Chapter 168 All Parties
A strong long wind blew from the eastern sky, and the wind chimes on the high platform jingled again, like a fierce prelude to a movement.
King Suangua stood on the high platform, silently looking at the eastern sky. The summer wind in the rainy season is so dull, and the moist water vapor blows against your face, indicating that a new heavy rain is coming.
After a while, King Tarasco sighed softly. He lowered his head, stared at the long bow and bronze arrows on the ground, and spoke slowly and solemnly.
"Zinzini, how are the master craftsmen doing their research? When can these Mexican longbows be imitated?"
The chief minister showed an invisible smile.
"Your Majesty, I have summoned the master craftsmen in the capital to study together for two days. According to the masters, the manufacturing technology of this long bow is not complicated. The craftsmen only need to make an approximate imitation of the existing shape. . Before I came here, I just issued a strict order for the craftsmen to start making it. The first copy can be made within two or three days at the earliest!”
Su Angua nodded with satisfaction. He looked at the chief minister and asked seriously.
"Zinzini, the stone fortress in the south is crumbling, and the danger is like accumulated bird eggs! The warriors on the front line need this powerful new weapon. Can we build a thousand longbows in two weeks? Can it be done?!"
The chief minister thought for a moment and replied calmly.
"Your Majesty, it can't be done. It's impossible!"
Hearing this, the king's eyes widened, waiting for the chief's explanation.
"The technical difficulty of the Mexican longbow can be overcome. However, its bow body is long and wide, and the wood is hard. It is very labor-intensive to make! We lack skilled bowsmiths, and the initial stage of large-scale manufacturing will be very slow. At the same time, this long bow The draw force of the bow is extremely high, and the arrows used must have strong shafts and neat shapes, and it is also extremely difficult to make! In addition, high-quality feathers are expensive, and the gaps in high-quality wood are large.”
Zinzini patiently recounted the story one by one, ignoring Suangua's increasingly gloomy expression. Finally, his voice suddenly became loud and clear.
"Your Majesty, the most critical point is that both longbows and feathered arrows require a lot of labor. And the Lake District is mobilizing on a large scale to fight, and our manpower is almost exhausted!"
Hearing this, Su Angua's face condensed. He asked seriously.
"Tell me in detail!"
The chief minister saluted respectfully, then stretched out his right hand and counted his fingers one by one.
"The Grand Patzcuaro Lake District has a total population of more than 900,000, and more than 200,000 men and women. At this time, the north and the south were at war at the same time, and the border was full of war. Two months after the war began, 30,000 to 40,000 men and women were lost, including the militia. The kingdom has already mobilized 50,000 militiamen for the battlefield, and many of the remaining men are in the nobility's fiefdoms. It is difficult to force these people to maintain the most basic autumn harvest. Your Majesty, purely based on national strength. , we only have three-fifths of the Mexican league.”
Suangua remained silent. He knew in his heart that, including the vassals that paid tribute to the Mexican Alliance, the kingdom's national strength was only half that of its huge enemy. The king pondered for a moment, listening to the priest's singing in the wind, and then slowly spoke.
"The nobles are gathering together, waiting for the priests' sacrificial ceremony. I will discuss the gods' prophecies with the priests and elders. The gods will inevitably say that the nobles, big and small, jointly contribute manpower and material resources to resist the invasion of the believers of the alien gods. This will be pious. Embodiment or not!”
Jinzini was startled for a moment, then after thinking for a moment, his expression changed drastically. He spoke quickly.
"Your Majesty, nobility is the foundation of the kingdom."
Su Angua waved his hand to stop him, his expression cold and hard.
"Zinzini, I have my own sense of discretion! Can the thousands of craftsmen in the capital be able to allocate a group specifically to make longbows?"
The chief minister lowered his head and calculated for a moment before answering.
"If we stop the maintenance of palaces and temples and forcibly recruit craftsmen from the royal family, we should be able to gather two to three hundred people."
Hearing this, the king frowned slightly.
"This number is too small! Draw another 300 people from the bronze weapon craftsmen, and all of them will be used to make longbows and arrows."
Zinzini was busy calculating again. Then, he answered hesitantly.
"If this is the case, the daily output should be more than fifty longbows and more than a thousand arrows. It also requires nearly a thousand people to cut wood, and the chores are just for the copper soldiers?"
Su Angua nodded and waved his hand decisively.
"Just do it this way! The militia guarding the fort does not need bronze soldiers. Allocate a batch of bronze tools to the craftsmen, let them improve their bow-making skills, and make them proficiently as soon as possible. The warriors step up their supervision and work day and night. Also, urgently select warriors who are good at shooting. "
The chief minister quickly drew abstract longbows and figures on the wooden board, marked counting symbols, and wrote down the king's instructions.
