In 1838, in the Forbidden City in late winter, there was a noisy sound of horse hooves.
Emperor Daoguang summoned Lin Zexu for eight consecutive days. He had the privilege of riding horses and riding cars in the imperial city, and was a celebrity around the emperor.
On the last day of that year, Lin Zexu was appointed as the "Imperial Minister" and went south to ban smoking.
6 months later, the massive Humen de-smoking shocked China and foreign countries. Emperor Daoguang, who was very happy, wrote: It can be said to be a great joy!
However, just one year later, Lin Zexu was dismissed by Daoguang and was interrogated by the new imperial envoy.
From being a favored minister of the emperor to being exiled to the frontier, the second half of Lin Zexu’s life has always been combined with the “ Opium War” in history books. However, few people know about the joys and sorrows and ups and downs of this Chinese “first person who opened his eyes to the world”. Knowing the inseparability between him and Daoguang...
On June 3, 1839, the beach in Humen, Dongguan, was crowded with people.
Under the eyes of tens of thousands of people, Lin Zexu issued an order:
Eliminate cigarettes!
The next moment, the soldiers poured piles of opium into the opium burning pool, and sprinkled lime powder and salt.
This white smoke lasted for a full 23 days. A total of 20,000 boxes of opium were destroyed, with a total weight of approximately 2.37 million kilograms. It was known in history as the "Humen Opium Destruction".
For this reason, Emperor Daoguang personally wrote the words "Fu" and "Shou" on Lin Zexu's birthday and ordered it to be sent to Humen.
At a time when the whole country was celebrating, Lin Zexu knew that the British would not give up and would definitely use strong ships and artillery to regain their face.
So, he rectified the coastal defense of Guangdong overnight to prepare for the enemy's attack. In the end, the British warship was sniped outside Guangzhou.
However, Britain, which was frustrated on the southeast coast, did not return. Instead, it divided its troops into two groups to attack Dinghai and Tianjin, and relied on advanced artillery to approach the capital.
On the other side, Qishan, who advocated peace talks, took the opportunity to say: As long as Lin Zexu is severely punished, everything will be solved naturally.
Although Lin Zexu repeatedly remonstrated and expounded the importance of the smoking ban, he was still dismissed and demoted to Zhenjiang, Zhejiang.
On the way to being demoted, Lin Zexu wrote a couplet: A lonely boat turned around the gorge, and I had a frightening dream before I stepped on the flying spring to learn from this.
With an innocent heart, he invested in the coastal defense construction of Zhenjiang . He not only conducted in-depth field surveys, but also participated in the construction of fortresses.
In Zhenjiang, an 8,000-pound artillery piece cast by Lin Zexu became the main means of local resistance to the British in the future.
But in the eyes of caring people, Lin Zexu at this time is like the rabbit sauce of the 21st century - if anything happens to , the bald eagle will take the blame.
In 1841, the Guangzhou garrison attacked the British army without authorization and was defeated.
In order to shirk responsibility, they wrote in the memorial: The British army is willing to negotiate peace, but they hate Lin Zexu.
A few months later, Lin Zexu was exiled again and was demoted to Yili, Xinjiang.
In the face of slander and changes, he wrote again: If you only seek to benefit the country's life and death, how can you avoid it because of misfortunes and blessings?
In 1842, 58-year-old Lin Zexu arrived in Ili after 122 days.
Here he was warmly entertained by the soldiers and civilians. In their eyes, Lin Zexu was not a criminal, but an anti-British hero. After
took root in Xinjiang, Lin Zexu led the people to open up 200,000 acres of wasteland, providing shelter for more than 1,000 households.
Later, he donated his private money to build water conservancy projects, and despite his illness, he led 100,000 people to dig a 200-kilometer-long canal in 4 months, solving the problem of 100,000 acres of land in Aqiwusu. Irrigation issues.
Out of gratitude, the locals named it "Lin Gong Canal".
Afterwards, General Yili mentioned Lin Zexu's achievements in his memorial. Emperor Daoguang's reply was concise and concise.: There is no need to come to Beijing. When he can take up his post, he will take up his new post.
At the same time, facing Wang Ding 's remonstrance to re-enable Lin Zexu, Daoguang's reply was still: Please send me a message in your spare time. Lin Zexu and I will never meet again in this life.
Regarding this simple and confusing history, some people think that Daoguang was protecting Lin Zexu; some people think that he deliberately cut off each other and escaped from the gunpowder incident. So far, there is no authoritative conclusion.
In 1850, the God Worshipers Association caused turmoil in Guangxi, and 66-year-old Lin Zexu was once again appointed as the Imperial Envoy, responsible for suppressing bandits.
However, he was seriously ill and died 17 days after setting off. Before his death, he asked his son to write for him. In his last memorial, he wrote: I have been entrusted with divine grace, and I only hope to repay it in the next life.
When the time went back to 1839, no one would have thought that Lin Zexu, who was a hero in fighting cigarettes one day, would become a criminal exiled to the frontier the next.
During the 11 years when the heroes were on the move, the Qing court also fell into a path of compromise and collapse, sending the former Celestial Kingdom into a history of humiliation for thousands of years.
Only Dongguan Humen, as the first stop to break old ideas and the forefront of eliminating cigarettes, generations of people have used their lives and sweat to perform an elegy of a heroic city, always adhering to the continuation of that touching culture.
On August 26, 2022, 183 years after Lin Zexu stopped smoking, Humen ushered in a national stamp exhibition, with 1192 frames of exhibits from 32 provincial associations participating. This stamp exhibition will change people's narrow positioning of Humen as a "famous clothing city". It will always remind latecomers in a cultural way: Don't forget the national humiliation.
In the distant Ili of Xinjiang, the forest canal that passes through mountains and wastelands is still flowing forward...
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