Aztec Eternals

The night was deep, and after a day of exhaustion, Shulot fell asleep under the stars.

Dreams under the stars are always bright and beautiful. There are countless shining stars in the Milky Way in the Middle Ages, like the great figures of this era, emerging from his dreams one by one, with distant fights and shouts. It wasn't until the huge Clark sailing ship came from the sky, sea and shore, east and west, white skin and yellow skin gunners fired at each other in the roar, that the boy suddenly woke up.

He opened his eyes suddenly, and the sky was falling into his eyes. The evening star shines in the sky, and the morning sun lights up in the east. The god of death has escorted the sun, crossed the long darkness, and rose from the sky again, bringing light to this land!

Shulot lay on the soft dry grass, watching the sunrise quietly, smelling the dry grass and salt.

Berthard's eyes were slightly closed, and he seemed to be asleep. He opened his eyes as if aware of it, looked at the young man who would be in a daze, and smiled slightly. The samurai commander was already used to the boy's "revelation", and was only slightly moved by what he saw last night. He believes that Shulot is the dawn of the Mexica and the only hope for the common people, so he is willing to follow and guard him until he grows old.

The old carpenter Kuod was a light sleeper. He had been watching silently last night, staring blankly at the deep smoke. From the boy's excited performance, he smelled an ominous smell, which was the smell of more life and death.

Far away, Moreno slept with his brothers and had a sleepless night. The leader of the salt workers tossed and turned, looked at his hands worriedly from time to time, and sighed deeply. He thought of the burning "salt", the purple-blue smoke, and the flames under the moonlight, full of worry.

"Have I been cursed by His Majesty the Priest and exchanged my future life for the gift of the evil moon?"

The ferocious Moreno once again fell into unknown fear and confusion. Facing the morning light, he secretly looked at His Royal Highness, but saw that the other party had already got up and was practicing martial arts with the terrifying warrior chief.

When Chaoyang was born, Xiu Luote finally completed the daily training. He simply ate the breakfast in the saltworks, and the warriors were ready to go.

The boy first looked at Kavale who was standing beside him. There was deep awe in the overseer's smile.

"Cavare, you said yesterday that this fluffy brown salt soil only appears on cold days?"

Cavale looked at the nitrate on the ground in fear. Now, he has completely believed in the legend of the monster in the earth.

"Your Highness, the earth spirits will only wake up during the coldest dry season from the end of November to the end of February, leaving behind this divine soil. At other times, this kind of soil is hard to see. And when the rainy season comes, the spirits will Sleep, and this soil will disappear completely."

Shulot pondered for a moment, thinking about the key points. Immediately, he made a decision and gave the order to the chief supervisor with a solemn expression.

"Kavare, it's January now. From today to the end of February, you have to command the salt workers and try your best to collect this fluffy salt soil! The priests of the alliance will use this sacred soil to hold the important ceremony of summoning the gods. Sacrifice! You are allowed to enlist the surrounding villagers to dig. The sacred soil collected should be stored dry and not mixed with other saline soils."

Hearing the sacrificial ceremony, Kavale showed deep awe in his eyes. But soon, the awe of the myth was replaced by the interests of reality. He looked at His Highness respectfully, but there was rejection in his low voice reply.

"Here, Your Highness. The Great Salt Mine has a daily requirement for the amount of salt to be mined. The salt workers also have a lot of work to do."

"Kavare, kneel down!" Shulot looked at the head supervisor, majesticly accepting no refusal.

The elite warriors on both sides immediately stepped forward and pressed Kavale's shoulder. They raised their legs and accurately kicked Cavale's popliteal socket, the overseer knelt down in pain, frowning in pain.

"Kavarei, don't think I don't know what you're doing with the merchants! Priestly ceremonies are about the gods, and those who break the ceremonies, regardless of their status, will be punished with death! Do you want to be sacrificed on the sacrificial stone of the Great Temple?"

Hearing this, Kavale lowered his head in fear, sweat dripping down his round face.

"I will seek orders from the king and the high priest. Starting today, most of the supervisors will be dismissed, leaving only four or five for handover. I will send sixty warriors over again to supervise the collection of the salt field. Recruit the surrounding villagers! The alliance will allocate a batch of cotton cloth as compensation. General Kasar is already at home, you must understand the value of your own survival!"

Hearing this realistic threat, Kavale finally couldn't hold it anymore. He crawled headlong to the ground, and the boss took the lead.

Xiu Luote looked at the supervisor for a while expressionlessly, making sure that the other party really obeyed. He looked at the silent Moreno again.