Suangua turned around and looked at the five majestic "House of Winds" Yacarta. The sacrificial ceremony had already begun.
Under the Yaka Tower, the nobles stood solemnly, silently watching the solemn and grand ceremony. In front of the three temples, the holy fire burned fiercely, and the low-level priests sang loudly. They inhaled the smoke from the Kingdom of God floating out of the pottery gourds and danced wildly in a trance.
The king smelled the breath in the wind and frowned. He looked away in disgust and looked at the high-ranking priests with calm expressions. These old priests stood at the top of the temple holding sharp knives, welcoming the bundled Mexica sacrifices one after another. The number of sacrifices is not too many, but the ritual of sacrifice is very complicated. Each god has different preferences, corresponding to a part of the sacrificial body.
Su Angua looked calm as he watched the blood blooming in front of the temple. His thoughts were suddenly in a trance.
"The Mexica people have always been famous for their sacrifices, and all tribes in the world praise their piety. I wonder if there is a chance to see the spectacular sacrifice ceremony with my own eyes."
Thinking of this, the king's heart suddenly chilled. He couldn't help but raise his head and look at the sky in the south.
From the "Palace of Wind" to the southeast, four or five hundred miles away is Zitacuaro. The undulating mountains and forests hinder the movement of large-scale troops, and the rivers flowing from north to south are natural marching passages. There are dense stone forts at the main roads of the rivers.
The summer sun fell from the sky, illuminating the flags on the stone forts. The long wind blew, and the flags fluttered with clear patterns, one-third of which were suns and hummingbirds.
The royal noble Iscari stood on a hill with a three-and-a-half-meter commander's flag on his back, staring firmly at the front.
Two hundred meters ahead was a small bluestone fortress. The stone fort was full of blood from fighting, scattered corpses and broken arrows. The eagle flag of the Tarasco royal family was planted at the top of the tower. A jaguar warrior with a yellow armor and a beast helmet, covered in blood, strode to the top of the tower and broke the eagle flag. Behind him, a senior warrior in a dark green battle suit looked solemn and bowed his head to hand over a new flag.
Then, the jaguar warrior planted the flag at the highest point with force. He faced the long wind and shouted suddenly, calling the name of the Lord God. The flag unfolded in the wind, revealing the bright markings of the sun and hummingbird. At this moment, seeing this exciting scene, thousands of Mexica warriors cheered together and praised the victory given by the Lord God!
On the hill, Iskali also lowered his head, stretched out his hand to cover his protruding cheekbones, and prayed silently for a few words. Then, with a cold expression and a cold light flashing in his eyes, he calmly called the guards beside him.
"How many prisoners were taken in this battle?"
"Two hundred Tarasco warriors, five hundred militiamen, most of whom were injured."
"Leave no one behind."
Iskari waved his hand coldly, his voice indifferent as usual. This stone fortress resisted resolutely, facing several times the number of enemies, powerful longbows and stone bombardment, it still held out for five days. When the warriors of the alliance climbed the city, more than two hundred people were also killed and injured. The commander of the southern route was not prepared to give any prisoners a chance to convert.
The guard bowed his head and promised, then strode away. A moment later, the priests who accompanied the army built a simple altar, prayed to the supreme god, and offered sacrifices. Soon, the sacred chanting echoed inside and outside the fortress, and thousands of warriors knelt in front of the holy fire, feeling the comfort of their hearts and recovering their will to fight.
Iskari also knelt down to pray. He murmured in his mouth, but his mind drifted towards the capital with the wind.
"It's already halfway through July, and we've only taken one-third of Zitacuaro. The Tarasco people's resistance is getting stronger and stronger, and the warriors are losing more and more. Dear king, when can you arrive with your army?"
Changfeng continued to move forward. Behind the commander of the southern route, there were continuous wooden camps all the way to Lazicobang, the starting point of the grain road. In the mountains and forests outside the camp, there were many bodies in Tarasco costumes scattered around, dyeing the soil beneath them red. And around the camp, there were shallow mounds where Mexica warriors and militiamen were buried. After a moment of shouting and fighting, there was eternal peace and sleep, regardless of enemy or friend.
The warm sunshine fell, treating everyone equally for hundreds of miles, but the ground had changed. At this time, the Mexica Valley was lush and green everywhere. Wild flowers bloomed by the roadside, and the seedlings in the farmland grew vigorously.
The farmers carefully removed the weeds in the fields and took care of the corn, soybeans and pumpkins. Occasionally, they stopped working and looked at the large group of militiamen walking on the road, the sharp stone spears in their hands, and the tall bamboo baskets behind them. These were the militiamen transporting food to the southern front.
When the warriors in the front row passed, the bold farmers would ask a few questions quietly, asking what the Tarasco people in the west looked like. The fight two hundred miles away took place on the enemy's territory, and the spring plowing of the alliance was the same as usual. For the civilians of the alliance, the war seemed to be thousands of miles away, at the end of the world.
