Wang Zhi (? -1559),No. Wufeng, a native of Linjie County, Huizhou Prefecture, South Zhili, was born in a merchant family. According to Wanli's Zhi Zhi, it is said that when Wang Zhi was born, his mother Wang Shi dreamed that a star fell from the sky and landed in her arms, with a man wearing a tall hat beside him. Wang Shi was very surprised and said, "This arc star also shines on Hu, but not on Hu." Soon, it snowed heavily and the vegetation was frozen. After knowing this sign, Wang Zhi was secretly happy: "The stars are in my arms, and the baby is extraordinary; Those who grow grass and ice are like soldiers. Will God command me to show my strength? " As a result, frustrated young Wang Zhi began to have close contacts with some uneasy locals such as Ye Zongman, Xu, Sheikh and Fang. Wang Zhi once said to these accomplices: China's laws are too strict, even the slightest move will violate the law, and the imperial examination is only open to those scholars who are full of sour breath. Why don't we go abroad to make a living, and what can we do if we are trapped in this small "handful of soil"? In the 19th year of Jiajing (1540), Xu, Ye Zongman and others took advantage of the relaxation of the maritime ban in the Ming Dynasty to build a huge ship along the coast of Guangdong, and transported the goods such as nitrate, sulfur and silk floss that were forbidden to go to sea in the Ming Dynasty to Japan, Siam and other countries for trade, making huge profits. In a short period of five or six years, Wang Zhi gained huge capital and became an upstart in illegal trade, known as the "Lord of the Five Peaks".
At that time, there were two Zhejiang businessmen gangs active at sea, one headed by Li Guangtou, a Fujian native, and the other headed by Xu Dong, Shexian County, Huizhou. Xu Dong's business groups initially cooperated with Portugal, and later Japanese private businessmen joined in. Wang Zhi and Xu Dong are fellow villagers, so they joined his enterprise group. After Xu Dong and Li Guangtou were wiped out by the Ming army for engaging in piracy, Wang Zhi became the owner of the ship and the leader of the refugee business group. After continuous campaigns and private collusion with local officials in the Ming Dynasty, Wang Zhi gradually gained the monopoly position of Sino-Japanese maritime trade, and all new vessels of Haitong Fan dared to sail at sea under the banner of "Five Peaks". The behavior of Wang Zhi Group attracted the attention of the central government in the Ming Dynasty, and the government sent Zhu Wan and others to wipe out armed refugees along the coast of Zhejiang. They sent troops to attack Wang Zhi in two ways, and Wang Zhi had to move its activity base to Japan.
The foreign trade policy of Japanese rulers provided Wang Zhi with good conditions for staying in guest houses. Wang Zhi is good at wooing and making friends, and has won the trust of many Japanese. He settled in Hirado, Japan (now Nagasaki Prefecture), raised the banner of "emblem king", absorbed anti-Ming forces based in Hirado, not only recruited domestic fugitives, but also used huge sums of money to collude with Japan's Toro, Jiro and Kojiro, and used Japanese ronin to launch many cross-sea attacks on China's coastal areas.
In the 31st year of Jiajing (1552), Wang Zhi annexed Chen Sipan, the pirate leader of Guangdong and Guangxi. In February of the same year, Wang Zhichuan ordered the enemy to break through the customs and move to Jintang Port, a leading soldier. In April, Japanese leaders in Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, Fujian colluded with Wang Zhi and others, led tens of thousands of chaotic people to land in Zhoushan and Xiangshan, Zhejiang Province, and wandered between Taiwan, Wenzhou, Nanjing and Shaoxing, captured the city and killed countless residents. In March of the following year, Wang Zhi assembled pirates from Zhangzhou, Fujian and Guangdong, and Japanese invaders from all walks of life invaded on a large scale, with more than 100 ships under the cover of the sea. South to Taizhou, Ningbo, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Suzhou, Songjiang, north to Huaibei, the coastal miles are in a hurry at the same time. The next day, Wang Zhi and the enemy captured Zhejiang Changguowei (now the resident of Guo Chang Township Government in Xiangshan, Zhejiang), invaded Su Songjiang in April, broke Shanghai County, plundered Jiangyin and attacked Zhapu. In August, jinshanwei was looted and Chongming, Changshu and Jiading were invaded. In thirty-three years (1554), he burned and looted all the way from Taicang to Suzhou and captured Songjiang. In April, Jiashan was captured, Chongming was broken, and Chongde County was entered. Arrived in Jiaxing via Wujiang in June, looted and returned to Tunzilin. From then on, the Wang Zhi pirate group completely embarked on the road of colluding with pirates, plundering the wealth in the southeast coastal areas of China and harming the people of China, and became a pirate giant during Jiajing period.
