Ancient Stories: Three Cases of Assassination of Bureaucrats in the Qing Dynasty

In the first story, the person who was stabbed was a prefect, and the story is from the "Notes on Yong'an". In the eighth year of Tongzhi, Wang Rune, the prefect of Qingzhou, was stabbed to death, and the murderer was an infantryman in the Qingzhou battalion. At that time, the military camp stipulated that infantry with excellent martial arts could be supplemented as cavalry. This infantryman performed well in the school parade and was extremely skilled in martial arts. But the counselor looked at him unfavorably and did not upgrade.

This man harbored a grudge and wanted to assassinate the general. Every year, the state held a ceremony to worship Confucius, and the infantry hid a sharp blade under the green bricks in the official school in advance.

That night, civilian and military attachés gathered here, and the infantry took out their sharp knives and approached the officials' feast. The candlelight flickered, and it was not clear to see, and he stabbed at the official sitting in the first place, and the other party fell down, but it was the wang prefect. The infantryman shouted, "Wrong! He stabbed the general with a knife again, and the general was seriously injured and fled to the backyard. The soldiers rushed to meet the enemy, and the infantry killed several people.

With a knife in his right hand and a bow and arrow under his left arm, he rushed out the door. The pursuing soldiers were shot down by him, and the rest did not dare to come closer, and followed far behind. The infantry reached the city gate, killed the gatekeepers, and went outside the city. He also killed a woodcutter with a donkey and fled on a donkey. When I got to the shore, I couldn't cross the river and wandered until noon.

As the pursuing soldiers gathered more and more, the infantry was finally captured. When he was interrogated, he stared at him without fear, and bluntly said that he wanted to kill the general, and finally was sentenced to capital punishment.

It is said that when Wang Zhifu's father was in Zhi County, Shandong, he was almost stabbed by mistake. He had just taken office that day and went to bed with the candles out. The moon was bright outside the window, and he saw a shadow jumping from the eaves, and in horror, hid under the bed. The black shadow broke through the window and slashed at the futon on the bed. Sensing that no one was there, the Assassin jumped out of the window and fled.

The next day, he learned that this was the bedroom of the previous Zhi County, and it should be that the Qiu family did not know that the old Zhi County had left office. Wang Zhifu's father almost became a substitute ghost. Two generations have been stabbed by mistake, which is really a rare thing.

The following story is also from the "Notes on Yong'an", and the victim was a Zhi County. The Zhi County of Shengxian County, Zhejiang Province, is called Yan Sizhong, who was originally from Zhenjiang, and has made great achievements after doing Zhixian County. In March of the ninth year of Tongzhi, the son of a local barber went to learn a craft in a foreign country, and the Qingming Festival was returned from Xinchang, and he fell mad in the middle of the road.

When the madman returned home, his father went to the countryside to visit the graves, and he lived with an apprentice. In the middle of the night, the madman set the house on fire and ran out of the house without knowing where it was going.

At that time, the county government repaired, Yan Xianling lived in a private house, a total of seven houses, none of which had a door, but hung a curtain. The madman jumped in from the back wall with a kitchen knife, and no one noticed.

The madman first encounters a maid who goes to the toilet at night and slashes the other person down with a knife. Enter a room where the daughter of the county order lives, in her twenties. The county ordered her daughter to be severely injured. The madman came to the county order's bedroom and slashed Yan Xianling and the concubines. He saw a woman's flower skirt behind the bed, picked it up and tied it around his waist, and walked out of the room. The county ordered the daughter to crawl to save her father, and was running into a madman and was slashed to death by dozens of knives. The madman returned to the house and killed the county commander and the concubine. Then he took the official seal and a yuan treasure.

In the morning, an old man in a nearby tofu shop had just opened the door when he saw a man covered in blood, wearing a flower skirt around his waist and holding a kitchen knife. The old man slammed the door leaf, and the madman's knife was knocked down, and he turned to flee, and the official seal also fell to the ground. Later, the madman was caught in a pond, and he was crouching in the water with only his head exposed. After arriving at the case, I was at a loss for the bloody case I had done. He was also sentenced to death.

Some people say that Yan Xian ordered a nest of fox spirits to burn to death when he was young, and the madman may have been confused by the fox spirits.

On July 27, 1999, Ma Duanmin, a member of the Yipin Dynasty, was assassinated, and he was the governor of Liangjiang at the time, and on that day he personally inspected the riding and shooting at the school site. The school yard is on the right side of the gate, and there is a road leading to the back door. After Ma Duanmin finished the parade, he walked back to Yamen, and when he was about to reach the door, there was a Wusheng kneeling on the side of the road and begging him for help. Ma Duanmin looked at the other party, it turned out to be a fellow villager of his own, so he said: "I have already funded you twice, why did you come again?" ”

Before Wu Sheng could answer, another person next to him shouted injustice, approaching Ma Duanmin as he shouted, grabbing his clothes with his left hand and wielding a knife in his right hand. Ma Gong shouted, "Catch the murderer!" "I was stabbed.

