Even the guards at the gate had been given wine and meat, along with fragrant cigarettes imported from the West.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom actually strictly forbade smoking, including both great smoke—opium—and yellow smoke, or tobacco leaf. Yet Yang Xiuqing had simply given cigarettes a new name, "fragrant cigarettes," thereby slipping around Hong