The Taipings, directed by Yang Xiuqing, advance…

The Taipings, directed by Yang Xiuqing, advance northward along the Yangtze until on March 10, 1853, a rebel army of around seven hundred and fifty thousand attacks Nanjing.

Killing thirty thousand Imperial troops, the rebels rename the city T'ien-ching ("Heavenly Capital").

Since the Taipings consider the Manchus to be demons, they first kill all the Manchu men, then force the Manchu women outside the city and burn them to death.