these were withdrawn as the Ming foreign policy turned from proactive to passive during the reign of the Zhengtong Emperor (r. 1435-49). The official reason for the withdrawal was that these forward bases in the sea were a heavy burden on the civilians who had to supply them, and that the Ming army could focus on defence after the invaders had landed. Since then, warships were no longer used to patrol the coast and remained anchored in ports, where they rotted away from neglect. As an extreme example, the Dengzhou naval garrison in Shandong had a fleet of 100 warships in its heyday, but by the beginning of the 16th century, only 3 ships remained after years of retrenchment and disrepair. By the start of the wokou crisis in the 1540s, there were only 68 government warships on the coast of Fujian, while funds allotted for ship construction were apparently embezzled. Furthermore, naval garrisons along the coast were unwilling to build and accommodate for new ships since each ship needed people and resources for its maintenance. Ships confiscated from the pirates and redistributed to the naval garrisons ended up being stolen, exchanged, or scuttled. In addition to the deterioration of the warships, decades of peace along the coast had relegated the military to a low importance, and garrisons became severely understaffed due to desertion. By the early 1550s these garrisons were reduced to roughly one third of their full complements of soldiers. During the wokou crisis, defenders had to augment their forces with various militia and mercenary groups like gentry guards, local ruffians, and even Shaolin monks. The Ming government, being committed to the northern frontier defence against the Mongols, could only spare reinforcements to the coast in the form of bandit fighters, ex-pirates, and aboriginal "wolf troops" (狼兵, ) led by government-recognized tribal headmen. These assorted troops, euphemistically called "guest troops" (客兵, ), were generally ineffective in battle, and were often a burden to the local populace. The general dilapidation of the military was a symptom of the confused administration of the coastal provinces. The Ming provincial administration was split into three parallel hierarchies: one for civil, one for military, and one for surveillance. This deliberately fragmented structure was meant to provide checks against regionalism and the rise of powerful officials at the provincial level; however, it also made for an ineffective response during emergencies. Beginning in the middle