Volume 4Chapter 15: Double fresco

The wind lantern was moved to the side of the rock face to provide additional lighting, and the dim light cast on the rock gave it an ancient and mysterious feel.

The fresco The colors are very bright, using a lot of blood-like red, in the light of the uncertain source, flashing the brilliance of glass, as if the whole rock is bleeding, hidden under another layer of paint, the mural can be preserved so well, it is really incredible.

However, what really surprised us was the content of the mural. It is difficult for me to describe in words what is painted on it. The mural is divided into two parts, which describe different things, but when combined together, it looks very complete and beautiful.

Hua and The monk’s eyes lit up and he said to himself, “This must be a scene from the war between the Emperor of Dongxia and the Mongols. Look at this man, he must be the King of the Wanyu. This is probably the legendary war that destroyed the Dongxia kingdom.”

I knew very little about Dongxia, and the others were obviously not very knowledgeable either. They all listened to him continue.

He came He exclaimed, pointing at the murals, “This is the army of the King of the Manchus.” He then pointed at the cavalry on the other side and said, “This is the Mongolian army. You can see that the Mongolians outnumbered the army of the Dongxia by far. This was an overwhelming war.”

I looked I looked in the direction he was pointing and saw a picture of arrows and stones flying. The fat guy looked at it and wondered what was strange about it. He asked, “Why do the faces of the Dongxia army look like women’s faces?”

I looked at it and thought it was strange too. Could it be that the Dongxia people relied on women to fight? If not, there would be no justice in the country’s demise. Hua He said, “No, this is a feature of the Dongxia murals. You can see that all the people are very handsome. I have also found some strange phenomena in the allusions. It seems that everyone who has dealt with the Dongxia Kingdom says that in the Dongxia Kingdom, you can’t see old people, and everyone is very young. The Koreans say that even when the people of Dongzhen die, they maintain a youthful appearance.”

The fat man frowning, seemed to be unable to figure out why it was like this. I felt that it might have something to do with the customs of some ethnic minorities. Some ethnic groups don’t allow the elderly to meet guests. I didn’t think much of it and continued to look at it with the others.

Hua Shifu pointed to the second part of the mural and said, “This section records the battle. You see, the Dongxia people fought against three enemies, but were shot to death by the Mongols one after another. The battle eventually turned into a massacre.”

The mural The mural uses a lot of red to show the ferocity of the war, and the sense of substitution is extremely strong. I felt as if I was watching the Dongxia soldiers fall in groups into the bloodbath, and the Mongolian cavalry trampling over their bodies, burning houses and slaughtering men.

The third part of the mural. It was pressed against the back of a huge stone, and we couldn’t move it, but it was estimated that it should be a continuation of the content here.

At this time I felt confused and interrupted him, saying, “No, the Dongxia state was destroyed by the Mongols long ago, wasn’t it? According to the information I read, they only existed for about 70 years and were always at war. If they built the Yunding Palace, how could such a small state have the ability to build such a large-scale tomb under the circumstances at that time?”

After I As soon as I said this, many people showed signs of agreement. Dongxia was a regime that suddenly appeared in the area of Jilin and Heilongjiang during the period when the Jurchen were destroyed. I remember that the founding emperor of Dongxia, Wan Nuwang, didn’t even have time to pass the throne to the next generation before the Mongols destroyed him by detouring through Joseon. At that time, the Mongols were extremely powerful, killing gods and Buddhas when they met them. If the scene on the mural was really that decisive battle, the Mongols, with their character, should have been completely destroyed.

And at that time, the productivity of the various Jurchen tribes was still very low. At that time, the productivity of the various tribes of the Jurchen was still very low, and there was no large labor force. Even if the country had not been destroyed, it would have been impossible to build such a huge tomb.

What Chen Pi A-si said, that the emperor of Dongxia was really buried in the Yunding Palace, was impossible to think of, because they did not have the time or the strength.

There was no There is no reason to believe that if we infer from what we saw in the underwater tomb that the legendary mausoleum was built by Wang Zanghai, then the dynasty that built it should be the late Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the Dongxia Kingdom had already been destroyed for hundreds of years, so where would there be a Dongxia emperor to be buried?

