It was eerily quiet all around. The wind lamp was lifted to the side of the rock wall to enhance the lighting. The dim light shone on the rocks, giving people a feeling of antiquity and mystery.
The colors of the murals are very bright, using a large amount of blood-red. Under the uncertain light source, they flash with the luster of glass, as if the whole rock is oozing blood. It is incredible that the murals hidden under another layer of paint can be preserved so well.
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, each recording a different thing, but when put together, it is very complete and it is truly beautiful.
Monk Hua's eyes lit up as he watched, and he said to himself, "This should be a scene of a war between the Emperor Wannu of Dongxia and the Mongols. Look at this man, this man should be King Wannu himself. This is probably the war that was said to have led to the destruction of Dongxia."
I knew very little about Dongxia, and the others were obviously not well versed in it either, so we all kept silent and listened to him continue.
He looked at the patterns in amazement, pointed to one side of the mural, where a large number of soldiers wearing furs and armor were standing, and said, "This is the army of King Wannu." He then pointed to the cavalry on one side and said, "This is the Mongolian army. You see, their numbers far outnumber the Dongxia army. This is an overwhelming war."
I looked in the direction he pointed and saw arrows and rocks flying everywhere. Fatty looked at it and thought something was strange. He asked, "Why do the Dongxia army have faces like women?"
I also found it strange. Did the Dongxia people rely on women to fight? It would be unjust if the country didn't perish. Monk Hua 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 anecdotes. It seems that all the people who have dealt with the Dongxia Kingdom said that there are no old people in Dongxia. All the people are very young. Koreans say that the people of Dongxia keep their youthful appearance even when they die."
The fat man frowned, as if he couldn't figure out why this happened. I felt that this might have something to do with the customs of some ethnic minorities. In some ethnic groups, the elderly cannot see guests. I didn't care and continued to watch with the others.
Monk Hua pointed to the second part of the mural and said, "This part records the battle. You see, the Dongxia people fought one against three, but were still shot to death by the Mongols one after another. The war ended up as a massacre."
The murals used a lot of red to express the cruelty of the war. I felt so immersed in the story that I seemed to see Dongxia soldiers falling in a pool of blood one after another, and the Mongolian cavalry stepped over their bodies, burning houses and slaughtering men.
The third part of the mural is pressed behind a huge stone and we cannot move it away, but it is estimated that it should be a continuation of the content here.
At this time, I felt confused and interrupted him: "That's not right. Wasn't the country of Eastern Xia destroyed by the Mongols a long time ago? I read the information and said that they have only existed for more than seventy years and have been fighting. If they built the Yunding Temple, how could such a small country be able to build such a large mausoleum under the circumstances at that time?"
As soon as I said this, many people showed their approval. Dongxia was a political power that suddenly appeared in Jilin and Heilongjiang during the period when the Jurchens were destroyed. In my memory, its founding emperor, King Wannu, didn't even have time. After passing the throne to the next generation, the Mongols bypassed North Korea and destroyed it. At that time, Mongolia was extremely powerful. When they met gods, they killed gods, and when they met Buddhas, they killed Buddhas. If the scene on the mural was really that decisive battle, the Mongols would His character should be completely destroyed.
At that time, the productivity among the Jurchen tribes was still very low. Without a large labor force, even if the country was not destroyed, it would be impossible to build such a huge tomb.
What Chenpi Asi said, that the Emperor of Dongxia was really buried in the Yunding Palace, was impossible no matter how one thought about it, because they did not have the time nor the strength to do so.
What makes no sense is that if we infer from what we see in the underwater tomb that this legendary mausoleum was built by Wang Canghai, then the dynasty it was built in should be the end of the Yuan Dynasty. At that time, the Dongxia Kingdom had been destroyed for hundreds of years, so there would be no Dongxia emperor to bury.
We all turn our eyes to Chenpi A'Si, because it was he who said that the Emperor of Dongxia was buried in the Yunding Palace; but now it seems that this is absolutely impossible.
