Chapter 40: The Instigators

Chen Zeyu didn't have time to pay attention to what would happen to the "sick ghosts" in Guangzhou who couldn't get opium smoking, and it would be better if he could drive the sales of the original drug rehabilitation, and he was busy counting the money with his intelligence department personnel at this time.

As for how the money was earned, just look at this vial full of "blue powder" in his hand......

From the beginning to the end, the whole thing was instructed by Chen Zeyu, and the opium he bought was refined by domestic pharmaceutical factories, and he was constantly producing even more appalling high-concentration drugs.

Of course, at this time, there was no such name as Hai Yin, and the workers of the pharmaceutical factory gave it another nice name - "blue powder".

As for the bottle it left the factory, it was printed with "autumninmyheart" (blue life and death love), which sounded very romantic. Of course, the factory site of the manufacturer, which was strictly required to print every time by the political axe, was artificially deleted.

Playing with the small blue "medicine bottle" in his hand that looks very high-grade packaging, if he didn't know what it contained, Chen Zeyu, an insider, might not be able to help but try the medicine inside.

Looking at the delicate mermaid pattern printed on the cover of the package, Chen Zeyu curled the corners of his mouth.

"Since the British are so fond of growing opium, let them reap the consequences."

Although he knew that he would hurt many innocent people by doing so, his own people would not have suffered humiliation in years of innocence.

"This medicine is originally the devil of the world, British, who let you open the box first~" Looking at the production line of blue powder in the pharmaceutical factory, Chen Zeyu thought silently.

Chen Zeyu knew that today's move would definitely cause the breakdown of countless families in that island country thousands of miles away. There was a slight apology in his heart, but that was all, and he would not regret doing so.

Because the British themselves were the ones who started it!!

Ever since they discovered that the loss of silver at home was irretrievable, the British had begun to sell opium to China.

The Englishman, who usually erects the image of a gentleman throughout Europe, has been doing this kind of loss of surname for a whole century.

At this time, Chen Zeyu couldn't make a more drastic response, but this didn't mean that he didn't have any other way.

In the face of the currency war carried by the British with opium, Chen Zeyu responded to them with this dazzling blue medicine bottle......

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In order to have a more concealed surname, Chen Zeyu specially asked people to register a tobacco company in the United States, and the cigarette production line was still placed on a deserted island somewhere in the Republic of China.

After the finished "blue powder" produced in the republic is delivered to the local area, the workers of the factories there mix the "blue powder" into the tobacco according to a certain proportion to make special cigarettes.

Chen Zeyu also gave it a sarcastic name, "Gentleman" brand cigarettes.

It should be noted that in the world at that time, including Britain, the opium trade was as legal and normal as today's cigarette trade, but the people in Britain and other Western countries were able to realize the harm of opium smoking, so there was no market for opium in Europe. The real anti-drug bill, even in Britain, was not implemented until after the First World War in 1914.

Therefore, this is a very ridiculous thing, Chen Zeyu's behavior is just like what the British opium dealer said, and it is completely legal for him to do so in this era. You can even take the "blue powder" directly to the British pharmacy to sell it, and if you tell the political axe that I am selling high-grade opium, no one will come to arrest you.

Even so, in order to accelerate the popularity of "blue powder" in Britain, the production and sales of this special cigarette are completely taken over by the intelligence department in the Republic, and Chen Zeyu intends to keep the sales of this tobacco in a semi-underground state of secrecy.

Whenever a stock arrives at a sales area, the local intelligence officer in charge of the sale of the "gentleman" brand cigarettes changes hands several times before letting the locals sell them themselves.

It may have been a bit slow at first, after all, the procedure was more complicated and the things were expensive, but with the gradual increase in the number of "repeat customers", this "gentleman" brand specialty cigarette has now been placed on the sales cabinets of major merchants throughout the United Kingdom. At the same time, on Chen Zeyu's books, the money earned from "Gentleman" brand cigarettes has gradually become an appalling astronomical amount.

The profit was more than twice that of the British unilateral sale of opium to the East, which meant that for every £10,000 of opium sold to the East, the special cigarettes would bring a full £20,000 to the Republic.

According to the calculation that the Qing State is now losing 17 million taels of silver every year, this alone can bring nearly 5.4 million pounds of profit to the Republic every year, and the wealth earned is equivalent to the construction of two Luzon Ring Island Railway projects for Chen Zeyu every year.

Although Chen Zeyu doesn't like this way of making money, he still can't help but rejoice when he sees his wealth increase.

For this "ill-gotten gain", in addition to the reasonable income paid to the pharmaceutical factory, most of the rest was invested by Chen Zeyu in the medical and military construction of the republic.

Opium itself is a poisonous thing, and Chen Zeyu allocated half of this income to the Department of Health under the Ministry of the Interior, which can be regarded as accumulating some yin virtue for the British.

The remaining half is invested by Chen Zeyu in the annual military budget, just as Avalanche Shipbuilding Heavy Industry in Sizhejiang has recently stepped up construction of a new type of "Ryukyu"-class battleship.

The cost of the latest cutting-edge battleship, which can be called amazing in the world in terms of tonnage and armament, is also really high and scary, and the navy's budget is really a little tight if it wants to build one more, which is just right.

By the end of 1893, through the statistics of the intelligence department, our side had sent a total of 100,000 kilograms of "adulterated" blue powder to Britain and its colonies (not reluctantly, the intelligence department was afraid that British addicts would die suddenly), earning a total of 3.05 million pounds, equivalent to 19.4 million taels of silver.

So much money is enough for the Navy to build 3 battleships of the "Ryukyu" class, and there is still some surplus.

After almost 7 months of "spreading", the sale of "Gentleman" brand specialty cigarettes has been fully rolled out in British territory.

In addition to the mainland, India and Australia were the most important countries in the colonies for the sale of specialty cigarettes.

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