The role of eunuch may seem unimportant, but in fact its role is extraordinary. Although the eunuch only serves the emperor's diet and living, he must know how to observe the color of the speech and understand the direction of the government, and at the critical moment, he can also act as the emperor's confidant and help the emperor deal with many inconvenient things, so in general, after the new emperor succeeds to the throne, he must replace his confidant as the chief eunuch.
But in the Yongzheng Dynasty, Yin Chan still used Li Dequan, the eunuch of the former Emperor Kangxi, after succeeding to the throne, instead of using his own confidant Gao Wuyong?
On the one hand, it was because Gao Wuyong had mastered the secret of Yin Chan's too many concubines. He had done a lot of secret errands for Yin Chan, such as killing Gao Fu, and he must have done a lot of things. And after Yin Chan succeeded to the throne as emperor, as Wu Sidao said, the emperor should practice the way of being bright and upright, at least on the surface, and create his own image of being bright and upright, so the best result for a confidant like Gao Wuyong who holds too many secrets is to disappear, either to die, or to break away from the relationship with the emperor, sneak into the shadows, hide his name, and continue to do secret errands for the emperor.
On the other hand, continuing to use Li Dequan can show the legitimacy of Yin Chan's succession and rule. Because at that time, the outside world was rumored that Yin Chan had seized the throne through the execution of the king, so since this was the case, Li Dequan, as Kangxi's personal eunuch, would definitely be secretly disposed of by Yin Chan. However, Yin Chan followed Li Dequan, undoubtedly conveying a signal to the outside world that his throne was passed down from Kangxi.
In addition, at that time, although Yin Chan seized the throne, the Eight Ye Party was full of henchmen and great power above the court, and the Fourteenth Master Yin Yu still led tens of thousands of troops in the northwest, and the ministers also had their own thoughts and waited to see what happened. At this time, Yin Chan chose to use Li Dequan, an old man of the Kangxi Dynasty, who was also trying to stabilize the instability of the place where he succeeded to the throne, so that the Eight Ye Party could cooperate with his work.
Of course, there is also a very important factor, that is, Li Dequan himself is very reliable and a qualified eunuch. In the Kangxi Dynasty, Li Dequan showed his outstanding qualities. In the face of the complicated situation of the nine sons taking the concubine, he was always impartial and unsympathetic, standing on the same front with Kangxi and taking good care of Kangxi's diet and living; but at critical moments, he was also able to advise Kangxi. For example, when he was in the Rehe Palace, Kangxi was very upset and flipped the card for six consecutive days, Li Dequan took the initiative to advise Kangxi to focus on the dragon body, and although Kangxi was a little angry, he also gave up flipping the card.
It is estimated that Yin Chan's initial use of Li Dequan as the chief eunuch should have been a stopgap measure in view of the bad situation at the beginning of the succession, but later he continued to use Li Dequan, which was sincere.