Aztec Eternals

The rainy season in August is intense, with torrential rains accompanied by strong winds and dark clouds obscuring the sun. There was darkness between the sky and the earth, and it also dimmed the face of the envoy from Xilotepec.

Shulot habitually stood on the edge of the big tent, but was pulled by Totek's strong arms. The commander-in-chief with a broken hairline gave Shulot a smile that he thought was kind. Shulot trembled, so he had to stand beside him.

This time, the leader of the messenger group was a nobleman. He wore a blue pointed leather cap, a green striped cloak, and a white robe embroidered with the sun, perfectly avoiding all the colors associated with the god of day and night.

The figure of a nobleman is naturally much softer and more flexible than that of a priest. He first paid tribute to the god-born king who is "holy as the sun, great as mountains, brave as flames, and wise as a great lake". Then there is a tribute to the giant hummingbird from the south, Vitzilopochtli, the god of war, who succeeded the Aztec myth of the sun god.

Immediately afterwards, the nobles began to distribute titles and compliments to the commanders and priests at the scene as if they did not want money.

Shulot subconsciously glanced at Avette's sincere smile, then opened his eyes wide with black lines all over his head. Because he also got a flattering title: "Giant Breeder". A very fantastic-sounding name.

It was hard for him to forget that when the messenger knew that he was the maker of the "Giant Beast" trebuchet, he was surprised and puzzled, as if he should not be a teenager, but a person from the First Sun Era in mythology. giant.

Too many mythological ideas still remain in the hearts of various ministries in Mexico, and the flames of the dawn of civilization have just been ignited.

And the growth of the flame requires the accumulation of civilization. Xiulot pondered: "Perhaps, I should invent a set of characters as soon as possible."

In the big tent, the words of the nobles may be able to change many things, but at this moment they cannot change the essence of the war between the two sides.

When Xilotepec's messenger carefully expressed his intention to surrender, the old priest of the sun cloak stood up again.

"Thirty years of tribute, sacrifice of six thousand males, severing the Otomi covenant, handing over the inheritance sacrificial plate, handing over the descendants of the gods as protons, and converting to the great sun god." The army of Mexica occupies a huge advantage, the conditions become more stringent.

"The merciful King of Mexica." The envoy pleaded to the expressionless Tissok on the throne: "The city-state has decided to sever the alliance and convert to faith, and hand over the inheritance sacrificial plate. As for the tribute and sacrifice, can we negotiate again. Proton I also need to report back to the city-state."

The king finally nodded: "Hand over the inheritance plate that records all the myths immediately. Tributes and sacrifices can be reduced to half. This is the last chance!"

The noble envoy immediately bowed his thanks, and then left in a hurry. Suddenly, he thought of something, and hesitantly said to Shulot: "The fearsome beast breeder, during the city-state negotiation process, can you stop the giant beast from attacking?"

Shulot looked at the king. Tisok nodded, and Xiulot said, "Yes!"

The nobleman breathed a sigh of relief: "I will bring you a satisfactory gift!" Then he left sadly.

As soon as the envoy left, everyone in the big tent looked happy, and the Xilotepec city-state was finally about to succumb.

Shulot also heaved a sigh of relief. The bombardment for three consecutive days had seriously worn down the shaft of the trebuchet, especially the connection with the tip of the gun, which suffered the most force and was also the most fragile.

Xiulot has told Totek that if the bombardment continues for another day, the trebuchet will be damaged, and it is estimated that it will take a week of repairs before it can be used again. At the same time, the three-day stone throwing only caused hundreds of Otomi casualties. As the soldiers at the top of the city adapted, this number decreased rapidly.

Now, whenever a stone is thrown, warriors and militiamen will prostrate at the corner of the wall, bow their heads and pray to the giant beast. Because a wise man discovered that in doing so the giant beast would not harm them.

The king is very clear about the status quo, and has long left room for retreat for the conditions of the negotiation. Fortunately, Xilotepec's morale had collapsed before the city walls.

Tisok nodded in satisfaction to Shulot, then stepped down from the throne, stroking the boy's hair, which seemed to be a hint of swearing allegiance?

"The trebuchet is very good, continue to study it." The king said with a smile, "Do you have any rewards you want?"

Sholot was unaware of the hint. He thought for a while and said, "I want some copper axes and copper tools, as well as some excellent craftsmen."

