C3626

Shang Tai and the others started to advance along the dried up river towards the Dunhuang. The journey was not long, but they walked very slowly, because they were able to find archaeological ruins that were worth searching for.

With the help of the guide and a small portion of the local scholars, Shang Tai finally found the main reason behind the decline of the Dunhuang from the Yuan Dynasty onwards.

It was also because of this research that Dunhuang had begun to shine in the hands of Shang Tai. The Ryukyu King of the Eastern Ocean had actually established a karmic connection with the Dunhuang of the desert tens of thousands of miles away due to a miraculous fate.

The decline of the Dunhuang could definitely be explained by economic, political, religious and natural factors!

Firstly, the economy, from the Tang Dynasty onwards, the ancient silk road gradually declined. Due to the war and chaos of the ancient way becoming more and more dangerous to trade, the Han Dynasty in the Song Dynasty had already completely lost control of the Western Regions. In order to fight against the foreign tribes, the Song Dynasty's people were under a very strict trade embargo.

It was already hard to see merchants roaming the ancient Silk Road, but on the southeast coast, there was a gathering of ten thousand sails.

The Central Asia countries that controlled Eurasian communications were also a mercantile race, so the advantages of maritime transport and transportation were obvious at a glance.

When the ancient silk road lost the nourishment of the powerful economic bloodline, and when the ancient silk road gradually became abandoned, the material foundation built by the Dunhuang also disappeared.

In addition to the natural environment, the Western Regions originally had very little rainfall. The agriculture and animal husbandry industry here practically relied on the mountain range to thaw the snow, and the oases created by the Season River and the Inland River were the foundation of the founding of the ancient Western Regions.

However, for thousands of years, human activities had seriously damaged the fragile natural balance and the desertification had become more and more serious. The massive regression of the agriculture and animal husbandry had made this place no longer suitable for human habitation.

Or perhaps, it could be said that this place was no longer suitable for the living conditions of the majority of the population.

The third important factor was the political one. After the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the country was supposed to develop its economy internally, restore its vitality and focus on the remaining parts of Meng Yuan as its main opponents.

Towards the Western Regions which already had many economic benefits, Zhu Yuanzhang and his descendants were all very indifferent. They were unwilling to put in too much effort, and only wanted to maintain the submissiveness of the local governments on the surface.

The main purpose of the Ming Dynasty when it rebuilt the Jiayuguan and the Great Wall of Ming Dynasty, rebuilt the city of Sanzhou, and set up the seven guards of Kansai was only defensive. The entire Ming dynasty had two hundred and seventy-six years of history, and the whole government had no interest in the Western Regions.

In fact, during the war of the Tulufan Empire against the Hami, the Ming Dynasty gave up all of the land west of the Jiayuguan and completely sealed off the communication between the Central Plains and the Western Regions.

For a super project like the Dunhuang, if he did not have the support of the government, then the final result would be obvious!

The last reason was naturally religion!

The most important reason why the Dunhuang was eventually forced to give up on construction and maintenance was because of the religious changes in the Western Regions. During the righteous era, the Dunhuang had already been breached by the Tulufan Han Empire, and due to the three years of the Ming Dynasty of Jiajing, the defenses to the west of the Jiayuguan was unable to be maintained.

At this time, the Western Regions was also the time when the biggest religion in history changed. The Buddhist enemies would naturally not allow the Mogao's cave to continue building.

Since the time of the Ming Dynasty, the Dunhuang had actually already gone to waste. Due to the war and the abandonment of the Central Plains Dynasty, even the most basic county system had been abolished.

There were no cities, no towns, everything returned to nomadic life. The city became a small town, the town became ruins, and the farmland became desert or pasture.

The farming civilization was completely abandoned, and this piece of land returned to the nomadic civilization from a long time ago!

Fortunately, the yellow sand that filled the sky buried those Buddhist caves, so these artistic treasures didn't get the attention of the Han Dynasty, which was why there weren't any large-scale acts of destruction.

It wasn't until Kang Xi's time that he saw the footprints of the Central Plains people again. At the late stage of the Kang Xi Dynasty, the Qing Government had gradually regained control of the Western Regions.

It was only until the time of the Yongzheng that the military academy was reestablished in the Dunhuang, known as the Shazhou Guards! At the same time, they moved to 2,400 households in Gansu province and gathered some of the veterans at the same time. Only then did the Dunhuang gradually regain a little bit of life force.

From that, it could be seen that from the Ming Qing Dynasty until the time of Kang Xi, the Dunhuang was basically in ruins, without any city construction except for a small group of herdsmen.

In the end, even if the Qing Dynasty wanted to restore governance here, they would have to migrate from the mainland. It could be seen how badly the Dunhuang had been destroyed over these past two hundred years.

Sitting on the camel's back, Shang Tai recorded the history of the changes in the entire Dunhuang. He also ordered his subordinates to make a copy and passed it to the Chinese soldier horses to pass it to the people behind.

Shang Tai realized that there were a lot of things that he couldn't understand, but when he went in deeper, he realized that this was definitely not a simple matter.

In the letter to Xiao Letian, Shang Tai had said very clearly, "The treasure mentioned by the leader is a treasure that this disciple discovered. It is much more shocking than what the leader has described …"

"This piece of yellow sand is simply a living specimen from the history of the Western Regions. From the sixteen kingdoms to Sui Tang and Song Yuan, you can clearly see the different traces left behind by history …"

"Furthermore, there are a lot of ancient cities and ancient tombs. Even without the Mogao's cave s, we have already gathered a lot of ancient books and Buddhist scriptures …"

"Leader, you should know about the Mogao's cave, but you might not know that there is an Elm's Cave here. It's even closer than the Mogao's cave, and just the Buddhist statues and frescoes here already let the Expedition stay here for half a month …"

"This is not a place where you can figure it out in a couple of years... "I'm afraid we'll need one or two or even several generations to figure out the secrets of this place …"

"This matter has a lot of implications, it is definitely not something that a single disciple can accomplish alone … I'm afraid the Chinese will have to take the lead with their government functions in order to achieve any success! "

"This disciple pays his respects to Master from thousands of miles away. I hope Master Wan Xiang will make his decision soon!"

Shang Tai brought the Dunhuang directly to the point where he needed to intervene in order to fulfill the functions of the Chinese government. It was also because of the wealth of historical sites and cultural relics that convinced him.

Before even seeing the Mogao's cave, Shang Tai was already shocked by the Buddhist cave in Yulin Castle. He could not imagine how beautiful the Mogao's cave, which the leader had been thinking about day and night, would be!

Ancient Road of Yellow Sand, Camel Bell Tink... When the sunset pressed onto the edge of the sand dune and cast the last ray of red light towards the desert, the eyes of Shang Tai and all the members of Expedition, suddenly popped out a strange scene that they would never forget for the rest of their lives.

The guide rushed to the top of the dune, which was five or six meters high, and shouted, "Here we are..." Here we are … Another 20 li to the south would be the Buddha Cavern. We've finally arrived! "

Pa da, the water bottle in Shang Tai's hand fell onto the sand, and no one cared about the water that was scattered all over the ground!

The sand dune looked down. It was a crescent-shaped ice lake. In the middle of the lake, there was even a slight fluctuation of water. It seemed that this wasn't stagnant water. There was a spring under the water!

"It's really the crescent moon!" Good Standard Shapes... Continue moving forward, and take advantage of the night to hurry here. We must see the Mogao's cave tonight! "