In the 19th year of Daoguang (1839 April 10), on February 16th, Lin Zexu, Deng Tingzhen and Yu Kun, the supervisor of Guangdong Customs, arrived in Humen by boat and received opium with Guan Tianpei, the prefect of Guangdong Navy. The cigarette seller paid for cigarettes in Shajiao and issued a receipt from Louisa. Lin Zexu also suggested that if you hand over a box of opium, you will be rewarded with five Jin of tea.
American and Dutch tobacco dealers promised never to sell opium again, but the law was broken, opium was transported on the way to pay for cigarettes, and the time to pay for cigarettes was delayed for various reasons. Lin Zexu played along and extended the blockade of thirteen lines. Yi Law had no choice but to hand in all the cigarettes. On March 19 (1839 May 12), people paid cigarettes, arrested drug addicts and cigarette sellers 1600 people, and collected 46 1526 cigarettes and 4274 1 2 cigarettes. On the sixth day of April (1839 May18), the cigarette seller handed in the cigarettes and * * * received 19 187 boxes of 2 1 19 bags. On April 1 1 day (1May 23, 839), British businessmen such as Lanshi Ludian were expelled from China, and the next day, Yili also evacuated thirteen British businessmen to Macau.
Lin Zexu wanted to transport opium back to Beijing for destruction, but Deng Ying thought it better to destroy it on the spot to prevent opium from being secretly replaced, and Daoguang Emperor agreed. Lin Zexu decided to sell cigarettes publicly in Humen, and then Lin Zexu had to find a way to destroy opium. Lin Zexu used the traditional method of burning opium with smoke soil mixed with tung oil, but the residue of the ointment would seep into the ground, and drug addicts would still get 23/ 10 when digging. So Lin Zexu found the second method, seawater immersion.
The method of seawater immersion is to dig two ponds at the seaside, lay stones at the bottom of the ponds, nail boards around them, and dig a ditch to prevent opium from leaking out. Pour the salt water into the ditch and flow into the pool. Then cut the tobacco soil into four pieces, drop them into salt water, soak them for half a day, then add lime, and the lime will boil in water to dissolve the tobacco soil. The staff kept stirring in the pool with a wooden rake to ensure that the tobacco soil was completely dissolved in the water. When the tide ebbs, send the pool water out of the ocean and wash the bottom of the pool with clean water, leaving no trickle.