Chapter 20 Chapter 19 The Poppy Kingdom

1 In fact, as early as the educated youth, we had a superficial perceptual understanding of drugs, because across the border is the Golden Triangle, we often inevitably deal with drugs.One day, a Burmese mountaineer hid in a sugarcane forest to defecate. The female educated youth guarding the youth heard the movement, thought there was a wild animal, and was so scared that she almost peed her pants.Running back to the company to report, the company commander led a group of armed forces to surround the sugarcane field, and found that the frontier man not only pooped and made the sugarcane forest smell bad, but also ate more than a dozen immature green sugarcane in one go .

Originally, this kind of thing was not serious, and we let it go after a few words of education. We educated youths often steal green sugar cane, but we don't shit in the sugar cane forest.But this day, because of mobilizing the army, the company commander accidentally stepped on a lot of thin shit, which was so bad that others covered their noses.Unexpectedly, the famous court came out in the first trial.It turned out that this man's bamboo basket contained wild fruits on the top, but smoke covered with banana leaves on the bottom. Opium is opium. We have taken history classes at school, we know about the famous Opium War, and we also know that Lin Zexu is a national hero.The opium we saw that day looked like dog feces, wrapped in plastic paper, dark, and weighed two or three catties, converted into international standard units of measurement, it was a thousand or so grams.According to today's anti-drug standards, it can be regarded as a major case, and the person who solves a major case should be awarded the title of anti-drug hero.But at that time, no one in China took drugs. Smoking opium seemed to be a thing of Lin Zexu's time a hundred years ago, and had nothing to do with our lives.We are all educated youths who were born and grew up under the red flag after liberation. Our minds are as pure as a piece of white paper. If it is not introduced by someone, no one will know these drugs called opium even if they are thrown on the street.

The border residents were taken away, and the pack of opium cigarettes was first placed in the meeting room of the company headquarters. Everyone thought it smelled bad, so they threw it into the warehouse, and no one cared about it for a long time.Once when we educated youths were working in the warehouse, someone dug out the package, everyone was curious, someone suggested to try it, some agreed, some disagreed.If you agree, dig out a little fingernail size, stuff it in a cigarette and smoke it in turn.I didn't dare to inhale it, I just sniffed the wafting smell of smoke, and I didn't think it smelled bad, but some people praised that the smell was really good, and it was better than "Hongtashan".The problem was that some people vomited and had diarrhea not long after, so the opium smoking incident was revealed, and all the educated youths present were punished. This incident directly led to my wrong behavior of going abroad for a short time.

In the 1960s and 1970s, opium smuggling happened from time to time. Generally, all the frontier residents on the opposite side, individually or in groups, passed by the company gate during the day and night. As long as they stopped and checked, they could find some opium.At that time, the Corps was very disciplined, and the educated youth lived a semi-militarized life, living on 26 yuan a month. The political requirements were strict, and they studied Chairman Mao's quotations every day, but they did not strictly check the contacts of the border residents.If the border residents justify that they smoke by themselves, they will be released if the quantity is not large, and if the quantity is detained, there will be no substantive punishment. Most of them will be released through education.Occasionally, I am confused by these mountain people carrying opium back and forth on both sides of the border: opium cannot be eaten as food, most of these people are dressed in rags and skinny, it can be seen that life is not rich, and they can’t even eat enough. Can't they do something else useful?

Gradually, I heard some rumors that opium was planted everywhere across the border, and everyone smoked opium, no matter the chieftain or the poor and lower-middle peasants.The Jiang Can bandit also grew opium, so they all became paper tigers.Based on the consciousness of our educated youth at that time, we thought that we should raise the red flag and go to the Golden Triangle to make a revolution, which shows that it is necessary to carry out a world revolution. But when I wandered to the northern mountains of the Golden Triangle, I didn’t find a revolutionary team. Instead, I worked with poppies for half a year, participating in and completing the whole process from sowing to harvesting. At this point, I finally answered the questions in my mind, and at the same time deeply understood what is the cruelty of primitive existence. sex.

