Shanghai's old-style theater gardens, known as "tea gardens", were mostly distributed in the area of Chengxiang in the early years, gradually moving north after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and moving more and more north, and finally concentrated near Guangdong Road and Fujian Road.
In 1908, a new play "Zhang Wenxiang Stabbing Horse" was staged in the Chunxian Tea Garden on Guangdong Road in Shanghai, and just when Wang Zhongsheng, who played Zhang Wenxiang, stabbed the lingren who played the role of the governor of Liangjiang, several servants suddenly rushed up from the stage and arrested the people with chains on Wang Zhongsheng.
Seeing such a scene, the audience looked at each other, unclear. But within a few days, the news came that Wang Zhongsheng was imprisoned, and the new play "Zhang Wenxiang's Thorn Horse" was also banned by the Qing authorities.
It was just a drama, so why did the Qing court intervene in person? Because it provoked the sensitive nerves of the Qing court and stepped on the pain of the Qing court, this drama played the Zhang Wenxiang stabbing horse case, which ranked first among the four strange cases at the end of the Qing Dynasty.
On August 22, 1870, the "Monthly Lesson Martial Office" postponed yesterday due to heavy rains was held as usual, and the so-called "Monthly Lesson Military Post" was to review the army, and the person responsible for reviewing the army was Ma Xinyi, who had been the governor of Liangjiang for nearly two years at that time.
Ma Xinyi was born in 1821 in Heze, Shandong Province, and at the age of twenty-seven, he passed the jinshi examination, and was the same as the famous Li Hongzhang. Before being appointed governor of Liangjiang, he also served as the governor of Zhejiang and the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, with outstanding political achievements.
On this day, after the soldiers had finished practicing archery, Ma Xinyi walked back to the official office through a western arrow path leading directly to Jiangning Province as usual, accompanied by four personal bodyguards, two of whom each closely protected the Yipin master.
Just as Ma Xinyi was just a few steps away from the side door of the official office, a person dressed as a soldier suddenly flashed out, and went forward to salute Ma Xinyi on one knee, which was an ordinary etiquette but made Ma Xinyi stunned, and this stunned kung fu was a change of color.
The man quickly grabbed Ma Xinyi's right hand firmly with his left hand, and immediately drew a sharp bull-eared knife from the boot barrel and stabbed it straight into Ma Xinyi's abdomen, piercing into the depth of three inches and five minutes...
After the assassin won the hand, he did not flee, but tied his hands, and also called himself Zhang Wenxiang in a Henan dialect, and shouted out two sentences that people could not care less, one sentence was "one person does things and one person is dang", the other sentence is "raising soldiers for a thousand days, used in a dynasty", who raised him for a thousand days for this dynasty?
Zhang Wenxiang's mouth of one person doing things is more like trying to cover up the mess, he dared to assassinate the governor of Tangtang Liangjiang in the street, and the technique is fierce and sophisticated, obviously a professionally trained killer, behind which must be directed by others.
Ma Xinyi was so badly injured that the group of doctors tied their hands and died at noon the next day. According to his son Ma Yuzhen, Before Ma Xinyi went to office, he returned to his hometown with his family to worship his ancestors, during which he repeatedly advised him not to pursue him if he encountered an accident, and he must swallow his anger, and in his suicide note, he did not mention anything about tracking down the murderer.
Obviously, he was killed by someone, but Ma Xinyi did not dare to pursue it at all, for fear of affecting his family, obviously he already knew the person behind the scenes, who made him so strong that he was afraid to this point and even consciously shook the tree?
On July 19, 1864, the Xiang Army created by Zeng Guofan, the governor of Liangjiang at the time, attacked Tianjing, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, which lasted for fourteen years, officially came to an end, and Zeng Guofan undoubtedly continued the life of the surviving Qing Dynasty, and his merits were high enough to shock the Lord.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed, and the Xiang army, which claimed to be 300,000, was stationed in the Yangtze River and the area south of the Yangtze River in the fujia country at that time, and Zeng Guofan and the Xiang army with strong military strength were able to fish in the water here, which naturally became a major problem for the Qing Dynasty and was constrained everywhere.