"Moreno, bring your cronies and men, carry the nitrate soil collected yesterday, and go to the capital with me. Think carefully on the way, how can you boil more burning powder!"

Moreno groaned in his heart. His Highness ignored the southern trade route flowing through the Jinhe River, and instead boiled this evil and weird salt soil. I've never heard of a sacrificial ceremony using this kind of soil. I'm afraid it's not a sacrifice to the original evil Sipactli. Thinking of this, the leader of the salt worker shuddered. He just nodded respectfully and said yes, not daring to say any more.

Afterwards, the Yan Dings got busy again. Not long after, more than 200 temple guards in dark battle suits, wearing lofty wolf-headed beast helmets, hurriedly appeared at the gate of the saltworks.

Shulot stepped forward surrounded by the guards. He was slightly surprised that the leader of the temple guard was a warrior he had known since he was a child, the guard of the Butterfly Palace in the Holy City, and Elvy who liked the "sinister" smile the most.

"Elvey, did your grandfather send you here?"

Elvy gave a kind smile from under the wolf's head.

"Your Highness, I am relieved to see you. The high priest was quite worried after receiving the report from the guards. The new law is about to be promulgated, and the situation in the capital is unpredictable. The high priest asked me to bring a whole team, just in case .”

Xiuluo nodded, two hundred elite temple guards were enough to protect him from most noble attacks. The boy pondered for a moment, and then gave instructions to Elway.

"Leave sixty temple guards and immediately take over the work of the Great Salt Mine. I will go back and report this to the king and the high priest."

Elway took the order without hesitation. Immediately, he named three teams of twenty to disperse most of the complaining supervisors, and directly and tightly controlled the inside and outside of the saltworks.

Seeing the actions of the temple guards, the overseer leader Kavale did not resist and cooperated with the work honestly. The salters avoided from a distance, waited and watched the situation for a while, and then they were loudly reprimanded by Kavale, and started to collect brown salt soil again.

Seeing that everything was on the right track, Xiuluo nodded, and rushed to the capital in the lake with two hundred warrior guards and dozens of salt men carrying nitrate.

Walking in a hurry, Xiulot thought carefully.

He didn't trust the decayed overseers of the Great Salt Mine at all, and the time for collecting nitrate was extremely short. So after a little hesitation, he made up his mind and directly took over the control of the Great Salt Mine.

The Great Salt Mine was originally controlled by the royal family and nobles. This time the incident happened suddenly, and the forced takeover on the grounds of sacrificial rituals caused an actual conflict between theocracy and kingship. He must now go back, report to King Avet, and make up for the due procedures, while facing the dissatisfaction of stakeholders.

Everyone went all the way to the northeast, the saline-alkali land gradually disappeared, and neat farmland appeared in front of them. Due to frequent volcanic activity, the soil here is light gray, rich in fertile volcanic ash, and the crop yield is extremely high.

And on the side of the hill at the end of the gray soil, there is a colorful obsidian mine. The morning sun is falling softly, flowing among the shining stone mines, reflecting the changing light of blue, green, purple, black, golden, silver and white, which is extremely gorgeous like a rainbow. Obsidian itself is a naturally occurring glass.

This quarry is already in the investigation plan. Xiulot entered the mine, stopped for a while, and watched carefully. Dozens of mine guards were alarmed by the group of warriors and took out their weapons vigilantly. Soon, Kuod, the craftsman director, stepped forward and informed the familiar guards that it was His Royal Highness who came to inspect.

Obsidian is one of the most important military supplies for the Alliance. It is a dense volcanic glass that forms in rhyolite lava flows that do not form firm crystals because the lava cools rapidly. Volcanic glass has no regular structure, breaking down into smooth, curved, staggered shapes on the inside. The intersections of these fractures can form sharper edges than steel blades, and can easily cut animal leather and flesh and blood.

Therefore, the ancestors of Central America used obsidian to make sharp arrows and sharp pieces of war sticks, turning them into sharp weapons for fighting on the battlefield. In modern times, these obsidian flakes are also used in surgeons' sharp scalpel blades.

The Mexica Alliance firmly controls the most obsidian mines in Central America, which is the root of the alliance's strength. There are three large natural obsidian mines in the Mexica states, located in Pachuca in the northeast of the Union, Otumba in the east, and Chicoloapan in the south. The large obsidian mine Pachuca is located near the holy city of Teotihuacan, which is the cornerstone of the prosperity of the ancient Teotihuacan civilization.

