Chapter 19 Empress Dowager Li Lianying

The eunuchs work in the inner court, as long as they can hang around in front of the imperial court all day long, know how to look up and down, be good at serving people, and deal with them conveniently, they will soon become popular and enjoy it for a lifetime.Didn't Li Lianying, Xiaode Zhang and his like become the big celebrities in front of Cixi Longyu because of their wit, smallness and good flattery?Some people say that half of the Qing Dynasty was ruined by Li Lianying. In all fairness, Li Lianying is a power-hungry and greedy person who ignores the general situation and only knows self-interest. The Queen Mother Lafayette is just a loyal dog. It's too flattering for Quan Jian to compare him!

Li Lianying was originally a cobbler who repaired the gaps in Hejian's mansion. He was fond of gambling by nature. He lost a little of his hard-earned savings in the casino.A lot of people from Hejian Mansion went to work in the government after cleansing themselves. Some kind-hearted people gave him a good prescription and secret medicine to relieve pain, stop bleeding and promote muscle growth, and finally brought him back to life.When the body is about to recover, the only way to be a eunuch is to go to the chief eunuch Guo Jixiang after being guided by others.After three investigations and six inspections, the incense was finally sent to the Qin'an Hall in the Imperial Garden to take care of the incense.The Hall of Qin'an is dedicated to Emperor Zhenwu. Every new moon, Empress Dowager Cixi would come to burn incense and pray for blessings. Since Li Lianying sent errands in the Hall of Qin'an, the festival of brocade umbrellas in front of the Buddha, the treasure-covered pearl building, and the rites for worshiping gods, always It is spotless and clean.Empress Dowager Cixi liked him for his gentleness and carefulness, so he was soon transferred to the inner palace to serve the emperor's daily life.Cixi puts on her makeup every morning, and the eunuch who is in charge of combing her hair is called Shen Ershun. There was a lot of trouble, and he couldn't go to the palace to serve as an errand. He changed a few hair-combing eunuchs, either the hair roots were tied inappropriately, or there was only a bunch of hair roots that grew outside.Someone urged Li Lianying to give it a try. Li was a caring person, knowing that the hair on Cixi's neck was rigid and hard, and it was difficult to smooth it, so he prepared a small box of hairspray in advance, and used a small brush to swipe the hair on the back of Cixi's neck twice. The stiff hair is held together in a docile way.At this time, Chen Shang was immediately invited, and soon he was promoted to the leader and served as Cixi's hair-combing eunuch.

Although Li Lianying is becoming popular day by day and has become a big celebrity who obeys the Queen Mother and her preface, he is still cautious when dealing with things. For ordinary concubines, maids of honor and wives who make mistakes, which makes the Queen Mother unhappy, he always tries his best to cover them up with good words. Therefore, everyone around the queen mother has a good impression of him, saying that Xiao Lizi is a good person who is capable, sensitive, beautiful and hidden. It is customary for upright officials to offer sacrifices to the God of Wealth on the second day of the first lunar month of the new year (in the south of the Yangtze River, the fifth day of the first lunar month is when the God of Wealth is sacrificed). The kind of sacrifice is to eat boiled dumplings (that is, dumplings, called dumplings by Manchurians), and a special solid small gold ingot should be wrapped in the dumplings. Peanuts are even smaller.Serving Cixi to eat this meal of the God of Wealth's boiled pasta, the concubine ordered the wife to mix the stuffing and roll the skin to wrap the small ingots herself, instead of using the imperial dining room.It was supposed to make a God of Wealth dumpling for everyone to eat to try their fortune, but everyone was afraid that Lafayette would not be happy if he couldn't eat it, so there were four in a pack. Every year, Lafayette ate the four God of Wealth dumplings alone, so everyone made fun of it , It is said that Lafayette is blessed with great wealth and prosperity, the four seasons are auspicious, and the four seasons make a fortune.One year, Empress Longyu presided over the eating of God of Wealth dumplings. Lafayette ate and ate only three God of Wealth dumplings, and his face gradually became hesitant.Coincidentally, Longyu ate the God of Wealth dumpling by himself.Although Longyu was too busy to do anything, everyone was also panicked and at a loss.It was Li Lianying who had an idea, and immediately went to the queen and used the technique of the second immortal to secretly take the little ingot, and stuffed it in the newly cooked dumplings when no one was prepared, and asked Lafayette to eat a few more freshly cooked dumplings.Unexpectedly, if you hold up the chopsticks and taste it, you will get it as soon as you eat it, and the deadlock will naturally be resolved.Everyone is a great virtuous old man, and they are all later singing their praises. Naturally, the dragon face is very happy, and everyone is happy.Afterwards, Longyu was grateful for Li Lianying's contribution to the siege, and gave him many rewards.Later when Longyu came into power, although some people in front of Longyu tried to blame him, and said that Guangxu's sudden death was Li Lianying's murderer. I have said bad things about Longyu, that is, the God of Wealth dumpling still has a lot of influence!

