Chapter 24 – Stone Tomb

Sand Sea Devil’s Nest 13

Only to see that half of Ye Yixin’s body was trapped in the sand, she kept struggling, Shirley Yang was grabbing her arm and desperately dragging her out.

In the midst of the chaos, I don’t know who shouted, “Quicksand!”

We rushed forward following the footprints on the ground, pulling Ye Yixin in spite of everything ready to save her, and a few of us were too late to find ropes, so we unclipped our belts and tried to lasso her arms.

I did not expect to make much force, the Ye Yixin from the sand dragged out, look at that look is not quicksand, Ye Yixin scared to jump in Shirley Yang’s arms crying.

The guys asked them what’s going on. Shirley Yang is the only one who can help her.

Shirley Yang said to the crowd while comforting Ye Yixin: “We just walked to the back of the dune, Ye Yixin on a foot of air, the whole body sank half, I hurriedly pulled her, and then blew the whistle to call for help, but it seems that it is not quicksand, quicksand swallowing fast suction, if it is really quicksand, with my strength simply can not drag her, and she fell down half, then stopped, as if the lower side of the sand. After she fell halfway down, she stopped, as if the bottom is solid, otherwise you guys heard about it and rushed here, and delayed these ten seconds in the middle, it’s already too late to save people from the quicksand.”

Ye Yixin also came back to his senses, wiped his tears and said, “I seem to have stepped on a stone slab under the sand, and there is a section under the stone slab that is empty, and it collapsed as soon as I stepped on it.

Shirley Yang Qi said: “Could it be those stone graves? Let’s go take a look.”

We used a shovel to dig a few times to trap Ye Yixin’s place, not a thick layer of yellow sand, parallel to the slope of the dune, revealing a tilted stone wall, which was blown out by a large hole with zha drug.

It seems that the time of the explosion is not long, that is, the last few days, the wind and sand will be a thin layer of the hole to cover the hole, Ye Yixin is stepping on the broken hole side of the debris trapped in.

The crowd looked at the cave, you look at me, I look at you, face to face, this is clearly a stone tomb ah, has been stolen?

I carefully check the hole of the rubble, and the orientation of the explosion impact, precise small directional blasting, I did so many years of military engineers, I think the degree of familiarity with zha medicine, and memorization of the Mao Selection is almost the same, to let me come to blast this stone tomb, at best, is this level.

This is a full understanding of the resistance of the rock body, the explosion is only the stone wall collapsed, rubble spread outward, not the slightest damage to the interior of the tomb.

Look at the power of the zha drug, is by no means a civilian zha drug. Leaving the army for several years, is now even active duty PLA also inverted? Definitely not, maybe it’s a stolen zha drug. And in this boundless desert, how did the people who fought back find these ancient tombs? The topography of this neighborhood is exactly the same, is it possible that in addition to this half-baked level of this world, there are really other will see the sky star wind art of the inverted bucket masters?

The cleared area of the dune was getting bigger and bigger, it was a mallet shaped stone wall, except for the blasting side, the rest of it was buried deep under the yellow sand.

This was a typical stone tomb of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, huge thick mountain stones built into an arch, with the seams glued with hemp fish glue, such stone tombs were very common near the ruins of the Western Nights, and in the early nineteenth century, a European explorer once described it as follows: “Stone tombs are everywhere in the desert, large and small, innumerable, with more than half of them buried under the yellow sands, exposing the black spires on the outside, the Like a scaled-down version of the Egyptian Golden Tower, the sight of walking through the desert lined with stone tombs was breathtaking.”

Now these tombs have been completely covered by the desert, it is difficult to find their traces, Professor Chen estimates that may be related to the big sandstorm a few days ago, high winds make this tomb exposed part of the tomb, I did not expect that those tomb raiders come so fast, the archaeological team or a step too late.

Xinjiang’s ancient tombs and relics, the history of the biggest looting was before World War II, the early nineteenth century, the eastern Taklamakan Loulan, the southern edge of the Niya, the cultural relics of those places are almost all robbed, and now the tomb robbers have their claws into the southwest of the Black Desert area, where the natural conditions of the harsh, sparsely populated, but it is the joy of the tomb robbers.

Along the way we have seen several ancient tombs damaged by theft, no wonder Prof. Chen is so anxious to fight for his life to enter the desert, if we don’t stop the tomb robbing activities in this area, I’m afraid that in the near future, nothing will be left.

