Before smoking was banned in Guangzhou, Lin Zexu went to Macau. What's his purpose?

We all know an old joke about the Qing Dynasty: 1793, the British envoy Ma Jiali came to the Qing Dynasty, but he didn't want to kneel down to the emperor Qianlong ... The explanation given by the minister of the Qing Dynasty was that foreigners had no knees, so long as they knelt down, they would never stand up.

In fact, this is a mythical joke. The source of the paragraph comes from 1839. Lin Zexu and Deng Tingzhen, Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi jointly wrote to Daoguang Emperor. It was written in the paper: Foreign soldiers can't attack and stab except guns, but their legs and feet are wrapped, which makes it inconvenient to bend and stretch. If they are more helpless on shore, they must be strong.

In his memorial, Lin Zexu only wrote that once foreign soldiers landed, they did not have an advantage in fighting the Qing army with cold weapons because of their narrow clothes and tight leggings.

However, at that time, 99% people in the government and the public in the Qing Dynasty had a misunderstanding about foreigners importing tea and rhubarb from China: they said that foreigners needed to drink a lot of tea and eat rhubarb to treat constipation every day, otherwise they would die of bloating because they could not excrete.

Therefore, Lin Zexu received an imperial edict from the emperor to ban smoking in Guangzhou. At first, he wanted to force foreign profiteers to hand over opium by banning the sale of foreign tea and rhubarb. Lin Zexu handed a note to the leader of the local foreign business group: tea and rhubarb can't be lost in a foreign country for a day. If China benefits from it regardless of its harm, how can foreigners make a living?

However, the leader of a foreign opium dealer turned a deaf ear to Lin Zexu's note, and Lin Zexu was puzzled. You know, he was not the only official who thought that foreigners could not do without tea and rhubarb.

In his memorial to the emperor, Qishan wrote: A foreign land is hard and the wind is hot and dry. Moreover, the Yi people take beef and mutton as their daily rations, which is not easy to digest. If there is no rhubarb, the stool will not be smooth, and the Yi people will be suffocated alive. Therefore, rhubarb tea should be used as a medicine to promote defecation after every meal.

Bailing once said: Tea and rhubarb are the special needs of the country. Otherwise, they will get sick. Once cut off, not only will the country lack rest every year, it will become poorer and poorer, and it will also kill it.

Lin Zexu, in order to find out whether foreigners would be suffocated alive because of poor stool once the supply of tea and rhubarb was cut off in the Qing Dynasty, he cooperated with Deng Tingzhen, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and went to Macao in the name of banning opium.

At that time, Macao was a leased land of Portugal, and the Portuguese paid 500 taels of silver to the Qing government every year, belonging to the role of tenants. In the face of an imperial envoy like Lin Zexu, Portuguese officials at that time not only welcomed him, but also warmly entertained him, hosting a banquet with the best dinner and the oldest wine.

In order to ban smoking, Lin Zexu has had many contacts with foreigners, but this contact only belongs to the general category. This is the first time he has eaten western food from foreigners.