Opium originally came from the "Western Regions". The earliest record of opium in Chinese medical manuals was in the first half of the 8th century.

It can be eaten or drunk, ground, cooked, added honey, brewed tea, mixed with ginger, ginseng, licorice, Cordyceps, etc., to relieve diarrhea and dysentery, arthritis, chronic cough, weak constitution and other diseases.

In the 11th century, opium was believed to be able to control men and replenish their brains.

In the Ming Dynasty, opium-added aphrodisiacs were popular - this may be one of the reasons for the high death rate of emperors in the Ming Dynasty.

Later New China archaeologists excavated the tomb of Emperor Wanli and found that his bones were found to contain morphine.

After Zhu Zilong traveled through time, he also found the bold Ming Palace chef in the kitchen of the palace. He even tried to stir-fry morphine with high heat, process the poppy seeds into coagulation, and use it instead of tofu.

This scene almost scared Zhu Zilong, and he ordered the chef to behead him on the spot.

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In fact, before he traveled through the Ming Dynasty.

Because the ancients' medical knowledge was underdeveloped, opium was the magic pill of the Ming Dynasty, "Great Golden Pill", used to treat toothaches, bruises and injuries and sexual intercourse. Moreover, in Europe, white Europeans never thought this thing was a drug!

Only after long-term consumption can it slowly destroy the normal human reaction on the body, making people addicted, and excessive consumption will cause suffocation to death.

(Thinking of this, isn’t it the same for smoking? If you smoke more than a dozen packs of cigarettes every day, you will end up like taking drugs.)

In fact, even in the history of the Qing Dynasty without any change.

There is this thing growing locally in China, but the price is very high. Generally, it can only be eaten by rich people and officials. Ordinary people don’t have the chance to take a few sips!

Therefore, this thing actually existed in China for a long time a few hundred years before the Eight-Nation Alliance came in.

But due to price and quantity, it has never been a disaster.

If you want to see this thing, you can usually only go to brothels, the backyard of the official family, and the palace.

However, when a large amount of European countries came to China a hundred or two hundred years later.

The price of this thing began to drop sharply, and ordinary people could also increase their appetite. The dependence on opium caused the Qing government to sharply reduce the amount of silver, resulting in the Qing Dynasty's internal and external troubles, and became an important temptation to fall.

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Zhu Zilong's warehouse is located in North Korea, and the output of opium has been produced in recent years.

It was definitely carefully selected, and it was deeply processed, and some top-quality products with indescribable objects were added.

After doing some preparations, Zhu Zilong found several major merchants of European ally countries he cooperated with in Nanyang. He added a large number of these items, mixed in binding, to the cargo ship sent to Europe.

And the wholesale price is extremely low, giving these merchants extremely high profit margins.

The Europeans from these countries were ecstatic.

Looking at their smiles, Zhu Zilong also had a smile on his face, and his heart was even more sneered.

When it comes to opium, the first thing Chinese people think of is the shame suffered in modern times, which often evoke painful memories of the Chinese people. Many people even think that opium is the root of China's modern suffering.

This understanding is basically correct, but as a person who can travel through both worlds, Zhu Zilong knew that it would be far from enough to understand opium if he only had this.

Opium is a drug, and now everyone knows it. However, in the past few thousand years, opium has been regarded as a magic pill and even as a magical object.

Moreover, the history of opium being discovered and used in the West is much older than China and has a much greater impact.

Until the early 19th century, opium was not regarded as a drug by people. Many European countries had previously issued a decree for alcohol cessation, but no opium ban was introduced. People still hold the concept of "opium is harmless".

So, why did Europeans fail to destroy their country for so many years? What exactly caused the Chinese to fall in love with opium in a very short time?

Why do Indians who have always been addicted to opium and North Americans who have been obsessed with opium have not continued to be obsessed with this kind of thing?

Why does opium bring huge disasters to the Chinese?

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Zhu Zilong has thought about this issue deeply in recent years.

Finally, I have my own cognition and answers.

That is, from the perspective of the world, the history of opium planting and using other parts of the world is far longer than that of China and has a wider range of use. However, other countries basically do not cause very serious social problems due to opium.

The reason is that it is determined by specific social factors during the Qing Dynasty.

First, it is the influence of various external factors, and second, it is the reason for China itself.

The interaction and coincidence of internal and external factors have made the Chinese the largest consumer group of opium, and also made the Chinese the biggest victim and the biggest loser in the process of modernization.

During the Ming Dynasty, China's population was no more than 200 million, and in the later period, it had only fluctuated by more than 100 million.

However, when the price of foreign drugs has dropped sharply and due to the high yield of foreign crops, the population explosion generally increased to more than 400 million.

China's population has increased rapidly, and the pressure of survival has increased. In addition, due to frequent wars, people's sense of security has decreased and their emotions of avoiding and getting tired of the world have increased. Therefore, many people have adopted a negative attitude, and smoking opium is one of the main ways.

Then, the most important reason was that the incompetence and inaction of the Qing government at that time was a factor that cannot be ignored.

By the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty was still an "all-encompassing" powerful empire, but its actual ruling ability was very weak.

Take the Qing army for example. Not to mention large-scale operations, even some small smuggled fleets could not deal with it. At that time, China still had no navy and did not know what the navy was, because the Qing rulers had no interest in the ocean and places outside the ocean.

When other countries were about to fully install high-end firearms, the Qing army's equipment was still mainly cold weapons, and there was no modern tactics and strategic concepts.

If you fall behind, you will be beaten; if you fall behind, you will become a slave; if you fall behind, you will lose property, women, and land. Therefore, the reason is obvious.

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Lin Zexu's ban on smoking is undoubtedly a patriotic action that conforms to public opinion and is very pleasing to the people.

However, compared with Lin's ban on smoking, another group of bureaucrats in the late Qing Dynasty. Their ideas were simply stupid. They advocated the "Opium War for the Chinese", that is, the Chinese used their own planting and producing opium to fight against foreign opium.

The result can be imagined.

On the other hand, the already very precious farmland has caused more tight food supply, coupled with famine and social chaos, people live in despair and pain.

As a result, the Qing government also fell into a vicious circle: banning seeds, not only will tax revenue be reduced, but import and smuggling will be encouraged.

You can't help but plant it, the smoking ban will definitely only be superficial and formal.

In the end, the government can only adopt a policy of open ban and secret release, allowing opium to spread. I won’t talk about the subsequent history, everyone knows it.

During the Japanese invasion of China, the Japanese invaders continued to encourage the Chinese to grow and smoke opium, and they wanted to completely disarm the Chinese from the depths of their souls.

After the founding of New China, the People's Government made up its mind to use all coercive measures to eliminate the hidden dangers of opium. By 1960, the devil of opium finally ended, and its life in Chinese history.

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Of course, this time and space are different.

First of all, the situation of weak country and banning seas is gone. The current Ming Dynasty is the most powerful country in this time and space world, no doubt about it.

Then, in Europe, there is a clay Buddha crossing the river, and it is difficult for him to protect himself. He has no ability to dump drugs into China. As a result, Zhu Zilong is still anti-dumping now.

In addition, Liu Feng controlled the church, the pope, the new British kings, as well as the kings of several small European countries, which could all be regarded as puppets.

It can be imagined that it will take a few years.

The opium disaster similar to the Qing Dynasty's destruction of the country will be staged in European countries. It will become the last weed that will break the camel's back.

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Chapter completed!