The drizzle stopped, but the strong wind remained. The warrior's feathered helmet swayed like the trees in the forest, and his sword pointed at the sky.
Avitt carefully identified the flag on the other side of the river, and then suddenly smiled: "It's my old friend. Tarasca's new Kasonchi, King Suangwa who succeeded to the throne two years ago."
"Su'angua?" Shulot looked curiously at the enemy commander surrounded by giant ax warriors. "Is he powerful?"
"He was a good commander, very tenacious in fighting, and very good at mobilizing the morale of the army." Avitt recalled with emotion.
"He just succeeded to the throne two years ago. My brother, the former king Asiacatel, thought this was a good opportunity to attack Tarasco, so he recruited 30,000 warriors and 70,000 militiamen from Lazi in the south of the alliance.
Cobang invaded the Tarascan state of Sitacuaro.”
"He was already not in good health at that time, so he gave me the command of the 100,000-strong army. As the new Kasonchi, Suangua also mobilized 100,000 people and personally led the army to fight. The 200,000-strong army was
We were squeezed into a narrow area south of Toluca Mountain and north of the Balsas River. We fought fiercely for half a year, and the rolling plateau mountains were full of blood."
"The Mexican army once gained the upper hand. However, the Tarascans relied on the mountains and rivers to defend the two castles of Cucha Mara and Tralchapa. After a few months, we gradually lost our energy and the warriors became
He became tired. So Suangua found an opportunity during a battle and led 3,000 Bronze Ax Guards to attack the 2,000 Eagle Legion and the surrounding thousands of warriors in the battle, defeating our tactical core."
"I lost that battle." Avitt lamented, "The army retreated in a hurry, killing four hundred Eagle nobles, more than three thousand warriors, and nearly 20,000 militiamen left behind along the way."
"Three Hikipili legions were lost in this battle. Of course, the Tarascans also lost a thousand Bronze Ax Guards, as well as 8,000 militiamen who were consumed. It was also a tragic victory for them.
When I returned to the capital, I handed over the command of the army and took on the intelligence and security work of the alliance. A few months later, my eldest brother Asaya Carter passed away, and my brother Tisoke, who loved theology, took over.
of Tratoane.”
Avitt looked at the Bronze Axe Guards on the other side, his eyes full of memories, thoughts, and a hint of regret that he usually hides deeply.
Shulot observed the bronze ax warriors with interest. They were muscular, wearing pointed bronze helmets, heavy bronze shoulder pads on their shoulders, wearing yellow leather armor, and holding a bronze battle ax as tall as a person.
The design of this two-handed battle ax can effectively break through heavy wooden shields. It is obviously specially designed to deal with the elite shield-wielding groups of the Aztecs, especially the Eagle Warriors holding heavy shields.
There are about two thousand of these elite warriors in total. Their expressions are resolute, they stand quietly and solemnly, and their bodies are full of the beauty of strength and the sharpness of metal.
The boy observed carefully and felt that the Tarascan troops already had some characteristics of the ancient Greek legions. Bronze was used to make helmets and weapons, but apparently the technology of bronze armor had not yet been developed.
"The Tomahawk Guards Battalion, trump card, two-handed battle axemen, bronze and leather armor, medium armor, high morale, average discipline, armor-breaking weapons, bonus to shield soldiers. Excellent assault infantry."
Xiu Luote nodded: "This unit poses a great threat to the Jaguars and Eagles."
Avitt smiled: "The Tarascans do not have a military system to cultivate senior warriors on a large scale. They can only organize such a bronze ax assault force to fight against our elite battle group.
Of course, we are not willing to use the noble war group to compete with these metal warriors. It takes at least twenty years to train a Jaguar or Eagle warrior with both offensive and defensive capabilities. And these metal warriors can be formed by practicing tomahawk assault for just a few years.
.”
Shulot agreed very much. Jaguars or Eagle warriors are like Spartan warriors in ancient Greece. Their martial arts and physical fitness need to be polished from an early age and then tempered in wars. The training period is close to twenty years.
In Chinese history, Jurchen white armor has high combat defense and difficult to replenish, and can only be used in key battlefields. It is not that they cannot defeat the high-attack Tomahawk Guards, but they cannot afford to consume them.
The young man thought for a moment and smiled confidently: "Faced with such unshielded infantry, our newly formed Longbow Guards can perfectly restrain them!"
The commanders of both sides confirmed each other's identities on both sides of the river, then looked at each other in silence for a long time before returning to their camps.
The next day was a rare sunny day, and the morning light shone through the gaps in the clouds. Early in the morning, the Tarasco Camp on the other side was boiling, and 80,000 troops marched out of the camp one after another, and marched on the south bank of the Leman River.
formation.
Avit also mobilized 10,000 direct warriors to his side, relying on the fortress behind him, and spread out on the hills on the north bank of the Leman River. The helmets of a thousand jaguars were neatly arranged, full of frightening wild power.
However, Shulot knew in his heart that the legions on both sides of the river were not the real protagonists of the war. What really controlled the course of the war were the naval armies and thousands of canoes on both sides of the river.
The protagonists remain hidden, while the supporting actors appear first.
Shulot looked at Tarasco's military formation in the distance, the cold light of bronze flashing in the sunlight.
