In the history of the Qing Dynasty, there was an exciting thing, a change in the usual image of the Qing Dynasty as weak and incompetent, this matter is Lin Zexu's Humen cigarette sales incident, it can be said that this incident is the most exciting event in the history of the Qing Dynasty, and it is also this move that has stimulated the patriotic feelings of more people.
Regarding the historical significance of Humen tobacco sales, naturally there is nothing to shake, but there are also many people who are very interested in the process of Lin Zexu Humen selling cigarettes, when Lin Zexu used the "seawater leaching method", this method is very cumbersome, so many people are more confused, obviously a fire can be destroyed, why do you have to make a big fuss with seawater immersion?
The urgency of selling cigarettes in Humen
Since Qianlong, the Qing Dynasty has begun to decline continuously, and because the Qianlong period was immersed in the dream of the Heavenly Dynasty, it missed the opportunity of the second industrial revolution, so that the development of the Qing Dynasty became more and more slow, while many other Western countries in the world developed rapidly and began to fight the idea of the Qing Dynasty.
After the Daoguang period, the development of the Qing Dynasty was even slower, coupled with the weak combat effectiveness of the Qing army at this time, so as early as the Qianlong period, the Qing Dynasty had already been sent to the Qing Dynasty, and britain, who knew something about the Qing Dynasty, first entered China, trying to open up China's potential huge market and make more money for itself.
At that time, the Qing Dynasty was in a self-sufficient natural economic model, not interested in many British products, britain wanted to quickly open China's huge market, it was quite difficult, after careful consideration, the British intended to take an immoral but can control the Qing people in a way, that is, the use of opium to open the market door.
The Way Britain operates is this, first selling some of its own domestic textiles to India, obtaining money, and then using this money to buy opium in India, and then selling it to China, it is in this way that Britain soon opened the door to the Chinese market.
Opium is an addictive, and will have a control over the mind of the drug, under the attack of opium, many Chinese people and even dignitaries are deeply affected, according to historical records, the Daoguang Emperor once tried opium, and addicted, fortunately later quit, he has a deep understanding of the infringement of opium, but also deeply resentful.
Watching the British make a lot of money in China, many Western countries have followed the example of Britain's use of opium to open up the Chinese market, under such a raging exploitation, many people in the Qing Dynasty have become addicted to opium and become veritable "addicts".
At this time, many Qing officials and enlightened people such as the Daoguang Emperor had predicted the impact of opium on people, although a few ministers felt that opium was not harmful, but after Lin Zexu and others repeatedly explained the harm of opium, the Daoguang Emperor also realized the urgency of destroying opium.
This calamity will not be eliminated, and after ten years, there will be no unfundable wages, and there will be no available soldiers. ——Lin Zexu
Preparation before Humen sells cigarettes
In the initial stage of the beginning of the ban on smoking, there were still some ministers who stood up against it, especially some ministers with interests, and even more strongly opposed, at that time the Daoguang Emperor was also a little hesitant, and later after Lin Zexu's bitter words explained the stakes, Daoguang finally made up his mind to ban smoking.
For those ministers who opposed the ban on smoking, they were dismissed by Daoguang, and finally quieted down, no one dared to oppose the ban on smoking, and then Daoguang appointed Lin Zexu as the minister of Chincha, specifically responsible for the smoking ban, in November 1838, Lin Zexu officially began to smoke smoking nationwide, the most representative of which was the ban on smoking in Guangzhou.
During the period of anti-smoking in Guangdong, the governor of Liangguang and the governor of Guangdong were very supportive of Lin Zexu, and the anti-smoking campaign achieved very good results, whether it was those tobacco houses or tobacco dealers selling opium, they were all sealed and arrested, and the opium that was left in the folk was directly confiscated.
Looking at Lin Zexu's determination to ban smoking, many stakeholders began to obstruct Lin Zexu from it, it is said that some people once assassinated Lin Zexu, but did not succeed, and stakeholders in the United Kingdom and other countries directly put pressure on the Qing government, wanting to hinder Lin Zexu from smoking, fortunately, Lin Zexu withstood all the pressure and carried out the ban on smoking to the end.
After a long period of smoking ban, a total of 2.37 million kilograms of opium were confiscated, Lin Zexu packed these opium, a total of 19187 boxes and 2119 bags of opium, Lin Zexu packed it in boxes, originally wanted to transport it to Beijing, in front of the Daoguang Emperor to destroy, but later considering the dangers and obstacles along the way, Lin Zexu decided to destroy it on the spot, in order to avoid any trouble, Daoguang also agreed to Lin Zexu's proposal to destroy it on the spot.
Why use seawater leaching to destroy the method
Since the Daoguang Emperor also agreed to the practice of destroying on the spot, Lin Zexu needed to consider how to destroy such a large amount of opium, according to the previous way of opium destruction, the main way to adopt was the "smoke and soil mixed with tung oil incineration method", which was very simple and fast to operate.
At first, Lin Zexu also had the intention of using this method, but when Lin Zexu conducted a field investigation of the place where opium was destroyed in the past, he found that this method was completely unworkable, why did he come to such a conclusion? There are two main reasons:
The first reason is that there are residues in the previous destruction method, when the opium is destroyed, there will be a part of the residue left in the soil, mixed with the soil, so that when the smoke is sold, there will soon be addicts who will directly use the shovel to get the soil back and continue to enjoy it at home.
There is no doubt that this method of destruction is definitely not thorough enough, and the addict's move to shovel soil home with a shovel is too bad to be difficult, and in the process of grabbing soil, there will be casualties, which is a scene that Lin Zexu does not want to see.
The second reason why it cannot be destroyed by the old method is the poisonous smoke released after the opium is burned, and everyone knows that after the opium is burned, it will release the poisonous smoke, and these smokes are the main culprits that cause the addiction of those who smoke opium.
On such an important occasion as the destruction of opium, there will certainly be many people to watch and join in the fun, using the ancient method of destroying more than two million kilograms of opium, and the smoke generated is estimated to be enough to prompt onlookers to become addicted to smoking, and even Lin Zexu and the relevant responsible personnel will be deeply affected, so that selling cigarettes will not only play no role, but also prompt more people to become addicted to smoking, and the gains are not worth the loss.
After comprehensive consideration, Lin Zexu felt that the previous method naturally could not be used anymore, so Lin Zexu began to think about studying new ways of selling cigarettes, and after careful study, Lin Zexu came up with the "seawater leaching method" to destroy opium.
Before the sale of cigarettes in Humen, Lin Zexu had arranged for the staff to dig up the ponds for selling cigarettes at the seaside, and the bottom of these pools was paved with stone slabs and sealed with wooden planks around them to ensure that when the cigarettes were sold, it would not affect innocent people.
On the day of the sale of the cigarette, Lin Zexu ordered the staff to pour salt water and lime into the pool, and wait until the lime encountered the chemical reaction of the salt water, and then pour opium into it, so that the opium would quickly become slag, and when the tide rose and fell, it would follow the waves into the sea, and those addicts with shovels and watching would grit their teeth in hatred, but there was no way to get these opiums again.
epilogue
Humen tobacco sales is definitely the most exciting thing in history, Lin Zexu thus became a national hero in the hearts of the Chinese nation, even if later the British launched the Opium War because of the sale of cigarettes in Humen, after the defeat of the war Daoguang let Lin Zexu become a scapegoat and dismiss him, but this still does not affect Lin Zexu's glorious image in the hearts of the people, which will forever be in history!
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