"Demon, Demon King..."

King Shanshan had just believed that Wu Liang was a general under Boss Cao, and believed that he might, should, or be a human being, so he immediately rejected this speculation.

He is definitely a top-grade demon king in Buddhism.

It is impossible for a mere middle-grade demon and a low-grade witch to be as evil as Wu Liang!

King Shanshan already had a very clear understanding of the power of these two small bronze jars. Wu Liang did not deceive him. This thing could kill him to pieces in an instant. The previous generals Xia Hafu and Pu Shan

The mage is a lesson learned from the past.

Especially for masters like Master Pushan who have attained Arahantship, not even a relic that should have been left behind...

Before, King Shanshan did not dare to resist, but now that these two small bronze jars that could destroy heaven and earth were tied up, King Shanshan was even more unable to resist. Even his movements were much stiffer, and he crossed his arms to try to avoid touching them.

When he saw the small bronze jar, he saluted Wu Liang with a smile on his face and said, "Thank you for your gift, but this gift is too expensive, and Xiao Wang really can't bear it."

"It doesn't matter. If Your Majesty really doesn't want it, I certainly won't force it on anyone. We will just take it with you when we leave."

Wu Liang said with a smile.

"That……"

King Shanshan immediately moved his lips and wanted to speak. Wu Liang had already understood his thoughts, and then smiled and said: "The next time the Black Dragon Storm of Camelback attacks, it will be when we leave. Before that, I'm afraid,

If I want to bother His Majesty for a while, Your Majesty won’t welcome it, right?”

"Haha, your Excellency has come all the way. Xiao Wang wants to show off his friendship as a landlord. How dare you...how can you not welcome him?"

King Shanshan's face vividly interprets what it means to be "forced to do business", which is obviously a sign of duplicity.

"Since Your Majesty is so hospitable, I would rather be respectful than obey, please."

As he spoke, Wu Liang made a gesture of invitation.

King Shanshan was forced to go ahead.

Wu Liang and his entourage followed behind and entered the palace openly in front of hundreds of guards and soldiers.

This palace is neither big nor small.

The total area should be about the same as a later sports ground. From the outside, it seems that the palace was built with adobe like the residential buildings in the city.

But when we got inside, we discovered that this was actually a more solid masonry castle, and traces of masonry could be seen on the walls.

The layer of adobe wrapped outside the castle is actually just a thick layer of thermal insulation.

In addition, the decoration of the palace is indeed magnificent.

Because the waistline of this palace is very high, the height of the first floor is also very considerable, about four or five meters, and there are many colorful murals painted on the very high masonry walls.

.

The style of the murals is also very unique.

Some parts were obviously influenced by Han culture. Not only did they use the popular cloud patterns in the Han Dynasty, they also painted some pictures of dragons and phoenixes that were characteristic of the Han Dynasty's court culture.

And some parts are still documentary murals with the characteristics of the Western Regions related to maids playing music and riding and shooting patrols.

There is also a part that depicts a banquet for guests. From the clothes of the characters in the mural, especially the crowns worn by the characters, it is obvious that many of these people are authentic Han Chinese and officials of the Han Dynasty.

This type of mural should commemorate the "friendship" between the Han Dynasty and Shanshan State.

After all, the name of "Loulan Kingdom" was changed to "Shanshan Kingdom" thanks to the Han Dynasty, and the establishment of Jani City is also inseparable from the Han Dynasty.

Historical records: In 92 BC, King Angui of Loulan came to the throne, killed the Han envoys, and surrendered to the Huns. In 77 BC, the envoy of the Han Dynasty, Fu Jiezi, on the orders of Han Zhaodi Liu Fuling, designed to assassinate King Angui of Loulan and replaced his brother who was pro-Han

Wei Tuqi became king and the country's name was changed to Shanshan.

With such a profound "friendship", King Shanshan naturally had to express it.

At the very least, when envoys from the Han Dynasty and officials from the Western Region Protectorate came to inspect, they had to have an attitude that would make sense.

Among these murals, what instantly attracts endless attention is the circular picture at the top composed of 9 sectors.

A total of 9 portraits are drawn in these 9 fan shapes, and what is different from ordinary portraits is that a pair of small white wings are painted on the backs of these 9 portraits...

"Winged Angel Picture"?

Wu Liang was pleasantly surprised, because later generations had also discovered the "Picture of the Winged Angel", but it was in "Yisun City" which was still some distance away from here.

In the late Qing Dynasty, when the country was losing power and humiliating the country, Stein, a British Hungarian, came here to commit robberies in the name of expedition. When he discovered the "Winged Angel Picture" in the cloister ruins of Xidai Temple in Yixun City, he immediately took these pictures.

The treasures belonging to Chinese civilization were uncovered and taken overseas.

The "Picture of the Winged Angel" is currently stored in the British Museum.

Wu Liang had only seen the picture of the "Winged Angel Picture" in some books. It was a man in red, with thick eyebrows and big eyes. He was slightly fat and had a bald head with only a small patch of hair left in the middle.

Similar to the Khitan hairstyle.