Many years later, when I walked into the Golden Triangle again, I opened a lot of historical materials and found out that the drug epidemic in the Golden Triangle happened to be in the 1960s and 1970s.In other words, in our educated youth era, we "dance with wolves" every day without realizing it.It has been warned that in the 21st century humanity faces two major threats, one is the environment and the other is drugs.I believe this is by no means alarmist.When we are facing the Golden Triangle, this worldwide drug disaster, and the century-old nightmare that threatens our world and the common destiny of mankind, my arrow of thinking is sounding all the way, passing through the space of dark years and thick fog , to shoot at the source of a distant and rugged historical underworld.I am going to try to unravel this historical mystery that torments all historians and also puzzles me: Why is the world's largest drug center not in Europe and Africa, nor in Asia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, or India, Afghanistan, and Pakistan in the same geographical location, But it happens to be the Golden Triangle adjacent to China?Is this accidental or inevitable?Geographical factors or human factors at play?The short-lived but powerful Kuomintang empire, what consequences did their invasion bring to the Golden Triangle?What role do they play in this drug kingdom that endangers the world, priests, godfathers, or gods? ...

... 2 In 1999, I interviewed drug addicts in a drug rehabilitation center in Yunnan.In front of me was a young girl, saying girl was not quite accurate, she was actually underage, only sixteen years old, a young girl in her prime.But this flower girl withered early because she dealt with the devil. She is a middle school student with a haggard face, giving the impression of a prostitute.I asked her why she took drugs, and she said she was curious, but she said no, because she was looking for a thrill.I said have you found it?She smiled miserably and said nothing.I asked several questions in a row, but she kept her head down.Finally, I said, are you confident to quit drug addiction?She looked up suddenly, and I saw those big eyes filled with tears, and then the tears rolled down like beads.The girl said, no, it's not that I don't want to, it's... there's nothing I can do.You don't know, that devil... got inside.She burst into tears: I am finished, no one can save me!

The mournful voice of the blooming girl lingered in the air.According to reports, in this drug rehabilitation center, more than half are minors, and my heart feels like a mountain.If this continues, our country will become a big tree eaten by drugs, and our descendants will collapse like a dead tree.According to incomplete statistics, the number of registered drug victims in China has reached XX million (or XX million in another). At the border, in a frontier armed police office, I saw a certain captain of the anti-drug hero.Due to confidentiality of work, I must withhold his name.This is a young soldier who doesn't talk much, with dark skin, bright eyes and sharp eyes.At this time, he seemed a little embarrassed. The content of our interview was nothing more than various anti-drug deeds that had been published in the newspapers before.

At the end of the interview, I asked, what is your biggest distress? The soldier replied: it is passive.Drug dealers sell drugs everywhere, and it is impossible to guard against them, but we can only defend passively.We all know that the Golden Triangle is the source of drugs, where drug dealers calmly produce drugs, but we are out of reach across the border. I said, are you saying that you should take the initiative to attack? He was silent. Finally I said, can you tell me what is your greatest wish as an anti-narcotics policeman? He stood up and replied resolutely: If the superior approves, I am willing to sacrifice my life to completely wipe out the golden triangle poisonous nest and eradicate the cancer that harms the people of the world.

I saw justice and responsibility burning in the eyes of soldiers. Regarding the topic of the Golden Triangle, I once discussed with Taiwanese writer Zeng Yan: "In your opinion, why did the Golden Triangle become the poppy kingdom instead of other areas?" She replied: "I am a Christian, I can only say that I believe in God's arrangement." I said, "Why did God arrange opium for the Golden Triangle?" She suddenly asked me: "Do you know where the world's largest poppy kingdom was before the Golden Triangle?" I was dumbfounded for a moment, unable to answer.

