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If I was to turn this idea into a timeline, I would start with a narrative chronicling Hong's vivid fever dreams in 1837, wherein his delusions form his beliefs. As he collapses, a messenger comes running in with a letter stating that he actually did not fail his civil service examinations, and was actually being made into a bureaucrat.

Then, Hong would become an official, albeit one haunted by his visions. He still somehow meets the Christian missionaries, and becomes acquainted with their teachings to some extent. Somewhere along the line he snaps and withdraws from his work to reemerge as a rabble-rousing prophet. Except this time, as per subversivepanda's excellent timeline, the movement he leads does not condemn Confucianism. As such, they try not to alienate the literati and elites when they revolt, at least not to the same extent in OTL.

What happens then? Would a rebellious official be a different movement from what usually happens in China? Could such a rebellion have greater success? Also Hong Rengan gets his way so the parts they conquer are modernized, dammit.
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