Chapter 1099 – Qiu’s Nest

If Wang Daoshi did not discover the Cave of Sutras, perhaps now Dunhuang culture will only belong to China, but the world does not have the word “if”, the merits and demerits of the right and wrong to this day, it is difficult to determine who is right and who is wrong.

However, Zhuang Rui for Wang Daoshi at the time the government gave attention to the majority of the Buddha scrolls still hide fine, sold to foreign archaeologists and explorers of the matter, the heart is always difficult to let go of.

As the owner of these precious relics, China’s domestic collection of sutra scrolls artifacts, less than one-seventh of the total number of discoveries, which allows many domestic archaeologists embarrassed ah?

The past history is impossible to be changed, after sighing some, Zhuang Rui and others left this set of glory and humiliation as one of the Tibetan scripture caves, along with the tourist crowds continue to visit the Mogao Grottoes.

Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, although it represents the essence of the Western culture, and can be used for future generations to research and excavate a lot of places, but its own has formed a unique Dunhuang culture, with specialized researchers in the unremitting work, and Zhuang Rui the purpose of this trip, and there is nothing to do.

So after a day of fun in Dunhuang, Zhuang Rui and the archaeological team began to Dunhuang around the geography and possible burial places for the survey, they are mainly concerned about the location of the investigation, temporarily placed in the place where people still live.

As a desert oasis on the Silk Road a thousand years ago, the people who came and settled in Dunhuang at that time could be said to be rich and powerful merchants, which also determined the formation of a thriving town in a hundred-mile radius around Dunhuang.

There are certainly people who live and die, in Dunhuang before the excavation of a lot of literature, but also mentioned some of the more famous ancient tombs, just because of more than 1,000 years of desertification aggravation, these tombs are like the Loulan ancient country, disappeared without a trace.

The special geographical environment of the desert is only one of the factors that make Zhuang Rui’s work more difficult to carry out, and even more troublesome for the crowd is that, because Dunhuang and its surrounding prosperity before the millennium, also attracted a lot of grave robbers, in the first few days of the discovery of the two suspected tombs in the place, there are obvious traces of grave robbers patronized.

These days Zhuang Rui and others did not enter the desert area, but in the distance from Dunhuang is very close to the Wuwei Jiuquan and other places to investigate, but the results of the survey let Zhuang Rui is very disappointing, the tomb is found quite a lot, but and the same as Henan and Shaanxi two places, almost inside the martyrdom are swept away.

Zhuang Rui was a bit helpless, it looks like the earth has been unable to stop the footsteps of grave robbers, even in such a remote place, also attracted a large number of underground workers.

After discussing with Dr. Ren, Zhuang Rui decided to enter the desert area tomorrow, and go to one of the ruins that Dr. Ren had been to before, perhaps the relentless desert could discourage the grave robbers.

“Wow, it’s so beautiful! It’s simply beautiful.”

Early in the morning of the fourth day after arriving at Dunhuang, the sun had just shown its head when Zhuang Rui and the others drove out of Dunhuang City and into the desert, Xiao Jia and the others who had never been here before were immediately attracted by the beauty in front of them.

The wind is like a brush of the desert in general, over the years in the sand blowing out like a snake-like sand pattern, like the sea is as vast and rugged and deep and delicate, into the eyes of the kind of monotonous desolation and then change the angle of observation, and immediately will appreciate its unpredictable place.

The morning sun is exceptionally soft and bright, in different angles, the desert rendered a variety of colors, but also only in such places, there will be a mirage as beautiful as the natural landscape.

As this place is close to Dunhuang is not too far away, the sand can often still see a few cactus general low plants, in the desert is so eye-catching, for the barren desert embellished with a touch of green vitality.

“Alright, don’t run around like crazy, seeing as in the last two days you’ll want to vomit when you see sand.”

Dr. Ren had a small smile on his face, when he first came here, his performance wasn’t much better than these young people, but after a few consecutive days of working in the desert, you’d feel what a blessing it was to be able to live in the city.

Lack of water, this is the first problem to face in the desert, bathing here is definitely a luxury, every day after work, and even clothes can not be washed, can only be sweat wet clothes thrown to the sand to dry, a few days down, there is no one is not grimy, back to the city without dressing up will be considered a beggar.

So in many archaeological teams, generally there is very little female presence, this time Dr. Ren originally wanted to let Xiaolei stay in Dunhuang, but the little girl is very stubborn, and finally followed into the desert.

“Dr. Ren, that place you mentioned, how much longer until we get there?”

This time, only two cars entered into the desert, now there is still a path, Zhuang Rui is afraid that if he travels further for some time, he won’t even see the road.

“It will take more than an hour, we have to drive the car to Qiu Jiawu there first, and then ride the camel to travel towards the North Gobi Beach, and then walk up for an hour or so to get there.”

