Jirhangga

Jirhangga (Manchu: ; Chinese: 吉爾杭阿) (? – June 1, 1856) belonged to Bordered Yellow Banner. He was an eminent Manchu official in the late Qing dynasty and served as the Governor of Jiangsu. He was appointed to that post by Imperial Inspector Minister Xiang Rong (向榮). Jirhangga was killed in action against the rebels during the Taiping Rebellion, and his death nearly amounted to a suicide, as he led a small army against huge Taiping forces.

For this action of considerable merit, he was promoted, shortly before the Tianjing Incident.

Recovery of Shanghai county
Before the 1856 Chinese New Year, Jirhangga and Mayor Nanjing led 15,000 troop, and broke into Shanghai after mining one of the city walls ; this was followed by street fighting, the recovery of Shanghai county, and finally, the arrest of thousands of  Small Swords Society members.

Organizing the Corps at Mount Jiuhua
In March 1856, he and Nanjing‘s Mayor led 40,000 troops stationed in Mount Jiuhua. The army was intended to capture the capital of the Taiping Rebellion in Nanjing.

Let me pay my debt to the Emperor !
When Taiping general Qin Rigang led a strong Taiping force to reinforce the offensive against Beijing in the North, Jirhangga had only few troops near enough to use against Qin Rigang. But Jirhangga did not try to escape his responsibility: he took the decision to immediately attack Qin Rigang, in spite of his staff's advice to retreat. To these advices of caution, he only replied : "In early days, I was but a middle rank officer in Beijing, and was soon promoted to a higher rank by the Emperor himself and Imperial Inspector Minister Xiang Rong. Now, it is my duty to thank them and defend Beijing!".

He then shouted : "Today I will pay my debt to the Emperor with my life !" Then, his eyes filled with tears, and the members of his staff remained silent.

In the District de Dantu city, after five days of fighting, Jirhangga was standing on top of the city wall, waving the Qing's banner adorned with the dragon, as he was cheering up his troops with undaunted courage.

Unfortunately, he was then killed by artillery shells. The mayor of Nanjing had just escaped to safety, but, for friendship's sake, he retraced his steps to come to Jirhangga. The mayor then took Jirhangga's body and tried to escape with the 7,000 survivors of the Green Standard Army. However, he was killed during an attack by the 30,000 strong Taiping rebel army.

3 persons friendship
When the former vice mayor of Nanjing learnt that governor Jirhangga and the mayor were killed in action, he cried many days and said: "they were my good friends, such justice and upright persons were sacrificed for the country, I should followed them!". Soon, he committed suicide by jumping into the Yangtze River.

Extra merit
Xiang Rong order general Zhang Guoliang led reinforcements from Jiangnan DaYing to save Jirhangga but arrived too late (Jirhangga had been killed a week earlier), but Zhang Guoliang defeated the Taiping and recovered the important city of Zhenjiang occupied for five years by the Taiping. Jirhangga's death and the five days combat changed the Taiping rebels's former offensive toward the north

Because Zhang Guoliang left Jiangnan Daying and recovered Zhenjiang, over 400,000 Taiping troops occurred second and more large offensive to Jiangnan DaYing, that was famous Battle of Nanking (1856) (??).

General Qin Rigang returned to Nanjing, after 3 months, occurred sad purge that Qin join in Nanjing, that merit was extra over Jirhangga's count in alive (??).