After Zheng Dunjin's interrogation for nearly half a month, Zeng Bohan only lightly reminded Zheng Dunjin that he was afraid that the case would have to be concluded as before. Zeng Bohan www.biquge.info's reluctance to take up the post of governor of Liangjiang for a long time, and his negative attitude toward the assassination case, also made many officials suspect that there was something else hidden in it.

The second is the abnormal behavior of Zheng Dunjin, the secretary of the Criminal Department of the review officer. Zheng Dunjin is a native of Changsha, Hunan, Shaoguang Jinshi, successively served as the political envoy of Guangdong, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Zhili, Shandong Xuezheng, Zuodu Yushi of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, etc., known as the "iron-faced selfless" reputation, and was later promoted to the secretary of the Criminal Department. After the stabbing horse case, the Empress Dowager Renxi ordered Zheng Dunjin to go to the retrial, and Zheng Dunjin arrived in Jiangning immediately after receiving the order, determined to bring this world's suspicious case to light. Therefore, after arriving in Jiangning, he took a short rest and began to try the case. Unexpectedly, after more than a month of trial, the facts of the case are still the same as before. In the end, Zheng Dunjin and Zeng Bohan jointly reported the results of the trial. Although the cannons are more detailed and well-written, the basic content is still drawn up according to the original recital. The differences are, first, it is particularly emphasized that Zhang Wenxiang listened to the instructions of the pirates and carried out assassinations with personal grudges, and there was no other mastermind or accomplice who knew about it. Second, the sentencing of Zhang Wenxiang was even more cruel, in addition to the proposed execution of Ling Chi, a heart-picking sacrifice was added. In the end, the imperial court had to accept this closure. But without waiting for the holy decree to be issued, let alone waiting for Zhang Wenxiang to correct the law, Zheng Dunjin hurriedly left Jiangning, and Zeng Bohan sent him not to suffer at all, and his two accompanying assistants, Langzhong Yan Shizhang and Yi Letonga, each received five hundred taels of silver from Zeng Bohan. Zheng Dunjin did not return to Beijing to hand over the decree, but went to Qingjiang, where he claimed that he was sick and could not return to Beijing, and only sent two assistants to reply to the decree on his behalf. According to the rules of the imperial court, if the minister does not return to Beijing to reinstate the decree, he will be punished. Subsequently, the imperial court issued an edict ordering him to return to Beijing, but Zheng Dun insisted on being ill, asked for a vacancy, and was no longer an official for life. After Zheng Dunjin's two assistants returned to Beijing, Yan Shizhang was sent to Lanzhou as a substitute prefect, and immediately returned to his hometown to relax; Iltona was then ordered to return to his hometown to recuperate for the rest of his life.

And the "Shinto inscription" written by the judge Sun Yiyan to Ma Xinyi is even more intriguing. The inscription says, "The thief is fierce and cunning, and he cannot be truthful without torture." And the rebellious relics, the assassination of my minister, is not owned by the law, it is advisable to use the scriptures, and use the heavy code to make the world fearful. And the prison has been concluded, and the clothes are not promised. Alack! The reason why Yiyan strives for his stupidity and strives for the public is that he is not alone for the public! Sun Yiyan is a candidate in Jiangsu, a close confidant of Ma Xinyi, and he has participated in the trial of the horse stabbing case from beginning to end. As soon as this article came out, it shocked the government and the opposition, and public opinion was in an uproar, and the Empress Dowager Renxi naturally understood that there was a lot of hidden secrets. But what about it? More than 50 interrogators have intervened, and the trial has been going on for eight months. Ma Xinyi has become ancient, and the imperial court is nothing more than a gift of mercy to comfort the loyal soul. The Empress Dowager Renxi also issued an edict to reward the crown prince of Jiama Xinyi with the title of Taibao, and gave mercy according to the example of the governor's death, and was enshrined in the Xianliang Temple, the history of the world, and gave Duanmin. He also ordered the establishment of special shrines in Jiangning, Heze, Luzhou and other places, and the Spring and Autumn Officials made sacrifices for them. His son Ma Yuzhen was rewarded to the principal, and the criminal department learned to walk.

Ma Xinyi's younger brother Ma Xinyou insisted that "the case is not clear, and he will not be blind to death", and he became depressed after compiling Ma Xinyi's chronology, and soon died of illness, Ma Xinyi's son Ma Yuzhen (originally the son of Ma Xinyou, because Ma Xinyi and his wife Jin had no queen, Ma Xinyi refused to take a concubine, and then succeeded Ma Yuzhen to Ma Xinyi as his heir) was also hit hard by "losing his second father", and his mind was once disordered.

When Shimazu Yoko came into contact with this case, she first made a background analysis of the situation in the Liangjiang area and the overall situation of the Daqian Empire at that time, and then combined the facts of the case and the strange performances of the presiding officials, and finally she came to the conclusion that the assassination horse case was actually planned by the Hunan army group.

