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 splendid. There are countless shining stars in the Milky Way of the Middle Ages, like the great figures of this era, emerging from his dreams one by one, with distant fights and shouts. It was not until the huge Clark sailboat came from the horizon, sea and shore, east and west, white-skinned and yellow-skinned gunners shot at each other in the roar, that the boy suddenly woke up.

He suddenly opened his eyes, and the sky was falling into them. The evening star is bright in the sky, and the morning light is in the east. Death has escorted the sun, crossed the long darkness, and rose from the sky again, bringing light to this land!

Shulot was lying on the soft hay, watching the sunrise quietly, smelling the breath of dry grass and salt.

Bertard's eyes were slightly closed, as if sleeping. He opened his eyes as if he had felt it, looked at the young man who would be in a daze, and smiled slightly. The samurai chief has become accustomed to the "sacred revelation" of the young man, and was only slightly moved by what he saw last night. He believed that Shilot was the dawn of the Mexicans and the only hope of the common people, so he was willing to follow and guard until old age.

Old carpenter Cuod slept lightly. He had been watching silently last night, staring absently at the deep smoke. From the boy's excited performance, he smelled an ominous aura, the smell of more life and death.

Far away, Moreno and his brothers slept together and had no sleep all night. The salt worker leader tossed and turned, looking at his hands with worry from time to time, and sighed deeply. He thought of the burning "salt", of the purple-blue smoke, of the fire in the moonlight, full of worry.

"Did I fall under the curse of His Highness the Priest and exchange my future life for the gift of the evil moon?"

The fierce Moreno once again fell into unknown fear and confusion. Facing the dawn, he secretly glanced at His Highness the priest, but saw that the other party had already stood up and was practicing martial arts with the terrifying chief warrior.

When Chaoyang was born, Shulot finally completed his daily training. He had simply eaten breakfast from the salt pan, and the warriors were ready to go.

The young man first looked at Kavale, the head of the overseer who was standing beside him, smiling in awe.

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

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

"Your Highness, the spirits in the soil will only wake up from the end of November to the end of February, when the dry season is the coldest, 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."

Shilot pondered for a moment, thinking about the key points. Immediately, he made a decision and ordered the foreman chief with a solemn expression.

"Kavale, it's January. From today to the end of February, you must command the salt workers and do your best to collect this fluffy salty soil! The priesthood of the alliance will use these divine soils to hold the important task of summoning the gods. Sacrifice! You are allowed to recruit the surrounding villagers for digging. The collected divine soil should be stored dry and not mixed with other saline soils.”

Hearing the sacrificial ceremony, Kavale had 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 his reply in a low voice was filled with rejection.

"Here, Your Highness... The large salt mine has a daily requirement for the quantity of salt to be mined. The salt workers also have a lot of work to complete..."

"Kaware, kneel down!" Sherlot looked at the head overseer, majestic and could not refuse.

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

"Kavare, don't think that I don't know what you did with the merchants! Priest rituals are related to gods, and those who disrupt rituals will be punished by death regardless of their status! Do you want to be sacrificed on the sacrificial stone of the Great Temple?"

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

"I will ask for advice from the king and the high priest. Starting today, most of the overseers will be dismissed, leaving only four or five for handover. I will send another sixty warriors 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 has been idle at home, you must understand the value of your survival!"

Hearing this realistic threat, Kavale finally couldn't hold it any longer. He crawls to the ground, pounding the leader's life.

Shiroute looked at the foreman for a while expressionlessly, making sure that the other party really obeyed. He looked at Moreno, who was stunned.

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

Moreno groaned in his heart. His Highness ignored the southern trade route that flows through the Jinhe River, and instead went to boil 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 Xipactli... Thinking of this, the chief salt worker shuddered. He just nodded respectfully and said yes, not daring to say any more.

Afterwards, the salt diggers got busy again. Not long after, more than 200 temple guards in dark uniforms, wearing noble wolf-headed beast helmets, hurriedly appeared at the entrance 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 childhood, the guard of the Butterfly Palace in the holy city, and Elvi, who liked the "grim" smile the most.

"Elvie, did your grandfather send you here?"

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

"His Royal Highness, I am relieved to see you. The High Priest is quite worried after receiving the notification 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. ."

Shuroti nodded, the two hundred elite temple guards were enough to protect himself from the attacks of most nobles. The young man pondered for a moment, and then instructed Elvie.

"Leave 60 Temple Guards behind and take over the work of the Great Salt Mine immediately. I will go back and report this to the King and High Priest."

Elvie accepted 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 Guard, the foreman Kavale did not resist, and cooperated with the work honestly. The salt diggers avoided far away and watched the situation for a while, before being scolded by Kavale loudly, and collected the brown salt soil again.

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

Walking in a hurry, Shilot thought carefully.

He completely distrusted the rotten overseers of the big salt mine, 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 big salt mine.

