The morning light breaks through the dawn, the quiet night retreats from the rising sun, and it is a new day.
When the first ray of sunlight shone on Shulot's face, it seemed to have some kind of resonance with his body, and the young man opened his eyes.
In this era without clocks, the body's rhythm is the most accurate clock. The warriors also woke up one after another, and the village gradually came to life. After a simple wash and some cold food, Shulot said goodbye to the village elders and took him with him.
Returning with two hundred warriors.
The mountain road on the way back was winding and rugged, no more than four or five people wide. It was a dirt path taken by the grain transport team. The army moved along the edge of the hills. On both sides were rolling hills, dense trees, and red trees.
The birds sang happily on the branches.
Shulot walked in the center of the team, wearing a brown coyote priest uniform with a sturdy little cotton armor underneath. He wore a priest's long feather crown. Although it was the simplest type, he was still "tall" and eye-catching in the team.
.From time to time, birds were attracted by the bright feathers on his head, flew over and circled, and then cried away again.
After walking for half a day, we were about to enter the patrol range of Camp Otopan, and everyone relaxed a little. Maybe it was because the sun was rising, and the birdsong around them seemed to be much quieter.
At this time, a small dot flew quickly from the treetops, arrived in an instant, and stopped out of thin air. It stayed in front of Shulot's feather crown, curiously looking at the "thing" in front of him.
It was only slightly larger than a bee, with green body feathers, bright red head feathers, a long beak, and a pair of rapidly flapping wings. Shulot took a closer look and saw that it was a light and agile hummingbird.
.
"The hummingbird is the messenger of Huitzilopochtli, the god of war, and the guardian bird of our Mexica people."
Seeing this scene, Bertard was a little happy.
"Priest, the hummingbird is hovering in front of you, you are favored by God!"
Hearing this, Hulot smiled. The incarnation of Huitzilopochtli is the peak bird from the south. Hummingbirds have unusual significance to the Mexica people. However, the hummingbird in front of him is obviously attracted by the colorful feathers.
Come.
Perhaps because he was a little shy under the gaze of everyone, or because he recognized that the thing in front of him was not a flower or the opposite sex, the hummingbird changed the angle of its wings, turned around on the spot, and flew straight forward quickly. It
Like a red meteor, it flew through the forest at high speed. But after flying forty or fifty meters ahead, the hummingbird seemed to be frightened by something. It suddenly changed its direction and pulled straight up into the sky.
Hulot looked slightly dazed, and before he could react, he saw Bertard's expression suddenly change. He quickly glanced at the terrain on the left and right, his heart suddenly tightened, and then he suddenly let out a loud shout.
"Prepare for battle! Be careful!"
Bertard's shout was like a switch. Before he finished speaking, more than a hundred tribal warriors with short hair and beards rushed out of the forest fifty meters ahead. These warriors had disheveled hair and were completely shirtless, with their chests exposed.
The tattoos on their lower bodies were nothing more than a piece of crotch cloth, just like savages in the mountains and forests. They held simple wooden shields in one hand and short spears that shone with cold light in the other, and howled like wild beasts from their mouths. Then, they were wearing a few
Led by green leather armored warriors, they rushed towards them like crazy beasts.
Bertard immediately raised his shield with his left hand and guarded in front of Hulot. He took off the throwing spear from behind with his right hand and stared at the front with all his attention. The Mexica warriors in front also took down the war sticks from behind and held their shields flat.
, and charged forward bravely.
At this time, another exclamation suddenly came from behind Shulot, "There is someone behind you!" It sounded like the voice of the young warrior Kusola.
Shulot turned his head suddenly and saw six or seven scattered warriors suddenly appearing in the forest behind him. They stood up straight from their ambush position so that they could draw the huge 1.45-meter wooden bow in their hands. The arrows were shining in the sun.
There was a cold light flashing down, and he aimed at Shulot's position thirty steps away. He paused slightly to take aim, and then shot without hesitation.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."
The sound of the arrow breaking through the air was connected in a line, like the low cry of death. In these few tenths of a second, it was impossible to capture the trajectory of the arrow. All he could see was the bowstring that the ambusher had shot into the air. Shulot's mind was filled with confusion.
He was blank and had no time to react. There was only one last thought left in his mind at this moment.
"God bless you! Can I be reincarnated again in this place far away from the Pyramid of the Moon?"
In this blank moment, Shulot felt his back suddenly sinking, and something pounced on him. He stumbled forward, his center of gravity a little unstable, and then there were several consecutive momentums that directly hit him.
