Redirect Question for Directory Structure Change

[J.R.]

You really should use a custom named capture group as the default "$1"
(and $2, $3, $4...) can cause erroneous output if there is any other
capturing going on in your configuration files...

i.e.

    location ~ ^/e/(?<x1>.*) {
        return 301 /$x1$is_args$args;
    }

As someone else mentioned, be sure to disable caching when doing
testing... In Chrome / Firefox, you can press 'F12' for the developer
tools, then choose the 'network' tab and check the box 'disable
cache'. When you are done testing, just press F12 again...