At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi did a lot of bad things, in order to be able to live in peace in her old age, she built the Summer Palace on a large scale, which caused the national treasury to be in deficit, and the funds for the construction of the Beiyang Marine Division were tight, it can be said that she was an old lady who ignored the hardships of the people in order to enjoy a happy and prosperous life, because she was not a good person, so Li Lianying, the grand eunuch who worked around her, seemed to have been bad in people's impressions.
According to folklore, Li Lianying was extremely powerful, he not only sold his official position for glory, but also opposed the restorationists, and even some people said that Guangxu's death was related to him, Li Lianying spent almost most of his life in the palace, was he really like this in reality? So what does the real him look like? Rather than being a subordinate, he is more like a "companion" of Cixi.
His original name was Li Jinxi, because his family was poor, so in 1855 he was a eunuch, at this time he was only 7 years old, when he was still working in Prince Zheng's palace, and later because he was stable and sensible, he was sent to Cixi at the age of 16 to do things, after 3 years in the palace, he became the second governor because of Cixi's favor, but he was not Cixi's favorite eunuch, because cixi still had Andehai in front of him.
However, in only two years, An Dehai was executed for his usual behavior, in fact, it is reasonable to say that he should be very happy to get the opportunity to be promoted, but Li Lianying knows more from it that he should be cautious in doing things around Cixi, otherwise he will lose his head one day.
Later, he flattered Cixi and won cixi's favor, and was soon promoted to grand master, and was also given a new name, Lian Ying, who spent most of his life in the palace, favored by Cixi, and in the next thirty years, he was promoted all the way, and at the age of 46, he was rewarded by Cixi with the hat of a erpin official, which was not only a superficial honor, but also broke the rule that eunuchs under Yongzheng were not allowed to be higher than the four pins.
According to historical records, Cixi and Li Yinglian would send eunuchs to greet each other three times a day before going to bed, and often went to the park together, and often promoted long talks at night, the relationship was very close, the two of them had far exceeded the master-servant relationship, Cixi had a poisonous personality and had supreme power, but she was also very lonely, Li Lianying just filled her emptiness.
Although it was a good thing to be favored by his master, there were advantages and disadvantages to everything, and Li Lianying also suffered criticism from the court, some officials said that he accepted bribes, as long as he reached a sufficient level to get an official position, and some officials said that he opposed the reformists, and targeted the Guangxu Emperor. Later, after the defeat of the Qing Dynasty in the Sino-Japanese War, the accusations against Li Lianying became louder and louder.
When The inspector Yu Shi An Weijun accused Li Lianying, Empress Dowager Cixi was furious when she saw this sonata, and directly dismissed him from his post and charged him with the charge of wanting to stir up dissension, and the matter was stabilized, but Li Lianying was actually just an emotional target, and became the direction of everyone's anger, because Cixi's approach made many officials dare to be angry and dare not speak, and they could only target Li Lianying.
Some people also say that Li Lianying can influence Cixi, but this possibility is extremely unlikely, because Cixi's personality is fierce and arrogant, and even if they have a good relationship, Cixi cannot listen to Li Lianying's words, and there is no clear record of Li Lianying's selling of officials in the historical data, and it may be fictional.
Therefore, the evaluation of Li Lianying is likely to be wrong, the Guangxu Emperor himself also said that he was taken care of by Li Lianying during the westward escape, and his epitaph also writes that he himself treats people with respect for the upper and the lower, and is very lenient to the lower, perhaps this is the real him, the image of the bad guy, may be that the world has also added dissatisfaction with Cixi to him, so that the real him will be buried by fictional language.