For example, the embroidered cheongsam that flowed into the West from the East was sold for about 300 pounds, and the more elaborate ice-cracked porcelain was even as high as 1,000 pounds.

Ever since Steinhein's report on the expedition to the ancient Shanshan Kingdom was published in the journal Physical Geography, the relics of the mysterious dynasty in the Far East have become very popular in Western society, and he brought back two carts of scriptures to sell them at a good price with the blessing of culture.

Just like this kind of ordinary scriptures picked up by Daoist Wang, they are sold for about 1,000 pounds a volume in the international entertainment market, and this 1,000 pounds is about the income of ordinary workers for five or six years, and it is not something that ordinary people can afford.

If converted, 1,000 pounds is about equal to 5,000 US dollars, and at the same time, one US dollar can be exchanged for five oceans, and 5,000 US dollars is about equal to 25,000 oceans, which is equivalent to saying that just a single volume of scripture can sell for more than 20,000 oceans in the West.

According to the selling price of Daoist Wang, he had to sell 25,000 volumes of scriptures to match the price they sold in the West, which was tens of thousands of times the profit, and it was no wonder that these Westerners were so obsessed with buying these scriptures.

Song Siyuan saw that Daoist Wang didn't know anything about this, so she decided to tell him the truth: "Daoist Wang, do you know how much these real scriptures will sell for in the West?" ”

"It's just a hundred oceans."

The priest had no idea of the value of these scrolls.

Song Siyuan nodded at him and said tentatively: "A volume of ordinary scriptures, converted into our money, is about equal to 25,000 oceans, or 13,000 taels of silver. ”

"Shhh

This time, it's time for the Taoist priest to gasp.

Daoist Wang estimated that he had never seen so much money in his death, and his hands trembled when he drank tea: "My Taiqing Palace will be built at most two thousand oceans, and this volume of scriptures can be sold to build ten Taiqing Palaces, so how much does it cost to take away two carts of scriptures!" ”

"Sin, sin, I actually let the foreign devil take away so many precious scriptures."

In the past, Daoist Wang did not know the exact price of the original scriptures, but now he understands how precious these scriptures are in the West, and immediately regrets it: "It's all my fault, if I hadn't been bewitched by Steinhein at that time, I wouldn't have leaked out such precious documents, and it was really useless for my old Taoist priest to be blind and useless." ”

Song Siyuan comforted: "Wang Daochang, I didn't say this to make you regret and feel guilty, at that time, it was Steinhe who lied to you and said that you wanted to fund the Thousand Buddha Caves, so you sold him so many scriptures cheaply, and the actual starting point was not to make your own profits, just to rebuild the Thousand Buddha Caves, it was completely a good act, and now, it is useless to say that you regret it." ”

She paused and reminded: "Since you already know the value of these authentic scriptures, don't sell the real ones, these scriptures are national treasures, if they are taken away wantonly, we will regret it in the end." ”

For this, Daoist Wang seemed to be a little puzzled, and looked at her: "Since you can know so much, you must be someone who has the ability, can you help me sell a scroll of authentic works, so that I can build the Taiqing Palace, and even the remaining money is enough to repair the Thousand Buddha Caves again, I can't manage so much." ”

Song Siyuan listened to this man's words, and estimated that Daoist Wang really had no choice, relying on him to draw fake scriptures to exchange money, when would the Taiqing Palace be built, and the old Taoist's idea of playing the real scriptures was also understandable.

Yue Guanchao and Song Siyuan glanced at each other, and his eyes became serious: "If we promise to fund you, help you build the Taiqing Palace, and repair the Mogao Grottoes, can you guarantee that you will not fight the idea of these authentic works?" ”

Wang Taoist nodded: "The Thousand Buddha Cave is in the northwest, it has been eroded and destroyed by wind and sand all the year round, and the murals of some of the caves have fallen off, almost all the money I have raised over the years has been used to repair the Thousand Buddha Caves, otherwise, I will not be able to build the Taoist temple for so long, the old Taoist priest, I don't ask for anything else, only such a wish." ”

"Just!"

