Chapter 251: Inheriting the slate, intermarriage and enfeoffment
"Good, very good!"
A lingering dream, like summer rain or autumn wind, drifts in the distant sky of time. Time changes, the sea recedes, and the epic of the lost kingdom is like a sudden shower, beating on the heart of the king, and also knocking out vigilance and enlightenment. Until
Jatiri's voice sounded like thunder, and Shulot came back to his senses from his contemplation of the kingdom's change. He looked at the knowledgeable elder with a smile, and lovingly held him up with both hands.
"Only by using the kingdom's epic as a bronze mirror can we clearly see the rise and fall of the future! I also ask the sages to speak freely and give me advice and inspiration!"
Jatiri paused for a moment, and a look of admiration flashed across his face. Then, he stood up and walked towards the fourth stone slab again.
"Your Highness, please look!"
Shulot looked carefully and saw that the fourth picture board was also a combination of three patterns.
The middle panel is a picture of a pilgrimage. Under the supreme sun, a king with a condor helmet looks majestic and tall, sitting on the throne in the middle. He has a spear in one hand and a staff in the other, receiving the
The pilgrims. Below him, followed by the ministers who were saluting. The ministers were divided into two distinct halves. The left half held weapons, wore animal skin battle clothes, various animal helmets on its head, and carried on its back
Throwing spears and bows and arrows. The right half holds a scepter, wears gorgeous robes, wears a traditional wide hat in the Lake District, and carries a shield with family crests on its back. And further out, there are people kneeling and performing Hajj.
All the peoples are densely packed and small, like countless ants lying on the ground.
The young king looked at it for a moment. The warriors on the left were obviously closer to the Condor King. In this serious political painting, the different distances and sizes symbolized the level of power and status. He thought for a moment and whispered
Talk to yourself.
"This situation...is very similar to the current situation of the feudal country!"
Jatiri smiled and nodded.
"Your Highness, the picture in the middle is the enthronement ceremony of Taliacuri, the first generation of Condor King, Tarasco's first Kasonchi. After more than ten years, Condor Chief Taliacuri finally sought peace.
He conquered the various tribes in the land of the lake, controlled the Patzcuaro and Chapala Lake areas, and established a country here, with its capital in the city of Chinconcan.
Not long after the kingdom was first established, there were two groups of nobles under the command of King Tariacuri. One group was the Nava military nobles who followed him all the way south, and the other group were the traditional Urisio nobles who had surrendered one after another. Both sides had tribes.
Warriors and land. The Nahua military nobles are good at fighting, have been following for longer, have made more military exploits, and have a significantly higher status, but they are just smaller in number. In contrast, the traditional nobles in the Lake District are more powerful, although they have surrendered
It is relatively late, but has deep roots in the Lake District.
After Taliacuri ascended the throne, the first important matter was the enfeoffment of land. The Nahua military nobles were eager for the rich lands in the Lake District and hoped to enfeoff them near the prosperous capital. However, half of these lands were directly under the royal family and half
It was controlled by the traditional nobles of the Lake District. The prestige of the first generation monarch was unmatched, and no one dared to covet the territory directly under the royal family. The Nahua nobles had conflicts with the Lake District nobles and began to compete for land. Soon, the two sides joined forces with each other.
, the conflict gradually intensified. The Nahua nobles were accustomed to speaking with force, and soon mobilized their respective tribal warriors."
Hearing this, Shulot nodded silently. Military nobles have an innate desire for land. If the king wants to drive a powerful legion, he must satisfy the warriors' land needs.
After the Mexican Legion conquered the land in the lake, the first thing they did was to seek enfeoffment of the land. This Western Expedition lasted only more than a year, and the nobles and warriors had not yet accumulated enough military exploits to be rewarded. The young king relied on
The authority deliberately suppressed the number of feudal nobles and the area of fiefdoms. Even so, the land to be enfeoffed was nearly two million acres, accounting for 15-20% of the existing cultivated land in the entire feudal country.
Taliacuri has been fighting for more than ten years, and the number of military nobles under his command must be several times that of the Northern Army of Mexico. He does not have the strength of the Mexican Alliance, and cannot systematically purge the old nobles on a large scale during the national war. So.
The situation he faced at that time must have been much more difficult than what he faces now.
Thinking of this, Shulot looked at the two panels on the left and right.
The content of the panel on the left is a wedding scene, with the Condor King at the top of the screen. Witnessed by the Condor King, a newlywed couple is standing side by side with their hands clasped close together. The groom on the left is
A male Nahua hunter with a short bow on his back. He is wearing a warrior's uniform and holding a wild deer in his arms. The bride on the right is a female lake fisherman carrying a fishing net. She is dressed in noble clothes and holding a wild deer in her arms.
It is holding a big fish. If you look carefully, you can see that the groom is larger and taller, showing his slightly higher status.
"How to integrate the newly arrived ethnic groups with the local ethnic groups is the first problem that every conqueror king must face."
The knowledgeable elder looked at Shulot with a smile in his eyes.
"In order to deal with this problem, the first ancestor of Tarasco personally arranged and presided over a large-scale intermarriage between the two tribes to eliminate the gap between the two parties. Almost all the Nahua nobles were required to marry the native Urichi nobles
Marriage, and the requirement is to have inheritance rights and outstanding children! And ordinary Nava warriors are also required to marry civilian women from the Lake District."
"In this ancient panel painting, the wild deer is the symbol of the Nahua nobility, and the big fish is the representative of the nobility of the Lake District. The combination of the two gave birth to the first batch of Prepecha elites, the new backbone of the kingdom!