He fell to the ground, and his vestments and crown fell into the mud together.
He turned over with force, holding the body behind him, and in front of him was Kusola's bloody side face. Kusola fell on him, blood flowing from his neck like a fountain. He was no longer able to make any movement, or even
Make an obvious expression.
The moment he spotted the archer, he pounced forward and blocked six incoming arrows for Shulot, and one of them missed.
Most of the arrows penetrated deeply into his leather-armored back. A fatal arrow shot from the back of his neck and ruptured his left common carotid artery, causing blood loss at a rate of nearly 100 milliliters per day.
Seconds, he will die within ten seconds.
The last moment came quickly, and Kusola just looked at Shulot deeply with his absent-minded eyes, and murmured an incomprehensible name.
"Kunawa..."
Then, his eyes turned slightly to the left, showing infinite nostalgia, and looked toward the south of his home. In the hallucination before his death, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, his eyes immediately became distracted, and he no longer lived.
Shulot lay half-lying in a daze, as if he were a sculpture. He looked at the dead young warrior. In his mind, Kusola's happy look when he mentioned his family, the smile on his face, and the
With a longing for a better future in his eyes, Xiulote knew that "Cunawa" was the name of his son, taken from a warrior of the Mexica ancestors, and was also Kusola's last hope.
This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! This is the first warrior to die for Shulot.
The cruel and bloody battlefield never stops for the death of someone. It needs more blood, just like a sacrifice that longs for blood. Bertard in front turned around eagerly and looked down, patting Hulott's face.
The young man turned his head and looked over. His expression showed no pain of being hit by an arrow, no fear of life and death, but a daze of having lost his friend and being frightened. The vicissitudes of the warrior breathed a sigh of relief, then checked Kusola's breath, and sighed softly.
.
"Form up a formation and protect the priests!"
Bertard looked heavy and quickly shouted to the warriors around him. Then, he put his shield on Shulot to cover the opponent's body, then turned and ran towards the nearest bow warrior.
More than a dozen following Alliance warriors immediately surrounded him. They blocked Shulot with their shields and bodies. The remaining warriors spread out with their shields and pounced on the ambushing enemies.
Bertard was like a running tiger, roaring like a jaguar. His steps followed a small arc of zigzags, his body was half-bowed, and he ran quickly through the mountains and fields. The archer on the opposite side shot two more arrows.
, all the shots were missed in the soil. Soon, he was within twenty steps of the archer, holding the spear thrower in his right hand, and quickly raised it above his head. Then, he quickly used his arm to throw it forward!
A throwing spear flew out quickly, drew a shallow half arc, and plunged into the archer's chest with a pop. The sharp spear tip came out from the back, and the warrior instantly lost all strength. His hand loosened, and the bow and arrow fell powerlessly.
Falling. Under the huge kinetic energy of the spear, his body that was penetrated was also knocked backwards and fell to the hillside on his back. He stretched out his hands in vain, trying to cover his violently bleeding chest.
He didn't even have time to shout. However, this was obviously in vain. After a few breaths, he was like a sculpture that was gradually dyed red, frozen and motionless.
Bertard no longer cared about the warrior he shot, because he knew life and death as soon as he took action. He looked sharply and looked at another ambushing archer thirty steps away, running like a leopard under his feet. As he ran and accelerated, he jumped from
He took off the battle stick behind his back and held it with both hands. The tip of the stick was tilted downward, revealing the sharp blade. The archer hurriedly shot two more arrows. Seeing that there were only ten steps left between the two, he hurriedly threw away the bow and arrow.
, to fetch the shield and short spear at his feet.
"die!..."
The two of them met, and Bertard turned sideways quickly to avoid the short spear thrust by the archer. Then, his powerful strength rose from his legs, his waist rotated with force, and his arms accelerated again, and the obsidian war stick rubbed against him.
Passing the shield, he hit the archer on the head with great force and precision. The archer's face was immediately bloody, his head turned abnormally, and his neck suddenly bent...
"Click!..."
There was a crisp sound of bones breaking, and the standing body turned half a circle before falling down.
The fierce fighting only lasted for a moment. The unarmored shield and spear warriors in front of them, who looked like barbarians, and the Mexica leather armored shield and stick warriors, blended together like mud and blood, fighting each other cruelly, and it was visible to the naked eye.
Falling down at a speed.
