Yue Guanchao nodded: "It's possible that Uncle Gunizi's bloody fingerprints were left on his back on purpose, and in order to avoid Stan Hein and the others finding out, he left them in the dark on his back. Maybe there's something really wrong with the mural."
Realizing this, Song Siyuan and everyone else turned on their flashlights and carefully studied the many murals hidden in the dark. The style of these murals was very similar to the murals in Thousand Buddha Cave. They were rich in color, majestic and thick, and had been painted several times over the course of thousands of years. Oxidation and fading have created a sense of historical depth.
Observing carefully from beginning to end, Song Siyuan saw the murals in the left and right side halls from beginning to end. She already knew the contents of the murals in the two halls. Her eyes lit up and she said to everyone: "The contents of these murals were painted at the end of the ancient Shanshan civilization. The murals of the nobles of Milan City singing praises to Queen Shanshan are a kind of merit-describing pictures."
Yue Guanchao's eyes became curious: "Xu Gong? Could it be that she really called out an oasis out of thin air in the desert and formed a new Shanshan King City?"
"That's right. Let me first give you a general introduction to the content of the mural..."
Rumor has it that at the end of the Shanshan civilization, the oases in the Shanshan region continued to degrade, and the deterioration of the environment also brought about the decline of towns. Most of the cities and villages in Shanshan have been degraded into deserts due to the erosion of the desert. These living homes in Shanshan do not exist. Good people, if they want to survive, there are only two ways left. One is to find a prosperous oasis again, and the other is to move to the town of Shanshan that has not yet been transformed into sand.
The former one is basically impossible. The desert is vast and vast. Even if it is based on national power and does not spend a lot of manpower and material resources, it is impossible to find a new oasis. Individuals or certain families, even if they have some connections, power and money, can It is also difficult to find another oasis.
Then, there is only the last way left, migrating to the towns that have not yet been transformed into sandy soil.
At that time, the only oases in Shanshan Kingdom were concentrated in the five cities of Loulan, Qiemo, Milan, Niya, and Ruoqiang. The people of Shanshan Kingdom had to migrate to the five large towns due to the degradation of the oases.
As mentioned before, the carrying capacity of the oasis is limited. There are already a large number of people living in the five cities. After more people move in, the carrying capacity of both the cities and the oasis has reached the upper limit. .
On this basis, more and more people began to compete with oases for land, which turned the few oases into towns and settlements. The use of oases caused sand to invade the borders of the oases, eventually turning most oases into deserts. , or even disappear completely.
From then on, the people of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom seemed to be trapped in a cursed circle. Their homes were invaded by sand and turned into deserts. They were forced to migrate to other oases. When the number of people in the oases increased, the development and use of the oases would intensify, eventually making the originally prosperous As the oases continue to become desertified, people will have no choice but to continue migrating with no end in sight, thus forming a vicious cycle.
Although these people are trying to survive, they are actually like abscesses and carbuncles on the oasis. They continue to destroy the oasis, allowing sand and soil to further invade the oasis, exacerbating the deterioration of the environment. This phenomenon is also the reason for the rapid decline of the ancient Shanshan civilization in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. one of the reasons.
With this as the background, commerce began to decline, trade began to shrink, and the people in the five major cities would not have a good life. Foreign people continued to pour into the cities, competing with the local people for livelihood opportunities and trades. In this way, The quality of life of both local people and foreigners has dropped rapidly. In fact, refugees have begun to appear inside and outside the city.
The Shanshan royal family has realized this. With a large number of people, little land, and scarce resources, the conflicts among the people will not be alleviated, but will only worsen as the situation worsens. They cannot survive in the declining oasis. Find more products and distribute them to the people.
To solve this problem, they can't even migrate. The only thing they can do is to find new fertile oases to alleviate the conflicts among the people of Shanshan Kingdom.
So, Queen Shanshan began to think about the future of Shanshan Kingdom!
At present, oases in the desert are mostly concentrated on the edges of the north and south sides of the desert. The north shore uses melted water from the Tianshan Mountains to alleviate drought, and the south shore uses melted water from the snowy mountains of the Kunlun Mountains to maintain oases. It can be said that the location of these oases basically surrounds the desert.
In this kind of terrain area, any oases on the edge have been occupied by nearby small countries. If the Shanshan Kingdom wants to attack other countries for the oasis, it will definitely leave a reason for the desert countries. If the countries are reminded of the principle of death, it is very likely to form The Alliance Company dealt with Shanshanguo.
Once the desert countries form an alliance, the ancient Shanshan country will have no last chance.
Without being able to seize the oases of other small countries by force, they can only turn their attention from the fertile desert edges to the desert hinterland, which symbolizes barrenness and death.
Even though there are all kinds of bad things in the hinterland of the desert, at least one thing can meet the requirements - that is, this is a truly unowned land, a place where even water veins cannot reach, and it is destined to have no livelihood. Coupled with the mysterious monsters, Even the most mature caravans have to go around the hinterland of the desert and refuse to go in and stay for a long time.