Small obsidian mines are scattered throughout the Alliance, near the volcanic mountains to the east and west. Here is a small mine that directly belongs to the royal family and is closely supervised by royal warriors.

In the open-pit mine, hundreds of strong masons are shirtless, standing in front of the cracked obsidian veins, collecting rough obsidian stones with exposed nodules, sweating profusely. They first swung the stone pick vigorously to break the cut surface, and then carefully used the stone chisel to cut out the rough stone. Subsequently, these rough stones of different sizes were sent to the rear for screening and rough processing by military artisans.

Military craftsmen cut the obsidian rough stone according to the texture, and the most common way is to make the rough stone into a cylindrical shape. Then they placed the black stone pillar between their legs and applied force from the edge of the pillar with a fine stone chisel. Every successful excavation along the side will scrape flakes of different sizes from the edge of the stone pillar like a razor.

Subsequently, the military craftsmen classified the stone flakes by different sizes and sharpness. The stone flakes are double-sided, single-sided or flaky, most of which belong to the sharp pieces of war sticks, and some are used as cutting tools for civilian use. Only stone flakes with insufficiently sharp edges or frayed edges will be used as excavated parts to replace the fast-wearing collection tools of stone workers.

As for expensive and beautiful large-scale rough stones, military craftsmen will specially select them for preservation. These large rough stones will be sent to the stonemason's workshop in the capital, where they will be finely cut, ground and carved to make a variety of expensive obsidian utensils. The raw materials of Lozano, the chief stonemason, come from this.

Xiulot tested the sharpness of the obsidian sharp blade. He just scratched the sharp blade gently, and then cut through the rabbit skin hanging in the workshop, pierced into the dead flesh, and cut a slender and deep wound.

The young man was amazed. After thousands of years of development, from excavation, use to processing, the obsidian craftsmanship in Central America has completely entered the pinnacle of proficiency. In fact, obsidian tools have met the daily needs of Central American civilization, and obsidian weapons also fit the corresponding war situations and warrior levels.

Early bronze tools did not offer a sufficient advantage over the cheap and productive obsidian tools. To some extent, the well-developed obsidian technology inhibited the development of metallurgical technology in Mesoamerica, and the bronze tools of the Tarascos were just at the beginning.

Xiulot watched for a moment. His gaze first looked at the well-developed upper body muscles of the masons, and then stayed on their calm expressions. Afterwards, he called several masons, measured their discipline again, and nodded with satisfaction.

"How many masons are there in the alliance?" The young man looked at Kuod seriously with anticipation.

Kuod thought for a while, and reported cautiously.

"The three large obsidian mines each have nearly a thousand miners, and the dozens of small mines range from tens to hundreds."

Afterwards, the craftsman director hesitated to speak.

"But Your Highness, masonry and military smiths are the basis for maintaining the alliance's force. The obsidian sharps of warriors are consumed extremely quickly, and the sharps may need to be replaced several times in a battle. Obsidian mining skills require a long time to practice. These skilled masons To serve the 100,000 warriors of the alliance, it is impossible to recruit many."

Hearing this, Shulot was slightly taken aback. He pondered for a moment, then asked in a deep voice.

"If the supply of large-scale stone materials in the masonry area of ​​the capital is reduced, how many masons can be drawn at most?"

The craftsman director hesitated to speak, and finally gave the number.

"Probably enough to form a battalion of 800 people."

Xiuluo nodded, and looked at these excellent soldiers with a little regret. After getting the information he needed, the boy didn't stay too long, and went straight to the capital.

When the sun rises to the middle of the sky, the capital city in the lake is far away. At a glance, the capital of Shiraishi is shining with splendor, and the bright red is dazzling. It is red volcanic rock, adorning the tops of palaces and great temples, symbolizing the authority of the gods.

Shulot looked towards the east of the capital again. Among the rolling mountains is the towering Popocatepetl volcano.

He recalled what he saw along the way: lack of iron ore, rich in gold and silver, salt mines, obsidian, farming volcanic ash farmland, and using volcanic rock. Everything in Mesoamerican society was affected by the products of volcanic activity. Geological movement determines the geographical environment, and the geographical environment deeply limits the local civilization and determines the initial development trajectory.

"Is civilization really determined by geography?"

Shulot frowned, thinking about this unsolvable question. After a while, he couldn't help but laugh.

"No, civilization is determined by heroes!"

The young man straightened his chest firmly, and walked towards the capital confidently and dignifiedly. Behind him, the warriors solemnly held their longbows, and the salt workers walked together, carrying the nitrate on their backs with difficulty.