Steel Dynasty - Chapter 765

[Chapter 764 Opium]

In the bustling casino, Korean merchants and dignitaries shuttled back and forth. Curses, laughter, and exclamations were mixed together to make it extremely noisy.

Li Cheng appeared next to Li Kaiyuan at this time. He looked at Huang Bing’an and said: “President Li, this person is Huang Bing’an, the eldest son of Goryeo. His father has a high position in Goryeo and is the most trusted minister of the King of Goryeo. “One.”

“Really? This is a big fish.” Li Kaiyuan narrowed his eyes. Although Goryeo was defeated, the country of Chongqing currently only controls Haigu City and Bisha City.

The real controller of this land is the King of Korea, and they still need the King of Korea to assist them with some things.

For example, when it comes to business, the merchants in Haigu City seem busy now, but in fact they have not touched the core of real trade.

Like Dayu, Goryeo was also a feudal dynasty, and many trades required the approval of the court.

Because of this, he was not in a hurry. In his opinion, it would be easier to participate in Goryeo’s trade as an official.

During this period, Li Cheng basically figured out the purpose of Dayu Kingdom, which was to do business. Now Li Kaiyuan is so interested in Huang Bing’an must be for business.

So he said: “Goryeo’s maritime trade requires the approval of this person’s father. As long as Chairman Li bribes him, Chairman Li can do whatever he wants to do with Goryeo’s trade.”

Li Kaiyuan asked Li Cheng to come here just In order to confirm the identity of Huang Bing’an, in fact, when Huang Bing’an entered Haigu City, he was targeted by secret guards.

While the two were talking, Wang Xuan got up from a gambling table and walked towards them.

Upon seeing this, Li Kaiyuan asked Li Chengzai to leave, and then smiled at Wang Xuan and said: “This time, the information provided by your secret guards is good. This Huang Bing’an is indeed the son of Goryeo.”

Wang Xuan arrived after Haigu City was captured Here, his purpose was to establish a faction of pro-Da Yu officials in the Goryeo court.

Before the fall of the Golden Horde, Goryeo was not a vassal state of Dayu, and Dayu could not directly order the King of Goryeo.

However, after working hard to conquer Goryeo, this business cannot be delayed, so Xiao Ming ordered him and Li Kaiyuan to take charge, while Ye Qingyun cooperated to bribe the Goryeo court to maximize the commercial interests of the Chongqing Kingdom.

Wang Xuan had a smile on his face, “My men are always meticulous and most of them will make no mistakes. Now, how are you going to deal with this Huang Bing’an.”

“Our real purpose is to control Huang Bing’an’s father, Huang Zixu, but this Huang Zixu He is not addicted to women and is not greedy for money. He is difficult to deal with. His only weakness is his son,” Li Kaiyuan said. Wang

Xuan nodded. He provided this information to Li Kaiyuan and even seduced Huang Bing’an’s businessman. It was also arranged by him.

Sometimes I have to say that with huge profits, there are always businessmen who will take risks. During this period, the secret guards bribed many Korean businessmen.

The price is to promise to support these businessmen to become the leading wealthy people in Goryeo, and also provide them with security protection.

Now these merchants, who were dazzled by money, have moved to Haigu City. They are just waiting for the trading ships from Dayu to arrive so that they can sell these goods to all parts of Goryeo.

“In that case, let him play here for a few days, and then let him lose all his wealth.” Wang Xuan was a little bit bad.

The Secret Guard is an agency that walks in the dark, and sometimes has to use some shady means in order to bribe officials.

Then he showed a hint of amusement and said: “The gameplay of this casino is indeed novel enough, but I always feel that there is something missing. I’m afraid it’s not enough to make the dignitaries and businessmen of Goryeo meditate on this.”

Li Kaiyuan showed a hint of displeasure .

The look on his face said, “You, the secret guard commander, have found out all the information about me. You are right. There are a lot of novelties in this gambling house, and these are all given to me by the emperor.”

Wang Xuan is now because When the secret guard was addicted to gossip, he asked excitedly: “What is it?”

Li Kaiyuan recalled it, and he had to admire the emperor’s whims, so he said: “The emperor said, let me go to Korea Select some beautiful women and let them wear provocative clothes to accompany these gamblers. They also built a dining room in the casino and brought cooking dishes from Da Yu. In addition, the most important thing is One of them is tobacco and opium.”

“I have heard about tobacco. What is this opium?” Wang Xuan also heard about it for the first time.

“I have never heard of this thing before. The emperor told me when he came here. He said that there were tobacco leaves brought by the Dutch from North America on the current Ryukyu Island, and there were also some Indian pipes…”

The two of them said While they were discussing the interesting things about this casino, Xiao Ming was playing with a pipe and a pack of tobacco leaves in the study room of Qingzhou Xingyuan.

These two things were among the gifts sent by the Dutch mission last time.

After Qian Dafu put these things away, he didn’t ask again. He didn’t think of it until a few days ago. He never expected to find this thing, which shocked him for a while.

Only then did he remember the origins of tobacco and opium.

This tobacco, like potatoes and sweet potatoes, has never been native to Asia.

During the contemporary Ming Dynasty, the Dutch first introduced North American Indian pipes and tobacco leaves to the Ming Dynasty through Ryukyu.

Since then, the first batch of smokers began to appear in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, the speed and widespread spread of this kind of tobacco frightened the then Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, so he ordered a ban on smoking.

Because there was no distinction between tobacco and opium at that time, opium was mixed with tobacco and smoked, causing symptoms of addiction.

However, what Emperor Chongzhen did not expect was that the ban on tobacco would allow opium to spread in the Ming Dynasty, resulting in a large-scale spread of opium.

Officials at the time pointed out the dangers of opium and that it was impossible to quit smoking without killing the addicts.

The “Da Ming Huidian” also records the opium tribute paid by Asian vassal states to the Ming royal family.

At that time, the kings of Siam, Java, and Bangladesh regularly sent tribute missions to the Ming Dynasty. Among the tributes were opium, but the opium at that time was called “Wuxiang.”

Siam paid tribute of 200 kilograms to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and 100 kilograms to the queen each time. However, this amount could not meet the needs of the royal family. The emperor even sent eunuchs to search for and purchase opium.

At that time, the price of opium was basically equivalent to that of gold. One tael of gold was exchanged for one tael of opium.

It can be seen that the royal family of the Ming Dynasty was already suspected of smoking opium at that time. Emperor Wanli, the most famous emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was said to have opium in his alchemy ingredients.

However, at this time, because opium was expensive, it was mainly consumed by the rich and powerful, and the spread of opium among the people was minimal. It was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty that opium became cheap, leading to large-scale consumption.

(End of chapter)