Out of the temple, the sun has slanted to the west. The three of them discussed while walking, saying that the next day at the latest, the two Tubo officers should also send the letter to the Xixia Palace and to Li Yuanhao's hands, so after Li Yuanhao saw the letter, would he continue to conceal the disappearance of the "Xixia Princess", and if they continued to conceal the Tubo people, how would they deal with Song Zanpu, the first national teacher who married the "Xixia Princess" to Tubo ten days later?

The three of them talked as they walked, guessing all kinds of possible situations one by one, and inadvertently came to a gatehouse with a tall wall, Ayimu said: "Hey, how did you unknowingly get here, this is outside Li Yuanhao's palace." ”

Hu Zhenbang and Mu Hanyi said: "I think, let's go back to the inn to rest for the time being, and then I will try to sneak into the palace with you to listen to the news, and after the Tibetan messenger delivers the letter tomorrow, we will come to listen again, and we can know what Li Yuanhao has planned." ”

Mu Hanyi said: "Okay, just follow what the eldest brother said." The three of them were about to turn around. Suddenly, a group of ironclad soldiers from Western Xia approached him, and a young officer-like person rushed to the three of them: "Hey, it's late today, come back tomorrow." ”

Hu Zhenbang said with a smile: "Yes, yes, I am late today, come again tomorrow, come again tomorrow." His eyes signaled to Mu Hanyi and Ayimu, and the two lowered their heads and turned around with Hu Zhenbang.

Suddenly, the officer said: "Wait, since you are here, you might as well go and meet the painter and His Royal Highness the Prince." It turned out that he saw that Mu Hanyi beside Hu Zhenbang was in good shape, and another veiled woman had eyes that looked like a beautiful woman painted by a painter in the palace.

Hu Zhenbang was stunned, and said in his heart: "It's a good opportunity to follow the second sister's plan, but now it's easier to enter the palace faster, if the second sister is recognized identity, how can it be good." I couldn't help but hesitate in my heart, but I saw Ayimu winking at him, and preemptively said to the officer: "The little girl wants to enter the palace for the first time, and she is afraid of the rules, and there are many mistakes, and she also begs this military master to make it convenient for me to let my brother and sister accompany me into the palace." ”

I only heard a soldier behind the officer laugh and said: "This girl is a little anxious, this is not to enter the palace to see the emperor, hehe." The rest of the soldiers laughed as well, and the laughter stopped abruptly.

It's strange to say, these Xixia soldiers patrol the city on weekdays, as long as they see some beautiful women, they will be happy to talk and flirt, laughing and laughing frivolously, I don't know why, today I suddenly saw Mu cold and masked Ayimu, only to feel that these two women have beautiful faces, and they were speechless for a while.

The leading officer saw Ayimu begging for help, and he didn't feel that his bones were crispy: "The hour has come, but since you are here, you look good, you might as well go into the Danqing Academy and let the master Gao take a look." ”

Hu Zhenbang went to the leading officer and stuffed the silver in his hand, and said with a smile: "Master Jun, we are from a small place, I heard that we are looking for a woman in the palace, so I want to try our luck, I really don't know what kind of woman I am looking for in this palace?

When the officer saw the silver, he smiled, and said: "I don't know much about this, it seems that the emperor asked our most famous painter in Western Xia to paint a woman, and asked the prince to be responsible for secret visits throughout the country, and I only secretly looked at the painting, I think your sister is a little similar." After that, he pointed at Ayimu and said, "So I'll open the net and promise you to go and see it before the palace gate closes!"

Hu Zhenbang hurriedly said: "The favor of the military master, the little one is remembered, and one day, it will be a picture report." ”

The officer said: "Okay, let's go to the Danqing Academy to see the master Gao, if he approves, then His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will take a look." His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has passed, and the emperor will meet him. ”

The three of them responded, followed the Western Xia soldiers into the palace, Hu Zhenbang saw that the palace buildings were grandiose, the road was wide, and he said in his heart: "This Li Yuanhao was originally subordinated to the Great Song Dynasty, learned Han customs, and now he has established himself as a king, become the emperor, and build the palace road to be comparable to Bianjing." I heard that he is still creating his own Western Xia script, which is really ambitious. ”

After passing through three straight passages, through two cloisters, to a large hall, the officer said a few words to the guard standing outside the door, who said, "Then let me in." He beckoned to the trio.

Hu Zhenbang saluted the officer and said, "Thank you for the introduction!" The officer smiled and said: "You are sensible, if the sister becomes the imperial concubine, don't forget the uncle!"

The three of them all thought, could it be that this Li Yuanhao actually painted a portrait to accept the imperial concubine as such?

The guard said to Hu Zhenbang: "You are the brother of the two girls, it is said that you can't go in with you, but the captain told me, then go in with me." ”

Hu Zhenbang hurriedly thanked him, followed the guard with Mu Hanyi and Ayimu, followed him into the main hall, and went to the side room on the right.

When they arrived outside a big house, the guard stood on his feet and said, "Master Gao, there are two more girls here today, please take a look at the old man, whether they resemble the person in your painting." ”

I only heard an old voice in the room cough a few times: "Alas, I said earlier that this woman is absolutely an extraordinary person, she must be a heavenly immortal, cough cough, don't waste any more scheming." ”

The guard said, "This time, the captain of the Tiger Ben team said that there is a girl whose eyes are very similar to those drawn by your old man. I'm not blessed to see your old man's paintings, but the two girls here are really beautiful, and they're all here, so you'd better take a look. ”

The master said impatiently, "Then bring it in! Alas, I can't paint well." ”

The guards said to Hu Zhenbang and the others: "Come in with me." When I pushed the door and entered, I saw that the room was very spacious, and it was already dark, and dozens of candles were lit in the room, which lit the room.