Under the blow of the obsidian war stick, the attacking tribal warrior's life was as thin as paper. The war stick shook and fell, dexterously bypassing the shield, and scratched the enemy's unprotected shoulder and back, pulling out a long wound. In just a few breaths,
The tribal warrior who was hit would lose a lot of blood and fall down. The opponent's short spear was also quite powerful. It had a metal tip and could pierce the warrior's leather armor, and also killed several Mexica warriors.
After a moment of fierce fighting, the warrior leader on the opposite side saw that the momentum was not going well, so he turned around and fled into the forest. More than a dozen Mexica warriors pursued him angrily. But those unarmored tribal warriors seemed to be fighting to the death, and they never fled.
.But when the Mexican warriors from behind caught up and formed a battle formation, the situation became a one-sided massacre.
"Follow me! Capture and kill all the archers ambushing you from behind!..."
The elite warriors ran through the forest, catching up with the fleeing archers and killing them one by one. No one could escape the pursuit of the warrior chief. And the battle ahead was coming to an end. The leading hostile warriors
Flee or die. The last few tribal warriors, after being surrounded, let out desperate and crazy howls. They loudly cursed the Mexica Sun God, and were then cut into pieces by the angry warriors.
At this time, Shulot had returned to normal. He half-knelt in front of the cold corpse and remained silent. After a long time, he stretched out his hand and gently closed Kusola's eyes. Then, Shulot remained silent and closed his eyes.
He picked up the water bag that fell on the ground and stuffed it into the hands of the young warrior, bringing him closer to his family.
"May the Lord God guide your soul to the peaceful Kingdom of God!"
After praying quietly for a while, Shulot stood up with sadness in his eyes. He took a deep breath and calmly asked about the casualties of the warriors.
This ambush in the mountains and forests only lasted for two to three quarters of an hour, but it was extremely cruel and fierce. More than twenty alliance warriors died in the battle, and fifty or sixty others were injured. Most of the warriors died at the hands of tribal warriors
Under the metal short spears, a few died from the shooting of the bow and arrow warriors. On the blood-stained grass, there were left more than a hundred corpses of tribal warriors and more than a dozen attacking warriors in strange costumes.
Because the tribal warriors insulted the Mexica Sun God, no warrior from the alliance was left alive.
Bertard carefully examined these unarmored corpses and looked at the tattoos on their chests and backs. These warriors had disheveled hair like savages, and their bodies were covered with shallow scars left by long journeys in the mountains and forests. The most conspicuous thing on their bodies was the use of
Indigo Mayan blue, a strange tattoo carved out of the tattoo. Shulot looked at it carefully for a while, and found that the tattoo was very similar to the ancient abstract feathered serpents in the murals of the temples in the Holy City.
"These are Toltec-Tepanec rebels, a hostile tribe that does not want to join our Mexican alliance."
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Bertard looked at the feathered serpent tattoo for a while and answered in the affirmative.
"Toltec-Tepanek rebels?...Toltecs? Isn't that the self-proclaimed ancestor of the Alliance?..."
Hearing such a name, Shulot was a little curious. This aspect of history seemed to be rarely mentioned by the city-state priests.
"Well, yes... the ancient and glorious Toltecs were the rulers of the plateau in the Third Age. They once established a huge tribal alliance in the north of the valley. Tenochtitlan is not far to the north.
The city of Tula was their last capital, and the holy city of Teotihuacan, where you, the priest, were born, was once their most important holy city for sacrifice. They used Quetzalcoatl, the Quetzalcoatl god, as their symbol.
The main god who rules the world. Later, the powerful Toltec alliance collapsed at the end of the era, and those who inherited the hegemony of the Toltecs were the rising Tepanec tribes..."
"The Tepaneks were a hunting tribe that traveled south from the wilderness. They migrated from the northern wilderness and merged with the conquered Toltecs, starting the Fourth Age. They lived on the west shore of Lake Texcoco
Establish a city-state, establish the Tepanek Alliance, and become the overlord of the entire plateau and valley. Their hegemony lasted for two hundred years, until seventy years ago, we Mexica emerged... And the story behind..."
"Ahem! According to the alliance priests, the former Quetzalcoatl was banished by the gods. The war god Huitzilopochtli ruled the world and succeeded the sun god... He is the patron saint of our Mexica people.
Let the ancestors of Mexica build a great capital on Lake Texcoco! At the same time, He also promised our ancestors: The Mexica people have the destiny and will become the masters of the entire Mexican plateau! This is God’s
Will is also the future that is destined to be realized!"