The people in the school yard ran over and grabbed the murderer and the martial student, and after interrogation, the martial student did not know it, but just by chance, so he let it go. Rumors spread for a while, the case shook the imperial court, and half a year later, there was no black curtain, so it was abandoned. Zeng Guofan returned to Liangjiang as governor.

(This is the Thorn Horse case of the Four Wonders of the Qing Dynasty, which has been analyzed by articles and related to the suppression of the Xiang Army and the pursuit of the treasure left by the Taiping Army.) ）

In the above records, only the assassination of Ma Duanmin is recorded. In the Wild Records of the Qing Dynasty, it developed into a murder case caused by the peach color incident. The truth has been drowned in history.

In the "Wild Records of the Qing Dynasty", it is written that Ma Duanmin was a native of Shandong and was used as a county order in Anhui. During the Xianfeng period, he was captured in battle with the Twist Army, and the person who captured him was Zhang Wenxiang. Zhang Wenxiang originally had the idea of returning to the imperial court, so he treated Ma Duanmin with courtesy, and introduced the generals Cao Erhu and Shi Jinbiao of the Twist Army, and the four of them became brothers.

After Ma Duanmin was released, Zhang Wenxiang and the three of them immediately recruited An to surrender and became the deputy generals in the battalion. Later, Ma Duanmin was promoted to envoy of Anhui Province, and managed the battalion part-time. Zhang, Cao, and Shi all followed him to the provincial capital. After the disbandment of their barracks, the three of them worked as petty officials in the government envoy Yamen.

Soon, Cao Erhu's family arrived and also lived in Yamen. At that time, Zhang Wenxiang saw that Ma Duanmin was becoming increasingly estranged from them and had disdained to be with them, so he advised Cao Erhu not to bring his family members over, but Cao Erhu did not listen. When Cao Erhu's wife met with the wife of the envoy, she was seen by Ma Duanmin and went so far as to have an adulterous affair. As a result, Cao Erhu was frequently dispatched on business trips.

After a long time, the matter spread, and Zhang Wenxiang told Cao Erhu. Cao Erhu was furious and wanted to kill his wife. Zhang Wenxiang said: "You didn't get the handle, killing people is to pay for your life." Why not give your wife to the envoys? ”

Cao Erhu listened to Zhang's suggestion and once told Ma Duanmin that Ma Duanmin was furious, saying that Cao Erhu had slandered the imperial court officials and reprimanded them sternly. Zhang Wenxiang said after knowing this: "The catastrophe is not far away, it is better to find a way to leave as soon as possible." Cao Erhu hesitated.

Soon after, Ma Duanmin sent Cao Erhu to Shouchun Town to lead the fire. The chief soldier stationed in Shouchun was called Xu Xinquan, a native of Huaining. Zhang Wenxiang was afraid that Cao Erhu would be killed on the road, so he and Shi Jinbiao followed him for protection. All the way safe, Shi Jinbiao laughed at Zhang Wenxiang's suspiciousness, and Zhang Wenxiang was also a little embarrassed.

When he arrived in Shouchun, Xu Zongbing wore armor to greet him, ordered someone to take down Cao Erhu, and said: "Ma Daren sent someone to inform in advance, saying that you were smuggling with the Twist army, and this time you came to raise the arms to give to the Twist Army." Cao Erhu shouted unjustly, but was still beheaded.

Zhang Wenxiang was very sad and indignant, and asked Shi Jinbiao to avenge Cao Erhu. Shi Jinbiao was unwilling, but left with him to collect the body of Cao Erhu. Later, Shi Jinbiao became a staff general, and one day was summoned to testify, which learned that Ma Duanmin was stabbed to death by Zhang Wenxiang.

It is said that on the day of the assassination, Ma Duanmin had already become the governor of Liangjiang, and he was inspecting the soldiers on the Yong Road next to the office, when suddenly someone shouted injustice, and Zhang Wenxiang took the opportunity to draw a knife and stab him in the left rib. The knife was not pulled out, and the blood from the wound had not yet flowed. Ma Duanmin saw that it was Zhang Wenxiang who was assassinating him, and said to the people around him: "Don't be embarrassed for him!" "After saying that, he fell to the ground and carried him into the office and died."

Zhang Wenxiang stood still and shouted, "It is I who commit the crime, don't wrongfully accuse others." "He did not resist, so he was caught."