For example, the embroidered cheongsam that flowed into Western society from the East can be sold for about three hundred pounds, and the more exquisite ice-cracked porcelain can even cost up to one thousand pounds. Not to mention such porcelain, jewelry, and silk, these scriptures alone are worth It's worth my money.
Since Steinhein's investigation report on the ancient Shanshan Kingdom was published in the journal Natural Geography, the relics of the mysterious dynasty in the far East have become very popular in Western society. He brought back two carts of scriptures and, with the blessing of culture to build momentum, sold them for a reasonable price. good.
An ordinary scripture like the one picked up by Taoist Wang sells for about a thousand pounds a volume in the international literary and art market. This thousand pounds is about the income of an ordinary worker for five or six years, and it is not something that ordinary people can afford.
If converted, one thousand pounds is roughly equal to five thousand U.S. dollars. At the same time, one U.S. dollar can be exchanged for five oceans. Then five thousand U.S. dollars is approximately equal to twenty-five thousand oceans. This means that just a single volume of scripture can be sold in the West. Twenty thousand oceans.
According to Wang Taoist's selling price, he would have to sell 25,000 volumes of scriptures to be able to match the selling price they sold in the West. This is a profit of tens of thousands of times every time. It is no wonder that these Westerners are interested in So obsessed with buying these scrolls.
Seeing that Taoist Wang knew nothing about it, Song Siyuan decided to tell him the truth: "Taoist Wang, do you know how much these real scriptures cost in the West?"
"No more than a hundred oceans."
Taoist Wang knew nothing about the value of these scriptures.
Song Siyuan nodded towards him and said tentatively: "An ordinary authentic scroll of scriptures, converted into our money, is probably equivalent to 25,000 oceans, or 13,000 taels of silver."
"hiss!"
This time, it was Taoist Wang's turn to take a breath of air.
Taoist Wang probably had never seen so much money before, and his hands were shaking when he was drinking tea: "The Taiqing Palace of mine can only be built for a maximum of two thousand oceans. If I sell this volume of scriptures, I can build ten palaces." After the Qing Dynasty, how much money will it cost if Stan Hein takes away two carts of scriptures?"
"Crime, sin, I actually let the foreign devils take away so many precious scriptures."
In the past, Taoist Wang did not know the exact price of authentic scriptures. Now he understood how precious these scriptures were in the West, and he immediately regretted it: "It's all my fault. If I hadn't been bewitched by Steinhein at that time, I wouldn't have bought it." It would make such a precious document leak out, and it would be useless for me, an old Taoist priest, to say it out loud."
Song Siyuan comforted: "Master Wang, I'm not saying this to make you regret or feel guilty. It was Stan Hein who lied to you and said you wanted to fund Thousand Buddha Cave, so you sold him so many scriptures at a low price. In fact, your starting point was not yourself. The purpose of seeking profit was just to rebuild the Thousand Buddha Cave, which was completely a well-intentioned act. Now that things have happened, there is no point in saying that I regret it."
She paused and reminded: "Since you already know the value of these authentic scriptures, you must not sell the authentic ones. These scriptures are national treasures. If they are taken away wantonly, you will regret it in the end." It’s still us.”
Regarding this, Taoist Wang seemed a little confused and looked at her: "Since you know so much, you must be a capable person. Can you help me sell a volume of authentic works so that I can build the Taiqing Palace and even The remaining money is enough to repair Thousand Buddha Cave again, and I can’t take care of that much anymore.”
After listening to what this Taoist said, Song Siyuan guessed that Taoist Wang really had no choice but to rely on him to draw fake scriptures in exchange for money. When would the Taiqing Palace be built? It was understandable that the old Taoist priest wanted to draw real scriptures. .
Yue Guanchao and Song Siyuan looked at each other, and his eyes became serious: "If we promise to fund you, help you build the Taiqing Palace, and repair the Mogao Grottoes, can you promise not to use these authentic works?"
