In 1961, archaeological experts excavated the tomb of Li Lianying. Li Lianying's coffin is made of marble and has exquisite carvings on it, which is very gorgeous. At the same time, experts found more than 50 exquisite funerary objects in Li Lianying's tomb. However, what shocked the experts was that there was only Li Lianying's head in the coffin, not Li Lianying's body. His body was replaced by a fake body made of cotton. of.
Li Lianying was a popular person around Cixi. What happened to him after Cixi's death? Why did he end up with a tragic end of body and missing body?
Li Lianying, formerly known as Li Jinxi, was born in Dacheng County, Shuntian Prefecture in 1848. Li Lianying has four brothers, and he is the second oldest in the family.
Li Lianying’s parents worked as leather makers in Beijing and were known as “leather and leather plums”. Although he was a craftsman, his income was meager and he was unable to support multiple children. In 1855, his parents purified Li Lianying and prepared him to be a eunuch in Prince Zheng's Mansion. While Li Lianying was living in Beijing, she learned a new hairstyle technique. The following year, Li Lianying asked fellow eunuch Shen Lanyu to introduce her to the palace and became a eunuch.
After arriving in the palace, Li Lianying worked hard from morning to night every day in the memorial office and Jingren Palace on East Road, and suffered a lot. In 1864, Li Lianying was transferred to Cixi's Changchun Palace. Li Lianying knew how to comb various novel and beautiful hairstyles, and Cixi happened to be a woman who loved beauty. He quickly gained Cixi's appreciation by combing her hair. Li Lianying was smart and capable, and knew how to please Cixi. Over time, he gained Cixi's trust and became a popular figure around Cixi. Cixi would also leave some important matters to Li Lianying.
At that time, the most favored eunuch around Cixi was Ande Hai.
In 11861, after the death of Emperor Xianfeng, Cixi, together with Empress Dowager Ci'an and Prince Gong Yixin, launched Xinyou coup, and got rid of eight ministers including Zaiyuan, Duanhua, Sushun and others. , seizing power into his own hands. After that, Cixi's son Tongzhi became the emperor, and Cixi and Ci'an the empress dowagers of the two palaces "listened to politics behind the curtain." Ci'an had a general desire for power, so the power in the court basically fell into Cixi's hands.
After Cixi gained power, she promoted her most trusted eunuch, Ande Hai, who had played a large role in the Xinyou coup, to the position of general manager, and Li Lianying became the second general manager. After Andehai became the general manager, he began to become arrogant and domineering. He relied on Cixi's favor and misbehaved, interfered in the government affairs, suppressed Prince Gong, etc., which made the officials begin to resent him. In 1869, in order to make money, Andehai went south to buy clothes for the wedding of Emperor Tongzhi on the orders of Cixi. After arriving in Shandong, because Andehai violated ancestral rules, left the capital without permission, and demanded bribes from officials along the way in the name of an imperial envoy, the Sichuan governor Ding Baozhen had him beheaded in accordance with the laws of the Qing Dynasty.
After Andehai passed away, Cixi made Li Lianying the general manager. Because Li Lianying was favored by Cixi, she was equally powerful. However, because of An Dehai's mistakes, even if Li Lianying had great power, he would not dare to be as domineering and offend important ministers as An Dehai. Although Li Lianying offended many people when he was the general manager, he was "respectful in matters above and lenient in matters below. He never slacked off for many years." He was respectful to his master and generous to his subordinates, and he never dared to relax, and his reputation Not bad, not many people hate him.
Although Li Lianying was very powerful, important ministers in the court and local governors all gave him three points, but all of Li Lianying's power was given by the master behind him, Cixi. Cixi is gone, and the power in Li Lianying's hands is the expired ticket, which is useless.
In November 1908, Cixi, who had been in charge of the Qing Dynasty for nearly half a century, was seriously ill and would die soon.
After Cixi became seriously ill, although she would lose a supporter, Li Lianying did not need to worry too much at that time.Although Li Lianying was Cixi's confidant and had offended Emperor Guangxu, but during the period when Emperor Guangxu was imprisoned in Yingtai, and during the Gengzi period, when the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing, Li Lianying took care of Cixi and Emperor Guangxu on their way to the west. After Emperor Guangxu , Emperor Guangxu was very grateful to Li Lianying.
After Cixi's death, power will fall into the hands of Emperor Guangxu. Even if Emperor Guangxu will not reuse Li Lianying, he will at least be able to live out his old age in peace.
The day before Cixi died, a strange thing happened in the Qing Dynasty. Emperor Guangxu, who had always been healthy, suddenly died suddenly. Later experts discovered a large amount of arsenic in Emperor Guangxu's hair. It can be seen that Guangxu died of arsenic poisoning, but who killed him is a historical mystery.
On November 14, 1908, the day after the death of Emperor Guangxu, Cixi also passed away. Before she died, she made the 3-year-old Puyi the emperor, and made Puyi's father Zaifeng the "Regent of the Supervisor of the Country", who was responsible for assisting Puyi. Let Empress Dowager Longyu take care of Puyi, and she also has certain power. Cixi also left her last words: "From now on, women are not allowed to predict state affairs. This is contrary to the family law of this dynasty and must be strictly restricted. In particular, strict precautions must be taken to prevent eunuchs from taking over their power. What happened in the late Ming Dynasty can serve as a lesson for Yin!" Li Lianying was not allowed to do so again. Participate too much in government affairs.
After Cixi's death, Empress Dowager Longyu became the new head of the harem. Empress Dowager Longyu's favored eunuch was Xiaode Zhang. She wanted to promote Xiaode Zhang to be the chief eunuch, so Li Lianying became redundant. This made Li Lianying's situation suddenly become embarrassing, and she suffered a lot from Xiaode Zhang. Suppression and bullying. Li Lianying took the initiative to propose to Empress Dowager Longyu that she would keep vigil for 100 days for Empress Dowager Cixi, and Empress Dowager Longyu agreed.
Li Lianying no longer interfered with matters in the palace, and stayed at Cixi's funeral with peace of mind. This allowed him to stay away from the land of right and wrong, and he did not continue to suffer the suppression and persecution of Xiao Dezhang. After the wake period expired, Li Lianying was very sensible and knew that he had no status in the palace, so he bid farewell to Queen Mother Longyu. He donated most of the gold and silver treasures he had accumulated to Queen Mother Longyu, and also spent 800,000 yuan of his savings. Distributed to former cronies. Li Lianying divided all the huge wealth he had accumulated, but what was left could still ensure that he would have enough food and clothing for the rest of his life.
After leaving the palace, Li Lianying did not go to live in the mansion given to him by Prince Qing. Instead, he lived in seclusion at No. 83 Mianmian Hutong, Xicheng. He lived a solitary life and did not interact with the powerful people in the capital or his former subordinates. This could maximize to ensure his safety. Two years later, Li Lianying passed away. There is no record in the history books about the cause of Li Lianying's death, but judging from the fact that Li Lianying's body and head were separated from the archaeological discovery, Li Lianying may have been killed. Li Lianying offended many people during his lifetime, so this ending is not unexpected.