It is said that the first ancestor, Tariakuri, was blessed by the gods and lived to be 80 years old. He ruled the newly emerged kingdom for decades, and used his outstanding prestige and firm patience to achieve success among the new two generations.
Noble fiefdoms were redistributed and a solid factional balance was established.
Venison has always been rarer and more precious than fish. Over the course of two hundred years of succession, the integrated Prepecha people no longer differentiated between the two ethnic groups, and gradually evolved a new understanding, that is, 'nobles eat venison'
' and 'Common people eat river fish'. This panel painting contains profound meaning, so it is no longer mentioned."
After listening to this narration, Shulot expressed sincere admiration.
It is often more difficult to effectively rule a land than to occupy it. As the leader of the Nahua tribe who moved south, Taliacuri had enough courage to proactively promote the integration of the two groups. He spent his whole life kneading the
The emergence of new Prepecha people shows a bit more long-term foresight than some kings who stick to ethnic differences.
"There are hundreds of thousands of Prepecha ethnic groups in the Lake District, and the conquered Mexica legions numbered only 20,000. In order to establish a stable kingdom rule, large-scale intermarriage between Mexican warriors and Prepecha civilians
, it must also be implemented as a national policy!”
Shulot thought for a moment and secretly made up his mind. He nodded slowly and looked at the pattern on the right again.
The pattern on the right depicts several groups of nobles and warriors traveling far away. In the center, there is still the shining eagle king. At the feet of the king is the magnificent capital city. His eyes are parted like an eagle, scanning the land in all directions. There
, the nobles went in different directions and carried different flags.
The young king looked at the family crest on the flag. The noble flag in the north has "crocodile" and "turkey", the west has "feather", "sky" and "silver", and the south has "comfrey" and "palm".
, there are "Kestrel" and "Black Panther" in the east. Shulot pondered for a few breaths and asked affirmatively.
"Self-enfessing tribal leaders and guarding the four frontiers?"
Jatiri smiled with a deep look in his eyes.
"Exactly! The Nava military nobles made the greatest contribution to the establishment of the new kingdom. Those powerful nobles each supported their tribes and controlled hundreds to thousands of tribal warriors. They longed for the vast fertile land.
However, the first generation of the ancestors did not want to repeat the old path of the Urichu Kingdom with strong branches and weak trunks, and had decided to take the entire Patzcuaro Lake area as a direct tributary. He relied on his own prestige and the wisdom of the Hummingbird family.
, and enfeoffed the powerful military nobles to the four borders of the kingdom."
"The crocodile nobles guarded the vast northern estuary, the comfrey nobles suppressed the prosperous southern river banks, and the kestrel nobles from the royal family controlled the steep eastern mountains and forests. Then, the distant and wealthy ancestral land of the Chapala Lake District was divided among the three Nahua nobles.
Political co-management. These powerful military nobles went to the frontiers to enfeoff, and they no longer posed a threat to the central royal power. The nobles obtained a vast territory for free development, and used their force to conquer the border tribes who were unwilling to surrender, but they also faced
Facing constant military challenges, it is inseparable from the strong support of the Lake District Center. In the past two hundred years, the frontier nobles have continued to expand the kingdom's living space and spread the kingdom's influence to all directions."
The knowledgeable elder paused for a moment. He looked at the young king who shook his head slightly and said with a smile.
"Your Highness, the running speed of the messenger is limited, and there are no fast roads outside the city. The direct control of the center can only be limited to the lake area with fast transportation within a few hundred miles. It has always been the practice of all ministries in the world to entrust borders.
Many great Nahua nobles who seek comfort are actually unwilling to leave the rich core lake area and go to the border where fighting is constant.
During the enfeoffment process, in order to urge the powerful nobles to leave, the first head of the Hummingbird family made great efforts. He showed rare wisdom among the Nava nobles and became the first chief minister of the kingdom. After that, successive chief ministers
They are all held by outstanding members of the hummingbird family. The hummingbirds accompany the condor, like vines attached to a big tree.
With the development of the kingdom, the strength of the frontier nobles began to expand. The responsibilities of the chief ministers also expanded from integrating the directly subordinate Patzcuaro Lake District and supporting military operations on the frontier to balancing the noble forces on the frontier. This time Chief Zinzini
He has assisted three generations of kings. He has not only helped control ninety large villages and towns in the lake area, personally presided over the decades-long conquest of the Tekos people, but has also been effectively suppressing the crocodile family in the north and maintaining the three Chapala families.
The balance of power..."
Shulot raised his head and stared at the enfeoffment pattern, but the vast North and South continents flashed in his mind.
With enough cheap metal tools, large-scale road construction can be carried out. With the upgrade of ships and the introduction of horses from the Old World in the future, the area directly under the control of the ruling center will be several times or even ten times larger.
Improvement. The entire Central American world can be brought under the direct jurisdiction of the future empire. However, the speed of improvement of this kind of messenger communication is far from enough to cover the vast North American continent, let alone reach distant South America.
If you want to expand the influence of the empire as much as possible, fight against colonists from all over Europe, and compete for dominance in the New World, you must try your best to integrate the native tribes throughout the Americas. Military enfeoffment on the frontier is naturally inevitable, and intermarriage between various ethnic groups is inevitable.
OK. And in more distant places, we need to spread the faith as soon as possible, canonize local chiefs, and incorporate them into a tribute system similar to the Celestial Dynasty!
"Having the world in mind is like holding a huge weight on your shoulders. Every step a king takes is like being watched by all the people, changing the pace of the times. A true king must be firm-willed, as steel as jade, cautious as walking on thin ice!
"
The young king sighed lightly. A dignified look different from his age appeared on his face.
"My future path will not only bring glory to the world, but also have a long way to go!"