The "thorn horse case" refers to the fact that in 1870, the 49-year-old governor of Liangjiang, Ma Xinyi, was stabbed by the Assassin Zhang Wenxiang on his way home and died the next day.
The "Horse Stabbing Case" broke out, the whole country was shocked, and there were many opinions about the reasons for Ma Xinyi's assassination, which became one of the four major strange cases at the end of the Qing Dynasty, becoming the first assassination of the highest-level official since the founding of the Qing Dynasty. ”
Ma Xinyi (马新贻), courtesy name Gushan, was a native of Caozhou (present-day Heze), Shandong. At the age of twenty-seven, Xianfeng was promoted to the prefect of Luzhou Prefecture for meritorious service when he was serving in Zhixian County, Hefei, along with the Minister of Qincha, Yuan Jia Sanping Taiping Army. In the third year of Tongzhi (1864), he was promoted to inspector of Zhejiang. In the seventh year of Tongzhi (1868), he was appointed governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and soon after, he was appointed governor of Liangjiang and minister of trade and commerce. Ma Xinyi's official voice is excellent, his performance is outstanding, and he is quite loved by the people.
At about 10 o'clock on the same day, on the way back to The Palace after Ma Xinyi's review, someone stopped the car and filed a complaint, and Ma Xinyi took the paper to read, but unexpectedly, a man suddenly rushed out, holding a dagger, and stabbed into Ma Xinyi's right rib. After the stabbing, the man did not run away, loudly signed up for "Zhang Wenxiang", laughed and tied up. The detail version varies, but the overall picture is pretty much the same.
Around the "Thorn Horse Case", many versions have been derived, including peach, revenge, betrayal and so on. Folk circulation of the "inside story" of the case in the form of Peking opera refers to Cao Erhu, Ma Xinyi, and Zhang Wenshu in the rebellion, and Cao Erhu also led his men to surrender to Ma Xinyi, so Ma Xinyi paid homage to the governor of Liangjiang. However, Ma Xinyi and Cao Erhu's wife had an affair, and Ma Xinyi assassinated the Jieyi brothers for this purpose, and Zhang Wen decided to kill Ma Xinyi to avenge his brothers after learning about them. This version is quite popular in the folk.
What is the truth of the matter?
The posthumous fold is the last document submitted to the emperor before the death of an important minister, usually dictated by the minister at his deathbed, and then handed over to the minister by his family.
In Ma Xinyi's testament, he described the process of the assassination as "walking to the door, there was suddenly an unknown person, and with a sharp blade stabbed the subject under the right side of the rib, as deep as several inches, and was seriously injured." ”
According to Ma Xinyi's posthumous account, the general process of the assassination at that time was that someone ran out to cry out for injustice, and Zhang Wenxiang took advantage of the fact that Ma Xinyi did not have an entourage at that time and took the opportunity to commit murder against him.
The confession of the murderer, Zhang Wenxiang, said: "The reason for the murder was that his wife was taken into captivity, but Ma Xinyi suppressed the case, and the pawnshop he ran was raided by Ma Xinyi, and because of his personal grievances, he would ambush and wait for the opportunity."
It can be seen that Ma Xinyi and Zhang Wenxiang actually do not know each other.
After the "thorn horse case," Tongzhi and Cixi issued four edicts, demanding that they be promptly and sternly interrogated, that they be sure of the truth, and that they be punished according to the law. The imperial court sent Zhang Zhiwan, the governor of Caoyun, to Jiangning for trial, but he adopted the tactic of "dragging" and sent Shangshu Zheng Dunjin to the punishment department to try the case, and he hastily closed the case and swore that he would no longer be an official. The conclusion of the trial was very different from people's expectations, neither the main messenger was found, nor was there any big deal in the twists and turns of the case. Zhang Wenxiang's motive for assassinating Ma Xinyi was very ordinary, nothing more than a personal grudge.
It turned out that Zhang Wenxiang had been a pirate in the Taiping Army, and because Ma Xinyi suppressed the pirates, he killed many accomplices, and there was no place to stay, and his wife was abducted again, and he stopped the driver to file a complaint, and Ma ignored it. Opening casinos was also forbidden by Ma Xinyi, so he was cornered and thought of killing Ma Xinyi.
Some historians pointed out that Ma Xinyi's assassination was probably the work of political enemies, one was Zeng Guofan and the other was Ding Richang.
After the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, everyone suspected that the Zeng Guofan brothers had swallowed Up Hong Xiuquan's huge wealth, and some people said that the Zeng clan deliberately plotted rebellion. At that time, Empress Dowager Cixi made Ma Xinyi the governor of Liangjiang, hoping that he would secretly investigate how many treasures of the Taiping Army the Xiang Army had plundered, and also mix sand with the Xiang army forces. Therefore, it is rumored that Zeng Guofan instructed his subordinates to kill people and kill their mouths.
When Ding Richang was promoted to inspector of Jiangsu, the Taihu Lake water divisions Xu Youde and Liu Bubiao clashed with DuSi Ding Bing and Fan Gui in the Suzhou brothel, and Xue Yinbang, a pro-soldier battalion in Suzhou, blamed both sides, and Xu Youde suffered casualties. Ding Bing and Fan Gui were of the Ding Richang ethnic group, and Ding Sui asked Ding Bing and Xue Yinbang to be dismissed. Because his nephew Ding Jizu and son Ding Huiheng were both involved in the case, they also asked for dismissal. After Ma Xinyi's interrogation, Xue Yinbang, Ding Huiheng, Ding Jizu, and Ding Bing were all dismissed. Ding Richang became resentful and bought murder.
However, since Ma Xinyi was assassinated, there was a phenomenon that the official position of the governor of Liangjiang had always been in the hands of the Xiang clan, and others did not dare to ask for help.
It is rumored that at the last moment of his life, Ma Xinyi kept saying in a gasp: "Why would a person I don't know want to kill me?!" ”