1890 King of Southeast Asia

"Probably this, Ambassador Aoki, I think this is an excellent opportunity, you think about it." French Foreign Minister Philipposter raised his hand after speaking and signaled Aoki to leave.

"Mr. Minister, the Huaxia Empire launched an injustice war. The justice France cannot be contaminated with the evil Chinese people!" Aoki shouted excitedly, directly ignoring Philip's movement.

"But according to the remarks of the Huaxia Interim Government and the South China Empire Government and the evidence provided, Japan launched a sneak attack on the Huaxia Fleet and the South China Empire Fleet." Philip waved his hand irritating.

"To be honest, this is the first time I saw the fleet that even launched an attack without even clearing the enemy." Philip added a word.

If it weren't for his position here, he would have started scolding the Japanese.

"This must be the conspiracy of the South China Empire, otherwise why would they send a fleet that was almost the same as the Huaxia Fleet to the edge of the battlefield? Only caused the Imperial Navy to make mistakes."

"If it wasn't for the Empire Fleet to launch an attack first, the fleet of the South China Empire would definitely attack the Empire United Fleet. Japan was just exercising the right to self -defense."

The image of Aoki grabbed the life -saving straw, completely put aside the facts, just thought there.

It was not Aoki stupid, but the last effort he did. It was said that he had left Daokou, which may allow Britain and France to continue.

In the past year in Japan, I was waiting for British interference and South China offense, but unfortunately one did not wait.

"Enough of Avasuto, the truth of the matter is already clear. You use sixty warships against 20 warships.

"Moreover, the two countries will not declare against the two countries on the same day. This is an unjust behavior. If I think, you should consider it. I have something to do."

Philip got up and left his office.

"Mr. Ambassador, please!" After Philip's secretary left, Philip walked beside Aoki and said tall toes.

The secretary is convenient to do what the Foreign Minister is inconvenient.

Philip was telling the attitude of the Huaxia Empire to the Aoki. Originally, the conditions that could not be discussed at first glance, Britain and France did not want to manage it.

However, Liu Yiming said too much. According to British and French surveys, there are at least ten large warships in Japan. Perhaps it is gradually not the top battleship, but it is a new battleship.

Especially in France, because the battlefield was launched in France, a large number of people were directly invested in the land war. They wanted to expand the navy on a large scale.

And the interesting and dedication of the Lord, the Lord, is still watching, and their naval power is also good.

And even if you do n’t join the war, do you have enough challenges to experience the challenges to deal with the interest?

Therefore, when Liu Yiming proposed that when Japan agreed to go to militaryization, when all naval ships were sold at low prices to Britain and France, France was attentive.

If half of the warships can be obtained, even if the quality may not be good, it can maintain the status of the French Mediterranean naval country in the future.

Therefore, after receiving the information of Bi Sheng, French Foreign Minister Philip called the Japanese ambassador, hoping to achieve certain results.

"Japanese dwarfs really don't know how to do it. They have lost, but they are unwilling to admit it, and they lie! The disgusting species!" Philip yelled in the deputy minister's office, and the deputy minister could only smile bitterly.

"Philip, there are some changes in Italy, I think you should see it." Deputy Minister handed him an intelligence.

"Is that so? Contact the British right away, I'll see the Prime Minister."

..............

On February 10th, after five or six days, Liu Yiming had not received Sun Zaizhi's investigation report, a little confused.

"Carrying it, is the parliament staying used to it?" Liu Yiming made him a trip.

"Her Majesty is relieved, and the parliament is developing in a good direction." Sun Zaizhi heard this, thinking of those members who gradually entered the right track, some headaches.

Southern China ’s councilor highlights an iron blood and has a hard style. The Chinese members are divided into several factions.

When I came to the night to sing, the rotten Confucianism, who knew the country's affairs, saw that everyone smiled and laughed at the merchants who never expressed effective opinions. There were also simple but simple but did not know what the policy was talking about what was talking about.

As a result, the parliament either South China occupied the upper hand, the wind and fire, or a mess, hesitated.

This is because overall, Huaxia does not have the soil of the agency system. The only intellectuals are almost from landlords or businessmen, but the people are pinched by these people.

Although the construction of the interim government has broken their rule of the people at the bottom for thousands of years, with the thousands of years of Yu Wei and huge resources, elites from landlords and bureaucrats can easily grasp local votes.

Because of this, Liu Yiming did not dare to delegate power, and was starting to change the functionality of the parliament, making him a supervision mechanism, not a decision -making mechanism.

