Wen | under the hut
The most tragic scene of the Penghu Reform Law is the righteousness of the six gentlemen at the mouth of the vegetable market. The blood they shed symbolically announced the death of this reform. This scene is also the pain in Zhang Zhidong's heart. This is because Yang Rui, one of the Six Gentlemen, has an extraordinary relationship with Zhang Zhidong.
Yang Rui, zi shu yao, born in 1857, Sichuan Mianzhu people. When Zhang Zhidong was serving as a scholar in Sichuan, he was appreciated by Zhang Zhidong and became a disciple of the apprentice. Later, when Zhang Zhidong was appointed governor of Liangguang, he was invited to serve as a staff member. He had seventy old mothers in the church at that time, and it was inconvenient for him to travel far. In order to make him feel at ease in coming to Guangdong, Zhang Zhidong specially called the Sichuan envoy to request that Yang Cong, the brother of Yang Rui, who was then the instructor of Longchang County, Sichuan, be transferred to serve him, which shows the importance attached to this protégé.
Since then, Zhang Zhidong has successively served as the governor of Huguang and the acting governor of Liangjiang, and Yang Rui has always followed him. His initial position was as a copywriter, handling paperwork. At the end of March 1895, he was sent to Beijing by Zhang Zhidong. According to the saying at the time, he became Zhang Zhidong's "sitting capital".
"Sitting in Beijing" means that local officials are stationed in Beijing, which is roughly equivalent to the "Beijing Offices" in various provinces today, but it is not public, and the main task is to collect political intelligence. At a time when information was extremely underdeveloped, their role was very important. When Yang Rui entered Beijing, it was during the Ma Guan's peace talks. The information he transmitted to Zhang Zhidong at that time mainly revolved around the content of the treaty and related public opinion. After the end of the Sino-Japanese War, he also stayed in Beijing for a long time. Zhang Zhidong provided him with a generous allowance of 100 taels of silver per month.
Zhang Zhidong
After the wushu reform method was launched, Zhang Zhidong's demand for the political situation in the capital was greatly increased, and the burden on Yang Rui's shoulders was also heavy. At this time, Yang Cong died of illness on July 23, and Yang Rui planned to return to Sichuan for funerals. Zhang Zhidong did not want Yang Rui to leave Beijing at this critical time, and several times urged Yang Rui, although he did not move for a while, he was very determined. Coincidentally, Hunan Inspector Chen Baozhen was playing baoju talent at this time. He was a fellow daoist of Zhang Zhidong, and Baoju's list included many of Zhang's close associates, including Yang Rui. On September 1, Yang Rui was summoned by the Guangxu Emperor, and a few days later, together with Liu Guangdi, Lin Xu, and Tan Si, he was appointed as the military aircraft Zhang Jing and participated in the new policy, known as the "Four Secretaries of military aircraft". This appointment just kept Yang Rui for Zhang Zhidong, and let him enter the political center, where he could contact more intelligence. Zhang Zhidong's heart must have been overjoyed by this.
In less than a month, however, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse. After Empress Dowager Cixi staged a coup d'état on September 21, she immediately began to purge her of dissidents. The "Four Secretaries of Military Aircraft" were appointed arbitrarily by the Guangxu Emperor, and they violated her great taboo, and as a result, they were all arrested. On the morning of the 23rd, before Yang Rui could get up, he was arrested by the infantry commander Yamen soldiers who broke into his home. The next afternoon, Zhang Zhidong received a report, like five thunderbolts, and immediately instructed other close associates in Beijing to find out the details, and then sent a multi-party power generation, and Tuo Ronglu, Wang Wenshao, YuLu and other central officials rescued Yang Rui. In his view, Yang Rui is definitely not a party of Kang Youwei, and there is no deviant words and deeds, as long as he can distinguish clearly, it is probably not difficult to exonerate. His actions did indeed work, and the presiding Prince of Qing, Yi Xi, already had the intention of excusing Yang Rui.
What Zhang Zhidong did not expect, however, was that on September 28, the Qing court issued an edict issuing a disposition of the so-called "Kang Party", "whose circumstances were heavier, Kang Guangren, Yang Shenxiu, Tan Sitong, Lin Xu, Yang Rui, and Liu Guang's sixth offender were all immediately beheaded." "Without trial, the execution was carried out, which violated the legal procedures of the Qing Dynasty." Empress Dowager Cixi did this because she was worried that the great powers would interfere in the trial, so she simply took the initiative to be strong. The six men who were executed that afternoon were collectively known as the "Six Gentlemen of Penghu" by posterity.
If it were not for Zhang Zhidong's efforts to prevent Yang Rui from running to the funeral, Yang Rui would have already left to return to Sichuan, avoiding the appointment of the military plane Zhang Jing, and also avoiding the disaster of killing himself. Zhang Zhidong, who received the bad news, in addition to being shocked and sad, will there be regret and self-blame in his heart: "I will not kill Bo Ren, Bo Ren died because of me"?