The Great Salt Mine was originally controlled by the royal family. This time, the incident happened suddenly, and it was forcibly taken over on the grounds of sacrificial rituals, which caused an actual conflict between theocracy and kingship. He must now go back, report to King Avit, make up the due procedures, and face the dissatisfaction of the stakeholders.

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

And on the edge of the hill at the end of the dusty soil, there is a colorful obsidian mine. The morning sun is softly sprinkled, flowing among the shining quarries, reflecting the changing light of blue, green, purple, black, gold, silver and white, which is as beautiful as a rainbow. Obsidian itself is a naturally occurring glass.

This quarry was originally planned for inspection. Shilot entered the mine, stopped for a moment, and watched carefully. Dozens of mine guards were alerted by the brigade of warriors and took out their weapons vigilantly. Soon, the craftsman director Cuod stepped forward and informed these 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, and because the lava cools rapidly, no solid crystals form. Volcanic glass has no regular structure and is internally broken into smooth curved staggered shapes. The intersection of these fractures can form sharper edges than steel blades, and can easily cut animal hides and flesh.

Therefore, the ancestors of Central America used obsidian to make sharp arrows and sharp pieces of battle sticks, turning them into sharp weapons in the battlefield. In modern times, these obsidian pieces have also been used for the sharpened blades of surgeons.

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

Small-scale black flash stone mines are scattered in the alliance, close to the volcanic mountains in the east and west. This is a small mine directly belonging to the royal family, which is closely supervised by the royal family warriors.

In the open-pit mine, hundreds of strong masons are shirtless, standing in front of the broken obsidian vein, collecting the rough obsidian with exposed nodules, sweating like rain. They first waved the stone pick vigorously to break the cut surface, and then carefully used the stone chisel to cut out the rough stone. These rough stones of various sizes are then sent to the rear where they are screened and roughed by military artisans.

The military craftsmen cut the rough obsidian according to the texture, and the most common method is to make the rough into a cylindrical shape. They then placed the black stone pillar between their legs and used fine stone chisels to apply force from the edge of the pillar. Each successful excavation along the side will scrape out different sizes of stone flakes from the edge of the stone pillar like a razor.

Subsequently, the military craftsmen classified the flakes by different sizes and sharpness. The stone flakes are double-sided, single-sided or flakes, most of which belong to the sharp pieces of battle sticks, and some are used as civilian cutting tools. Only flakes whose edges are not sharp enough or whose edges are worn are used as excavation components to replace the fast-wearing collection tools of masons.

As for the expensive and beautiful large-scale rough stones, the military craftsmen will deliberately select them and keep them. These large-scale rough stones are sent to the mason workshops in the capital, where they are meticulously chiseled, ground and carved into various expensive black yao stone utensils. This is the source of the raw materials for Lozano, the chief mason.

Shilot tested the sharpness of the obsidian sharp piece. He just scratched the sharp piece lightly, and then cut through the rabbit skin hanging in the workshop, pierced into the dead flesh and blood, and cut a long and deep wound.

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

Early bronze tools did not provide a sufficient advantage over cheap and high-yield obsidian tools. To a certain extent, the advanced obsidian technology inhibited the development of metallurgical technology in Mesoamerica, and the bronze tools of the Tarrasco people were only just beginning.

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

"How many masonry workers are there in the alliance?" The boy looked at Kuod seriously with anticipation.

Cuod thought a little and reported cautiously.

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

Then, the craftsman director hesitated to speak.

"But Your Highness, masonry and military craftsmen are the basis for maintaining the power of the alliance. The samurai's obsidian sharps are consumed very quickly~www.readwn.com~ A battle may have to replace the sharps several times. The skill of obsidian mining takes a long time. Practice, these skilled masons have to serve the 100,000 warriors of the alliance, and it is impossible to recruit many."

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

"If the supply of large-scale stone materials in the masonry district of the capital is reduced, how many masonry workers can be recruited at most?"

The craftsman director hesitated, but finally gave the number.

"Probably can form a battalion of eight hundred people."

Shuluo nodded, and looked at these excellent soldiers with a little regret. After learning the required information, the boy didn't stay for 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 in sight. At a glance, the capital of Baishi shone with splendor, and the bright red was dazzling. It was red volcanic rock that adorned 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, ploughing volcanic ash farmland, using volcanic rocks. Everything in Mesoamerican society was influenced by the products of volcanic activity. Geological movements determine the geographical environment, and the geographical environment deeply defines the local civilization and determines the initial development trajectory.

"Is civilization really determined by geography?"

Shiloh frowned, thinking about this inexplicable question. After a long while, he laughed dumbly.

"No, civilization is determined by heroes!"

The boy straightened his chest firmly, and headed towards the capital confidently and dignifiedly. Behind him, the warriors solemnly held long bows, and the salt workers carried salt and soil with difficulty, walking together.