Aztec Eternals

The stars shone in the distance, and the night was silent. Only the soft cry of eagles and hiss of snakes.

In the wooden box on the stone platform in the bedroom, little Avellot spread out his short gray wings, held a small white-haired head high, and his small black eyes were piercing. Across the two-meter-high stone platform, it stuck its head out, looked at Xiaoqing on the ground, and made a proud "yoyo" tweet.

The little green snake raised his head, and the snake eyes with vertical pupils silently stared at the bird on his head for a while. Then, it hissed up the rough edge of the stone platform, and in a moment came to the wooden box. Then, it opened its big blue mouth and pressed towards the small golden eagle that was close at hand, making a high-frequency threatening "shh" sound.

Little Avellot was sluggish for a moment, and cried out for help in fear. It flapped its short wings and struggled hard, but only slightly lifted off the ground and then fell back into the wooden box. After struggling for a while, it could only hide in the corner of the wooden box in fear, covering its eyes with its wings, shrinking into a fluffy ball, and then shivering.

Shilot was awakened by the rapid hawk cry. The young man quickly got up half-naked, revealing the outline of his growing determination. He glanced around quickly, his right hand clenched the long dagger that never left his body. Then, he carefully moved the brazier in the corner, and finally saw the confrontation between the eagle and the snake, and couldn't help laughing.

The boy stretched out his hand, touched the soft little head of the little golden eagle, comforted the frightened little Avelott, and whispered with a smile.

"You, you, be obedient and don't make noise. The task now is to save your wings and wait for the day when you are fully grown!"

Then, he surrounded the dissatisfied and twisting little green snake from the side, feeling the smoothness and delicacy of the snake's body, and smiled lightly.

"As for you, you should curb your voice and gestures, hide silently, and wait low-key. A deadly attack is only a moment, so what's the point of confrontation and shock?"

Speaking of which, Shulot was slightly stunned, as if he had thought of something. He looked at the first ray of morning light rising in the east, his eyes dim and distant.

Now that he has woken up, Shulot went to complete his daily morning training. Then he waited for a while, and Cuod, the master craftsman, finally came in a hurry. After a brief discussion, the two decided today's itinerary to check the mining industry around the capital. Yesterday, the old carpenter accompanied him for half a day, and today it will probably take a whole day.

Shulot instructed the guards to wait for the craftsmen holding the jade talismans to properly place them. Then, he took the samurai chief and the old carpenter and rushed to the port in the southwest of the capital.

In the morning sun, not far from Texcoco Lake to the southwest, where the Leman River meets, there are many small rivers. When the boat entered the fork of a river, it saw dozens of samurai patrolling armed, and hundreds of miners hunched over the riverbed.

Going a few hundred meters further, the clear river suddenly shines. Layers of golden light rose from the half-human-deep river bottom, like the stars that dotted the night sky. This is the closest place to gold dust collection from the capital.

Due to active volcanic activity, Central America is one of the most gold- and silver-rich regions in the world. The vast Mexican plateau has the world's largest silver mine reserves, as well as hundreds of gold mine mountains in the north, south and west, and the underground is a continuous gold and silver mine belt.

The gold and silver reserves here are calculated in 10,000 tons, distributed in strata of different depths, and are even higher than those in Japan, which has frequent volcanic activities. Historically, the Caribbean Treasure Fleet set out from Veracruz in eastern Mexico, loaded with the crazy Mexican gold and silver of other pirates and navies, assembled in Havana, Cuba, and then sailed to Seville in the south of Spain, where it became It is the original source of financial capital expansion in Western Europe and an inexhaustible driving force for social and economic development.

The Central American tribes have been mining gold for thousands of years, accumulating innumerable gold. The capital of Tenochtitlan is the center of wealth in Central America. According to what Sherlot saw daily, the gold in the capital was about hundreds of tons or even thousands of tons, many of which were buried in the depths of tombs and temples.

Usually, the mining of precious metals is divided into digging caves and panning in rivers and streams. Rock gold mining is very inefficient and expensive due to the lack of metal mining tools. The Mexicans are similar to other ministries, and they mainly focus on scouring for gold from water. In the rivers in the west and north of the Union of Mexica, there are a large number of Jinsha Rivers, where thousands of miners work, providing a steady stream of wealth for the city-states.

Shulot stopped the salute of the patrolling samurai and signaled for the miners to continue collecting gold dust. Then he strode forward and watched the miners work by the river.

The main work place of the miners is a truncated river. The river had been drained, revealing a golden bed. They excavated the river mud with simple stone shovels and gathered it into golden mounds by the river. Then, the miners took out a simple gold pan, put the gold mud dug into the pot, and washed it with river water continuously by the river.

The gold pan is about the size of a washbasin, made of wood or pottery, with special grooves on it. When the light sand is dispersed, the useless stones are removed, and what remains are heavy and bright gold particles. The sands are like dust, and the gold nuggets are like rice grains, shining and flowing together in the sunlight, turning out a crisp rustling sound, which confuses people's hearts.

