Whether it is history or literary works, it has cast a layer of mystery over the place of Lop Nur.

In fact, the current Lop Nur has been connected to roads and railways, and it is no longer the "land of death" in everyone's impression, but a vibrant mining area.

It's just that people on the Internet are not interested in reality and are more willing to discuss those legends.

In any case, now we have to go into the desert again to see what the ant colony looks like.

Seeing that everyone had finished reading the explanation sent by the bureau, Hu Ziming arranged: "I will go to the city tomorrow, repair for a day, and prepare supplies again, and set off the day after tomorrow." ”

After tossing and turning in the desert for so many days, everyone has lost a lot of weight, even if things are urgent, they have to rest first.

The next day, everyone slept comfortably before setting off for the city.

Zhao Xuan obviously felt that his mental state was much better than a few days ago.

When I arrived in the city, I said that I was resting, but in fact, there were still a lot of things.

Needless to say, it goes without saying that water and food were procured and that necessary repairs were made to a few cars.

A few sets of flamethrowers, which may still be useful in the future, will not be returned for the time being. And to sort out the various corpses in the box, you still need to hand them over to the people of the research institute.

In this way, everyone rested for two days, replenished their spirits, and set off again to the next destination.

From the city to the mining area of Lop Nur, it took another whole day.

The people rested for the night before leaving the road and re-entering the desert towards their destination.

It is said that it is in Lop Nur, but in fact, strictly speaking, it has been out of this range.

After walking dozens of kilometers in the desert, before noon, I had already arrived at the place.

It's really ...... It's too conspicuous.

Half-person-high bags of earth, radial, neatly arranged in a circle.

The center of the ring is a soil ring more than one person high, and there is a circular pit of about two meters in the middle of the earthen ring.

Zhao Xuan got out of the car, carefully looked at the facilities in front of him, turned his head, and asked Zhang Yuan beside him, "What is this?" ”

Zhang Yuan ignored Zhao Xuan's question, took a sapper shovel from the car, and ran to the facilities in front of him with an excited expression.

Zhao Xuan followed, watching Zhang Yuan scrape the soil off the soil bag with a sapper shovel, and after a while, a thick piece of rotten wood leaked out of the soil bag.

"The Sun Tomb, sure enough, the Sun Tomb!" Zhang Yuan stuck the sapper shovel on the ground on the side, pointed to the ruins, and said to Zhao Xuan: "It's developed, such a big sun tomb, a world heritage!" ”

Zhao Xuan looked at Zhang Yuan excitedly and said, "Let's make it clear." ”

The others also came over, with the same puzzled expressions.

"The Sun Tomb is a form of burial that was prevalent in the ancient Loulan kingdom of the past and present. Previously, near the ancient river channel of Lop Nur, a group of tombs of the Sun Tomb was discovered, and the size and shape were not so large. ”

Seeing that everyone was still puzzled, Zhang Yuan waved his hand again and said.

"Have you heard of the ancient corpses of Loulan beauties? That's what was excavated from the tomb of the sun! ”

Only then did everyone show a look of understanding.

Zhao Xuan continued to ask: "Meaning, this is an ancient tomb?" ”

"Yes."

"So that means those ant colonies came out of the ancient tombs?" Zhao Xuan frowned, pointed to the Sun Tomb, and said, "Ants thousands of years ago? ”

"It's not." Zhang Yuan shook his head and said, "There is a passage underground. ”

"How do you know?"

"Speculative." Zhang Yuan continued to explain: "There are large tombs, indicating that there was a populated area in the vicinity. However, this area is not the location of the ancient river channel. ”

Zhang Yuan pointed to the Tianshan Mountains not far from the north, and said, "Then there is only one possibility, that is, there is a qanats underground. ”

The qanats, in fact, are underground aqueducts, which are now in use at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains.

Zhao Xuan turned his head and looked at the Tianshan Mountains not far away.

They are now located at the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and if you calculate the distance, it is estimated that they are only ten or twenty kilometers away from the foot of the mountain. If you want to divert water from the Tianshan Mountains, it is indeed feasible.

"So that means the ant colony came out of the well, not this 'sun tomb'?" Hu Ziming asked, touching his chin.

"Nine times out of ten." Zhang Yuan nodded and said, "Otherwise, there is no reason for the ant colony to go underground instead of going to the surface." ”

"What if the colony had lived in a tomb before?" Zhao Xuan raised doubts.

Song Shaofeng explained: "No. Millions of people, there's nothing to eat around here. ”

Zhao Xuan nodded and agreed with Song Shaofeng's statement.

"Okay, leave this tomb alone, let's look around and see if there is an exit." Hu Ziming clapped his hands and arranged.

Hu Ziming reminded again: "Be careful, I don't know if there are ants." ”

Fortunately, the desert near Lop Nur is dominated by gravel and saline-alkali land, unlike the desert in the west, which is a mobile sand dune.

Although these ruins are very dilapidated, there are still traces on the ground.

Otherwise, to find a wellhead can only be said to be a fantasy.

As Zhang Yuan speculated, less than a hundred meters away from the Sun Tomb, everyone found a wellhead.

A square earthen platform two meters long and wide, most of which has collapsed, and the part that exposes the surface of the ground, only a small half of a few tens of centimeters high, stands there.

