The night was deep, and after a day of exhaustion, Shulot fell asleep under the stars.
Dreams under the starry sky are always bright and gorgeous. There are countless shining stars in the Milky Way in the Middle Ages, just like the great figures of this era, emerging from his dreams one by one, with distant fighting and shouting. Until the huge Clark sailing ship
Coming from the horizon, sea and shore, east and west, white-skinned and yellow-skinned gunners fired at each other amidst the roar, and the young man suddenly woke up.
He opened his eyes suddenly, and the sky was falling into his eyes. The evening star was rising in the sky, and the morning light was shining in the east. The god of death had escorted the sun, crossed the long darkness, and rose from the sky again, bringing to this land
bright!
Shulot lay on the soft hay, watching the sunrise quietly, smelling the smell of dead grass and salt.
Bertard's eyes were slightly closed, as if he was asleep. He opened his eyes as if he had woken up, looked at the dazed young man, and smiled slightly. The warrior commander was already used to the young man's "divine enlightenment" and was only slightly concerned about what he saw last night.
He was moved. He believed that Xiulote was the dawn of the Mexica people and the only hope for the common people, so he was willing to follow him and protect him until he grew old.
The old carpenter Kuaud slept lightly. He had been watching silently last night, staring blankly at the deep smoke. From the young man's excited expression, he smelled an ominous breath, which was the smell of more life and death.
Far away, Moreno slept with his brothers and had no sleep all night. The leader of the salt workers tossed and turned, looking at his hands worriedly from time to time, and sighing deeply. He thought of the burning "salt" and the purple-green color.
Smoke, thinking of flames under the moonlight, full of worry.
"Have I been cursed by His Highness the Priest and exchanged my future life for the gift of the evil moon?"
The fierce Moreno once again fell into unknown fear and confusion. Facing the morning light, he secretly looked at the priest, only to see that the priest had already stood up and was practicing martial arts with the terrifying warrior captain.
When the sun came up, Shulot finally completed his daily training. He had a simple breakfast in the salt field, and the warriors were already ready to go.
The young man first looked at Cavare, who was standing beside him. The smile of the supervisor was filled with deep awe.
"Cavare, yesterday you said that this brown fluffy salt soil only appears on cold days?"
Cavare looked at the salty soil on the ground in fear. Now, he has completely believed in the legend of the monsters in the soil.
"Your Highness, the spirits in the soil will only wake up from the end of November to the end of February, the coldest time of the dry season, leaving behind this kind of divine soil. At other times, this kind of soil is difficult to see. But when the rainy season comes, the spirits will
If it goes to sleep, this soil will disappear completely.”
Shulot pondered for a moment, thinking about the key points. Then he made a decision and gave the order to the 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 do your best to collect this fluffy salt soil! The alliance's priests will use this sacred soil to perform the important task of summoning the gods.
Sacrifice! Allows you to recruit surrounding villagers to dig. The collected sacred soil must be stored dry and not mixed with other salt soil."
Upon hearing the sacrificial ceremony, Cavare's eyes showed deep awe. But soon, the mythical awe was replaced by real interests. He looked at His Highness respectfully, and his low reply contained rejection.
"Here, Your Highness...the large salt mine has daily salt mining quantity requirements. The salt workers also have a lot of work to complete..."
"Kavare, kneel down!" Xiulote looked at the overseer, too majestic to refuse.
The elite warriors on both sides immediately stepped forward and held down Cavare's shoulders. They raised their legs and kicked Cavare accurately in the hip. The overseer knelt down in pain and frowned in pain.
"Kavare, don't think that I don't know what you are doing with the merchants! The priestly rituals are related to the gods, and those who destroy the rituals will be punished by death regardless of their status! Do you want to be sacrificed on the sacrifice stone of the great temple?"
Hearing this, Cavare lowered his head in fear, sweat dripping down his round face.
"I will seek instructions 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 sixty warriors again to supervise the collection of the salt field and recruit the surrounding villagers!
The Alliance will allocate a batch of cotton cloth as compensation. General Casal is idle at home, you must understand the value of your survival!"
Hearing this realistic threat, Cavare finally couldn't hold on any longer. He crawled to the ground and killed himself.
Xuellot looked at the overseer expressionlessly for a while to make sure that he really obeyed. He then looked at Moreno, who was silent.
