Yang Naiwu and Xiaobaicai were one of the four major mysteries in the late Qing Dynasty. In the twelfth year of Tongzhi (1873), Ge Pinlian suffered a recurrence of his old illness and died suddenly. An autopsy concluded that he was poisoned by arsenic. Liu Xitong, the magistrate of Yuhang County, was accused by Yang Naiwu's liaison scholar for accusing him of excessive collection of money and food, collecting bribes and embezzling money. His financial path was cut off and he harbored resentment. Therefore, Ge Pinlian's wife Bi Xiugu was coerced and coerced in every possible way to falsely accuse Yang Naiwu of being an adulterer. Yang Naiwu was beaten and convicted of plotting to steal his wife and reported it to the Hangzhou government.

The case was reviewed hastily by Chen Lu, the prefect of Hangzhou, Kuai Hesun, the Zhejiang inspector, Yang Changjun, the Zhejiang governor, Hu Ruilan, the imperial envoy, and others, and Yang Naiwu and Gebishi were found guilty of serious crimes. It was Empress Dowager Cixi who made the truth come out. However, the tragic experience of the two men being tortured is still very sad. In addition to causing misfortune to two families, this case also caused a major earthquake in Zhejiang's officialdom. More than a hundred officials have removed their feathers from their heads and will never continue to use them. The personal reasons are worth pondering.

The reason why an originally uncomplicated case has become more and more complicated is because there are multiple forces playing behind the case. There are conflicts between the Manchu and Qing court and the Han armed groups, between officials from Jiangsu and Zhejiang and the generals of the Lianghu faction, between Zhejiang students and Zhejiang officials, between Prince Chun Yixi and Prince Gong Yi?, between Zuo Zongtang and Hu Xueyan. There were certain conflicts, so repeated battles began around the case, which eventually led to more than 30 of more than 300 officials such as Hu Ruilan and Yang Changf being dismissed, exiled or investigated, and more than 150 officials of sixth grade or above were dismissed from their posts. , will never be renewed, causing Zuo Zongtang's Lianghu faction to suffer a serious blow.

The previous contradictions have been thoroughly analyzed by predecessors. Today we will focus on Hu Xueyan, the driving force behind them. How did Hu Xueyan get in touch with Yang Naiwu? It turns out that Wu Yitong, Yang Naiwu's best friend who took the provincial examination, worked as a tutor at Hu Xueyan's family. When Yang Naiwu's sister found Wu Yitong under Yang Naiwu's guidance, Wu Yitong immediately reported to Hu Xueyan. Hu Xueyan was annoyed that Zuo Zongtang did not take a loan from him, so he decided to kill Zuo Zongtang. .

Coincidentally, Xia Tongshan, a Zhejiang official who was worrying about his family at this time, the right minister of the Ministry of War, was going back to Beijing, so Wu Yitong came forward to invite Xia Tongshan to dinner in the name of an old classmate, and Hu Xueyan paid for it. . During the dinner, Wu Yitong and Xia Tongshan discussed the Yang Naiwu case. Hu Xueyan and Wu Yitong hoped that Xia Tongshan would be able to move around more after returning to Beijing and return justice to Yang Naiwu.

According to the later memories of Yang Naiwu’s daughter Yang Jun, when Hu Xueyan learned that the Yang family was financially strapped, he immediately funded the Yang family’s travel expenses to Beijing and covered all their expenses in Beijing. The first thing Yang Juzhen did after entering Beijing was to submit a complaint to Xia Tongshan. Yang Juzhen submitted the complaint to all the yamen, including the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Infantry Command Yamen, and the Criminal Department. Then, under the recommendation of Xia Tongshan, he recruited more than 30 officials from Zhejiang in Beijing.

In December of the same year, more than 30 people including Zhejiang gentry Wu Yitong and Wang Shuping jointly appealed, requesting that the prisoners be removed from Beijing for interrogation to clear up suspicions. Xia Tongshan and other eighteen Zhejiang officials spoke for the case in front of the Empress Dowager Cixi many times. The imperial court issued an order ordering Yang Changrui to escort all the files, criminals, witnesses, and the coffin of Ge Pin's body to Beijing. In the end, more than 30 people including Yang Changjun were dismissed, exiled or investigated.

In fact, Hu Xueyan’s real purpose in supporting Yang Naiwu’s overturning the verdict was to kill Zuo Zongtang’s right-hand man in Zhejiang, Yang Changjun. Because Yang Changjun has been raising military wages for the Western Expeditionary Army in the south of the Yangtze River, even if Zuo Zongtang falls out with Shen Baozhen, the governor of Liangjiang, as long as Yang Changjun, the governor of Zhejiang, raises food and wages in Zhejiang, the military order of the Western Expeditionary Army to regain Xinjiang in five years can be realized. Then Hu Xueyan will There is no way to make money. As expected, this was the case. After Yang Changjun was dismissed, Zuo Zongtang had to compromise with Hu Xueyan, causing the Western Expeditionary Army's financial lifeline to fall into the hands of Hu Xueyan again.