His eyes were slightly suspicious, probably because he was afraid of the recurrence of Steinhein's incident, and in the end, there was nothing left: "Can you really guarantee to fund me to build the Taiqing Palace?" We are not related, why should you help me. ”

Originally worried about this, Yue Guanchao said: "You can rest assured about this, we can do it when we say it, this money can still be afforded, as long as you promise to protect these scriptures and documents, we can help you build the Taiqing Palace according to what you said." ”

"It's just, you've got to do us a favor!"

Song Siyuan interjected.

"What's the busy?"

She said slowly: "Help us find a reliable local and take us into the desert!" ”

Daoist Wang nodded: "There are many local people who are familiar with the desert, but you also know the attitude of the local people towards the desert, they must ask you what you are doing in the desert, but you are going to explore, or what are you looking for?" ”

Daoist Wang has been dealing with foreign devils with ghosts over the years, and he has become a lot smarter, and he always has to ask questions about these people's requests to enter the desert.

Yue Guanchao felt that they couldn't hide it from Daoist Wang, so he simply went straight to the point and made it clear: "Daoist Wang, do you know the ancient Shanshan Kingdom and Queen Shanshan, we want to go to Sha'er City, where Stanhein has been." ”

The old Taoist priest shook his head: "What is Sha'er City or not Sha'er City, the old Taoist priest has never heard of it, but the ancient Shanshan Dynasty and the Shanshan Queen you are talking about, the old Taoist priest I have been here for more than ten years, and I can still hear a few words from the mouths of the locals, they are all terrifying legends in the desert, and they may not be real." ”

Song Siyuan saw that Daoist Wang had also heard of this, so he was even more sure that Steinhe was hiding some of the truth about Sha'er City, and nodded at him: "We know that it is a horror legend, and I also want to go to the desert this time to see whether the ancient Shanshan Dynasty that Steinhein said is true or not, I am afraid that he has fabricated an ancient city ruins in order to sell his fame and reputation." ”

"Well, then come with me, and I'll take you to a place first."

Although everyone was puzzled, they still trusted Wang Daoist, and after leaving the grotto, he followed Wang Daoist to the north cliff near the sixteenth cave, which is where the foundation of Taiqing Palace is located, and then, he took everyone along the stairs to continue to walk up, and only stopped when he walked to the top cave that was dozens of meters high from the ground.

He lifted the straw mat next to the grotto, signaled everyone to follow him in, Yue Guanchao looked inward, it was full of faded paintings and Buddhist shrines, the small space was square and regular, the middle was a round stone pillar, the Buddha statues inside had many defects in their hands and feet, and the murals on the surrounding walls were exquisite and rich, but they were always in a state of missing few corners, probably destroyed parts, and had not been maintained for hundreds of years.

Daoist Wang led them to the innermost stone wall, the Buddhist murals on this stone wall had been damaged, and a low gap similar to a doorway was formed in the middle, which may have been repaired, and the gap was full of broken stones cemented with yellow mud, as if it was a broken doorway, glued to the center of the mural, and in the exquisite mural, it seemed like an unsightly scar.

The old Taoist priest picked up the iron pestle and kept knocking on the stone wall, the yellow mud was not firm when it solidified, as he hit the stone, the mud shell kept falling off, and even the stone became loose, he saw that the mud wall was loose, he stopped beating the stone wall, and unloaded all the stones that had been built up, and restored the gap in the stone wall.

