Chapter 13 Two major drug-trafficking powerhouses

The result of the Manchu government's anti-drugs was a complete failure. Not only did it fail to ban drugs, but it promoted the proliferation of drugs.Since you are depraved, you should simply degenerate to the end. Instead of sucking the opium shipped thousands of miles away from the British, why not grow it yourself?As a result, the original opium arable land expanded rapidly, and more and more of the arable land without opium was replanted with opium. It brought farmers four to six times the income of ordinary crops, which was enough to drive the countryside crazy. . While Britain is busy shooting opium into China, and China is also self-absorbing, France is also busy annexing the "India-China Peninsula".In 1862, it occupied southern Vietnam headed by Saigon.In 1863, Cambodia was occupied.Ten years later, in 1883, central Vietnam was occupied.In 1884, it occupied northern Vietnam.Another ten years later, in 1893, Laos was occupied.In order to invade this area and raise heavy funds for colonial rule, the French government also took a fancy to opium.The Chinese peninsula of India already had a huge drug addict population at that time—basically all Chinese, who came from China, including businessmen and laborers.

France selects some well-to-do wealthy businessmen (mostly Chinese) to issue contracts and grant them opium monopoly licenses, and they pay a considerable tax to the French colonial government on a regular basis (every six months or every year)—the tax increases every year.Under the protection of the law, they imported opium in large quantities openly.Later, the French colonial government encouraged them to build factories to refine raw opium into cooked opium that could be smoked directly, supplying the growing market. In 1915 in the 1910s, seventy-seven years after the first Opium War, under the pressure of international public opinion and morality, Britain cleaned up its mess and stopped importing opium into China.In 1928, the Nationalist Government of China was established and began to ban opium. China's vast territory, inconvenient transportation, and weak central government made the work of opium prohibition very difficult. It took 20 years of hard work to achieve some success. Effect.

However, France was the only country that openly trafficked in drugs in the 20th century. What kind of international public opinion?What human rights morality?The French all scoffed at it. France believed that it was a fool's act for Britain to stop importing opium to China, and the French would not be so stupid.China itself prohibits it, and it is their own business.The French government is fearless and brave, and is resolute in drug trafficking to the end. Anyway, the drug addicts are all Chinese and indigenous people on the Indian and Chinese peninsula. Whether they are poor or dead, the French don’t care or care. As long as they make money, it’s fine. It is the ugly psychology held by drug lords.As a result, more than half of the colonial benefits that France squeezed out on the Indian and Chinese peninsula came from opium.The awakening of Britain and China made the source of opium increasingly difficult, and the French cultivated it themselves in northwestern Vietnam and eastern Laos.Experts were also dispatched to the area that never knew what opium was, and contacted the mountain tribes, mainly Miao and Li, to impart knowledge on planting, harvesting, and sales.It happened that the soil and climate in that area were suitable for the growth of opium, so the area was gradually expanded, and the tribal chiefs were also rich in wealth, living a luxurious life like a prince in the poor and backward mountains.It need not be imagined that these chiefs were grateful and loyal to the French.

The Second World War caused great changes in the world.At the end of the war, in the mid-1940s, the French were defeated by the Japanese and expelled by the Japanese. The French, who had lost their dignity, returned to Vietnam again. India's Chinese peninsula" is back under his drug-trafficking government.Unexpectedly, they encountered strong resistance from the local people.The French despised this kind of resistance at first, and when they gradually felt the pressure, they thought of the mountains and asked for help from the Miao and Xi people. A huge force of people, to help the French, ambushed the Vietnamese rebels.As a result, in the early days of the war, the rebels suffered great setbacks.In terms of rewards for meritorious deeds, the French expanded their purchases of opium they produced in return.

——At that time, wars were raging everywhere, and opium piled up like a mountain in the Liaodong area of ​​northern Vietnam, which could not be transported out.The French expanded their purchases and became almost their benefactors.After the French bought it, they sold it in Saigon.This kind of open drug trafficking can be described as a spectacle in the civilized world.This just shows that it has been passed down in one continuous line, and who should bear the crime of drug proliferation today. Although the French used opium weapons against the disapproval of the world, they could not stop the wave of anti-aggression, and finally threw down their helmets and armor.When the Battle of Dien Bien Phu was over and the French troops in full dress climbed out of the bunkers and surrendered to the Vietnamese with ragged clothes, bare feet and armed with outdated rifles, recalling the beginning—but 90 years ago, they showed their might , Invincible, with the attitude of a conqueror, the situation when he came to the Three Kingdoms, makes people feel infinitely past and present.

However, although the French were driven away, the opium was not driven away with them, and the legacy was still there.In the late 1950s, the Americans filled the vacuum left by the French as advisers and bodyguards to the government of the newly established Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). Closely related, the CIA is responsible for recruiting, training, and supplying weapons to border mercenaries who have fought against North Vietnam for many years and have achieved brilliant results.However, the United States has to admit the fact that they cannot be loyal to them in any way, except by buying their opium.