The Ming Dynasty, wth Beijing fallen to…
May 1645 CE
The Ming Dynasty, wth Beijing fallen to the Qing, is near collapse.
The Jiangnan region is ruled by the so-called "Southern Ming" Hongguang Emperor out of Nanjing, and the Ming soldiers have lost their will to fight.
Shi Kefa, put in charge of the doomed city of Yangzhou, has managed to persuade his men that a defense of the city is possible.
The Qing armies under Prince Dodo besiege Yangzhou repeatedly, but with little success.
Shi has trained his men to use European firearms (designed by the Jesuits), and deals heavy blows to his foes.
The casualties are reportedly so high that the corpses of the fallen Manchu army reaches the height of the city's wall, which is supposedly how the Manchus finally breach the wall of the city, climbing over the dead corpses of their comrades.
As the Manchus scale the city wall, the weakened Ming troops, low on morale, make no effort to fight or run.
Shi, much saddened by the weakness of his countrymen, orders his officers to behead him.
However, they cannot bring themselves to kill their heroic leader, who is soon captured and brought to trial before Prince Dodo, who states, "You have done your duty, general; now I will grant you a post."
However, Shi refuses to abandon the Ming, wishing rather to commit suicide and vanish along with it.
After some weeks, he will get his wish, but in the meantime, the Yangzhou massacre occurs over a ten-day period when the conquerors conduct mass killings of the residents of Yangzhou after taking the city on May 20, 1645.
Traditionally, the number of victims is reported as close to eight hundred thousand, although modern scholars consider it an exaggeration.
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