In order to appease Cixi's suspicions, Zeng Guofan forcibly withdrew the Xiang army he had founded with his own hands, but these were far from enough for Cixi, and Zeng Guofan sat in a place like Liangjiang, where money, grain, and taxes were important, which always made her sleepless at night, and how could she allow others to snore on the side of the bed?
On July 27, 1868, Cixi, who had been in hiding for four years, finally ordered Zeng Guofan to be transferred away from Liangjiang to be promoted to the position of governor of Zhili, directly under the supervision of Beijing, Zeng Guofan was under the supervision of the imperial court, it was difficult to do anything, there was no doubt that the dragon was trapped in the shoals, and the transfer of Zeng Guofan was cixi's first step.
The second step was for Ma Xinyi, who had no connection with the Xiang army, to take over as the governor of Liangjiang, and cixi then secretly summoned him. After the secret conversation, the eunuch An Dehai sent him away with courtesy, but Ma Xinyi looked scared, sweated and walked out of the palace door, and even almost fell.
It should have been a good thing to be promoted by Empress Dowager Cixi herself, but why did Ma Xinyi lose his temper as if he was overwhelmed? Because cixi gave him the task of not only eliminating the forces of the Xiang army, but also a secret order was to track down the Heavenly Kingdom Sacred Treasury.
Previously, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement swept through most of China, with many participants, and according to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's Holy Treasury system, all soldiers and generals who participated in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had to concentrate their private property in the Holy Treasury, and it is conceivable that the amount of this wealth is huge.
It is said that when the Holy Treasury was at its peak, it accumulated as much as 18 million taels of silver, while the treasury of the Qing Dynasty at that time only had 200,000 taels of silver, so how could such a huge fortune not teach Cixi to be moved?
However, after the attack on Tianjing, Zeng Guofan's report said that there was nothing but two false jade seals and one golden seal, and there was no so-called Heavenly Kingdom Sacred Treasury at all. However, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been operating for 14 years since it occupied the rich Tianjing in 1853, and Hong Xiucheng and others have become increasingly extravagant, so how can they "get nothing"?
Cixi did not believe it, so she forced Ma Xinyi into the two rivers to track down the whereabouts of the Heavenly Kingdom Sacred Treasury, which was tantamount to searching for the Xiang Army's finances and the evidence of Zeng Guofan's crime of "deceiving the king and concealing the king", and once it was found that even if the clues fell into Cixi's hands, Zeng Guofan would be zhu lian nine tribes according to the laws of the Qing Dynasty.
It was under such a premise that ma Xinyi, the new governor of Liangjiang, was assassinated, causing a sensation in the government and the opposition.
Empress Dowager Cixi, who personally appointed Ma Xinyi as the governor of Liangjiang, was furious and issued four edicts in a row ordering the Jiangning general Kui Yu to investigate thoroughly, but who did not know that this was a hot potato?
In the case of Ma Xinyi's assassination, human and physical evidence was all there, and the assassin Zhang Wenxiang was also captured on the spot, not to mention that since his confession had already said that ma Xinyi was a negative friend first, and he avenged his friend later, closing the case was the best way for the minister handling the case to protect himself.
Although the ministers handling the case were well aware that this would inevitably cause dissatisfaction to the imperial court and the Ma family, and they also knew that Zhang Wenxiang's confession was fragmented and flickering and could not withstand scrutiny at all, if it was really traced, it was difficult to ensure that they would not become the next "Ma Xinyi".
No one wants to offend the Xiang Army, which is still alive and powerful, not to mention that behind the Xiang Army is Zeng Guofan, who has deep roots.
When Cixi successively sent Zhang Zhiwan, Zheng Dunjin, and other court officials to review the case, the results were similar, and the conclusion that Kuiyu "stabbed Zhang Wenxiang with a personal grudge" was basically maintained. In desperation, Cixi had to accept this result.
Ma Xinyi was a victim of the political game between Cixi and Zeng Guofan, and he went deep into the territory of the Xiang Army alone, which was tantamount to being surrounded by wolves, and Li Hongzhang, who was then the governor of Huguang, said as early as the beginning of Ma Xinyi's appointment: Ma Xinyi's prestige is too light, and the Yangtze River has since gone to many places.