He was the first to call Cixi Lafayette, who broke the royal barrier for him and eventually became one of the most notorious figures in modern history, the most powerful eunuch of the late Qing Dynasty, Li Lianying. Since entering the palace at the age of eight, he has been an out-and-out red man with Cixi, but after Cixi's death, he was in a different place. How did he die? Today I will take you into Li Lianying's life.
Li Lianying, whose real name is Li Jinxi, was born in the twenty-eighth year of Daoguang and was also a child born in a poor family. There were four children in his family, and because of his family's poverty, his brothers often did not have enough to eat, so his parents decided to send him to the palace as a eunuch. Although this is not a beautiful errand, it is good to be able to eat a full meal. So Li Lianying, who was only eight years old, embarked on the road of no return to becoming a eunuch, in fact, he did not enter the palace and was favored by Cixi. On the contrary, for a long time, it was unknown, it was a small eunuch that Cixi would not pay attention to at all, and the big red man around Cixi at that time was called An Dehai, and although this An Dehai and Li Lianying entered the palace for a similar time, their status was one in the sky and one in the underground. An Dehai was also very rampant because of Cixi's favor for him, but he was rampant in the palace, and sooner or later he would invite the disaster of killing himself, and the same was true for An Dehai. In the end, he was beheaded by Ding Baozhen, the inspector of Shandong, for excessive arrogance. Although this matter has nothing to do with Li Lianying, as a bystander, he has a clearer understanding of his identity, knows how to straighten out the relationship between himself and his master, and how to do it to please the master. And the name Lian Ying was also given to him by Cixi after he was pleased by Cixi. After Cixi became the de facto ruler of the Qing Dynasty, Li Lianying also received many benefits. Cixi even broke the "eunuch grade" for him, with the royal ancestral system of "four products as the limit", he was named the chief eunuch of the second product, and he had to say that Li Lianying should still be more capable if Cixi made an exception for him, after all, the slaves around Cixi in this life were changed batch after batch, and the only people who could really get her likes were An Dehai and Li Lianying. Unfortunately, An Dehai still left early, so the benefits were all taken advantage of by Li Lianying.
Of course, Li Lianying also hollowed out her mind in order to please Cixi. Once, when Cixi was celebrating her birthday at the Summer Palace, Li Lianying arranged a program for Cixi, that is, the release of birds and fish, which sounded like a mediocre program, but Li Lianying secretly moved her hands and feet, so when he opened the birdcage fish basket at the banquet. The bird and the fish left the cage one after the other, and within a minute, they were back in the cage. The next day, Li Lianying took the opportunity to say a few words that she had heard, and Cixi rewarded him as soon as she was happy. In fact, as the actual ruler of the Qing Dynasty at that time, Cixi had already experienced hundreds of battles, and she had never seen any small tricks, and she also knew that Li Lianying used small tricks to let the fish and birds stay, but she just ate this set.
How did you get favored for decades and decades? Friends who know something about Qing history know that Cixi herself is a fierce dictator, and her desire is extremely strong, and she will solve many people who are not in line with her wishes. The reason why Li Lianying was able to stay with her for years and years was because he understood that Cixi also had a vulnerable side. In the final analysis, it is just an old man who is emotionally fragile but afraid of loneliness. Li Lianying would always stand up at the right time, chat with Cixi, solve problems for her, and the two would often walk together, and even talk all night long, just like what we call a good girlfriend today. The so-called renhong is not much Cixi's excessive favor for Li Lianying, after all, it still caused discussion and unwillingness among the government and the public, and all kinds of gossip and gossip also arose. Some people say that Li Lian's power is tilted toward the opposition and accepts bribes, and if she can invest in his promotion and wealth, it is not a dream. Some people say that he interfered in the government and planted private parties, and even some people said that he framed those ministers who supported the restoration and stood on the side of Guangxu. But in terms of Cixi's suspicious personality, these claims are not very credible. If Li Lianying really did the work of doing politics, he would not be able to stay with Cixi for so long, after all, Andehai is a good example. However, Li Lianying's failure to intervene in politics does not mean that he did not use his position to make a windfall. When the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, Cixi led Guangxu and a hundred officials to flee, and the officials who held the power of money and grain recalled afterwards that after arriving in Shanxi, Empress Dowager Cixi's pomp and circumstance became bigger and bigger, and all the expenses had to be borne by the localities, and the eunuchs took the opportunity to extort money, like the chief eunuch and the little eunuch with some power, they all needed a few or more silver to send, but the chief eunuch was different, and it was absolutely impossible to do without a white or two, let alone a big eunuch like Li Lianying. Not only that, Li Lianying also tried every means to blackmail the officials in the imperial court. Of course, this kind of thing in the late Qing Dynasty, in fact, is relatively common, but other people's eunuchs are relatively easy to send, only Li Lianying is not easy to deal with, a blackmail is hundreds of taels of silver, with good words to grind can not be polished, can only think that they are unlucky. It was impossible for Cixi not to be aware of these things, but for her, as long as the eunuchs did not interfere in politics and did not move her country, then greed for some money was not a big deal at all. Li Lianying lived most of her life comfortably and comfortably on Cixi, and all this came to an abrupt end on October 22, the 30th year of Guangxu. On this day, Cixi died in the Yiluan Hall of the Xiyuan Garden in Beijing, and Li Lianying's sky collapsed.
After a lifetime of being attached to Cixi's Grand Eunuch, what would be his fate after his patron passed away?
Li Lianying knew that he had offended many people over the years, and if he continued to stay in the palace, he was afraid that he would not have a good life, so after a hundred days of filial piety for Cixi, he chose to leave the Qing Palace, and it is said that Li Lianying lived in a small alley in the capital after leaving the palace, and usually did not go out at all, and even the neighbors could not see him a few times. Two years later, the news of his death suddenly broke out, at the age of 63, and his family announced that he had died of illness. However, this claim was later overturned.
In 1966, Li Lianying's grave was destroyed, and when the coffin was opened, it was found that there was no body inside. With only a head and a long braid, Li Lianying's granddaughter Li Lezheng said that he died of dysentery and died suddenly within three or four days of illness. However, historical records record that Li Lianying died on the fourth day of the first month of February, which was in the early spring and the high incidence of dysentery was summer and autumn. It seems that dying of dysentery this season seems to be somewhat unreasonable, and it is impossible to completely decompose in such a short period of time, leaving only one head, which shows that Li Lianying's death is not so simple. So, what was the real cause of Li Lianying's death?
There are two most widely circulated folk sayings. First, he was killed by Guangxu's younger brother Zaifeng, who is said to have been bitter about his brother's death, and believed that if there were no Cixi and Li Lianying, then his brother would not have died young, so after Empress Dowager Cixi's death, he sent assassins to kill Li Lianying, and finally retaliated against his body. Second, when Li Lianying went to Shandong to visit his niece, he met robbers, who not only robbed him of his money, but also brutally killed him. In both theories, Li Lianying died horizontally. All in all, Li Lianying has offended many people in the palace, so it is normal to be retaliated against after leaving the palace, but because Li Lianying's inscription introduces that her body is complete, Gu also thinks that Li Lianying did die of illness, but because she offended too many people before her death, she was dug up.
Over time, everything became history. The cause of Li Lianying's death has finally become an unsolved mystery, and everything has long been buried in the dust. No one knows what the truth is. Throughout Li Lianying's life from a humble little eunuch to a powerful figure, such a life cannot be said to be wonderful, but also because he did too many bad things during his period with Cixi, he did not say that his head was different after his death, and he also became one of the notorious figures in modern history, which is also lamentable.