ABSTRACT
When Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan came proselytizing on behalf of the Society of God Worshippers, Wei Yuan was quickly won over. For their part, Hong and Feng had concentrated their missionary work on people of lower social stations in the area of Thistle Mountain. The Heavenly Father conferred a message to his believers through the mouth of Yang Xiuqing: "Heaven's second oldest brother Hong Xiuquan and Heaven's third oldest brother Feng Yunshan are now surrounded by devils in the village of Shanren by Penghua Mountain. The men scrambled to grab their weapons, and they began to march toward Penghua Mountain. Once they crossed the river, it was a distance of 50 kilometers from Jintian village to Shanren. The chorus of "Objective: Penghua Mountain" continued throughout the march. When the tuanlian surrounding Shanren village and the several hundred government troops dispatched by Ni Tao saw the armed multitudes from Jintian coming at them, they scattered in all directions without a fight.