"Under the inspiration of the Lord God, the Tepaneks worshiped the Sun God, abandoned their capital, dissolved their alliance, and joined the Mexica... They converted to the Sun God and joined the Mexica
Our ancestors intermarried for generations, blending together like blood and water... They integrated into the tribes of Mexica and established the city-states of Mexica. They can be said to be one of our ancestors!"
"Nowadays, the city-states in the west and north of the Valley of Mexico still have many customs left by the Toltecs, such as the grand celebration of Quetzalcoatl Day... and some Toltecs miss Quetzalcoatl and chase after Quetzalcoatl.
The east where He left then evolved and merged to become the coastal tribes along the eastern coast, the Totonac people..."
"Only a small number of Toltec-Tepanek rebels still fanatically believe in Quetzalcoatl. They are hostile to the Mexica Alliance and hide among the Otomi, Mexica, and Talas in the west.
In the deepest mountain forest at the junction of Ke and humans, it is like a lingering hare. Speaking of which, the lair of these rebels is indeed not far from here..."
Hulot thought of the Quetzalcoatl murals discovered in Teotihuacan, the "Song of Quetzalcoatl" that his grandfather had presented to the king, and the New Year celebrations he spent in the city-state. There were indeed Toltecs and people everywhere.
The mark of the feathered serpent's faith.
However, the history of the fusion of the Topanec people by the Mexica people told by Bertard is just like a myth: the sun god fused the two peoples to create an alliance? Intuition told Xuellot that there must be countless bloodshed in it.
The wind and faith fought hard to complete today's integration. And these remaining tribes in the mountains are naturally defeated after fighting, the enemies left by their ancestors... It's just that since the Mexicans are the final winners, they are decorated with myths
Knowing history, he has no intention of exploring the truth of the past.
After confirming the identity of the tribal warrior, Bertard went to check the corpse of the archer warrior. Soon, his eyes narrowed and he saw black and white stripes on the small clothes under the leather armor.
"Witness the Lord God! This is the warrior of the Otomi people!"
Shulot nodded and picked up the wooden bow on the ground. This wooden bow was nearly 1.4 meters long, and the bow was very thick. It was still in the shape of a single bow, and the bow string was tight and powerful. Shulot tried to shoot an arrow.
, coupled with the metal arrows on the ground, it is very powerful: eighty steps can damage the unarmored, fifty steps can break a single layer of cotton armor, and thirty steps can break a double layer of cotton armor.
Shulot's eyes lit up at first. This bow was much stronger than the sling. Soon he was frightened again. Although he was wearing leather armor, if he had been shot by several arrows at the same time at thirty steps, he would probably be dead.
.
Bertard took a quick look and saw the shape of this wooden bow, and said with conviction.
"Witness the Lord God! This is the long wooden bow of the Tlaxcala people!"
Finally, the two of them checked the short spear with the metal tip and the metal arrow on the ground at the same time.
"The Lord God witnesses! These are the bronze spears and arrows of the Tarascans!"
The two looked at each other, both relatively speechless. The Tepanek rebels in the mountains to the west, the Otomi warriors fighting in the northwest, the old enemy Tlaxcala to the east, and the hostile Tarasco to the west...
The enemies of these alliances have all appeared here!
"God bless you! Bertard, let's clean up the battlefield first and hold a simple ceremony for the fallen warriors!..."
"Yes! Lord Priest!..."
Next, the warriors packed up the equipment and weapons on the ground, chopped off the enemy's heads, and built a small tower on the roadside. Then, all the dead alliance corpses were buried in newly dug shallow pits. And the funeral
The song sounded and fell, just like the most common death on this plateau and mountain forest.
"Kusola, you died for the Lord God, and your soul will go to the red Kingdom of God!..."
Shulot whispered to himself, looking at Kusola's corpse, which was gradually submerged in the soil. The corpse's red face had a faint, frozen smile, like the setting sun of the setting sun. And the body was full of calluses.
In his hand, he held a soft water bag with his wife's remaining wine inside, as if he had returned to a warm home.
"The Lord God testifies! Your son will definitely become a Jaguar warrior!"
Shulot promised softly and made his own oath. At this moment, his heart was full of sadness, but his face was calm and solemn. Then, he looked at the city of Otopan, two days away in the west, and then looked at the east and south.
.A trace of ominousness gradually emerged in his heart, like the dark clouds in the rainy season that were far away but approaching.
"The rebels of the Toltecs, the warriors of the Otomi, the long wooden bows of Tlaxcala, and the bronze weapons of Tarasco..."
"Lord God! It seems that the enemies of the empire have reached some kind of alliance without knowing it!".