Li Lianying is smart and good at playing. After all, she doesn't read much, and she is small and easy-going. Later, she favored Japanese colleges, and she is still courteous and courteous to people on the surface, but sometimes she will show her arrogance and arrogance unconsciously.Before Prince Gong withdrew from the military aircraft, his uncle and sister-in-law always had disagreements over state affairs.Prince Gong got a new emerald ring finger, Xuanyu Yaozhu, green and green, he wears it on his hand all day long, caressing and playing with it.It happened that one day Li Lianying saw it and teased the lord to reward him with knowledge. The lord told him that I will reward you when I have had enough fun.Unexpectedly, a few days later, Cixi summoned Prince Gong, and when they were in court, she saw Liu Ye wearing a puddle of water-like emerald finger ring, and asked Liu Ye to take it off to have a look.Unexpectedly, Cixi caressed and praised it, looking like she couldn't put it down, and asked questions, and put it on the Longshu case. Prince Gong saw that the pull finger had no hope of returning to Zhao, so he pretended to be generous and presented it to Chen Shang.A few days later, Prince Gong was waiting for the court attendant at the military plane, and Li Lianying went to the military plane to call for him, walked out of the room, turned around, raised her thumb and said, "Sixth Master, please appreciate the newly bought by my servant yesterday." How about this feather?" (The feathers worn by eunuchs are different from those worn by ordinary civil and military officials. The feathers worn by eunuchs are called magpie tails, and the feathers cover the back of their heads.) Prince Gong's beloved emerald ring was impressively worn on Li Lianying's thumb On top of that, Prince Gong trembled with anger, but what can he do about it!At this time, Li Lianying was no longer Wuxia Ameng, and unconsciously showed arrogance.

Defeated in the Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang went to the palace to plead guilty, and Cixi missed the old honor. Not only did he not convict him, but he also comforted him. Zi's ​​three-eyed flower feather turned towards the hat, and it was put on the ground in a hurry!This belongs to the two crimes of disrespect and disrespect, but he could not enter the palace to pick it up again, so he had to withdraw abruptly. Not long after returning to Xianliang Temple, Li Lianying actually sent back the red hat to Li Zhongtang in person, and returned it to Li Zhongtang. Pass the decree to comfort Cixi.According to Li's son, Bo Xing, returning the gauze hat was favored by heaven's language, so Li Lianying returned to the palace with two thousand taels of silver to pay the errand without any hassle.

