final attack was coming, on the night of July 18, Li Xiucheng ordered more than 1000 defenders to disguise themselves as attackers to sneak out of the city to destroy the tunnel, but the attackers were not fooled and beat back the thousand-man formation. The following afternoon at 1:00 the attackers detonated the explosives in the tunnel under Taiping Gate, the wall breaking and flying 2–10 km far down, killing several hundred people and collapsing a large section of the city wall. The defenders put up a fierce fight, but were unable to drive back the attacking force of 60,000. The attackers divided into four fronts after entering Nanking as previously planned: The central front led by imperial Gen. Li Chendian attacked toward Hong Xiuquan's palace The right front led by imperial Gen. 刘连捷 (Liu Lianjie) pushed toward Shence gate to link up with imperial Gen. Zhu Nangui ()'s force, which entered the gate via ladders; after the two teams had joined forces, they would attack westward toward Lion Mountain (Shizishan 狮子山) to take Yifeng () Gate. The central-left front led by imperial Gen. Peng Yuju () attacked toward Tongji () Gate. The left front led by imperial Gen. Xiao Fusi () attacked toward Chaoyang and Hongwu gates. The street fights were fierce and bloody and the resistance was much tougher than expected. The attackers' artillery cover had to stop for fear of injuring their own. The defenders were very stubborn and expected to inflict heavy casualties on the attackers and hoped to drive them back outside the city. After the fall of Chaoyang Gate, the defenders' morale collapsed and imperial Gen. Luo Fengyuan () was able to break his force into the city from Jubao () Gate, while imperial Gen. Li Jinzhou () was able to break into the city from () Gate, linking up with forces led by imperial Gen. Peng Yuju (). At the same time, imperial Adm. Huang Yisheng () led the imperial navy in taking Zhongguan () and then took the remaining fortresses still in the defenders' hands at the river banks, and helped imperial Gen. Chen Ti () take two Shuixi () and Hanxi () gates. By the evening every gate of the city was firmly in the hands of Qing forces. Li Xiucheng immediately returned to Hong Xiuquan's palace after the defeat at the Taiping Gate in the morning, and took Hong's son