What really happened was, a trader who had been up and down the China coast filed a report with the Crown that said, "Dude I've been all over the place and they've got NOTHING that can stop you. Hit them here and here and here and they'll fold faster than Superman on laundry day. And they're corrupt so they'll sue for peace as soon as you threaten their capital (and thus themselves). Just find any flimsy excuse you can for war and presto it's on." So the British did that shit with the opium and provoked a response they knew would come.

That viceroy is still a hero today in China for what he did. I saw an exhibition of the dissolving of the opium into the river at a museum in Hong Kong, it was righteous. Along with a demonstration of an opium warehouse - floor to 10 meter ceiling with giant 1 meter wide black balls of opium, going on and on down the hall.