Five or six years ago, Dr. Ren had followed Professor Meng on an expedition to a site in the desert that was originally supposed to have been a small town on the Silk Road, but had since been abandoned by the people and gradually covered by the wind and sand.

Not much has been unearthed from the site, but Dr. Ren learned from some of the documents unearthed from the site that more than a thousand years ago on the Silk Road, this place was once as prosperous as Dunhuang, that is, more than a hundred years ago, Wang Daoshi’s era, where there are still human beings living, only later the conditions became more and more harsh, and only moved away from here.

Now that site has been transformed into a tourist attraction for those domestic and foreign tourists who like to explore to go to play, Dr. Ren brought Zhuang Rui to go to the purpose of course not to go to be a donkey, but want to carry out a survey in the surrounding, to see if they can find ancient tombs that have not yet been discovered by the world.

Qiu Jiawu has a small natural oasis, not dry all year round, can be used for hundreds of people to live and drink, and thus developed into a small town, living dozens of families, this is also the closest to the ruins of the people living in the place, after Qiu Jiawu, is the vast desert Gobi.

Although the ruins from Dunhuang is not very far, but has completely entered the desert area, the vehicle can not pass, can only take the camel to go, so Qiu Jiawu has become a stopover to the ruins of the adventure, Zhuang Rui and others arrived at Qiu Jiawu, there are many tourists gathered here.

When they arrived at Qiu Jiawu, there were already many tourists gathered here. When they came to the outskirts of the town, they could see that almost every family had a camel, and many tourists were already sitting on the camels, marching towards the desert with their hands and feet in the air, and the sound of the camel bells and the people’s laughter were echoing in the town.

“Old Uncle Liu, are you home?”

Dr. Ren had worked here for a few months, and after parking his car outside the town, he led Zhuang Rui and the others straight to the door of a house, where Dr. Ren had been living during the archaeological work a few years ago.

On the way here Dr. Ren introduced the owner of this house to Zhuang Rui and the others. Old Uncle Liu was originally from Xi’an, and his ancestors moved their family to this sparsely populated place during the Qing Dynasty because they could not stand the harsh taxes of the government, and although the land that could be cultivated here was poor, it was always possible for people to live.

Old Liu has three sons, two of them have moved to the city, only he and his youngest son still hold on to the ancestral property, but with the tourism development of the desert site some years ago, the people who come to play gradually more and more, the old Liu’s days are quite nourishing.

“In, in, which one is it?”

The courtyard came the sound of promise, the courtyard door then opened from the inside, a wrinkled, skinny old man appeared in front of the crowd, “Qiangzi, it’s you kid ah! Quickly …… come in ……”

The old man was surprised to see Ren Chunqiang, and hurriedly greeted the crowd into the yard, his family’s yard is very large, in the middle of the yard there is a pressurized water well, there are shelves everywhere in the yard, which are covered with quite a lot of grape vines, and on the vines there are small yellow-green flowers in the shape of a cone.

Although it is not yet the season of ripening grapes, but after entering the courtyard, the green everywhere, so that more than an hour to see the yellow sand of the crowd, heart all feel a kind of cool.

After Old Liu head let the crowd into the courtyard, he walked to the door and looked down, returned to Dr. Ren and asked, “Laughing Qiangzi, how …… is it that Meng’s oldest brother didn’t come this time?”

Old Liu head is a few years older than Professor Meng, a few years ago when Professor Meng lived here, the two old men formed a deep friendship, this time to see Professor Meng did not come, look can not help but some disappointment.

Dr. Ren took out some gifts from his accompanying bag and placed them on the table, saying, “Old Uncle Liu, the teacher didn’t come this time, this is the gift he asked me to bring you, he asked me to send his regards to your old man, and to let you have time to go to Beijing to stay with him for a while.”

“Good, good, I will definitely go there when I have time, such a learned man as Meng is still thinking of me, I will definitely bother Meng to go there then.”

After hearing Dr. Ren’s words, the wrinkles on the old man’s face stretched out and he busied himself by taking out the warming bottle from the house and brewing up tea for everyone to.

“Old Uncle Liu, don’t get busy, we are here this time, but we want to invite you old man to come out.”

Dr. Ren stepped forward and grabbed the thermos in Old Liu’s hand, and said to Zhuang Rui: “Old Uncle Liu is a living map of this place, with him following, there is no fear of getting lost in this desert, when we conducted the expedition, it was Old Uncle Liu who was the guide.”

Desert terrain is unpredictable, often the moment before there is a sand mountain in front of you, but to the next moment may become a flat river, so want to carry out archaeological activities in the desert, a good guide who is familiar with the terrain is indispensable.