Secret Orchid City is named Secret Orchid because this commercial town is close to Secret Orchid Zee.
What is Secret Lanze?
Back then, when the Tarim River and the Kongque River met, there were many oases, cities, and swamps near the river. Oases were fertile soil moistened by the river water. Cities were built on oasis, and swamps were actually water storage lakes near the oasis.
In ancient times, the Tarim River had abundant water. Melted water from the snowy mountains of the Tianshan Mountains continuously poured into the river, and the river water was also sent to more tributaries in the desert. When it flowed through depressions, lakes and swamps were formed near the depressions. These water-storing depressions If it is small, it is like a pond, if it is medium, it is like a lake. If it is larger, it will be no different from the ocean.
Milanze is the largest lake near the Kongque River and the Tarim River. It covers an area of hundreds of thousands of hectares and is shaped like a vast ocean. It is full of water and grass, flowers and birds, and endless moisture.
In this big swamp, there are many oases above the water. These oases are surrounded by water in the big swamp. They are like islands in the sea. They are scattered across the swamp. There are tens of thousands of them. The largest island is Secret Orchid City is located, and it is also the only town built in Daze among the five major commercial towns.
At that time, there were two main routes for Silk Road caravans to trade in and out of the Central Plains. One was through Mobei, along Qiuci, Gaochang, Gumo, and Shule near the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, to Shanshan Shang Town near the Kongque River. Because of its proximity to the Kongque River, Milanze became a must-pass route for Hu merchants on the Silk Road. Over time, it became a busy trading place on the southern Silk Road. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is an important passage into and out of Central Asia.
The other one is through Monan, along the northern foot of Kunlun Mountain, passing through Yarkand, Pishan, Khotan, Shule, Qiemo, Ruoqiang and Loulan, directly approaching the city of Dunhuang in Han Dynasty.
The two routes pass through different towns. The only similarity is that in order to avoid danger when traveling, the merchants always follow the oasis towns near the mountains and rivers, and never enter the hinterland of the desert. What they are afraid of is the people in the hinterland of the desert. The great desert "Devil's Dead Sea" refers here to the Taklimakan Desert. In the minds of Westerners, this desert represents death and the devil.
In order to avoid crossing into the "Devil's Sea of Death", Hu merchant travelers often go around the Desert of Death and rest in Secret Orchid City at the end of the desert.
In this city there are Hu nobles and common people from the Western Regions, Hu merchants, merchants and travelers from the Han region, as well as Rouran people, Xianbei people, Huns from the north, and Xiqiang Tibetans near the Kunlun Mountains. People also trade and live in this city. In addition, the Han people once stationed troops here, and Western Buddhism also preached here, making this a trading town and a Buddhist capital with a mixture of Hu and Han.
Later, as the flow of the Tarim River decreased and the Kongque River changed its course, Milan Ze at the end of the Devil's Dead Sea gradually dried up. Instead, Lop Nur near Loulan became the changed Daze.
Many towns in the Western Regions rely on river oases to exist. Since the drying up of Miranze did not happen overnight, but gradually reduced the amount of water over a long period of time, the only water amount became stagnant salty rivers without being able to be replenished. , when these stagnant salty rivers are evaporated, salt-alkali flats will form on the lake basin.
These saline-alkali tidal flats will continue to dry up as the amount of water decreases, and new saline-alkali tidal flats will be produced at the same time. After the old and new tidal flats are separated, a thick saline-alkali hard soil will be formed on the outer layer, which is also called a salt crust.
Such changes in the lake basin over thousands of years have made it possible to clearly see lines like the outline of ears on the original huge lake basin in Osawa. These lines are shaped like tree rings, and the circles shrink inward layer by layer. It was as if a huge ear appeared out of thin air in the desert.
The circles of ear patterns are actually the outlines of the lake basins of Miranze in different periods, and they are also the salt crusts formed by the hardening of salt-alkali flats in different periods. From these growth ring-like traces, one can almost deduce how Miranze evolved. Step dry.
On the basis of the continuous drying up of Milanze, those oasis islands with lush vegetation due to Milanze also began to experience desertification, forming bare barren hills with no vegetation. The final outcome of Milan City was due to the drying up of the oases. It became increasingly deserted, and when more and more people moved away, Secret Orchid City became an abandoned city.
Song Siyuan's eyes lit up when she heard what Keli said about the past in Secret Orchid City. She took out the inspection photos published by Steinhein and handed them to Keli.
He looked carefully at the details in the photos. In the group photos of the expedition team, he could clearly see the barren hills, salt flats, and salt crusts scattered among the lines of the ear. When he saw the last person, Jean-Claude was stunned. Li's pupils widened instantly. Judging from the look in his eyes, he probably met someone familiar to him.
It’s self-evident who this person is!
"Is this man Uncle Gunizi?"
When Song Siyuan read these inspection reports in the past, she mostly focused on the content of the report and Stein Hein. As for Stein Hein's team members, they really didn't pay attention to them. After learning about the story of the Keli brothers and sisters, they looked at this group photo and finally The identity of the faces in the Western Regions becomes clear.
Keli rubbed the Western Region face at the end of the team and nodded with moving eyes.
Song Siyuan observed carefully that even though only half of the body of this member of the Western Region team was exposed, he could still see his face clearly. Westerners and Westerners looked similar, but there were some differences in minor details, such as their eyes. Because of their beauty, their skin color is darker than that of white people.
Based on Keli's appearance, they could basically tell that it was Gunizi.
Song Siyuan took back the photo: "Looking at the background of this photo, they have found Sal City and took a group photo in Sal City. This shows that at least before entering Sal City, Uncle Gunizi stayed with them. , and then disappeared. This photo basically clarifies that Uncle Guniz increased the price halfway. Something must have happened in Sal City to make Uncle Guniz disappear."
"Keli, you have told us the history of Sal City. What is the reason for the terror in Sal City?"
Yue Guanchao still remembered that Keli had said that Sal City was terrifying and urged him to continue.
Keli nodded and continued: "Shal City is located on the edge of the Tucker Desert. The overall shape is like an ear that is constantly shrinking in outline, forming layers of circles. The ruins of the ancient city are located on the largest sand dune in the center of the ear. Shar City is also It is precisely because of this ear that it is famous. If they want to enter Shaer City, they must pass through the quicksand swamp outside Shaer City, which is the most dangerous place in Shaer City!"
The so-called quicksand swamp is actually sand that flows like water. This can be seen everywhere in the desert, but the quicksand in Sal City is strange.
This sand is not dry, but is like mud, wet and sticky, and looks like a sticky gravel paste. In the endless flow process, the sand wraps around everything like a river, undulating turbulently, and you want to cross the quicksand. Quite time consuming.
Back then, Keli followed Abba Gunizi to every corner of the desert. It was these experiences that allowed him to draw a map of the sand sea in front of him. At that time, they had already been near the quicksand, but they could not find the way to enter the quicksand. There was no way to get close to the ancient city.