We all turned our attention to Chen Pi A Si, saying that it was he who said that the Dongxia emperor was buried in the Yunding Palace, but now it seems that there is absolutely no possibility of this.

Chen Pi A-si knew what we were thinking, looked at the murals expressionlessly, snorted, then looked at Hua and said, “Since they don’t believe it, monk, you tell them.”

Hua and monk promised, turned to us and smiled: “I know what you are suspicious of. I dare say you are all wrong. Most of the information you have seen about the Eastern Xia Dynasty is based on incomplete ancient books. In fact, there is very little information left about the Eastern Xia Dynasty. In foreign countries, they don’t even recognize that such a country existed. So it is hard to say how much of the information you have seen is actually true.”

The fat man said, “In that case, what makes you think your information is correct?”

Hua Shang said, “That’s right, because our information is more direct.” He took out a white cloth from his pocket and unfolded it in front of us.

It was the snake-browed bronze fish from the auction!

How could they have it? I frowned and suddenly realized something.

Since no one bought it and the fish was in the hands of Chen Pi A Si, did that mean that Chen Pi A Si was the seller of the fish?

My whole body trembled My body trembled, and I tried my best to keep my composure and not show too much surprise. But my mind was in a complete mess, and countless questions were exploding in my head. I didn’t know whether I was feeling fear or excitement, and I just felt my hands and feet suddenly go cold as if I had lost all the blood in my body.

Hua and The monk did not notice my expression and continued, “This copper fish is a strange form of dragon. Our old master got it by chance. I believe it was made by someone who knew the inside story of Dongxia. The strange thing is that he used a very clever method to embed a top secret message in the copper fish. Look.”

He put the the bronze fish to the side of the lantern, the gold-plated scales reflected a golden light, shooting many fine light spots on the mural. Hua turned the fish body. The light spots began to change, and gradually, they turned into spots in the style of Chinese characters.

“The secret is here. There are a total of 47 Jurchen characters hidden in the scales of this fish.”

I I said to myself, “There’s such a technique? Pinching the other two copper fish in my pocket, I asked him tremblingly, ‘What is it?’

”Because the information on it is incomplete, I haven’t deciphered it all yet. But I’m sure the person who made this fish wanted to record something without letting others find out. Here, the true history of Dongxia is recorded.” Hua said the monk with a hint of pride. “In fact, long before I saw this thing, I had already deduced from many clues that the Dongxia regime had always existed, but they had retreated to the depths of the mountains, and for hundreds of years, I don’t know what they relied on. This extremely weak regime survived between the extremely powerful Mongols and the menacing Goryeo. I studied the Goryeo chronicles, and until the Ming dynasty was established, there were still people who saw people wearing strange clothes in the snowy mountains here. I think should be the remnants of the Dongxia people.“

He pointed to the bronze fish again and said, ‘The scattered records here prove my theory. After the decisive battle with the Mongols, the Dongxia retreated to the border of Jilin and Korea, where they remained hidden for hundreds of years. There were a total of 14 emperors. The Mongols and Goryeo tried to destroy this small country more than once, but failed for a strange reason.’

”What reason?” Pan Zi asked. ‘Can you speak more plainly, monk?’

Hua He Monk Huo shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. The information on the fish is incomplete. There must be other things recorded in other parts, but based on the few words I have, I dare say that the existence of the Dongxia Kingdom may have been very strange. We have been looking for it, but unfortunately, our old master has been looking for many years and has not found the other parts.” He paused and said, “Do you know what the last sentence of these Jurchen characters means?”

I said of course not, Ye Cheng took over and asked, “What?”

Hua monk looked at us and said, “It says that the kings of the past were not human.”

“Not human, then what?” the fat man said.

Hua monk put the bronze fish away, “It says that they are all monsters that crawl out of the ground!”

Not I thought to myself. Everyone looked at each other, and I think they all felt a little bit scared. Ye Cheng asked, “That can’t be the case. Could it be that the emperor is a dragon, not a human being?”

