Zhang Ailing said that "fame should be early, if you are old, even if you are famous, you will eventually lack a little taste", according to her statement, Li Hongzhang's life is "a little taste" life. Born in 1823, Li Hongzhang also had the title of "prodigy" when he was young, and he passed the Xiucai examination at the age of 17, the examination at the age of 21, and the jinshi at the age of 24.
I think that when Su Shi was 20 years old, he took the entrance examination, which caused a sensation in the entire Kaifeng Province of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Li Hongzhang was admitted to the Jinshi at the age of 24, although it looked inferior to the ancient literary heroes like Su Shi, but compared with ordinary people, it was already very smooth. According to the practice of "learning and excelling", Li Hongzhang's progress in his career will be like his academics, gradually upgrading step by step, until he realizes his ideal of "who has written history in ten thousand years, and who looks forward to being a marquis from three thousand miles away".
However, reality gave Li Hongzhang a heavy blow, when he was nearly forty years old, he was still an unpopular petty official, at this time Li Hongzhang "thought of himself as strange, do not repeat the words", he no longer had too many expectations for his progress in his career, but just when he himself was discouraged, the goddess of luck finally took care of him again.
In the middle and late Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Hongzhang's master Zeng Guofan played to the imperial court, and Li Hongzhang himself formed the "Huai Army", he soon led this army to fight a world, at this time, Li Hongzhang, who was already forty years old, finally ushered in the rapid progress of his career, and became famous in the Qing Dynasty, and then he also became the mainstay of the Qing Dynasty and made extremely significant efforts for the Zhongxing country.
Although Li Hongzhang ran everywhere, painstakingly carried out various activities, and tried his best to revitalize the Qing Dynasty, in the end he was still just a "paste framer", although he had exhausted his efforts, the Qing Dynasty he tried to save was still a "flower shelf that broke as soon as the wind blew".
In November 1901, li Hongzhang suddenly vomited blood and died shortly after signing the "Xinugu Treaty" on behalf of the Qing court, and before his death, he mourned with great desolation, "Autumn Wind Sword Lonely Minister's Tears, Sunset Banner General's Grave", he had actually realized the ideal of being a marquis when he was young, but he did not realize his lifelong ambition to save his home country and the world.
Li Hongzhang died with infinite regret and sorrow, leaving his last words to himself, the funeral was as simple as possible, and it was not necessary to be buried in the ancestral home of the Li family, but was buried in the birthplace of "Bao Qingtian" Bao Zheng. Although Li Hongzhang had a last word before his death, because Empress Cixi needed to pay great attention to this hero, his funeral was still not simple, and the construction of the mausoleum alone took two years, and it was not really buried until 1903.
Later, when Li Hongzhang's cemetery was engaged in production activities by local farmers, it was inadvertently excavated, and people found that this famous late Qing Dynasty courtier, the matter behind him was simply extremely "shabby", the funerary products were only a pocket watch, a pair of reading glasses, a crutch and seven gold coins, many people did not want to believe this, so they dug several meters deep into the ground, and finally found two "gold bricks".
The two gold bricks each weigh 15 pounds, adding up to 30 pounds, the people who were digging at the scene were happy and broken, and immediately ran to find an expert to identify, and the expert was very confused after the identification, asking: "Is this a mistake?" It turned out that the so-called two "gold bricks" were just brass plated with a layer of gold.
It is true that Li Hongzhang did not bring his wealth into the ground, and why he buried two copper bricks to accompany the burial has become the talk of many people after dinner, but although there are many opinions, there is no scientific and credible explanation for the specific reasons.