The so-called "the world is big and there is no wonder", in the world we live in, there will be some incredible events anytime and anywhere.
Even the late Qing Dynasty literary scholar Wu Zhaoren said in his book "The Strange Situation Witnessed in Twenty Years": "There are no strange places in Shanghai, and if you can spend more days there, there will be more news." ”
Of course, this miracle naturally does not only happen in the Shanghai area, thousands of worlds are collected anecdotes and strange things, although Wu Zhaoren means not to be rare and strange, but if you hear some anecdotes, you can't help but be amazed.
For example, the assassination of the horse in the four strange cases of the late Qing Dynasty, which itself looks like an assassination case and seems to be nothing strange, but it can be found in the details of it:
The Thorn Horse Case
First, the governor of Liangjiang who was assassinated in this case was the first feudal governor to be killed by a knife since the founding of the Qing Dynasty; second, the actions of the assassins after assassinating him were puzzling, and he did not flee for his life but tied his hands;
Moreover, in the course of the trial of this case, the confessions of the perpetrators were varied and varied; in the end, Cixi and some officials had an ambiguous attitude towards the case, which was puzzling...
All this had to make it spread among the people.
What is the truth behind such a high-ranking and powerful governor of Liangjiang who was assassinated in broad daylight? Who is this Governor of Liangjiang?
Empress Dowager Cixi
01 Ma Xinyi, who made a difference, was bizarrely stabbed
The governor of Liangjiang was named Ma Xinyi, and he was a confidant of Cixi who succeeded Zeng Guofan in 1868.
After Ma Xinyi became the new governor of Liangjiang, he also scrupulously fulfilled his duties and investigated and handled many major cases, but he did not expect that he had only been in office for two years before he was killed for no reason.
It was one day in 1870, when Ma Xinyi was inspecting the troops shooting in Jiangning Province, and then wanted to go back to the Governor's Palace to rest. Just then, a man ran up to him and said that he wanted to get justice and take out a complaint.
The people in front of him were respectful and respectful, and Ma Xinyi didn't think much about it, just because he was an ordinary citizen.
Ma Xinyi
But unexpectedly appeared at the moment when he took over the complaint, only to see this man pull out a short knife with lightning speed, stab Ma Xinyi straight and straight, and the hand was crisp and sharp and vicious, and this knife killed Ma Xinyi on the spot!
The strange thing is that this assassin named Zhang Wenxiang, instead of running away, stood in a domineering position and waited to be caught.
This powerful governor of Liangjiang was thus murdered by an assassin who appeared out of nowhere, and it was done in a heavily guarded place! This incident instantly shocked the government and the public, and the people also talked about it.
So judging from Ma Xinyi's birth history, can we see some clues?
Born in 1821 in Heze, Shandong Province, Ma Xinyi was admitted to the Jinshi with Li Hongzhang at the age of twenty-six, and subsequently held positions under Zeng Guofan.
Because of his resourcefulness, decisiveness, and loyalty to Cixi, he soon gained Cixi's trust and his official fortunes flourished.
Cixi, after zeng guofan, the governor of Liangjiang at the time, was transferred to the post of viceroy of Liangjiang, he gave the vacant governor of Liangjiang to Ma Xinyi.
"Three fires for new officials to take office", after Ma Xinyi became the governor, he also did a lot of practical things to benefit the people, he reduced the burden of peasants and improved people's livelihood;
During his tenure, he also successfully solved the shortcomings of caoyun and salt administration, and the achievements achieved were praised by the people.
From this point of view, this is a good official with outstanding ability to serve the welfare of the people, and it is reasonable to say that it is impossible for the people to resent him and do harm.
What is worth scrutinizing is that after killing someone, Zhang Wenxiang said a sentence that made people have to ponder: "Raise soldiers for a thousand days, use soldiers for a while" - this sentence with obvious murder intentions and hints at planning for a long time can't help but remind people of the official arena.
02 The investigation is in a dilemma, and Zheng Dunjin of the Punishment Department excludes Zeng Guofan's suspicions
Cixi was extremely angry when she learned that her favorite confidant had been stabbed, and immediately sent Zhang Zhiwan to Jiangning to investigate and interrogate.
However, they thought everything was too simple, if the assassin confessed, it would be able to close the case quickly, but Zhang Zhiwan actually tried for five months without results!
Later, if cixi had not issued frequent edicts, Zhang Zhiwan would have dragged on for a month...
In this regard, Zhang Zhiwan had to reluctantly close the case, and his report described Zhang Wenxiang's motives for committing the crime: Zhang Wenxiang, who had joined the Taiping Army, was captured by the Qing army and escaped, and fled to Ningbo and colluded with local pirates.
Because he had done justice to Ma Xinyi but the latter ignored him, Ma Xinyi later suppressed a group of his pirate brothers, and he formed a bond with Ma Xinyi to plan the assassination.
