Chapter 9 Chapter 2 The Sudden War

On January 8, 1839, Beijing, the weather was clear.After Lin Zexu, the imperial envoy and governor of Huguang, bid farewell to the endless stream of guests, at noon, he used the imperial envoy to pass the defense.As an imperial envoy, Lin Zexu and his entourage left Zhangyimen from Zhengyangmen, went all the way south, and went straight to Guangdong. Lin Zexu went to Guangdong to ban opium.And his mission was caused by Huang Juezi. On June 2, 1838, just seven months before Lin Zexu left Beijing, Huang Juezi, the Minister of Honglu Temple, who was favored by Emperor Daoguang for his "outspokenness in situations", issued a memorial to strictly prohibit opium.He believes that opium has been banned repeatedly and intensified because of the improper methods of smoking ban in the past.

He said: If it is banned in Haikou, because the inspectors are greedy to profit from it, "who will seriously investigate and deal with it?"If trade is prohibited, not only will the customs duties in Guangdong be lost, but foreign ships selling cigarettes will be moored in the ocean, and there will be treacherous people to carry them.If the tobacco dealers are seized and the tobacco dens are strictly controlled, it will be difficult to be effective because of the obstruction of the subordinate officials in Guanjin, the government soldiers, the unworthy descendants of the wealthy families, and the friends and family members of the local officials.If inland cultivation is used instead of imports, then "you can't enjoy eating it", not only the smoke from outside is still there, but another harm will happen to the inland.

Therefore, he proposed a new method, enacting a new law, with a one-year deadline to quit smoking, and then seized and punished the smokers. Huang Juezi's memorial calls for a change in the old methods of emphasizing Haikou, emphasizing "barbarian merchants", re-investigating tobacco dealers and opium halls, and directing the goal of smoking bans to opium addicts.In other words, the focus of the smoking ban has been expanded from the coast to the interior, and it has become a domestic judicial action to hunt and kill drug addicts across the country. Huang Juezi's proposition is exactly the opposite of his attitude three years ago, when he advocated a strict ban on Haikou.

Emperor Daoguang, who was troubled by the outflow of silver, saw this rather novel suggestion, and did not immediately make up his mind. Instead, he sent this memorial to the generals and governors in various places, asking them to "express their opinions, discuss the regulations, and quickly implement the memorial. ". As a result, Emperor Daoguang received 29 memorials from various generals and governors. Judging from these 29 memorials, only 8 of them agreed with Huang Juezi's proposition that the smoker punished them. Bu Xing'er, Guiliang, governor of Henan, Chen Luan, governor of Jiangsu, and Li Yumei, governor of Donghe.The rest only advocated heavier punishment for smokers without decapitation.However, all the memorials advocate strengthening the arrest of cigarette peddlers and sellers and increasing the punishment.From this point of view, all the memorials do not agree with the third point of analysis in Huang Juezi's pre-quoted memorial.

It is worth noting that among the 29 memorials, 19 advocated that the focus of the ban on smoking was to ban Haikou, which was contrary to Huang Juezi's proposal to ban smoking; among the 19 memorials, except Guiliang, Chen Luan and Su Tingyu also disagreed with the death penalty for smokers, which was completely opposite to Huang Juezi's opinion.What is even more striking is that 8 of the 19 memorials were directly directed at Guangdong, and the memorials were made by Governor Qishan of Zhili, General Baoxing of Shengjing, Governor Zhang Yuesong of Hubei, Governor Funaiyanga of Shaanxi, and Governor Wu of Zhejiang. Er Gonger, Gui Liang, governor of Henan, Liang Zhangju, governor of Guangxi, and Chen Luan, governor of Jiangsu.Among them, the words of Zhang Yuesong, Wuer Gonge and Gui Liang were the most violent.They said that in order to ban smoking, the source of opium must be cleared up. The source of opium is in Guangdong. To ban smoking, the source of poison must be cut off in Guangdong.

Why do so many officials disagree with Huang Juezi's opinion? Some commentators believe that this is an action by Qi Shan and other anti-smoking faction (relaxation faction) to play tricks, improve their methods, and destroy the smoking ban.In this regard, I have already expressed a different opinion in the introduction.In the political atmosphere at that time, officials were able to figure out the emperor's will.When Emperor Daoguang clearly expressed his inclination in the decree, none of the ministers dared to use their black gauze hat to make fun of it, so as to follow in the footsteps of Xu Naiji.It is difficult to fully see their inner world only from the superficial words of the memorial.

I thought that the reason why so many local officials disagreed with Huang Juezi's opinion was that they were afraid that this move might bring them danger. According to the law of the Qing Dynasty, killing one person must be tried at the county, government, and provincial levels. For the emperor, the cabinet draft will be handed over to the Ministry of Punishments for approval, and finally the emperor will make a decision.If smokers are punished, then so many addicts will inevitably bring endless workload to local officials and subordinate officials (everyone who has read the files of the Ministry of Punishment in the Qing Dynasty knows the number of documents in a capital crime case); What's more, the trial of this type of case is likely to involve rich families and wealthy households, so it is not just a matter of workload, but will involve endless troubles.

According to the regulations of the officials of the Qing Dynasty, if the local officials fail to announce in time that the drug users have been eliminated in their territory, it is undoubtedly a manifestation of ineffective work and should be punished according to unfinished cases; if the local officials announce that the drug users have been eliminated in their territory, then When a drug addict is found, no matter where the official is transferred, he should be punished according to the law of neglect.This is like Catch-22, magistrates cannot get rid of the fate of being punished anyway.

Therefore, they advocate strengthening the investigation and punishment of cigarette trafficking and sales. If you catch one, you will make a contribution, and if you fail to catch it, there is no responsibility.certainly, By October 23, 1838, Emperor Daoguang had received 28 memorials for reconsideration, but he still did not make up his mind to take action. Instead, he ordered the academicians and military ministers to discuss with relevant departments and put forward opinions.This shows that everything is proceeding step by step according to the old procedures. But at this moment, two things happened.

One is that on October 25, Emperor Daoguang received a report that Prince Zhuang Yi