I Became A Hidden Powerhouse Of The British Empire [EN]: Chapter 75

Became a Hidden Power in the British Empire 75

First Strike Always Loses

Am I now completely becoming a person of the 19th century?

The merchants, having learned of the Qing Dynasty’s intentions, reacted exactly as I had predicted.

“Are they coming all the way here to confiscate opium?”

“Those bastards must be crazy. Let them try if they can.”

“If they try to land by force, we can just blast them with cannons. Confiscating opium in Guangzhou [Canton] is within their territory, so we might concede, but this island has been occupied by us for over a decade.”

Strictly speaking, Lintin Island should also be considered Qing territory, but most Western countries at the time, based on their own customary laws, had concluded that it was under European effective control.

If the Qing Dynasty had continued to protest, it might have been different, but the fact that they hadn’t said anything until now meant they had acknowledged it to some extent, so there was nothing more to say.

Of course, from the Qing Dynasty’s perspective, they didn’t want to wage war with the West to protect a tiny island far from the mainland, an island that wasn’t even inhabited, so they had reluctantly let it go.

“Now, now, everyone. Don’t worry too much. No matter how enraged the Qing Emperor is about confiscating opium, the Governor-General of Liangguang [the region encompassing Guangdong and Guangxi provinces] is a rational man. He knows how foolish it would be for them to send warships all the way here to confiscate opium.”

“I suppose so?”

“Do you know approximately how much opium is currently on Lintin Island?”

“Well, almost all the opium sold by our company is stockpiled on this island. The same goes for other companies, and we’ve recently swept up almost all the inventory, so there should be about 30,000 chests?”

One chest is about 140 pounds… more than 60 kilograms, so if there are 30,000 chests, it means there’s a truly unbelievable amount of goods sleeping on this island.

“If all 30,000 chests were sold at the regular price, approximately how much would that be?”

“The market price keeps changing, but roughly around 7.5 million pounds? Of course, that’s assuming it all gets sold.”

In modern terms, that’s almost trillions of won [South Korean currency, roughly equivalent to billions of US dollars].

It’s easy to understand why opium merchants are so desperate to sell this off, and why so many British politicians can’t resist their lobbying.

It’s one thing to hold an opium dismantling show off the coast of Guangzhou, but it’s another to come all the way to a place under our effective control and confiscate 7.5 million pounds worth of opium.

No country would say that Britain should tolerate this.

However, the merchants aren’t fools, so they wouldn’t just meekly give up the opium.

They’ll either ask the East India Company to use force to resist, or move a significant portion of the opium elsewhere, so it’s necessary to take measures to prevent them from acting rashly.

“If the Qing Dynasty really confiscates that much opium without consent, it’s the same as declaring war on our home country. Whatever choice they make is their freedom, but if they’re really thinking of doing something that crazy, they’ll have to pay the price.”

“Well, they’re not stupid, so they must be aiming for something else. It’s like a declaration that we’re serious, so don’t even think about doing anything foolish.”

Even Jardine and Matheson, who have been selling opium here for over a decade, didn’t seem to believe that the Qing Dynasty would make such a choice.

But surprise! There’s no such thing as absolute in this world.

* * *

The meeting on Lintin Island proceeded on a 3-day, 2-night schedule.

The Qing inspection team, as expected, brought an enormous number of people to the island, probably terrified by their own weak naval power.

I was worried they might only come with a minimal number of people, trusting us, but thankfully that wasn’t the case.

Of course, given the Qing Dynasty’s tendencies, there was never a possibility that they would only bring a minimal number of people.

“What do you think, Governor-General? There are as many as 30,000 chests of opium on this island alone. Do you realize how unrealistic it is to confiscate and dispose of all of this? The merchants, and of course our home country, will never stand for it.”

“…You’ve brought an even more enormous amount than I imagined. But in the end, you were trying to sell all this enormous quantity to our side, weren’t you? How much silver has been drained… No, before the outflow, have you thought about how many people will be ruined by that drug?”

Indeed.

But the people back home openly say that opium is less harmful than whiskey and that the Qing people are just lazy, so what can I do?

It’s just empty words that no one will listen to.

“To be honest, I also think it’s too much to let all this quantity be released into the Qing Dynasty. However, if we confiscate all of this, the merchants back home will all go bankrupt. No, a significant portion of the opium here hasn’t been paid for to the East India Company, so there will be serious problems in many ways.”

