Chapter 118: The Story of the Zhang Family

"Why?"

"I know more about what the Flying Society has done and what you are doing, and I believe you when I hear your point of view today. This matter is actually very long, and it is also the story of our Zhang family, I don't know if you are interested in hearing it? Zhang Mingxin said.

"I want to hear about it." Qiu Yu replied crisply. Qiu Yu usually speaks with very few dirty words, except for joking with Tianhu, he is basically a civilized person, and sometimes even literary crepe, which may be caused by his love of reading since he was a child, which is a good habit that his father helped him develop.

"In fact, this matter has to start from more than a hundred years ago......" Zhang Mingxin looked into the distance, there seemed to be a trace of imperceptible pain on his face, and began to tell the story of the Zhang family.

Zhang Mingxin spoke very slowly, probably he was very reluctant to recall this incident, although this incident did not happen to him first, but he was also in it, and he was also one of the protagonists of the story.

The story of the Zhang family is almost a piece of modern Chinese history. More than 100 years ago, the Golden Triangle was still part of China's territory, but in fact, most of the entire Southeast Asia at that time belonged to China's vassal states, and it has gone through a history of several hundred years, which is an indisputable fact. Even though the Qing government was very incompetent more than a hundred years ago, it has always had garrisons in Southeast Asia, and a considerable number of officials who manage these places are Chinese. At that time, people in Southeast Asia also had an inexplicable admiration for China, and their yearning for a big country in China was unimaginable now, and the Chinese were extremely proud of it, far from what the Chinese are now admiring and flattering.

At that time, the ancestors of the Zhang family were the managers of this area of the Golden Triangle, and they were the largest toast here. The Zhang family is pure Chinese, has always been a scholarly family, an official family, I don't know which generation of Zhang family ancestors because of anger, because of the anger of high-ranking officials, was relegated here, far from the homeland. The degraded ancestors of the Zhang family did not become depressed, vigorously developed agriculture in the local area, improved the people's living standards, shared weal and woe with the locals, won the support of the locals, and had a high reputation. The Qing government was already busy with the chaos in the country, and there was no time and energy to take care of this remote place, so the Zhang family has been left in the local area and has always been supported as the leader. After decades like this, the Zhang family has taken root here. Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the British, who had never been able to knock on the door of China, came here, and they began to force the people here to abandon the wheat, barley and rice and other food crops they had cultivated for many years, and replace them with the opium poppies they brought, in an attempt to produce opium nearby to completely corrupt the Chinese, in order to achieve their goal of invading China.

At first, the locals didn't think much of it, and some even secretly smoked opium and felt quite good. But with the loss of the ability to work and the great pain of the onset of drug addiction by a large number of young and middle-aged people, it was finally realized that this was not a good thing, and that the English had sinister intentions, and that their intentions were by no means as beautiful and lovely as the poppies. The awakened people rebelled under the leadership of the ancestors of the Zhang family, and with the prestige of the ancestors of the Zhang family, as long as he gave an order, no one would ever plant these things again, so the Zhang family naturally became the first target of the British to conquer. Several attempts of persuasion, inducement, and threats were ineffective, and the red-eyed British pointed the finger at the Zhang family's family, captured the Zhang family's only minor son, and threatened the contemporary Zhang family head with his life to submit. Faced with the little blood left over from several generations of his family, the head of the Zhang family of that generation had to give in and agreed to let his subordinates plant opium poppies on a large scale, so the poppies soon covered the entire Golden Triangle region.

The locals didn't blame the Zhang family, and anyone in that situation could have chosen that way. However, the Zhang family did not forgive themselves because of the understanding of the deployment, and a few years later, the head of the Zhang family of that generation became seriously ill and died of depression. Before his death, he warned the descendants of the Zhang family that they must be kind to the local people, wait for the opportunity, drive out the Tartars, and avenge the hatred of the country. With the demise of the Qing government, followed by the barbaric rule of the Japanese, the establishment of the Burmese government, and the invasion of the remnants of the Kuomintang, although the Zhang family has always been respected as the local administrator, but has never been able to avenge this great revenge, the Zhang family also because of their own family reasons and the Golden Triangle fell into misery and deep self-blame, so several generations are regretful for life, and then this has gradually become the ancestral training of the Zhang family.

Although the Golden Triangle region has experienced several changes of forces, the British, the Japanese, and the Kuomintang, these people have never thought of changing the habit of growing opium poppies here, and the most important thing is that the locals don't even know how to grow other crops, and they don't know what to grow without poppies. When it came to Zhang Mingxin's generation, his father understood things very well, and knew that those traditional theories and concepts should obviously not adapt to the development of society. He sent Zhang Mingxin to study in the United States to learn advanced ideas and understand the contemporary development situation and social knowledge. Zhang Mingxin did live up to his expectations, obtained a double degree in the United States, and after graduating at the age of 21, he succeeded his father as the youngest head of the Zhang family and the most prestigious local administrator, that is, the big toast of the local population.

Zhang Mingxin worked hard, and with the help of his young playmate Chu Shengwen, although the situation in the Golden Triangle was chaotic, he established a force that could not be underestimated, and gradually had an armed force that could confront several local forces. The tactics he adopted in the Golden Triangle were very different from those of his predecessors, no longer blindly opposing the cultivation of opium poppies, but advocating the cultivation of as much as possible, and then selling the resulting drugs to those drug dealers to sell to countries such as the West and Japan. He then used the money obtained to improve the lives of the local people, and within the scope of his rule, the people's living standards were greatly improved, and public schools and hospitals were opened, and local children were allowed to go to school for free, and hospitals were treated for diseases for free. For a time, Zhang Mingxin's prestige increased greatly, reaching its heyday, Zhang Mingxin said everything in this area, and was supported by everyone, it can be said that Zhang Mingxin is the person who really masters the drugs in the Golden Triangle.

Under his teaching, none of the locals took drugs, and they completely quit drug addiction. But Zhang Mingxin never forgot that he was a Chinese, and he never sold drugs to drug dealers destined for China, which was good to say before the eighties, when the Chinese government controlled and cracked down on drugs extremely harshly, and the people's living standards were low, and there was no money to buy drugs. However, with the advent of reform and opening up, the people's living standards have improved, society has opened up, a large influx of foreigners and the exchange of border areas, drugs have begun to slowly flow into Chinese mainland, Zhang Mingxin's policy and the interests of some drug dealers have conflicted, and trouble has followed.