Daomu Biji

Chapter 14 Double-layered Mural

The surroundings were eerily quiet. The wind lantern was raised to the side of the rock wall to enhance the lighting. The dim light shone on the rock, giving people an ancient and mysterious feeling.

The color of the mural is very bright, using a lot of blood-like red. Under the variable light source, it flashes the brilliance of colored glaze, as if the whole rock is seeping blood. The mural hidden under another layer of paint can be preserved. It's amazing how good it is.

However, what really surprised us was the content of the mural. It is difficult for me to use words to describe what is painted on it. The mural is divided into two parts, each describing different things. However, when put together, it looks very special. Complete, can be a beautiful fantasy.

Monk Hua's eyes lit up and he said to himself: "This should be the scene of the war between Emperor Wannu of Eastern Xia and the Mongols. You, this person should be King Wannu himself. This is very possible. It’s the legendary war that destroyed the Xia Dynasty in the Middle East.”

I know very little about Dongxia, and the others are obviously not proficient in it. They didn't speak and listened to him continue.

He walked back and forth in amazement while looking at the patterns above. He pointed to one side of the mural, where there were a large number of soldiers wearing armadillos and armor, and said: "This is the army of King Wannu." He pointed to the cavalry on one side and said: "This is the Mongolian army. You see, the number is far greater than the Dongxia army. This is an overwhelming war. "

I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a scene of flying arrows and rocks. The fat man looked at it and thought it was strange. He asked, "Why do the faces of those people in the Eastern Xia army look like women?"

I also felt strange when I looked at it. Did the Dongxia people rely on women to fight the war? It would be unnatural if the country did not subjugate. Monk Hua said: "No, this is a characteristic of the Dongxia murals. Look at all the people, they are all very handsome. Yes, I have also found some strange phenomena in allusions. It seems that all the people who deal with Dongxia Kingdom say that there are no old people in Dongxia Kingdom, and all the people are very young. Koreans say that Dongxia Kingdom Real people keep their youthful appearance even when they die."

The fat man frowned, as if he couldn't figure out why this was happening. I felt that this might have something to do with the customs of some famous people. In some ethnic groups, the elderly are not allowed to see guests. I didn’t take it seriously and continued watching with the others.

Monk Hua pointed to the second part of the mural and said: "This quickly records the situation of the battle. You see, the Eastern Xia people were one against three. They were shot to death by the Mongols one after another. This war finally became It became a massacre."

The mural uses a lot of red to express the brutality of the war, which gives a strong sense of immersion. I seemed to see Eastern Xia soldiers falling into a pool of blood one after another.

Mongolian cavalry stepped over their corpses and began burning houses and massacring the men.

The third part of the mural is pressed behind a huge stone. We cannot remove it, but it is estimated that the content here should be a continuation.

At this time, I felt confused and interrupted him: "No, the country of Dongxia was not destroyed by the Mongols a long time ago. I read the data and said that they have only existed for more than seventy years and have continued to fight. If It is said that Yunding Tiangong was built by them. Under the circumstances at that time, how could such a small country have the ability to build such a large-scale mausoleum?"

As soon as I said this. Many people showed approval. The Eastern Xia Dynasty was a political power that suddenly appeared in Jilin and Heilongjiang during the period when the Jurchens were destroyed. In my memory, the founding emperor of his country, King Wannu, didn’t even have time to pass the throne to the next generation, so he was destroyed by the Mongols in a detour to North Korea. At that time, Mongolia was extremely powerful, killing gods and Buddhas when they met, as shown in the murals If the scene was really that decisive battle, with the character of the Mongols, they should have completely destroyed the land.

At that time, the productivity among the Jurchen tribes was still very low. Without a large amount of labor, even if the country was not destroyed, it would be impossible to build such a huge tomb.

What Chen Pi Asi said is that the emperor of Dongxia is really buried in the Yunding Heavenly Palace. It is impossible no matter how you think about it, because they do not have the time or the strength.

What's even more unreasonable is that if we infer from what we saw in the undersea tomb that this legendary tomb was built by Wang Zanghai, then the dynasty when it was built should be the late Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the Eastern Xia Kingdom had already After being destroyed for hundreds of years, where can there be an emperor of Eastern Xia to bury?

