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Text: Yue nephew
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introduction
Ma Xinyi was an official in the late Qing Dynasty who served as the magistrate of many counties and had outstanding political achievements. He carried out the campaign to reduce the levy, reduce the water and reduce the float, correct the deviation and fill the leakage of the two Huai salt method, devote himself to river engineering, build water conservancy, although he was a civilian official, but he fought against the Taiping army.
In July of the ninth year of Tongzhi (1870), Ma Xinyi was assassinated, and the assassin's name was Zhang Wenxiang.
This case, known as the "Horse Assassination Case", was widely circulated due to suspicion, and became the first of the four strange cases of the late Qing Dynasty, and had an important impact on the political pattern of the late Qing Dynasty.
(Picture 1: Ma Xinyi)
1. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the "stabbing horse case" became one of the four strange cases of the late Qing Dynasty
In the ninth year of Tongzhi, Ma Xinyi was in Jiangning (now Nanjing), and once, he set off to the west side of the official office to review the archery road to check the soldiers' practice of archery, and after the end, he walked back to the official office.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he walked to the door, a person suddenly appeared from the side. He was horrified, but when he heard the man say that he was going to sue, he let down his guard.
At this time, Ma Xinyi was the governor of Liangjiang and was responsible for all affairs in Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces. The geographical location of this place is very important. It can be said that whoever is in charge of this place is in charge of the money, grain and taxes of the Qing Dynasty, which is the economic lifeblood of the Qing Dynasty.
As a second-class member, it is normal for someone to want to block his way to complain.
(Photo 2: The Horse Stabbing Case)
It's just that I didn't expect Ma Xinyi to relax. The complainant stepped forward, got close to him, and took advantage of his lack of attention, and did not know where to draw a knife, he could not dodge, and was stabbed in the armpit by the other party, and the assassin was caught on the spot.
The next day, Ma Xinyi died of serious injuries.
After reporting to the imperial court, the Manchu Dynasty was shocked and mourned, and when the identity of the assassin was strictly investigated, the other party did not hide it.
The assassin's name was Zhang Wenxiang, and he bluntly said that he assassinated Ma Xinyi because Ma Xinyi forbade usury and cut off his way of life. Previously, his wife was forcibly occupied, and he complained to Ma Xinyi, but the other party ignored it. In addition, when he was a pirate in the past, Ma Xinyi suppressed bandits and killed many of his brothers, and he hated him together, so he killed Ma Xinyi.
(Picture 3: Zhang Wenxiang in film and television dramas)
The government's words were conclusive, but the relatives and friends of the Ma family did not believe it, and the people began to rumor, some said that Ma Xinyi was a bad friend, some said that he went back to the country, and some even said that this was a murderous assassination, but the person who bought the murder also passed on the three versions of Ding Richang, Hunan Army, and anti-foreign sectarians.
Future generations can no longer know what the truth was back then, but from Li Hongzhang's evaluation of this matter, we can get a glimpse or two.
Li Hongzhang said: "If it were not for the horse case, the reduction (Hunan) of troops would be tightened, and eventually the coastal defense would be abolished, the great powers would be prosperous, and the disasters of war would continue, and the fortunes of the country would be declining."
2. The "Horse Stabbing Case" reflects the relationship between the central and local governments in the late Qing Dynasty
From Li Hongzhang's words, it can be seen that the horse assassination case has a lot to do with the Hunan army.
First of all, we have to mention the so-called Hunan army. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the people in various places were struggling to make a living, and rebels broke out, among them, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was the most.
In order to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Zeng Guofan concentrated his forces scattered throughout Hunan and formed a new regular armed army, the Hunan Army.
After the emergence of the Hunan army, Zeng Guofan quickly seized local real power, breaking the highly centralized system of the Manchurian aristocracy.
(Picture 5: Late Qing Hunan Army)
And what exactly does Ma Xinyi have to do with the Hunan army? This matter also has something to do with the Empress Dowager Cixi.
In the third year of Tongzhi, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement failed, and the Nanjing Tianwang Mansion was broken by the Hunan army. Hong Xiuquan has been in charge of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for a long time, and must have accumulated a lot of wealth. However, the Hunan army did not hand over the treasury, and the reason given was that the Tianwang Mansion was burned to ashes by a fire, and there was no property left.
