He participated in the suppression of the Jiajing wokou raids from 1547 to 1562, during which he fought the Portuguese smugglers who settled in pirate havens on the outlying islands of the Chinese coast.
[5] Zhu Wan and his generals were greatly rewarded in silver for the victory, but they also drew the ire of his political enemies among the gentry, whose profits were directly affected by the destruction of Shuangyu.
The deep water inlet of Zoumaxi (走馬溪, "Running Horse Creek") by the Dongshan Peninsula near the Fujian-Guangdong border was found to be a suitable place for trade since the terrain sheltered the ships from the winds.
[10] The Portuguese record of this incident by the crewman Galeote Pereira allege that Lu Tang, Ke Qiao, and possibly Zhu Wan exaggerated their victory in hopes of being rewarded with the goods they found on the junks, and killed the Chinese crew to prevent the ruse of the "Malaccan" kings from being exposed.
The investigation uncovered the ruse of the "Malaccan" kings, so Lu Tang and Ke Qiao were put in prison and condemned to death for their part in the affair,[13] while the Portuguese smugglers were exiled to Guizhou.
He was put in charge of the Miao troops from Baojing, and won a spectacular victory at Wangjiangjing (王江涇) in May 1555 with the generals Yu Dayou and Tang Kekuan (湯克寬).
[16] Under Hu Zongxian, Lu Tang participated in the suppression of the raid of 1556, where he won a decisive victory in Taizhou south of Ningbo and helped defeat and kill the ringleader Xu Hai (徐海) at the Shen Family Estate (沈家莊) in late September.
[16] In addition, Lu Tang was finally recognized for his role in the capture of Wang Zhi, and was promoted in rank to vice commissioner-in-chief of the central military commission (都督同知).