Cixi's faith in Li Lianying became stronger and stronger, and Xiao Lizi became more and more arrogant.In the 16th year of Guangxu (1890), Guangxu held a big wedding at the age of 21. On the surface, the queen mother withdrew from the curtain and returned to power. In fact, Guangxu still obeyed orders for all military plans, and the power was still secretly in the hands of Cixi.When Cixi lived 600,000 years in the Jiawu period in the 20th year of Guangxu, Guangxu led civil and military officials to practice the celebration ceremony in advance.It was originally scheduled to be held at this time. At that time, all civil and military officials will gather in Renshou Palace and wait for Li Lianying, the governor-general, to arrive and start the exercise.Waiting left and right until the afternoon, Chief Manager Li came slowly. The princes and ministers were all hungry and waited for three hours.Li not only showed no shame, but also no apology. Guangxu Ke was full of anger among the officials, so he passed an order to Li Lianying's imperial staff forty. Concubine Shen Jing has all kinds of troubles.Xincheng Wang Shunan's "Dezong's Legacy" said that during the Gengzi Rebellion, after Concubine Zhen was pushed into the well in front of Jingqi Pavilion by Cui Yugui, Empress Dowager Dezong fled to Xi'an and passed through Baoding.There is a Puji Temple outside Xiguan. According to legend, the Avalokitesvara lotus is quite supernatural, so Li Lianying took advantage of people's inattention and asked for one devoutly. It is clear that there will be many disasters." The current disaster has also increased Li Lianying's vigilance.The local officials in Baoding picked up the driver in a hurry. Apart from preparing the dormitory for the queen mother, they only cleaned up a lower place for Mr. Li, with quilts and bedding, but they did not pack the bedding seriously for Guangxu.The night was very cold, and Guangxu curled up on a cold earth kang, unable to sleep for a long time.It happened that Li Lianying got up to relieve herself, and seeing Guangxu's embarrassment, she suddenly remembered the magic lottery she had asked for in Xiguan. Anyone with a discerning eye knows that it is Mr. Li's masterpiece.In the chaos, Li Lianying felt that the Empress Dowager was already old, and if something happened and Guangxu was in power, could he be spared?So he changed his mind, and immediately went into the room and knelt down in front of Guangxu and said: "It's because of the negligence of the slaves that the emperor suffers like this. It's just that it's late at night and it's impossible to make arrangements. Please forgive the grievances and use the slave's bedding for the time being." !" As a result, he gave up the bed to Guangxu, and he really squatted in the corner until dawn, and Guangxu often mentioned this matter after that!It is not unreasonable for Li Lianying to be able to leave the palace safely and live in the countryside after Cixi passed away.

Li Lianying's torso is repaired, because he was very thorough in his operation from the palace, although there is a good medicine to save a life, but his face is pale, just after middle age, his face is wrinkled and looks like an old woman, especially his throat is very sharp and harsh.Some people who knew the situation in the inner court said that Li Lianying had an affair with Cixi, and that Li's residence was close to Cixi's dormitory.Little do they know that it is customary for upright officials that princes will live in separate palaces when they are over twelve years old, and all the officials and officials will go to the mothers and maids at night, and the internal eunuchs can only wait for orders outside the palace.Li Lianying's next office is at the Fourth North Institute, and it takes at least half an hour to walk from Cixi's bedroom.Such unbelievable rumors are pure speculation, and it is really hard to believe them.

After Empress Dowager Cixi finished her funeral, Li Lianying left the palace after the backing of the mountain was turned into a strong wind. He set up a house near the emperor's palace at the root of the East Imperial City in Beiping.Although it is not as good as Xiao Dezhang's private house in Yongkang Hutong with pearl curtains and jade households, the rooms are well-developed, but it is also covered with corridors and round arches, carved beams and powder walls, which is enough to entertain his old age.And adopted two nephews as heirs.Dongxinglou, a famous restaurant in Donghuamen, he holds two-thirds of the shares.Before Xuantong's wedding, in order to reduce expenses, the imperial dining room was abolished and meals were provided by Dongxing Building. Li Lianying was grateful for the old lord's old kindness, and the provided meals were only counted as cost.He sometimes went to Dongxing Building to check whether there were any cases of cutting corners and materials, so that he could enjoy his old age by traveling in the forest.In the spring of the fifteenth year of the Republic of China, he suddenly contracted acute pneumonia, and was sent to the hospital too late to be cured. After his death, he was buried in a self-made cemetery outside Deshengmen.After his death, the two heirs of the prodigal sons, one against the other in whoring and gambling, sold off all the property he had accumulated throughout his life.Around the 20th year of the Republic of China, some precious leather cloak coats, blue tooth tubes and emerald curtain shoulders were found in Deshengmen Xiaoshi, most of which came from the Tianjia Rare.Most antique collectors believed that it was a gift from Li Lianying during his lifetime, and they paid high prices to search for it.During the Anti-Japanese War, his two heirs were poor and sick, and died on the street one after another, and the prestige of a generation of power supervisors disappeared in smoke.