In the first year of Daoguang, the Qing government adopted the policy of controlling both sources and banning the import of opium from Haikou and its sale in the mainland. In order to clear the source, the Qing court stipulated: "Whenever a foreign ship arrives in Guangdong, the merchants must stipulate that the Huangpu cargo ship entering does not contain opium knots, and then the cargo can be opened for inspection. The merchants will tolerate it and be punished with additional penalties." In order to choke off the obstruction, the Qing Dynasty The imperial court made new regulations on "those who open restaurants will be hanged, those who sell drugs will be sent to the army, and those who take drugs will be punished with sticks." After the promulgation of these new policies, the Qing court exerted its strength to implement them. Emperor Daoguang instructed the local authorities in Guangdong to block the opium markets in Huangpu and Macao; ordered four foreign ships carrying opium cigarettes to be expelled back to the country, and never allowed them to come to Guangzhou again; removed the Guangzhou Thirteen that deliberately concealed the opium carried by foreign businessmen Ren Dunyuan, the general businessman of , was the third-grade top wearer; he ordered the local authorities in Guangzhou to bring Ye Hengshu, a major opium trafficker living in Macau, to justice.
These measures taken in the first year of Daoguang have not achieved obvious results, and the import of opium is still increasing day by day. When Emperor Daoguang analyzed the reasons, he believed: "Opium smoke is very poisonous, and it is always caused by the failure of local officials to detect it." Seeing this, the Qing government took measures to crack down on and punish officials who indulged themselves in hiding and failed to observe.
In August of the third year of Daoguang (1823), the Qing government formulated regulations on the oversight of opium cigarettes. It stipulates: "If there are later imported opium cigarettes carried by foreign ships, and traitors privately grow opium poppies to boil opium paste, and open opium dens, civilian local officials and inspection committee members will be able to investigate and deal with it on their own without having to discuss and punish them. They will be allowed to indulge in the regulations." If the amount of opium is not detected, the person in charge will be fined for one year; if the amount of opium is more than 100 kilograms, he will be fined one year; , downgraded to one level. Punishment for failure to inspect military personnel shall also be dealt with as for civilian officials. "Regulations on failure to inspect opium and cigarettes have been enacted, but their warning effect for officials at all levels is minimal. Opium still flows through all seaports and ports unimpeded." The pass flows into the interior.
In the 10th year of Daoguang (1830), Emperor Daoguang conducted a nationwide survey on the situation of opium cultivation and sales based on the proposal of Jiangnan Province Supervisory Censor Shao Zhenghut not only to strictly prohibit the sale of opium but also the cultivation of opium in the mainland. Emperor Daoguang ordered local officials to punish the opium cultivation and sales in the areas under their jurisdiction after verifying the facts. In order to ensure that the punishments in various places were followed, in December of this year, the Qing government promulgated regulations strictly prohibiting the cultivation and sale of opium. It stipulates: "Subsequently, traitors in the mainland who sell opium and cigarettes will be punished as first offenders as the first offenders, and will be sent to the army for three years. Those who accept bribes and indulge in illegal activities will be punished as first offenders. The crime was punished as a whole, and those who had stolen more money were considered guilty of violating the law. Although they did not accept bribes, they followed the example and destroyed the tobacco seedlings. "The Qing government also ordered officials from various places to deal with the crime. After the investigation of the situation of opium cultivation and selling in the jurisdiction area is confirmed, practical measures must be taken on how to strictly prohibit the cultivation and selling of opium in the local area, and "appropriate regulations and written regulations" should be formulated. After the Qing government's order was issued, many provinces immediately took action. Governors sent officers to the townships for inspections and reported to the central government the situation of opium growing and selling in their localities. Based on the situation gathered from various places, the Qing government issued orders one after another, prohibiting the cultivation and sale of opium in various places.
