The sun rises from the mountains and forests in the east, and the dawn pushes away the darkness, releasing a brilliant golden color. The morning dew sparkles among the grass and trees, and the birds wake up, singing sweet songs everywhere.
Shulot was facing the rising sun, with his upper body bare and the most convenient white crotch cloth tied around his waist. In front of him was a vat of cold water and a clay basin. Bertard stood quietly in front, looking at his face.
He scooped up a basin of cold water and poured it over his head. The water flowed like a waterfall, flowing through the whole body. The morning breeze was instantly cold, and the body was covered with goose bumps, but his expression remained unchanged. According to the requirements of a samurai, he must always remain resolute, without any fear or hesitation.
After a while, when the water drops were slightly dry, he poured another basin of cold water, and repeated this process until the entire jar of water was poured out. Only then did Bertard smile.
"Yes, Shulot, you already have some warrior spirit. It is already April, the weather is starting to get warmer, and the cold-resistant will training will soon stop. Then we will change to agility training in the morning, and wait until October, when the warm weather The rainy season has passed and everything will be back to normal again.”
Shulot nodded resolutely. His face was frozen and he could not speak for the time being.
At this time, a red bird was attracted by Shulot, flying around the boy and screaming. The little bird has a clear crown on its head and a black face. It flies very fast and has a high-pitched and cheerful cry with different timbres. From time to time, it comes over and pecks the water at his feet. Shulot seems familiar to him.
"Hey, the birds singing happily are blessings from the fertility goddess Tonakasihuatl. This is a good sign. It seems that the season for the reproduction of all things has arrived. Shulot, you have to suppress your desires. Of course, try it once. It is also necessary to complete the transformation from boy to man." Seeing the good omen, Bertard was in a good mood and made a rare manly joke.
Shulot rolled his eyes, his face finally able to move. "Bertard, you have been led astray by Avit. You don't need to show your theological knowledge in front of the priests. Tonacasihuatl is also the god of harvest. Seeing the cardinals singing happily proves that the spring plowing season has arrived. .”
This beautiful little bird is the North American cardinal, which is widely distributed in the mountain forests of Central and North America. April is their courtship and mating season, and they will sing particularly beautiful songs. Schulot is more familiar with its other popular name, "Angry Birds."
While they were talking, the two of them saw a thick smoke gradually rising in the eastern sky in the distance. The smoke pillars were scattered in the sky, not too dense. After a while, another thick smoke slowly rose. Bertard looked at the direction of the smoke column, and then nodded in relief: "It's all in the direction of the village. This is Milpa's preparation, setting fire to the forest, and spring plowing is about to begin."
Xiulote nodded. There are two types of agriculture in Mexico: Chinampa and Milpa. The former is a high-yield floating field in the river and lake terrain. It is also the foundation of the strong Mexica city-state. One hectare of Chinampa garden can feed at least twenty people, equivalent to one and a half people per acre. Xiulote remembered the classics of the Ming Dynasty that he had read, "The harvest of a fertile field is no less than five or six stones per acre." Chinampa was equivalent to the finest paddy field in the south of the Yangtze River in the Celestial Dynasty.
In the capital of the empire, Tenochtitlan, the city in the lake, has more than 9,000 hectares of Chinampa garden, supporting a magnificent city of more than 200,000 people. The population of the giant city was larger than any other city in Western Europe at this time, and it was similar to Kaifeng and Hangzhou in the Chinese Empire. For this expedition, the three cities in the capital plus the villages in the lake area, with a population of 1.5 million, directly provided five Hikipili and 40,000 warriors directly under the royal family.
Shulot once followed his father and visited the family's Chinampa garden. This fertile floating field was the core of every noble family. But he was unfamiliar with milpa, the most widespread farming method in Mesoamerica.
Agriculture is the foundation of an empire, and population is the cornerstone of civilization. Only a civilization with a large core population can truly grow into an empire. Shulot thought of hundreds of millions of cores from China, tens of millions of Ottoman cores, tens of millions of French cores...except, of course, the South Asian subcontinent.
With this in mind, Shulot decided to take a look at Milpa's farming in person. A samurai's actions never delay. He discussed it with Bertard, who nodded, and went to gather a hundred warrior followers.
Then, Xiulote went to find Totec and told the commander-in-chief that he wanted to go to the Otomi village occupied by the east to "hold a sacrificial ceremony for spring plowing." Totec frowned with a cold brow, said roughly, "Be careful of the Otomi hyena attack," and gave him another escort of a hundred warriors.
In this way, Shulot put on the coyote priest's clothes, took two hundred warriors, carried ten days' food on his back, and headed for the mountain village in the east.
