After Mrs. Wei finished speaking, she added a few words: "It is these divine fires that have prevented any grass from growing in the basins, and even now no plants have grown. God Tianpu has cursed these basins."
Song Siyuan took out the telescope and carefully observed these dark basins. It was strange that there was no grass growing in the past two thousand years. However, she did not think that the divine fire was really the curse of Tianpu God. She continued to ask: "These divine fires are dissolved in the water. Is there a lot of oily halo?"
Mrs. Wei nodded: "Indeed, how do you know?"
Song Siyuan nodded towards her: "This is not divine fire, I think it is oil."
It is greasy and viscous, black in color, and there are oily flowers when it falls into the water. Once it burns on the body, it will not be destroyed even by splashing water. Liquids with this kind of characteristics are called crude oil in modern civilization. However, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, it probably did not exist yet. Gasoline is produced, so this kind of divine fire should be oil that emerges from the ground along with earthquakes.
Song Siyuan said to everyone: "Gasoline, the starting fuel for cars, is the product of refining crude oil."
Yue Guanchao teased: "Song Qianjin, you wouldn't say that the Guifang people had already started using gasoline during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, right?"
Song Siyuan shook her head and retorted: "That's not true. The ancients at that time did not have the technology to refine gasoline, but liquids such as petroleum are the product of the sedimentation and changes of ancient biological remains and have existed since ancient times."
“In 1859, an American named Edward discovered limestone oil in Pennsylvania. From then on, the world began to try to extract petroleum products from this dark oil. Until now, refined from petroleum of gasoline has been used in cars, and other by-products have many other applications."
"only!"
Song Siyuan changed the topic at this point: "Speaking of it, Westerners were only the first to explore the application of oil on a large scale, but to be more serious, it was not Westerners who really discovered oil in history, but our ancients."
"Hanshu Geography" records that Dingyang, Gaonu, has Mishui, which is flammable.
Dingyang and Gaonu are the names of places in the Han Dynasty, located roughly northeast of Chang'an. Jianshui is actually gravy water, which means that the water here is like gravy, thick and turbid, and can be burned and illuminated.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Li Daoyuan of the Northern Wei Dynasty also recorded oil in "Shui Jing Zhu". Li Daoyuan liked to travel around the mountains and explore the geography. When he was passing through Yanshou County in Jiuquan, he discovered a special place in the nearby Nanshan Mountains. This spring water is not a clear and sweet spring water, but a thick and dirty water as fat as meat juice. The color is close to yellow and black, and the texture is thicker, like semi-condensed lard. After being ignited, it becomes extremely It is bright, but the smell is extremely unpleasant and cannot be drunk by ordinary people. After talking with the locals, he found that the locals call this liquid Shiqi, and the spring out of which this liquid flows is called Shiquan!
Judging from the examples just now, they are describing the same thing, which is probably the oil that spilled out of the ground in ancient times.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the first oil well appeared in Gaonu. The oil produced required a tribute of more than 100 kilograms to the court. In addition to being used to make utensils, the oil was also used in various new firearms in the Northern Song Dynasty. on, used for foreign wars.
In the Southern Song Dynasty, Shen Kuo directly gave an accurate description of this liquid in "Mengxi Bi Tan" - there was oil in the territory of Yan and Yan, and it was said that fat water came out of Gaonu County. Born on the edge of the water, the sand and stones mixed with the spring water, and came out in confusion. The natives used the pheasant tail to pick it up, and then collected it into a fou. It looked like pure lacquer, and burned like hemp, but the smoke was very thick, and all the curtains were stained. black.
In addition, this liquid has more miscellaneous names among the people, such as stone paint, petroleum grease, naphtha, fire oil, realgar oil, and sulfur oil. No matter what the name is, the ancients have indeed noticed that this liquid seems to be It's not something cursed by ghosts and gods, but a kind of fuel that they don't know the use of yet.
Under this understanding, the ancients also explored the uses of petroleum. For example, petroleum can be used for lighting, making ink, making paint, anti-corrosion, waterproofing, lubrication, and even used as medicine to kill insects. Treat sores, convulsions, diaphragm, vomiting and excessive phlegm in children.
"Then according to your opinion, these divine fires are really undiscovered oil? Then how come the foreigners got the first advantage?"
After listening to so many words, Yue Guanchao finally understood that the ancients may have really started to use oil, but now, oil has been called foreign oil by the people. It can be seen that people now know less about oil.
Song Siyuan explained: "There is nothing we can do about it. We have invented gunpowder in the Tang Dynasty, and gunpowder has been used in new firearms in the Northern Song Dynasty. But why now, we are still in the cold weapon age of using knives to fight. Isn't it because the people are not wise enough?" Open and close the country?"
Her tone became serious: "The same principle applies to oil. When oil was discovered, the ancients did not do much research on the formation, properties, and uses of oil. They just regarded it as another fuel that could replace charcoal and firewood. A preliminary exploration of how to use it.”
