Song Xiaodong followed Old Li and Zhao Ruonan into the tent. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Old Li and Song Xiaodong sat down, and Zhao Ruonan walked to the blackboard, picked up a pointer, as if preparing to give a lecture to Song Xiaodong.

"Mr. Song, do you know about Lop Nur?"

Song Xiaodong thought for a moment and replied, "A desert saline lake, already dried up."

"Hm." Zhao Ruonan nodded, pointed to the dossier on the table, and said to Song Xiaodong, "Your task today is to go through all these materials."

"Alright." Song Xiaodong nodded.

Old Li glanced at Zhao Ruonan and also nodded, both of them then walked outside, and Zhao Ruonan arranged for everyone to rest.

Song Xiaodong began reading the dossier.

It contained all written records and pictorial data on Lop Nur since documentation began.

Lop Nur is located in the Great Northwest of China, satellite imagery resembling an ear, known as the Sea of Death and the Ear of the Earth.

The "Classic of Mountains and Seas" already records Lop Nur, calling it "Youthful Marsh," additionally, Lop Nur has other names such as Salt Marsh, Puchang Sea, Laolan Sea, Lop Nur Lake, among others.

The etymology of Lop Nur comes from Mongolian, meaning Lake of Many Waters, the entire area is below 800 meters in elevation, close to the Taklamakan Desert, the Tarim River, the Peacock River, among others converge here, once being China’s second-largest saline lake.

Chapter 1981: The Wandering Lake

Before AD 330, the lake waters of Lop Nur were abundant, nourishing the desert pearl Ancient City of Loulan, called the throat of the Silk Road, afterwards, with climate change and human activity impacts, the water inflow from upstream gradually diminished, completely drying up by 1972.

In 1921, the Tarim River diverted, Lop Nur’s water flow primarily came from the Peacock River, entering from Hubei, gradually expanding eastward shaping into a boot-like lake basin, after 1970, with increased human activity upstream requiring more water, the Tarim River’s length shrank, ultimately leading to Lop Nur completely drying up.

The climate in the Lop Nur area is dry and hot, frequent sandstorms, large temperature differences between day and night, with complex landforms, its unique Yardang landforms resemble a maze, wind whistles through the dunes, sounding like a hundred ghosts wailing, motherless children crying, terrifying people with fear.

After Lop Nur dried up, the landform underwent significant changes, densely forested poplars all perished, the desert rapidly engulfed the oasis, the desert oasis was buried by desert wind and sand, leaving no grass, turning from a life oasis to a sea of death.

Research on Lop Nur has never ceased, with various mysterious legends and folk literature also frequently emerging. Over the years, researchers have attempted to understand the reason behind the formation of Lop Nur’s mysterious big ear shape, but no consensus has been reached in the research conclusions.

In remote sensing satellite images, Lop Nur’s big ear shape is exceptionally clear, the ear width part is covered by the western half of the ancient West Lake, with the lake shore cut and covered, radar sensing and clairvoyance can discover the ancient lake shoreline beneath the West Lake’s lake deposits, indicating that the ancient Lop Nur’s lake boundaries constantly moved and changed, but remained enclosed and not in an ear shape.

Furthermore, radar images also clearly show six alternating light and dark stripes, these shoreline stripes were formed by crystallization precipitated from severe shrinkage of the lake surface, indicating that Lop Nur underwent six dry-wet climate alternations.

To the west of Lop Nur, south of the Peacock River Channel, lies the Loulan Ancient City Ruins, recorded as early as in the "Records of the Grand Historian: The Western Regions," a small Western Regions country, built its city walls near the Salt Marsh, with weak military easily departed.

The "Book of Han" records: "Ground is saline and barren with few fields, the country produces jade, its people raise livestock moving with water and grass, possessing donkeys and horses."

During the Han Dynasty, Loulan was situated between the Xiongnu and the Han Dynasty, being caught between the two major powers in a miserable plight, thereafter with the Han Dynasty’s decline, Loulan gradually vanished in the echoes of history.

The information Song Xiaodong read was more comprehensive than what could be found online, yet apart from the changes in Lop Nur’s water area, chronicles, and myths and legends, there was nothing else suspicious, as Lop Nur has always been favored as material in mysterious events and folk literature, many things when looked at seem absurd fabrications, however, this dossier seems to indiscriminately consolidate various novels and rumors, whether true or false.

Song Xiaodong felt dizzy from reading.

What intrigued Song Xiaodong the most was the mysterious disappearance of the Ancient Loulan Kingdom.

Though Loulan was not vast, its strategic position was very important, a transportation hub in the heartland of Asia, the innocent suffered for having treasures, wars for control over Loulan were waged by the Han Dynasty, Xiongnu, and various other nomadic tribes for a long time, dry corpses excavated from graves downstream of the Peacock River Channel reveal to us that 4000 years ago, there was even a group of primitive European nomads who visited Loulan, leaving behind a few dry corpses before mysteriously disappearing.

The Ancient Loulan Kingdom was founded in AD 176 and mysteriously vanished in AD 630, with over 800 years of civilization history, being one of the thirty-six powerful nations of the Western Regions, neighboring Dunhuang, frequently negotiating between the Xiongnu and Han Dynasty during the Han Dynasty, the Han Dynasty implemented appeasement policy towards Xiongnu and Loulan, during Emperor Zhao of Han’s time, the Han Dynasty used the excuse of protecting the King of Loulan to station troops within Loulan’s territory, controlling the entire region, setting up a Protector General, appointing a Military Marquis, garrisoning and storing grains, for a time being very prosperous.

Later, as the House of Han dwindled, during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, regional warlords in Central Plains were divided and engaged in prolonged civil wars, leading to lost contact between the Central Plains region and Loulan, until the Tang Dynasty, the Tang and Tibet repeatedly fought in Loulan, Loulan’s name also appeared in Tang poetry border fort poems.