Wang Daoist fanned the turbid air a few times, coughed a few times and said: "There are many abandoned and collapsed caves in the Thousand Buddha Caves, I guess it is related to the Buddha extermination movement in history, although the Buddha extermination movement is raging in the pass, in the end it is still affected outside the pass, the local people in order to protect these grottoes, in the name of destroying the Buddha, these caves have been closed, no one has opened them for thousands of years, let alone know what is inside. ”

He paused, and continued in a mysterious tone: "I didn't know that there was a hidden grotto here at first, when I wanted to build the Taiqing Palace here, and let the craftsman clean the cave on the north side, it was found that the wall had a mezzanine during the cleaning, and then I found this cave in the cave. ”

"The murals in this grotto seem to be some historical stories in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, you can go and see it, I think it is related to the ancient Shanshan Kingdom."

Mentioning this, Daoist Wang was a great help to everyone, and Yue Song and the others looked excited, and led everyone through the broken grotto into this cave within the cave.

Due to the small openings in the walls, there was not enough light in the caves, and after they turned on the flashlight, the dark and chaotic grotto was gradually illuminated, and the real face appeared in front of people.

The entire grotto is painted with complete frescoes on all four sides, and due to the isolation from air and dust, the cave murals here are not much oxidized, plus they have not been damaged, and they are much more intact than the outer rooms.

Song Siyuan picked up the flashlight and carefully observed the murals around him, and finally saw something reasonable, his eyes lit up and said: "The owner of these murals is Ashina Sheer, the general of the Kunqiu Dao march, and it is the narrative map drawn by the local painter when he was in the Western Regions. ”

In fact, the mural image painted by the general or nobleman in the northwest who did something important to the court and the local area was more like a modern group photo.

In all the murals, Li Tang's marching team can be clearly seen, and if you carefully identify the text, you can also see that the content of these murals is "The Great Destruction of the Western Regions".

Produced in the Sui and Tang dynasties, these murals are extremely bold in color, with bright pigments swaying their contours and outlining figures, depicting deserts, Gobi, wastelands, the blue sky of the Hanhai Sea, as well as the army of the Tang Dynasty, as well as strange things and monsters from foreign lands.

In general, these murals tell the strange things and monsters he encountered when he attacked the countries of the Western Regions, and among them, the story of the disappearance of the queen of the Shanshan Dynasty is mentioned.

In the mural, Queen Shanshan holds a jade pendant in the shape of a fish in her hand, which directly makes the royal city completely disappear in front of everyone's eyes, and the original royal city seems to have evaporated from the world, leaving only a barren desert, where the Tang Dynasty soldiers have been looking for a long time, and there are no traces of buildings and living creatures.

This matter was also regarded as a demonic phenomenon by the marching general at that time, and bluntly said that Queen Shanshan was a demagogic goblin in the desert, and she was afraid of the national prestige of the Tang Dynasty, so she disappeared with her ghost town because of fear.

Song Siyuan looked at these dusty murals from a distance of nearly 1,500 years, and when these stories were completely recorded in the murals of the Tang Dynasty, it was enough to show that the story of Queen Shanshan was real, but there were some deviations when they were told by later generations, and there were some discrepancies from what they knew.

In the record of the Xuanshu Iron Coupon, the Tang Dynasty army never reached the royal city at all, and it was before they arrived at the royal city that the Shanshan royal city had disappeared with the queen.

In this mural, the Tang Dynasty army is clearly close to the royal city, and even began to attack the city, at this time Queen Shanshan took out the fish pendant and directly made a city disappear from their eyes, and no matter how much they searched, they could not find half of the city traces from the same place.

He pondered the inconsistent statements and decided to use the murals of the Tang Dynasty as a source of evidence, after all, this painting was hundreds of years earlier than the Xuanshu iron coupons in the Song Dynasty, and it was even very likely that it was a strange situation that had happened at that time, so I had to believe it.

In search of more details, she continued to observe the subtle details of the murals, and the more war scenes she had, the more strange images she perceived.

In the mural, Queen Shanshan's attendants summoned a lot of bats larger than her face, and these bats lay directly on Tang Jun's head, making the attacked Tang Jun die strangely.