Qing dynasty did little to lessen. Anti-Qing sentiment was strongest in the south, and it was these disaffected that joined Hong. The sect extended into militarism in the 1840s, initially against banditry. The persecution of the sect was the spur for the struggle to develop into guerrilla warfare and then into full-blown war. The revolt began in Guangxi province. In early January 1851, a ten-thousand-strong rebel army routed Qing imperial forces at the town of Jintian in the Jintian Uprising. The Qing forces attacked but were driven back. In August 1851, Hong declared the establishment of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom with himself as absolute ruler. The revolt spread northwards with great rapidity. 500,000 Taiping soldiers took Nanjing in March 1853, killing 30,000 Qing soldiers and slaughtering thousands of civilians. The city became the movement's capital and was renamed Tianjing (lit. "Heavenly Capital"; not to be confused with Tianjin) until its recapture. Nian Rebellion The Nian Rebellion (; 1851–1868) was a large armed uprising that took place in northern China. The rebellion failed to topple the Qing dynasty, but caused immense economic devastation and loss of life that became one of the major long-term factors in the collapse of the Qing regime. The Nian movement was formed in the late 1840s by Zhang Lexing and, by 1851, numbered approximately 40,000. Unlike the Taiping Rebellion, though, the Nian movement initially had no clear goals or objectives aside from criticism of the Qing government. However, the Nian rebels were provoked into taking direct action against the Qing regime following a series of ecological disasters. In 1851, the Yellow River burst its banks, flooding hundreds of thousands of square miles and causing immense loss of life. The Qing government slowly began cleaning up after the disaster, but were unable to provide effective aid as government finances had been drained during the Opium War with the British, and the ongoing slaughter of the Taiping Rebellion. The damage created by the disaster had still not been repaired when, in 1855, the river burst its banks again, drowning thousands and devastating the fertile province of Jiangsu. At the time, the Qing government was trying to negotiate a deal with the Western powers, and as state finances had been so severely depleted, the regime was unable to provide effective relief aid. This enraged the Nian movement, who blamed the Westerners for contributing to China's troubles, and increasingly viewed