Chapter 13

The residences of the Bo family, Huang family, Chen family, and four or five other families were all located in Zhenzhou Bay, which was the seat of the Jiyang County. Zhenzhou was a place that Hong Tao knew; it was the ancient name for Sanya City. As for this Jiyang County, after a long discussion involving gestures and writing with Chen Ming'en and Huang Hai, who were relatively well-informed among the Tanka people, they finally understood what it was. They also learned that during the Southern Song Dynasty, the administrative divisions of Hainan Island were roughly as follows.

At that time, Hainan Island was not a separate administrative region; it belonged to the Guangnan West Road. As for which places were included in the Guangnan West Road, neither Chen Ming'en nor Huang Hai could say for sure. Although they were relatively well-informed, neither had ever left the waters of Hainan Island. At most, they had helped the imperial court transport rice from Qiongzhou Prefecture to Qiongzhou Prefecture from the opposite Leizhou Peninsula. Hong Tao roughly imagined that this Qiongzhou Prefecture should be the present-day Haikou City.

In this era, Hainan Island was a prefecture under the Guangnan West Road, called Qiongzhou Prefecture. However, Qiongzhou Prefecture did not govern the entire Hainan Island; its jurisdiction only included Qiongshan County, Lingao County, Chengmai County, Wenchang County, and Lihui County. The names of these five counties were similar to those in later times. Hong Tao compared them with the map in his mind: Qiongshan County should be the Qiongshan District of Haikou City; Lingao County should be the same as the present-day Lingao County; Wenchang County still exists today, though it has been upgraded to a prefecture-level city; Chengmai County also exists today, but Hong Tao was unsure about Lihui County. However, based on the distribution of the jurisdiction, it was likely the present-day Qionghai City, meaning that Qiongzhou Prefecture governed the developed areas in the northern part of Hainan Island.

Who managed the southwestern and eastern parts? In addition to Qiongzhou Prefecture, the Song Dynasty established three military towns on Hainan Island: Nanning Military Town, Wan'an Military Town, and Jiyang Military Town. These military towns were not counties; these areas were underdeveloped with many local ethnic minorities, so they were not governed by the Song Dynasty government but by the military towns, similar to military districts in later times.

Nanning Military Town's jurisdiction included three counties: Changhua, Gensi, and Yilun, with the military town seat in Danzhou. Changhua might be the present-day Changhua Port; Gensi, which Hong Tao had visited, is the present-day Dongfang City, where there is a Gensi Town; Yilun County, which Hong Tao was not very familiar with, was likely in the southwestern part of the island; Danzhou was easy to locate, as there is also a Danzhou City on Hainan Island today.

Wan'an Military Town's jurisdiction included two counties: Wan'an County and Lingshui County, with the military town seat in Wanning. Hong Tao had no memory of Wan'an County, but Lingshui County and Wanning City are popular tourist destinations today, with many Li ethnic minority villages to visit.

Jiyang Military Town's jurisdiction included three counties: Yaxian County, Linzhen County, and Ningyuan County, with the military town seat in Zhenzhou. Yaxian County was the Yacheng Town that Chen Ming'en was going to the next day; Ningyuan County was on the west side of the Ningyuan River; Linzhen County, which Hong Tao knew, was part of the present-day Sanya City, and Zhenzhou was the coastal area of Sanya City.

One prefecture and three military towns were the administrative divisions of Hainan Island during the Southern Song Dynasty. These four administrative regions did not have a hierarchical relationship and were all responsible to the Guangnan West Road. But what about the large area in the middle of Hainan Island? Was it unmanaged?

Indeed, the middle of Hainan Island was mountainous, a gathering place for the Li ethnic minority, which no one could govern. The establishment of the three military towns surrounding the middle was to prevent these ethnic minorities from rebelling. However, the closer to the edge of the island, the more docile the ethnic minorities were. The Tanka people had a good relationship with the local Li people, as both were marginalized groups, so they did not view each other as enemies. The Li people traded chickens, ducks, pigs, and textiles for fish and salt from the Tanka people, creating a kind of economic complementarity. The black and blue coarse cloth worn by the Tanka people was woven by the Li people.

Hong Tao originally wanted to ask about the officials of the Song Dynasty in Hainan Island, but Chen Ming'en and Huang Hai sheepishly told him that the highest official they had ever seen in their lives was the tax collector in Zhenzhou City, who did not even have a rank. They had never seen a higher official and knew nothing about them. As for prices, they knew a little about items related to their daily lives, but the prices were a bit complicated because there were two currencies in circulation during the Southern Song Dynasty: one called Huizi (paper money) and the other copper coins.

Huizi was the paper money issued by the court. If the government hired civilian labor, the wages were paid in this paper money. If the government bought large quantities of goods from civilians, the payment was also in Huizi. Although the face value of this paper money was the same as copper coins, people generally did not like to use it. Therefore, the prices for buying things with Huizi and copper coins were different, with a significant price difference. How much? In other places, it was unclear, but in Zhenzhou City, the price difference could fluctuate between ten to fifteen times.

For example, the price of rice in the spring of that year was 2,800 copper coins per dan, but the price in Huizi was around 30 huizi. The price of wheat was even higher in Hainan Island, at 4,000 copper coins per dan, and in Huizi, it was 70 huizi. Considering that one huizi was currently worth about 800 copper coins, the price difference was even greater. The prices of rice and wheat on Hainan Island were much higher than in the mainland because there was not much arable land here, and wheat was not grown at all. Most of the rice and wheat had to be imported from the mainland, and considering the transportation costs, the prices in the mainland's grain-producing areas were much lower.

As for how much a dan weighed, Huang Hai's boat had a large measuring container. When it was filled with rice, Hong Tao scooped it into his clothes and estimated it to be a bit over 10 catties. This skill of estimating weight by hand was developed from fishing; for fish under 20 catties, Hong Tao could estimate the weight with about 80% accuracy, and the error was less than 10% when weighed. Fishermen had even more advanced skills; they could estimate the weight just by looking, without even touching the fish. These skills were honed through repeated practice, with nothing else to do by the water.

However, Hong Tao was still unclear about the weight units of the Song Dynasty because the dou was a measure of volume. If you filled it with rice, it would be a bit over 10 catties, but if you filled it with stones, it would not be the same. Hong Tao needed to understand the units of measurement clearly, as he intended to build a ship for the open sea. Without a unified system of measurement, or at least one he could convert, he would never be able to build a reliable ship. He had already figured out the conversion between the Song Dynasty's chi and the modern meter. In the afternoon, he used a rope to measure the two marks on the side of the boat. If these marks were accurate, one Song Dynasty chi was roughly equal to one modern chi, slightly shorter but negligible.

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