During the Western Han Dynasty, the Silk Road went north out of Dun and Huang, and traveled west along the Shu and Le rivers to bypass the Sanyuan Sand. n∈ top n∈ point n∈ small n ∈ said,

A little farther away on the north side of the broad dry bed of the Shuhe and Le rivers, stands the barren Kuruktag, the mountains gray and black; On the southern shore is the golden sand mountains, rolling and undulating, and the vast expanse is the Kumtag Desert.

On the southern half of the riverbed, patches of reeds, lush and verdant, higher than a human head, clumps of red willows, red and green.

Such blue sky, yellow sand, green grass, and red flowers constitute a rare beauty in nature in the depths of the desert.

The harsh environment is uninhabited and difficult for predators to survive, making it a haven for some herbivores.

There are often wild people, yellow sheep and wild camels in the sandy land.

The wild camel resembles a domestic camel, thin and athletic, and it is said that when attacked by wolves, they often lead them to the depths of the desert, causing them to die of hunger and thirst.

"Finally got a little green." Seeing the grass in the distance, Wei Changqing breathed a sigh of relief.

Qian Mingyuan said: "Don't be careless, the environment here is not good, at least the water source is a problem." ”

After speaking, Qian Mingyuan looked at Han Peacock, he knew that Han Peacock had the magic power of water control, so he wanted to see if Han Peacock had any expression, if he could really find a water source here, it would be a great merit.

Han Peacock really didn't think as much as Qian Mingyuan, he said directly: "If there is a water source here, it will definitely be able to restore vitality." ”

Qianmingyuan said: "Water is the source of life, it turns out that there is water here, there is a monument in the west of Sanyuansha, the tablet is written that Bayi Spring, also called Duhu Spring, from the name can be known, its age is very old. Now there is not a drop of water left. ”

"So, there used to be water here?" Huangshan Road.

Qianming said: "Of course, from here to the west is the sweet water well, the local people call Yangtak Kuk, this generation of the land is called Kumu Kuduk (the meaning of sand springs), the famous explorer Pengamu." He searched for a sand spring with water in Kumkuduk, but died when he couldn't find it.

Now on the side of the sweet water well, there is a square ruin, which is empty, there is a rare freshwater spring in the desert, which has become a haunt for wild camels, and at dusk, wild camels often come here to drink.

The water from the sweet well flows slowly out of a deep trench in the soil, and the amount of water is very small. It flows into a small puddle, which is grayish-white, and it can be seen that although it is fresh water, it also contains salt and alkali. ”

"So, you can still find water here?" Han Peacock said thoughtfully.

"Yes, there is still water in some places here, after all, there are still a few rivers running through here, just like the Shule River we passed just now. Although the Shule River has dried up here, it is under the dry riverbed. It's still a bit watery. "Qianming is far away.

"Let's go! Let's go see those places where there is water. "Han Peacock is really interested in the water source here.

He knows that there are various explanations for the disappearance of the water source here, Luo and Bu Nur are located in Ruoqiang, the northeast of the county border, which was once the second largest inland lake in China, with an altitude of 780 meters and an area of about 2,400-3,000 square kilometers.

Guluo and Bunur were born at the end of the Tertiary and early Quaternary periods, 2 million years ago, with an area of more than 20,000 square kilometers.

Now Luo and Bu Nur are the lowest and largest depressions in the north, which used to be the water center of the Tarim Basin, which originated in the basins of the Tianshan, Kunlun and Altun Mountains in ancient times, and flowed into the Luobu Depression to form lakes.

Luo and Bu Nur have had many names, some are named because of their characteristics, such as Aoze, Yanze, Dry Sea, etc., and some are named because of their location, such as Puchang Sea, Gaolan Sea, Peacock Sea, etc.

After the Yuan Dynasty, it was called Luo Bu Naoer, "Luo Bu" is the place name, the ancient Uygur language means the place where water gathers, and "Naoer" is Mongolian, which means lake, and the general language of the two means the lake of gathering water.

In the Han Dynasty, Luo and Bu Nur were "vast for 300 li, and their water pavilions dwell, and they did not increase or decrease in winter and summer", and its abundance made people guess that it "sneaked underground, and the south also accumulated stones for the Chinese River", which mistakenly believed that Luo and Bu Nur were the upper source of the Yellow River, and spread for more than 2,000 years from the pre-Qin to the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In the 4th century A.D., the kingdom of Loulan in the west of Luo and Bu Nur that used to be "the water is deep and the water must be flooded" reached a difficult situation to restrict the use of water by decree, and from this time on, until the last few decades, the entire Luo and Bu Nur disappeared.

Although Luo and Bunur disappeared. But people never thought that the water here had really disappeared, and the biggest possibility was to sneak underground, so now. There are still many people who study the reasons for the disappearance of water here in Luo and Bunur.

