楊秀清
In the summer of 1852 while the Taiping were encamped in Daozhou, three proclamations were issued by Xiao and Yang Xiuqing (by then the East King of the Taipings) in an attempt to gain the sympathy of the locals and to drum up new recruits. These proclamations demonstrated the triune religious-nationalist-political nature of the Taiping Rebellion by calling for the conversion of the people to Christianity, for the ruling ethnic-minority Manchus to be overthrown, and for the destruction of a government the Taipings considered to be thoroughly corrupt. The proclamations hardened the opposition of the gentry and scholars but helped convince over 20,000 locals to join the rebellion.