Later, I checked a lot of historical materials and realized that for nearly three hundred years since the seventeenth century, India was the world's largest opium producer. After the nineteenth century, China replaced India as the world's largest opium producer. I don’t think this fact is meant to belittle China’s image. On the contrary, only when Chinese people know their history of shame, understand what painful lessons they have learned and caused pain to others, can we be qualified to say that Chinese people Have the confidence to benefit yourself and will benefit all mankind. The history of China's opium planting was far earlier than the famous Opium War in the 19th century, but it was self-sufficient since the ancestors smoked domestic tobacco for generations, such as "guitu", "yuntu", "chuantu" and so on, until the United Kingdom People drive warships and cannons to sell foreign cigarettes. Foreign cigarettes are plentiful, good and cheap, just like Japanese automobiles and household appliances in the 20th century. They conform to the laws of the market and cater to the consumption psychology of Chinese people. ". The heyday of China's opium cultivation was in the 1920s and 1930s. At that time, warlords fought, government orders were abolished, discipline was relaxed, and the highly profitable opium production movement swept across dozens of provinces in southwest, south and northwest China.According to incomplete statistics, before the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, China's poppy planting area had reached 80 million mu, and the opium output exceeded 60,000 tons, which was 2,000 times the opium output of the Golden Triangle at that time and more than ten times the total output of all countries in the world. Nearly 100 million people.As a result, China won three titles in the world: the most poppy planting area, the largest opium production, and the largest drug addict population. This brings me to an interesting question. Imperialists in the 19th century, such as the British, sold opium and did evil deeds, but did they themselves take drugs?The answer is clear and no, the British do not take drugs.Why don't they take drugs?Because of high awareness, or for some other reason?Because from the regional distribution of opium consumption for more than 100 years, Europe is basically zero, Asia has the most, and the Indochina Peninsula, Indochina countries and China are the most.Is this accidental, or inevitable? I visited Japan in 1995. At the Tokyo Museum, I saw Commodore Perry leading the US fleet in 1853, which for the first time forced the Emperor of Japan to sign a trade treaty. Then there was the bombardment of Shimonoseki by the fleets of the four western countries.This situation is very similar to the Opium War in China, but the results are very different: the Qing government became more corrupt and degenerate, while Japan produced the epoch-making Meiji Restoration Movement.Another concern I have is, did the westerners also sell opium to Japan?If it is sold, will the Japanese people accept it?Why? The answer also shocked me. Of course, Westerners also sold opium to Japan. The Japanese quickly accepted opium, but they did not smoke themselves like other Asian nations and became addicts and victims of opium. Instead, they shrewdly learned to use opium to make money and poison people in other countries.Following the Westerners, Japan once became the largest opium exporting country in Asia, selling opium to China and North Korea, which are separated by a strip of water.This tragic fact made me so sad that I couldn't sleep for several days, like a dog whose spine has been knocked out. What is gratifying is that it is an undoubted fact that the Chinese Communist Party only took three to four years to complete the great cause that the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China government had not completed for more than a century.By 1953, the year I was born, the Chinese government announced that opium would be completely eradicated in mainland China, and smoking would be banned.Gone are the days when imperialism poisoned the Chinese people. 3 I have mentioned several times in my book that I once had a brief period of sneaking across the border and dancing with poppies. I was under nineteen years old at the time, and I had two books in my pocket, one was the little red book "Quotations from Chairman Mao", and the other was a banned book, "Selected Poems of Lermontov" stolen from a waste paper buying station.I first wandered in the Kachin Mountains of Myanmar, looking for the great Communist guerrillas, but there were no red flags, no revolution in the mountains, and the mountains and forests were undulating and vast. The legendary guerrillas were always like fish in the sea.Later, I wandered to and fro in the mountainous area of ​​Shan State, where I fell ill. Fortunately, I met a kind-hearted mountain resident, Brother Baile. After I recovered, I stayed in the village. In the rainy season of 1998, when I went to the Golden Triangle for interviews, there was not a