Aztec Eternals

On the way to the king's tent, Shulot looked at the sky. Deep sky, high clouds, no longer warm sunshine, with cold wind.

"It's already the end of December, and it will soon be the end of the year." Xiulot thought.

The king in the big tent still sits high on the throne, with a face like a god, with his eyes slightly closed, appearing to be calm in an ancient well. Today's meeting, the war priests were not present. On the right side of the big tent is still the commander of the Chinese army wearing the sun stone double-sided cloak, while on the left side of the big tent are the commanders of the city-state army wearing a feather crown and wearing different cloaks.

Xiulot saw that his father was also standing at the front of the left side of the big tent, his face was full of fortitude and worry. It wasn't until he saw the two people who came in that Xiusoke smiled happily, exchanged glances with Xiulot, and then nodded to Avita next to him.

Afterwards, Xiulot followed Avitt to the right and stood still. He looked around, most of the generals in the big tent were worried, and the familiar leaders couldn't help whispering, the atmosphere seemed a little restless for a while.

After a while, Tisok opened his eyes after the commander and the heads of all the legions had arrived, and scanned the circle with sharp eyes. The voice in the big tent gradually became quieter until it became completely silent.

Shulot recalled the scene of the king's discussion in the past, observing the demeanor of the people and the quiet time. It seems that the king's prestige has declined.

"I've called you here this time. The first is to understand the casualties of each legion, and the second is to discuss the next step." Tisok looked at the city-state legion commanders, "How about your casualties?"

The generals reported the loss of the legion warriors one by one, scolded the cunning of the Otomi people, and complained about the lack of food and grass, hoping that the king could distribute another batch.

Shulot saw Tisok's brow slightly frowned.

It has been more than three months since the siege of the city, and the casualties during this period are indeed much greater than expected. The unacclimatized rainy season and the mountain forest guerrilla, 50,000 Mexica warriors, more than 600 people have died of illness, and more than 400 people have been killed in battle. The accumulative total was nearly 2,000, and even the military noble jaguar fighters died 20.

In more than three months, the elite warriors actually suffered 3,000 casualties. Xiulot was a little surprised by this number. Fifty thousand Otomi warriors may not be able to bring such casualties to the army.

It can be seen that logistics and environmental damage to the army are sometimes far greater than large-scale battles.

The commanders didn't care about the militia, so there were no specific casualty figures. Xiulot only knew that the camp and the militiamen in the rear also lost three to four thousand people, most of whom were concentrated on the troops maintaining the transportation in the mountains. Half of them died in the difficult mountain forests during the rainy season, and half of them were killed or injured in the guerrillas of the Otomi team.

Tisok's brows furrowed even tighter.

"How about the Otomi casualties?" The king looked at Totek.

Totek hesitated for a moment, but stepped forward and said loudly: "We found more than 2,500 corpses of Otomi militiamen, and less than 100 warrior corpses."

There was an uproar in the big tent, Otomi's militia actually had a casualty ratio of two to one to three to one with the Mexica warriors, which was a completely unacceptable figure. Looks like the Otomi have finally found a way to deal with the Mexica warriors, thought Sholot.

The king tried his best to calm down and let the generals in the big tent be quiet for a while.

Later, Tisok asked Avet seriously: "Where did these Otomi people come from? How many more?"

"The militiamen are from Guamare and Palms. Apart from these two places, there are also a small number of warriors from farther west or northern city-states." Avit also replied seriously, "The number of warriors is estimated to be more than a thousand, and the militia It is hard to count, because the villages in these two places can mobilize tens of thousands more.”

Hearing the figure of tens of thousands, the generals started clamoring again. Everyone clamored to show the Otomi people a good look. Xiu Luote listened intently for a while, and found that no one had mentioned the withdrawal of troops yet. The inability of the Otomi people to fight head-on gave everyone a feeling of weakness and deception, an illusion that victory is in sight.

This time, even the king could not calm down the noise of the big tent, and he had no intention of calming down.

Tisok asked Totek to come forward, and the two discussed in a low voice. Then, Shulot saw Totek nod his head with a cold face, his eyes showed coldness, and then he slapped his chest heavily with his left arm to express his commitment.

After a long time, the big tent became quiet. Tisok nodded, and Totek strode to the center, stood behind a chest-length stone platform, and announced the king's decision to the generals.

