After every bath, Cixi left only Li Lianying to serve alone. And from time to time there were cries of pain in the room, and a little palace maid stole the curtain, which solved everyone's curiosity. It turned out that Li Lianying was helping Cixi take a bath. So what's going on here?
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In the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the Empress Dowager Cixi lived in the deep palace for a long time, and she was extremely luxurious and hedonistic, regardless of the ruin of the country and the death of the family.
In the harem at that time, the eunuch Li Lianying was deeply favored by the queen mother. He not only serves the Queen Mother's daily life and diet, but even the Queen Mother's bathing must be accompanied by him throughout the whole process. Every time Li Lianying waited for the Queen Mother to bathe, the sound of the Queen Mother's moaning would be heard in the palace, causing everyone to be suspicious.
Li Lianying is well-versed by nature, tactful, and well versed in the preferences of the Queen Mother. The queen mother is too authoritarian, has a perverse personality, and the atmosphere in the deep palace is depressing, and the palace maids dare not make a mistake. Li Lianying can influence the Queen Mother and strategize, unlike other eunuchs who are only at the mercy of others.
When the queen mother bathes, she needs many palace maids to serve. Washing hair, wiping the back, pouring water, holding the basin, etc., the process is cumbersome. The Queen Mother is pampered and never considers the hard work of others. After the bath, the rest of the palace maids retreated, and only Li Lianying stayed in the queen mother's bedroom to sort out the queen mother's clothes.
Although the palace ladies outside could not witness what happened behind the curtain, the laughter and cries of pain of the Queen Mother could be heard clearly. When Li Lianying came out of the curtain, she looked exhausted. An experienced little eunuch stepped forward to massage him to soothe his fatigue.
These little eunuchs often asked Li Lianying privately why the Queen Mother's bathing was so tricky and what kind of service she carried out, and Li Lianying didn't mind, and used a little trick to let them witness the truth.
Li Lianying was one of the few eunuchs who was able to enter the queen mother's dormitory to serve. Other eunuchs who had just entered the palace tried every means to bribe Li Lianying, hoping that they would not be assigned to the queen mother's palace.
Because the life of serving the Queen Mother is too hard, the slightest mistake will be punished. Li Lianying knows the way out, and after accepting bribes, she will pretend to help people say good things and assign people to other courtyards.
Due to Li Lianying's frequent entry and exit of the Queen Mother's curtain, coupled with the ambiguous relationship between the two, there are also rumors in the palace that Li Lianying is a spy who has infiltrated the palace. The Queen Mother was furious and wanted to kill the people who spread the rumors to hear it.
Li Lianying persuaded the Queen Mother to calm her anger, saying that she was innocent and upright with the Queen Mother, and there was no need to mind rumors. The Empress Dowager listened to Li Lianying's words, stopped the massacre, and only ordered Li Lianying to try to quell these rumors.
So the next time she was waiting for the Queen Mother to bathe, Li Lianying deliberately left a few personal palace maids present to let them see the truth of the so-called "service" with their own eyes.
Li Lianying first wiped the body of the Queen Mother with silk, and then let the Queen Mother lie naked on the soft cushion. He moved his fingers, massaged his wrists, and pulled out a small jar of potpourri essential oil. This oil is very precious, and it is usually only applied to the face as a nourishment, but the Queen Mother actually applied it all over the body.
Li Lianying gently applied essential oil to the Queen Mother, while massaging the Queen Mother's acupuncture points and meridians. The Queen Mother was very itchy and painful, so she laughed and screamed constantly. Li Lianying skillfully pushed the acupuncture points for the Queen Mother from head to toe until the Queen Mother fell asleep. The palace maids put on pajamas for the Queen Mother.
The palace maids witnessed the Queen Mother receiving Li Lianying's massage and massage naked, and felt the smoothness of the Queen Mother's skin. They understood that Li Lianying was only serving the Queen Mother, and quickly informed the others to stop these rumors.
Li Lianying was well versed in the queen mother's thoughts, and used tricks to stop the rumors, which not only kept the reputation of the queen mother, but also preserved her own status.
The Queen Mother's bathing had to be served by him personally, making him the most powerful eunuch after the Queen Mother. Not only did he strengthen his position, but he also maintained the psychological needs of this terrible monarch.
In this tense court atmosphere, Li Lianying walked on thin ice, carefully pleasing the Queen Mother, and at the same time firmly controlling the direction of the harem. The order of the deep palace created by him not only satisfies the tyranny and luxury of the Queen Mother, but also maintains the surface of harmony and happiness.
Li Lianying is not only the queen mother's henchman, but also the real manipulator behind this dark veil. He used his intelligence and means to gain a foothold in this crisis-ridden palace politics, becoming one of the few people who could influence the queen mother's mind and manipulate the overall situation.
This power transaction hidden behind the curtain not only satisfied the desire of the queen mother, but also consolidated Li Lianying's position in the court. On the surface, it seems that he is just a eunuch who serves and bathes, but in fact, through the control of the queen mother, he has become a political force that cannot be ignored in this dynasty.
Li Lianying's quiet control of the overall situation has become a key pillar of the last autocratic dynasty, and it also indicates that this decadent dynasty is about to come to an end.
The degree to which the Queen Mother relies on Li Lianying is already pathological. And Li Lianying is a key figure in maintaining power in this dark age. Their ambiguous relationships and unbalanced power structures hastened the end of the country.
Li Lianying is just a eunuch in the palace, but she controls the entire harem and even the government. This distorted operation of power has long been out of the norm and heralds the demise of a dynasty.
