Zeng Guofan was one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, and not only had the merit of Kuangfu Sheji for the Great Qing, but also had the grace to Promote Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang and others.
In the eyes of many people, Empress Dowager Cixi was convinced of Zeng Guofan. But in fact, the strength of Zeng Guofan in the later period had already made Cixi quite jealous.
In order to get rid of the situation of the tail, Cixi transferred Zeng Guofan to the Gyeonggi region far from his hometown and served as the governor of Direct Subordination, and at the same time appointed Ma Xinyi, who had no faction, as the new governor of Liangjiang. But just two years later, Ma Xinyi was actually assassinated in the street! In this regard, Empress Dowager Cixi was furious, but Zeng Guofan's attitude was worth playing.
The background to the assassination of the horse
After the Taiping Rebellion broke out, the Well-respected Eight Banners and the Green Camp could not resist at all, and Zeng Guofan, a minister of local power, held a regimental exercise in Hunan with Hunan Inspector Zhang Liang. Later, on the basis of the Hunan regimental training, Zeng Guofan formed the "Xiang Army". Later, in the process of fighting against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Xiang Army made great achievements. Of course, the Xiang Army also made Zeng Guofan truly become a representative of the local power faction, and even Cixi had to let him get three points.
Xiangjun stills
Although the Manchu Qing government distrusted the local Han armed forces, it had to reuse the Xiang army.
So that at its peak, in the Xiang army system, there were 15 officials to the governor, 14 officials to the inspectors, and other large and small civil and military officials, and countless other officials.
In August 1864, Tianjing, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, was captured by the Xiang army, and Hong Xiuquan's son, the young king Hong Tianguifu, was captured. Zeng Guofan finally let go of the biggest burden in his heart.
Hearing of the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Qing government hurriedly demanded that Zeng Guofan send a war report, and at the same time seal the treasury of the palace and transport gold and silver to the capital. However, Zeng Guofan's recital said: "When the Heavenly Capital was broken, a fire in the Heavenly King's Palace burned to the ground, leaving no treasure. ”
Zeng Guofan did not lie, and the war report given to him by the fourth brother Zeng Guoquan was indeed the same. However, after the arrest of Li Xiucheng, the loyal king of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he confessed that the treasures in Tianjing City were everywhere. Moreover, after the end of the war, many generals of the Xiang Army did make a windfall and returned to their hometown to buy houses and land.
Cixi stills
It was clear that Zeng Guoquan had deceived him. Since Zeng Guoquan was below, almost everyone in the Xiang army had made a fortune in this war. If Cixi learned the truth, it would be a major crime to raid the family and exterminate the clan. Of course, even if no one had told Cixi and the Qing court the truth, they had long been suspicious of the Xiang Army. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has existed for more than ten years, how can it not have any treasures at all? Now it's just inconvenient to tear your face.
In order to prevent the East Window Incident, Zeng Guofan disregarded the order of the imperial court to escort Li Xiucheng to Beijing and killed him first. When Cixi learned of this, she had no choice. However, Zeng Guofan was also well aware of the principle of "trees and great tricks", and the Xiang Army's forces were now all over the court, and the rumors began to circulate that he had the heart of "calling the emperor".
In order to show loyalty to Cixi, Zeng Guofan had to request the dismissal of the Xiang army. Cixi borrowed a donkey and approved Zeng Guofan's request. At the same time, under the guise of "promotion", Zeng Guofan was transferred back to the Gyeonggi region and served as the governor directly under him.
The new governor of Liangjiang was assassinated in the street
Zeng Guofan wanted to be transferred, and naturally someone needed to fill the vacancy of the governor of Liangjiang. The Xiang soldiers stared at this position, but Cixi obviously would not let them succeed.
This time, Cixi deliberately selected an official from among the Qing court officials who had no faction or no ties, but was honest and honest. He was Ma Xinyi, who was then the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.
Before taking office, Cixi had secret conversations with Ma Xinyi more than ten times. After coming out of Cixi's Yangxin Hall for the last time, Ma Xinyi was sweating profusely, his imperial clothes were soaked, and his face was full of panic. What Cixi and Ma Xinyi talked about is unknown. But people speculated that he was arranged to check the whereabouts of the treasures of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
Ma Xinyi was assassinated
When he returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors, Ma Xinyi had a premonition that he was afraid of his life when he took office as the governor of Liangjiang.
Therefore, he specially summoned two elder brothers in the secret room and instructed: "My trip is auspicious and unpredictable, in case of any accident, you must not go to Beijing to file a complaint, and you can swallow your anger before you can protect yourself." ”
The two brothers were shocked, but they also knew the importance of the matter and did not dare to mention half a point to their families.
After Ma Xinyi became the governor of Liangjiang in Jiangning, he immediately carried out drastic reforms.
Due to the problem of the dismantling of the Xiang Army, many soldiers who did not return to their hometowns joined the "Brotherhood of Elders" and became local black forces, colluding with the Xiang Army and the government to do all kinds of evil and endanger society.