Undeniably, the policy of forbidding the sea and the clean-up action of the Ming Dynasty greatly restricted the maritime trade activities of Wang Zhi and others, and also restricted the survival and financial opportunities of coastal residents and even some sea tycoons, causing their dissatisfaction and resistance. These people, together with the pirates who plundered the southeast coast of China, became the bane of the Ming rulers. In April of the thirty-third year of Jiajing (1554), Hu Zongxian, a native of Jixi County, Huizhou, was appointed as the governor of Zhejiang Province. Since then, with the advance of the war against Japan, Hu Zongxian has been appointed by the imperial court as the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War and the left adviser of Douchayuan, the military affairs of Nanzhili, Zhejiang and Fuzhou, and concurrently served as the governor of Zhejiang, focusing on the anti-Japanese mission along the southeast coast. In the thirty-fifth year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1556), Wang Zhi sent a message to the China government, expressing his willingness to obey orders and help eliminate refugees from all parts of Songjiang, hoping to get the commitment of the Ming government to open coastal trade. Hu Zongxian deliberately created an atmosphere of cross-strait peace and trapped Wang Zhi. Due to the tense situation along the coast at that time, Hu Zongxian dared not rashly kill Wang Zhi, left him alive and put him under house arrest for more than two years. He hoped that the hooligans would disband themselves because they lost their leaders, but the effect was not great. In the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing (1559), Wang Zhi was executed by the Ming court on1February 25th.
2. "Wang Zhi Wufeng people, Huizhou (now Anhui County) people. Because I am poor in Ren Xia, ... I am strong, tolerant and caring, so I can swim with Ye Zongman, Xu, Xie He and Fang. Because of his different ambitions, he called the Party and said: China has strict laws and regulations, which are always prohibited, so no one can feel at ease overseas. In the nineteenth year of Jiajing, Wang Zhi went to sea to engage in smuggling trade. " With Ye Zongman and other Guangdong-made giant ships, they brought contraband such as nitrate, yellow silk and cotton to Japan, forcing Romania, the West and other countries to exchange markets for five or six years, and they became rich without goods. Attending call five chicken master. In the 23rd year of Jiajing, Wang Zhi and Xu Dong partnered in Shuangyu Port, Ningbo, and worked as a cashier under Xu Dong. After Xu Dong was captured and killed by Zhu, he was promoted to leader. Then, he annexed the sea giants Chen Sipan, Qilu, Shen Jiu and other forces, "to gather fugitives Xu Hai, and so on. As a general; Dumped goods seduce Jiro Lou kadota tsuppari, Shiro Sizhu, etc. , for the tribe; Also engaged in Wang Ruxian, Wang Ao and so on. , very prestigious, people * * * run it. At this time, Wang Zhi has become a unique maritime trade power group with abundant capital and armed forces.
In March of the thirty-second year of Jiajing, Wang Zhi "invaded on a large scale, and hundreds of ships covered the sea", making "a thousand miles along the coast, and at the same time being on guard", "Guo Chang, Dinghai, Haiyan, Zhapu and other places were attacked and plundered one after another" and went back and forth like nobody's business ". @
In order to quell the "rebellion" in the southeast, the Ming Dynasty promoted Wang Zi as the governor and overseer of Zhejiang. The generals used by Wang Zi, such as Jade Tatar Dataphthalein and Tang Kekuan, invaded and destroyed Wang Zhi's strongholds, Liegang. Wang Zhi was defeated and fled to Japan, where he was stationed in Hirado, Japan. "Claiming to be the King of Emblems, deploying officials, controlling the rush, and all 36 islands are under his command." ⑩
Since then, Wang Zhi "just sit and don't send, to invade it. Attending, he often sent his sons Xu Hai, Chen Dong, Shang Xian, Ma Ye and other big leaders to attend. , "Lure the poor buildings of Japanese islands to be as strong as wings, and make them' attack their clothing flags' under China and invade them on a large scale; And deliberately let "any broken land must be a paradox", so that "the company will stop the clouds." This is a strategy to confuse the rulers of the Ming dynasty, because the Ming dynasty always hated architecture, but was afraid of it.