Chenpi Ah Si knew what we were thinking. He glanced at the mural expressionlessly, sneered, glanced at Monk Hua, and said, "Since they don't believe it, Monk, you can tell them."
Monk Hua agreed, turned around and smiled at us, "I know what you are doubting, I dare say you are all wrong, most of the information you have seen about Dongxia is inferred from some incomplete ancient books, in fact, there is too little information left by Dongxia, and in foreign countries, they don't even admit that such a country existed, so it's hard to say how much of the information you are reading now is actually true."
The fat man said, "In that case, what makes you say your information is correct?"
Monk Hua said, "That's right, because our information is more direct." He took out a piece of white silk cloth from the pocket of his underwear and spread it out in front of us. When I saw it, my heart skipped a beat.
It turned out to be the snake-browed bronze fish from the auction!
How come it's in their hands? Didn't they say no one would buy it? I frowned and suddenly realized something.
Since no one wants to buy it and the fish is in Chenpi A'si's hands, does that mean Chenpi A'si is the seller of the fish?
My whole body was shaking, and I tried my best to steady myself and not show an expression of surprise. But my heart was in a mess, and countless questions popped up in my mind. For a moment, I didn't know whether I felt fear or excitement. I just felt my hands and feet suddenly became cold as if they had lost blood.
Monk Hua didn't notice my expression and continued, "This copper fish is a different form of dragon. Our old man got it by chance. I believe it was made by someone who knows the situation in Dongxia. The strange thing is that he used a very clever method to hide a top-secret message in this copper fish. Look:"
He placed the bronze fish on one side of the lantern. The gold-plated fish scales reflected the golden light, casting many fine light spots on the mural. Monk Hua turned the fish and the light spots began to change. Gradually, they turned into several spots in the shape of words.
"The secret is here. There are a total of 47 Jurchen characters hidden in the scales of this fish."
I exclaimed in my heart, wondering if there is such a skill. I pinched the other two copper fish in my pocket and asked him with a trembling voice: "What is it...?"
"Because the information on it is incomplete, I haven't deciphered it all yet, but I am sure that the person who made this fish wanted to record certain things and didn't want others to find out. This records the true history of Dongxia." Monk Hua said with a little pride, "In fact, long before I saw this thing, based on many clues, I had deduced that the Dongxia regime had always existed, but they retreated deep into the mountains, and for hundreds of years, I didn't know what they relied on. This extremely weak regime survived between the extremely powerful Mongolia on one side and the covetous Goryeo on the other. I have studied the Goryeo Chronicles. Until the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, ginseng collectors had seen people wearing strange clothes in the snow-capped mountains here. I think they should be some of the remaining residents of Dongxia."
He pointed at the bronze fish and said, "The scattered records here prove my idea. After the decisive battle with Mongolia, Dongxia retreated to the border between Jilin and Korea and existed secretly for hundreds of years. There were 14 emperors. Mongolia and Goryeo tried to destroy this small country more than once, but they all failed for a strange reason."
"What's the reason?" Pan Zi asked, "Monk, can you please speak more directly?"
Monk Hua shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. The information on the fish is incomplete. There must be other things that record other parts. But based on these words in my hand, I dare say that the existence of Dongxia Kingdom may have been due to something very strange happening, and there is no content after that. We have been trying to find it, but unfortunately, our old man has been looking for it for many years and has not found the other parts." He paused and said, "Do you know what the last sentence of these Jurchen words means?"
I thought to myself, of course I don't know. Ye Cheng took it and asked, "What?"
Monk Hua looked at us and said, "It says above that all the slave kings of all generations are not human beings."
"If it's not a human, then what is it?" asked the fat man.
Monk Hua put the bronze fish away and said, "It says that they are all monsters that crawled out from underground!"
No way? I thought to myself. Everyone looked at each other, probably feeling a little nervous. Ye Cheng asked, "That can't be said. Could it be that the emperor is a dragon, not a human?"