Of course, this is a very profitable thing, because whoever knows the mystery of the disappearance of the water source here can achieve fame, and if the water source here can be reborn, then the benefit will be great.

And Han Peacock is also very interested in this, and for finding water, Han Peacock has a great advantage.

The reason why Han Peacock is full of confidence is that no one has ever thought that the water here has really disappeared, and the biggest possibility is the mystery of wandering.

The first Chinese and foreign scientists to visit Singapore and Xinjiang once debated the exact location of Luo and Bu Nur endlessly, but in the end the problem was not resolved, but it led to the more heated debate "Luo and Bu Nur wandering theory".

This is said by the Swedish explorer Sven. Hedin proposed that he believed that the north and south lakes of Luo and Bu Nu were deposited in the north and south of the lake area, because the water entering the lake carried a large amount of sediment, and after sedimentation, the original lake water naturally flowed to another lower place, and after many years, the raised lake bottom would be lowered again due to wind erosion, and the lake water would flow back again, and this cycle was 1500 years.

Polite. Although Hedin's doctrine has been universally recognized by the world, there are not a few opponents who question it.

In recent years, Chinese scientists have also questioned and denied the theory of Lop Nur migration based on the results of scientific expeditions to Lop Nur and Lop Nur.

However, the controversy over this issue has made people feel even more confused about the ghostly lakes of Luo and Bu Nur.

But no matter how confusing it is, as long as he arrives here, Han Peacock is sure to uncover this mystery, so when he heard Qian Mingyuan say that there is still a place with a water source here, Han Peacock naturally wants to go over and have a look.

At noon, about 100 miles from Sanyuansha, Han Peacock and the others saw a black rolling hill.

When I walked through a hill, I found that there were hundreds of pits one by one, of which the deep ones were tens of meters, the shallow ones were three or four meters, and many of them were abandoned pits.

Here Han Peacock and they met four or five people, all of them were dressed in clothes and smelly.

After inquiry, Han Peacock and the others learned that these people were gold diggers from the mainland, and they were all unclothed and living in great poverty.

It was learned that they had been in the area for a whole year in order to obtain gold.

Merchants hired them to pan for gold, and the gold was divided with the merchants, and the merchants were responsible for obtaining mining licenses, but there was no formal contract between them.

According to them, there were about twenty or thirty such gold digging teams in the Luo and Bunur wastelands, adding up to about 100 gold diggers, scattered on various hills, and they were Gan, Su, Xin, and Xinjiang.

Because there is nothing in Luo and Bu Nur places, it is completely necessary to bring things in Dun and Huang regularly to survive.

Now the road is easier to walk, and it only takes a day to get from here to the small town with people, so they all buy some dry food regularly and live an ascetic life.

Han Peacock saw four or five hundred small mine pits on one hill, and it is conceivable that there are definitely thousands of mines that have been excavated in Luo and Bunur!

The place where the pit has been dug has been devoid of grass, which is very damaging to the environment!

In the past, when he was in the uninhabited area of northern Tibet, Han Peacock also saw some gold diggers, and they also lived a very hard life, but compared to these gold diggers here, they were much happier.

But these people are also treasure hunters, and if they can find a large piece of dog's head gold, the bitterness they eat here will be all worth the ticket price.

Of course, treasure hunters like them can't be compared with Han Peacocks, not to mention Han Peacocks, as long as they are businessmen with a little money, they don't need to work so hard when they come here to mine.

And in this vast desert wasteland, Han Peacock doesn't think that there are only these petty gold miners, as far as he knows, there are people who have established a lot of mining farms here.

There are many businessmen who choose to establish gold mines in the hinterland of Luo and Bunu, these gold mines are not large, and the large ones are only three or five square kilometers, but they are such mining areas, and they can easily detect about ten tons of gold reserves.

According to the analysis of the geological department, the current proven reserves of such mining areas only account for about 10% of the total, which means that there are more gold reserves in the future.

However, there is a shortage of water and electricity in the hinterland of Luo and Bunu, so in order to mine, beneficiate and smelt, it is necessary to build power plants, water plants and other supporting facilities on their own.

Therefore, without hundreds of millions of funds, it is impossible to open a mine here, but as long as you do it, the benefits are also very considerable, but this qiē benefit is based on finding a water source.

Han Peacock knows that there are several gold mines with an annual output of more than 600 kilograms, but these mines have found water sources, and they have dug up water sources on this Gobi Desert, otherwise, even if they really find rich ore, it will be difficult for them to mine.

Of course, you can also transport gold ore out and smelt gold ore, but in Lop Nur, each ton of gold ore ore can only reduce 3 grams of gold, if you transport ore, not to mention whether the road is good or not, just freight, it will consume that bit of profit.

Also, once you enter the wasteland, finding the right direction in the Gobi is as difficult as trying to drink a sip of water without sand in a sandstorm, so long-distance transportation is not just a simple matter of freight, it may even be fatal. (To be continued......)