They walked along the river to the mountain wall. When they approached the grotto, they saw a lot of people gathered near the 16th cave in the east.
Among these people were many powerful men, painters with paints in their hands, and craftsmen with carpenter's rulers on their backs. The leader was a middle-aged Taoist with a slight hunchback.
If you look carefully, you will see that this middle-aged Taoist has a very typical northwest complexion, with a pale, rough and dry complexion. He has an oval face with wide cheeks and a plump forehead. His slightly flat facial features are spread out on a face with slightly protruding cheekbones. He is not tall. , with a slightly hunched back, wearing a blue-gray robe that reaches to his ankles, and old cloth shoes with straw soles on his feet.
I don’t know how many years this robe has been worn. It has been washed and faded. There are already traces of threads around the cuffs, elbows, knees, legs and feet. Odd-colored patches appear on the body from time to time, and there are also patches around the round hat. His gray hair made the Taoist priest look very haggard and anxious, and his whole person looked gray, as if contaminated by a layer of wind and sand.
This man was standing near Cave 16, gesturing back and forth to the nearby craftsmen. Under their feet, they could see a deep pit for the foundation that had been dug.
There is no doubt that this person must be Wang Yuanlu, Taoist Wang.
Snapped!
Xu Xiake patted Taoist Wang on the shoulder. He turned around and saw that it was Xu Xiake. He looked up and down and scratched his ears: "Hey, what brought Brother Xu here? Didn't you say you can't stand traveling alone?" , are you going to find your close friends? Why are you coming back..."
Before the man finished speaking, when he saw five or six new faces behind Xu Xiake, he immediately understood what was going on: "Oh, so I brought them here."
"Taoist Wang, you are fine."
Xu Xiake made a Taoist gesture, and the Taoist also cupped his hand: "Don't be so pretentious, it's only been less than half a year since you left."
After that, he signaled the craftsmen around him to start working, and took Xu Xiake and the others to the eaves of the cave near the Great Buddha Hall in the middle section. A temporary shelter was erected outside the eaves of the cave, where kettles, stoves, firewood, etc. were placed. Some sundries, it is estimated that this is Taoist Wang's temporary residence.
Opening the shelter and walking into the gatehouse, they walked into the grotto. This grotto has three horizontal chambers, a large one in the middle and small ones on both sides. There are circular arcades connecting the three grottoes. There are few murals, colorful sculptures, Buddha statues, and shrines in the grotto, like the latest The dug caves have yellowish brown stone walls exposed everywhere.
The middle grotto was dug into part of the grotto by Taoist Wang towards the east, and Taoist portraits of the Three Qing Dynasties were placed there. There was also a tea seat shaped like a couch under it. The grotto on the left was where Taoist Wang slept. On the right, there were many rough bookshelves, If you look closely at the desk and meditation mat, you can see many new scriptures that are obviously aged with soy sauce. They are probably used by him as a homework room and study room.
Everyone was sitting in the grotto, and Taoist Wang brought in a clay pot: "Come, come, come, it's bitterly cold in the northwest, and there's no good tea. I usually drink water boiled with raisins and angustifolia seeds. You may not be used to it, but the taste is really good." not bad."
"Taoist Wang, how are you raising the money for the Taiqing Palace? I think it's already been built. You must have raised all the money."
Xu Xiake drank the sweet and sour Elaeagnus jujuba water, recalling the craftsmen and laborers just now, and thought that what they wanted to build was probably the Taiqing Palace mentioned by Taoist Wang.
These words made Taoist Wang put down the teapot and wiped the sweat on his face: "It's not that easy. I finally saved a hundred yuan, so I quickly had people build the foundation and the first floor of the temple house. , if we build further, we will have no money, so I have to continue to save money.”
"Then you can just sell a few more volumes of scriptures." Xu Xiake teased.
These words seemed to bring up Taoist Wang's sad story: "Don't mention it, those foreigners are not good people, and I don't know what's going on. In the past few years, foreign devils have been coming to my place to buy scriptures. I said I won't sell them." I'm still angry, how can I, a lonely and helpless old Taoist priest, offend them."