"I originally thought he was referring to the metaphor of the True Dragon Son of Heaven, but after studying it, I found that this person probably just wanted to record some secrets. He recorded the history of Dongxia in a relatively objective way, so he probably wouldn't use such respectful language. Moreover, if it is as you said, do you think someone would express the concept of the emperor being the True Dragon Son of Heaven in this way? Imagine if you were to congratulate the emperor on his birthday and you said, 'Your Majesty, you are not a human being', I'm afraid you would be skinned alive before you could finish the second sentence. No one would write like this!" He smiled mysteriously, "Also, the last sentence is written very clearly and abruptly. I have always been bothered by it. If I could get the other part, I might be able to decipher what it means."
Fatty and Monk both knew that the other two bronze fish were in my hands, but out of caution, they didn't say anything. I grabbed the bronze fish in my pocket and suddenly felt that they became heavy.
For a moment, I didn't know whether I should take out the two fish. In fact, these two fish had no meaning to me. I didn't know the Jurchen language, and I couldn't understand it even if I showed it to them. But if I gave it to them, I felt it was very inappropriate.
Pan Zi stared at the mural and muttered to himself. The person on the mural might be the King of Ten Thousand Slaves. He looked like a human being and didn't seem to be a monster. The fat man patted him and said to Monk Hua, "Brother Scar, what are you trying to decipher? We are real people. Don't play the game of intellectuals. When the coffin is opened, it will be clear whether it is a human or a dog."
Monk Hua smiled and said, "What I mean is that it is always better to know yourself and your enemy."
"But why did the painter of this mural paint these things here?" The fat man asked, "Don't forget the national hatred and family feuds?"
Monk Hua shook his head, obviously not sure either. I thought about it and said, "Maybe they wanted to mine the whole stone after painting the murals here, or they just painted to kill time. You see it's so warm here, maybe the craftsmen at that time used it to rest."
No one convinced me, so Monk Hua started taking pictures of these things to keep as archive material.
We had rested enough and our spirits gradually recovered. We began to take turns to rest. Chenpi A Si asked his men to take turns to stay outside. If the snow stopped, they would crawl in to call us, and we would begin to take turns to sleep.
When I woke up, Shunzi had also woken up and kept apologizing to us. Fatty was too lazy to pay attention to him. I gave him something to eat and told him to have a good rest because we still had to rely on him to go up.
There was no rotation of sun and moon inside, and I didn't know how much time had passed, probably two or three days, when the snow finally stopped. We climbed out of the crack one after another. It was clear outside, and there was a vast white world everywhere.
In the gap, Chenpi Ah Si taught us many tricks on the snowy mountains, such as using sanitary napkins as insoles to absorb foot sweat, keep feet dry, and keep the whole body warm. We followed his method and it worked. But I felt awkward. I thought about what would happen if I entered the ancient tomb and discarded these things. What would the archaeological team look like when they saw these things next to the coffin several years later?
We used ropes to climb up the steep slope where we rolled down. There were many fresh horse hoof prints on the ground. Fatty squatted down to take a look and said, "It seems that Aning's gang has surpassed us and ran ahead of us."
Without saying a word, we put on our goggles and set off immediately. Two hours later, we saw Aning's team on a hillside. They had obviously suffered heavy losses. Only about twenty of the thirty people were left, and there were only half the number of horses. There was still no sign of Uncle San among them.
We lay low and observed them. I saw Aning staring in one direction through a telescope. I looked in the same direction and suddenly my eyelids twitched.
I saw in the distance, I didn't know whether it was snow or fog, but there was a snow-covered mountain standing tall, connected with other mountains, and it looked very abrupt. That was the mountain I saw in the underwater tomb, and its shape was almost exactly the same as in the movie.
"This is it," I thought to myself, pointing at the mountain, and turned to ask Shunzi, "What mountain is that? How can we get over there?"
Shunzi put his hands on the awning, took a look, and said with a changed face: "So where are you going? You can't go there!"