The Empress Dowager Cixi didn't believe them, but felt that this huge amount of money was privately swallowed by the Hunan army, and there were rumors before that Zeng Guofan planned to rebel with the Hunan army, Cixi thought that this money must have been hidden by Zeng Guofan.
(Photo 6: The Hunan army slaughtered the Taiping army)
So Cixi summoned Ma Xinyi and asked him to be the governor of Liangjiang, asking him to find out where this treasure went, and even more so to find out the dirty things of Zeng Guofan and the Hunan army.
After receiving the instructions, Ma Xinyi returned to his hometown to worship his ancestors and told the two brothers that his trip was very dangerous. If he dies, he must swallow his anger to save his family's life.
During Ma Xinyi's tenure as governor of Liangjiang, the Qing government was greatly disarmed, and the Hunan army was forced to disarm tens of thousands. The laid-off soldiers did not return to Hunan immediately, but stayed where they were, becoming local underworld forces, and were ruthlessly suppressed by Ma Xinyi.
After Ma Xinyi was killed, the Qing government asked Zeng Guofan to re-serve as the governor of Liangjiang, and he dragged on for three months before taking up his post. Later, when Zheng Dunjin investigated the case, he asked Zheng Dunjin not to investigate in detail, and Zheng Dunjin did as he said. After returning to Beijing, he resigned on his own accord and ceased to be an official for the rest of his life.
Cixi knew that there was a lot of hidden truth in this matter, but she did not dare to take risks, for fear of radically changing local forces and shaking the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
Previously, the strongest descendant army of the Qing government was the Mongol cavalry, but Seng Lingqin was annihilated by the Twist army when he led his troops to fight against the Twist army.
After that, the Qing government could only rely on local military power to maintain its rule, but they often used conspiracy power to maneuver between various local power groups, suppressing and supporting each other, in order to achieve balance.
(Photo 8: Twist Army)
3. The butterfly effect of the "stabbing horse case" led to the catastrophe of the late Qing Dynasty
After the failure of the Taiping Rebellion, Cixi intended to take back the local military power, and Ma Xinyi was one of her pawns, and the occurrence of the "Horse Assassination Case" strengthened Cixi's determination to dismantle the Hunan army.
In the late sunny period, there were many invasions by foreign powers, and the central government, dominated by Cixi, hoped that the southeast area, which was backed by the Hunan army, could use broadswords and spears to resist the artillery fire of the foreign powers. The southeast region did not listen to her at all, but signed a mutual insurance agreement with the foreign powers, and it is obvious that the central government can no longer control the locality.
In order to recover the local military power, the Qing government set up the Central Military Training Office in an attempt to take back the military command of the whole country, but this decision violated the interests of the localities, so the Qing government decided to break the boat.
It's just that I didn't expect that the Qing government tried its best to weaken the power of the southeast governor, but did not strengthen the centralization of power, and finally the military training office was in the hands of Yuan Shikai, which is enough to see that the military power of the late Qing Dynasty was completely lost.
(Picture 9: Late Qing Central Military Training Office)
However, the Hunan army did lose many soldiers by Cixi, which led to a decline in the strength of the southeastern coastal area, and the coastal defense gradually weakened and weakened, and finally became useless, attracting further invasions from the Western powers.
In 1874, Japan occupied the island of Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands, and reached out for ransom afterwards. In 1883, France stirred up trouble on the southeast coast, and although the mainland won, it still signed an unequal treaty.
It can be said that it was precisely because of the "stabbing horse case" that the central and local governments, which had not had a good relationship, became more hostile, led to the reduction of troops, made the coastal defense slack, and finally attracted round after round of partition by the great powers. The Qing government's control over the local areas was gradually weakened by the invasion of foreign powers and the growth of local power. Eventually, the provinces became independent and the Qing Dynasty fell.
It is worth mentioning that the Ryukyu Islands are now Okinawa, Japan, and to this day Okinawans do not recognize themselves as Japanese, but only say that they are Okinawans, and their hearts are still oriented towards China.
(Figure 10: Invasion of the southeast coast by foreign powers)
Resources:
百度百科.张汶祥刺马案. [OL].
Xu Hongbo.Re-understanding the relationship between the central and local governments in the late Qing Dynasty. [J].