JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<div id="content">
    bblahsdfsf
    <br/>
    sdfalsfjas<br/>
    asdfsa<br>
    hi
</div>

JavaScript

$('#content')
  .contents()
  .filter(function() {
    return this.nodeType == Node.TEXT_NODE;
  })
  .wrap("<p>");

var br = $('#content br');
br.prev('p').addClass('br');
br.next('p').addClass('indent');
br.remove();

alert($('#content').html());