Chapter 8 of 10

Chapter 8

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### Chapter 8: Taiwan or Hainan

Where should they choose to travel to? This was not just a matter of location; it also related to their initial base of operations.

A good start meant half the battle was won. Most of the travelers were avid gamers and understood that a key to strategic games was securing a good base location at the beginning. For them, this base needed to meet the following criteria:

1. A solid agricultural foundation to ensure a steady food supply.

2. A sufficient population base to meet the labor demands of future industrialization.

3. Rich natural resources to support industrialization.

4. A coastal location with a port, as maritime trade was the easiest way to accumulate wealth in this era.

5. Not in the core area of Ming rule, to avoid drawing the attention of the Ming government.

6. Not in a contested area. Whether it was the Later Jin, Li Zicheng, or Zhang Xianzhong, none of these were threats that the newly arrived travelers could handle.

7. A defensible location with natural barriers like mountains, rivers, and seas.

Clearly, in the time and space they were heading to, there were not many places that could meet these conditions.

To be cautious, this issue was submitted to the discussion board for collective brainstorming.

Online, the proposals mainly focused on three places: Taiwan, Hainan, and Australia.

Australia received a lot of support but was the first to be ruled out. Regardless of whether Australia was suitable as a base for the travelers, the reality was that it was impossible to transport hundreds of travelers to Australia. It was simply not feasible.

Taiwan was a hot topic of discussion. From its geographical location, natural conditions, and development potential, it was considered an excellent choice. The island did not have Ming government institutions, and although the Dutch and Spanish had built fortifications, they were confined to small areas, making it a vacuum zone. However, Taiwan had serious tropical diseases, especially malaria, which hindered immigration. The island was underdeveloped during the late Ming dynasty, with a sparse population, making large-scale development difficult due to a lack of human resources.

In comparison, Hainan was much more favorable. Since the Six Dynasties, by the late Ming dynasty, it had become a county with hundreds of thousands of registered households. In the tenth year of the Yongle era, there were 90,000 registered households and 400,000 people, providing a rich human resource. In agriculture, by the 43rd year of the Wanli era, the island had 4.1 million mu of official and private farmland.

More importantly, the natural resources were not only abundant but also diverse, making it very suitable for industrialization. The island had 88 types of minerals (including subtypes), with 67 having industrial development value. Gold, rich iron ore, titanium iron ore, and zirconium ore were among the advantageous minerals.

The key in the pre-industrial era was coal and iron. Hainan had one of China's few large rich iron mines—the Shilu Iron Mine. The average iron content of the ore was 51%, with a reserve of 400 million tons. It also contained multiple minerals. Remarkably, the Shilu Iron Mine was almost open-pit, requiring only the removal of the surface layer for mining, without the need for expensive tunnel systems.

For coal, Hainan only had low-quality lignite, but across the Beibu Gulf was Vietnam's Guangning Hongji Coal Mine, which had 200 million tons of open-pit reserves and several billion tons of high-quality anthracite underground. The coal mine was close to the shore, making maritime transportation extremely convenient.

With coal and iron, they could produce steel on a large scale. With steel, they could mechanize various industries and mass-produce industrial goods.

While ancient societies could create breathtaking works of art, they could not compete with the flood of mass-produced goods from an industrial society.

If Hainan had any disadvantages as a base, it was its proximity to the mainland. The Ming government's rule was relatively strict, and most of the island, except for the Li areas inland, was under its control. The Ming government would not easily abandon a county with registered households and would spare no effort to suppress these ambitious newcomers—whether they were from the new Borneo, Australia, or another time.

From the beginning, the travelers would face attacks from local and Guangdong garrisons and would need to withstand them to establish a foothold.

Hainan also had long-standing ethnic tensions between the Li and Han people. Since the Yuan dynasty, the island had experienced a Li uprising roughly every three years. Less than thirty years before their arrival in 1627, in the 27th year of the Wanli era (1599), a Li uprising led by Ma Shi in Ding'an County spread to Dan, Ya, and Lin counties. The Ming government had to mobilize 100,000 troops to quell it. How to peacefully coexist with the local Li people was another issue.

Finally, Hainan had a long history of pirate raids, and many cities did not have a north gate. In the late Ming dynasty, the South China Sea was a time of intense activity by Chinese and foreign merchants and pirates. Whether merchants or pirates, they would not miss an opportunity to plunder. Hainan, located on a key maritime route, had suffered greatly from these raids. The travelers, with their modern tools and goods, would be a tempting target.

Given this, although Hainan had a better foundation than Taiwan, it also faced much greater pressure.

"Considering this, we should still choose Taiwan," someone suggested at the online meeting after listening to the committee's introduction about Hainan. "Taiwan has malaria, but we can bring quinine and plant cinchona trees. As for the population, with the many refugees during the late Ming dynasty, we can attract hundreds of thousands with food and land."

"Bringing hundreds of thousands over is easier said than done. How will you transport them?" someone immediately questioned.

"By ship. We can use a 10,000-ton ship to transport both supplies and people. We'll be a maritime power, and we won't need cannons. We can just ram anyone we don't like."

"Will you burn alcohol or charcoal to power it?"

"We can build our own ships. Taiwan has plenty of high-quality timber."

"Where will you get the sailors?"

"We can train our own sailors and hire foreign sailors in Macau as instructors."

"Ridiculous. Did Zheng Chenggong's ships rely on foreigners? I can't stand your admiration for foreigners."

