The story of Lin Zexu and Destruction of Opium at Humen starts from the First Opium War. In September 182, Emperor Jiaqing suffered from heatstroke in Chengde and suddenly died of illness. Emperor Min Ning succeeded to the throne, and changed to Daoguang, known as Daoguang Emperor in the world, also known as Qing Xuanzong. Daoguang Emperor, like his father, was struggling to cope with the domestic anti-Qing uprisings, but also faced another crisis, namely, the invasion and threat of foreign capitalist forces. The first Opium War happened during his reign.

during the Daoguang period, there were heavy rains in the south of the Yangtze River, and hungry people were everywhere. Pan Shien, the minister of household affairs, is mourning in his hometown of Suzhou, where he has hoarded tens of thousands of stones. On this day, Jiangsu provincial judges came to visit and asked Lord Pan to open a warehouse to help the victims. Pan Shien rolled his eyes and said, "It's obligatory to open a warehouse to help the people, but unfortunately, the warehouse was empty last month!"

The bearer smiled calmly and said, "That's just right. Let's borrow the rice!" He immediately sent his men to seal the warehouses and then ordered the distribution of rice to help the victims. After the event, the rice money was repaid at the market price, which made Mr. Pan laugh and cry.

This witty and capable provincial judge is Lin Zexu, who will go down in history in the future because of his smoking ban. The story of Lin Zexu and Destruction of Opium at Humen is also widely known.

since the 19th century, the western capitalist countries, represented by Britain, have overproduced, and it is urgent to open the huge market of China. The Qing government adopted a closed-door policy, allowing only foreign trade in Guangzhou. China's feudal economy was a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, and there was no market for imported industrial products. Foreign businessmen then turned to the evil opium trade. Opium is a kind of drug that destroys the human body and makes people addicted to it, which makes the opium trade always maintain a high profit of more than six times. Western countries dumped opium into China with all their strength, which caused more than 62 million silver outflows in the first fifteen years of Daoguang Emperor's administration, and the population addicted to cigarettes in China reached more than 2 million. This is the story background of Lin Zexu and Destruction of Opium at Humen.

Facing the deterioration of the national economy and people's livelihood, Lin Zexu can't stand it any longer. In September, 1838, when he was the governor of Huguang, he presented a memorial to Emperor Daoguang, shouting loudly: If opium is not strictly prohibited, then after several decades, China will have almost no troops to send against the enemy, and there will be no silver to pay for it, and the country will be eaten away by opium! Daoguang Emperor himself smoked opium and personally felt the poison of foreign smoke. Lin Zexu's warning shocked him. So he appointed Lin Zexu as an imperial envoy and went to Guangzhou to ban opium.

in March 1839, Lin zexu arrived in Guangzhou. At first, foreign cigarette sellers and foreign businessmen who colluded with them didn't take his arrival to heart. They knew that Qing officials loved money, and as long as they spent money, there was nothing they could not pass. So, they sent Wu Shaorong, the boss of Jardine Matheson, as a representative to see Lin Zexu, hinting at the amount of bribes.

but this time, the wishful thinking of the cigarette sellers was empty. When Lin Zexu heard what he had come for, he got angry and said angrily, "I don't want money, just your head!" " He ordered Wu Shaorong to go back and tell the foreign master: within three days, all the opium he brought was handed over to the official, and he signed a guarantee that he would never carry opium in the future. If anyone dares to violate the order, once found out, the goods will be confiscated and the opium dealers will be put to death.

The British opium dealer is the leader of foreign opium merchants, and he also has smuggling arms in his hands. First, he reported 1 cases of opium in an attempt to get away with it. Lin Zexu had already investigated the situation of merchant ships at sea. Knowing that he was cheating, he ordered a summons to warn him. After returning to the ship, he continued to delay the time and provoked the anti-smuggling personnel by force, so Lin Zexu decided to arrest him.

The British commercial supervision law hid the land in the commercial museum, refused to hand it over, and threatened with war. Lin Zexu was tit for tat, blocked the river in Huangpu area and sent troops to surround the commercial museum. Guangzhou people volunteered to take part in the patrol, to prevent the absconding and the infiltration of spies. The commercial museum was out of water and food, and the righteous law could no longer resist and had to agree to hand over more than 2 thousand boxes of opium on all ships.

Lin Zexu sent his men to dig two large ponds with a length of 5 feet and a width of 5 feet at the height of Humen Beach. The walls of the ponds are connected with the sea by culverts. On June 3rd, Lin Zexu led Guangdong officials to supervise the destruction of confiscated opium. Boxes of opium were thrown into a large pool filled with seawater, and then Shanghai salt and quicklime were poured. Suddenly, the pool water boiled, smoke billowed and opium turned to ashes. Thousands of onlookers cheered like spring thunder. A batch was burned, washed clean and put into another batch. In this way, Destruction of Opium at Humen lasted for 23 days. This is the story of Lin Zexu and Destruction of Opium at Humen. It's very popular.

While banning opium, Lin Zexu strengthened the military preparedness along the coast. He repaired and built forts, set wooden chains on the sea surface of the Pearl River Estuary, recruited sailors, organized group training and mobilized the people to defend the coastal areas. After Destruction of Opium at Humen, the British warships under the command of Yi Yi launched many armed provocations, which were repelled by the China army.

The story of Lin Zexu and Destruction of Opium at Humen shows the world the confidence and ability of China people to resist foreign aggression.