One is the Empress Dowager Cixi, the ruler of the Qing Dynasty, and the other is Zeng Guofan, a powerful minister with a private heavy army. If the two of them fight in secret, who will be better? Whose methods are more vicious?
Although neither of the two was injured in the end, but a chess piece named Ma Xinyi died, so whose chess piece did it belong to? Who won in the end, Cixi and Zeng Guofan?
The contest between Cixi and Zeng Guofan
Cixi was able to take power thanks to the fact that she gave birth to the only son of Emperor Xianfeng that year. With the puppet of her own son, Cixi successfully seized the power of the court.
Zeng Guofan's ability to hold power was also thanks to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement at that time, and the secret contest between the two began on the day the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed.
If you want to talk about the most fundamental source, the holy treasury in Tianjing City, the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, is one.
The Holy Treasury is actually a very huge treasure house, and the money and food in the entire Tianjing City are basically here, so after the Hunan army broke through the Tianjing City, Zeng Guoquan, the younger brother of Zeng Guofan, once clearly ordered that the Holy Treasury must be found.
In order to reward the soldiers, Zeng Guoquan also ordered that they could burn, kill and loot at will in Tianjing City, and no one would care about them.
Even if the Taiping Army is an enemy, it is also a compatriot! Besides, the common people are not guilty, so why should they do such a despicable thing? And Zeng Guofan didn't care when he saw this, he really deserved to be the "two embarrassed brothers" of the Zeng family!
After the unremitting efforts of the soldiers, the holy treasury was finally found, but there was almost no money and food left in it, and Zeng Guoquan panicked instantly when he saw this.
As a result, there were all kinds of rumors among the people, saying that the Zeng brothers embezzled the money. Some people also say that the Zeng brothers want to rely on this money to "add a yellow robe" to become the emperor.
Let's not talk about it when we become emperors, it is really possible that the Zeng brothers will loot all the money inside. After all, after so many years of fighting, it is normal to treat yourself to some treasures.
Even if you can't spend it, it's good to leave it to future generations.
However, judging from the letter sent by the Zeng brothers to the Empress Dowager Cixi, they firmly said that the treasure did not fall into their own hands.
In the end, Cixi, who has always been vicious, didn't care about this matter, in fact, she also had concerns.
The Zeng brothers have such great military merits and high prestige in the whole country, even if they really embezzle the treasure, it can be offset by merit.
In addition, the Hunan army founded by Zeng Guofan really made Cixi a little scared.
The essence of the Hunan army was a private army, and they only obeyed the orders of the Zeng brothers and were not restricted by imperial edicts. If Cixi and Zeng Guofan had a falling out, the Qing government army would definitely not be able to defeat the Hunan army.
Therefore, for various reasons, Cixi not only could not provoke Zeng Guofan at present, but also had to reuse him, and finally Zeng Guofan became the governor of Liangjiang.
This is a fat difference, and it has a high status in the Qing Dynasty.
After Zeng Guofan arrived, the local management was very good, and he was deeply loved by the people, and his Hunan army also lived a carefree life because of his promotion.
Like the previous generals of the Hunan army, most of them got good official positions in the Liangjiang area.
In this way, Zeng Guofan and they are all about to develop into a powerful prince, which is naturally not a good thing, because Cixi deeply feels threatened.
Whether it is the emperor or others, as long as they are in power, they can't tolerate sand in their eyes, so Cixi is more and more dissatisfied with Zeng Guofan.
Zeng Guofan is very discerning, rather than fighting with Cixi and being picked up by others, it is better to take the initiative to show weakness and then fight secretly.
So Zeng Guofan first laid off the army, sent the old, weak, sick and disabled in the Hunan army away, and then laid off some meritorious generals, leaving only some mediocre generals.
Cixi's death mission
This large-scale disarmament not only made Cixi's face show a little joy, but also greatly saved expenses, after all, the annual military expenditure is also a lot of money.
Zeng Guofan is more politically savvy than his younger brother Zeng Guoquan, and for Cixi, the treasure in the holy treasury is gone, and it is harmless, but the private heavy army is very scary.
In addition to disarmament, Zeng Guofan also took the initiative to resign, that is, to give up the post of governor of Liangjiang, he said that he was old, his work was a little inadequate, and it was time to change new blood.
Cixi was very satisfied when she saw this: "This Zeng Guofan is really too sensible. So a man named Ma Xinyi was promoted.
This Ma Xinyi had also suppressed the Taiping Army before, but his military exploits were not very outstanding, but since then, his official fortunes have been very good, and he has been promoted to the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.
Ma Xinyi felt that his life had been good enough, and there was almost no hope of going up, but he didn't expect the fat difference of the governor of Liangjiang to come.
In order to find out the purpose of his promotion, Ma Xinyi came to Beijing to meet the Empress Dowager Cixi in person.
This Cixi is also a straight daughter, and she directly said her thoughts, that is, to continue to weaken the strength of the Hunan army, so that they have no possibility of turning over.
This task is very difficult, even if Zeng Guofan's official position is not so high, but with the status and power of the Hunan army for so many years, it is difficult for ordinary people to shake it.