Starting from February of the tenth year of Daoguang (1830) to February of the twelfth year of Daoguang (1832), within two years, Guangdong, Fujian, Shaanxi, Anhui, Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and other provinces successively reported to the emperor on the situation of opium cultivation and sales in each province, as well as the various anti-smoking measures that had been implemented and prepared to be implemented in various places. Emperor Daoguang made a series of very specific instructions based on the information provided in the provincial reports. The various anti-smoking measures proposed by the Qing court covered a very wide range. From the coast to the hinterland to areas inhabited by ethnic minorities; from the smuggling and importation of opium to the sale, cultivation and smoking to the manufacture of opium smoking utensils; from officials to government officials to soldiers to the common people, everything is included. And implement the policy of giving both rewards and punishments, and treating both the source and the stream. If these measures taken by the Qing government could be truly implemented, the drug flow of opium would be curbed.However, in fact, Emperor Daoguang's all-encompassing and meticulous anti-smoking measures were in vain due to the deliberate sabotage of foreign invaders and decadent feudal corruption politics.
Starting from the twelfth year of Daoguang's reign, British merchant ships avoided Guangzhou, the foreign trade port designated by the Qing government, and sailed into the oceans of Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and Shandong without authorization, "in the name of seeking market, but in reality trying to sell opium." Regarding these foreign ships that broke into the oceans of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong, the Qing government on the one hand strictly ordered the coastal governors to expel them and "suppress the oceans to stop smugglers." On the other hand, it ordered the coastal governors to "produce instructions to the coastal residents." , and are not allowed to communicate with them. If there are traitors from the mainland and unworthy generals who seek profit and collude with each other privately, they will be severely punished." The Qing government's expulsion of British merchant ships heading north not only did not eliminate the British ships in Fujian, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong, but because "the civil and military officials in coastal areas did not know how to carefully inspect and report any foreign ships coming and going." "There are more traitors from the mainland, sailing ships to help each other and benefiting from each other" and other reasons, which actually led to "more and more foreign ships coming". Especially in the 14th year of Daoguang (1834), the British Parliament abolished the East India Company's monopoly on trade with China, which brought the British opium trade with China into an unprecedentedly active period. In the fourteenth year of Daoguang's reign, the British government sent Lu Laobei to China. Law Labor Base has an important mission assigned by the British Government’s Foreign Office. These include: promoting British commercial activities outside Guangzhou; finding several places on the Chinese coast where the British navy can operate safely in the event of hostilities between China and Britain; expanding opium smuggling, etc. Lu Laobei arrived in Macau on June 9, the 14th year of Daoguang's reign. Eight days later, Lu Laobei entered the Guangzhou Residential and Commercial Building without permission from the Qing court. Lu Laobei also violated the Qing court's regulations that all Chinese and foreign negotiations should be conducted through merchants, and wrote directly to the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi Lu Kun , regardless of merchants. Lu Kun sent people to tell him repeatedly that Lu Laobei intended to "disobey and disobey". Lu Kun ordered the cabin to be "sealed" in an attempt to force him to submit. The Qing court agreed with Lu Kun's approach of cutting off Sino-British trade. Emperor Daoguang also instructed Lu Kun to "secretly dispatch benefactors in and around the provincial capital and Macau, Lantau Island Fort and other places to patrol carefully, remain calm, and take precautions." Lu Laobei responded with force.
On the fifth day of August, two British warships broke into the Pearl River Estuary. When the soldiers of Haikou Fort fired artillery to intercept the British warships, the British warships fired fire while breaking through the pass and sailing straight to Huangpu, only 60 miles away from the capital of Guangdong Province. After receiving the report from Lu Kun, Emperor Daoguang ordered Lu Kun to strengthen war preparations in Guangdong. Due to the tight defense of the local authorities in Guangdong and the damage to the interests of British businessmen due to the "cabin sealing", Lu Laobei retreated to Macau when he did not have the strength to launch further armed attacks. The two British warships that broke into the inland rivers of Guangdong also withdrew. Humen Haikou. After the Lu Laobei incident, the Qing government strengthened the prevention and control of opium in Haikou, Guangdong. Daoguang ordered Lu Kun to strictly instruct the boat division. After the merchant ships from various countries returned to sail, if they found out that there were private ships in the ocean, they would immediately mobilize the navy, increase their military power, and strictly drive them away. He also ordered the general to dispatch patrol boats. Changchuan is inspected, and all civilian boats are not allowed to engage in private transactions with foreign ships in order to prevent financial aid; the Neihe Ying County is ordered to dispatch patrol boats to all seaports and all seaport branches, divided into sections, and patrolled day and night in turns; the order Foreign merchants ordered British merchants to inspect each other. If one ship was leaked, all ships would be prohibited from trading, so that they would inspect each other.
