Loulan - This is a name that is full of mystery just by hearing it.
3,800 years ago, there once was a beautiful country - Loulan, on the shores of the West Sea and the Peacock River.
At that time, the ancient city of Loulan could be said to have fertile water and grass, flocks of cattle and sheep, and life was very affluent.
This small country with a small population was once an important bridge connecting the East and the West.
But I don’t know when, the ancient country of Loulan was annihilated in the wind and sand. The city, the beauty, everything disappeared, and many beautiful stories became legends.
When we got off the car, we saw a large sign stone with some writing on it.
There are several big characters written on Loulan Ancient City Ruins, and the time when the inscription was erected, 1988, is also marked below.
Lei Zi said: "This stone monument has only been erected for a few years. It seems that it has been protected."
I smiled: "This place has long been protected by cultural relics, but we have to hurry up."
"When the things are done, leave quickly and don't be discovered by the people guarding this place."
Standing on the edge and looking again, I found that in the distance were the ruins of the ancient city covered with loess and sand.
There were a lot of pieces of wood scattered around, in all four directions: east, west, north, and south. I stood there and looked to the east, and I could see a corner of the ruins.
A rough analysis of the distance showed that it was more than three hundred meters, and then looked towards the south.
The distance to the east is almost the same, it should be more than 300 meters. The northwest and northwest directions are blocked by the east and west, so I can't see it yet.
"Come on, let's go over and take a look."
As they walked, Lone Wolf said, "Xiao Lin, the ancient city of Loulan was only discovered more than ninety years ago."
"The last archaeological excavation must have been eleven years ago. It seems to have been carried out in 1980."
"You should also know this news, right? It is said that this incident was quite sensational at the time."
At that time, I had already dropped out of school and had already learned a lot about archeology from my father.
Of course, I had heard of these things. My father was a famous archaeological appraiser at the time.
I was also invited as a commentator to assist with some matters, but I couldn't talk about these things casually.
Later, it took a long time for my father to tell me these things, just treating them as stories.
He immediately followed Lone Wolf's words and said: "At that time, CCTV invited the Institute of Archeology of the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences to form an archaeological team."
"Entering the Loulan site to carry out archeology, Mu Shunying, Wang Binghua, Wang Mingzhe, Hou Can and other scholars participated in this archaeological work."
"In 1980, after two surveys the previous year, the archaeological team divided into two groups and entered the vast sand sea."
"Hou Can from the Institute of Archeology is the person in charge of the Western Route. This is a desert archeology of unprecedented scale."
"This is also the first Loulan archaeological project of scientific significance conducted by Chinese scholars after the founding of the People's Republic of China."
"This historically important archaeological work includes the Kongquehe Ancient Tomb Valley Cemetery."
“There are also excavations of Loulan Ancient City, Tiebanhe Cemetery, and ancient tombs on the outskirts of Loulan City, etc.”
"The most famous of them is the mummy of the "Loulan Beauty" that was unearthed and attracted strong public attention."
"In this thousand-year-old Loulan ancient city, now only the incomplete pagodas, city walls, houses and three-room remains remain."
"The thousands of years of wind and sand contained in Lop Nur have blown it into a strange Yadan landform."
“The cultural relics unearthed by the archaeological team reflect Loulan’s prosperous time as a pearl on the Silk Road.”
"There are a lot of glass products, sea shells, sea clams, corals, copper coins."
"It accumulated five baht from the Western Han Dynasty, five baht from the Eastern Han Dynasty, Wang Mang's spring, Huo spring, etc."
"Even among the things excavated are Kushan coins from Afghanistan."
I listened very carefully, and I never expected that Lone Wolf was the least talkative among us.
On the contrary, I like these archaeological news very much and pay more attention to them.
"Lone Wolf, you are more suitable for archeology than me. If you had not been a soldier, you would probably be an archaeological expert."
I said jokingly to Lone Wolf. In fact, this was mostly what I was saying.
Lone Wolf smiled: "Xiao Lin, I really like these things, so I often read them."
"By the way, Xiaolin, some time ago, did grandpa explain the situation here to you?"
"Is it the specific location, or is it that the earth zombies are not buried here."
Lone Wolf asked this question, and I immediately replied: "This is the ancient city of Loulan."
"Grandpa probably buried the earth zombies here, but there are monsters guarding it."
"It is said to be a death sandworm. This thing is extremely rare, especially if it is a monster."
"This thing is also called the death bug. It is said that the largest death bug is about to catch up with the train."
When I said this, both Lei Zi and Lone Lang felt cold, and actually shivered in the hot weather.
Lei Zi said: "That ghost must be hiding under the desert, probably under the ruins of this ancient city."
I nodded imperceptibly. What Lei Zi said was right. I thought so too, so I didn't take action for a long time.
The three of them walked towards the ruins of the ancient city. The first thing they saw was something over ten meters high.
It was in the northeast direction, and there stood an octagonal building that looked like a round mound.
It is more than two hundred meters away from where we stand, and there are many other buried buildings here.
After walking around several uneven ruins, they stopped at a wall several meters high.
He jumped more than three meters high, stretched out his hand to grab the wall, climbed up directly, and stood on the top of the wall.
Standing higher here, you can naturally see farther, and there are no suspicious discoveries to the west.
I took another look in the south direction, and this time I made a discovery, seeing some earthen platforms.
There are some tall trees standing sideways next to it. It seems that they have experienced thousands of years of wind and sun.
In the middle of the southwest, I found that there are three large adobe house ruins, which are still built.
He lowered his head and said to Lei Zi and Lone Wolf: "Go to the southwest, about two hundred meters, there are three houses there, we can camp there."
Then he jumped off the wall and asked, "Didn't you find anything unusual?"
"No"
Lei Zi said nothing more and quickly walked to the three adobe houses he had seen earlier.
The three adobe houses are all wooden structures covered with a large amount of soil.
What surprised me most was that the adobe and wood allowed these three houses to survive for thousands of years.
I have to sigh at the wisdom of the ancients and the exquisite architectural craftsmanship.
Nothing wrong was found here, and even the entire ancient city of Loulan was normal.
This makes me somewhat puzzled. Doesn't it mean that there may be dangers here?
Lei Zi and Lone Wolf had already set up camp and set up two large tents.
This way the space is large enough, and we start to use solid fuel to prepare a fire for heating.
Actually, I'm not worried about this. If it's too cold here at night, we still have Tianling.
Tianling is our mobile residence, and the tent is just a temporary resting place.
Lone Wolf heated up some cans, and everyone simply ate them. It was easier now that they were at the place.
It's getting dark now, and it's not convenient for us to look for the specific location of the earth zombies.
All we have to do is wait until dawn tomorrow before making a decision. Then we will take out the Xuantian Compass and analyze the gold points.
Time always flies by so quickly, and before we know it, night falls while we are chatting.
We also returned to the tent where we were stationed to sleep, but I made another mistake.
I didn't encounter any danger along the way, so I got used to thinking that there was no danger here.
He didn't even put a zombie outside, taking it for granted that he was strong enough to be fine.
Moreover, the Silver Dragon King protects him, so poisonous insects that appear in the desert dare not approach him at all.
Just like that, without making any preparations, I lay down peacefully on the resting mat and fell asleep.
In the middle of the night, a strange and gentle breeze blew through the tent of the three of us.
