Speaking of which, Xu Xiake has already introduced the local people's views on the desert: "It can be said that the strangeness and bizarre nature of the desert has made the local people firmly believe that the desert is indeed the curse of the devil, and Dunhuang City is the sealing boundary monument of the devil's desert. ”

Yue Guanchao asked again: "They, didn't they think to go over and find out the reason for the bird collision?" ”

Xu Xiake shook his head: "These birds are not recently, but have existed since ancient times, I heard that in the local chronicles of Dunhuang City, the most serious bird collisions have been recorded, probably in the early years of the Tang Dynasty......"

During the Tang Zhenguan period, the private letter of Mo 13, a soldier of Dunhuang City, once recorded the bird death accident.

On that day, there were burning clouds during the day, starting from the morning sun, the burning clouds surrounding the Dunhuang oasis did not disperse for days, and even had a tendency to burn more and more red, until after sunset, it was barely dispersed.

In the evening of the same day, countless birds in the desert flew in the sky, the number and momentum were so large, it was like a black cloud pressing down on the city, they screamed and crashed into the buildings of Dunhuang City, knocking their bodies into blood, and some of the birds left before the blood coagulated, and fell directly to the ground.

The blood droplets of tens of millions of birds fell together, as if there was a rain of blood in the sky, dyeing the buildings of Dunhuang City into blood red, and the bloody atmosphere has not dissipated for several months.

At that time, Tang Taizong Li Shimin had died, this phenomenon was also regarded as a sign of the heavenly hanging elephant, the nearby people all thought that the heavenly pity Tian Khan died, and ordered the birds to soar in the sky as a living creature, for the day Khan funeral, this matter involved the heavenly hanging elephant, and was included in the Dunhuang local chronicles.

Xu Xiake mentioned this local chronicle record, and his tone became mysterious: "This phenomenon has existed since ancient times, and for the local people, they are used to it. I don't think there's any human or material resources. ”

He paused: "As I said just now, this desert is the devil's curse in the eyes of the locals, and they are afraid of the desert before it's too late, how can they take the initiative to deal with the devil's territory, besides, even if he is really bold and not afraid of death, how can he explore it?" Do you walk through the desert completely, or do you dig three feet into the ground and dig something? ”

"The area of this desert is so large, no one has the manpower and material resources, and if they come and go, of course, they have neither the heart nor the ability to explore these strange phenomena, as long as they are far away from these strange phenomena."

"Being away from the hinterland of the desert is the way for the people around the desert to survive, as long as they are far away from the mysterious power, people can survive in peace."

Xu Xiake wanted to continue his tirade, but was interrupted by Yue Ercano, who climbed up: "But I found you, go back quickly." ”

Yue Guanchao and the three of them had to follow Yue Erpao back to the guest room, and when they arrived at the place, Yue Qingshan was already taking out the map with Sun Daqiao, and when they came back, Lao Yuetou said: "You came back just in time, I will discuss it with Sun Daqiao, we still think that we should first go to the water tomb that Stanhe said to have a look, first, to make sure that this foreigner is not lying, and second, this place used to be at least the ruins of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom, and maybe we can find some clues about the ancient Shanshan Dynasty." ”

Yue Guanchao waved his hand: "Is that necessary?" Let's just check Gu Shanguo directly, why waste time eating other people's leftovers. ”

Song Siyuan thought for a moment and nodded: "I also agree with the second uncle's suggestion, I understand what you mean, are you afraid that Steinhein lied about the investigation report, and we adopt his opinion without research, and we may be led astray by him?" ”

Yue Qingshan nodded: "I still like to talk to smart people, in this old foreigner's inspection report, there is no mention of the stubble of the ancient Queen Shanshan, with his handwriting, didn't he find the Queen of Shanshan?" The old man thought he wouldn't be so useless. ”

Lao Yuetou knocked down the ashes of his pipe: "The only situation that can occur is that he has found the record of Queen Shanshan, but for some purposes or simply selfishness, he deliberately covered this up, and it was not written in the investigation report, we have an investigation report with concealment, there will definitely be problems, I want to go to the field to see in person, and also see what he is hiding!" ”

"Oh, you're trying to find out what he's hiding, and that's possible, but how do we get there?"

According to Yue Guanchao's general investigation report, Steinhayin only gave a rough description of the route they went to, and did not involve specific place names, and it was difficult for them to find the original route in the desert background, and the city of Sha'er he described was even more unheard of.

"Perhaps, it would be better to find a nearby guide who is familiar with the desert." Song Siyuan proposed.