single poppy flower. This does not mean that drugs have disappeared, but it is not yet the season for sowing and flowering of poppies.Whether it is Qian Dayu or Meng Xiaoye, they pointed to those deep mountains and old forests and told me that in a few months, here will be a sea of ​​poppies, what came to my mind was the first time I had done more than 20 years ago. It was the first time I saw the thrilling impression of poppies.This is a picture that has been frozen for a long time, just like a baby's memory, which grows with life and is deeply burned into the soul. I still clearly remember that when I was just recovering from a serious illness and had just escaped from the brink of death, I climbed out of the bamboo building crookedly, with exhaustion and weakness all over my body, and finally walked under the bright and warm sunshine.I saw that the valley facing me was boiling like the sea, the breeze was blowing, the birds were singing, and the colorful flowers were blooming in full bloom.The distant mountains are close to the valleys, the mountains are deep and the valleys are deep. Pieces of colorful clouds are falling from the sky, and the earth is resplendent and splendid, just like a fairyland descending on the world.The magnificent sea of ​​flowers suddenly submerged me like a tide, and my heart stopped beating for a moment, embracing death like a drowning person, and my heart happily yearned for this beautiful suffocation. Brilliant music played, and the genius poet Lermontov sang loudly facing the sea: In the light blue clouds on the sea/There is a solitary sail shining white light/What it seeks, in a distant foreign land/It What do you leave behind, in your lovely hometown? /Below is the blue waves clearer than the blue sky/Above is the golden yellow brilliant sun/And it, restlessly, is praying for the storm/As if there is peace only in the storm. I burst into tears immediately, and the ice in my heart began to melt. I was so moved by nature that I couldn't be more.In front of me, there is a sea of ​​flowers, colorful and in full bloom, blooming beautiful life in the spring breeze and shining in the sun.The sea of ​​flowers is boundless, falling from the far horizon to my eyes, like a piece of unparalleled exquisite satin.Bees and butterflies are flying, the fragrance of flowers is overflowing, the breeze is whispering, the sun is singing, and the beautiful things temporarily resolve the loneliness and pain in my heart.I would rather believe that this is a colorful road leading to heaven, who doesn't cry and laugh at this breathtakingly beautiful fairyland? A Shan girl named Ma Qing (sound) walked by me. She watched my crazy behavior in surprise and said to me in half-baked Chinese: "Little Han, mud (you) sucks soil (opium) What? There are no fireworks, but how many streets (one street every five days) are there?" The mountain people call the local overseas Chinese "little Han people" regardless of their age.I raised my head and looked at her puzzled, she repeated, and Basil's wife Jin Manbu (sound) explained with a smile: "She said, these are fireworks (poppies), and there are still twenty Days. She thought you were addicted to cigarettes." It turns out that these incomparably beautiful flowers are poppies called devil's flowers!I was dumbfounded at the same time, but also dumbfounded at the misunderstanding of the kind girl. Soon I discovered that poppies are actually very similar to the world-famous Dutch tulips. They bloom red, white and pink flowers, proud and coquettish, against the high blue sky and white clouds, and swaying towards people in the warm subtropical smoky wind.I like these beautiful flowers. Like all the beautiful life in the world, they are delicate, noble and spotless. They interpret life enthusiastically, open themselves up, and perfectly demonstrate the meaning of existence endowed by nature to all things.People say that the poppy is the flower of the devil. I think it is very unfair. Is it the responsibility of the woman herself to make a prostitute a prostitute? Flowers themselves have no sin, and the devil hides in people's hearts. 4 Poppy is called "Bi Ke" (sound) in the local dialect, which means a flower that can sing.As for why poppies can sing, I heard a legend from the old grandmother of the leader A Jin.The old woman was said to be ninety years old, with a face wrinkled like a hickory nut, and a pair of withered hands stretched out tremblingly like chicken feet.Every day she spends a long time leaning on the side of the firepit blowing opium. There are two ways to smoke local opium: one is to mix raw shredded tobacco with raw opium (raw opium), stuff it into a bamboo chimney and light it for smoking, followed by The hookah is almost the same, and it is called "rudder handle".The other is the smoking method that came from China, which is to smoke with smoking utensils more elegantly.First boil the raw paste on the smoke lamp, pick out a sticky bubble with a thin iron braze and roast it on the smoke lamp, and then put it on the copper bong and turn it while