This place also entered the eyes of Queen Shanshan and became her destination to find a new oasis.
If they plan to do this, entering the hinterland of the desert is not an ordinary difficulty. They must first pass through the Devil's Desert and the Basin (that is, the Taklimakan Desert and the Tarim Basin) before reaching the hinterland. Whether they can find a new oasis in the hinterland is still unclear. It is certain, that is to say, this journey to the west is actually an unknown journey, and it is very likely that it is a journey towards death, like a moth flying into the flame.
Queen Shanshan understood that the degradation of oasis was unstoppable, and they had to find a new oasis. She began to recruit tens of thousands of young people in the country, and together with the guards she led, they traveled west across the desert and went to the depths of the desert to find oasis.
This journey is destined to be uneven, and many people are indulging in pleasure and unwilling to follow. Fortunately, Shanshan has no shortage of capable people with far-sighted vision. They are not willing to be chased by the sand to escape. In order to find an eternal oasis home, they can only carry a knife. Get on your horse and give it a try.
So Queen Gu Shanshan took her escort, young men, some people and their families, and set out from Milan City to the west. After experiencing many hardships along the way, she finally reached the depths of the desert and came to the desert. at the foot of Tag Mountain.
It is close to the Hotan River and the Keriya River. The mountain range is called the Hongbai Mountain, also called the Mazatag Mountain. It is an abandoned node on the ancient Silk Road and a desert sacred mountain in the eyes of desert countries.
This mountain can become a sacred mountain simply because it is the backbone of the desert. It is located in the south of the Taklimakan Desert and on the west bank of the lower reaches of the Hotan River. It lies across the desert from east to west. The mountain fractures are distributed in three sections, with a total length of about five Hundreds of miles.
The west side is located on the edge of the desert, deep into the extremely arid Sea of Death, completely surrounded by barren desert. The east side is deep into the hinterland of the desert and intercepted by the Hotan River. The end is close to the alluvial plain and connected to the dry tidal flat formed by the lower reaches of the Hotan River.
It can be said that it is the only natural mountain in the entire Taklimakan Desert, which is completely different from the tall sand dunes formed by the accumulation of sand.
These tall sand dunes are mostly sand mountains accumulated by wind and soil. Although the mountains are high, they have no internal support. As long as the wind direction changes, these sand dunes will continue to flow and form new sand mountains. In essence, they are just flowing sand.
The Hongbai Mountain is completely different. It is not a sand dune formed by the wind, but a real mountain. It has sand outside and rock formations inside. It is a bulge in the endless desert created by the desert after thousands of years of vicissitudes of change. Tall mountains.
Even if the wind blows again, it can only carve the mountain's texture, but cannot shake the inner rock formations. Relying on this advantage, Hongbai Mountain blocks most of the north wind that invades from the south. It is like a barrier, blocking most of the sand erosion for the oasis in the southwest. , slowing down the sandification trend in the southwest, naturally creating completely different desert landscapes in the north and south of the mountain.
This is the new oasis that Queen Shanshan is looking for. However, at that time, there were tall mountains in the Tag Mountain. Surrounded by desert seas, there was no vegetation at all. Only the drought-tolerant Populus euphratica appeared at the foot of the mountain. Because of this, the mountain appears in the original color of sand and soil, with red and white overlapping, and the mountain is earthy yellow. It is a completely lifeless mountain.
If there are still living things living on the edge of the desert, this desert hinterland containing the red and white sacred mountains is a real world of death. Animals cannot come and birds cannot come. Even if they do see birds and animals, it is probably because they accidentally entered the hinterland of the desert. Here they were killed and rotted, forming bones and carrion.
Queen Shanshan did not give up here. She took out her jade pendant and cast an altar at the foot of the Red and White Mountains. She performed rituals and recited mantras in the air of the altar. Seventy-seven forty-nine days later, water began to appear in the Hotan river in front of them that had dried up. Finally, Reroute in their place to form new river channels.
They settled here and built the Sand Sea King City at the end of Hongbai Mountain!
When Song Siyuan finished speaking, she came to the last mural. At the end of the mural, everyone saw the completed map of the Shahai King City!
This Shahai King City faces east and west, with the Red and White Mountains as its back. It was built at the foot of the mountain. The King City introduced the Hotan River into the city, and built a square and oval city. The shape of the city is close to a mandala flower. The mandala in the center is where the royal family lives. The outside world is divided into eight-petaled mandala flowers by lines. These areas are where common people and businessmen live. Towering Buddhist temples are built in the outer four corners, shaped like the four fixed points of the royal city, which fix the city walls and canals to protect the city.
Outside the royal city, there is an oasis that completely surrounds the eastern section of the Red and White Mountains. Nourished by the Hotan River oasis, the eastern section of the Red and White Mountains has become a lush world full of vegetation. There is no longer any barren place, and it is like a desert. An oasis paradise in the hinterland.
