In 1900, at the turn of the century, the armies of the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing. Originally thought that the Boxers were "invincible", Cixi, who could defeat the invaders, was caught off guard for a while, and in the panic, he only took the Guangxu Emperor and other korean and Chinese cronies to Xi'an.
But among these cronies, there was a special existence, his face was thin, his look was gentle, and he always accompanied Empress Dowager Cixi, a position that even the Guangxu Emperor rarely went. And this person's name is Li Lianying.
Born in 1848, Li Lianying was poor when she was young, she entered the palace as a eunuch at the age of 7, sat in the position of second general manager at the age of 19, and was promoted to the position of grand manager at the age of 21, and was one of the most favored people around Cixi, and even one of them.
How is Li Lianying favored? In addition to the time of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Cixi, who was in a panic, did not forget to bring Li Lianying, there were many performances. For example, in 1840, When Li Lianying, who was only 12 years old after entering the palace for only four years, was also taken with her when the British and French troops invaded Beijing and burned the Yuanmingyuan, cixi fled with the Xianfeng Emperor to Rehe.
In addition, in 1874, Li Lianying was promoted to the chief eunuch of the Chuxiu Palace, when Li Lianying had only been in the palace for 17 years and was only 26 years old, but his predecessors had to serve in the palace for at least 30 years to get this position.
According to the laws of the Qing Dynasty, in order to prevent them from following the old path of the Ming Dynasty, Wei Zhongxian and his ilk would cause trouble to the imperial program, so the laws of the Qing Dynasty clearly stipulated that eunuchs could only sit in the position of Zhengsipin officials at most. Although Cixi was a disaster to the country and the people, she was a rather conservative person herself, but she was willing to break the ancestral system for Li Lianying, and forcefully promoted her to the position of ZhengErpin official.
Moreover, when Cixi and Li Lianying reached their old age, there were some signs of mutual companionship. They ate three meals a day, greeting each other at each meal, and if they could not see each other, they would send a little eunuch to visit them. Whenever Cixi was free, she would say, "O Lianying! Let's take a walk! Even at night, Cixi would summon Li Lianying to her own palace, where major state affairs and health secrets were all discussed.
However, Empress Dowager Cixi was actually a fierce and deep-seated person, and when emperor Guangxu was young, cixi raised him as his own son (the guangxu emperor himself was the son of Cixi's sister), and she once personally took care of emperor Guangxu's eating and drinking, and taught emperor Guangxu to write by hand. However, the mother-son relationship of more than ten years was exchanged for Cixi's imprisonment of the Guangxu Emperor for ten years. And li Lianying and Cixi have no relatives and no reason, but how can they please Cixi for decades?
The reason why Li Lianying was able to gain Cixi's favor was not unrelated to his old spicy and smooth. Empress Dowager Cixi had a hobby, that is, she liked to watch drama. One day, after she took Li Lianying to watch Yang Xiaolou sing, Yang Xiaolou asked Cixi to give her a word after singing. Cixi was very happy at that time, so she wrote down a "blessing" word, but accidentally added a little more.
Yang Xiaolou panicked for a moment, he did not accept it, it was equivalent to rebelling against Empress Dowager Cixi's reward, he accepted it, let others see it and was afraid that Cixi would be laughed at by others. Empress Dowager Cixi was also very embarrassed, rewriting it herself without face, and not giving it had lost the prestige of the empress.
At the moment of these two dilemmas, Li Lianying stood up and said with a smile: "Lafayette's blessing is a little more than anyone in the world!" Just such a simple sentence turned this typo into a good word with a deep meaning, which perfectly resolved this embarrassment, but became a beautiful thing.
Once, when Empress Dowager Cixi was celebrating her birthday, Li Lianying specially arranged a program for releasing raw fish and birds. He starved these fish and birds for a few days in advance, and then put some bait in the cage, when he opened the cage lid, the fish and birds came out not long ago, and returned to the cage because of hunger, Li Lianying took the opportunity to say: "Lafayette Hong Fuqitian, even these fish and birds are not willing to go!" ”
Moreover, Li Lianying was not only loved by Cixi, but also had exquisite faces, and almost no one in the DPRK could be guilty. After the failure of the Wushu Reform Law in 1898, the Guangxu Emperor was imprisoned. Empress Dowager Cixi was cruel, and the accommodation arranged for the Guangxu Emperor was not even covered, and it was the middle of winter, and it was freezing cold, and such a residence could not be inhabited at all.
When Li Lianying learned of this, she immediately threw herself in front of the Guangxu Emperor and prostrated her head in apology, saying, "Slaves should be damned!" Slaves be damned! After saying that, he sent all his futons to the residence of the Guangxu Emperor, which allowed the Guangxu Emperor to survive that cold winter, and the Guangxu Emperor also said: "If there was no Li Lianying, I would have died a long time ago!" ”
Li Lianying was so sleek and sophisticated, she could quickly guess the mood of her master, know when she should do what she should not do, and only then could she remain favored in the court of the late Qing Dynasty for decades, until she died in 1911 at the age of 63.