Literature/History of the Four Seasons
The "Thorn Horse Case" and the "Yang Naiwu and Xiao Cabbage Case", the "Famous Yang Yuelou Case" and the "Taiyuan Case" are called the "Four Strange Cases of the Late Qing Dynasty".
In the film "Letter of Submission" directed by Chen Kexin, there is also a "thorn horse case". The film mainly revolves around the emotional entanglement of three men and a woman, and depicts the story of a big black brother from rise to demise to the audience with the love of children. However, the real history of the thorn horse case is far more complicated than these so-called children's love, and the number of backgrounds involved and the intertwined secrets of the roots are even more "wonderful" that the movie cannot reach.
In the history of the Qing Dynasty, "stabbing horses" refers to the story of Zhang Wenxiang's assassination of Ma Xinyi, the governor of Liangjiang, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, which was later recited and also attracted the study of many historians. Looking at history, it is not difficult to find that in fact, the truth of the "stinging horse case" is the corruption and chaos in the official field of the Qing court, the "mutual pinching" between officials and thieves, and then a series of politically and militarily unknown events.
Event passed
On July 26, 1870 , the ninth year of Tongzhi ( July 26 , 1870 ) , Ma Xinyi , then governor of Liangjiang , was suddenly assassinated on the way after reviewing his army and preparing to return to his post to rest , and died the next day due to his wounds.
It is not someone else who stabbed Ma Xinyi, but his former brother Zhang Wenxiang. Who is Zhang Wenxiang? There are legends that he was a remnant of the Twist Army, and there are also legends that he was a remnant of the Taiping Army. Since they are brothers, why did Zhang Wenxiang want to stab Ma Xinyi, in Zhang Wenxiang's own words: Ma Xinyi should be killed.
It turned out that the reason why Ma Xinyi was prosperous and prosperous was based on false reports of military merit and the payment of powerful people. In the so-called "bandit suppression" battle, he was originally a defeated general. After being captured, Ma Xinyi was like a soft bone, and he married Jinlan with the "bandit leader" and became a brother in worship. Then his brother directed a farce of Ma Xinyi's recovery of the lost land, deceived the imperial court, and even climbed to the throne of the feudal officials.
After the flying yellow Tengda, those worshipper brothers thought that they could cling to him and traveled thousands of miles to surrender. Ma Xinyi took over the wife of the Bai Gang brother and booby-trapped the Bai Gang brother. Zhang Wenxiang escaped from his clutches for accidental reasons, and was determined to kill such people who took revenge and crossed the river and demolished the bridge quickly, so this led to the big case of stabbing horses.
Why Ma Xinyi was able to hold an important position, Cixi had considered
You may not understand that Cixi is a smart woman, and how can someone like Ma Xinyi reuse him? There's a balance that's implicit here. Cixi was initially not optimistic about Zeng Guofan and his Xiang army, and Ma Xinyi's Huai army was just able to balance the Xiang army.
First of all, the Xiang Army, a private armed force composed of Han Chinese, became increasingly arrogant and combat effective, and its combat effectiveness was significantly stronger than that of the Qing Dynasty's Eight Banners and Green Battalion. When Ma Xinyi served as the leader of the Xiang army's base area, he could balance Zeng Guofan and eliminate the possibility of the Xiang army dividing or destroying the Qing Dynasty.
Secondly, most of the treasures collected by Hong Xiuquan were privately embezzled by Zeng Guoquan and other Generals of the Xiang Army, and if these treasures could be recovered, it would not only greatly increase the central government's financial revenue, but also financially eliminate the possibility of the Xiang Army's troubles.
Third, by introducing Huai to control Xiang, elevating the status of the Huai army, suppressing the Xiang army, and deliberately provoking the contradiction between the armed forces of the two Han landlords, the Qing court reconciled in the center, gained the allegiance of the Xianghuai warlords, and maintained the balance of the system.
I have to say that Cixi has thought it through very carefully.
Cixi wanted to cover up the michigan and rule arbitrarily and centralize power
The words are divided into two ends, and regardless of whether what Zhang Wenxiang said is true or false, the corruption and incompetence of the Qing court officialdom are incomparable. Since Cixi took control of the government, the official scene has been full of chaos, she has no skills in governing the country, arbitrarily centralized power, and for a time the power has fallen to the opposition. Ma Xinyi falsely reported military merit, coupled with the "filial piety" behind his back, so the official road was smooth, he had no scruples, and he was even more obedient to Cixi. In Cixi's eyes, such a sensible and filial person must be reused, but behind the connivance will always be accompanied by the payment of a price.
In the final analysis, the thorn horse case was an inaction by the Qing court's officialdom and a prominent manifestation of Cixi's contradiction of centralized power. Although he later sent zeng guofan and other important people to try the case together, hoping to "settle the matter", some things could not be wrapped in paper. Although the case has not been closed for a long time, the origin of the matter has long been circulated in the folk, and the Qing court wants to cover up the work.
Zeng Guofan was also somewhat implicated in this case, and he had to curry favor with the Qing government, and if the official made the truth public, then Zeng Guofan, because he was subject to the assignment of the Qing court, the trial of the beginning and end of the case would inevitably be spurned by posterity, because he represented the official field of the Qing Dynasty and represented the intention of Cixi. Later, when the Eight-Nation Alliance entered the customs, it had to be said that Cixi's corruption and incompetence eventually buried the Qing Dynasty.
The events reverberate, giving rise to many contradictions
Whether from the perspective of the bizarre degree of the thorn horse or the perspective of the beneficiary, the "thorn horse case" is indeed a strange case. This is not only because there is lace news, or because the brothers kill each other, but mainly because when the case occurred, when Ma Xinyi was investigating the fortune of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the case had been confusing and could not be closed for a long time.
In this assassination, the Xiang army gained countless treasures and space for development, and eventually formed a famous Han political force in the late Qing Dynasty; the Qing court also dispelled the suspicion of the Xiang army, won the loyalty of the Han landlord class in Jiangnan, maintained the rule of the Qing Dynasty, and successfully achieved a win-win situation. The only unlucky egg who was wronged was Ma Xinyi, and in the end, he was also arranged in various ways. Obviously, such a "strange case" will definitely involve many other political and military secrets that will be peeled off layer by layer. What do you think about that?