Later, when domestic archaeologists inspected Lop Nur, they also discovered some of the "Winged Angel Pictures" murals. Unfortunately, many of these murals have been severely damaged and eroded, and their integrity is not comparable to the one stolen by Stein.

Comparable to murals.

In addition, Stein also used many extremely disgraceful methods to steal a large number of precious cultural relics from Niya, Loulan ruins, and Dunhuang. In 1907 and 1914 alone, he stole 10,000 pieces of cultural relics from the Chinese Empire.

There are many cultural relics, including a large number of precious ancient books and documents in the Mogao Grottoes.

Moreover, due to Stein's extensive excavation and theft, the number of cultural relics and relics destroyed was too numerous to list.

therefore.

Although Stein had a very high status in Western academic circles, in Wu Liang's eyes, he was first and foremost an out-and-out robber and invader.

This kind of evaluation may not be objective enough and does not conform to the dialectical scientific attitude advocated by Marxism, nor does it conform to the neutral attitude that archaeologists should have when evaluating historical figures. However, Wu Liang still adheres to this view and will never accept refutation.

correct.

Because archaeologists are first and foremost citizens, and citizens have national boundaries.

Having gone too far, Wu Liang took a long breath to disperse the depression in his heart, and then continued to carefully observe these 9 "Pictures of Winged Angels".

It is different from the "Picture of Winged Angels" he saw in later generations.

The images of these 9 "winged angel pictures" are images of female human beings...

In fact, Wu Liang knew that in most religious theologies that have appeared in the West and Central Asia, "angels" actually have no gender. They are a pure spiritual body with outstanding intelligence and huge power.

It needs to be transformed into any material form.

After Stein stole the "Picture of a Winged Angel", he declared in an extremely excited tone in his work: "This is really a great discovery! The earliest angels in the world were found here. They were probably there." He flew to China two thousand years ago. The murals in the ancient city of Milan are among the oldest preserved murals in China. The 'Winged Angel' here can be said to be the farthest point of the spread of ancient Roman art to the east!"

However, as far as Wu Liang knows, in the religions that existed in ancient Rome, "angels" also had no gender.

The "winged angels" appearing in the Loulan ancient murals have extremely obvious gender distinctions, which is already somewhat unreasonable.

And now that the female "Winged Angel" mural is right in front of him, combined with the male "Winged Angel" mural discovered later, he can already hold part of the evidence.

Except Wu Liang thinks so.

Mr. Yan Wenru, a famous scholar of the later Chinese dynasty, also publicly refuted Stein's argument, believing that he had serious Western "arrogance and prejudice" in his archaeological work and forcibly brought ancient Western myths into the Buddhist culture and culture of the Chinese dynasty. In traditional culture, this is why such hasty and insufficiently based conclusions are given.

This move is not only far-fetched, but also confuses many concepts and has a negative impact on the archaeological work of the ancient Loulan country.

in addition.

Wu Liang's trip has been confirmed, and the current state religion of the ancient Loulan country is Hinayana Buddhism.

The royal family and most of the residents believe in Hinayana Buddhism, and how can the royal family who believe in Hinayana Buddhism paint things from other sects in the palace, and also paint them on the top of the palace, which is obviously treated differently from other murals?

This is obviously even more unexplainable...

"Your Majesty, these portraits of women with wings are so strange. Could they have some unusual meaning?"

With this in mind, Wu Liang deliberately asked King Shanshan with a confused expression.

"You don't know something, but this is the portrait of Loulan's ancestor."

King Shanshan raised his head and glanced at the "Winged Angel" mural above, immediately performed a chest caressing ceremony, and said quite piously.

"Ancestor Loulan?"

Wu Liang was stunned. This statement was obviously far from what he had previously understood.

"Exactly."

King Shanshan frowned slightly and said seriously, "To be honest, more than 360 years ago, our ancestors led their people to flee here to avoid the disaster of war. At that time, they were already at the end of their rope, but they encountered another There was a terrible sandstorm. After the sandstorm, most of the clan members were killed or injured. When our ancestors were desperate, they found that they had unknowingly arrived in front of a dilapidated ruins from a long time ago. The ancestors then led the remaining clan members into the ruins. I was hiding from the wind and sand, but after entering, I suddenly discovered that there were still people in this ruins!"

"Ouch!"

When King Shanshan said this, he suddenly raised the tone, and the atmosphere was so perfect that Yu Ji was so frightened that he unconsciously screamed. As a result, Yu Ji's scream startled everyone who was paying attention to the story. Everyone looked over with disgust.

"You can't blame me for this..."

Yu Ji looked embarrassed, and then complained dissatisfiedly to King Shanshan, "You are also the king of a country. You can speak when you want to, and you are not afraid of humiliating your status if you are surprised?"

However, Wu Liang felt that King Shanshan was quite to his liking.

This is telling a story, especially when it sounds like it is a rather mysterious story. If you don’t stir up the atmosphere with a sudden surprise, wouldn’t it make the originally wonderful story lose some of its flavor?

"Ignore him, Your Majesty, please continue."

Wu Liang smiled and said to King Shanshan, who was a little angry and dared not speak. Then he glanced at Yu Ji and reminded him kindly, "Old sir, if you continue to hold Yang Wanli's arm, I guess he will
To be continued...