[[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]] revealed his dream to relatives, and his message began to spread. [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]] and some of his followers took to the road, selling writing ink and brushes to fund their travels. During this journey, [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]] wrote his own tract, *[[Exhortations to Worship the One True God]]*, to help win more converts. [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]] returned home to support his family and work on further tracts, but his disciples still traveled, vigorously spreading his ideas and forming a group known as [[The God Worshipping Society|Bai Shangdi Hui]] or [[The God Worshipping Society]]. Many of these followers were the [[Hakka]] people, who had fled the Mongols in the [[1200-01-01 - 1299-12-31|13th century]] and become an enclave treated as separate from regular Chinese society. They were primarily destitute laborers who sought protection from oppression. [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]] preached an early form of communism that stressed sharing property, mixed with religious ideas and laws based on the 10 Commandments of the [[Bible|Old Testament Bible]]. His promise of free land would soon bring in thousands more followers. In [[1847-01-01 - 1847-12-31|1847]], [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]] went to [[Thistle Mountains]] to join local [[The God Worshipping Society|God Worshippers]] and conspire against religious traditions in the area. Numbering in the thousands, [[The God Worshipping Society]] grabbed the attention of local authorities who want to end the group’s teachings and arrest some of the leaders. Religious visions were not confined to [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]]. In [[1848-01-01 - 1848-12-31|1848]], [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]] accepted as authentic a [[Thistle Mountains]] charcoal burner named [[Yang, Xiuqing|Yang Xiuqing]] who claimed to channel [[God]], and a peasant named [[Xiao, Chaogui|Xiao Chaogui]], who said he channeled [[Jesus]]. Tales of angelic interventions from heaven to save local villagers abounded. Worshippers claimed to visit heaven physically during prayers. By [[1849-01-01 - 1849-12-31|1849]], [[The God Worshipping Society]] had expanded into four areas of [[China]], which [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]] treated as strategic points in his upcoming battle against demons—demons that [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]] soon unveiled as the ruling [[Qing|Qing Dynasty]] itself. [[Hong, Xiuquan|Hong]]’s total control of his followers’ lives tightened. Calling himself “[[Hong, Xiuquan|the Taiping King]]” after a historical region of [[China]] west of [[Nanjing]], he decreed the separation of men and women, with beatings for anyone who defied him.