Xu Xiake said: "If you are looking for the local people, we are not familiar with the place, and it is estimated that we will not be able to find any reliable people for a while, this is the trouble place. ”

Yue Guanchao hugged his neck: "Daoist Xu, didn't you say that you know an old Taoist priest named Wang Yuanlu here, or let's go find him, he has been in Dunhuang for more than ten years, it is better than those of us who are born in the face, maybe he can help us." ”

Xu Xiake nodded: "Don't you say that I really forgot, so let's do it, let's rest first, and I'll take you to the Thousand Buddha Cave early tomorrow morning." ”

"Okay, I think it's better to see this Wang Taoist priest first."

It was only half a day since everyone came to Dunhuang, and the road was far away, bumpy and tormented in the past few days, and their bodies and bones were already about to fall apart, so they had to go back to their rooms to make up for sleep, and finally they were able to flatten their bodies and rest.

Slept until the evening, a few people ate at a nearby noodle stall, and when they went back, they had already seen the shop sealing the window, and the guys took back the window sticks, and the huge window creaked, and closed the window with a bang, and then fastened it with the buckle grooves on the window sill, and when the wooden board was tightly closed, the corridor was closed even if it was closed, and kerosene lamps began to be hung everywhere, illuminating the corridor everywhere in a dusk.

After Yue Guanchao and the others returned to the room, when the sun set and the light of the square window facing the outside disappeared, the surroundings were really noisy, as if there were countless chirping birds and birds flying around, but after a while, they had already seen the window panel outside rumbling, as if the window had been smashed down by hail, and the noise did not stop until half an hour later, the noisy movement was quiet.

When night came, the temperature around them was already dropping, and they soon heard the cold wind blowing, and the small window was blown and rattled, if it weren't for the small window, it would have flown out long ago.

One night, the wind and sand howled, everyone slept peacefully, and the next day, Xu Xiake called a carriage and took them out of Dunhuang City to the Thousand Buddha Caves located in the southwest direction.

The so-called Thousand Buddha Cave, also called the Tibetan Scripture Cave, is the name of the local people of Dunhuang to it, on the official literature, the Thousand Buddha Cave is correctly called the Mogao Cave.

If you want to go back, the era when Mogao Grottoes began to appear was the period of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Probably in the first year of Qin Jianyuan, the monk Le Zun came to the end of the Hexi corridor, when he came here, the moment he looked up, he saw the Mingsha Mountain shining brightly, the golden light was steaming, as if there were a thousand Buddhas coming, so he chiseled the grotto on the cliff wall of the Danquan River for practice, which was the first grotto of Mogao Grotto.

Subsequently, the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Northern Zhou Dynasty, the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the Tubo Dynasty all had to dig grottoes here, and ordered craftsmen to draw murals, as for the advent of the Anshi Rebellion, Hexi was controlled by the Zhang Yichao family and the Cao Yijin family in turn, they not only built a large number of grottoes, but also repaired the eaves and towers outside the grottoes together as new, and also painted a large number of open-air murals with rich colors on the cliff face, so that the appearance of the Thousand Buddha Caves is more magnificent and magnificent, shocking.

Since the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, Mogao Grottoes have experienced the Southern Song Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty, the Western Xia, the Yuan Dynasty era, to the Ming Dynasty completely closed the Guanwai, only to completely stop repairing the caves, from the Eastern Jin Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, before and after two thousand years, strictly speaking, Mogao Grottoes is not a generation or a person family of products, but the cultural and artistic crystallization of multi-ethnic style blending.

For two thousand years, the former Qin people, Beiliang people, Xianbei people, Dangxiang people, Han people, Tibetans, Yuan people have ruled here, and there are constantly donors, nobles, monks, military officers, craftsmen, common people and other Buddhist groups, funded to dig grottoes, depict murals, which is now an eclectic, inclusive, brilliant Thousand Buddha Cave.

Today, more than 700 grottoes, thousands of colored sculptures, murals have been found in the Thousand Buddha Caves, and there are countless scriptures and historical relics hidden in them, which are really national art treasures.

When Xu Xiake introduced the Mogao Grottoes, the carriage walked all the way to the southwest, and when they arrived at the bank of the Danquan River, everyone dismounted to check the situation, and they could already see the Mogao Grottoes on the cliff at the eastern foot of Mingsha Mountain.

On the yellow-brown mountain body of Mingsha Mountain, there are nearly 1,000 large and small grottoes, arranged on the cliff stone wall of nearly two thousand meters, the grottoes are stacked on top of each other in various places, and there are plank roads or wooden ladders to connect the grottoes at the high places.

Near the middle of the cliff, there is also a large Buddha hall that can reach the top of the cliff, and the nine-story tower has a high eaves that resembles a huge Buddha shrine embedded in the stone wall, and as for other places, there are also several cave eaves scattered all over the place.