The drizzle stopped, but the strong wind remained. The warrior's feathered helmet shook 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 Suangua who succeeded to the throne two years ago."
"Su'angua?" Shulot looked curiously at the enemy commander who was surrounded by giant ax warriors. "Is he great?"
"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. Cobon invades the Sitacuaro State of the Tarascans.”
"He was 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 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. But 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 also became He became tired. So Suangua found an opportunity during a battle and led three thousand Bronze Ax Guards to attack the two thousand Eagle Legion and the surrounding thousands of warriors in the battle, defeating the core of our tactics."
"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 axe guards, as well as eight thousand militiamen who were consumed. They were also considered a tragic victory.
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, the eldest brother Asiacatel passed away, and his brother Tisoke, who loved theology, succeeded him as the new Tratoani. "
Avitt looked at the Bronze Axe Guards on the other side, his eyes filled with memories, thoughts, and a hint of regret that he usually hid deep in his eyes.
Shulot observed the bronze ax warriors with interest. They are muscular, wearing pointed bronze helmets, heavy bronze shoulder pads on their shoulders, yellow leather armor, and holding a bronze battle ax as high as a person. The design of this two-handed battle ax can effectively break through heavy wooden shields. It was obviously designed to deal with the elite shield-wielding regiments of the Aztecs, especially the Eagle Warriors holding heavy shields.
There are about two thousand of these elite warriors in total. They have resolute expressions and stand quietly and solemnly. Their bodies are full of the beauty of strength and the sharpness of metal.
The young man observed carefully and felt that the Tarascan troops already had some characteristics of the ancient Greek legions. Bronze was used to create helmets and weapons, although the technology for bronze armor apparently had not yet been developed.
"The Tomahawk Guards Battalion, ace, two-handed tomahawk soldiers, bronze and leather armor, medium armor, high morale, average discipline, armor-breaking weapons, bonus to shield soldiers. Excellent assault infantry."
Xiulote nodded: "This unit poses a great threat to the Jaguar and Eagle Chapter."
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 develop a Jaguar or Eagle warrior that is both offensive and defensive. These metal warriors only need to practice tomahawk assault for a few years to take shape. "
Shulot agreed very much. Jaguars or Eagle Warriors are like Spartan warriors in ancient Greece. Their martial arts and physical fitness need to be honed from an early age, and then tempered and shaped in wars. The training period is close to twenty years.
In Chinese history, it is Jurchen White Armor, which has high combat defense and is difficult to replenish. It can only be used on key battlefields. It's not that they can't defeat the high-attack Tomahawk Guards, but they can't afford 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, and then returned to their camps.
The next day was a rare sunny day, with the morning light shining through the gaps in the clouds. Early in the morning, the Tarasco camp on the other side was boiling with excitement. Eighty thousand troops marched out of the camp one after another and formed a mighty formation on the south bank of the Leman River.
Avitt also mobilized 10,000 direct warriors to his side, relying on the stronghold behind him, and launched in the hills on the north bank of the Leman River. The beast helmets of a thousand jaguars are arranged neatly, 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 influenced the course of this war were the naval armies on both sides of the river, thousands of canoes.
The protagonists remain silent while the supporting characters appear first.
Shulot looked at Tarasco's military formation in the distance, the cold light of bronze flashing in the sunlight.
At the center was Suangua, king and commander-in-chief of Tarasco, surrounded by two thousand battle-axe guards. On the outside are 30,000 Tarasco warriors, and an estimated 20,000 are directly under 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 in the sunlight and were very dazzling.
Xiulote looked at it carefully and determined that it was the leftover material produced during the mining of spotted copper ore. He didn't know what the use of wearing it was. Is it to blind the opponent's eyes?
Most of the warriors of Tarasco hold a thick wooden shield in one hand and a 1.56-meter copper spear in the other hand. The warrior formation was noisy and not orderly. Many noble warriors were facing the Mexica Legion on the north shore, waving bronze weapons, and a few 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, 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 the Mexicans who have been fighting for years and are fully trained. The Sika warriors are obviously much less disciplined.”
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 two and a half meters tall in their hands. There were about five thousand spearmen in this group, and they were silent without making much noise. They gathered roughly into a square formation, and the formation was even more orderly than the warriors of Tarasco.
"What is this army?" the young man asked curiously. At first glance, these spearmen look like the prototype of the Greek spear phalanx, but after careful observation of their crude equipment, they look 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 Useful, it can defeat militiamen or 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 it and disperse. Once dispersed, it will be much easier to deal with. Harvesting is like folding fields. As simple as a cornstalk."
Xiuluo nodded. The equipment of this unit was too weak, and its martial arts and morale were not enough. If equipped with a shield, put on armor, trained strictly, and formed a spear phalanx, there is actually great potential.
"Talasco Pike Battalion, ordinary, spearmen, cloth armor but no armor, average morale, average discipline, simple pike formation. Good militia to maintain the front."
The ability to organize organized mining soldiers proves that Tarasco's mining industry has developed to a certain extent. The urban economy has developed sufficiently, and a certain number of citizens and craftsmen have emerged among the nobility and farmers. Similar to the yeoman farmers, this class would also provide the country with an elite militia, or ashigaru.
"Look at the other side." Avitt pointed to the right again, where there was another interesting new unit.
This army also has about 5,000 people, and its weapons are very mixed, including stone hammers, stone axes, copper spears, wooden shields, and even short bows. The equipment also comes in different levels, with most being clothed in cloth, a few leather armors, and some even wearing feathered 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 unit is a consumable with high morale."
Xuelote then understood that mercenaries were 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, who have long been familiar to Shulot. These militiamen still mainly use stone spears, and a few are equipped with shields. Wearing cloth or simply naked, they had low morale and no formation at all. There are also 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 the front line, and consume the physical strength of the opponent's warriors.
This is Tarasco's legion: two thousand bronze axe guards as the core, thirty thousand warriors as the main force, the remaining five thousand pikemen and five thousand alien mercenaries as high-quality cannon fodder, and the largest number of forty thousand militiamen as ordinary cannon fodder.
The armies of both sides faced each other across the river. The warriors of Mexica sat quietly on the hill, gathering their strength and watching the bustle on the other side.
Tarasco's army first spread out 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 a dozen old men with feather crowns, they built three huge round platforms several meters high and more than ten meters in diameter.
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 onto the high platform, and started a wonderful performance under the watchful eyes of hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
