"The Jinliang Treaty is all over the south and east, who left behind the spring deep dock. Do not call the lotus curtain in vain, and protect Afurong in the bisha cabinet. The Qing Dynasty poet Gong Zizhen once used a poem to satirize the strange image of the aristocracy gathering at that time to smoke opium, and the "Aphrodisiac" in the poem is synonymous with opium, and since this drug flowed into China from overseas, it has brought the Qing Dynasty's economy to the brink of collapse in just 20 years.
Not only that, opium can also damage the human body, cause irreversible damage to the human body, and even cause death. In the "Dream Factory Miscellaneous Works" written by Yu Jiao of the Qing Dynasty, the tragic situation of addicts after smoking opium is described: "Addiction is so great that its people are in tears, and their hands and feet cannot be lifted, that is, the white blade is added to the front, the leopard and tiger are forced to be behind, and they only bow down to death, and cannot exercise a little." Therefore, those who have been eating opium for a long time have their shoulders shrugged and shrunken, and their colors are withered, and they are dying if their sick husbands rise up. The words were shocking.
It is reported that the last empress Wanrong was one of the victims of opium, she smoked opium for a long time, and finally had mental problems, from a vulgar empress to a skinny, crazy and crazy abandoned woman in the cold palace, which shows that her harm is endless.
In view of this situation, the Qing Dynasty's regent Lin Xu wrote to the Daoguang Emperor to request a ban on smoking, and the Daoguang Emperor allowed it. Therefore, Lin Zexu officially arrived in Guangdong on March 10, 1839, restricted all tobacco merchants to hand over all opium within 3 days, and signed an affidavit of never selling opium. A total of more than 20,000 boxes of opium were seized during the tobacco control campaign, totaling 200,000 kilograms.
After the completion of the smoking, the vigorous "Humen tobacco sales" incident began, and Lin Zexu was also very troubled and distressed about how to destroy these opiums.
He first tried it with the traditional "smoke and soil mixed with tung oil incineration method", but found that this method will not only emit poisonous gas that drifts far away, but also have anointing residue seeping into the land, and it is basically unrealistic to completely burn it. If burned on a large scale, the smoke from the smoke would affect nearby residents, and drug addicts could dig up the soil to obtain the remaining residue.
Lin Zexu is an extremely strict person, and after thinking about it, he finally found the second method - the seawater immersion method. Lin Zexu ordered people to dig out two ponds at the seashore, and then used stones and wooden planks to spread them at the bottom of the pool and around them to prevent opium from leaking. Then dig a sink attached to the pool at the edge of the pool and pour salt water into the tank to soak the smoke.
After soaking in brine for half a day, the lime is then poured into it to make it boil, and the soot is dissolved. In order to make the smoke completely dissolved, Lin Zexu also sent several soldiers to hold a wooden rake and stir it constantly, and it is said that the stench emitted at that time made Chen Rong, a classic historian of Boluo County, Guangdong, who was patrolling the pool, suddenly faint, and then died.
When the tide is low, the water of the pool will melt into the sea, and then the bottom of the pool will be completely washed, so that the smoke and soil water trickles down. In addition, Lin Zexu also ordered that fishermen should not go to sea in this area for a period of time after that, and "temporarily migrate in advance to avoid its poison."
After the sale of cigarettes in Humen, the broad masses of the Chinese people began to realize the harm of opium and awakened people's patriotic consciousness. June 3, the official start of The sale of cigarettes in Humen, was designated as a smoking ban festival during the Republic of China, and the day after it ended coincided with the International Anti-Drug Day. Although the anti-smoking campaign did not really save China from fire and water, it is undeniable that it is still a great and meaningful historical event.