At this time, the siege of the city had been going on for half a year, and the Mexica army had already launched under the city of Otopan. A siege is not about tens of thousands of troops piling up under the city, but about fully setting up camps, deploying troops, controlling surrounding key points, and cutting off the city's food routes and water sources.
Now all the villages within two days of the mountain city have been cleared, and the nearest village to Shulot is two and a half days away to the east. The warrior team then meandered eastward along the grain road.
As Shulot marched, he encountered a grain transport team. Hundreds of civilians carried tall grain bags on their backs. The heavy grain bent their backs and they were walking hard on the mountain paths. They were surrounded by hundreds of heavily armed soldiers. of warriors and militiamen. Xiulote shook his head. With such efficiency in transporting food, at least half of it would be consumed on the road.
After marching in the mountains and forests for two days, they did not see the attacking Otomi warriors. Instead, they encountered the Otomi mountain people who came out of the mountains and surrendered. Today, nearby villages are under the control of Mexica warriors, and spring plowing is about to begin. Without spring plowing, there will be no harvest in one year, and death will undoubtedly follow. The mountain people had no choice but to give up hiding and come out of the mountains.
As for the villages that can be controlled, the Legion treats them as their own wealth and has enough mercy.
When Shulot came to the nearest mountain village of Otomi, he saw extinguished green smoke. The forest outside the village had burned out, and the farmers took out stone grass, a simple digging tool, from the mud walls of their huts. Soil sticks, as well as corn seeds, are being prepared for spring plowing.
Seeing the large group of Mexica warriors and the leading coyote priest approaching, the mountain people of Otomi immediately bowed to the ground and bowed, burying their heads deeply to hide the fear and fire in their eyes. This is completely different from the enthusiasm of farmers in the Valley of Mexico. The leader of the Mexican militia stationed there also hurried over and saluted Xilot.
Shulot saw everything: the empire's rule here was very weak, and it only relied on force to maintain obedience. He didn't say much, but just informed the militia leader that the purpose of the team was to conduct a "sacrificial ceremony for spring plowing." The militia leader immediately shouted a few words, and the Otomi people who were lying on the ground raised their heads after hearing the words, finally showing a look of awe and joy.
The divine authority of the priests was powerful. The power of divine authority lies in its roots in the human heart, occupying every aspect of life, and maintaining it through different rituals.
Shulot came to the center of the village and set up a small altar. He first placed a round stone and sprinkled dirt on it to symbolize the earth. Corn, beans, pumpkins, cocoa and peppers are then placed on the soil, which are foods given by the gods and symbolize the upcoming planting. Then put green grass around it to symbolize growth. Finally, green branches are placed around the outside, symbolizing the final harvest.
This is a sacrificial ceremony to pray for a good harvest. It is the simplest and most people-friendly and is widely spread in Central American villages.
Then the young priest stepped onto the altar, and the audience immediately fell into solemn silence. The people fell to the ground and waited, and the priests danced and sang.
"I sleep beneath the earth,
Dreaming about being surrounded by seven snakes.
They feasted on my old flesh and blood,
Hissing at me to go home.
That's Tonacasihuatl,
The goddess of fertility and harvest.
"
"The goddess chose me in a flowery garden,
Sunflowers and corn are my ignorant childhood,
Beans and squash are my cozy youth,
Coco is my bitter middle age,
Red chili peppers are my mature old age.
Then the flowers bloom and tear my throat,
Then the fruit will be abundant and solidify my flesh and blood.
"
"The goddess dyed me the fruit,
Cover me with old skin,
The life left me,
Come, eat the sacrifice of my flesh and blood.
I will once again take root in the middle of the earth,
Sown deeply,
Have a long sleep.
"
"I am the goddess' grain,
Seeds buried in the soil.
sprout after planting,
grow after germination,
mature after growth,
Sacrifice after maturity,
Return after sacrifice,
Become a seed again.
"
"This is an endless circle,
I will always spring for the goddess.
She guards me with the sun,
She kissed me with rain and dew,
Bringing a good harvest to the earth,
And I'm never alone.
That is the great goddess,
Tonakasihuatl!
"
Afterwards, the warriors performed solemn etiquette and neatly shouted the name of the god "Tonakasihuatl", while the mountain people lay directly on the ground and kissed the earth beneath them.
In Shulot's view, this sacrificial poem was very straightforward and treated crops as human beings, which initially sounded very strange.
And after listening to it several times, you will understand that this is actually an easy-to-understand agricultural poem, which is used to guide agricultural production.
The first paragraph is nonsense.
