amaotonovel Chapter 1210 How could a person be so evil?
Chapter 1210 How could a person be so evil?
Upon hearing that Heizhi Tangyuan would personally handle the matter of Opioids, Yang Shaofeng breathed a long sigh of relief.
First, let me emphasize this:
The impact of opium on the Central Plains sects was far more than just the First and Second Opium Wars as recorded in history books; the earliest records can even be traced back to the Tang Dynasty.
The Old Book of Tang records: "In the second year of Qianfeng, Fulu sent an envoy to present Diyejia."
The second year of Qianfeng was the reign title of Li Xiaojiu, and it was in this year that Li Xiaojiu sent troops to completely destroy Goguryeo.
Fulu refers to the Eastern Roman Empire. The main ingredients of Diyega were opium, ambergris, cinnamon, nutmeg, and other substances.
When Li Xiaojiu was in his thirties, he suffered from "wind disease" and often felt dizzy. By the time he was over fifty and about to die, his condition had become so severe that ordinary medicines were no longer effective, and the imperial physicians could only alleviate his pain by using bloodletting.
If the reason why ordinary medicines were ineffective was related to Li Xiaojiu's use of "Diyejia", then Li Xiaojiu was the first emperor in history to be killed by opium.
By the Song Dynasty, opium was considered a highly effective medicine for treating dysentery. People in the Song Dynasty even believed that opium could be used in medicine to detoxify and treat hemorrhoids, and some people even took opium products as health supplements.
By the Yuan Dynasty, it had reached the point where "scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants all loved it," and the common people even used it as a drug to enhance their pleasure.
Later, historian Xu Xi even stated in "Chronicle of Major Events of Emperor Shenzong" that "the emperor's weariness with the court and his long absence from his officials were actually due to poisoning by treacherous ministers." Yu Xie in "Classified Drafts of the Year Gui Si" directly concluded that Wanli was "poisoned by aphrodisiacs," and indeed, components related to aphrodisiacs were later detected in Wanli's bones.
Of course, the dangers of opium were already recognized to some extent during the Song Dynasty.
The book "Easy and Simple Prescriptions" states: "Pearl husks are a miraculous cure for dysentery, but they are astringent and often cause vomiting, so people are afraid to take them."
Zhu Zhenheng, a famous physician of the Yuan Dynasty, pointed out: "Although its effect in stopping disease is rapid, it can kill people like a sword, and we should be deeply wary of it."
However, this understanding is of little use, especially when opium is associated with the word "enhancement" and has "powerful effects," those wealthy merchants and gentry will regard it as a treasure.
The only thing that Yang Shaofeng was glad about was that this thing was currently only used as a "funny" little blue pill, and it had not yet become as widespread as it had been during the Jianyi period. Moreover, due to the methods of planting, harvesting, and preparation, opium during the Hongwu period was truly more valuable than gold, and ordinary people had no access to this thing at all.
As for getting Old Deng to ban opium ahead of time?
It's easy to fool Lao Deng, but the key is that Lao Deng's methods are too crude. In addition, there are those rebellious gentry groups in the Ming Dynasty. The more the court forbids it, the more they dare to secretly grow and produce it. With a twisted tongue, they exaggerate the value of opium to the point that it is extremely rare and hard to find on earth. They say that the court does not allow its cultivation because it is afraid that the people will make money. They then deceive a large number of people into growing and consuming it with them, which is more likely to cause the epidemic to spread prematurely.
To put it bluntly, such a messy matter is easy to resolve in a single prefecture or county, but when it comes to the entire Ming Dynasty, especially when it involves countless people, anyone in charge would have to be extremely cautious.
Moreover, opium does have some medicinal value, and the profits are ridiculously high, so it was completely banned and destroyed indiscriminately.
It was precisely because of these messy reasons that Yang Shaofeng had been holding back until this time when he had wiped out a large number of maritime merchants and coastal families, cut off most of the maritime smuggling routes, and had Zhu Laowu take advantage of the short men's research on the medicinal properties and toxicity of opium. Only then did he use the matter of harming the European barbarians to propose banning opium.
As for how black sesame glutinous rice balls will destroy the ban on opium?
That's a problem that Black Sesame Dumplings and Li Shanchang should be having a headache about.
As the saying goes, there are no wrong nicknames, only wrong names. This guy, Black Sesame Dumpling, is white on the outside and black on the inside. He handled three of the four major cases during the Hongwu era and still managed to earn a good reputation for being magnanimous and benevolent. If he were to handle the opium matter, the results would definitely be better than if Old Deng had dealt with it.
In contrast, Yang Shaofeng preferred to work with that old scoundrel Xue Xiang to study how to trap the barbarians.
"No text?"
"It's easy to solve the problem of not having a written language. Just pick any set of them from the Universal Phonology section of the Hongwu Zhengyun."
"Anyway, what we give them is phonetics, and we use phonetics to form writing. We can make the rules of writing more complicated, and add some intonation variations when they speak. Isn't that a complete language and writing system?"
"If needed in the future, we can change the rules for them. Those who learn the new rules later will not be able to understand the articles written under the old rules."
"Two small countries?"
"So what if they are two small countries? It just means we need to prepare two sets of languages for them."
"A few clerks can be assigned, and it can be done in a few days."
"The real trouble is teaching them to write."
While smilingly savoring the small dragon dumplings in the Prince Consort's mansion, Xue Xiang was also grumbling about something mischievous.
"I heard from the Prince Consort that they also have a church?"
"Good heavens, what kind of place is the Vatican? How can it share the same script and language as a small secular country?"
"We must provide them with a more complex system."
The key point is that Xue Xiang's wicked schemes weren't just targeting the two barbarians in Europe.
"To spread education widely is the act of a sage."
"Such a grand event, how can the Kong family stand on the dry bank and watch without contributing a single effort?"
"Putting everything else aside, it would be reasonable to have a few people from both the Southern and Northern Kong families serve as clerks, wouldn't it?"
Yang Shaofeng stared blankly at Xue Xiang.
What I'm saying is, how can a person be so wicked?
If the information I received is correct, your Ministry of Rites was just talking about simplifying Chinese characters at the court assembly a few days ago, saying that too many strokes make them hard to remember, and that you should first promote simplified characters in community schools so that children can learn to read and write more quickly.
Why is it that when it comes to creating a writing system for those barbarians in Europe, you all go for the most complicated and complex methods?
Isn't this a blatant violation of Confucius's teaching of "education for all"?
Seeing Yang Shaofeng subtly purse his lips, Xue Xiang even said with righteous indignation, "The Rong and Di barbarians are like jackals and wolves, and cannot be disgusted; the Chinese are like close relatives and cannot be abandoned."
At this point, Xue Xiang glanced at Yang Shaofeng again and said, "The '厌' here refers to 'satisfaction,' meaning that the Rong and Di peoples are all like jackals and wolves, and their appetites can never be satisfied."
Yang Shaofeng was immediately enraged, "I know the meaning of that sentence!"
Xue Xiang slapped his forehead and said, "The Prince Consort knows, but the children don't. What if they interpret it as 'it's not okay to hate'? No, the textbooks still need to be revised. These ambiguous points must be clearly explained."
"By the way, revising the textbooks is quite troublesome. Could Your Highness transfer a few people from Dengzhou University to the Ministry of Rites?"
"As the saying goes, many hands make light work. With more people in the Ministry of Rites, the barbarian script that the Prince Consort wants can be produced sooner."