We all set our sights on Chen Pi Asi, saying that it was him who buried the Emperor of Eastern Xia in the Yunding Heavenly Palace, but now it seems that this is absolutely impossible.

Chen Pia knew what we were thinking. He glanced at the mural expressionlessly, sneered, then glanced at Monk Hua and said: "Since they don't believe it, Monk, just tell them."

Monk Hua agreed, turned to us and smiled: "I know what you are suspecting, and I dare say you are all wrong. Most of the information you have seen about Dongxia is based on some incomplete ancient books. It can be deduced that there is actually too little information left by the Dongxia Kingdom. Abroad, it is not even recognized that such a country existed. Therefore, it is difficult to say how much of the information you see now is actually true. "

The fat man said: "In that case, why do you say that your information is correct?"

Monk Hua said: "That's right, because our information is more direct." He took out a piece of white cuckoo from his pocket and unfolded it in front of us. When I saw it, I couldn't help but feel a little bit in my heart.

That turned out to be the snake-eyebrow copper fish at the auction.

How could it be in their hands? Didn’t it mean that no one would buy it? I frowned and suddenly realized something.

Since no one is buying it and the fish is in the hands of Chen Pi Asi, can it be said that Chen Pi Asi is the seller of this fish?

My whole body was shaken, and I tried my best to stabilize my body and prevent myself from showing too much surprise. But my heart was already in a mess, and countless questions exploded in my mind. I didn’t know whether I felt fear or excitement for a moment. I just felt that my hands and feet were suddenly cold as if they had lost their blood.

Monk Hua did not pay attention to my expression and continued: "This kind of copper fish is an abnormal form of dragon. Our old man got it by chance. I believe it should be made by someone who knows the conditions in Dongxia." Oh, what’s strange is that he used a very clever method to hide a piece of top-secret information in this copper fish, you see. "

He placed the copper fish on the side of the wind lamp. The gold-plated fish scales reflected golden light and shot many thin spots of light on the mural. Monk Hua turned the fish body and the spots began to change gradually. turned into several text style spots.

"The secret is here. There are a total of forty-seven Jurchen characters hidden in the scales of this fish,"

I groaned in my heart, thinking that I actually had such a skill. I pinched the other two copper fish in my belt and asked him tremblingly: "What is...what is it about?"

"Because the information on it is not complete, I haven't deciphered it all. But I am sure that the person who made this fish wanted to record certain things without letting others find out. Here, the real Dongxia is recorded History." Monk Hua said with some pride, "Actually, before I saw this thing, based on many clues, I had already inferred that the regime of the Dongxia Kingdom had always existed, but they had retreated deep into the mountains. And in I don’t know what to rely on for hundreds of years, but this extremely weak regime survived between the extremely powerful Mongolia on one side and the covetous Goryeo on the other. I have studied the Goryeo Dynasty, and until the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, there were still ginseng collectors. I have seen people wearing strange clothes in the snowy mountains here. I think they must be some of the remaining residents of the Eastern Xia Kingdom. "

He pointed at the copper fish again and said, "The sporadic records here prove my idea. After the decisive battle with Mongolia, the Dongxia Kingdom retreated to the border between Jilin and North Korea. It has existed secretly for hundreds of years. There have been a total of Fourteen emperors, Mongolia and Goryeo tried to destroy this small country more than once, but for a strange reason, they all failed. "

"What's the reason?" Pan Zi asked, "Monk, can you speak more cheerfully?"

Monk Hua shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, the information on the fish is not complete. There must be other things recording other parts. But based on the few words in my hand, I dare to say that Dongxia Kingdom can It exists. Maybe something very bizarre happened, and there is no content later. We have been trying to find it, but unfortunately our old man has been searching for many years and has not found the other parts." He paused and then said: " Do you know what the last sentence of these Jurchen characters means?"

I thought to myself, of course I don’t know, so Ye Cheng took it and asked, “What?”

Monk Hua looked at us and said: "It says that all the Wannu kings in the past are not human beings."

"If it's not a human being, what is it?" said the fat man.

Monk Hua put the copper fish away and said, "It said they are all monsters crawling out of the ground."

Isn't it? I thought to myself, everyone looked at each other, and they probably felt a little embarrassed. Ye Cheng asked: "That can't be said like that. Does it mean that the emperor is a dragon, not a human being?"

