Seeing this, everyone basically knows where the Sand Sea King City where Queen Shanshan is located, where it is, and the mural obviously draws the desert location of the Red and White Sacred Mountain, if the situation described in this mural is true, then, the Sand Sea King City is probably on the west coast of the desert hinterland.

Keli took out the map of the desert, pointed to the rampant mountain range near the west bank of the desert and said: "The red and white sacred mountain mentioned in the mural refers to the Mazatag Mountain, and there is really nothing to explore from the direction, but the red and white sacred mountain is definitely not what is described in the mural, Abba and I have also been to the hinterland of the desert, where there are no living creatures." ”

Today's Red and White Sacred Mountain, the west bank is still surrounded by an arid sand sea, even if the east is close to the Hotan River, there are only dry tidal flats, there are sand dunes piled up in the north and south, almost a mountain completely surrounded by the desert, in the hinterland of the desert, even the moist water vapor on the high mountains can not blow here, which also causes extreme drought in the desert hinterland.

If you count the sandification caused by the invasion of wind and sand, the red and white mountain has degraded to the appearance of a dry earth mountain, as if it is a moorland that has been steamed by high temperature gases and almost cracked, and the temperature on the mountain is higher than the ground due to the absorption of a large amount of desert heat, and when you are close to the mountain, you can feel the heat evaporated from the mountain, and it has completely lost its plant cover, and even the drought-tolerant plants grow in the tidal flat area below the mountain, and the Jedi dare not move closer to the mountain.

When he said this, he paused and became cautious: "When I was fifteen years old, I followed Abba across the hinterland of the desert, and I also saw the Red and White Divine Mountain, at that time, it was only five or six years from now, I don't think the mountain will change much, probably still the appearance of death and barrenness, as for the Sand Sea King City you want to find, it is even more shadowless, there is no trace of architecture there at all." ”

"I'm thinking."

Keli's eyes were full of suspicion: "If there is really a Sand Sea King City at the foot of the East Mountain of the Red and White Gods, it is impossible that there is not even a ruin, no matter how serious the weathering has been in the past thousand years, there should still be a lot of earth platforms left, if there are no traces of man-made buildings, does it mean that the Sand Sea King City has really disappeared?" ”

In the murals of the Thousand Buddha Caves, General Ashina did mention that when his soldiers marched outside the Sand Sea King City, they saw the mountains shake and the wind blew violently, and the Sand Sea King City disappeared from the desert in an instant.

Song Siyuan carefully pondered the meaning of Keli's words: "These murals also mentioned that the Red and White Sacred Mountains were originally dry and barren, and it was Queen Shanshan who prayed for blessings with fish and pendants, so that rivers appeared under the Red and White Mountains, and then nourished an endless oasis." ”

"Although these situations have a mythological color, it is also very likely that they are a true description of the current situation, then, the disappearance of the Sand Sea King City, fading from the mythological color, is probably also describing the situation they saw at the time, but the ancients did not know the situation, so they attributed these changes to the protection of the gods and the sacrifice of fish and wear."

Xu Xiake interjected: "The weirdest point is that the sand sea oasis appeared out of thin air, and when the Tang army came to attack, it disappeared out of thin air, abandoning the mythological factor, the most likely is the fish pendant, I remember that the role of the yin fish pendant mentioned a little, the yin fish pendant can turn the desert into an oasis, and the river water should be related to the role of the yin fish pendant." ”

Yue Guanchao narrowed his eyes: "That's what you said?" Can the Yin Fish Pendant really change the climate of the desert? If the climate of the desert can be changed, Queen Shanshan can use the fish pendant to directly conjure up an oasis around the five major cities, why make such a big detour and run to the hinterland of the desert to build a city. ”

His words are exactly where the paradox of the role of the fish pendant lies, if it is really useful, Queen Shanshan can use it in the original city, why find a new city.

Song Siyuan shrugged her shoulders and said helplessly: "This, we don't know for the time being, we can only go back and say slowly, although this trip is hard, at least there is a harvest, not only to find Uncle Gunizi, but also to know the location of the Desert King City, it is much better to make progress than to stand still." ”

"In my opinion, let's first invite Uncle Gunizi's bones back to be buried, just to see how to get to the Red and White Sacred Mountain, and at the same time, I also want to study and study, what is this white birch booklet he recorded? Being able to write it down in an unknown script is probably a secret that needs to be hidden. ”

The crowd was silent, and together with Keli, they collected the bones of Guniz, and took pictures of all the murals they saw, and then returned to the bank of the Shahai River with their things, and crossed the sand sea by sheepskin raft and left the city of Sha'er.

On the way back, Yue Guanchao always felt weird, until he saw the fragment of the scripture wrapped in Wang Yuanji's hand, he figured out what was strange, and patted his brain: "Don't you think it's strange?" Steinhein was able to tear all the murals in the temple away, which means that he can steal all the murals, and even the things in the underground palace have been looted by him, why did he leave the murals in the side hall alone. ”

Yue Guanchao really feels too weird at this point, the murals in the side hall of the underground palace have no traces of damage at all, and they are well preserved in a very complete length, according to Stanhein's virtue of searching the underground palace, he is the master of plucking and unscrupulous means, how could he let go of such an important mural.