There is also some wood around the wellhead that has not rotted.

Looking down, you can also see traces of artificial tamping.

Zhang Yuan hooked his head, turned on the flashlight, and looked down for a while before saying, "It should be this." ”

Now that you have a clue, it's good to follow along.

"Okay, let's follow the direction." Hu Ziming pointed to the car.

Determine the orientation of the underground drain and the rest is simple.

Everyone drove the car, following the direction of the underground water canal, towards the direction of Tianshan Mountain.

Every few tens of meters, the remains of a shaft can be seen, and occasionally it is missed in the wrong direction, and it can be refound further away.

Some of the shafts have completely collapsed, while others can still see the canals below.

With the guidance of these shafts, everyone drove all the way to the foot of the Tianshan Mountain.

It seems very simple, but if it weren't for the guidance of satellite maps, finding such a small piece of ruins in the vast desert would be not much different from hitting a big luck.

Not to mention being able to come here based on the remains of the underground water canal.

The off-road vehicle has slowly driven from the desert into the grassland, and the trees have gradually begun to increase.

When you get here, basically the underground aqueduct is the end, and the diversion canal at the foot of the mountain no longer needs to go underground, but the nullah.

But it is basically impossible for the nullah to be preserved for such a long time.

Then if the ant colony wants to go down the ground to the location of the former Sun Tomb, it can only enter from this vicinity.

However, it is still unknown why such a large ant colony would go from a relatively food-rich mountain range to a sand city where almost no living creatures survive.

The off-road vehicle can no longer move on, and the clue is only here.

Everyone walked and stopped, and it was almost three or four o'clock in the afternoon.

Although it was still early in the dark, it looked like I was going to camp nearby today.

Since this is the case, Hu Ziming decided to divide the troops into two ways, and let Song Shaofeng lead them to continue to look for any additional clues nearby.

For the rest of the people, camp is arranged and dinner is prepared.

Zhao Xuan and a few people enjoyed the scenery all the way and searched around all the way.

For so many days before, except in the city, there was no green at all, but at this time, when I came to the foot of the Tianshan Mountain, I suddenly felt refreshed.

Song Shaofeng took the compass and led everyone along the extension line of the qanats and continued to move towards the Tianshan Mountains.

"Say, how the hell did those ants come from?"

After walking for a while, I really couldn't see anything useful, so I got bored and pulled Zhang Yuan to chat.

"You ask me, who do I ask?" Zhang Yuan shrugged his shoulders and said, "There are inexplicably more things in the world, otherwise we will ...... No way! ”

Zhang Yuan was halfway through speaking, when he suddenly stopped talking, scolded, pointed to a stone wall not far from the side and said, "What about that!" Artificial traces! ”

"Where?" Zhao Xuan looked at Zhang Yuan's hand, but he didn't see any traces.

"The stone wall." Zhang Yuan walked in the direction of his finger, turned his head and explained to Zhao Xuan: "The color of the left and right sides is different, which means that the time of weathering is different. ”

After listening to Zhang Yuan's explanation, Zhao Xuan went to observe the stone wall again, and indeed found a difference.

It can be seen from the degree of cracks and potholes on both sides of the stone wall that there is a clear boundary.

Although it is obvious, if Zhang Yuan hadn't pointed it out, where would he have paid attention to this.

"Ox A!" Zhao Xuan gave Zhang Yuan a thumbs up.

Zhang Yuan glanced at Zhao Xuan proudly and said, "The people in the rivers and lakes of the little master are called 'Knowing the Secret and the Little Bao Zheng'!" ”

How could Zhao Xuan get used to him, pointed to Zhang Yuan's newly tanned skin, and said, "People scold you for being a little black and fat." ”

Regardless of the jokes between the two, a few minutes later, the four of them turned over the mountain wall and came to the front of the stone wall.

Only then did I realize that what I saw before was not a stone wall, but a stone door.

On the side, you can't see the hole in the middle, so you mistake it for a stone wall.

The natural entrance of the cave is more than 10 meters high, and the protruding parts are cut vertically by man, so that the area around the cave mouth looks more flat, like a real gate.

The inside of the cave must have been trimmed to avoid the jaggedness of a natural cave.

By analogy, it looks like the entrance to a modern tunnel.

Although the entire gate has begun to be weathered, you can still see the grandeur of the past.

Several people glanced at each other, and they all showed surprised expressions.

Just looking at this gate, you can reflect the glory of this place.

Everyone stood there and looked at it for a while.

Song Shaofeng looked at the time, it was almost dark, and said, "Let's go, I'll go in tomorrow." ”

"It's still early, I'll take a look at the door." Zhang Yuan also looked at the time, ignored Song Shaofeng, and said as he walked forward: "This place, how can it look like a sect station." ”

Zhao Xuan was also curious, seeing that Song Shaofeng did not object, he also walked forward, ready to get closer and take a closer look.

At the entrance of the cave, there was a stone that was high for one person, Zhao Xuan didn't pay attention to it at first, but when he got closer, he found that there was something carved on it.

It's been a little long, and it's weathered so badly that I can't see what is carved on it.

Zhang Yuan still had a way, grabbed a large handful of soil from the ground, rubbed it on the stone, the soil was embedded in the gaps, and the figure gradually became clear.

A dragon word, or a dragon.