Zhang Zhiwan
Although Zhang Zhiwan repeatedly said that this confession was credible, Cixi, who was not satisfied, sent two more people to try it: Zeng Guofan, who had been transferred back to Liangjiang, and Zheng Dunjin, the head of the Punishment Department.
During the interrogation, Zheng Dunjin also sensed the delicate and eerie atmosphere, and the prisoner Zhang Wenxiang stopped speaking except to provide the same confession as before;
Zeng Guofan, who was in the same trial, also did not say a word, and from the beginning to the end, it seemed that only he himself was speaking.
Zheng Dunjin, who had no clue about the trial, suspended the case, and at the same time, he also heard some rumors in Jiangning:
Rumor has it that Ma Xinyi once married Zhang Wenxiang in Anhui and another person named Cao Erhu, but Ma Xinyi was a womanizer, and he took advantage of Cao Erhu's absence to occupy his wife and later killed Cao Erhu, so Zhang Wenxiang wanted revenge after the tragic death of his brother.
This rumor also seems to be justified, because after Ma Xinyi's death, a concubine in his family also committed suicide.
Could it be that this little concubine was Cao Erhu's wife, and when she saw that the great revenge had been repaid, she followed her husband and went away? Zheng Dunjin did not want to let go of any detail, so he hurried to Ma Xinyi's house to understand the situation.
The Ma family refuted this statement, saying that he had served as an inspector of Zhejiang as early as the fourth year of Tongzhi and had never been to Anhui, so let alone such a fictitious thing as worshipping a shogun!
As for the concubine who committed suicide, it may be that she really loved Ma Xinyi too much and was martyred. Seeing that the clues obtained were broken again, Zheng Dunjin, who was at a loss, suddenly remembered the state of Zeng Guofan's interrogation.
At that time, Zeng Guofan remained silent, so could this matter be related to his Xiang Army?
Zheng Dunjin's bold idea was not unfounded, because the Eight Banners were useless, and it was Zeng Guofan who led the Xiang army to defeat the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
After quelling the rebellion, the Xiang army was also stationed as a local army in the Yangtze River and the area south, and their strength made the Qing government both love and envy, so Cixi asked Ma Xinyi to serve as the governor of Liangjiang, so as to stabilize the strength of the Xiang army.
Zeng Guofan
Therefore, at that time, Ma Xinyi naturally became a thorn in the eye of the Xiang Army, and as the leader of the Xiang Army, Zeng Guofan had reason to instruct others to remove the scourge.
Despite this thought, Zheng Dunjin deduced from the facts he knew that it seemed that this matter could not be done by him.
Because zeng guofan had a serious illness in Tianjin when the horse stabbing case occurred. At that time, he was dealing with the "Tianjin Missionary Case", when it was said that the missionaries in Tianjin had abducted many children to use their organs for medicine, and the local people had killed the French minister in anger.
When Zeng Guofan went to the imperial court, he was originally to complain about the grievances of the people of Tianjin, but in order to calm the anger of the foreigners, Cixi "beat a rake upside down" to erase the regulations of his cry for injustice, and instead added some remarks of Zeng Guofan to the foreigners.
As soon as this modified recital was announced, he instantly became the object of scorn from everyone, and Zeng Guofan became angry and fell ill with anger!
In summary, Zheng Dunjin believed that he had been seriously ill by this incident and had no time or energy to plan the assassination of Ma Xinyi.
03 Cixi's attitude made Zeng Guofan extremely frightened
At the same time, Zeng Guofan was also anxious about this matter.
Since Ma Xinyi's death, Cixi wanted him to continue to take over as the governor of Liangjiang, but Zeng Guofan wanted to resign on the grounds of poor health, and the empress dowager of the two palaces insisted on letting him take office, so Zeng Guofan went to Beijing to meet the empress.
In fact, there was another reason why he went to meet him, that is, he wanted to know what the empress dowager's attitude towards Ma Xinyi was? But Cixi only blindly said that it was strange to him and did not say anything more.
It is said that there is indeed something strange about this: on the day of Ma Xinyi's assassination, a group of onlookers suddenly poured in outside the school grounds, and Ma Xinyi was afraid that if he forcibly expelled the onlookers, he would cause trouble, so he also allowed everyone to enter the school grounds, and Zhang Wenxiang also had the opportunity to blend in and create this accident...
Zeng Guofan could not always let the empress dowager say "strange" without giving instructions, so when he met Cixi again, he asked her how to supervise the case.
"You will train your troops well after you return to your post, by the way, when will you leave?" Cixi asked him this question and did not mention it, completely unlike the previous attitude of letting him and Zheng Dunjin investigate this matter.
The Xiang Army trained by Zeng Guofan
Cixi stayed in Beijing until her birthday, and Zeng Guofan then set off with a suspicious mood, and on the way back he and his think tank continued to analyze the strangeness of the matter.
