from it, the military situation deteriorated further with raiders on the horizon and the disbanded aboriginal troops turning upon the local villages and the imperial soldiers. The battle of Zaolin and the siege of Tongxiang Xu Hai's raid started with three fleets, each several thousand strong, landing near Yangzhou, Shanghai, and Ningbo. These were later found to be diversionary attacks, meant to draw the Ming defenders away as Xu Hai's main fleet of more than 10,000 men landed at Zhapu, aiming for the great cities of Hangzhou, Suzhou, and the auxiliary capital Nanjing. After defeating the Ming navy at Zhapu, Xu Hai ordered his own seagoing ships to be destroyed, signalling that there would be no turning back. He then rendezvoused with his fellow Satsuma raiders Chen Dong and Ye Ma at Zhelin, their base of operations in 1555. The group then headed inland and went on to plunder the market towns of Wuzhen and Zaolin (皂林) in May 1566. In the latter Xu Hai encountered stiff resistance led by the vastly outnumbered Zong Li (宗禮), who only had 900 soldiers from North China. After three days of battle, Xu Hai himself was wounded and his force was on the verge of defeat, but one final push ended in the slaughter of the government troops, who by this point had run out of supplies and energy. Reinforcements led by Ruan E (阮鶚) did not reach Zaolin in time to relieve Zong Li, and were chased by the victorious raiders to the walled city of Tongxiang. On May 31, Xu Hai's raiders laid siege to Tongxiang with an arsenal of siege engines at their disposal, including siege towers mounted on boats, wheeled battering rams, and Portuguese breech-loading swivel guns. However, Tongxiang was protected by a new wall that was completed in 1553 and competent defenders who withstood the siege. The attackers eventually lost interest in costly assaults and settled with trying to starve out the defenders. Ruan E sent out strongly worded calls for help in which he denounced Hu Zongxian's policy of appeasement and urged quick action, but Hu Zongxian did not make an effort to relieve the siege other than making a show of force since his men suffered from low morale after the defeat at Zaolin. Instead, Hu withdrew to his headquarters at Hangzhou and tried to negotiate with Xu Hai through intermediaries while he waited for reinforcements.