"Ink making, lacquer making, medicinal uses, lighting, medicine, these are all very practical explorations, but there is less exploration of how they are formed, their chemical structures, and their application prospects, and they only stay in the preliminary exploration stage. .”
"Although Westerners discovered it relatively late, they had already made systematic scientific innovations before their discovery. After they discovered oil, they conducted various experiments on oil and developed a variety of refined oil products. The Chinese at the same time had no idea at all. conditions to do so.”
Song Siyuan paused and looked at everyone: "To be precise, Chinese people don't care where the oil comes from, and don't pay much attention to their specific functions. They only know that they can be used to replace fuel. When they first discovered them, the Han Dynasty people At first glance, it looks like broth, and I instinctively feel that it is something edible. It can be seen that the ancients mostly adopted a pragmatic attitude towards unknown things, using them if they can, and not using them if they cannot, without exploring the principles and properties. .”
"With this attitude, it is understandable that Guifang people regard oil as sacred fire or will-o'-the-wisp."
Old Mrs. Wei shook her head: "No, no, if it's just ordinary fuel, then why haven't there been any grass growing in these cities for two thousand years?"
Song Siyuan smiled at her: "That's because the land is polluted. Petroleum is indeed widely used and there are many refined products, but the only disadvantage is that it is not good for the environment. Even refined gasoline produces enough waste gas. It pollutes the environment. Once this unrefined petroleum burns, it harms the environment and can even poison people."
"My guess is that the burning of oil has polluted the topsoil, making it barren for thousands of years, rather than a curse from the gods."
Having said that, Song Siyuan looked at the depressed Guifang Ancient Kingdom, her eyes empty and full of worry: "I never thought that God's curse would cause the current situation, but there is one thing that really surprises me. It can burn two basins into In this way, this shows that there is likely to be a large amount of oil hidden under the ghost world."
She turned around and became extremely worried and said: "The problem is that most of the oil is hidden under extremely deep strata. It is impossible for ordinary ancients to dig out oil casually, unless there are earthquakes and explosions that destroy the deep strata. The earthquake cracked, and the oil then used the underground pressure to flow out of the river through the original underground underground channels, forming the spectacle of black water rising from the river they saw!"
She paused and her tone was extremely serious: "If we assume that earthquake factors exist, then think about what Mrs. Wei said. Before the oil emerged from the water, the entire Guifang Basin probably experienced earthquakes."
After saying this, everyone looked at the old lady Wei. The old lady also understood what everyone meant and nodded meaningfully: "Indeed, before the black water emerged in the river, the entire basin had begun to shake. It was as if the mountain god was angry and countless houses collapsed."
Song Siyuan heard that it was what she thought, and nodded towards her: "That's not surprising. Probably during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there was an earthquake in the entire basin. After the strata cracked, the oil spewed out through the underground rivers and burned directly. He died from the ghost civilization instead of dying from the curse of Tianpu God."
"The only strange thing now is why there were earthquakes in the basin after Tiantong God's temperament changed drastically? As for the cause of the earthquake, we don't know yet, but it must be related to the giant."
After saying that, she paused and her eyes lit up: "I have another completely unrelated guess. Are the Beifu soldiers digging tunnels really just to create some secret tunnel for sneak attacks? Is it possible that they are also looking for the stone that the ancients said? fat!"
"Of course, this is just speculation."
After explaining the reason why the ghost world was destroyed, everyone began to think about how to climb up to the tomb. The platform was dozens of meters above the ground and there was no plank road. If they wanted to go up, they would probably have to borrow climbing claws.
After some exploration, Sun Tianqi used his climbing claws to grab the bushes on the mountain wall and climbed up to the platform in front of the tomb. He dropped a few climbing ropes. In groups, they climbed the ropes and stood in the square one after another.
Far and near, with clouds covering the air and mist surrounding it, everyone stood on a suspended platform in the middle of the mountain. When facing the tall palace in the tomb, they not only felt extraordinarily luxurious, but also felt a sense of awe.
Regardless of whether Liu Yu is buried here, at least it is here to summon the souls of Beifu soldiers who died for the Northern Expedition. This purpose alone is enough to make people awe.
In front of them, in addition to the innermost main hall and the pagodas on both sides, there was a bronze tripod the size of a room in the center of the wide field. The blood seemed to be covered with several layers of plasma.
In addition to the legs of the bronze tripod, there are two Taotie with majestic horns and scaly hair. They use their front paws to cling to the ears of the tripod to firmly hold the mouth of the tripod. The mouth full of fangs is just as wide as a dragon's mouth, aiming at On both sides of the tripod.
In the middle of the bronze tripod, there are three copper pillars that are slightly thicker than a human body. Five-color ghost faces are carved on the pillars, until the top turns into a gluttonous head with a big and terrifying mouth.
Everyone was dazzled. Taotie's eyes were always bright and red, as if he was angry, and he blew out a faint white smoke from his mouth. It looked like he was using a cauldron to pay homage to the heroic souls in the tomb!
