Chapter 520: The Dusty Past

Qi Wangfu.

The guards of the Qi Palace, it can be said that among all the guards of the palace, the proudest and most combative guards, His Royal Highness the King of Qi often goes out to fight, they have experienced a lot of big scenes with the prince, and the guards of the other palaces have rarely left even Chang'an.

It is said that the guards of the Qi Palace's palace should all be very bullish and behave arrogantly, but it is the opposite. The guards and other staff of the Qi Palace's palace were quite modest when they treated outsiders.

Li You, the king of Qi, was unusually fierce towards his powerful enemies, and he was very kind to his own people, especially ordinary people. Those who are close to Zhu are red, those who are close to ink are black, what the prince looks like, and the people below have also learned what they have become.

At this moment, there is something important going on in the Qi Palace, and when the doorman of the Qi Palace, when he saw a young lady from an ordinary people's family who came over, he did not simply drive her away, but asked her with a kind attitude to explain her intention.

The person who came was Gu Ruoyu, and she said: "Brother Guard, my father also wants to come to participate in the engraving art competition, but his legs are unable to move, and the slave family has his carved works here, please hand them to His Royal Highness King Qi." ”

As she spoke, she pulled out a cloth bag from her pocket.

The girl's voice was so nice that the guards couldn't help but pay close attention to her, but unfortunately the young lady's appearance was too ordinary.

The guard looked at her for a moment, took the cloth bag in her hand, and said, "I'll hand it over for you, but you must check it first." ”

Gu Ruoyu nodded and said, "Please check it with my eldest brother." ”

When the guard opened it, he saw that it was an ordinary gold lock, that is, a copper lock, that a child often wore around his neck. He said, "You wait here, and I will go over and hand it over to my lord for you." ”

At this moment, a convoy of chariots and horses came in the distance, and when the guards saw it, they hurriedly shouted: "Everyone hurry away, the holy car has arrived." ”

Sure enough, it was Li Shimin who arrived.

It turned out that Li Shimin was also a seal carving enthusiast, and after he finished dealing with the matter at hand, he also went to the Qi Palace's mansion to see the excitement.

Gu Ruoyu left the gate of the Qi Palace, and was stopped by the guards in the distance, seeing Li Shimin's dragon enter the Qi Palace, she didn't know if her things could be handed over to His Royal Highness the King of Qi, so she kept waiting outside.

The guard who took over Gu Ruoyu's golden lock was busy arranging Li Shimin's security and forgetting about Gu Ruoyu's affairs for a while.

At this time, the engraving art competition has come to an end, and the works of the contestants have been presented, and Li Shimin, Wei Zheng, Xiao Qian and other seal carving masters are appraising.

There is only one topic for the competition, which requires the contestants to carve a poem by Li Shimin: "Give Xiao Qian:

The wind knows the grass, and the board knows the Chengchen.

The brave man knows righteousness, and the wise man will be benevolent. ”

In the history of the development of calligraphy, the Tang Dynasty was another peak after the Jin Dynasty, at this time, there were far-reaching calligraphers in the Zhen, Xing, Cao, Seal, and Lishu calligraphy, and the influence of Zhenshu and Cursive was the greatest. Li Shimin himself was also an outstanding calligrapher, he studied the right army, and his handsome and majestic spirit surpassed that of the right army. He was the first to enter the monument with calligraphy, which can be called the crown of ancient and modern imperial calligraphy. He also created his own flying white body, which is a great achievement.

The first two sentences of this poem require the contestants to use the most commonly used real body for engraving at this time, and the last two sentences require the contestants to imitate Li Shimin's flying white body.

Soon after, the results of the competition came out, and the top three places in wood, ivory and bronze were won by an official of the Ministry of Rites, a grave carver in Chang'an, and a teacher from a school in Shaanzhou.

Li Shimin was very happy and delivered an enthusiastic speech at the award ceremony. Afterwards, we discussed the printing of banknotes with the crowd.

Wei Zheng said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the works of wood carving and ivory carving can be said to be perfect, but this bronze sculpture still seems to lack some charm. ”

Li You didn't know much about carving, but he also agreed with Wei Zheng's opinion and felt that he was still a little dissatisfied. After all, the engraving and intaglio printing to be carried out is mainly copper engraving. He said: "Lord Wei is reasonable, the fineness and charm of this bronze sculpture seem to be a little insufficient. ”

Gao Jingming said: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks it's almost over, with His Royal Highness King Qi's special banknote printing paper and ink, plus wood carving, ivory carving and bronze carving together, it can be completely anti-counterfeiting." Besides, there is a time limit for this competition, and the bronze sculpture itself requires a lot of time, and with enough time, coupled with meticulous carving, it should not be a problem to achieve excellence. ”

The eldest grandson Wuji said: "The elder is reasonable, and the minister agrees with his opinion. ”

Fang Xuanling also agreed.

At this time, Gao Henian quietly said to Li You: "Lord Wang, the minister knows a person, and his bronze carving skills are superb. ”

Then you ask, "Where is this man now?" ”

Gao Henian shook his head and said, "The minister hasn't seen this person for more than ten years, and I don't know his whereabouts now." ”

Although the voice of Li You and Gao Henian's conversation was small, it caught Li Shimin's attention, and he remembered a person in his mind, which evoked his memories, and for a while, he fell silent.

Soon after, he shook his head, as if to dispel the past that was haunting his mind, and he said, "Just according to Gao Jingming's opinion, you can start researching." ”

"The ministers obey." They all replied together.

Li Shimin and the others left, Li You and the others watched Li Shimin's figure disappear at the gate, and were about to turn back to the mansion, when a guard said: "Lord, a little lady has sent you a golden lock, please take a look," said the golden lock handed over.

Li You took it and played with it a few times, only to feel that the golden lock was very beautifully carved. His level was limited, and he was not good at evaluating it for a while, so he handed it over to Wei Zheng.

Wei Zheng took it and looked at it, and praised it in surprise: "This is the most exquisite copper carving." ”

Xiao Qian took it and looked at it, and said: "Your Highness, look at the copper engraving on it, the pen is strong, and the garden turns straight, it is really exquisite." ”

Li You couldn't see the specific exquisiteness, but he saw that the beauty of the font on it was extremely high, and those straight lines were straight and even, as if they were carved with a ruler, and it was extremely rare to paint on copper with high hardness.

He asked, "Who sent it, and what about the people?" ”

The guard looked outside, saw the little lady from a distance, and walked towards her.

At this time, Gao Henian said, "Lord Xiao, let the lower officials take a look." Xiao Qian handed him the golden lock in his hand.

After Gao Henian saw it, his face couldn't help but change greatly, he strongly controlled his surprise and didn't scream. He said "not bad" and handed the golden lock to Xiao Qian again.

Soon after, the guard came over with Gu Ruoyu.