Li Lianying was a famous eunuch of the Qing Dynasty, as Empress Dowager Cixi's right-hand man and confidant, Li Lianying had a great influence on the entire modern history at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and at the behest of Empress Dowager Cixi, Li Lianying became the head of the entire imperial palace.
From a small eunuch in the early stage, and finally directly becoming a leader in the internal affairs of the palace, such an experience is not everyone's experience, in addition to Li Lianying's own struggle, the times also determine his fate.
And Cixi is so fond of Li Lianying, but also let many people speculate whether the relationship between them is normal, after all, Cixi once loved An Dehai, did not get more than Li Lianying, so what is the relationship between Cixi and Li Lianying's superiors and subordinates?
I entered the palace by chance
Twenty-eight years after Daoguang, a big fat boy was born in a small county town in Hebei Province, with a total of seven and a half pounds, and the midwife held the child and kept saying that this boy would definitely become a big thing in the future.
The child's father was an unemployed vagabond who either wandered the streets or ate and drank in other people's homes on weekdays, and after the birth of his son, he named the child Li Jinxi, which means to bring joy.
But reality has given the Li family a blow, since Li Jinxi was born, the family's life is worse than a day, and the last family can't even open the pot, and can only live on the street.
There was no way, in order to survive, Li Jinxi could only follow his father to Beijing, but in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, there were warlords and warlords, there were imperialist invasions, even at the feet of Tianzi, the people and the masses were very sad to live a stable life, and most people even had difficulty begging for food.
The Li family came to Beijing with the desire to make a fortune, but the last thing they saw was a chicken feather, there was no way, the burden of the whole family could only fall on the little Li Jinxi, and his father's method was to send him to be a eunuch, this year, Li Jinxi was only seven years old.
After being purified, Li Jinxi successfully entered Duanhua Mansion as a eunuch, at this time he was renamed Li Lianying, and a year later, he was conscripted into the palace.
The reason why Li Lianying was able to get the appreciation of Empress Dowager Cixi in the future was actually doomed when he entered the palace, because Li Lianying had a hand of head shaving kung fu, which was rumored to be the ancestor of the Li family, and those who had been shaved by Li Lianying praised the excellent technology, and li Lianying also relied on this trick to serve Cixi in the future.
After entering the palace, Li Lianying first rotated between the two palace empresses Cixi and Ci'an, and later because of the good service, Li Lianying was asked by Cixi to take charge of her living life.
It is precisely because of serving Cixi that Li Lianying has the opportunity to soar, Cixi has always had headaches, the imperial cure is not good, and the Western heal is not cured.
Finally, li Lianying gave Cixi the technique of shaving his head to relax the meridians of his head, which greatly alleviated Cixi's illness, which was the first time Cixi appreciated him.
Death of Anderhay
Although Li Lianying, who had just entered the palace, was quickly appreciated by Cixi, he could not immediately become a red person around Cixi, after all, there was Zhu Yu, the grand manager of Ande Hai'an, in front of him, and he Li Lianying could not rank in the list of seniority.
In this way, Li Lianying has been living in the shadow of Andehai, and it was not until he became the second director that the situation improved.
The turning point of events was at the beginning of the eighth year of Tongzhi, at the beginning of this year, Empress Dowager Cixi ordered An Dehai to go out of the palace to buy clothes, and after Andehai took the order, he went out of the palace with a big swing, all the way north, and the officials on the road saw An Dehai, which was like a mouse seeing a cat and offering to him one after another, in order to ask him for his kind words in front of Cixi.
Andrew Hai was naturally very pleased with the flattery of these people, so he accepted all the orders, and recorded the account of the purchase of the order on the heads of these officials, which was equivalent to him eating at both ends of Ande Hai.
However, when An Dehai stepped into the shandong territory, he had an accident, and the inspector of Shandong, Ding Baozhen, was just right, and he was most unable to see the eunuch dictatorship, plus An Dehai dared to accept bribes on his territory, so he decided to bring Andehai to justice.
Ding Baozhen ordered people to secretly arrest An Dehai in order to prevent people from reporting to Cixi, and on the fifth day of his arrest, Ding Baozhen killed An Dehai.
As soon as this matter was passed out, it immediately shocked the government and the opposition, and Empress Dowager Cixi was naturally very angry, but Ding Baozhen had been an inspector for more than ten years, and he had worked deeply in the middle of the country, and he killed Andehai for a legitimate reason, which left you with nothing to say.
Cixi could only knock out her teeth and swallow in her stomach, then this grand master died, and she had to promote a new one, and Li Lianying became the chief eunuch.
However, after Li Lianying took office, there was a problem, that is, according to the rules of the palace, Li Lianying was more in charge of the internal affairs of the entire palace, but he did not do so, but still inseparable from Empress Dowager Cixi, such an abnormal move triggered speculation inside and outside the palace.
Some people say that Li Lianying is actually not completely clean, he seems to be an eunuch, in fact, he is only a semi-castrated, to know that Cixi lost her husband in early years, lost her son in middle age, and spent fifty years in her life as a widow, Li Lianying just happened to be her favorite.
However, the reliability of this rumor is not good, because Li Lianying was in the body of Prince Zheng's palace, he was only a few years old at that time, and there was no background in the family, so the person in charge of purification could not leave a section for him.
The truth of the matter
What makes people really curious about the relationship between Li Lianying and Empress Dowager Cixi is their residence, it is reasonable to say that Cixi lives in Chuxiu Palace, Li Lianying also has her own residence, according to the system of service, the palace women can stay in the palace, but the eunuchs can only stay outside the courtyard door, but Li Lianying and Cixi's residence is only separated by one door.
In other words, Li Lianying actually lived next door to the Chuxiu Palace, and Cixi had a special person open a door on the wall for him, which led directly to Li Lianying's residence.
Because of the existence of this door, the relationship between Li Lianying and Cixi is even more unclear, because in the eyes of outsiders, the two rooms are separated by a door, which is equivalent to living together.
In fact, whether it is from the point of view of whether Li Lianying's purification is complete or not, or from the fact that Cixi and him have been too close, you can only think that their relationship is abnormal, but you cannot produce evidence to show that their relationship is abnormal.
According to an old eunuch in the Forbidden City, the relationship between Empress Dowager Cixi and Li Lianying was extremely normal, and the reason why people thought that Li Lianying and Cixi were too close was actually because everyone was an outsider.
Although Empress Dowager Cixi controlled a country and determined the fate of a nation, in the final analysis she was a woman, she was a lonely woman, in the deep palace, Cixi endured a long time, and only Li Lianying could give her love.
When she had a headache, it was Li Lianying who gave her a head, and when she woke up at night, it was Li Lianying who rushed forward to check it out, and such a relationship was no longer something that the master and servant could describe.
Empress Dowager Cixi died in the first year of Xuantong, and Li Lianying kept filial piety for her for a hundred days, and soon after followed Lafayette.