Tomb of the hole in the dark, I and Professor Chen Hao Aiguo and other people with a flashlight to go in to check, the tomb is equivalent to the size of a small bungalow, which is scattered with four or five wooden coffins, coffins are pried bad, thrown to the side, everywhere has been turned over a piece of the wolf.

Look at those coffins, there are big and small, seems to be a joint tomb, coffins in the ancient corpse only a young woman’s dry body, long hair braids, only the head is relatively well preserved, the body has been broken, and the rest of the material is thought to have been moved by grave robbers.

Ancient tombs in the desert of Xinjiang, and the value of the treasure is equal, is the tomb of the dry corpse, I heard Professor Chen said, the ancient corpse is divided into a wet corpse with water, such as the Mawangdui female corpse, there is a wax corpse, is a kind of special treatment of the body, frozen corpse exists in the snow for 10,000 years of glaciers, tanned corpses are similar to zombies, the rest of the specimen like the irrigation of the body, the body, such as the body of the corpse.

Dry corpse is also divided into a number of species, with lime or charcoal and other desiccant in the coffin, the formation of dry corpses, but also like the ancient Egyptian special embalming techniques, artificially manufactured mummies.

And the dried corpse in Xinjiang is completely in a high temperature, dry, sterile special environment formed naturally, this kind of dried corpse, the age of a little long, it is quite valuable, some overseas museums, exhibition halls, collectors compete for high prices.

Professor Chen saw that the rest of the dry corpses in this stone tomb have been stolen and destroyed, and could not stop sighing, so he had to let a few students to organize all the broken items in the tomb, to see if anything else could be salvaged.

I worry that the professor is too excited, the body can not withstand, so advised to rest early, Professor Chen also instructed Hao Aiguo a few words, let him lead the people to the situation of the stone tomb detailed records, the fat man sent him back to the camp to rest.

The next day the wind still didn’t stop, it just blew unhurriedly, when the archaeological team set off, Prof. Chen found me, he said that the stone tomb we saw last night, was stolen no more than three or five days, perhaps there is a team of grave robbers have already entered the depths of the Black Desert earlier than we did, we can’t afford to delay, we’d better hurry up and catch them.”

I casually cope with a few sentences, I thought that the mother of God do not run into, peers are enemies, not to mention that the gang of guys who stole this stone tomb, there are military zha medicine, there may be some sharp instruments, and they encountered, inevitably will have to fight, I don’t care, the problem is that these archaeological team of intellectuals, in the event of death or injury, the responsibility can be too big.

But this is back, the vast desert, the two teams want to meet, how easy it is, if not we saw yesterday this dune is the highest one in the vicinity, will not camp there, will not be even more by mistake encountered the stolen tomb, which there is a second so coincidental, maybe those guys stole the dry body on the back.

Subsequently, the ten days, the archaeological team in the black desert deeper and deeper, and finally lost track of the Zidu dark river, for several days in the same place in circles, Zidu in the ancient Wei language means “shadow”, this underground river is like a shadow, can not be captured, the eyes of the old man of the Anliman all glaring red, and finally shook his hand, completely no way. It seems that Hu Da only allows us to go as far as here.

People tired, no one can not walk, these days there is no wind in the desert, the sun hangs in the sky for an exceptionally long time, in order to save drinking water, the team dug a pit in the sand during the day, the top of the support of the rain canvas, inhaling the cool air on the ground, to keep the body hydrated, only at night and in the morning to travel, half of the road riding a camel, half of the road to drive the No. 11.

Further on, there was not enough food or water, and if we did not turn back within a day or two, we would have to slaughter the camels for food on the way back.

I looked at these exhausted people with ripped lips and knew that I was almost at my limit. Seeing that the sun was rising and the temperature was getting warmer, I told everyone to dig a pit and rest.

After settling down, Shirley Yang found An Liman and me to discuss the route.

Shirley Yang said, “Captain Hu, old Mr. An Liman, in my copy of the British explorer’s notes, there is this record, that British explorer also lost track of the Zidu Dark River in the depths of the Black Desert, and in this sea of death where not a blade of grass grows, the two huge black magnetic mountains stand opposite each other facing the afterglow of the setting sun, just like the two ancient warriors clad in black armor that Silently guarding the ancient secrets, through the valley like a gate, a legendary city appeared in front of us.”