But why did the Hunan military group put Ma Xinyi to death? Yoko Shimazu believes that Ma Xinyi's death should have originated in the seventh year of Tongzhi, when the Empress Dowager Renxi summoned him and secretly ordered him to investigate the whereabouts of the gold and silver treasures of the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom after the Hunan army captured Tianjing.

This inference of Yoko Shimazu begins with why Ma Xinyi was appointed governor of Liangjiang.

In the seventh year of Tongzhi, the Empress Dowager Renxi summoned Ma Xinyi, who was the governor of Zhejiang at the time, and promoted him to take over from Zeng Bohan, who was appointed as the governor of Zhili, to serve as the governor of Liangjiang, and gave him a secret decree, gave him a silver medal, and ordered him to secretly investigate the whereabouts of the gold and silver treasures of the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom after the Hunan army captured Tianjing.

Shengping Heavenly Kingdom has been operating in Tianjing for ten years, not to mention all kinds of materials and food, all kinds of gold and silver treasures in the Tianwang Mansion are piled up, and there are also many treasury in other palaces and generals' mansions. After Zeng Boheng captured Tianjing, he indulged his Hunan army to loot for several days, and then set a fire, and the fire burned for several days and nights. In the past few years, the children of the Hunan army rushed to buy land all over Hunan and Hubei provinces, and for a time there was a lot of discussion among the government and the opposition. Prince Jing Yixin was very unhappy when he heard the news, and the Empress Dowager Renxi was even more angry in her heart. At that time, the imperial court had asked Zeng Bohan to investigate the whereabouts of the "holy treasury" of the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom, but Zeng Bohan, the governor of Liangjiang, was suspicious that the Yitianwang Mansion had been destroyed by fire and there was no rubble, so he sent Ma Xinyi, who had nothing to do with the Hunan military system, to secretly investigate the matter.

According to the Ma family's account of the person sent by Yoko Shimazu to investigate, after Ma Xinyi received the secret decree and the silver medal, he knew that the matter was very important, and after he came out of the Yangxin Hall and returned to the residence of Xianliang Temple, he was sweating profusely, frightened, and quite out of shape. And according to common sense, Ma Xinyi rarely entered Beijing, and he should have visited guests everywhere and socialized in the officialdom, but this time Ma Xinyi left the capital in a hurry. On the way to Jiangnan, he once asked for leave to return to his hometown to worship his ancestors, and when he set off, he had invited the two brothers to his side, and secretly advised: "I will go to Jiangnan Ji is unpredictable, in case something unexpected happens, don't go to the capital to complain, you must swallow your anger, in order to protect yourself." When the Ma brothers heard this, they were all terrified.

From this story of the Ma family, we can know that Ma Xinyi not only did not have any joy about his promotion, but was quite worried, why is this?

Shimazu Yoko studied the situation at that time and learned that in fact, the pacification of the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom Rebellion, the Great Qian Imperial Court completely relied on Zeng Bohan's Hunan army group to fight to the death, if there was no Hunan army, the Great Qian Empire may have already overturned, originally the Liangjiang region was won by the Hunan army's bloody battle, and the previous Zeng Bohan Governor Liangjiang was naturally a matter of course, if he was replaced, he should also be taken over by someone in the Hunan army system, such as Zeng Bohan's younger brother Zeng Boheng is the ideal candidate, but now he has been replaced by an outsider. The Hunan army has been operating there for several years, and he is naturally unconvinced of Ma Xinyi, who does not belong to his own people, and he is unwilling to give up the fat shortage of the governor of Liangjiang. It is no wonder that Li Shaoquan once said at that time: "If you don't change in the autumn of the seventh year, or if Gushan (referring to Ma Xinyi) is secluded on the seashore, you will be spared." Every time I read the words of negative multiplication, I can't help but be stunned. Jiang Jie's recklessness is the most, and he is not extremely powerful, and he is not enough to hide the invisible. It shows that he is worried that Ma Xinyi will not be able to control Liangjiang. This is also the reason why Ma Xinyi was greatly uneasy in his heart although he was promoted to the governor of Liangjiang, and it was also an important basis for Shimazu Yoko to speculate that Ma Xinyi might have been killed by the Hunan army group. After all, where he took office, there was a huge force that did not have good intentions towards him, and the task secretly given to him by the Empress Dowager Renxi would inevitably offend this force again.

