During the years when Cixi was in charge of the government, there were countless strange and unjust cases, among which Zhang Wenxiang's assassination of Ma Xinyi was the most sensational and became a major strange case in the late Qing Dynasty.
There are many unsolved strange cases in history, which have not been solved and have become mysteries throughout the ages. And today's xiaobian to talk about this strange case can be called the first strange case of the late Qing Dynasty "stabbing horse case", the governor of Liangjiang Ma Xinyi was assassinated, in broad daylight when the street was stabbed 8 times, a day later Ma Xinyi died, his wife because of heartbreak, also chose to commit suicide martyrdom.
On August 22, 1870, Ma Xinyi, the governor of Liangjiang, a qing court official, inspected the troops with great enthusiasm, and then returned home with full spirits, only to encounter a "life and death robbery" on the way back - he was assassinated.
At that time, the specific scene was: on the way back, crowded with ordinary people who came to watch the grand ceremony, a person suddenly rushed out of the crowd, chanting words in his mouth and shouting injustice, and then fell to his knees at the feet of Ma Xinyi. When Ma Xinyi sympathized with the people's feelings and personally bent down to help him, this person suddenly drew a shiny dagger from between his legs, inserted it into Ma Xinyi's right rib with lightning speed, and then swung his hands and stabbed Ma Xinyi 8 times in a row.
After assassinating Ma Xinyi, Zhang Wenxiang did not flee immediately but was caught by the guards present. Ma Xinyi, who was a senior member of the imperial court and a feudal official, had just passed his fiftieth birthday, but he was stabbed to death in broad daylight, shocking the world. The Qing court, headed by Cixi, immediately issued a thorough investigation into this.
In fact, the murderer of the assassination was named Zhang Wenxiang, who did not flee immediately after assassinating Ma Xinyi, but chose to sit still. In this regard, the official government of Liangjiang immediately conducted a surprise interrogation.
As a result, Zhang Wenxiang confessed to the killing, but he only admitted to killing people, and did not say why he wanted to kill people. Such an outcome is clearly not feasible. In response, Cixi ordered Zeng Guofan to try the case. At the same time, Zheng Dunjin, the Shangshu of the Punishment Department, was also sent to "supervise" Zeng Guofan to Liangjiang.
Zeng Guofan knew that this matter was a hot potato. It should be known that at this time, Zeng Guofan was directly subordinate to the governor, and his power was not as great as that of the governor of Liangjiang, and at the same time, it also contained political influence. The Qing court sent Ma Xinyi as the governor of Liangjiang in order to completely eliminate the power and influence of Zeng Guofan.
Ma Xinyi was a confidant of Empress Dowager Cixi, and in order to curb the growth of the Xiang army led by Zeng Guofan, ma Xinyi was sent to serve as the governor of Liangjiang. Before taking office, Ma Xinyi made a surprising move and explained to his family what happened, "I will definitely be more fierce and less fortunate when I go to office, and you can't go to Beijing to file a complaint, so that you can protect yourself."
After Ma Xinyi took office, he did a lot of useful current affairs for the people. For example, reducing local taxes, repairing water conservancy, etc., are deeply loved by the people and are known as a party clean official. Ma Xinyi was assassinated not long after he became the governor of Liangjiang, and many people suspected that it was the result of Zeng Guofan's old situation.
And the imperial court sent Zeng Guofan out of the horse, obviously to see how Zeng Guofan would deal with it. But the imperial court had an order, and he had to take it. Zeng Guofan knew very well that if he did not handle this matter well, his career would not only be completely ruined, but also lead to disaster.
After Zeng Guofan arrived in Jiangning, he knew that the big suspicious point of this case was that Zhang Wenxiang was not too hindered when he assassinated Ma Xinyi, and he was killed very easily. Therefore, it can be inferred that there are "traitors" within the Ma Xinyi Guard.
In the absence of clarification, Zeng Guofan did not rush to review, reading books and meeting guests became his main task in daily life, Zheng Dunjin actively investigated the case to form a different contrast, but later Zheng Dunjin learned that he was a puppet, helpless case still needed to be closed, only zheng Dunjin was needed to come to review the case, and to close the case with his reputation, only to understand that he reused Zeng Guofan and Zheng Dunjin jointly signed a letter to close the case, the cabinet and Cixi did not intend to continue to investigate, and finally the case was closed.
A year later, in 1871, Zhang Wenxiang was executed.
After the official closure of the case, many legends circulated in the folklore, interpreting zhang Wenxiang's motives for "stabbing horses".
First, the bully wife said. Legend has it that Ma Xinyi was defeated and captured in the process of suppressing the twist. Later, led by Zhang Wenxiang, Ma Xinyi and Cao Erhu, the leader of the Twist Army, became brothers. The Twister Army therefore released Ma Xinyi. Unaware of this, Ma Xinyi then took over the Twist army, but at the same time forcibly occupied Cao Erhu's wife. After Cao Erhu's death, Zhang Wenxiang avenged his brother and assassinated Ma Xinyi.
The second is to quell the chaos. According to legend, Ma Xinyi's ancestors were originally Hui, and it was the time when the Hui people were making trouble. The Hui people contacted Ma Xinyi, hoping to make a difference. Ma Xinyi rode the wall attitude, pleasing on both sides. Zhang Wenxiang also mentioned this in his confession, he killed Ma Xinyi, he was a traitor for the country.
The third is the theory of hiring murderers. Ding Richang was the governor of Jiangsu, and his son committed murder and was tried by Ma Xinyi. At that time, Ding Richang had bribed Ma Xinyi, and Ma Xinyi was not bribed and handled it impartially. Ding Richang was very angry, so he bribed Zhang Wenxiang to assassinate Ma Xinyi.
The most popular is conspiracy theory. At that time, because the Xiang army had quelled the rebellion of the Taiping Army, it was very imposing, and there was a suspicion that it would have a large number of troops. The imperial court was very worried, so it focused on promoting Ma Xinyi and using him to balance the Xiang army. This made the Xiang army very angry, and the commander of the Xiang army, Zeng Guofan, hired a murderer to kill Ma Xinyi.
Of course, the truth is unknown. Therefore, this case was listed as the first of the four strange cases in the late Qing Dynasty.