smoking. The old lady used expensive copper smoking sets.I often see her tremblingly picking up a boiled smoke bubble, leaning against the lampshade and turning it around while sucking, her lips puffed up and down, like a chicken butt laying eggs, and then instead of laying eggs, she spewed out puffs of blue. smoke.The expression on her face also changed accordingly, gradually transitioning from urgency, hunger, and greed to kindness and happiness.When she was addicted to cigarettes, she blinked her teary eyes half-blinded by the fireworks, and told me intermittently the following beautiful and moving folklore: Ninety-nine fairies descended from the sky, and ninety-eight sisters all found Mr. , lead a happy life.Only the youngest sister lost her way in the deep mountains, only seeing wolves, insects, tigers and leopards, but no villages or people.Amei couldn't get out of the mountain, so she had to keep singing, and finally died of depression, turning into a beautiful sea of ​​poppies.The old woman also said that if you hide behind a stone during the flowering season, you will surely hear the fairies singing.But you must not make a sound, or you will suffer a catastrophe. I was a Red Guard, and I was educated in atheism, so I naturally don't believe in nonsense about fairies.I deliberately said: What song is the fairy singing, do you want to have a date?The old woman stopped blowing the smoke, her blind eyes shot out a vicious light, and the coal fire flickered, making her look even more like the old hag riding a broom in the legend.The old hag leaned forward and said viciously: Curse you men! I shrank back in fright, and no longer dared to answer her words, I slipped out like a mouse. In the Golden Triangle, I gradually walked into the life of the local people, and experienced the harshness of nature and the primitive form of existence with them, so I saw how poppy, as the most important cash crop, firmly supports the daily life of the mountain people, just like Farmers grow vegetables and grain, just like herdsmen herd cattle and sheep.Imagine if farmers have no food to grow, and herdsmen have no cattle and sheep to graze, what kind of disaster will befall them?My landlord, Big Brother Basil, said: Big smoke, we like it very much, exchange for food, salt, and money.Also change girls.This means that opium is the most valuable item in their lives, which can be exchanged for one year's necessities of life, and can also be exchanged for wives.In fact, the local people have long had an indissoluble bond with opium poppy: the fruit (big smoke) is a year’s economic income; poppy shells are sold to drug dealers, poppy stalks are fed to livestock, smoke paste is used to treat diseases, and even poppy seeds are on their tables. Indispensable edible oil. The first time I tasted the delicacy of poppies was not long after I arrived at the cottage. The landlord, Brother Basil, came back from hunting in the mountains. He had a hare and a grouse hanging on his gunpowder gun. It must be considered good luck.His wife, Jin Manbu, has a big belly and is happily busy by the firepit. A grouse is dedicated to the headman Ajin, and the rabbit is his own.That night, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse outside, and the black silhouette of the mountains was as quiet as a painting. Red firewood was burning in the bamboo building, and rotten chicken rice was boiled on the fire pond. In the house, the aroma of sour bamboo shoots, chicken offal and rice gradually filled the shabby house.This is a rare happy moment in my wandering life in the Golden Triangle. The three children of the owner and I are waiting by the firepit like greedy cats, and our faces are red with happiness like fire.At this time, the hostess got up and went out. Brother Basil was blowing smoke with the "rudder barrel", winking at us happily and saying, "Sister-in-law is going to get something good!" When my sister-in-law came in, I saw an extra bamboo tube in her hand. It was an old bamboo tube, so old that it turned black, it seemed to be a hundred years old.I leaned forward curiously and watched her open the lid, and a disgusting stench rushed straight to my forehead, which almost didn't make me faint.I saw a pile of feces-thick filth rolling in the pot, thank goodness!I almost didn't cry out, is this something people eat? My sister-in-law saw my disgust and doubts, she was happy, she pursed her lips and said with a smile: "Little man, this is tobacco seed tofu, it is delicious. You will know after you try it." I fought my nausea so desperately that hunger and appetite finally got the better of me.I think there are thousands of different truths in the world. In the final analysis, there is one sentence: what other people can eat, of course I can eat too.Brother Basil is my savior. When I fell ill on the mountain, he accidentally found and saved me, so I must not let their good intentions fail.When I made up my mind not to be afraid of sacrifice, a miracle happened. The original smell gradually disappeared, replaced by the smell of meat from the soup pot, which made me salivate. When I tasted the first sip of fresh soup under the eyes of everyone, all doubts and disgust disappeared immediately.My God, smoked tofu!The soup is not only delicious, but there is also a layer of shiny oil floating on the surface of the soup.My hand stuck out of my throat, needless to say, it was an unforgettable meal, and I greedily poured the whole big bowl of soup into my stomach. 