himself Emperor of the Great Zhou and established an imperial court at Hengzhou in 1678 before dying of illness later that year. His grandson Wu Shifan then retreated to Yunnan, and the Qing recovered Hengzhou the next year. The Battle of Hengyang was the longest defense of a single city during the Second Sino-Japanese War. When Changsha fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on June 19, 1944, Hengyang became their next target. The reorganized 11th Army, consisting of 10 divisions, four brigades, and over 110,000 men, assumed the task of attacking Hengyang. It was part of the Japanese Ichi-Go offensive. A Roman Catholic diocese of Hengzhou was established, although periodically suppressed. This was suffragan to the Archbishop of Changsha following its elevation in 1946. In 2013 Hengyang was the center of a major vote buying scandal where it was found that 56 officials were founded to be complicit in paying lower level local officials for votes. The 56 were subsequently removed from office, and an additional 512 resigned from their positions. Economy Hengyang has an area of and a population of 7,141,162. There are 1,075,516 people in the built-up area of in the four central urban districts. Hengyang is a busy and growing industrial City and the leading transportation centre of Hunan, linking water, rail, and highway routes. Manufacturing includes: chemicals, agricultural, mining equipment, textiles, paper and processed foods. Lead, zinc, coal, and tin are mined nearby. Hengyang is the second largest city in Hunan province, and is a growing industrial hub and transportation center. Tourism Known as the 'Bright Pearl in Southern China' and as 'Wild Goose City' (the latter because of wild geese that used to rest here while flying south for the winter), Hengyang has been the birthplace of many historical figures, such the revolutionist Luo Ronghuan and a noted Ming scholar Wang Fuzhi. The city was badly damaged during World War II and few historical buildings survive in diverse stage of reconstruction, including Shigu Academy, Dragon Tower, Confucian School on the Dongzhou Island (), Laiyan Pagoda and Nantai Temple. Mount Heng, one of the Five Sacred Mountains, lies 45 kilometres north from the city proper. Climate Hengyang has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with four distinct seasons. Spring is subject to heavy rainfall, while the summers are long, hot, and humid with lesser rainfall, and autumn is comfortable and rather dry. Winter is rather brief,