Hong Xiuqing has meanwhile turned his attention…

Hong Xiuqing has meanwhile turned his attention increasingly to his harem and to religious affairs.

His friend Feng having died en route to Nanking, Hong has made Yang Xiuqing his prime minister, with authority to organize the Taiping administration.

After the Taiping settled in Nanking, village officials had been appointed, and redistribution of farmland has been planned in accordance with an idea of primitive communism but in fact the land reform is impracticable.

The village officials' posts have been filled mainly by the former landlords or the clerks of the local governments, and the old order in the countryside is not replaced by a new one that the oppressed people can dominate.

In May 1853, the Taiping launche concurrent Northern and Western expeditions, in an effort to relieve pressure on Nanjing and achieve significant territorial gains.

The former will be a complete failure but the latter will achieve limited success.