“That’s…”

I want to say that’s just your problem, but if I say that, it will become really difficult to handle.

No matter how much they tried to stop it, the opium smuggling market continued to grow and generate huge profits, so until now, it was structured so that everything produced was sold.

As a result, the East India Company produced opium first, and the merchants wanted to secure as much as possible, as there was no problem selling it as long as they received it.

The mindset of ‘just sell it and pay it back’ naturally formed, and credit transactions with advance receipt and later payment increased year by year.

But what if all the stored opium is confiscated or disposed of here?

The damage would be on a different level than if some of the opium brought to Guangzhou became unusable.

The merchants would go bankrupt en masse, and the East India Company would also suffer significant damage and try to recover the money with their eyes wide open.

“Governor-General, you are a wise man, so I believe you know what choice to make.”

“Hoo… Do you think I want to do this? But His Majesty’s will is firm, so there’s nothing else I can do.”

“You say there’s nothing else you can do, but to put it bluntly, isn’t it impossible to confiscate the opium? You spent all day yesterday looking around, so you should know. Is it possible for the Qing army to come all the way here and confiscate the opium?”

“…Will your merchants cooperate willingly…?”

“You know they won’t, of course. Unless they want to go bankrupt after giving up all their assets.”

As I subtly turned my gaze, Lin Zexu also turned his head towards the merchants, who were watching the negotiation process with great tension.

The atmosphere was so stiff and the gazes so hostile that he couldn’t fail to sense their determination to stop the confiscation of opium, even if it meant taking up arms.

However, as the emperor’s strict orders had been issued, there was nothing else the governor-general, who was just an official, could choose.

“I understand your country’s intentions, but the words of the Emperor, who is the owner of this country…”

The moment Lin Zexu, prepared for a breakdown, was about to open his mouth with a determined look.

콰아아앙! 콰콰쾅!

A loud noise that made my eardrums feel muffled, and a strong vibration was felt under my feet.

“W, what is it?”

“What’s that sound?”

“I, it sounds like gunpowder exploded?”

“F, fire! Isn’t there a fire over there?”

Confusion spread in an instant.

The merchants, seeing the flames rising in the distance, were aghast and jumped up from their seats, and Lin Zexu was no different.

“Damn it, what the hell is going on suddenly…?”

Jardine, who was touching his ear with a curse, suddenly turned pale and stared at the direction of the raging fire.

“T, that’s… isn’t that the direction where the warehouse is?”

“…?”

“…”

The merchants, who couldn’t possibly not know what kind of warehouse he was talking about, all closed their mouths as if they had been put under a silence spell.

“This Fuck!!! 씨바아아알!” [Ssi-baal! – A Korean profanity, equivalent to “fuck!”]

“Water! Bring water! Damn it! Put out the fire first!”

“Noooo! No! It can’t be!”

Exactly 5 seconds later, they screamed as if they had made a promise and ran out like crazy people.

Yeah, it burns well when you pour oil on it.

With the fire burning like that, there’s no way the merchants can prevent the warehouse from being completely burned down, no matter how much water they pour on it.

I turned to Lin Zexu, who was staring stiffly, and asked.

“That’s a novel method. Was the Emperor’s order to just burn it all down because confiscation through formal procedures seemed impossible?”

“N, no… that can’t be. Wait! This is a misunderstanding! We didn’t set the fire…”

“Then who set the fire? Did the opium merchants suddenly go crazy and burn all their assets?”

“I never ordered arson! This is something someone did on their own!”

Yeah. Even so, he can’t possibly say that they have nothing to do with it.

With the Qing Dynasty’s personnel entering the island on a large scale, and this accident happening, it’s common sense that they must be the culprits.

Moreover, they spent all day yesterday investigating and looking at the warehouse, so they had plenty of time to prepare.

“Whether it was done independently or not, we’ll find out once we investigate. But our home country will never let this go.”

“I’ll say it again, I never gave such an order.”

Yeah, yeah. That’s right.

But unfortunately, there are plenty of Qing officials who want to burn all the opium.

It wasn’t difficult to find someone who would succumb to the temptation of being told to just come and set the fire, as all the preparations had been completed.

