Late Ming: The Fall of Yangzhou

In the fourth month of the second year of the Shunzhi era, Dorgon arrived at the gates of Yangzhou with twenty thousand Eight Banner troops. Shi Kefa appealed for help everywhere, but no one came. All the garrisons south of the Yangtze had surrendered, and General Liu Zeqing scuttled his ships and fled. A million people crowded into the small city, and Shi Kefa ordered the gates shut so they could make a last stand. The day the city fell, blood flowed like a river.