Illustrated Gazetteer of the Maritime Kingdoms, Volume 9

...became increasingly severe. According to the ancestral system: Zhejiang established a Superintendency of Maritime Shipping Shibo Tiju Si; the imperial office managing foreign trade, managed by a eunuch official stationed in Ningbo. When the eunuch official arrived, he would standardize the prices of goods, and the authority to manage the traders rested with the high officials.

When Emperor Shizong The Jiajing Emperor, reigned 1521–1567. withdrew the regional eunuch commanders from across the empire and subsequently tightened the prohibitions on maritime trade, the business of trade shifted into the hands of powerful and wealthy local families. These families increasingly defaulted on the payments owed to the foreign traders. When the traders demanded their money urgently, the elites would use alarmist talk to frighten the generals and officials into sending troops to suppress them as "pirates." When the troops were about to move out, the elites would then deceive the traders with kind words, saying: "In the end, I will not fail to pay you what I owe."

The Japanese traders lost their capital and could not return home; they grew deeply resentful. Meanwhile, great villains like Wang Zhi, Xu Hai, Chen Dong, and Ma Ye—men who had long lived in hiding among the foreigners—found they could no longer operate successfully on the mainland. They all escaped to offshore islands to act as masterminds for the Japanese, enticing them to launch raids. Consequently, the great pirates of the sea adopted Japanese clothing and flags and divided their ships to plunder the mainland.

The pirate menace grew more severe by the day. Therefore, the imperial court debated reinstating the office of Grand Coordinator Xunfu; a high-ranking provincial governor with military oversight. In the seventh month of the thirty-first year [of Jiajing, 1552], the Assistant Censor-in-Chief Wang Yu was appointed to the post.

However, the momentum of the crisis had already become impossible to extinguish. Previously, at the start of the dynasty, Guard and Battalion stations Weisuo; the primary military unit of the Ming army were built at strategic coastal points and provided with warships. They were overseen by the Regional Military Commission, Vice-Commissioners, and other officials, and the control was thorough. But after a long period of peace, the ships were dismantled and the ranks became empty. When alarms were raised, the authorities had to recruit fishing boats to assist in patrolling and guarding.

The soldiers were not properly trained, and the boats were not built for combat. When they saw pirate ships approaching, they would immediately flee and hide at the first sign of danger. Furthermore, there was no supreme commander to lead them. Consequently, wherever the [pirates'] tattered sails pointed, nothing remained but ruins and devastation.

In the third month of the thirty-third year [1554], Wang Zhi conspired with various Japanese groups to launch a massive invasion. Hundreds of ships joined together, covering the sea as they arrived. From East and West Zhejiang to the North and South of the Yangtze River, thousands of miles of coastline sounded the alarm simultaneously. They broke the Changguo Guard; in the fourth month, they attacked Taicang, broke Shanghai County, plundered Jiangyin, and attacked Zhapu. In the eighth month, they looted the Jinshan Guard and attacked Chongming, as well as 常熟 [Changshu] and 嘉定 [Jiading]. In the first month of the thirty-fourth year [1555], from Tai...