Song Siyuan thought for a moment, and his eyes lit up: "Judging from Steinhein's investigation report, he selectively embellished and distorted the facts, focusing on the discovery of Sha'er City and Mirandze, and at the same time discussing the history of the rise and fall of the ancient Shanshan civilization, among them, concealed the truth about the discovery of the underground palace and the cultural play, and did not even mention half a sentence of Queen Shanshan......"

He found the mural of Queen Shanshan, but chose to hide everything about Queen Shanshan, for whatever purpose, at least to show that he did not want to share the discovery with the archaeological community, preferring to keep it for himself.

In this case, it is impossible for him to sell the cultural toys recorded by the Queen of Shanshan, because once others find these on the cultural relics of the ancient Shanshan Kingdom, then his concealment will be useless, under this motive, he will not only conceal the truth about the murals of the underground palace, but also all the literary toys about the queen in the underground palace, all of which will be carefully singled out.

If he is motivated by this logic, then these actions of his are completely normal!

First of all, he has a big purpose of not wanting the outside world to know the history of Queen Shanshan.

Secondly, there must be a lot of stories about Queen Shanshan recorded in the calligraphy and paintings of the underground palace, and he can piece together the truth about the queen through the records of other cultural plays, and the information on the murals is likely to have been recorded in the classics he obtained, or even more detailed.

Again, the murals are indeed exquisite, but there is a fatal flaw, that is, the length is too large, the amount of information is limited, these murals are as high as the top of the underground palace, and the information given is nothing more than the story of the queen looking for the desert royal city, such a small amount of information, if it is recorded in words and picture scrolls, at most it is the amount of a painting or a few pages of classics.

It is expected that the nobles of Mirlan City would paint this kind of huge mural in order to give the queen a credit, and there is no need to spend manpower and material resources to tear up and steal such a large painting, only some information can be obtained from other places.

Speaking of this, Song Siyuan's face became serious: "Steinhein stole these cultural toys not for personal collection, it must be sold, judging from the mutilation of the murals in the temple, the murals he tore off are all murals with relatively high artistic value, and those with low artistic value are all kept in place. ”

"Steinhein is a businessman at heart, and it is impossible to do a thankless business, and it is normal for him to leave this mural."

Overnight in the wilderness, camel and horse tapping.

When they went back, it was already two days later, and several people decided to temporarily separate, deal with their own affairs, and then hold a funeral for Gunizi, before leaving, Gunizi also felt that this white birch booklet seemed to have some secret, and stuffed it into Song Siyuan's hand to ask her to study it carefully.

Yue Guanchao and the four of them returned to the Yichao Inn and began to devote themselves to the study of the birch bark booklet, after they spread the birch bark booklet on the table, Yue Qingshan and Sun Daqiao observed the booklet back and forth: "It's not Chinese, it's not Uyghur, it's a bit close to the ancient script of the Western Regions, it's a bit like Sogdian!" ”

"Sogdian?"

When Song Siyuan saw Sun Daqiao mention Sogdian, she became curious, she really didn't have much research on Sogdian, but she had heard of Sogdian's records.

Sogdian, is a popular ancient script in the sixth century, originated from the Iranian language family in ancient times, is the eastern branch of the language family, between the sixth and ninth centuries AD, with the Sogdians trading on the Silk Road, Sogdian also became a popular trade language in Central Asia and North Asia, and its status is no less than the Chinese dialect of Chang'an.

Speaking of which, the prosperity of the Sogdian language is related to the national character of the Sogdians.

In the sixth century, the Sogdians lived in Kangju, a region west of the Tien and Kunlun Mountains, in Central Asia, and they established many oasis city-states, but few unified nation-states and regimes, and at best they were an ethnic settlement.

Under the threat of the powerful Tianshan regime around them, they have always been in a state of semi-settlement and semi-migration, and they will have to move their families or move long distances at any time as other powerful ethnic groups come to drive them away.

There are pros and cons to this kind of exile and rushing life, the disadvantage is that the long-term displacement, running around the journey, having no fixed place, and completely uncertain whereabouts, this state of homelessness and countrylessness is easy to be bullied and rejected by the small city-states along the Silk Road, and the interests are also generated in this upheaval and displacement.

It is true that the Sogdians did not have a fixed residence, and because of this, they traveled all over Central Asia and East Asia, and they knew how to buy silk, tea, porcelain, grain, textiles, handicrafts, salt and iron minerals from East Asia, and then sell them to Central Asia and West Asia through the Silk Road, and at the same time, transport their spices, precious stones, furs, seses, jade, agate, snake beads, musical instruments and other treasures to the East, and then make high profits from them.

In a word, their peoples are all over Central Asia and East Asia, they know what to make money and what not to make money, and they also know how to trade and communicate with other countries.