The residents of the lake capital were obviously well-informed. They talked a lot in the big market of Tlatelolco in the north city, and the busy caravans brought the latest inaccurate news. Under the guidance of the community priests, the residents of the capital talked loudly, imagining the overwhelming battle and discussing the victory that was destined to be achieved.
In the king's palace, Avit sat on the throne, wearing a majestic and gorgeous robe. He held the latest paper book in his hand and was reading the mobilization report of the Texcoco Lake area. Beside the king, Gilliam stood with his hands folded, holding a pen and paper, looking solemn and silent.
The king had all the military moves firmly in his hands. He looked at the counting symbols on the paper, quickly and accurately calculating in his mind, without the need for anyone to report or help. After a while, Avit nodded with satisfaction.
"The vassals in various places are quite honest. The Huastec, Mixtec, and Zapotec have all sent the second tribute of the summer. The distant Zapotecs did some tricks, and the tribute was only two-thirds of what the alliance required. The alliance is busy with farming and war, and it is indeed impossible to send troops to them. However, this is more like a test from the vassals, and it cannot be indulged at will!"
Avit thought for a moment and made a decision.
"Gilliam, dispatch three thousand elite warriors and five hundred jaguar nobles. Have them go to the southern Mixtecs to make a detour and show the alliance's military power, and then go west to join the southern army. At the same time, send envoys to rebuke the Zapotecs and ask them to make up for the shortfall in tribute with the tribute after the autumn harvest!"
Gillim nodded and accepted the order, writing down the decree. he asked in a low voice.
"Your Majesty, you will go on an expedition after the autumn harvest. If there is still a shortfall in the third tribute from the South at that time, what should be done?"
The king smiled.
"Then write down the shortfall and compensate it in the New Year's tribute. If there is still a shortfall, the alliance will not raise troops now, but it will keep it in mind and calculate it together in the future!"
Gilliam nodded solemnly.
"Your Majesty, as soon as the war started, the consumption of materials was like burning mountains and forests, disappearing piece by piece. The alliance's manpower and material resources were fully stretched. If it weren't for the tributes from vassals everywhere, it would be difficult to maintain. The Tarascans will only be worse than us. difficult."
Avitt nodded in agreement.
"Reporting some time ago, Iskali's southern route army has made good progress and has captured the outermost ring of stone forts. As long as Sitacuaro is captured, the Tarascans will have no danger of defending! Xiulote The Northern Route Army also successfully established a foothold in the Leman River and contained a large number of northern enemies. As for how to fight later, it depends on his own performance. "
Gilliam bowed his head and saluted.
"The Southern Route Army is the main force of the Western Expedition, and the Northern Route Army is just a partial division after all. As long as His Highness can attract reinforcements from the Chapala Lake area and maintain pressure on Akambalo State, it will be a great achievement!"
Hearing this, Avitt smiled softly. He didn't say much, just gave the order calmly.
"Gillim, continue to send envoys to the city-states of the alliance to urge them to mobilize warriors who do not need to farm as soon as possible and rush to the north and south front lines. Before the autumn harvest, another wave of offensives must be launched! Similarly, send envoys and scouts to the major forces to test their attitude towards the alliance. attitude and observe the military mobilization. Tell Acap that he is doing well in the religious holy city of Cholula! Let him continue to talk about theology with the priests and elders there, and send him a batch of special tobacco and holy water! "
Hearing the name of the holy water, Gillim's hand froze, and his expression finally changed slightly. After a moment, the intelligence officer returned to normal and continued to record in his hand.
Afterwards, Avitt stood up and looked towards the mountains to the northwest through the wide doors and windows. He thought silently in his heart.
"Xulot, you won't let me down."
At this time, in the towering pyramid sanctuary in the distant religious holy city of Cholula, Acap trembled inexplicably. Wearing a gorgeous robe, with a face as graceful as a crown jewel, and as graceful as a messenger of the gods, he was laughing and chatting with a group of gray-haired old men.
The rich divine smoke floats in the sanctuary, exuding a pleasant and intoxicating strange atmosphere.
"Elder Akapu, the view of the Supreme God you just talked about is very good, why did you stop suddenly?" A seemingly kind and noble old man sat cross-legged in front of him and asked with a smile.
Acap thought for a moment and felt that everything was normal, so he laughed and said with the same gentleness.
"Dear priest leader, the sacred smoke you burned is so precious that it made me intoxicated and completely forget myself."
The priest leader laughed and waved. Several elegantly dressed maids immediately stepped forward and poured more precious and expensive herbs and flowers into the exquisite copper incense burner.
"Then please ask Elder Akapu to continue to forget yourself and meet the God above all else in your dream!"