diff --git a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Chains.pm b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Chains.pm
index a2c4d098a..40f370e7e 100644
--- a/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Chains.pm
+++ b/Shorewall/Perl/Shorewall/Chains.pm
@@ -3302,6 +3302,30 @@ sub optimize_level4( $$ ) {
 			    $progress = 1 if replace_references1 $chainref, $firstrule;
 			}
 		    }
+		} else {
+		    #
+		    # Chain has more than one rule. If the last rule is a simple jump, then delete
+		    # all preceding rules that have the same target
+		    #
+		    my $rulesref = $chainref->{rules};
+		    my $lastref = $rulesref->[-1];
+
+		    if ( $lastref->{simple} && $lastref->{target} && ! $lastref->{targetopts} ) {
+			my $target = $lastref->{target};
+
+			pop @$rulesref; #Pop the last simple rule
+
+			while ( @$rulesref ) {
+			    my $rule1ref = $rulesref->[-1];
+
+			    last unless ( $rule1ref->{target} || '' ) eq $target && ! $rule1ref->{targetopts};
+
+			    pop @$rulesref;
+			    $progress = 1;
+			}
+
+			push @$rulesref, $lastref; #Now restore the last simple rule
+		    }
 		}
 	    }
 	}
diff --git a/Shorewall/manpages/shorewall.conf.xml b/Shorewall/manpages/shorewall.conf.xml
index 72e6e7910..0dc3b55d5 100644
--- a/Shorewall/manpages/shorewall.conf.xml
+++ b/Shorewall/manpages/shorewall.conf.xml
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@
         role="bold">none</emphasis>}</term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@
         role="bold">none</emphasis>}</term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@
         role="bold">none</emphasis>}</term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
@@ -126,7 +126,7 @@
         role="bold">none</emphasis>}</term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@
           </itemizedlist>
 
           <blockquote>
-            <para/>
+            <para></para>
 
             <para>If CONFIG_PATH is not given or if it is set to the empty
             value then the contents of /usr/share/shorewall/configpath are
@@ -814,7 +814,7 @@ net     all  DROP   info</programlisting>then the chain name is 'net2all'
             </varlistentry>
           </variablelist>
 
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
 
           <blockquote>
             <para>If this variable is not set or is given an empty value
@@ -1024,7 +1024,7 @@ net     all  DROP   info</programlisting>then the chain name is 'net2all'
             </listitem>
           </itemizedlist>
 
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
 
           <blockquote>
             <para>For example, using the default LOGFORMAT, the log prefix for
@@ -1041,7 +1041,7 @@ net     all  DROP   info</programlisting>then the chain name is 'net2all'
               control your firewall after you enable this option.</para>
             </important>
 
-            <para/>
+            <para></para>
 
             <caution>
               <para>Do not use this option if the resulting log messages will
@@ -1538,6 +1538,23 @@ net     all  DROP   info</programlisting>then the chain name is 'net2all'
                   chain are appended to it.</para>
                 </listitem>
               </itemizedlist>
+
+              <para>An additional optimization was added in Shorewall 4.5.4.
+              If the last rule in a chain is an unqualified jump to a simple
+              target, then all immediately preceding rules with the same
+              simple target are omitted.</para>
+
+              <para>For example, consider this chain:</para>
+
+              <programlisting>	-A fw-net -p udp --dport 67:68 -j ACCEPT
+	-A fw-net -p udp --sport 1194 -j ACCEPT
+	-A fw-net -p 41 -j ACCEPT
+	-A fw-net -j ACCEPT
+</programlisting>
+
+              <para>Since all of the rules are jumps to the simple target
+              ACCEPT, this chain is totally optimized away and jumps to the
+              chain are replace with jumps to ACCEPT.</para>
             </listitem>
 
             <listitem>
@@ -1677,7 +1694,7 @@ net     all  DROP   info</programlisting>then the chain name is 'net2all'
         role="bold">"</emphasis></term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
diff --git a/Shorewall6/manpages/shorewall6.conf.xml b/Shorewall6/manpages/shorewall6.conf.xml
index c22d921a8..0c8859834 100644
--- a/Shorewall6/manpages/shorewall6.conf.xml
+++ b/Shorewall6/manpages/shorewall6.conf.xml
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@
         role="bold">none</emphasis>}</term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
@@ -92,7 +92,7 @@
         role="bold">none</emphasis>}</term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
@@ -102,7 +102,7 @@
         role="bold">none</emphasis>}</term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@
         role="bold">none</emphasis>}</term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>
 
@@ -887,7 +887,7 @@ net     all  DROP   info</programlisting>then the chain name is 'net2all'
             </listitem>
           </itemizedlist>
 
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
 
           <blockquote>
             <para>For example, using the default LOGFORMAT, the log prefix for
@@ -904,7 +904,7 @@ net     all  DROP   info</programlisting>then the chain name is 'net2all'
               control your firewall after you enable this option.</para>
             </important>
 
-            <para/>
+            <para></para>
 
             <caution>
               <para>Do not use this option if the resulting log messages will
@@ -1336,6 +1336,23 @@ net     all  DROP   info</programlisting>then the chain name is 'net2all'
                   chain are appended to it.</para>
                 </listitem>
               </itemizedlist>
+
+              <para>An additional optimization was added in Shorewall 4.5.4.
+              If the last rule in a chain is an unqualified jump to a simple
+              target, then all immediately preceding rules with the same
+              simple target are omitted. </para>
+
+              <para>For example, consider this chain:</para>
+
+              <programlisting>	-A fw-net -p udp --dport 67:68 -j ACCEPT
+	-A fw-net -p udp --sport 1194 -j ACCEPT
+	-A fw-net -p 41 -j ACCEPT
+	-A fw-net -j ACCEPT
+</programlisting>
+
+              <para>Since all of the rules are jumps to the simple target
+              ACCEPT, this chain is totally optimized away and jumps to the
+              chain are replace with jumps to ACCEPT.</para>
             </listitem>
 
             <listitem>
@@ -1475,7 +1492,7 @@ net     all  DROP   info</programlisting>then the chain name is 'net2all'
         role="bold">"</emphasis></term>
 
         <listitem>
-          <para/>
+          <para></para>
         </listitem>
       </varlistentry>