Directly in front of the room stood an old man in a yellow robe, of medium height, with a large bald head on the top of his head, but a circle of black hair grew around his head, which looked extremely funny, at this moment he was staring at a painting on the drawing board in front of him, with a pen between the four fingers of the five fingers of his left hand, and a pen in his right hand to trace on the drawing board, and then took a few steps back, tilted his head, squinted to see, shook his head, and stepped forward to look left and right, tracing and drawing, obviously very dissatisfied with his painting.

Hu Zhenbang and the three of them all said in their hearts: "I think this person is a high painter, but how can he be such a strange old man." But when he saw the guard standing at the door, he didn't dare to quarrel with him, and motioned to Hu Zhenbang and the three of them to stand there without making a sound, obviously not to disturb him to paint.

After a long time, the painter suddenly remembered something, looked up and saw the four of him standing at the door, then threw the paintbrush and said: "Come on, let the old man see, what kind of country girl wants to climb the high branches." ”

The guard smiled and said, "Two girls, take two steps forward and let the master take a look." After that, he said to the master again: "You old man take a good look, are you satisfied this time?"

Hu Zhenbang took a step forward and arched his hand: "Master Gao, these are the next two sisters, we live in the countryside, we don't know the rules very well, we are taken care of by the two military masters, take us into the palace, please take a look at your old man, draw a picture for the two of them, and ask for a little reward." ”

It turned out that he heard some clues from the mouths of the soldiers of the previous ironclad team, guessing that Li Yuanhao wanted to find someone with his paintings, but it was inconvenient to post portraits with great fanfare, so he could only quietly let the ironclad soldiers patrolling the city pay attention everywhere, looking for someone with a pair of beautiful eyes like a "princess of Western Xia".

The high painter laughed and said, "Just say that I am from the countryside, just this little bit of interest, just want me to paint a picture and ask for a little reward?"

"There are such beautiful eyes in this world, and there are really such beautiful eyes in this world!" When the master saw Ayimu, he seemed to have been immobilized, and he couldn't move, and he only muttered this sentence in his mouth.

The guards who introduced him were overjoyed when they saw Master Gao like this, and stepped forward and said, "Are you satisfied with your old man?"

The painter replied in a loud voice like an evil spirit: "Satisfied, satisfied." He said, "Girl, don't move, don't move." He ran back to the drawing board, tore off all the rice paper he had painted before, and threw it away, and the big room was full of portraits like snowflakes in a blink of an eye.

Everyone looked down and saw that on those portraits, there was only a peerless beauty, covered with a veil, only revealing a pair of big eyes, which was no different from Ayimu.

Mu Hanyi said: "Isn't this my sister? Where have you seen my sister?

Listening to her question, the painter glanced at her, and said, "You are a sister, and you are indeed a Peugeot, but you don't have the eyes of your sister." ”

Hu Zhenbang also said: "Master Gao, this is the first time we have entered this Xingqing Mansion, how can you be an old man, how can you know my sister-in-law?

When the painter saw this, he couldn't help but laugh again: "Convey the gods? It's exactly the same? Your brother and sister are really good at sycophants in order to ask for rewards, those paintings are all failed works under the order, where can you understand it, only she--" He pointed to Ayimu and said, "Only when she is standing in front of me can I draw a lifelike 'Xixia Princess'." ”

Hu Zhenbang and the three of them looked at each other, and they all knew it in their hearts. It turned out that Li Yuanhao, in order to hide from the world, invited a master painter of Xixia Danqing to draw the image of "Xixia Princess", and asked the soldiers to spread the news to the outside world when they were patrolling the city, saying that anyone who has a pair of beautiful eyes can enter the palace to find a portrait of the first Danqing master, and those who can make them paint will be rewarded with twenty taels of silver. It was because the ironclad guards who saw the three of them before, and they only said that they were looking for a painter to enter the palace to draw a portrait, as for what they said about entering the palace to be the imperial concubine, it was because those soldiers knew that the emperor Li Yuanhao was lewd and lustful, and there were groups of wives and concubines in the palace, so they guessed that they were just looking for an excuse to find a beautiful woman to enter the palace and choose a new imperial concubine.

Ayimu knew that his plan was expected to succeed, and in order to make sure that nothing went wrong, he still asked, "Master Gao, since your old man has never seen me, why did you paint me so similarly?"

Gao Chongde couldn't help but be overjoyed when he saw his "man in the painting" open his mouth to ask himself: "Girl, what is your name? Although I haven't seen you, but Li Yuanhao, the emperor of the Great Xia Kingdom, has talked about you, yes, you are the fairy-like 'Xixia Princess', the emperor said, except for the Xixia princess, no one in this world will have such a beautiful pair of eyes." ”

As he spoke, he grabbed a pen and began to draw on the drawing board, sometimes splashing ink and sometimes drawing meticulously.

Ayi Mu said shamefully: "Master Gao, my name is Hai Yisha, just a wild girl from the countryside, how can I compare with the noble and elegant 'Princess of Western Xia', have you ever seen that princess in your old man?"

Gao Chongde said: "Well, I haven't seen it, I just heard the emperor say that he has a 'Xixia princess' whose eyes are more beautiful than the stars in the sky, and her beauty is more beautiful than the sun that people dare not look at directly, so she can only wear a veil, if anyone sees her face, they will definitely go crazy, you see, you see, I finally painted it today!"

After that, he threw the paintbrush and turned the drawing board around, and everyone looked at it together, and they all let out an exclamation. I saw that there was a masked beauty painted on the painting, which was exactly the same as Ayimu in front of her, especially the eyes, which were brilliant and beautiful, clearer than the clearest stream, and brighter than the brightest North Star in the sky.