In the second paragraph, the planting order of crops according to time is sunflower, corn, beans, pumpkin, cocoa and red pepper.
In the third and fourth paragraphs, the growth sequence of crops is: after planting the seeds, wait for a period of time before they sprout. When the seeds grow, they will bloom. After blooming, they will bear fruit. Eat them as soon as they bear fruit. Remember to plant them after eating.
In the last paragraph, the conditions for crop growth are sunlight and water.
After the sacrifice, the attitude of the Otomi people toward Shulot changed noticeably. The young boy was helplessly surrounded by hundreds of villagers, and every corner of the priest's uniform was kissed passionately until he was rescued from the crowd by his bodyguard Bertard.
After completing the sacrifice, the next step is to sow the seeds. Shulot followed and walked forward to take a closer look.
The villagers dug a finger-deep hole in the burned land, put a few corn seeds into it, gathered plant ash fertilizer around the hole, and buried the planting hole. The distance between planting pits is about half a meter horizontally and vertically. It is impossible to plant densely like later generations of agriculture. The main reason is that the soil fertility is not enough.
This is the eldest sister among the three sisters of staple foods in America, corn.
The subsequent planting process relied entirely on the village elders' talk and gestures, while Shulot listened and asked questions.
After a few weeks, when the corn grows to more than ten centimeters, you can plant beans. This is the second sister among the three sisters. Beans must be planted next to corn, with several beans surrounding one corn.
Then in another week, it’s time to plant the pumpkins. This is the youngest of the three sisters. Plant one every two to three meters because the pumpkins will spread out on the ground.
Shulot thought carefully while recalling common sense from the past. In this process, the corn heads straight up, providing a stalk for the soybeans to climb on. Beans surround the corn, fixing nitrogen and replenishing soil fertility. And the pumpkins are spread among the corn and beans to keep the weeds out of the fields.
The three formed a perfect symbiotic and mutual-helping relationship, which did not require too much human management, and also dealt with the current situation of Mesoamerica, which only had rudimentary stone tools at this time.
It's April, and corn takes five months to mature and is harvested in September. Beans planted later take four months to mature and are harvested in September. Pumpkins only take more than two months and are harvested in July. After harvesting in July, depending on the situation, I will plant another season of kidney beans at the end of the year, not for yield, but to replenish soil fertility.
In terms of nutrition, corn is carbohydrates, beans are protein, and pumpkins are all available, which are just enough to maintain the daily survival of ordinary people. As for sunflowers, cocoa, and peppers, the village elders said that these are things that city-state people like and have no use in the village.
Shulot calculated that it was sowing in April and May, and harvesting in July, August, and September. From April to September, each city-state had difficulty mobilizing militia and would not easily go to war. The Mexica city-state alliance with enough chinampa can mobilize at this time to catch the enemy off guard and destroy the opponent's agricultural production.
Generally speaking, Milpa started by setting fire to the forest, planted the three sisters of corn, beans, and pumpkins in sequence, and then ended with leaving it fallow for one to three years. Yields range from one-fifth to one-seventh that of Chinampa.
Xiulote did some calculations and found that, depending on the water and fertilizer, each hectare of milpa can feed three to five people, that is, three to five acres of land can feed one person. It was slightly lower than the yield of the dry fields in the north of the Ming Dynasty at this time. There was no advanced agricultural technology in China and it relied solely on the high yields of corn and pumpkins. In barren mountainous areas, mountain people will also grow sweet potatoes as supplementary food.
Looking at the Otomi villagers busy in the fields and pondering the data they had just calculated, Xuellot suddenly realized that the total population of Central America might far exceed his expectations.
Even if two years of fallow are calculated, based on the food supply, the density of most population centers in Central America will not be less than one-third of the population density of northern China in this era. The population density of the Valley of Mexico, which has countless chinampas and does not need to be left fallow, will be close to that of Jiangnan, the "South Zhili" of Central America.
Agriculture determines population, and population determines the potential of a country. This is why the Mexican states can mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to fight.
Throughout Mexico, from the Chichimecs in the north to the Zapotecs in the south, from the Texcans in the west to the Nahuas in the east, and the Mexica people in the center, This is a civilized area that is believed to have a population of at least 15 million by later generations, and Shulot believes that it has a population of more than 20 million. It has the highest yield of corn, pumpkins, sweet potatoes and, increasingly, potatoes in the world.
Shulot looked at the fields in the distance. There was golden hope in the fields. He looked at the seeds that had not yet germinated, which were the gestating civilizations.
"What does it mean to have a population of tens of millions in the Stone Age?" Shulot thought, and then he smiled.
"This will be another Celestial Empire, with a core population of tens of millions!"