"The king decided to split two armies to attack the city-states of Guamare and Parmus. One line was directly under the royal family, and the other was handed over to the city-state coalition forces. Each arm had eight thousand warriors, at least one thousand jaguars or eagle warriors. Regiment, put on the uniform of ordinary warriors."

"Two thousand warriors directly under each route will be used to carry food and trophies, and the trophies will be given priority to food." Totek focused his eyes on the faces of the city-state leaders, watching fiercely until the leaders of all the states nodded agree.

"There are three goals in this expedition. First, go directly to the cities of Guamare and Parmes, demand that the city-state surrender and pay tribute, sever the alliance with the Ottopan, and withdraw the harassing militia. The request is mainly to retreat, and the tribute is not required. "

"Secondly, if Guamare and Palmus are unwilling to withdraw reinforcements and sever the covenant, the partial division will show weakness to the city-state and lure them out of the city to fight."

"Again, if the Otomi are still huddled in the ground like mice." Totek paused, glanced at the generals again, and then unloaded the obsidian stick behind him, "Marquawitter", and then raised his hands , the muscles swelled, and he swung down hard.

Shulot heard a loud noise, and the stone platform in front of Toct exploded, and the dust rose up, which was crushed by a stick.

The generals were horrified, looking at Totek with fear and obedience.

The dust blurred the commander-in-chief's figure. Shulot couldn't see his reddened eyes clearly, and only heard the cold voice spit out: "Let the warriors destroy all the villages and burn everything! No matter men, women, old or young, no prisoners will be taken in this battle. No one will be left alive!"

All the generals looked at each other blankly, and were speechless for a moment, then suddenly agreed, and the killing intent surged up.

Shulot was horrified, as if he saw boundless blood rushing toward his face.

Ever since he came to this world, Shulot discovered that although there were bloody human sacrifice ceremonies, in fact, the Aztec army never did meaningless killings.

The Mexica warriors would only capture sacrifices that could be taken away, and then release the old, weak, sick, and non-threatening teenagers, so that the village could continue to reproduce.

It's like a jaguar hunting, only catching enough food to survive. Instead of killing senselessly for entertainment like cats. That is a waste of offerings.

The same is true for the promotion of samurai, only counting the number of soldiers captured alive, and against pure killing.

Theologically, the sacrifices belonged to the gods. Only the life consecrated in the sacrifice can meet the requirements of God. The world needs a steady stream of sacrifices as fuel to keep the sun running.

The Mexica warriors need a continuous village and a steady stream of sacrifices. This is a realistic law of the jungle, and sacrifices are the food for survival. Usually, it is not like the army in the Ming Dynasty slaughtered villages for wealth, and did not keep alive in order to avoid the pressure of civil officials.

On the other hand, sacrifices also have different levels. The sacrifices of the descendants of the gods are the most pleasing to the gods, followed by the blood of the nobles. The ordinary warriors are considered qualified, and the inferior militiamen are just a dispensable addition.

This is why the city of Hilotepec would rather give away all its wealth than open its gates: sacrificing 300 noble god-born nobles is far better than 3,000 civilians.

So far, the wars Shulot has experienced are all low-intensity tributary wars, not like the cruel foreign culture conquest wars during the rise of the Yuan and Qing Dynasties.

He has been able to face the war, but he is not ready to face the real cruelty.

But at this time, due to the threat of food roads, the army faced a crisis of survival. The warriors of Mexica were like wasps that had been stabbed in the nest, and scattered out murderously. They have to let go of the principle of catching sacrifices, and deal with the attack of mice with the absolute cruelty of cats.

The generals then scattered out of the tents, ordered elite warriors, carried cold sticks on their backs, and brought enough obsidian sharps for consumption.

Xiulot was a little dazed. He was being dragged forward by Avit, and his footsteps were not stable. In a trance, I saw my father striding forward.

Afterwards, Xiu Suoke hugged Shulot tightly, and then lowered his head to his ear: "Sholot, I know you have always been soft-hearted, but there is no point in being soft-hearted, my son. Be strong like a warrior!"

"Life is nothing but flowers blooming, everything will die silently, and you will always see blood. The blood of civilians, warriors, nobles, priests, even my blood, and yourself!"

"A samurai is calm, and regards death as the way home." After saying this, Xiusoke lowered his head and kissed his son's forehead. Then there was another strong hug, and then turned away. Olosh next to him looked at Shulot with some concern, then turned around and left.

In the end, only Avette was left. He turned sideways, glanced at Shulot, smiled slightly, and then continued to half-drag the boy and strode forward.