Ma Xinyi reused Yuan Baoqing, who was known for his fierceness, and appointed him as the chief of the battalion affairs office, as long as he caught the scattered soldiers who endangered the people and engaged in illegal acts, they would correct the law on the spot. Under Yuan Baoqing's strong suppression, the local social order was much better, and the criminal and evil forces and the scattered soldiers and the brave soldiers hated Ma Xinyi to the bone.
On July 26, 1870 (August 22, 1870) of the ninth year of Tongzhi, Ma Xinyi conducted a regular military parade.
At the end of the parade, in the process of returning to the palace, a person suddenly rushed out of the crowd and directly pounced on Ma Xinyi. Ma Xinyi was stabbed in the right flank and fell on the spot, although he was immediately carried back to the governor's mansion for treatment, but he died the next day.
The assassin who assassinated Ma Xinyi was also very "bare-knuckled", did not escape, and generously said his name - Zhang Wenxiang, the reason for the assassination of the horse was a personal grudge.
The clash of forces behind the thorn horse case
The Governor of Liangjiang was assassinated in the street? This news was like a thunderbolt that blew up the entire imperial court.
Cixi was extremely angry and demanded that the Jiangning general Kui Yudu and the officials of Si Dao immediately launch an investigation, and must strictly investigate the matter and find out the black hands behind the scenes.
However, Kui Yu and Mei Qizhao of the Domain, Zhang Zhiwan, the governor of Caoyun, and others violated the yin and yang and grinded foreign workers. Under the pretext of the seriousness of the case, they have been dragging and waiting for others to pick up this hot potato. Nor did he use the heavy punishment against the Assassins, for fear that the Assassins would die in the course of their executions, and that no one would be able to shoulder the responsibility.
In the end, the three gave a unified result, Zhang Wenxiang's assassination of Ma Xinyi was a personal grudge, and there was no one behind it.
Cixi was naturally dissatisfied with this result, and ordered Zeng Guofan to quickly return to Jiangning to become the governor of Liangjiang, and at the same time sent Shangshu Zheng Dunjin of the Punishment Department as the minister of Qincha, and took two Langzhong from the Punishment Department to Jiangning for retrial.
Qing Dynasty official
At this time, although Zeng Guofan was ostensibly dealing with the matter of teaching foreigners in Tianjin, he was very aware of what happened in Jiangning. However, he was not in a hurry to transfer orders from the imperial court.
He is also a big guy, how can he make people come and go? Even if that person was Cixi, it wouldn't work!
Therefore, Zeng Guofan first resigned on the grounds that he was old and in poor health. After being rejected by the imperial court, he procrastinated for another 3 months before returning to Jiangning as the governor of Liangjiang.
On the other hand, in order to try this case, Zheng Dunjin took the two criminal department Lang Zhongxing to the night and tread on the snow. It took 41 days to get to Jiangning.
It was the first day of the Chinese New Year, and Zheng Dunjin did not have time to feel the atmosphere of the Spring Festival, and the next day he closed the door to try the case, worried about missing the details.
But he soon discovered that the people in Jiangning's officialdom had a very perfunctory attitude toward the case, pushing and pushing, and hiding when they could.
Stills of Zeng Guofan
When Zeng Guofan arrived, Zheng Dunjin asked for his opinion.
Zeng Guofan looked like he didn't care about himself and hung high, just tasting tea every day and not expressing his opinion.
Zheng Dunjin was carrying kpi on his back, and he could not complete the task arranged by Cixi, so naturally he could not go back, and he was anxious like an ant on a hot pot.
After repeatedly asking Zeng Guofan for advice, Zeng Guofan said lightly: "It seems that this case can only be concluded according to the methods of Kui and Zhang Yuan. ”
Zheng Dunjin realized it instantly! It turns out that this is the truth. If you dig deeper, you will definitely pull out the top level of the Xiang Army and local officials, and when the time comes, you may be the next Ma Xinyi. There was no way, he had to conclude according to the method of Kui and Zhang Yuan, and still convicted according to the original crime. When the matter was settled, Zeng Guofan gave them 1,000 taels of silver as a travel expense in accordance with the official rules. Zheng Dunjin did not take any money and divided the money among the two Langzhong.
On the way to Qingjiang, Zheng Dunjin sent the two langzhong back to the capital to resume their lives, and he wrote a resignation, saying that he was not in good health and was no longer competent for official work. The imperial court did not allow it and gave him two months of leave. Zheng Dun simply abandoned his official position and returned to his hometown, and never entered the official field again for the rest of his life. After the two criminal langzhong returned to Beijing to resume their lives, they also quietly left Beijing. Among them, Yan Shizhang, a Han Chinese, was put in the prefect of Lanzhou but had no real deficiencies and became poor. Zuo Zongtang couldn't bear to look at it, so he summoned him into the army and became a deputy. In the Manchu Lang, Iltung'a was paid pension and was reprimanded back to his hometown. The sensational "thorn horse case" at that time came to an end.