In addition, what particularly disturbed the Empress Dowager Renxi was that in the more than ten years since the rebellion was quelled, the expansion of the Hunan army was rapid, and after the defeat of the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom, there were rumors among the people at that time that Zeng Bohan had ambitions, and his subordinates had long encouraged him to seek the throne. When the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom had not been exterminated, the imperial court had to rely on the Hunan army, but now that the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom had been exterminated, the Empress Dowager Renxi could no longer tolerate Zeng Bohan sitting in the south of the Yangtze River, so she tried every means to transfer Zeng Bohan away from the sphere of influence Liangjiang, and then began to purge the Hunan army, first accusing its commander Zeng Boheng of looting too much, and failing to effectively restrain his subordinates, resulting in the corruption of the Hunan army's military discipline, and then began to dismantle the Hunan army.

However, the dismantling of the Hunan army soon formed a serious social problem, and the soldiers were cornered and wandered everywhere, touching everywhere; And many gangs, such as the Heaven and Earth Association and the Elders' Association, also took the opportunity to expand their power, and frustrated soldiers joined one after another to seek survival through unity. Sun Yiyan said in the "Shinto Monument" erected for Ma Xinyi: "Since Hong Huoxiu has rebelled the people and disturbed the world, he has used soldiers for ten years, only to settle down, and the people's hearts are not appeased, the thieves are free, the martial arts are scattered, the poisonous squirts, often stealing, the big officials are self-employed, the rate is unwilling to govern poorly, the people's interests are not punished, the inner self-defeating, the outer part of the capital Dayi, the white blade into the official temple, sniping and killing the long officials, the years or repeatedly." It was indeed a portrayal of the social problems of the time.

Dealing with this issue, Zeng Bohan and Ma Xinyi's political strategy is completely different, Zeng Bohan is lenient in government, Ma Xinyi is strict in government, so Sun Yiyan said in the "Shinto Inscription": "Zeng Gong, a junior scholar, has already set the army in the southeast, so he wants to change the rule with the people, and the egg wings are inclusive, and everything is governed by a broad strategy." and the public succession, then the rope and ink are the comprehensive core, and the thief will be immediately punished. The villain is inconvenient. The two have different styles of generosity, and in contrast, Ma Xinyi has naturally become the object of resentment. For example, he was very strict in punishing stragglers, especially when he appointed Yuan Baoqing, who was known for his fierceness, as the head of the camp office. Other examples, such as on June 15, the eighth year of Tongzhi, the Dingzi Battalion of the Hunan Army rebelled in Hanzhuang in order to demand wages, and Ma Xinyi quickly "found out the five people who caused trouble, including Yongding and Lu Wanlong, and immediately corrected the law." Then he took the opportunity to dismiss all the Dingzi battalions in batches, so that he didn't know how many Hunan soldiers he had offended.

Ma Xinyi himself once said in the "Proposal for the Reclamation of Wasteland": "The guerrillas are scattered, most of them are homeless, they have been in the military camp for a long time, they are unruly, although they have been evacuated to the people, their temperament cannot be changed, everyone is afraid of it, and they have never engaged in farming, and farming is not their strength. This also made the Hunan troops who were dismissed hate him very much, because Ma Xinyi cut off their way of life. In the long run, there will always be a day when the grudge will erupt. Ma Xinyi was also worried about this situation before his death, so Sun Yiyan once said: "Duanmin Gongyu Chu Army cannot be used alone, play the old department of Huaibei, bid for 3,000 soldiers, and set up camp Jinling coach." On the one hand, the Hunan army was cut into two battalions, on the other hand, the Huai army was stationed in various places, and the defense of the provincial capital was handed over to the new barracks, which had six battalions of about 3,000 people.

In addition, Yoko Shimazu believes that Ma Xinyi's position as governor of Liangjiang is also apt to arouse the jealousy and hostility of the Hunan military clique.

Since the establishment of the Great Qian Empire, there has been a post of governor-general, and all civil and provincial government officials below and below the military rank of deputy general are appointed and dismissed by the governor, which can be described as a feudal official. Before the rebellion of the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom, the Great Qian's court paid attention to the dictatorship of the cadres, and Emperor Quanlong said: "I think that the discipline of this dynasty will be purged, and there will be no nameless ministers and no traitorous ministers. "In such a situation, although the governor has the name of a feudal official, there is no reality. However, a rebellion of the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom, which lasted for 14 years, changed all this, and in order to suppress the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom, the imperial court had to use local governors, such as Zeng Bohan, Hu Linyi, Zuo Jigao, Li Shaoquan and others, and the Hunan and Huai armies in their hands. However, in the course of this 14-year-long war, a large part of the powers that originally belonged to the central government, including military power and financial power, fell into the hands of local governors, and local powers began to expand. The governors of the Hunan and Huai departments are often maintained at more than ten people, and at this time, the Hunan and Huai armies can be described as "partial and benevolent".