"Moreno, take your cronies with you, carry the saltpeter collected yesterday, and follow me to the capital. Think carefully on the way, how to boil more burning powder!"
Moreno wailed in his heart. His Highness left the southern trade route flowing with the Golden River alone, and instead brewed this evil and weird salt soil. He had never heard of a sacrificial ceremony using this soil. I'm afraid it was not a sacrifice to the original evil West.
Pactli... Thinking of this, the leader of the salt workers shuddered. He just nodded respectfully and did not dare to say anything more.
Afterwards, the saltmen became busy again. Not long after, more than two hundred temple guards in dark suits, wearing noble wolf-headed beast helmets, hurriedly appeared at the entrance of the salt field.
Shulot stepped forward surrounded by the guards. He was slightly surprised. The leader of the temple guards was a warrior he had known since childhood, a guard of the Butterfly Palace in the Holy City, and Hervé, who liked the "ferocious" smile the most.
"Hervé, did your grandfather send you here?"
Elvi showed a kind smile from under the wolf's head.
"Your Highness, I feel relieved when I see you. After receiving the notification from the guards, the high priest was quite worried. The new law was about to be promulgated, and the situation in the capital was unpredictable. The high priest asked me to bring a whole team here, just in case.
.”
Xiuluo nodded. The two hundred elite temple guards were enough to protect him from most attacks by the nobles. The young man thought for a moment and then gave orders to Hervé.
"Leave sixty temple guards and take over the work of the large salt mine immediately. I will go back and report this to the king and the high priest."
Hervey accepted the order without hesitation. Immediately, he named three twenty-man teams, dispersed most of the complaining supervisors, and directly and strictly controlled the inside and outside of the saltworks.
Seeing the actions of the temple guards, the supervisor, Cavare, did not resist at all and cooperated with the work honestly. The saltmen stayed away from a distance and watched the situation for a while, before being scolded by Cavare loudly and collected again.
Brown salt soil.
Seeing that everything was on track, Xiuluo nodded and rushed to the capital city in the lake with two hundred warrior guards and dozens of saltmen carrying saltpeter on their backs.
While walking in a hurry, Shulot thought carefully.
He completely distrusted the corrupt supervisors of the big salt mine, and the time for collecting saltpeter 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 large salt mine was originally controlled by the royal family. This time, something happened suddenly and they were taken over forcibly on the grounds of sacrificial rituals, which caused an actual conflict between the divine power and the royal power. He must now go back and report to King Avit and make up for the dues.
procedures while facing the dissatisfaction of stakeholders.
As everyone headed northeast, the saline-alkali land gradually disappeared, and neat farmland appeared in front of them. Due to the frequent volcanic movements, the soil here was light gray, rich in fertile volcanic ash, and the crop yield was extremely high.
And on the side of the hill at the end of the dusty soil is a colorful obsidian mine. The early morning sunlight shines softly, flowing among the shining stone mines, reflecting the changing light of blue, green, purple, black, gold and silver, like a rainbow.
Extraordinarily gorgeous. Obsidian itself is a naturally occurring glass.
This stone mine was originally planned for inspection. Shulot entered the mine, stopped for a moment, and watched carefully. Dozens of mine guards were alerted by the group of warriors and took out their weapons vigilantly. Soon, the craftsman director Kuaud quickly
Stepping forward, he informed the familiar guards that it was His Royal Highness coming to inspect.
Obsidian is one of the Alliance's most important military supplies. It is a dense volcanic glass that is formed in rhyolite lava flows. Because the lava cools rapidly, stable crystals are not formed. The volcanic glass has no regular structure and breaks into pieces inside.
Smoothly curved interlaced shapes. The intersections of these fractures can form sharper edges than steel blades, and can easily cut animal leather and flesh and blood bodies.
Therefore, the ancestors of Mesoamerica used obsidian to make sharp arrowheads and war stick blades, turning them into sharp weapons for battlefield fighting. In modern times, these obsidian tablets were also used as sharp surgical blades for surgeons.
The Mexica Alliance firmly controls the largest number of obsidian mines in Central America, which is the source of the alliance's strength. There are three large-scale obsidian natural mines in the Mexica states, located in Pachuca in the northeast of the alliance, and in Pachuca in the east.
Otumba, and Chicoloapan in the south. The large obsidian mine Pachuca is located near the holy city of Teotihuacan, which was the cornerstone of the prosperity of the ancient Teotihuacan civilization.