Especially recently, the Emperor had been issuing strong orders every day, so there were many loyal subjects who believed they had to follow the Emperor’s orders.

My detective agency’s employees, disguised as merchants, poured oil on the warehouse before the meeting started to make sure it would burn well, and also put flammable materials between the boxes containing opium.

The result of the Qing Dynasty’s loyal subjects, who were shouting ‘Down with Opium, Down with the British,’ dropping the spark was exactly that.

Of course, even so, the Qing soldiers were the ones who set the fire, so even if we investigate, we have nothing to worry about.

They thought they were setting the fire secretly, but unfortunately, as soon as the investigation started, we had already secured all the evidence to identify the culprit in advance.

And the operation didn’t just end with burning the opium warehouse.

화르르르륵!

“Aaaagh! The harbor! There’s a fire at the harbor too!”

“The merchant ships are on fire! Bring water!”

The flames that rose from the harbor, not far from the warehouse, were engulfing the merchant ships used by my operatives who traveled back and forth between Joseon [ancient Korea] and Japan.

This is it.

The decisive move that will become the justification for this war.

Lin Zexu’s expression, looking at the burning ship, was more flustered than ever before.

“W, why is there a fire there…?”

“The merchant ship is on fire! Put out the fire immediately and check if there are people!”

“T, this… what is this…?”

Unlike when the warehouse was on fire, Lin Zexu didn’t say this time that it wasn’t his order.

Of course, he wouldn’t. Even if he shouted that he told them to investigate but didn’t tell them to burn it, it would only be a confession.

It was close to us pushing them to burn the opium, but the burning of the merchant ship was not completely unrelated to Lin Zexu.

We had been constantly traveling back and forth between Joseon and Japan, irritating them, so it was natural for the Qing Dynasty to want to investigate that ship.

However, it was absolutely impossible for the Qing ships to catch our merchant ships at sea, and even if they tried to inspect them in Guangzhou, there would be no evidence left.

So they would never get another chance unless the ships were docked at our base.

If they were really going to investigate, it would only be now, while the meeting was in progress.

The operatives disguised as merchants were told to deliberately cause a commotion and set fire to the ship if Qing soldiers came to investigate secretly.

After all the fires subsided, they would all be treated as missing.

Leaving behind all the evidence that Qing soldiers had tried to forcibly search the ship.

“Why is this happening… why…?”

In the end, the fire, which was like a disaster for both the opium merchants and Lin Zexu, subsided only after completely burning down the warehouse district and the merchant ships, and the merchants were in a daze, searching and searching through the ashes.

“T, there must be something left! There must be something left.”

“Please! Please, even a little bit…”

Originally, opium has a high moisture content, so it doesn’t easily burn completely even when burned with fire.

But how much could be left after pouring oil on the entire warehouse and burning it down?

The boxes on the edge could have been salvaged if they were lucky, but we had already taken care of that.

The merchants, with bloodshot eyes, searched for opium boxes that could be recovered and eventually found several boxes of opium loaded on the Qing ship.

These were secretly taken out by my employees, but with undeniable material evidence, the Qing Dynasty’s purpose became clear.

Furthermore, a large number of weapons used by Qing soldiers were found on the wreckage of the burning merchant ships.

“You bastards! From the beginning, you were planning to burn everything while pretending to negotiate because it was impossible to confiscate it!”

“You killed the witnesses and burned the ship after being caught trying to investigate the merchant ship! Are you even human!”

With undeniable evidence in front of him, Lin Zexu could not refute anything and closed his eyes tightly.

Even if he said he didn’t give such an order, it wouldn’t change anything as long as he couldn’t stop his subordinates from running wild.

Even if he could argue about burning the opium, he had even searched the docked merchant ship, killed the resisting merchants, and burned the ship to destroy the evidence.

Moreover, even after doing so, evidence remained and he was caught.

This was practically a declaration of war.

Lin Zexu, who requested a thorough investigation and begged for time until then, hurriedly boarded a ship and returned without even completing the meeting schedule.

“Minister! Inform our home country of this fact immediately!”

“I don’t think I’ll feel better unless I grind those bastards to dust!”

“Are you going to let those bastards go like that? Give the order to bombard them immediately! Please!”

The hate-filled screams of the merchants filling Lintin Island signaled the start of the war.