The new defensive measures taken by the Government consisted in the establishment of Military Districts (_Wei_)[31] at various strategic points round the coast of Shantung. Of these Districts Weihaiwei was one and Ch'êng Shan was another. These two _Wei_ were created in 1398, thirty years after the establishment of the Ming dynasty. The carrying out of the project was entrusted to two high officials, one of whom took up his temporary residence on Liukungtao. A wall was built a few years later (1403) round the village of Weihai, the modern Weihaiwei "city," and the headquarters of Ch'êng-shan-wei, known to us as the town of Jung-ch'êng, was similarly raised to the dignity of a walled city. Military colonies--that is, bands of soldiers who were allowed to take up agricultural land and to found families--were brought into every Wei under the command of various leaders, the chief of whom were known as _chih-hui_. This title, generally applied to the chiefs of certain non-Chinese tribes, was in many cases hereditary. Even in Weihai, Ning-hai and Ch'êng-shan the _chih-hui_ were petty military chieftains rather than regular military officers. There were other commanders known as _li ssŭ_, _ch'ien-hu_ and _pai-hu_,[32] all of which titles--being generally applied to petty tribal chiefs--were probably selected in order to emphasise the two facts that the Wei system was extraneous to the general scheme of Chinese civil and military administration and that the officers of a Wei were not only soldiers but also exercised a general jurisdiction, civil as well as military, over the affairs of the Wei and its soldier-colonists. [Illustration: PART OF WEIHAIWEI CITY WALL (see p. 47).] [Illustration: _Photo by Fleet Surgeon C. M. Beadnell, R.N._ THE AUTHOR AND TOMMIE ON THE QUORK'S PEAK (see p. 397). (Summit of Mount Macdonald.)]