UNDER REVISION
A period of strife was also a period of heroics (or villainy) and tragedies. A
great many Wokou leaders rose to prominence during the chaotic period. Many of
them met tragic ends, but not before carving out a legend of their own.
Shuangyu Port period (1526 – 1548)
Jin Zi Lao (金子老, “Gold elder”) (active ? – 1542)
A sea trader hailing from Fujian who was shrouded in mystery, Jin Zi Lao first
appears in written records when he hooked up with the Portuguese at the
smuggling port of Shuangyu
in 1538, making him one of the earliest known Chinese smugglers to establish operation at Shuangyu port (the Portuguese had seized control of the island since
1526). At some point Jin Zi Lao recruited Li Guang Tou under his wing, however
in 1542 he abruptly returned to Fujian and was never heard from again.
It is speculated that he was usurped by his right-hand man.
Li Guang Tou (李光頭, “Baldy Li”) (active 1529 – 1548)
Also known as Li Qi (李七), Li Guang Tou was a convict serving in
Fuzhou
prison until a massive and bloody prison break in 1529 allowed him to escape
to the sea. Leading fellow fugitives, Chinese outlaws and Portuguese alike, Li
Guang Tou quickly emerged as a powerful pirate, and was soon recruited by Jin
Zi Lao to be his right-hand man. After the latter returned to Fujian, he took
over the smuggling business at Shuangyu port and became a powerful pirate
lord, terrorising the coasts of
Zhejiang
and
Fujian
for years. Li Guang Tou finally met his end when rampant smuggling and
piratical activities at Shuangyu caught the attention of Ming court. Although
he survived the destruction of Shuangyu at the hands of Grand Coordinator Zhu
Wan (朱紈) in 1548, he was captured then executed during the subsequent Battle
of Zoumaxi (走馬溪) one year later.
Xu Dong (許棟) (active 1529 – 1554)
Also known as Xu Er (許二), Xu Dong was a fellow inmate of Li Guang Tou and
escaped prison during the same prison break incident. He began his clandestine
business after reuniting with his younger brother Xu Nan (許楠), who was a
smuggler that mostly traded in Malacca and Patani, and was soon joined by his
other brothers, the eldest brother Xu Song (許松), and the youngest brother Xu
Zi (許梓). In 1543 Xu Dong joined force with Li Guang Tou and began to operate
out of Shuangyu port, and the joining of Wang Zhi (王直) in 1544 enabled him
to establish trade relation with Japan. His smuggling business did not always
go smoothly, however, with Xu Song captured and executed by Ming Dynasty in
1545, Xu Nan died in a shipwreck, and Xu Zi fled Shuangyu to join another
pirate Lin Jian (林剪) after failing to deliver his promised shipment to the
Portuguese due to the aforementioned shipwreck. Despite the setbacks, Xu Dong
continued to grow his power by essentially conning unsuspecting Chinese
merchants to join his smuggle operation. To repay his missed shipment to the
Portuguese, he enticed them to raid the coasts of Fujian and Zhejiang, and in
1547 he joined up with Lin Jian to launch a large-scale raid himself, causing
a massive turmoil in Fujian and Zhejiang. The raid was also one of the major
triggers that lead to Ming Dynasty deciding to take action against Shuangyu
port.
Xu Dong survived the destruction of Shuangyu in 1548 and
seems to continuously elude capture (despite a few accounts of Ming army
capturing or killing him), resuming piratical activities a mere two months later. In July
1548 he raided the relatively defenceless Funing County (福寧, a Ming period
administrative division that encompass present-day
Xiapu County,
Ningde City,
Fuding City, and
Fu'an City) with more than 300 remnants from Shuangyu, looting dozens of households and
killed five guards as well as seven resisting locals, then escaped to the sea
through
Pingyang County. He once again raided Fu Ning on August 6~7, 1548, this time with a much
larger force of more than 40 ships, over 1,000 pirates, as well as significant
numbers of Portuguese and Southeast Asians (mainly Pahangnese). However, Ming
army under commander Ke Qiao (柯喬) was much more prepared this time around
and decisively crushed the pirates, killing and drowning many and scattering
the rest, although Xu Dong managed to get away. The last time Ming military
had seen of him was during a incidental naval encounter near the border of Fujian
and Zhejiang in September 1548. Although Ming navy defeated the pirate fleet,
Xu Dong once again escaped.
Xu Dong was said to be still active as late as 1554, trying to recruit Wokou from Japan to raid Guangzhou, although it is said that he met his end at the hands of
indigenous people of Xiaoliuqiu (小琉球, likely referring to
Taiwan) during his return trip for trying to steal the plantation on the island.
Lin Jian (林剪) (active ? – 1547)
A powerful Fujianese pirate that terrorised the coasts of Fujian and Zhejiang
for decades, but largely kept his distance from the Portuguese at Shuangyu. In
1547 he went to
Pahang Sultanate and recruited significant numbers of Pahangnese pirates to launch a
joint pirate raid with
Xu Dong (許棟), however later in the same year he was utterly
wiped out by the Portuguese for reasons unknown.
Free-for-all period (1548 – 1553)
after the destruction of Shuangyu
Wang Zhi (王直) (active ? – 1559) (Undergoing revision)
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Bronze statue of Wang Zhi outside of Matsura Historical Museum,
Japan.
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