5 The locals call poppies lazy crops, which means that they do not need to work as hard as growing food, which is similar to growing grass.But my experience is that there is no such thing as a free harvest in the world, and poppies sometimes have to pay a high price. I worked for the leader A Jin on the mountain, and I agreed to only pay for food and not pay wages.Once the rainy season is over, I will follow everyone to cut mountains.Chopping mountains is a man's job. You have to wield a long knife to clean up the weeds and shrubs all over the mountains and fields, and burn them to create a smooth hillside.Then use a hoe to prepare the ground, smashing the lumps of soil one by one, and finally it is the women's turn to excrete.The dirty work in the local area is done by women, such as manure removal. Women wear thick black kerchiefs on their heads, put the fetid-smelling livestock manure into the basket, put the back rope on the head, and then bend their waists and head. He almost bent down to the ground, and carried the filth up the mountain step by step. Although I work for the headman for free, everyone in the village knows that I am a student and an educated person.In the Golden Triangle, educated people have the right to be respected, so the chief exempted me from carrying shit with women, allowing me to stand by and stand by among men with a sense of superiority. Next, sowing, weeding, thinning, and greening.In order to prevent birds and beasts from ruining, they have to take turns to live on the mountain and watch the night.It was a drought that year, and the rainy season ended early. The sun baked the soil into powder, and poppies, which are drought-resistant crops, also grew yellow and thin.The headman invited a wizard to catch ghosts.The wizard made a hexagram, and then muttered, tree ghost and mountain ghost, don't fight for water with others, go carry the spring water in the west to water the land. So the village, regardless of gender, age or age, was dispatched by all, including the headman A Jin. Everyone carried a big bamboo tube to the spring in the west to fight the drought.This moving scene of unity reminds me of the farm’s fight against drought. The difference is that the educated youths on the farm each have a pole and a pair of large buckets. Under the small tree of Nashuang.Carrying a bamboo barrel is a strange experience for me, no matter what, when I put the strap on the top of my head, the bare bamboo barrel slides back and forth with the bumps of my feet, and my mind and body are both unbearably painful.I wonder why they don't use iron or plastic buckets?But I quickly understood that metal and plastic are products of civilized society, and the footsteps of that era are still far away from the Golden Triangle.Like rescuing a baby, we poured tubes of life-saving water under the evil poppy seedlings. In December of the Burmese calendar, which is February and March of the Gregorian calendar, the poppies finally bloomed. Once the Spring Festival is over, the Shanzhai beats the mangoes and elephant-foot drums to celebrate the harvest, and the harvest season is coming.The headman once again invited wizards, and the villagers danced traditional elephant drumming and god worship dances all night long, worshiping the mountain gods and the land, and praying for a good harvest.In the end, a cow-grabbing ceremony was held, in which a bull was tied to a post, and the men were naked, singing and dancing, and stabbing the bull to death with iron spears. People took turns to drink the bull's blood wine, and ate the beef that the wizard had cast a spell on. Prepared knives, scrapers and bowls went up the mountain. Once the flowering period is over, the pot-shaped fruit grows up, ranging from pigeon eggs to chicken eggs. The locals call it smoke fruit bag.Harvesting opium is to harvest the sap of green tobacco fruit packs. When the sun comes out, people walk into the ground with dew. Their tools are very simple: several thin blades are bound together, exposing shallow and sharp blades, and There is a bamboo scraper.People dexterously draw two or three strokes from top to bottom along the surface of the fruit, and soon there will be milky white juice oozing from the wound, which is called "cutting smoke pulp".These fresh smokes are very similar to milk and latex. They hang thickly on the wound, like a string of white tears, and an intoxicating slightly sweet fragrance begins to fill the air. Cutting smoke pulp seems simple, but it is actually very tiring. You have to bend over all day, bury your head, and keep paddling. You don’t know how many tens of thousands of times you have to