At the core is Suangua, the king and commander-in-chief of Tarasco, surrounded by two thousand battle-axe guards. On the outside are thirty thousand warriors of Tarasco, and it is estimated that twenty thousand are directly subordinate to the king.
Most of these warriors wore feathered wooden helmets, and a few wore simple bronze helmets. They wore yellow or green leather armor, and many wore a string of small gilded stones around their necks, which shimmered and flowed in the sun, making them very attractive.
Dazzling.
Shulot looked carefully and determined that these were scraps from the mining of spotted copper ore. He didn't know what the purpose of wearing them was. Could it be to blind his opponent's eyes?
Most of the Tarasco warriors held thick wooden shields in one hand and 1.56-meter-long bronze spears in the other hand. The warrior formation was a little noisy and not neat. Many noble warriors were facing the ink on the north bank.
The Western Canadian Legion kept waving bronze weapons, and a small number of them banged their expensive bronze shields and shouted in protest.
Based on the number of copper shields, the boy judged that the amount of bronze mining in Tarasco was still limited.
"The Tarasco Warriors Battalion, elite, contradictory soldiers, medium leather armor, high morale, poor discipline. The main force of close combat infantry. Except for the bronze spears in their hands, the Tarasco Warriors are indeed not as good as those who have been fighting for many years and have been fully trained.
The discipline of the Sika warriors is obviously much worse."
And outside the 30,000 warriors, Shulot also saw two very interesting new troops.
The troops on the left were wearing simple cloth clothes and ring-shaped cloth hats, holding long copper spears about 2.5 meters long in both hands. There were about 5,000 spearmen in this group, and they were silent without making much noise. They gathered roughly.
They formed a square formation, and the formation was even more orderly than the warriors of Tarasco.
"What is this unit?" the young man asked curiously. At first glance, these spearmen looked like the prototype of the Greek spear phalanx, but after a closer look at their crude equipment, they looked more like Japan's two spear ashigaru.
Avitt glanced at the military formation and smiled: "This is the new unit created by Tarasco. The soldiers are miners who dig copper mines. They fight in formation with spears. When they get together, there are some
It is useful in defeating militiamen and even small groups of samurai. But as long as a large group of samurai charge from the back or side, they will soon be unable to hold on and disperse. Once dispersed, it will be much easier to deal with, and harvesting will be like folding a field.
As simple as cornstalks."
Xiuluo nodded. The equipment of this unit is too weak, and its martial arts and morale are not enough. If it is equipped with shields, armor, strict training, and formed into a spear phalanx, it actually has great potential.
"Tarasco pike battalion, ordinary, pikemen, cloth armor without armor, average morale, average discipline, simple pike formation. Good militia to maintain the front."
The ability to organize into organized mining soldiers proves that Tarasco's mining industry has developed to a certain extent. The urban economy has achieved sufficient development, and a certain number of citizens and craftsmen have emerged among the nobility and farmers.
Similar to the yeoman farmers, this class will also provide the country with elite militia, or ashigaru.
"Look at the other side." Avitt pointed to the right again, where there is another interesting new unit.
There are about 5,000 people in this army. The weapons are very mixed, including stone hammers, stone axes, copper spears, wooden shields, and even short bows. The equipment is also of different levels, most of them are clothed in cloth, a few leather armors, and some even have feathers.
wooden helmets. These motley warriors are now shouting and cheering towards the north bank, and their morale seems to be pretty good.
"These are Tarasco's alien mercenaries with complicated origins. They were adopted by the Tarasco people for use on the battlefield. Among them are the rebellious Chichimecs, the displaced Otomi people, and the
The alliance deeply hates the Toltec rebels, and there are even some warriors who have lost their land. This army is a consumable with high morale."
Xuelote then understood that mercenaries are destined to be cannon fodder.
"Alien mercenaries, ordinary, miscellaneous soldiers, with cloth and no armor, high morale, poor discipline. Excellent cannon fodder on the front line."
Further out from Tarasco's military formation, there are militiamen all over the mountains and fields, whom Xilot has long been familiar with. These militiamen still mainly use stone spears, and a few are equipped with shields. They are wearing cloth or simply naked, with low morale and no formation.
It can be said that there are about one-eighth of the slingers, which can barely be regarded as long-range troops.
There are a total of 40,000 militiamen. No matter which alliance they are in, they are multi-functional consumables that can carry food and fodder, dig holes and build strongholds, fill up the front line, and consume the physical strength of the opponent's warriors.
This is Tarasco's legion: 2,000 Bronze Ax Guards as the core, 30,000 warriors as the main force, the remaining 5,000 pikemen and 5,000 alien mercenaries are high-quality cannon fodder, and the largest 40,000 militiamen are ordinary cannon fodder.
The armies of both sides faced each other across the river. The Mexica warriors sat quietly on the hill, concentrating their energy and watching the bustle on the other side.
Tarasco's army first expanded into a semicircle, and the guards and warriors sat down to rest. Then hundreds of militiamen walked to the front of the military formation, and under the command of more than a dozen old men with feather crests, they built three towers several meters high.
, a huge circular cone with a diameter of more than ten meters.
Finally, when the sun finally rose to the center of the sky, hundreds of priests wearing long feathers came over wearing gourd necklaces. They took various instruments, climbed to the high platform, and started a wonderful performance under the watchful eyes of hundreds of thousands of warriors on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.