Yinzhen also knew that he had indeed gone too far. And rightly so, in principle, opium should not exist at this time.
“You’re right, I was too attached to appearances. I’ll send someone to verify it, but we must nip this in the bud and not let it sprout.”
Yunrong agreed.
Now that they had a clue, things were much easier. Yunrong had also interacted with that Madam Cheng several times and obtained a lot of useful information from her. Yinzhen sent people to investigate based on that information, and they indeed found quite a lot of things.
Yinzhen stared at the things in front of him, his expression inscrutable. Yunrong saw him as soon as she entered and asked, "What's wrong?"
Yinzhen looked at the table, and Yunrong followed his gaze and saw the things on the table as well.
Yunrong asked curiously, "What is this?"
"Longevity Ointment".
Yunrong had never heard of this term before: "Longevity paste?"
Yinzhen explained, "You can think of it as the precursor to opium."
Yunrong looked surprised: "What? You found out?"
Yinzhen nodded: "Yes, these longevity ointments were obtained from British merchants. There wasn't much of it, and they spent a lot of money to buy it. Just this little bit cost ten taels of gold, and they only wanted gold."
Ten taels of gold is equivalent to one hundred taels of silver.
"How long will this amount of opium last one person?"
Yinzhen had also investigated these matters: "Even for an addicted person, it would only last for about ten days."
In other words, an addict needs to spend three hundred taels of silver a month on this. This is nothing to a wealthy family, but for an ordinary family, it is a disaster!
Furthermore, people who are addicted to drugs usually experience mental confusion and physical harm. Even wealthy families cannot withstand such devastation!
Yunrong suddenly realized something: "People in the Qing Dynasty are already using this stuff."
This is what angered Yinzhen the most. He originally thought it wouldn't happen so quickly, but unexpectedly, these merchants would stop at nothing for profit. Although the amount of this stuff flowing into the Qing Dynasty was not large, it was enough to arouse people's vigilance.
"Um"
"So how do you want to handle this?"
Yinzhen's eyes were extremely cold as he looked at the opium on the table and said, "Ban on drugs."
Yinzhen acted quickly, but without alerting the enemy; he secretly sent people to investigate.
After a period of investigation, Yinzhen learned more about opium. For example, opium is different from opium nowadays. Although it can be addictive, it is not something you can use once and then become addicted to. It is the kind of opium that feels very comfortable to smoke.
Privately, some people also call Fushou Gao "Shenxian San" (神仙散), meaning that inhaling it brings a feeling of euphoria, like that of an immortal.
Moreover, it is possible for people who are addicted to it to make up their minds to quit. Furthermore, not many people know about opium nowadays, since it is a rare commodity for British merchants. Apart from using it to control slaves on ships, they would sell some of the rest.
Making money was one aspect, but another was the desire to control a few merchants.
Finding out this information made Yinzhen feel a little better. At least it wasn't as bad as he had thought. As long as things were managed well and the propaganda was done well, the scene a hundred years later would certainly not repeat itself.
Ointment was usually sold in tobacco and teahouses, which were mostly run by locals who knew who had the money to buy it. Ointment was not produced in large quantities, and since its effects sounded appealing but it was actually a deadly slow poison, it was not something that people would publicize.
So usually, the teahouses would target customers they found attractive and gradually sell them out. The number of customers wasn't large, but the profits were substantial.
Yinzhen investigated the opium dens and teahouses in Guangzhou and found that nearly a dozen of them were secretly selling opium. Most of the buyers of opium were wealthy merchants, and a small number were local officials.
Looking at the list, Yinzhen thought that the wealthy merchants were one thing, since they had money and were willing to suffer losses on their own. Although Yinzhen was generous to his officials, he was not generous enough to allow them to pay for the monthly expenses of three hundred taels of silver for longevity paste.
The source of this money is self-evident.
When Yinzhen found out, he immediately ordered a thorough investigation. He took the money and used it to do what he hated most. If he didn't punish this kind of person, what kind of person would he punish?
So a group of people in Guangzhou were quickly dismissed, and the reason? Naturally, it was because they were corrupt.
Those who were punished by Yinzhen also felt "wronged". In their positions, those who were not corrupt were the minority, and those who were even more corrupt than them were all doing well. As a result, they were stripped of their official positions, so of course they felt extremely "wronged".
The prefect of Guangzhou was a high-ranking official in Guangzhou, so he naturally noticed the emperor's recent actions. He also found it strange that such a large-scale operation was being carried out without any apparent reason.
The prefect was named Zhou Liaoping. He was a decent official, not rigid, but not greedy for the people's money, and he didn't live a life of hardship.
The prefect then wondered if he could find out anything, so he turned to his wife.
"What brings you here, sir?" Madam Zhou asked with a smile, her tone seemingly intimate, yet there was a hint of politeness between them.
Zhou Liaoping didn't care about his wife's attitude. The two had lived like this for half their lives, treating each other with respect. There's a saying that goes, "The closest of kin are husband and wife."
"You have been accompanying Her Majesty the Empress to banquets recently. Has Her Majesty the Empress revealed anything about the recent loss of official positions in Guangzhou? I don't know what's going on."
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