ABSTRACT
Hong Xiuquan was at this time aboard a large boat on the Yangzi. The bow of the ship was decorated with the carving of a dragon's head, painted in vivid colors with gold leaf attached. Though a newcomer to the Taiping movement, no one knew more than he about naval affairs and conditions in the region just south of the Yangzi River. The Taiping attack on Nanjing was unimaginable without a naval force. Yangzhou, on the far shore of the Yangzi River, set apart from Zhenjiang, under control. Once these two cities had been occupied, the Taiping would straddle the Yangzi and the defense of Nanjing would become impenetrable. From the perspective of Chinese Catholics in the lower Yangzi region, there was much that was strange about the beliefs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Xiang River, which flowed nearby Changsha, emptied into Dongting Lake, and the waters of Dongting were linked to the Yangzi.