Shulot's eyes were attracted by the gold dust, and the color of gold seemed to have a natural charm. Fortunately, he was used to seeing gold, silver, and precious stones on weekdays. But after a few breaths, the boy regained his calm.

He counted the placer gold that the miners labored to wash out each time, but it was only a shallow tenth of an ounce. Look at the sandy mud piles by the river, where a miner can collect at most a few ounces a day. Finally, he looked at the long riverbed covered with golden sand, and the distant golden stream, where tons of gold were buried.

The young man was silent for a long time and shook his head. This kind of labor is too expensive, and in the Central American city-states that are rich in gold and silver, the value of gold is far less than that in Eurasia, and there are not many things that can be bought. The prosperous gold mining industry turned into a de facto luxury industry has little positive significance for Mexica society.

Next, Shulot focused his attention on the miner's physical fitness and expression.

The main sources of miners were civilians and slaves. Their work is strictly supervised by the warriors of the city-states. They work more than ten hours a day and must complete the minimum collection requirements.

The teenager skipped the ragged, numb-looking, skinny slave consumables, these people had no military value. He just looked intently at the commoner miners in sackcloth and brown coats.

Most of these civilian miners came from nearby villages and were summoned by local nobles. Their faces were stoic, their bodies lean and their upper bodies slightly arched. Too low body fat and high-intensity work outline their distinct facial contours, and their eyes are pure and simple.

The miners endure long and boring harvesting every day, and their obedience and discipline are much higher than ordinary farmers and citizens, and even stronger than some young warriors. The specified number of collections allows them to roughly understand some simple numbers. At the same time, they need to cooperate with each other in their work. They often form a group in villages, and sometimes they conflict with each other. They have sufficient teamwork ability.

Shulot looked around for a while, and then called in a simple and honest young miner to ask a simple question.

The young miner was only in his twenties, and his face was already weathered. He has thick knuckles and thick calluses on his hands and feet. He answered the question of the priest uneasily, the language is simple, but also clear.

Shulot nodded slightly. He commanded calmly.

"You stand here with your back straight, look straight ahead, and don't move."

Hearing this, the young miner stood like a wooden stake, restless and motionless. Sweat slid from his cheeks, washed away the dust on his face, and then dripped onto the ground, splashing a cloud of dust. His pupils diverged slightly, staring blankly at the unknown distance of the river.

Shulot did not speak. He sat down relaxed in front of the miners. Then he took the tequila light wine that Bertard handed over and drank slowly with his head raised, the aroma of the wine drifted by the river beach. His eyes were always on the expression of the young miner.

The young miner's throat moved slightly, as if he had swallowed the fragrant air, but he still didn't dare to move. The boy slowly ate another tortilla with chili sauce. The miners' eyes are always attracted from time to time, and then moved away in fear.

After a long time, Shilot nodded in satisfaction.

"What is your name?"

"The great priest of the sky, my name is Guzman, and I come from the village of Coyohuacan."

The young miner replied nervously, his eyes lowered, but he still didn't dare to move. Coyohuacan is a small city-state near the edge of Lake Texcoco, connected to the South Bridge of the Seven Bridges of the capital.

"How long have you been a miner? Do you know all the miners in this area?"

"Lord Priest of Tianda~www.readwn.com~ I have been a miner for three years. I have been trained in the community military school for several years, but I can't pass the level of warrior selection. The lord asked our village to mine, so I came. The miners here are all from the surrounding villages, and everyone knows each other a little, there are probably one or two hundred people.”

The young miner blinked in recognition. He actually knew the concept of numbers roughly.

Shilot pondered for a moment. The villages belong to the fiefs of the nobles of various places, and the villagers are also under the jurisdiction of the nobles. However, with his current status, the nobles should not refuse to ask for some miners.

The young man nodded slightly and waved his hand.

"Guzman, go down."

Only then did the miner Guzman dare to lower his head. He knelt on the ground and saluted, heaving a sigh of relief, then turned around and hurried away without saying a word. He hasn't finished his gold mining task today.

Shulot's eyes were deep. He looked at the hundreds of miners by the river bank and asked serious questions.

"Cuod, how many miners are there in the Texcoco Lake District?"

Craftsman Director Cuod thought for a moment and answered cautiously.

"Your Highness, there are nearly ten gold and silver mining sites around the lake area. There are more than 2,000 civilian miners, and slaves cannot be counted. There are several large-scale mines in the further periphery, and there are about 2,000 miners."

Shiloh frowned slightly, the number was much lower than he expected. He thought for a moment, then looked at the old carpenter and spoke slowly.

"Let's go see the salt and quarry mines. I need more miners!"

Kuod felt the meaning in the boy's eyes. He thought for a moment and bowed his head respectfully.

The young man gave an order, and everyone left without any hesitation, and went straight to the south. Behind him, the golden sands are shining brightly, and the golden river still shines.