Chapter 53 Chapter Four: The Conflict Between Two Anti-Smokers

When opium flowed into China, people of insight in China were heartbroken because it was harming our people.At the same time, the behavior of these unscrupulous businessmen has also been criticized by some people in the UK, and Elliot is the most effective one to criticize unscrupulous businessmen.He wrote to the Queen that our opium trade is a disgrace to the empire, a disgrace we shall bear forever.For the honor of the Empire, and for the honor of each of us, we must consider canceling the opium trade to China. At that time, Queen Victoria looked at it and found that it was written by an outstanding young man Elliot.He hopes to abolish China's opium and restore the honor of the empire, so that the British will no longer be the image of drug dealers, but an upright gentleman image.That being the case, let Elliot do this work, so the queen sent Elliot to China.

In this way, Elliot traveled across the ocean to China, and met Lin Zexu, the first Chinese who opened his eyes to see the world. In the beginning, the cooperation between the two was very tacit.Lin Zexu asked the British merchants to hand over opium, and Elliot unconditionally supported this.Of course all merchants who handed over opium were compensated, which is rarely mentioned, but this detail is irrelevant.The important thing is that the first conflict between Lin Zexu and Elliot happened after the Humen sale of cigarettes happened. After the cigarettes were sold out in Humen, Lin Zexu handed Elliot a document and said, "You sign it, and Elliot asked me to sign it, what kind of thing is this?"Lin Zexu said, this is your guarantee that Britain will no longer dump opium, a drug, into China.Elliott said I can't sign this thing.Lin Zexu said that your attitude is wrong. You are here on behalf of the United Kingdom and your empress. How can you not make this guarantee?Do you still want to indulge the unscrupulous businessmen in your country?Elliot said you listen to me explain to you, in our UK, everyone is independent, I was appointed by the queen to deal with the opium business, but I have no right to represent anyone, whether he is a legal businessman or not .If an agreement is reached between you and me, the contract can only be signed on my behalf, within the scope of my duties, and anything beyond my jurisdiction or involving others is invalid.As soon as Lin Zexu heard about it: Absurd, what kind of representative is your imposing representative of the British envoy if he cannot represent the British?

This was the first conflict between the two, and the seeds of discord were sown. Immediately afterwards, an incident broke out in Kowloon, where British businessmen clashed with Chinese natives.There are also many different versions about this incident. The process of the incident is irrelevant. What is important is that after the incident happened, Lin Zexu and Yilu completely turned their faces.Lin Zexu asked Yilu to hand over the murderer to rectify the law of the country.Elliot said it's not that I don't want to pay. First of all, your wording is wrong. What is a murderer?He's a suspect at best.And I'll hand over the person to you, what about the lawyer?You have to listen to the defense of the suspect.

When Lin Zexu heard about it: Did you make a mistake?Lawyers are called bad litigators here, and they should be strictly banned and not allowed.As soon as Yilu heard: No, Lin Zexu, the things in your head are really far behind the times. Although you were the first to open your eyes to see the world, you are not much closer to the world than your nation. These people offend me. It cannot be handed over to you, because you will use lynching. So Elliot set up a court by himself, hired lawyers for the criminals, and finally sentenced six blacks, and sent these six blacks back to England for imprisonment.

This incident aroused Emperor Daoguang's fury, and he immediately ordered war against the British. This is the politics of power. The emperor went to war if he wanted to, even though there was no preparation for war in advance, no mobilization for war, let alone any plan, nothing at all.After declaring war on Britain, a large number of British businessmen fled back to the country. Elliot was also severely reprimanded by Queen Victoria because he did not understand this matter. Queen Victoria said that Elliot was a man who tried every means to shorten his term. Human, which means that he can't handle the relationship with Lin Zexu well.