After listening to my analysis, Jiang Man nodded in agreement and said, "The style of the murals on this third wall is completely different from the previous ones! If the first two murals were praising these deformed creatures, then from this scene onwards, they have become condemnations and expressions of utter hatred!"
"Yes! I think this Miao Jiang Immortal Palace was very likely built on the orders of the royal family of this ruling tribe, which is why there are so many murals praising the emperor. However, the later content has obviously been modified, which shows that the power of the ruling tribe has obviously been overthrown."
I continued watching while talking to Jiang Man.
As the class divisions within the tribe intensified, the lower classes launched a rebellion, only to be decimated by the royal family and their army, leaving the ground littered with corpses.
After the royal family suppressed the people below, they embedded skulls in the outer walls of the palace, making it look as if the palace was built with skulls.
Jiang Man saw the skull in the picture and asked me, "Does this picture remind you of anything?"
"The skull wall we passed when we entered the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace!"
I nodded: "The most direct way for the powerful to suppress the weak is to instill fear in them, and the deepest fear of mankind is nothing more than death! I am increasingly convinced that the builders of this underground palace were these ugly royals! Perhaps the answer can be found in these murals!"
Since the people's resistance against the ruling class failed, the rulers have become even more unscrupulous, and scenes of human hunting have appeared in the picture.
Several members of the royal family, with ferocious faces, rode through the streets, longbows in hand and long swords at their waists, taking pleasure in killing. A string of human heads hung from their steeds.
In the following scenes, the tribe conquers more tribes in the east and west, and its army becomes more disciplined.
The scene depicts the second war between this tribe and the Xia Dynasty army.
Then, the mountain where the first female ruler was buried also appeared in the picture.
This means that the tribe defeated the Xia Dynasty's army and returned to their homeland.
Immediately afterwards, countless slaves marched to the mountain, dug it open, and felled large tracts of trees in the surrounding area. Countless people died in the process.
This is a mausoleum under construction.
The next scene is a mountaintop, at the foot of which is a vast procession of slaves. An ugly royal sits under a large umbrella, embracing a naked woman.
Beside him stood a tall man.
The man was wearing a long robe and a hair crown with a hairpin inserted in it.
Completely different from the disheveled style of the tribes, it looks very much like the clothing of the Xia Dynasty.
Most importantly, this person's face is normal, not the ugly appearance of royalty.
Based on the following mural content, this person should be a sorcerer from the Xia Dynasty, who was specifically responsible for building tombs for the tribal royal family.
Although this tribe won the war against the Xia Dynasty, its conflicts with the common people reached a critical point.
When the mausoleum was halfway completed, the people once again clashed with the ruling class. This time, however, the rulers did not achieve a great victory as before, because the people joined forces with the Xia Dynasty's army and overthrew their rule.
At the end of the mural on the third wall, a large number of ugly-faced members of the royal family were strangled by the people, but a few still escaped the siege and fled.
"It seems your guess was correct."
After reading the contents of the mural, Jiang Man nodded gently: "According to the records on the mural, the ruling class that enslaved the people to build this mausoleum was overthrown when it was halfway completed, so only half of the mural praising the emperor was completed!"
"Not necessarily. It's possible that they spent it all, but the latter part was mythologized, so the angry people destroyed it to reveal the truth!"
As I answered Jiang Man's question, I walked towards the fourth wall: "I'm very curious about what the mural on this last wall will be about. This mural must also record the origin of the Miao Jiang Immortal Palace. Perhaps it can answer all our questions!"
The flashlight beam swept across, illuminating the fourth wall.
The mural begins with a huge city that has completely lost its original appearance as a primitive tribe.
Tens of thousands of acres of fertile land, herds of cattle and sheep, people singing and dancing around the tall granaries and large cauldrons, while on the mountains outside the city walls, a large army was already charging in.
The next scene shows the city gates breached, blood flowing like a river, and an ugly-faced member of the royal family riding arrogantly on horseback.
In the next scene, soldiers of the Xia Dynasty clashed with warriors brought by the royal family.
In the scene, the imperial army is vast and numerous, while the royal family has only a small force and is completely surrounded.
The art style changes abruptly in the next scene.
Despite the overwhelming force of the imperial army, the royal family led a group of people who moved with impunity, cutting through the imperial army.
Jiang Man was confused when she saw the scene: "Duan Shenxing, is there something wrong with this scene? I feel like this mural doesn't connect with the previous content. Could it be that only the mural on the third wall was modified, and this scene depicts the second battle between the tribe and the Xia Dynasty?"
"No, the scene is connected; those fleeing rulers did indeed return."
I shone my flashlight on the mountain in the first scene of the mural: "Look closely at this mountain outside the city. Just like in the third mural when those rulers were driven out, it still looks like a tomb that was only half-built!"
"That's strange. Since this painting was painted by the opponents of the ruling class, it should be in a realistic style. But the ratio of the number of people fighting on both sides is too large! Why would the painter exaggerate it?"
Jiang Man muttered something to herself and continued walking along the wall, hoping to find answers in the murals.
The next scene in the mural shows a strongman tearing apart an enemy's body with his bare hands.
In the scene, the warriors brought back by the royal family are incredibly strong, able to lift two enemies with one hand, and their weapons are much larger than those of the Xia Dynasty army, consisting of huge stone hammers and stone axes.
After the scenes of war, those ugly-faced fellows were seen sitting in the main hall again, and the heads in the city had been piled up into a small mountain.
"They massacred the city."
Jiang Man stared in astonishment at the scene before her, as if she could smell the stench of blood: "This is impossible! Judging from this footage, they not only killed all the people in the city, but also wiped out the army sent by the Xia Dynasty. And throughout the entire process, there was only such a small team. How did they manage to do it?"
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