The facts of the case were strange and the empress dowager's attitude was also strange, and from the surface, it seemed that Cixi was not very willing to investigate the matter.
Zeng Guofan and the think tank conducted a more detailed investigation, and suddenly thought of a person who hated foreign priests: Prince Yizhen!
Why did he associate him with Ma Xinyi, because Ma Xinyi was a person who protected foreign religions, and "hating Wu and Wu" made Prince Shuo dislike Ma Xinyi and then arranged for someone to assassinate him.
Prince Yizhen of Alcohol
And Cixi knows all this, so she is not in a hurry to rush to handle the case. If we do a further in-depth study, the truth will be extremely frightening: Is Cixi the mastermind behind the planning of the "thorn horse case"?
Because Ma Xinyi protected the foreign religion, some of these foreign priests became increasingly arrogant and led to a series of conflicts, causing Cixi to lose face in front of the people and conspire with Prince Yizhen to arrange for Zhang Wenxiang to carry out an assassination operation?
This speculation will naturally not be confirmed, and what can be determined by Zeng Guofan is that there must be a force behind Zhang Wenxiang! Moreover, he did not carry the blood sea deep vengeance related to Ma Xinyi on his back, and he could not take the risk of taking a desperate risk in order to seek revenge and failure;
Moreover, after killing Ma Xinyi, he "regarded death as if he were returning home" without hiding, which showed that he had gone with political purposes.
04 The thorn horse case seems to involve too much, and the trial result returns to the original point
This kind of political purpose was actually zheng Dunjin also thought of, but what he thought of was the Xiang army behind Zeng Guofan instead of Zeng Guofan himself.
The possibility of his planning has been ruled out earlier, so this may have been done by the core figures in the Xiang Army, in order to safeguard the interests of the Xiang Army itself.
Zheng Dunjin affirmed some of his own speculations from Ma Xinyi's son. His son Ma Yuzhen told him that he and his father once went to see Empress Dowager Cixi, but when he came out, his father seemed to have been reprimanded by Cixi, looking listless.
Later, Ma Xinyi told his son that he himself also had an important responsibility to find the "Holy Treasury" of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
The so-called Holy Treasury is the property that the Taiping Army uniformly handed over to the organization, and it is said that there are more than 20 million yuan of money, far more than the silver in the Treasury of the Qing Dynasty.
In fact, Cixi had previously asked Zeng Guofan to trace the whereabouts of the property in the Holy Treasury, but Zeng Guofan always told her that she did not have this money for the benefit of the Xiang Army, so Cixi turned to Ma Xinyi to investigate.
After sorting out his thoughts like this, Zheng Dunjin sorted out such a cause and effect: Ma Xinyi's pursuit must have touched the huge interests of the Xiang Army and led to the disaster of killing!
Therefore, the black hand behind the assassination of Ma Xinyi should be an important figure in the Xiang Army, who secretly planned the case without Zeng Guofan's knowledge.
Whether it is Zeng Guofan or Zheng Dunjin's speculation, although the pointing to the crowd is different, but the same destination, let them feel that this matter can not be investigated anymore, involving too many interest groups, and then checking is afraid that the Qing will be finished!
So when Zheng Dunjin continued to use Zhang Zhiwan's words to present a confession to Cixi for the last time, Cixi acquiesced to the outcome of the trial.
05
The murderer Zhang Wenxiang was naturally executed, and this case has become a mystery, and the intricate truth behind it is unknown.
There are also many people who believe that the real mastermind behind the thorn horse case is those anti-foreign religious forces, only because Ma Xinyi has protected some of the rights and interests of foreign religions, whether these rights and interests are legitimate or not, which has made these indignant anti-foreign religious groups disdainful and conspire to this case.
But in any case, the assassination of Ma Xinyi lacks enough evidence to prove Zhang Wenxiang's true identity and motives.
The lack of clues and the abnormal practices of the case-handling personnel have made the thorn horse case mysterious and mysterious, making it one of the four strange cases of the late Qing Dynasty and entering the annals of history.
However, we can still see some historical conditions from the assassination case, through which we also deeply understand the political turmoil and chaos of the late Qing Dynasty.
Rather than a simple personal grudge, the Thorn Horse case is more like the product of a game between the Qing government and the local han power factions.
As the governor of Liangjiang, Ma Xinyi was scrupulous in his duties, but in that sad era, he inevitably became a pawn in this game and eventually became their victim.
bibliography:
1. Phoenix Network Guoxue - Ancient and Modern General History - "Why did the "Thorn Horse Case", which is the first of the four strange cases in the late Qing Dynasty, end hastily? 》
2. Jinglou Wenshi - Historical Story - "The Governor of Liangjiang was killed in broad daylight, Cixi ordered a strict investigation, and the Minister of Trial: The investigation of the Great Qing will be over"
3. Late Qing Dynasty Literary Scholar Wu Zhaoren's Novel - "The Strange Situation Witnessed in Twenty Years"