who opted to reach Hangzhou by sea, was blown off course and had to return to the Gotō Islands. Ye Ma's band of pirates intercepted a shipment of rice and wine supposedly meant for the Ming army at Jiaxing and made merry. This turned out to a ploy by the Ming, who had poisoned the wine and deliberately left them on the wokou's path. Suffering 700 to 800 casualties to the poison, Ye Ma's band retreated to Songjiang. Chen Dong raided the West Lake region and surrounded the city of Hangzhou, but as his accomplices were not coming, he lifted the siege in the beginning of May 1555 and continued to raid throughout the province of Zhejiang. To dislodge the pirates, Zhang Jing called in reinforcements from Shandong, Guangxi, and Huguang. 6000 recruits from Shandong arrived first, but they suffered a devastating defeat and had to disband. Zhang Jing decided to gather his strength and wait for the 11,000 aboriginal "wolf troops" to arrive. However, the apparent lethargy with which Zhang Jing carried out his mission attracted criticism, leading to his undoing. On March 13 of 1555, the emperor sent Zhao Wenhua to the wokou-affected regions to perform sacrifices to the sea god and assess the military situation. Zhao Wenhua was a protege of Yan Song, the architect of Xia Yan's downfall who had controlled the imperial court since, so Zhao had considerable influence. Upon arriving, Zhao Wenhua urged Zhang Jing to attack the pirates, but Zhang Jing, who outranked Zhao, resisted and would not even discuss his strategy with him. Zhao Wenhua retaliated by writing a memorial to the throne accusing Zhang Jing of deliberately delaying the operation for his own profit. However, soon after Zhao Wenhua sent out the memorial, Zhang Jing led his newly arrived aboriginal troops along with generals Lu Tang and Yu Dayou to defeat the pirates at the Battle of Wangjiangjing (王江涇), north of Jiaxing, on 10 May 1555. This victory, where they took 1900 heads, was the greatest Ming victory so far in the anti-wokou campaign. When the report of the victory reached the emperor, Yan Song convinced the emperor that the victory proved that Zhang Jing had the capability to defeat the pirates and Zhao Wenhua was correct in his accusation that Zhang had been stalling for time, only striking when he heard about Zhao Wenhua's accusation against him. Infuriated, the emperor