been executed in disgrace in October last year, Zhu Wan wrote his own epitaph and committed suicide by drinking poison in January 1550. The investigation confirmed the allegations that Zhu Wan had killed the prisoners without imperial authorization, and so a posthumous death sentence was handed down. Lu Tang and Ke Qiao were also condemned to death, and the Portuguese smugglers were let off lightly, with exile as their punishment. The ordeal left Galeote Pereira, one of the Portuguese crewmen captured in Zoumaxi, very impressed by what he perceived as the impartiality of the Chinese justice system. The acceleration of wokou activity The death of Zhu Wan was followed by the wholesale reversion of his policies, and the fleet that Zhu had assembled was dispersed. For three years the position held by Zhu Wan remained vacant, and during these years apparently no government official dared to mention the coastal situation in the adverse political atmosphere. Despite the coastal gentry's political victory over Zhu Wan, they had destroyed their trump card against the merchant-pirates — the threat of the Ming army — and the wokou raiders took full advantage of the military vacuum. The gentry, now facing frequent attacks on their own estates, begrudgingly began to assist the state in putting down the wokou. Their illicit trading networks disrupted, the overseas traders banded together against the perceived intensification of the Ming anti-pirate campaign. Wang Zhi emerged as the leader of the most prominent of these armed bands after Xu Dong exited the scene. The Xu brothers had placed Wang Zhi in charge of their fleets, finances, and foreign contacts, so Wang did not have much trouble taking over the whole syndicate. He settled on the Gotō Islands of Japan after the Ming made him an outlaw. There he called himself the King of Hui (徽王) and established good relations not only with the local daimyo Matsura Takanobu, but also with regional hegemons like Ōtomo Sōrin and Ōuchi Yoshitaka. Despite his great power, Wang Zhi initially sought to appease the Ming government in hope of getting the maritime prohibitions relaxed, so he turned the rival pirate leaders that he captured over to the authorities. Instead, the Ming authorities tightened the restrictions in 1551, banning even fishing boats from going out to sea. Indignant, Wang Zhi set his pirate fleets upon the Chinese coast. The wokou attacks started as swift raids on coastal