"I originally thought he was referring to the metaphor of the True Dragon Emperor, but after further research, I found that this person probably just wanted to record some secrets and was more objective about the history of Dongxia, so he probably wouldn't have used such respectful language. , and, if that’s what you said, do you think someone would express the concept that the emperor is a true dragon and emperor in this way? Imagine that if you congratulate the emperor on his birthday, you first say, Your Majesty, you You are really not a human being. I am afraid you will be chopped into pieces before you even finish the second sentence. No one would write like this." He smiled mysteriously: "Moreover, the last sentence is written very clearly and abruptly. I have always been worried about it. If we can get other parts, we may be able to decipher what this means."

Both Fatty and Menyouping knew that I actually had two copper fish in my hands, but due to caution, they did not say anything. The copper fish I caught in my pocket suddenly felt that they became heavier.

For a moment, I didn’t know whether I should take out these two fishes. In fact, these two fishes have no meaning to me. I don’t know the Jurchen writing, and I can’t understand it if I read it. But if you give it to me, Giving it to them, I felt very inappropriate.

Pan Zi stared at the mural and said to himself that the man on the mural might be King Wannu. He looked like a human and seemed not a monster. The fat man patted him and said to Monk Hua: "Brother Scar, I said What are you deciphering? We are real people, don’t act like intellectuals. When the coffin is opened, it will be clear whether it is a human or a dog. "

Monk Hua smiled and said, "I mean, it's always better to know yourself and your enemy."

"But why did the person who painted this mural paint these things here?" The fat man asked: "Don't you forget the hatred between the country and the family?"

Monk Hua shook his head, obviously not sure. I thought about it and said: "Maybe he wants to pluck the stones in whole pieces after painting the murals here, or he just paints to kill time. Look how warm it is here. , maybe the craftsmen at that time used this place to rest. "

No one convinced me, so Monk Hua started taking pictures of these things to keep as documentation.

After we had rested enough, our spirits gradually recovered, and we began to take turns to rest. Chen Pi Asi asked his people to take turns to go out and stay outside. If the snow stopped, they would crawl closer to call us, and we began to take turns to sleep.

When I woke up, Shunzi had also woken up and kept apologizing to us. The fat man was too lazy to pay attention to him. I brought him something to eat and let him have a good rest. We had to rely on him to continue going up.

There was no rotation of the sun and the moon inside, and I don’t know how much time passed. It was probably two or three days. The snow finally stopped. We climbed out of this crack one after another. It was sunny outside, and there was a vast white world everywhere. .

After arranging the equipment, we found that we had eaten too much in the past few days. We probably had no supplies and would run out of food before we got to where we wanted to go. Asked Shunzi if there was anything he could do, he said there was really nothing he could do above the snow line, either go back and come back again, or distribute the food and try to eat as little as possible.

In the gap, Chen Pi Asi taught us many tips on snowy mountains, such as using sanitary napkins as insoles, which can absorb foot sweat, keep feet dry, and the whole body will be warm. We followed his method, and it was really good. However, I felt very awkward myself, thinking about what it would be like if I entered an ancient tomb and discarded these things. A few years later, the archaeological team would discover and see such things beside the coffin.

We used ropes to climb up the steep slope, and there were many fresh horse hoof marks on the ground. The fat man squatted down, looked at it, and said, "It seems that Aning's gang has surpassed us and ran in front of us." "

Without saying a word, we put on our goggles and set off immediately. Two hours later, we saw Aning's team on a hillside. They had obviously suffered very heavy losses. Three of them only had 20 people left. Come on, there are only half the number of horses, and there is still no sign of the third uncle among them.

We lurked quietly and observed them. I saw Aning staring in one direction with a telescope, and I also looked in the direction she was looking. Suddenly my eyelids twitched.

In the distance, I don’t know whether it was snow or clouds, but a snow-covered mountain stood tall. It was connected to other mountains and looked very abrupt. That was exactly the mountain I saw in the undersea tomb. , his shape is almost exactly the same as in the movie and painting.

"This is it," I thought to myself, pointed to the mountain, turned around and asked Shunzi, "What kind of mountain is there? How can I get over there?"

Shunzi put up the pavilion with his hands, looked at it, and said with a change of color: "So where are you going? You can't go there."