Hóngxiàn

Hongxian was a county in the Huai country, with its seat at the town that later became Sizhou's administrative centre. Under the early Qing it belonged to Fengyang prefecture. The decisive change came from flooding elsewhere: in 1680 the old city of Sizhou was overwhelmed, and its administration took temporary quarters across the water in Xuyi. Officials debated a permanent solution for decades.

In 1777 the authorities abolished Hongxian county and merged its territory and tax obligations into Sizhou. The existing county town became the seat of the directly administered department. Its relatively high ground and greater distance from the Huai made it attractive, while its offices, granaries and ritual buildings could be reused instead of financing an entirely new town. The transfer also removed the river-and-lake barrier that had separated Sizhou's officials from much of their jurisdiction. Hongxian's surviving urban fabric thus acquired a larger administrative role through a reorganisation shaped by flood danger, public expense and the practical geography of government.