After all, Europe has proven that in order to benefit chain and votes, members are often short.

"I heard that you are doing an investigation about opium. How is the progress?" Liu Yiming habitually ignited cigarettes and handed it to one of Sun Zai.

Sun Zai's face was exhausted. He glanced at Liu Yiming, full of red face, shook his head, and rejected the cigarette.

"The doctor told me to stop smoking and drinking." Sun Zaizhi's tone was full of regret.

"The situation with opium is very serious. If we don't take proper measures to deal with it, it may cause unrest." Sun Zaizhi said, taking out a notebook from his bag.

He flipped it back and forth twice, folded the two pages, and handed it to Liu Yiming, explaining as he handed it over.

"As of the end of last year, we have collected data showing that the national opium cultivation area is 27 million mu, accounting for about 5% of the total cultivated land area."

"Among them, the three southwestern provinces have the largest number of opium cultivation areas, with more than half of the opium cultivation areas in the southwest. Shanxi is the most serious, with the opium cultivation area accounting for 30% of the total cultivated land area, and..."

"As for opium smokers, there are too many to be accurately counted. According to the opium lijin recorded at the end of the Qing Empire, at least 19 million people are addicted to opium."

"The total number of direct opium growers and opium addicts is at least 30 million, and if we estimate it based on the planting farmer families, we also need to add those who rely on planting opium for survival, and it is estimated that there are more than 50 million people."

"This does not include the manpower of drug trafficking groups and those who rely on selling opium for survival. Banning opium is a heavy task... and the road is long!"

Whenever Sun Zaizhi thought of this, he would be irritable, insomniac, and even panic-stricken.

"We have to find new livelihoods for farmers who grow poppies, and first eliminate the existence of opium in production and management." Liu Yiming took a deep breath.

He knew that this problem was huge. After all, the sinking of China began since the Opium War, and opium has been poisoning this ancient country.

But I didn't expect that things had reached this point at the end of the Qing Empire.

What does 50 million people mean? The Huaxia Empire currently has a population of about 500 million, one-tenth.

And the situation in history was even more severe. The total population of 450 million proposed at the end of the Qing Empire was still only this much a few decades later.

Where did the population growth in these decades go? Many of them died of famine and war. The famine was because the land was used to grow opium, and the profits from opium were used by warlords to support the war.

Some people say that they don't grow opium or grain for fear of famine, but it's actually not that simple. Warlords in some places will not watch the financial source of supporting the army disappear.

They stipulated that land that grows grain but not opium should pay three years of taxes in the first year, and land that does not grow opium in the second year should pay seven years of taxes.

In the era of small peasant economy, only a little change in taxes could destroy farmers' families, not to mention paying taxes for many years at a time.

As a last resort, farmers had to grow more opium. A British traveler once said after traveling in China, "From Shanghai to Sichuan, on a journey of 1,600 miles, opium plantations never disappeared from his sight."

"This document should be submitted to the government as soon as possible, and it is best to attract widespread attention. The use of violence alone can no longer completely solve the opium problem." Liu Yiming returned the notebook to Sun Zaizhi.

"Your Majesty, how are you going to solve this problem?" Sun Zaizhi took the notebook and asked expectantly.

Sun Zaizhi has traveled to many places. He knows that opium is not banned in the West. Any pharmacy can open it, so he has always been a little scared.

He doesn't care whether foreigners will smoke him to death. He is afraid that even if they try to ban opium, the opium trade will rise again.

After all, this is a huge profit. As long as there is profit, there will always be people to do it, not to mention huge profits.

"I don't have a good solution for now. I can't think of a good solution except to ban it from multiple aspects." Liu Yiming shook his head.

If the scale is not large, it can be cut quickly. This scale is too large, and it is not appropriate to cut it all at once. The enthusiasm of the people must be mobilized.

"I do have an idea." Sun Zaizhi said firmly after two seconds of silence.

"Tell me about it." Liu Yiming looked at him expectantly.

"Most of the opium has been harvested. I heard that the government wants to ban the transportation and trade of opium. It is better to quickly legislate and make opium smoking illegal." Sun Zaizhi said.

"What else?" Liu Yiming asked with a frown.

"Then set a deadline for smokers to quit opium within three months or six months. If they can't do it, the government will help them quit."

"The government will help him? How?"

"Open a big opium den."

"What?"

Liu Yiming looked at him in surprise.

"Open a big opium den, and then send all those who can't quit to the northwest for centralized management. I don't believe that they will die if they don't take that one puff?" Sun Zaizhi said with certainty...