repeat this mechanical action. I scratched my own hand.Because of my weakness and malnutrition after a long-term illness, I fell to the ground one day and rolled to the side of the cliff.Fortunately, that kind girl named Ma Qing hugged me.In those later difficult and helpless days, many kind-hearted mountain people injected precious courage and confidence into my life. Oxidation occurs as soon as the smoke comes into contact with air.Usually within a few hours, up to ten or so hours, the smoke pulp starts to turn black and harden, making the surface of the fruit look like a few ugly scars.I estimate that one tobacco fruit bag can scrape about 05-1 gram of pulp juice, and there are about 5,000 poppies in one mu of land, that is to say, one mu of land can produce about several catties of raw paste, and people must rush in Harvest before the bacon is ripe, otherwise the juice will dry up as soon as the fruit is ripe.People use a bamboo scraper to carefully scrape the oozing smoke pulp into a prepared bamboo bowl, put it in a cool place to dry, and then tie it into a small package with banana leaves and plastic cloth. This is raw opium.Local people call it "raw cream" and "raw smoke soil". At noon that day, when the last lump of raw smoke was wrapped in banana leaves, I heard the dogs in the village barking from a distance, as if they were going crazy with excitement.Then we all straightened up and saw a long procession of mules and horses coming up the winding mountain road outside the stockade.A Jin blinked his mouse eyes, his face showed joy, and said that the caravan was coming. 6 Caravan rules usually do not enter the stockade, so the merchants quickly set up colorful tents in the open space outside the stockade, unloaded many packs covered with oilcloth from the backs of the animals, and opened the tarpaulins one by one in front of everyone. Immediately conjure up many dazzling goods like a magician, causing the onlookers to gasp in amazement.The commodities I saw included salt, rock sugar, cloth, rubber shoes, kerosene, tin bowls, aluminum pots, candlesticks, waist knives, which were scarce in the local area, daily necessities, gold and silver ornaments, glass mirrors, needles and threads that women loved, and Shan men. Three treasures that cannot be separated: alcohol, bong and shotgun.This time the merchant brought a remarkable commodity, an exquisite double-barreled shotgun.The shotgun was not the usual gunpowder gun. Those large bullets were yellow and gleamed like gold in the plateau sun.I saw the headman, Ajin, with his eyes shining brightly, circling around the shotgun like a dog. This is a grand annual festival in the cottage, people are cheering and horses are shouting, and even the animals can smell the festive atmosphere, and they all chase after each other wagging their tails as if they were in heat. Of course, the merchants were experts in business, and they only exchanged opium, animal fur and jade, and opium was measured in "jump" (about 15 kilograms).For example, a shake of cigarettes can be exchanged for a bolt of calico plus a pot of alcohol, or half a shake of salt.On the contrary, a pack of rock sugar can be exchanged for half a cigarette, a bottle of "Ten Drops of Water" (produced in mainland China) for headache and cold can be exchanged for half a cigarette, and so on.The measuring tool used by both of them is not a scale, but a self-made primitive tool: a wooden stick is used as a lever, one end is pressed with salt and alcohol, then the other end has to be pressed with the same weight of opium.If one end is smoke, the other end is balanced by some commodity.The key factor in adjusting the value of the goods of both parties is the position of the lifting rope on the wooden stick. The mountain people squatted on the ground, treating those cunning foreign businessmen honestly and generously.Salt is naturally a necessity. A shake of raw cigarettes can be exchanged for a small bag (about one catty) of salt, and a bear skin can be exchanged for five catties. It can be seen that salt is as expensive as gold.The headman, Ajin, was the richest man in the village. He extravagantly exchanged a handful of opium for a pack of rock candy for his son, so the three snotty sons of Ajin's family immediately became the heroes worshiped by the children in the village.The children scrambled to lie on the ground to be the hero's horse, and then got the qualification to lick the sweet sizzle of the hero's mouth, sharing the joy of eating rock candy. The local people do not have the habit of wearing shoes, and only a very small number of people can own a pair of rubber shoes.I saw that these rubber shoes were all printed with Chinese trademarks. They flowed into the Golden Triangle through border trade, and after several rounds, the value of ordinary rubber shoes increased by dozens or even hundreds of times.I saw it with my own eyes. It was Ah Jin again, who bought back two pairs of Chinese rubber shoes, one big and one small, from the merchant at the exorbitant price of three throws of opium (approximately