Taiping Tianguo (Long live the Qing)

Taiping Tianguo is, basically speaking not a funtioning state, yet the term describes a variety of scattered rebel territories which are conceived as pseudo-Christian theocracies. Emerging as a large-scale rebellion in 1850, Taiping forces overran several cities in the Yangtze are, including Hankou and Wuchang. After the Civil War was over, the heavily modernised forces, now no longer distracted, of Hou Ming defeated them with ease in 1853, before they could reach Nanjing. Hong Xiuquan and his family was captured and executing, while his surviving associates rallied the remnant forces, fleeing into the hinterland. Various disputes arose, and the rebels split into several groups. Each leader claims to be Hong's successor. The Taiping statelets, with their guerilla warfare remain a thorn in the flesh of Hou Ming, but they actually form hardly any threat. Most of the Taiping warlords are allied to several groups of bandits in the outskirts of Hunan province.