Small obsidian mines are scattered throughout the alliance, close to the volcanic mountains in the east and west. This is a small mine directly belonging to the royal family, and is strictly supervised by royal warriors.
In an open-pit mine, hundreds of strong masons stood bare-chested in front of broken obsidian veins, collecting rough obsidian stones with exposed nodules, sweating like rain. They first swung stone picks hard to break the sections.
, and then carefully use stone chisels to cut out the rough stones. Subsequently, these rough stones of different sizes were sent to the rear for screening and rough processing by military craftsmen.
The military craftsmen cut the obsidian rough stone according to the texture. 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 used fine stone chisels to apply force from the edge of the stone pillar. Each time
Successful excavation along the side will scrape out stone flakes of different sizes from the edge of the stone pillar like a razor.
Later, military craftsmen classified the stone flakes according to different sizes and sharpness. The stone flakes were double-sided, single-sided or flaky. Most of them were war club sharp pieces, and some were used as civilian cutting tools.
Only stone chips whose edges are not sharp enough or have worn edges will be used as excavation parts to replace the masonry's rapidly wearing collection tools.
For expensive and beautiful large rough stones, military craftsmen will specially select and preserve them. These large rough stones will be sent to the stonemason workshops in the capital, where they will be made into various expensive obsidian utensils through fine excavation, grinding and carving.
This is where the raw materials of the stonemason leader Lozano come from.
Xuelote tested the sharpness of the obsidian blade. He just gently swiped the sharp blade and it cut through the rabbit skin hanging in the workshop, broke into the dead flesh and blood, and cut a long, deep wound.
The young man marveled in his heart. After thousands of years of development, from excavation, use to processing, Mesoamerican obsidian technology has completely reached the pinnacle of proficiency. In fact, obsidian tools have met the daily needs of Mesoamerican civilizations, and obsidian weapons
It also fits the corresponding war situation and warrior level.
Early bronze tools did not have enough advantages over the cheap and high-yield obsidian tools. To a certain extent, the developed obsidian technology inhibited the development of Mesoamerican metallurgical technology, and the bronze tools of the Tarascans were just in their infancy.
.
Shulot watched for a moment. His eyes first looked at the well-developed upper body muscles of the masons, and then rested on their calm expressions. Then, he called a few 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 expectation in his eyes.
Kuod thought a little and reported cautiously.
"The three large obsidian mines each have nearly a thousand miners, and the dozen or so small mines have tens to hundreds."
Then, the craftsman director hesitated and spoke.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "But Your Highness, masonry and military craftsmanship are the basis for maintaining the alliance's force. The samurai's obsidian sharpeners are consumed extremely quickly, and they may need to be replaced several times in a battle.
The art of mining obsidian requires a long time of practice. These skilled masons have to serve the alliance's 100,000 warriors, and it is impossible to recruit many."
Hearing this, Shulot was slightly startled. He considered for a moment and asked in a deep voice.
"If the supply of large stones in the masonry area of the capital is reduced, how many masonry workers can be allocated at most?"
The craftsman director hesitated to speak, but finally gave the number.
"It can probably form a battalion of 800 people."
Xiuluo nodded and looked at these outstanding soldiers with a little regret. After understanding the required information, the young man did not 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 can be seen in the distance. At a glance, the white stone capital city is shining with brilliance, and the bright red is dazzling. It is red volcanic rock, decorated on the top of the palace and the big temple, symbolizing
With the authority of God.
Shulot looked to the east of the capital. Among the rolling mountains was the towering Popocatepetl volcano.
He recalled what he saw along the way: the lack of iron ore, the abundance of gold and silver, salt mines, and obsidian, the cultivation of volcanic ash farmland, and the use of volcanic rocks. Everything in Central American society was affected by the products of volcanic activity. Geological movements determine the geographical environment and geography.
The environment deeply limited local civilization and determined its initial development trajectory.
“Is civilization really determined by geography?”
Shulot frowned, thinking about this unanswerable question. After a while, he burst into laughter.
"No, civilization is determined by heroes!"
The young man straightened his chest resolutely and headed towards the capital with confidence and majesty. Behind him, the warriors solemnly held long bows, and the saltworkers walked together with the saltpeter on their backs.
This chapter has been completed!