nine catties!). successor son.Of course, more people can only envy, because the leader is the commander in the village, and it is a natural privilege for the leader to have rock candy and rubber shoes. After a long period of deliberation, Ma Qing's father finally determined the main contents of the exchange items, which included: five catties of salt, ten catties of gunpowder and iron sand, an aluminum pot for cooking rotten rice, two steel needles and a roll of foreign thread. A chemical glass mirror, a candlestick worshiping Buddha, a jug of spirits, a piece of nylon cloth, and a beautiful silver collar.Once these items were converted, they immediately exhausted all the sweat and harvest of the whole year's hard work of the family, but they had no complaints, and there were satisfied and happy smiles on their scorched and simple faces. Nearly two days of trading was coming to an end, and merchants packed up their packs one after another. They left behind the goods of civilized society in exchange for heavy loads of opium and animal skins.At this time, the last thrilling climax appeared.The headman, Ajin, was like a cunning black bear, pretending to be indifferent, sniffing around the shotgun non-stop.The shrewd businessman had already seen all of this, and he sat firmly on the Diaoyutai, pretending to turn a blind eye to A Jin's play hard to get tactics.So the two sides launched a fierce and long battle of wits and courage.When the businessman packed up his things and was about to leave, Ah Jin finally lost his composure. He rushed out of the bamboo building like an angry and sad leopard, blocking the way of the caravan. "Is the headman going to give us a girl instead?" said the businessman on horseback, winking happily at each other and pretending to be surprised. "You keep the gun!" Ah Jin said resolutely, and wiped the eye mucus sticking to the corners of his eyes with his sleeve. "...the kind with two barrels, bullets... I want them all." "Ho ho!... It takes a lot of raw cigarettes in exchange." The businessman deliberately provoked him with a look of disbelief, as if he was not the most powerful leader in the village, but a poor boy. "How much do you want? I have it!" This time, Ah Jin had a tragic expression on his face. "Thirty swings. Thirty, one swing is not a lot." The businessman offered sky-high prices. "Thirty? Aha... I'll give you ten shakes, but most of them won't do it!" Ah Jin squatted on the ground, moaning as if he had been robbed. This lengthy bargaining was like a protracted rally, also like a tug-of-war, where you pulled over and I pulled over, but neither side achieved a substantive victory.The mountain people gathered together enthusiastically, commenting publicly and making suggestions, as if the success or failure of the leader is related to everyone's collective interests.In the end, the leader succeeded with his indomitable tenacity, and the shotgun was sold at a price of 23 and a half. A Jin became the first local hunter to use a double-barreled shotgun instead of a traditional firecracker to fight a bear.It's a pity that the good times didn't last long. Half a year later, he was bitten off by a crazy black bear. The headman Ajin Xizi said that the caravans are buzzing bees and dancing butterflies, and it is the poppies blooming in the Golden Triangle that attract them to gather honey. If there were no poppies in the mountains, would the bees come again? 7 It was one day a few months later, in the bamboo building, I happened to see the landlord I respect from the bottom of my heart, the young woman Jin Manbu who is also a mother, holding the thick "rudder barrel", like suckling a bird , Exhale the smoke inhaled into the baby's mouth.The locals get married early, and although Jin Manbu is a mother, she is no older than me.I was surprised at first, then rushed forward like an angry bear, grabbed her chimney and threw it far away. She raised her head in bewilderment, looking at my face flushed with anger, those pure water eyes were filled with question marks, as if she was carefully asking, did I do something wrong? I confronted her loudly, my voice out of tune with anger.I said, "You... how could you do this?" She lowered her head to look around, then raised her face and asked me nervously: "What? Me, what's the matter?" 当她弄清楚我生气的原因后，立刻轻松地笑起来，连连安慰我说：“不有关系不有关系，小汉人！我们世世代代这样喂娃子，(母亲)吸了大烟，奶水就好，娃子吃了不闹病。不信你看……”她抬起一只丰满的乳房，用手轻轻一挤，雪白的乳汁就像珍珠泉一样喷出来，臊得我满脸通红。 “……娃子要是闹睡，闹肚子，你给他喷几口(烟)，他就好了，睡得乖乖的。不光娃子，我们大人要是闹病，头疼肚子疼，打摆子，吸吸烟，再不就吞一丁点生烟，保准你壮得跟头黑熊一样。” “生病可以吃药，为什么要吸鸦片呢？你不知道有很大危害吗？”我对她的理论并不信服，觉得是她在为自己的恶习辩解。 “我们不有药，鸦片就是药。你刚来，打摆子，发烧头热，就是给你喷了烟，吞了生鸦片才好的。”我大惊，愣了一阵，只好躲到一边去。那个婴儿果然在母亲悉心照料下安睡过去。 在我曾经短暂地走过金三角的那段日子，我看见美丽的罂粟花不仅像旗帜一样飘扬在掸邦高原的红土地上，而且它的根系还深植于那些山地民族的灵魂里。他们从未走出大山，原始封闭，大自然给予他们的唯一恩赐就是贫穷和罂粟。他们在努力同贫穷搏斗的同时收获罪恶，罂粟是他们通往天堂或者地狱的唯一途径。他们决不是天生的罪犯，然而正是这些救助和呵护过我的善良而勤劳的山民，他们源源不断种植出来的大烟被提炼成更加可怕的海洛英，走私到中国大陆，到亚洲、欧洲、美洲和世界各地，毒害全球人类和他们的后代。魔鬼不是自己生长出来，而是被包括我的恩人罗勒大哥一家这样善良的人们共同制造并释放出来的。 联合国禁毒署资料，二十世纪下半叶，在亚洲南部以种植罂粟为生的各国人数超过一千万人，地域主要分布在萨尔江流域直至湄公河流域的大约二十万平方公里的三角形地带，区域面积之广大，相当于缅甸国土的三分之一，或者七个台湾岛加在一起的总和。 这个区域就被形象地称为“魔鬼金三角”。