Taoist Wang nodded: "The Thousand Buddha Cave is in the northwest. It has been destroyed by wind and sand all year round. The murals in some caves have fallen off. Almost all the money I have raised over the years has been used to repair the Thousand Buddha Cave. Otherwise, it would not have lasted so long. I can’t afford to build a Taoist temple. I don’t ask for anything else, an old Taoist priest. I only have this wish.”
"only!"
His eyes were slightly suspicious, probably because he was afraid that Steinhein's incident would happen again. In the end, he lost everything: "Can you really guarantee that I will fund the Taiqing Palace? We are not relatives, so why should you help me."
It turned out that he was worried about this. Yue Guanchao said: "Don't worry about this. We can do it as we say. We can still afford the money. As long as you promise to protect these scriptures and documents, we can do what you said. I’ll help you build the Taiqing Palace.”
"It's just that you have to do us a favor!"
Song Siyuan interjected.
"What's the deal?"
She said slowly: "Help us find a reliable local and take us into the desert!"
Taoist Wang nodded: "There are many local people who are familiar with the desert, but you also know the local people's attitude towards the desert. They will definitely ask you what you are doing in the desert. Are you going to explore or find something?"
Taoist Wang has become a lot smarter in these years of dealing with foreign devils who have their own evil intentions. When faced with these people's requests to enter the desert, he always has to ask questions clearly.
Yue Guanchao felt that they couldn't hide it from Taoist Wang, so he simply went straight to the point and made it clear: "Taoist Wang, do you know the ancient Shanshan Kingdom and Queen Shanshan? We want to visit Sha'er City where Stein Hein has been."
The old Taoist priest shook his head: "The old Taoist priest has never heard of what is wrong with Sha'er City. However, the ancient Shanshan Dynasty and Queen Shanshan you mentioned, the old Taoist priest, I have been here for more than ten years, and I can still learn from it. I heard a few words from the locals, and they are all scary legends in the desert, which may not be true.”
When Song Siyuan saw that Taoist Wang had also heard about this, she became even more sure that Stan Hein had concealed some truth about Sal City. She nodded to him and said, "We know it's a scary legend. We went to the desert this time to see what Stan Hein was like." Is what Hein said about the ancient Shanshan Dynasty true? I’m afraid he made up the ruins of an ancient city in order to gain fame and fame.”
"That's it. Then come with me. I'll take you to a place first."
Although everyone was puzzled, they still trusted Taoist Wang. After leaving the grotto, they followed Taoist Wang to the North Cliff near Cave 16, where the foundation of Taiqing Palace is located. Then, he led everyone to continue walking up the stairs. , he probably stopped when he walked to the top cave, which was dozens of meters above the ground.
He lifted up the straw mat next to the grotto and motioned for everyone to follow him in. Yue Guanchao looked inside. It was full of faded sutra paintings and Buddhist niches. The small space was square and regular, with a round stone pillar in the middle, and the hands and feet of the Buddha statue inside. There are many defects on the head. The murals on the surrounding walls are exquisite and rich, but a few corners are still missing. It is probably because the parts were destroyed and have not been maintained for hundreds of years.
Taoist Wang led them to the innermost stone wall. The Buddhist murals on this stone wall had been damaged, and a low gap similar to a doorway was formed in the middle. It might have been repaired, and the area around the gap was all yellow. The broken rocks bonded with mud are like a broken doorway, bonded in the center of the mural. In the exquisite mural, it is like there is an ugly scar.
The old Taoist priest picked up the iron pestle and kept beating the stone wall. When the yellow mud solidified, it was not strong. As he hit the stone, the mud shell continued to fall off, and the stone became loose. He saw that the mud wall was loose. , stop beating on the stone wall, remove all the built stones, and restore the gaps in the stone wall.
Taoist Wang fanned the turbid air a few times, coughed a few times and said: "Thousand Buddha Cave has many abandoned and collapsed caves. I guess it is related to the extermination of Buddhism in history. Although the extermination of Buddhism was raging inside the pass, it still had consequences outside the pass. As a result, in order to protect these caves, the local people sealed them up in the name of destroying the Buddha. No one has opened them for hundreds of years, let alone what is inside."