While plundering the southeast coastal areas, Wang Zhi is still engaged in maritime trade. In the thirty-second year of Jiajing, "Ye Zongman lured Louyi to Zhejiang, which was more than the owner. He didn't dare to park. When he arrived in Nan 'ao, Guangdong, Shuguang Building began to suffer. " In thirty-three years, "Xu Zhen and others lured the property market to South Australia." Volume III of Beitu also records: "In recent five or six years, due to the strict attack and arrest in Zhejiang, there is no room for buildings and ships, all of which are here (Australia Guide). Fujian rushed to Guangdong when it was in a hurry, and Guangdong rushed to Fujian when it was in a hurry. Regularly from the end of April to the end of May, regardless of the inexhaustible goods. The transaction is to build a shed on the ground, spread wooden boards, and the things placed in Chen are very elegant, and the number of knives and guns is on the boat. "
Wang Zhi's appeal can best show that the looting of Wang Zhi and his gang is closely related to the Ming government's policy of banning the sea. In the thirty-fourth year of Jiajing, Hu Zongxian, the secretariat of Zhejiang Province (who was about to be promoted to the governor), learned the lesson that "the soldiers were recruited for a long time, and the thieves became more and more fierce", and adopted the method of restraining both the governor and the governor instead. Knowing that Wang Zhi and others were bent on seeking the market, he took advantage of his relationship with Wang Zhi, "Welcome mother and son to Hangzhou first, and wait for them." Jiang Zhou and Yuan were sent to see him "with the letter of mother and son", and they were allowed to come to him and attend on the condition of "knowing the crime before releasing, forgiving the sea ban and the city of Xu Dong". Wang Zhiben has no intention of rebelling. When he saw that the Ming government promised to exempt the punishment and open the market, he once again said that if it was allowed to pass the market, he was willing to help the court "clean up the waves" to make amends. Attending because don't know the truth, afraid of fraud, first sent his adopted son Mao Haifeng to explore the truth of the government. Hu Zongxian caressed hai-feng MAO again, which reassured Wang Zhi. In the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing, Wang Zhi "chartered a huge ship and sent more than forty people, including Miao Yi and Vivi, to Gong Shi with him, and arrived in Zhoushan Island in early October." Hu Zongxian had already set a trap and sent company commanders and other officers and men to ambush on land and water. When Wang Zhi arrived, he found that things were different. "I met Zong Xian in advance and asked,' We came by imperial edict, saying that we should prepare for a distant place and hold a banquet for our close friends. Today's soldiers are like Chen, that is, none of them reach the island. How can they treat me? "ZongXian wrote to the state, to class girl, swear without his heart, believe it. Hu Zongxian then lured Wang Zhi into membership and held it with verbal promises such as "Yo, please open a mutual aid market and give Guangling an official title". In December of the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing, Wang Zhi was beheaded in Hangzhou.
At first, Wang Zhi joined forces to invade the coastal areas because he hoped that the maritime trade could not be maintained. When the Ming government promised to conduct maritime trade, Wang Zhi was recruited. It is not difficult to see that the theft of businessmen by Wang Zhi and others is closely related to the maritime ban policy of the Ming Dynasty. As the largest shipping giant at that time, Wang Zhi, like most businessmen along the coast, was not an enemy of the government at first. Maritime trade is their profession and the place where they settle down. When the government's policy changed from prohibiting people from going to sea at first to imposing a ban on the sea and cracking down on various offshore groups, Wang Zhi and others also changed from maritime giants to "making pirates". Therefore, the "building trouble" in Jiajing period was not only the harassment of pirates in the usual sense, but also the nature of the conflict between the two forces who advocated and opposed the prohibition of maritime trade. The solution to the building disaster is also very telling. In Jiajing dynasty, after twenty or thirty years of suppression, the "building trouble" could not be eliminated. However, in the first year of Qin Long (1567), the imperial court had to slightly relax the maritime ban and allow the goods to be sold in the east and west, and the "building trouble" gradually subsided.