In 1870, the 9th year of Tongzhi of the Qing Dynasty, Ma Xinyi, the governor of Liangjiang, was stabbed to death by Zhang Wenxiang in front of the Nanjing Governor's Office. For more than a hundred years, this strange case has been widely debated, giving the truth of the case a mysterious color.
On the morning of August 29 of this year, on the street of Jiangning (Nanjing), with the sound of a gong, a full honor guard appeared at the corner of the street, and behind the honor guard, an eight-carried palanquin flashed, and in the sedan sat the number one figure in Liangjiang, Ma Xinyi, the governor of Liangjiang, who was about to go to the school grounds to inspect the army. When the honor guard passed in front of the Governor's Office, suddenly an old man with a paper on his head rushed out, knelt in the middle of the road, and stopped the palanquin to shout injustice. Ma Xinyi ordered the person to present the paper, and just as he took the paper, suddenly, a black shadow flashed in the crowd, and a strong man in his thirties rushed to the front of the palanquin like a hungry wolf, and the bow pulled out a four-inch long dagger from his boots, and the cold light flashed, the dagger had been inserted into Ma Xinyi's chest, and the knife did not reach the handle. Ma Xinyi screamed miserably and fell on his back in the sedan car.
Eight carvings (picture and text unrelated)
"Come, come, Lord Governor has been stabbed!" There was chaos in the streets. The pawn panicked for a while, but the strong man who stabbed did not escape, stood up in front of the palanquin, looked up to the sky and laughed: "It has nothing to do with others, a good man does things and a good man, and the murderer is me Zhang Wenxiang!" Ma Xinyi, who fell in the sedan car, seemed to hear the three words "Zhang Wenxiang", and sighed: "It's you..." This case is extraordinary, after all, it was the assassination of the minister of the Zheng Erpin Frontier. Mei Qizhao, the political secretary of Jiangning (Nanjing), immediately rose to the court to interrogate the assassins. Zhang Wenxiang sneered, stood upright, and simply sat cross-legged on the ground, like the Taoist priest meditating, and shouted to the people in the seat: "You little sesame officials are not worthy of asking me, if you want me to confess, call your general!" Mei Qizhao still couldn't get half a sentence after some means, so he couldn't, so he had to quickly ask Lord Jun.
Interrogation (picture and text unrelated)
The governor, Kui Yu, a bannerman with the rank of general, asked, "Why did you assassinate Lord Ma?" Was it at the behest of others, or was it revenge? Zhang Wenxiang sneered proudly, "What Master Ma? He is my righteous brother! Kui Yu was taken aback, and immediately reacted and felt that something was strange, and hurriedly ordered to bring people to the back hall for trial. At this time, someone in the superintendent's office reported: "The third aunt hanged herself!" When Zhang Wenxiang heard the news, Humu burst into tears and sighed: "Sister-in-law, you died so hard like the Erhu brothers!" Then he said something without hurrying. It turned out that Zhang Wen was a Taiwanese fat man, with a poor family, born powerful and powerful, and had great ambitions. At the age of eighteen, when the Taiping army conquered Hefei, he resolutely joined the army, and since then he has been fighting in the north and south of the river, and together with his companions Cao Erhu and Shi Jinbiao, he was a camel general under Li Shixian, the attendant of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. After the fall of Tianjing and the suicide of the king Hong Xiuquan, Zhang Wenxiang led Cao and Shi to defect to Zhang Zongyu, the leader of the Twister army, and became a small leader, often fighting with the subordinates of Ma Xinyi, who had been the prefect of Hefei.
Once, he cleverly captured Ma Xinyi. With his rhetoric, Ma Xinyi moved Zhang Wenxiang, Cao and Shi to return to the imperial court. In order to relieve the concerns in the hearts of Zhang Wenxiang and others, Ma Xinyi and the three drank blood as an alliance, became brothers, and swore to heaven: "From the day of the end of righteousness, each of them will not be negative, and whoever is negative will die with a white blade in his chest." ”
Ma Xinyi saw that Zhang Wenxiang was both civilized and martial, and thought that it was just to confuse them for a while, where is the sincere worship. Later, Ma Xinyi saw that Cao Erhu's wife was very beautiful, forcibly raped her, and designed to kill Cao Erhu. At this time, Ma Xinyi was already condescending, and Zhang Wenyi did not dare to twist Ma Xinyi's beard, so he went elsewhere. Zhang Wenxian was unwilling in his heart, and he wanted to avenge his brother, so he specially found stainless steel to make two daggers, and cooked them with poison every day, and finally refined the blood-sealed throat weapon. Just in case, Zhang Wenxian stacked four or five cowhides together and stabbed them with a dagger, at first he could only wear two or three layers, and later his wrist strength became stronger and stronger, and he went down with a knife, and four or five layers of cowhide pierced. Therefore, although Ma Xinyi wears thick clothes, he can also stab without a handle and achieve "death with a white blade through the chest".
The facts exposed by Zhang Wenxiang involved the privacy of the feudal officials, and the official government did not dare to make it public, so he fabricated a confession, saying that Zhejiang pirates took revenge and executed them on the same day. At that time, Ma Xinyi's fourth brother, Ma Xinmou, was appointed as the commander of Jiangning County and served as a beheading official. On the morning of February 15, the 10th year of Tongzhi (1871), the city of Jiangning was empty, and Zhang Wen was abducted by Wuhua and taken to the court. His face was fearless, sometimes revealing Ma Xinyi's crime of murdering her husband and wife, and sometimes angry and cursing. The prisoner became so embarrassed that he ordered the executioner to cut his tongue. The crowd around the court roared: "Don't cut it, let him go on!" Some even rushed up and grabbed the executioner's arm, and the executioner was embarrassed and let him finish before cutting his tongue. Zhang Wenxiang's mouth was full of blood and he laughed maniacally. Ma Xinmou ordered the executioner to cut his muscles with a knife, slash one by one, and then open his stomach and dig out his heart and liver.
Execution site (picture and text unrelated)
The crowd was furious and shouted: "This is a righteous man who takes revenge on behalf of friends, and all people respect it!" One of them immediately ran into a nearby teahouse, wrote a sacrificial text, and read it aloud on the spot: "Avenge your friends, chivalrous and hot, looking for a strange man, righteous thin clouds!" ”