"Later."
Taoist Wang walked to the left grotto and took out a scroll. Everyone looked at it carefully. It was the scroll that had been stained with soy sauce and said: "I just thought of an idea. I will take the empty scripture scroll and copy some scriptures myself, and then Use soy sauce to make it distressed, put some sand on it, etc., and it really looks like those scrolls in the grottoes. Anyway, these people can't understand our handwriting, and they can't find out that I deliberately made it distressed."
"That's it. I raised a lot of money by selling fake scriptures to foreigners, so that I can lay the foundation for the Taiqing Palace first. From now on, I will continue selling scriptures."
"Master Wang, why don't you ask the Political Yuan? These things are national treasures. You ask the Political Yuan to allocate funds and send people to protect the treasures. How much money can a lonely Taoist priest do without his efforts?"
Taoist Wang waved his hands with a look of disgust: "You think I haven't looked for it? A few years ago, I went to the commissioner of Dunhuang City and told them about the situation of Thousand Buddhas Cave. They also assured me again and again that they would ask the province to help them." I allocated money to allocate people to protect national treasures, and I allocated about two thousand silver dollars. I had to share the spoils while eating cards along the way. How much do you think I will save if I get it?"
"At least a thousand oceans."
It's not that Song Siyuan has never been exposed to officialdom. This trend in the Political Yuan of the Republic of China has been around for a long time. However, no matter how hard it is intercepted at all levels, at least a thousand oceans must be retained.
"hehe!"
Taoist Wang held out four fingers: "From the province to the prefecture and then to the county, I only have forty oceans left in my hands. For this reason, these people also sent many commissioners to guide the work, provide accommodation, and provide food and drinks." All the supplies have been put in, and I still need to pour money into it.”
"ah!"
Everyone was stunned. They didn't expect that the Northwest Political Yuan had become so dark. They were almost wiped out.
Taoist Wang was quite helpless when he mentioned this. He sat back on the tea seat and curled up his legs: "Later, I finally learned my lesson. These officials are already incompetent without asking me for money. How can I dare to ask them for money?" Huh? If you ask the tiger for money, isn't that just pulling out its teeth? Why don't I copy more scriptures and sell them?"
Yue Guanchao looked at Taoist Wang. In order to build the Taiqing Palace, this was probably all he could do. When he couldn't raise funds, there was nothing wrong with using this method. He continued to ask: "Then you have to sell it more expensively." , you are a pourer of soy sauce and vinegar, how much does a volume of scripture cost?"
"It's a big ocean, what's wrong?"
As soon as these words came out, everyone took a breath.
"Do you think I sold it too expensively?"
Taoist Wang's eyes became suspicious. A piece of ocean was not a big deal to foreigners, but to the local people, it was half a month's wages.
Song Siyuan thought for a moment and shook her head: "It's not that it's too expensive, but it's too cheap."
She was just curious as to why there were more foreigners in the northwest. Looking at it now, most of the foreigners who came to the northwest came because of Steinhein's inspection report!
Their purpose is to, like Steinhein, inspect certain ancient tombs or ruins in the northwest, and then return to the west with the scrolls, so that they can become successful in the west, and even make a lot of money.
Not just in the northwest, these foreigners like to go to uninhabited secret places in order to obtain investigation reports. You can see these foreign explorers in snowy plateaus, Manchurian and Mongolian grasslands, and even the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia.
For them, the Western world has been almost explored. If they want to explore more secret places, they can only turn their attention to East Africa, South America, and East Asia.
Many Westerners regard "Marco Polo's Travels" as a treasure-hunting bible. Since the Middle Ages, the East has been an extremely mysterious foreign land for them. The land is full of gold and silver, and it is worth traveling thousands of miles across the ocean to explore. This This kind of fanaticism towards the East has reached the point of obsession. It is understandable that they form a group to come to the northwest.
Since Westerners come to hunt for gold, they definitely don’t want to return without success. They definitely want to take something back from the West, so that they can take advantage of cultural differences and sell it for a lot of money.
