Drought and subsequent rewetting were common natural phenomena in terrestrial surface soils. During rewetting events, microbial-driven processes?fundamentally mediated?drought-induced impacts on soil ecosystems. With the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, understanding these dynamics?became?critically important for forest soil resilience. In this study, we collected soil samples (0—10 cm and 10—20 cm depth) from a South Asian subtropical evergreen broadleaf forest in China, including plots subjected to 7-year drought treatment and control plots. Through laboratory incubation experiments at three rewetting levels (40%, 60%, and 80% of field capacity), we analyzed changes in microbial community composition and extracellular enzyme activities pre- and post-incubation. The results demonstrated that long-term drought significantly reduced fungal abundance in the 0—10 cm soil layer, decreased soil organic carbon and total phosphorus content in the 10—20 cm layer, and inhibited β-galactosidase (GAL) and β-glucosidase (BG) activities. Under rewetting treatments, control soils exhibited minimal variation in microbial composition and abundance, while extracellular enzyme activities were significantly enhanced under the 60% field capacity rewetting compared to both 40% and 80% treatments, suggesting this moisture level was optimal for microbial metabolic activity. After rewetting, the abundances of bacteria, fungi, and actinobacteria in soils historically affected by drought remained lower than those in the control treatment to varying extents. Among the environmental factors, soil organic carbon and total nitrogen content were identified as key drivers of microbial community structure variation. The activities of microbial extracellular enzymes in soils historically affected by drought rapidly recovered to control levels following rewetting. However, under the 40% rewetting treatment, extracellular enzyme activity in the 10—20 cm soils layer was significantly higher than in the control, leading to a notable difference in SOC between the drought-affected and control treatments. Moreover, historical drought significantly decreased soil organic carbon content under both rewetting treatments: a reduction from 25.56 g/kg to 20.53 g/kg (P=0.053) at 60% rewetting intensity, and a more pronounced decline from 24.92 g/kg to 17.58 g/kg (P<0.01) at 80% rewetting intensity. These findings demonstrated that historical drought exerted significant legacy effects on soil microbial communities and their extracellular enzyme activities in subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests of South China during short-term rewetting. Specifically, the drought conditions delayed the recovery of soil microbial communities, while potentially enhancing extracellular enzyme activities to a greater extent under low-level rewetting treatments. The results suggest that projected extreme climate conditions, including both prolonged drought and episodic rewetting, would likely exacerbate soil organic carbon loss in subtropical forest ecosystems.