History cannot be deceived for long, just as the people cannot be deceived for a long time. ——Huagang (middle)
Articles categorized | historical anecdotes
The article has a word count| 1090 words, and it takes about 3 minutes to read
In the late Qing Dynasty, the weakness of national strength seems to be the consensus of the people, but in fact, even in the early days of the Succession of the Daoguang Emperor, the Qing Dynasty still occupied an extremely obvious dominant position in foreign trade, silver from different countries continued to flow into the Qing Dynasty, and the small industrial products of the British merchants, such as knives and forks, courtesy, etc., came to the Qing Dynasty and found that they basically could not be sold.
Driven by profits, British merchants began to dump opium on the Qing Dynasty, and made a fortune from it, which also prompted more drug dealers to come to the Qing Dynasty, and gradually "opium" almost prevailed in the Qing Dynasty, not only the outflow of silver 200 million, directly impacting the economic system of the Qing Dynasty, and the physical and mental health of opium addicts also suffered great damage, if allowed to spread then the consequences will be unimaginable.
Many people of insight saw the risks involved in this situation, and they were worried and proposed to "ban smoking", but they did not know how to ban smoking, especially before the Daoguang Emperor himself ascended the throne, he had been addicted to opium, deeply aware of the harm of opium, and also knew the difficulty of smoking ban, and had no confidence in whether it could be successfully smoked. At this time, Lin Zexu gave him confidence.
When Lin Zexu was the governor of Jiangsu and the governor of Huguang, he banned opium in Jiangsu and Huguang respectively, and the effect was very good, so that opium in both places was eliminated. Encouraged by this, the Daoguang Emperor appointed him as a minister of Chincha and went to Guangdong, where opium was most rampant.
After Lin Zexu arrived in Guangzhou, local officials and some foreign businessmen came to visit one after another, believing that as long as a small amount of opium and a large amount of bribes were handed over, the "smoking ban" would be a big deal. However, in the face of these people, Lin Zexu said mercilessly: "Within three days, hand over all the opium, otherwise the law will not exist!" ""
Subsequently, under a series of operations, Lin Zexu successfully grasped the list of all opium dealers, and quickly seized all their opium by means of thunderous attack, reaching a staggering 19187 boxes of 2119 bags, weighing 1 million kilograms. Lin Zexu originally planned to send all the opium to the capital and have the emperor personally preside over the "opium trafficking", but due to the inconvenience of transportation and fear of encountering safety problems on the road, he chose to destroy it on the spot.
Lin Zexu was in charge of tobacco marketing activities in Jiangsu and Huguang. The method he used at that time was "burning tobacco soil mixed with tung oil", that is, pouring tung oil on opium and burning it directly, but this would destroy the fertility of the land, and some bad tobacco dealers could also extract some opium from the soil, so Lin Zexu adopted the "seawater asphalt method".
That is to say, this pit was dug near the seashore, and it is also very elaborate, and the bottom and the four walls must be separated by large stone slabs to prevent opium leakage. Then the sea water is introduced, the opium is soaked in the sea water for half a day, and then the lime is poured, and the lime will boil when it meets the water, so that the opium will gradually dissolve at high temperatures, and there are many soldiers who constantly stir to completely dissolve the opium.
After the opium is completely dissolved, the pool water is discharged back to the sea, and the pool is sealed. According to Lin Zexu's diary, "digest opium in one day, release the ocean, and make the aquatic people temporarily migrate in advance to avoid its poison."
When Lin Zexu put the water of the smoke extraction pond into the ocean, he first temporarily drove out the aquatic animals in that area, so as to avoid the animals from being poisoned by opium, the so-called "knowing the world, and loving the grass and trees", probably referring to people like Lin Zexu.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the giant Lin Was passed on by Xu Lie
History has no real scientific value, and its sole purpose is to educate others. - George W. Qu Weilian (English)