Chapter Eighty-Nine: Maps
"The Fengqi wall was actually a place in myths and legends at the earliest, it was called the holy place of the ancient Loulan people, and according to legend, this holy place was a place of sacrificial ceremonies, and the reincarnation of the Loulan god was sealed in it, and it was called the most holy and noble place in the whole Lop Nur at that time. However, in the 3rd century B.C., the ancient kingdom of Loulan experienced an extremely dark period, when the ancient tribe of Loulan, which began in the Stone Age, suddenly infiltrated into the desert, and the sacred place 'Fengqi Wall', which took 50 years to build, suddenly disappeared from Lop Nur.
"Later, the Dayue clan re-emerged the Loulan Dynasty, and the new Loulan King heard that there was a lot of gold treasure accumulated in the walls of Fengqi, so he sent people to search for this holy land, but there was no harvest. Between 177 BC and 176 BC, the Xiongnu defeated the Da Yue clan, and Loulan was again under the jurisdiction of the Xiongnu, who inherited the Loulan tradition and continued to believe in this legend, searching for this holy land in Loulan and even in the 36 countries of the Western Regions. But during this period, a group of people suddenly appeared in Lop Nur, who claimed to be the Left-behind Ones, the descendants of the oldest Loulan people, and according to legend, they were the only people who knew the entrance to the holy place for a hundred years, and guarded it from anyone for generations. After the Xiongnu knew the existence of these people, a wide range of arrest and slashing, it took less than 15 years, these descendants of the ancient Loulan people were almost completely wiped out, and no one ever mentioned the Fengqi wall this place again, and soon after, the Loulan Dynasty sandwiched between the Han and the Xiongnu to play a duplicitous policy also perished overnight, disappeared from Lop Nur without a trace, and never rose again. ”
Professor Xue Jiao finished saying such a long sentence eagerly, raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat on his nose, and said, "And the place we are looking for now is this holy place that has disappeared. ”
Xiao swallowed his saliva after listening to it, compared it in his heart, and found that what Xue Jiao said was actually the same as what the miner said last time, although it sounded more academic, but it was more convincing, and he suddenly felt more comfortable. But he still pretended to be surprised and said, "Old Xue, no!" You brought so many people to Lop Nur in a hurry just to find such a legendary place?!
As he spoke, he reached out and picked up the map, Xue Jiao was in a hurry next to him, and said, "Be careful!" ”
When I held it in my hand, I found that this was a hand-drawn map drawn on an 8-carat large brown paper, and the area was only a piece of Xinjiang with the size of a chicken's tail, and the black line was clearly drawn in the northeast of Ruoqiang County, which resembled a big ear. There were five conspicuous red circle marks around the big ears, and the tadpole-like characters were annotated next to the marks, and Xiao Da Lip immediately recognized these words, which were the Guloulan script Lu Wen that he had only known before.
Xiao only glanced at his big lips, and immediately frowned. This hand-drawn map is very problematic, it delineates a wide area, but it is very rudimentary, with only 10 readable annotations of place names, mountains, rivers, and mineral resources, and there are no even the most basic longitude and latitude markings and scales.
"Elder Xue, is this what Sun Qijun sent you? What's all the mess on it? These red circles are the Fengqi walls you're looking for? Xiao said with a finger on the map.
Originally, there were not many things on the map, but later I used colored pencils to add various symbols to it, and sketched mountains, ancient roads, rivers, and ancient ruins.
Xue Jiao nodded and said, "That's right, these five red markers are where the Fengqi Wall may exist. When I first got the map, there was almost nothing on it, and the clearest thing was that the Peacock River flowed through and these Luwen markers, but after all of us explored and discussed during this time, we have tried our best to supplement the missing parts of this map, and the 252 different symbols in Luwen have been solved one by one corresponding to Latin, and now these two places have been translated. ”
Xue Jiao said and stretched out his hand and pointed to the two places marked with red marks on the map, Xiao Da Lip saw that one of the red marks corresponded to the ancient city of Loulan under the annotation of Lu Wen, and the other corresponded to Longcheng Yadan.
"Elder Xue, how long did it take you to translate these two places?" Xiao was stunned.
Xue Jiao pinched his eyebrows with his fingers and said, "It's very long, but this is the only way we can find it now, we divide the labor and find 2,000 Latin letter combinations and various consonant and vowel combinations in Luwen." Just like decoding, it's time-consuming and labor-intensive, but it's now worth the effort. ”
Xiao Da's lips almost popped out after hearing this, and Bai Bing, who was sitting next to him, saw him stunned, and sneered: "Okay, I've cleaned the wound, now you have to start stitches, you must endure the pain." ”
Xiao Da Yan quickly closed his mouth when he heard this, his head was raised from the ground suddenly, and when he saw that Bai Bing had already threaded the needle, he said in fright: "Beauty, you must rub it lightly, my belly can't stand the toss." ”
Bai Bing chuckled silently, rubbed his fingers on his stomach, and then skillfully began to stitch up the wound on his stomach. Xiao Da Lip gritted his teeth, the beads of sweat on his forehead popped out at once, and he tapped his forehead with his fist, and his lips had been bitten bloodless.
Xue Jiao saw that he was really in pain, so he sighed and said, "Forget it, you can get it first, and then talk about it when you come back." ”
After speaking, he was just about to get up, but Xiao Da lip grabbed his hand and said, "Old Xue, are you okay like this?" What do you think you're looking for in a place of myths and legends? Have you taken a fancy to the treasure within? I heard there's a god statue or something, do you want that? ”
Xue Jiao slapped his hand open and said angrily: "Cai, you fuck ball!" You think we are tomb robbers! Dig up the treasure and keep it for yourself?! Don't all have to be handed over to the state? ”
"Then why are you? I really can't figure it out. ”
Xue Jiao was stunned for a while, then sat back in his place, and he said word by word: "We came here to find the ruins of Loulan, the ancient country of Mystery that disappeared from the world, and the Fengqi Wall is the only entrance to this ancient country, so we are looking for it in a big way!" ”
Xiao said with a smile: "Old Xue, you are joking!" Why do you need to find Loulan? Sven Hedin discovered the ancient city of Loulan in 1900, which is something that everyone on the earth knows. Now the ancient city is there, what are you looking for here! ”
Xue Jiao sighed and said, "The history of the Loulan Kingdom is far beyond what can be uncovered by the ancient city of Loulan. Boy, what period did you know the Loulan people first existed? ”
"In the 3rd century B.C.?"
"No, the Loulan area was found to be inhabited 3,800 years ago, around 1800 B.C., or even earlier, maybe from the Stone Age."