Among all the governorships, the governor of Liangjiang in Anhui, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi provinces is the most important, although nominally the governor of Zhili is the head of the Xinjiang ministers, but the Zhili is close to Gyeonggi, there is a court, and there is a Shuntian Mansion Yin below, and the position is respected and light, so it is not a good position. The governor of Liangjiang is different, one is the emperor far away; Second, two-thirds of the financial revenue of the Great Qian Empire came from Liangjiang, so it was actually the first fat shortage among the feudal officials.

Originally, the governors of Liangjiang were mostly Bo people, but after the rebellion of the Shengping Heavenly Kingdom, they were mainly controlled by people from the Hunan military system. Yoko Shimazu investigated the list of officials who served as governors of Liangjiang before and after the assassination case, and there were a total of seven governors before and after the above nine governors, and Zeng Bohan served as three of them, and Ma Xinyi's predecessors and successors were Zeng Bohan. In addition, in addition to Ma Xinyi, among the other six people, Zeng Bohan, Li Shaoquan, Zhang Shusheng, and Liu Kunyi are all authentic Xianghuai people, and Li Zongxi and He Jing also worked under Zeng Bohan before, and then gradually rose to prominence. Among the seven governors, except for Ma Xinyi, the rest have a Hunan and Huai background, and there is a Ma Xinyi who is incompatible with other people in the middle, which is quite mysterious, which is a move by the imperial court to deliberately contain the power of the Hunan army. Because Ma Xinyi has not had his own army for decades, strictly speaking, he does not belong to the Chu line, nor to the Huai line, let alone to the Hunan line.

But in the eyes of the Hunan military group, this is a weakening of itself, or ignorance. After all, the war has just ended, and according to common sense, it is necessary to reward meritorious deeds according to merit and strength, although Ma Xinyi also participated in the war, but his merit is very limited, not a great hero. Now that he has been promoted to such a high position so quickly, no one can be convinced, and from the perspective of the Hunan army, this is even more unfair to the imperial court. Killing Ma Xinyi, giving the court a horse, and returning the reward to fairness, from their standpoint, isn't it a reasonable choice? Li Shaoquan's words further lend credibility to the above argument: "The Hunan people's habits are so important that others regard them as tricky...... The selection of the state must be in the Hunan people, and the imperial court is also deeply concerned. He also said to Zeng Bohan: "The two rivers are vast and rich, and it is impossible to do it without a teacher." ”

Extrapolating from this, Yoko Shimazu firmly believes that the Hunan military group may be the mastermind of the assassination case.

Yoko Shimazu then analyzed the Assassin Zhang Wenxiang. Judging from the existing information collected, Zhang Wenxiang's education level is not high, and most of the people he contacts on weekdays are people from the middle and lower classes, and some information records that Zhang Wenxiang once opened a small shop in a new town in Zhejiang, and most of his friends are in the new town, and most of these people are veterans, so it can be speculated that behind them, there may be some kind of gang organization hidden. Ma Xinyi also said before his death: "All walks of life to dismiss the brave soldiers, endlessly, although they are dispatched at any time, the illegal bandits stay in the lurk, take advantage of leisure and plunder, everywhere, among them there are more alliances to visit the people, the intentions are particularly suspicious, if it is not a heavy code, it is not enough to police the fierce." ”

Since there is no shortage of gang members with whom Zhang Wenxiang has dealings, and these gang members are inextricably linked to the Hunan army group, the possibility of the Hunan army being the mastermind behind the scenes has even increased.

Kirikure Takeemon, who assisted Yoko Shimazu in collecting materials and analyzing the facts of the case, believed that Zeng Bohan himself was the mastermind of the horse assassination case. Because from the implementation of the case, to the strong cooperation of public opinion, as well as the careful planning of the trial and the shrewd design of the conclusion of the case, it all shows that it came from the hands of masters. In the Hunan army, Zeng Bohan is undoubtedly the person with this ability. Some people said before that the imperial court transferred Zeng Bohan to be the governor of Zhili, which was to ascend and descend secretly, and to transfer the tiger from the mountain. The governor of Liangjiang who used a newcomer Ma Xinyi to pick him up, was on an equal footing with him, and was the imperial court arch pawn in the territory of the Hunan army, and took Ma Xinyi to try the Hunan army's hand, but he didn't expect the Hunan army to answer the strongest hand. Wuyin Wu Youemon also believes that the Daqian Imperial Court was ready to abandon Ma Xinyi at any time when he promoted him, because Ma Xinyi always had the ambition of Tengda, but there was no one in the court, and he could be described as a capable official in the local area, and he had the potential to be a green cloud, and he had also served under Zeng Bohan's account, so he was quite familiar with the situation of the Hunan army. The imperial court voted for this son, and tightened the arrogance of the Hunan army, which was effective, and the invalid right should be sent to eat a son, which would not hinder the overall situation. Zeng Bohan still understands this political chess theory, how can he not know? But the imperial court never expected that the Hunan army would respond to such an earth-shattering hand. (To be continued.) )