Even if Cixi came in person, it is estimated that the Xiang army would not bother to deal with her.
Although the previous proud generals are gone, who can guarantee that there will be no new talents?
And Zeng Guofan is not a fool, he will definitely not lay off his cronies, so the Hunan army is disarmed on the surface, but in fact, it is equivalent to sharpening the knife, which is sharper than before, after all, there is no old, weak, sick and disabled.
In addition to this arduous task, Cixi also asked Ma Xinyi to investigate the news about the treasure of the Holy Treasury to see if it really fell into the hands of the Zeng brothers.
These two tasks can be said to be the great problems of the century, and they cannot be accomplished with hands and brains.
For Ma Xinyi, it is simply a dilemma, and he can't do these two tasks, nor can he do them.
Whether he does it or not, Ma Xinyi will offend one of them.
Therefore, this position of the governor of Liangjiang is fat on the surface, but in fact it is more like a big tiger, which is really a bit difficult to ride a tiger!
And what makes Ma Xinyi feel very difficult is that he has no power of his own, Zeng Guofan has a Hunan army, Li Hongzhang has a Huai army, and he can only rely on himself, neither a private army, nor many very powerful teammates.
So after Ma Xinyi came out of Cixi Palace, the whole person was not good. At that time, some people said that his face was pale, as if he had walked around a haunted house, and he was still in shock.
Whether you offend Cixi or Zeng Guofan, the end will be very miserable, after all, these are two ruthless people, so Ma Xinyi went back to his hometown before taking office, what are you doing? Explain the aftermath.
After explaining the aftermath, Ma Xinyi went to Nanjing to take office.
Zeng Guofan was also very caring, and he didn't leave until Ma Xinyi arrived, and by the way, let him see what a row of noodles was.
Knowing that the big official Zeng Guofan was leaving, many people came out to give him a ride, which undoubtedly made Ma Xinyi feel great pressure.
Stinging horse mystery
Before succeeding to the governor of Liangjiang, Ma Xinyi did a very good job in all aspects and made quite a lot of political achievements.
But this Nanjing City is different, there are old subordinates of Zeng Guofan everywhere, all of them seem to be Zeng Guofan's personal subordinates, and Ma Xinyi also wants to target them, so they don't get along well at all.
But no matter how harmonious it is, the Hunan army has to be rectified, so Ma Xinyi introduced many policies against the Hunan army.
Although the policy is said to be quite good, basically no one is willing to deal with Ma Xinyi, and some dare to openly violate his policy, and the situation is becoming more and more unoptimistic.
As time went on, Ma Xinyi not only failed to subdue this group of arrogant soldiers, but also fell into a bad reputation. The people in Nanjing often accused Ma Xinyi, and some even said that he was a dumb official.
Ma Xinyi was also very helpless about this, after all, he was alone against the strongest private army in the Qing Dynasty.
In order to alleviate this situation, Ma Xinyi also asked Li Hongzhang and others for help.
But it's useless to find anyone, after all, no one wants to mess with the supreme commander of a private branch with nothing to do.
In this way, Ma Xinyi's situation in Nanjing became more and more embarrassing, but it didn't take long for this situation to end.
On the way to check on the soldiers that day, a man surnamed Zhang suddenly came to him.
Xiao Zhang said that he had something important to discuss with Ma Xinyi, but Xiao Ma did not have the slightest defense, and then Xiao Zhang directly stabbed Ma Xinyi in the stomach.
The knife was highly poisonous, so Ma Xinyi died after a while.
Cixi was shocked by this incident, so she was angry and hurriedly asked people to investigate the matter thoroughly.
So two officials participated in the investigation of the matter, and finally they came to the conclusion that Ma Xinyi was assassinated because the two had a personal vendetta.
In fact, anyone with a discerning eye can see who the real murderer is behind the scenes, and Cixi probably knows who it is in her heart. That's right! There is a high probability that it is Zeng Guofan.
Even if it is not Zeng Guofan, it will be the other brothers of the Zeng family, of course, these are just speculations, so why is Zeng Guofan the most suspicious?
First of all, Ma Xinyi provoked the Hunan army, so the person who assassinated him was most likely inseparable from the Hunan army, but Xiao Zhang claimed to have been a member of the Taiping army.
Saying that he is the enemy of the Hunan army will only make the Hunan army more suspicious.
Secondly, Zeng Guofan was also telling Cixi: "You'd better be honest and don't think that our Zeng family is easy to mess with." ”
Looking at it this way, Zeng Guofan is indeed very much like the murderer behind the scenes.
After Ma Xinyi's death, some people said that it was because he found some unsightly evidence about the Zeng family, so he had to be killed.
In order to protect their own safety, the people who went to investigate were all with their guards. They were afraid that if they really found out something to offend the Hunan army, they would be assassinated.
Cixi originally wanted to rely on Ma Xinyi's death to find evidence of Zeng Guofan's guilt, but in the end, no one found evidence.
Although Zeng Guofan is very gentle on the surface, the city government is extremely deep, and he is a bit of a fox when he says that he is a cunning old fox.
After this incident, Cixi was honest for a while. Whoever wins and who loses, it is clear at a glance that the vicious Queen Mother also has a nemesis!