“I I originally thought he was referring to the metaphor of the true dragon emperor, but after studying it, I found that these people should just want to record some secrets, and be more objective about the historical records of Dongxia, so they shouldn’t use such respectful language. Moreover, if it’s like you said, imagine if you were to congratulate the emperor on his birthday, you would first say, Your Majesty, you really aren’t human, and I’m afraid you would be beheaded before you could finish your second sentence. No one would write it like that.” He smiled mysteriously secretly smiled: “And, the last sentence is written very clearly and very abruptly. I have always been very concerned about it. If I can get the other parts, I will be able to decipher what this sentence means.”

The fat man and the mummy bottle both knew that I actually had the other two bronze fish in my hand, but out of caution, they didn’t say anything. I grabbed the bronze fish in my pocket and suddenly felt that they had become heavy.

For a moment I didn’t know whether I should take out the two fish. In fact, the two fish didn’t mean anything to me. I didn’t know the Manchu language, and I couldn’t read it even if they showed it to me. But if I gave it to them, I felt that it would be very inappropriate.

Pan Zi stared at the mural and said to himself, “The man on the mural could be the King of the Ten Thousand Slaves. He looks human, not like a monster. The fat man patted him and said to the monk, ‘Scarface, I’m telling you, don’t bother trying to decipher it. We’re just ordinary people. Don’t try to be intellectual. When the coffin opens, it’ll be clear whether it’s a human or a dog.’

The monk smiled and said, ‘What I mean is, it’s always better to know yourself and your enemy.’

”But But why would the person who painted this mural put these things here? The fat guy asked, “To remember the hatred of the country and family?”

The monk shook his head, obviously not knowing. I thought about it and said, “It’s possible that after painting the mural here, the stone was mined in one piece, or it was simply painted to kill time. You see, it’s so warm here. Maybe the craftsmen at the time used this place to rest.”

No one convinced me, so the monk began to photograph these things to keep as data.

We We rested enough, our spirits gradually recovered, and we began to take turns resting. Chen Pi A Si had his people take turns going outside and staying there. If the snow stopped, they would climb in and call us, and we would begin to take turns sleeping.

When I woke up, Shunzi had also woken up, apologizing to us. Fat Boy didn’t even bother to talk to him. I took something for him to eat and let him rest. I still had to rely on him to continue going up.

Inside There was no day and night rotation inside, and I had no idea how long it had been. It was probably two or three days. The snow finally stopped, and we climbed out of the crevice one after another. It had cleared up outside, and everywhere was a vast white world.

We organized our equipment and found that we had eaten too much in these few days. We estimated that without supplies, we would run out of food before we reached our destination. I asked Shunzi if there was any way out, and he said that there really wasn’t much of a way above the snow line. Either we would have to go back and come back again, or we would have to distribute the food and eat as little as possible.

In the crevice , Chen Pi A Si taught us a lot of tips for being on the snowy mountain, such as using sanitary napkins as shoe insoles, which can absorb foot sweat, keep your feet dry, and keep your body warm. We followed his method, and it was really good, but I personally felt very awkward. I thought about what the expression would be if we entered the tomb and only found these things, and then after a few years, an archaeological team found them and saw this kind of thing on the edge of the coffin.

We We used ropes to climb the steep slope. There were many fresh hoof prints on the ground. The fat man squatted down and said, “It seems that Ah Ning’s group has overtaken us and is ahead of us.”

Without saying a word, we put on our goggles and set off immediately. Two hours later, we saw Ah Ning’s group on a hillside. They had obviously suffered a great loss. Only twenty or so of the thirty people were left, and only half of the horses were there.

We remained motionless and observed them. I saw that A Ning was staring at a direction with binoculars, and I looked in that direction as well. Suddenly, my eyelids jumped.

I saw a snow-covered mountain towering in the distance, seemingly connected to other mountains, but also very abrupt. It was the very mountain peak I had seen in the underwater tomb. Its shape was almost the same as in the shadow play.

“This is it,” I thought to myself, pointing to the mountain and turning to Shunzi and asking, ‘What mountain is that? How can we get there?’

Shunzi put his hand up to shade his eyes and looked at it. He changed his tone and said, ”So you want to go there? You can’t go there!”