"Except for the craftsmen who built the pyramids, you can choose 20 people at will." The king withdrew his hand and thought for a moment with a blank expression. "There are not many copper ax guards, and I can only give you five sets together with the tools. I will give you a batch of cotton cloth, and you can buy it from the merchants yourself."

"The priesthood of Tenochtitlan will always reserve a senior seat for you." Tisok left a last hint.

The boy finally changed from "someone who has a slight threat to the throne" to "someone who is useful to the throne".

The shower had just stopped, but the sky was still cloudy. Early the next morning, Shulot in the camp was awakened by the commotion and shouts from the distant city-state.

He put on the sun cloak newly given by the king, and under the protection of the guard Bertard and several warriors, he climbed onto the nearby high platform and looked towards the east gate of Xilotepec City.

I saw about a hundred civilian husbands struggling to get out of the city-state. They were pulling hard on the rope on their backs, dragging something slowly.

Behind the civilian husband is a group of Otomi noble warriors in gorgeous costumes. The warriors either blocked or embraced, keeping behind the priests wearing black and white cloaks and looking excited.

The priests of Xilotepec watched helplessly as the peasants dragged a boulder out of the city, all the way to the Mexica camp. They finally knelt on the ground outside the city, letting their cloaks be covered with mud, only facing the boulder.

Some of the priests wept bitterly, some repented in a low voice, some swore to the sky, and some drew out their obsidian knives and cut their cheeks, leaving red streaks of blood.

Xiulot stepped forward and finally saw the boulder's appearance clearly: the boulder was round, about two meters in diameter, and more than half a meter thick, and the weight was estimated to be close to ten tons. At the center of the monolith is the face of a double-faced deity, with both male and female features, supposed to symbolize the primordial god Omet Otl.

Below the Primordial God is a monster with a crocodile head, fish body and frog legs, which symbolizes the primitive sea monster Sipactli, who is said to have devoured the world, sealed by Omete Otl.

There are four suns surrounding the original god, symbolizing the four eras that have passed away, similar to the sun stones of the Tenochtitlan Temple, which are "four jaguars", "four winds", "four rains" ", "Four Waters". Evidence of the common origin of the Mexican tribes.

On the outermost side of the boulder, densely packed pictures are carved, various animals, villains and abstract gods, interspersed with villages, cities, and huge pyramids.

These pictures are the characters of Mesoamerica, like tribal epics, recording the development of a city-state from village to city, as well as famous warriors or miracles. No one but the priests who have passed down the generations can explain the pictures clearly.

In these graphic characters, different graphics have different meanings, the same graphic also has different meanings, and different graphics can also have the same meaning.

This design is not for the circulation of knowledge and culture at all, but more like the inheritance of esoteric religion.

This is the core power held by the priests: the right to interpret myths and graphic characters. Without this inheritance sacrificial plate, the priests of Xilotepec City lost the most important foundation of the temple in the city-state.

The priests wept for their faith and hated for their lost power.

"Creating a script is easy to say, and you must be cautious about unifying the script. This is competing with the priests for core power." Xiulot was terrified. "Without the mighty power of the first emperor, how can we write the same text?"

After getting the inheritance sacrificial plate, the theologian king was overjoyed and stopped paying attention to other trivial matters, but only summoned the priests who accompanied the army to study together.

After Xiulot went there once, he sneaked away. At this time, Tisok only had the sacrificial plate in his eyes, but for the first time, he didn't care about Xiulot's actions.

In the next three days, countless feathers, clothes, herbs and spices, gold and silver jewelry, and precious gems were successively transported from the city of Hilotepec. Xiulot also received the gift promised by the messenger, and had the illusion of becoming a local tyrant.

In addition to tributes, the army asked for daily consumables such as ordinary clothes, fish, meat and food.

The warriors of Mexica smiled happily at the spoils, but in the eyes of the nobles and warriors of Otomi, there was a flame of growing resentment.

On the evening of the last day, the gates of the city-state were thrown wide open. Three thousand sacrifices were finally decided, and were finally escorted to the Mexica camp amidst the cries of their relatives.

Dark clouds once again enveloped the four fields, and the wind and rain in August never stop.

So far, Shulot clearly understood: from priests, to nobles, to warriors, to civilians, everyone in this city-state is already a complete enemy of the Mexica army.

And how can a few noble protons suppress such a deeply buried flame?