The Qing government's expulsion of British merchant ships heading north along the coast, its response to Lu Laobei's armed provocation, and its strengthening of the prevention and control of Guangdong's seaports. All these efforts still failed to curb the drug flow of opium. The result of more than ten years of strict prohibition after Emperor Daoguang came to the throne was only to change opium trafficking from open and semi-open trafficking to complete smuggling. The relationship between foreign opium and cigarette merchants and mainland Chinese cigarette dealers also changed from open and semi-open land transactions. Become a water trade. Foreign opium and cigarette dealers set up barges to store opium on the Lingding Ocean near Humen. Foreign merchant ships carrying opium unloaded the opium onto the barges, and then shipped legal commodities and a few opium samples for import.Those "big kiln " unscrupulous profiteers who "colluded with local gangs and opened money shops in the name of secretly selling tobacco" used this to negotiate with foreign businessmen, make payments, obtain bills of lading, and then use the bills of lading to pontoons. After picking up the goods, they hired ships named "Kuai Crab" and "Pa Long" to transport the opium into the country and distribute it to various "small kiln mouths" for distribution. Thousands of boxes of opium flowed across the country through such a tight and smooth channel.
In the fourteenth year of Daoguang's reign (1834), after the British government abolished the East India Company's monopoly on trade with China, the opium trade with China was opened to private enterprises . The unfettered British businessmen rushed to China and started opium smuggling, which was the most profitable trade with China at that time. This began the crazy opium smuggling phase of British private enterprises to China. In the following years, British opium merchants not only smuggled and smuggled opium along the coast of Guangdong, but also expanded the scope of smuggling and smuggling from Guangdong to the southeast coast, and even penetrated into the northern coast of China. In order to meet the needs of large-scale smuggling and smuggling, British opium merchants also established a fleet specializing in opium smuggling and prepared weapons, allowing opium smuggling to develop into open forced transportation. The huge benefits gained by British private companies from rampant opium smuggling into China made private companies in other countries jealous, and they rushed to join the ranks of opium smuggling. Opium formed an unstoppable and unstoppable poisonous flow, pouring into China on an unprecedented scale and causing disasters.
The proliferation of opium is also closely related to the "protection by subordinate servants and the sale and release of Guanjin". Many officials at all levels of the Qing government, especially Haikou civil and military officials, bent the law for personal gain and obtained large amounts of bribes from the smuggling of opium. This situation is particularly serious in Guangdong. The situation in Guangdong at that time was: "There is a fee for the navy, a fee for patrolling, a fee for flood management, a fee for missionaries, a fee for kiln entrances, and all those who work from the governor's office and the port officials have fees." Civil and military officials and navy generals who accepted bribes "got the stolen goods and indulged them" and "let them into their private mouths." Some even "sold privately and divided the spoils" or "liquidated and divided the spoils" in the name of banning opium. The corruption and bribery of official Jiang Bian directly undermined various bans promulgated by the Qing government and gave foreign opium and cigarette merchants an excuse to undermine China's smoking ban. All this made all efforts to ban smoking in the more than ten years after Emperor Daoguang ascended the throne failed. By the 1830s, the smuggling and trafficking of opium had reached such a scale: opium was collected and stored overseas on barges, quick crabs and palongs were smuggled, large and small kilns were hidden in the mainland, and cigarette sellers walked through alleys. In remote villages, smokers can be found in all parts of the city and countryside and at all levels of society. From the gentry in the government to the industrial and commercial elites, soldiers in the green camp, as well as women, monks and nuns, and Taoist priests, "smokers can be found all over the world."
