The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 539 Smoke Rises
General Iri's actions were swift, ruthless, and precise.

After reading out the military order, the fifteen Dutch merchants were locked in small wooden huts, and four armed men were assigned to guard each hut for twelve hours.

Under the high platform.

The people of the Iri Valley pointed and whispered through the glass wall.

"Even Imperial Physician Huang said that the tobacco was poisonous, how could that be faked? These foreigners don't know how amazing our Imperial Physician Huang is."

"That's right! The fertility wine concocted by Imperial Physician Huang has increased the number of newborns in Guanzhong by many times every year! His diagnosis is absolutely reliable!"

"How malicious can these foreigners be? They soak poison in tobacco, and it's a slow-acting poison! If you smoke it for a year or two, even strong laborers won't be able to get out of bed!"

"Insidious, cunning, not a good person!"

"That's right! From now on, we'll take turns supervising them and make sure they keep an eye on these people inhaling that toxic smoke three times a day!"

"Heh, I just want to see what kind of fate these people will have in three months?"

"."

If you were to ask who the people of Kansai are most superstitious about in their lives, they would say...
Besides the Great General Who Protects the Nation, there is also Imperial Physician Huang!

This demonstrates just how highly regarded and well-regarded the medical clinics in the Kansai region were among the people.

Although the toxic fumes have not yet caused any harm.

The joint statement from General Yili and Imperial Physician Huang should serve as a wake-up call for them.

Then, the people were outraged and demanded that Guan Jun inspect all the imported goods again.

We cannot allow foreigners to bring in poisonous substances that are harmful to the health of our people.

The troops stationed in Ili readily accepted the good advice.

This investigation uncovered even more shady dealings.

Dutch merchants were not the only ones selling incense and tobacco.

These foreign merchants were caught red-handed before they could even destroy the evidence.

In one day, nearly five tons were seized.

The luggage and goods brought by more than 13,000 foreigners were not so easy to find.

However, Fu Bao asked his beloved elder brother for help.

Rats have a highly developed sense of smell, even more sensitive than dogs in certain aspects.

Poisons like opium are known to cause poisoning with just one sniff.

They're completely exposed in no time!

The foreign merchants carrying opium and tobacco found more than 130 people.

They followed in the footsteps of the Dutch merchants.

The next day, he was "invited" into the wooden house and provided with three meals a day to personally endorse and test the cigarettes for his products.

Before the results are available.

General Iri stated that he would not accept any form of bail.

They then announced forcefully that anyone who pleaded for or protested on behalf of these people would be deported!
Furthermore, entry will be prohibited for the next fifty years.

For fifty years, trade with the Yongtai Dynasty was prohibited?
There are so many great things in Kansai; you could easily make a killing by randomly picking a few items to take home.

Without a deep-seated interest, who would offend General Iri for the sake of these suspected drug dealers?
Even foreign businessmen who were not involved in the tobacco industry couldn't help but panic.

They couldn't figure it out.

How did opium, a panacea used in Europe for hundreds of years, become a poison during the Yongtai reign?

Who hasn't used this kind of painkiller?!
A small number of foreign merchants even planned to stay, wanting to witness firsthand the consequences of smoking Wuxiang tobacco over the next three months.

Bagua City.

In the inn where the wealthy merchants from Jiangnan were staying.

The Ni family's caravan, consisting of more than a dozen people, is currently in a secret meeting.

The head of the caravan was Consort Ni's elder brother. The Ni family had initially contributed grain, and later increased their betting efforts.

After Zhao Muyun ascended the throne, it could be said that with his success, even his chickens and dogs rose to prominence, and the Ni family suddenly became one of the leading families among the powerful clans of Jiangnan.

The family's influence extends to the textile manufacturing and salt tax industries in Jiangnan.

They made a fortune.

In just a few years, after the son-in-law Gan Mingfu took office, he confronted them head-on, and the Ni family had no choice but to withdraw from the salt industry.

They also shifted the focus of their family caravan to maritime trade.

Although the Yongtai reign did not close the country off from the world, it also did not engage in long-distance overseas trade.

Maritime trade was conducted through cooperation between merchants from the Southern Yue Kingdom and foreigners.

After the complete decline of textile manufacturing in Jiangnan, almost all of the cotton textiles exported by South Vietnam now come from Kansai.

Among the goods imported into Jiangnan by merchants from the Southern Yue region was incense and tobacco.

Perhaps due to the huge market demand along the southern coast of Vietnam, not much tobacco flowed into Jiangnan.

Even with such a limited share, the Ni family tasted the sweetness of exclusive business.

Tobacco, which costs fifty taels of silver per catty, can be worth several times more in brothels when served by beautiful women.

Only wealthy families could afford to consume it.

The Ni family caravan was eager to obtain a larger share of the tobacco market.

This year, while importing cotton textiles from Kansai, I unexpectedly made contact with a Portuguese merchant who sells opium cigarettes.

We hadn't even agreed on the purchase price yet when this situation came up!
The caravan members were getting anxious:
"Shopkeeper, what was General Tian's attitude when you visited him this morning?"

The merchant guild manager, seated at the head of the table, said resentfully:
"Attitude? What an impervious attitude! The Kansai Army doesn't respect our master at all. He even said that none of the tobacco brought by the foreigners can be touched until the test results are in!"

"How about we go straight to Jade-Faced Rakshasa? To put it bluntly, that woman is the real head of Kansai!"

The shopkeeper was panting heavily:

"I don't believe that woman was unaware of what was happening in Bagua City, but she remained silent. Either she was instigating it, or she tacitly approved it!"

"These soldiers are really meddling in other people's business! Those foreign merchants paid 50% customs duty on this tobacco! They just arrest people and shut down businesses like that!"

"In our Jiangnan region, people have been smoking Wuyan cigarettes for three or four years now, and we've never heard of anyone getting poisoned!"

"Yes! Opium has been used in medicine for thousands of years. How can adding it to tobacco turn it into a drug? That's just alarmist!"

"Could this be a new trick that the Gan family kid (Gan Mingfu) is using against us?"

The caravan members had all sorts of guesses.

The shopkeeper frowned deeply, completely baffled.

After a long while, he said:
"That's not like that kid's style! Besides, the tobacco consumed in the Jiangnan market is so small that the annual revenue is less than 500,000 taels. The Governor-General of Jiangnan wouldn't even care about such a small profit!"

"If it's not deliberately targeting us, then it's targeting foreigners, and it's targeting the tobacco itself!"

"Why should we? We finally found a new way to make money, are we just going to watch these two siblings ruin it? The master in the palace has an annual expenditure of more than five million taels of silver. How can we afford to support him if things continue like this?"

"."

King Zhao Rui of Wu has already left the palace and established his own residence.

After several years of marriage, she only had two pitiful sons born out of wedlock, but she couldn't resist the fact that the other family had many concubines.

There are currently only two princes who have reached adulthood.

King Zhao Rui of Wu and King Zhao Zhi of Chu, who was raised by the Empress.

The two men served in the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War, respectively.

Consort Ni had to use money to pave the way for Prince Wu's connections.

The Wu Yue Ni clan needed her protection and had no choice but to become her money bag.

Five million taels a year sounds like a lot, but for her, it was the result of careful calculation.

With her purse in trouble, how could she possibly sit still?