After seizing the all-important city of Nanjing in March 1853 and basking in the afterglow of this victory, the Taiping leadership launches two military expeditions, one to the north to capture the capital, Beijing, and the other to the west. In this episode, we'll see how those two ventures panned out. Then in 1856, comes the first major political crisis that happens at the very top of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom leadership. Meanwhile, the foreign powers operating in China, namely Britain and France, scheme to make the best of the Qing Dynasty's bad situation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices