When cixi is mentioned, it has to be said that the great eunuch Li Lianying next to her has changed batches of people around Cixi for decades, but the only constant is Li Lianying. Cixi and Li Lianying are very good, as soon as she has time, she will walk around Li Lianying, and when she is in a good mood, she will also summon Li Lianying into the palace to talk about some ways of immortality, which is a common thing until the middle of the night. However, why was Li Lianying favored by Cixi alone? On this issue, in fact, it is completely possible to talk about his appearance.
From Li Lianying's colored photos, it can be seen that he is a person with a fierce face and a pus-faced face, and if he does not have the ability to excel, he will not be favored by Cixi. Li Lianying, born in 1848 in Dacheng County, Hebei Province, is the second oldest of four brothers, his father is an unemployed vagrant, and the family has no source of income. At the age of 8, Li Lianying was forced into the palace to become a eunuch, although in folklore, he specially combed Cixi's hair, and even some ministers called him "Xiao Grate Li", but it is clear that this statement is not valid at all, because according to the "Records of the Palace Women's Talk", the old eunuch who specially combed Cixi's hair was actually surnamed Liu.
In fact, Li Lianying's mixing in the first few years when he first entered the palace was not very good, he successively worked in the concert office and the Jingren Palace on the East Road, he had no status, and he also did some hard and tiring dirty work, and few people could look up to him. On the contrary, An Dehai, who entered the palace at almost the same time as him, was favored by Cixi, and he could speak the Tao, his mind was quick, and he was very pleasing to people. As a result, Andehai's status skyrocketed, and he soon became a big red man in front of Cixi's eyes. However, after Andehai gained power, he became more and more rampant, and he did not take anyone in his eyes, except Cixi.
However, the invincible An Dehai finally violated the taboo in the palace, and in 1869, he was beheaded by Ding Baozhen, the inspector of Shandong. As soon as An Dehai died, the other young eunuchs had the opportunity to ascend to the throne, and Li Lianying, who had already come into contact with Cixi at this time, also took the opportunity to show her fists. Li Lianying is a very intelligent person, these years of life in the palace have taught him how to get along with the nobles, to put it bluntly, no matter how powerful the eunuch is, he must not be too arrogant and domineering, let alone unruly, isn't An Dehai dead like this?
Therefore, Li Lianying has been doing things carefully, and he is cautious in his words and deeds every day, constantly pondering Cixi's preferences and habits, and trying to please her. I remember that Li Lianying's epitaph had such a line on it: "Respect in matters, leniency in things, if there is a year, there is no slackness." It can be seen from this that Li Lianying was respectful to Cixi and did not dare to trespass, and he was also tolerant and kind to his subordinates, and did not strictly reprimand, after all, only by combining Grace and Wei could more young eunuchs do things for him. In this way, Li Lianying insisted on it for decades, and his status and power were better than a day.
However, although Li Lianying has reached the peak of a eunuch, he has never interfered in political affairs, and his only problem is greed for money. According to the "Gengzi Xi hunting series", after the Eight-Power Alliance invaded Beijing that year, Li Lianying did not extort money from korean and Chinese officials on the way to escape, and these officials did not dare not give it, because it was Empress Dowager Cixi who supported him. In 1908, Empress Dowager Cixi died, and Li Lianying left the palace after taking care of the funeral, and has since lost news. Later, when Li Lianying entered the eyes of the world again, he had already entered the grave and turned into dry bones.