He paused and then continued in a mysterious tone: "I didn't know there was a hidden grotto here at first. Back then, I wanted to build the Taiqing Palace here and asked the craftsman to clean the cave on the north side. I discovered it during the cleaning. There is a mezzanine in the wall, and that’s when I discovered this cave within a cave.”
"The murals in this grotto seem to be some historical stories from the early years of the Tang Dynasty. You can go and take a look. I think they are related to the ancient Shanshan Kingdom."
Mentioning this, Taoist Wang was of great help to everyone. The two men, Yue and Song, cheered up and led everyone through the damaged grotto into the cave within the cave.
Since the opening in the wall was very small, there was not enough light in the cave. After they turned on the flashlight, the dark and chaotic cave was gradually illuminated, and the true face appeared immediately.
Complete murals are painted on all four sides of the entire grotto. Due to the isolation of air and dust, the grotto murals here are not oxidized much. In addition, they have not been damaged, so they are much more complete than those in the outer chamber.
Song Siyuan picked up the flashlight and carefully observed the surrounding murals, and finally saw some truth. His eyes lit up and he said: "The owner of these murals is Ashina Sher, the marching general of Kunqiu Road. When he was in the Western Regions, he ordered the local people to A diagram of meritorious service drawn by a painter."
The "Xu Gong Tu" is actually a mural image drawn by a craftsman after a general or noble in the northwest did something important that was beneficial to the court and the local area. It is more like a modern group photo.
Li Tang's marching team can be clearly seen in all the murals. If you carefully identify the text, you can also see that the content of these murals is "The Great Destruction of the Western Regions".
These murals were produced during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. They use extremely bold colors. You can see the outlines and outlines of bright paints. They depict deserts, Gobis, wastelands, vast seas and blue skies, as well as government troops flying Tang flags, as well as strange things from foreign lands. monster.
Generally speaking, these murals tell about the strange things and monsters he encountered when he attacked the countries in the Western Regions. Among them, they mentioned the story of the disappearance of the queen of the Shanshan Dynasty.
In the mural, Queen Shanshan holds a jade pendant in the shape of a fish in her hand, causing the royal city to completely disappear in front of everyone. The original royal city seemed to have evaporated, leaving only a barren desert. The soldiers of the Tang Dynasty searched there for a long time, but nothing was found. Traces of buildings and living things.
This incident was also regarded as a strange phenomenon by the marching general at the time. He bluntly said that Queen Shanshan was a seducing fairy in the desert. She was afraid of the national power of the Tang Dynasty, so she disappeared with her ghost town out of fear.
Song Siyuan looked at these dust-covered murals after nearly 1,500 years. When these stories were completely recorded in the Tang Dynasty's murals about meritorious service, it was enough to show that the story of Queen Shanshan really happened, but... There were some deviations when being told by later generations, which were somewhat different from what they learned.
According to the records of the Xuan Shu Iron Coupon, the Tang Dynasty imperial army never reached the royal city at all. Before they arrived at the royal city, the Shanshan royal city had already disappeared together with the queen.
In this mural, the Tang Dynasty army was clearly approaching the royal city and even started to attack the city. At this time, Queen Shanshan took out the fish pendant and made a city disappear from their eyes. No matter how they looked for it after that, No trace of half of the city could be found from the original place.
He was confused by the inconsistent statements and decided to use the murals of the Tang Dynasty as the source of evidence. After all, this painting was hundreds of years earlier than the mysterious book iron coupons of the Song Dynasty. It was even possible that the recorded events had already happened at that time. The strange situation has to be believed.
In order to find more details, she continued to observe the fine details of the murals. The closer the war scene, the more strange she could detect.
In the mural, the attendants of Queen Shanshan summoned many bats that were larger than the face. These bats lay directly on the heads of Tang Jun, causing the attacked Tang Jun to die strangely. The appearance of this attack and the state of the bats, immediately The child reminded her of some kind of monster that Xu Xiake said, the black bag.