"Can cinchona trees grow in Taiwan?"

"If you say that, then rubber trees can't grow in Leizhou Peninsula either, right?"

"I'm talking about Taiwan. Is the Leizhou Peninsula at the same latitude as Taiwan?!"

...

When the discussion veered into whether the treasure ships were wooden 10,000-ton ships, whether artemisinin could prevent malaria, and whether traditional Chinese medicine was pseudoscience, Wen Desi quickly intervened to stop the heated debate. Xiao Zishan requested to speak.

"I think Hainan is more suitable," Xiao Zishan, who had been silent, finally spoke. He supported the Hainan plan but did not rush to express his opinion. He waited for the discussion to clarify the pros and cons and then organized his thoughts. His speech was focused and well-reasoned.

"Why is Hainan more suitable than Taiwan? Let's compare them based on our criteria for a base. In several key areas, Taiwan falls far short of Hainan.

"First, the agricultural foundation. The true development of Taiwan's agriculture began with Zheng Chenggong's recovery of Taiwan and its use as a base for anti-Qing activities—around the mid to late 17th century. Our chosen year is 1628. At this time, there was no significant agriculture, only a few coastal immigrant villages with limited land. Hainan, on the other hand, had at least 3.8 million mu of cultivated land and dozens of water conservancy projects built over the dynasties. Note that this is the registered land, and there was a lot of unregistered land during the Ming dynasty.

"In terms of population, the Han immigrants in Taiwan in 1628 were very few. Our large-scale industrial and agricultural construction after the穿越 will require a large population as labor. Taiwan's population cannot meet this need, so we would have to import immigrants from the start. Recruiting refugees and organizing them to travel long distances to the coastal areas of Fujian and Zhejiang for transportation is a complex and arduous task involving the coordination of human and material resources and dealing with Ming officials at various levels. Do any of us have the experience and ability for this?

"Even if we could transport enough refugees to the island, the subsequent work would be very difficult. Most refugees are destitute and need to be vaccinated, provided with relief, and settled. They need housing, seeds, and farming tools. Where will all these things come from? With our early strength, such a large-scale operation would be beyond our capabilities. In contrast, Hainan has a population base of at least 400,000, which is sufficient for early development."

The discussion had already drained most people's enthusiasm, and some irrational comments had also caused disgust. At this moment, Xiao Zishan's well-reasoned and polite speech won the majority's approval. Hainan was chosen as the future base by a vote.

In the late Ming dynasty, Hainan was under the jurisdiction of Qiongzhou Prefecture, which governed three prefectures and ten counties: Qiongshan, Chengmai, Lingao, Ding'an, Wenchang, Leqing, Huitong, Changhua, Lingshui, and Ganzhen counties; Danzhou, Wanzhou, and Yazhou prefectures.

If you look at the historical maps of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, you will see that Hainan's prefectures and counties form a complete circle around the island. Historically, Hainan was divided into Li in the south and Han in the north, but by the Song dynasty, it became Han on the outside and Li on the inside.

Among these prefectures and counties, Qiongshan, Chengmai, and Lingao counties have the longest history of development and are the main areas of Han settlement and agriculture, with half of the Han population concentrated there.

Among these three, Qiongshan County, the seat of Qiongzhou Prefecture, has the best foundation: in the late Ming dynasty, the island had 3.83 million mu of registered official and private farmland, with this county accounting for nearly a quarter, and nearly 90,000 registered tax-paying people.

However, this was also the political and economic center of the Ming dynasty on the island, with a large number of troops stationed there. It also had symbolic political significance. The fall of Qiongzhou, a border prefecture, would cause a significant shock to the Ming court, leading to a large-scale military campaign.

Chengmai was also good, but it was too close to Qiongshan County, making it too near the center of Ming rule in Hainan.

Lingao became the best choice.

In this time and space, Lingao was an obscure small county in Hainan, far less known than Haikou or Sanya. It was economically underdeveloped, with almost no tourism. Unless you were a travel enthusiast, most people wouldn't know about such a place in Hainan. If you search for "Lingao" online, most entries will mention a sentence from the liberation of Hainan by the People's Liberation Army sixty years ago: "The PLA first landed at Lingao Cape." Yes, this Lingao Cape is in Lingao County, less than twelve kilometers from the county seat.

Although Lingao was obscure, it was a thousand-year-old county. Its history can be traced back to the fifth year of the Wude era of the Tang dynasty. It was one of the earliest areas settled by Han immigrants from the mainland, with a long history of development. Although it did not have as many people as Qiongshan, it had 25,000 registered people in the 45th year of the Wanli era. The Wenlan River floodplain was developed early, forming a solid agricultural base. With the addition of water conservancy facilities, it had great agricultural potential. In this world, Lingao was Hainan's granary.

Finally, it was separated from Qiongzhou Prefecture by Chengmai County, so any disturbances would not immediately face direct pressure from the Ming government. Given the communication and administrative efficiency of ancient dynasties, it would take at least a month to handle inter-county issues, and in a place like Hainan, it would take even longer.

After this topic, other issues were raised, but Lingao as the initial base for the travelers was no longer in dispute. In Wen Desi's summary speech: everyone agreed that this was a "successful, united, and victorious conference." In the future history textbooks of the new world, the conference was called the "First Time Travel Conference." Because there were too many representatives, and many chose to stay in the old world, the full list of participants could only be found in the "Old World Cathedral"—theoretically, it was not accessible.

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