In the history of the Aztec Empire, if you want to choose a figure who made the greatest contribution, then he is neither the "Obsidian Snake" who founded the empire, the first imperial leader, or the fourth generation Mexica ancestor Is. Coatl was not the "angry and frowning king" who expanded the empire, the second imperial leader Moctezuma I. The person who truly gave history to the Aztec Empire was Tlacahelal, the immortal sun and chief architect of the empire.
In the process of studying with his father, Shulot habitually brought the great figures of the empire into the familiar Chinese history, looking for the future of Mexica's history in a Chinese era with similar economics and politics.
If Iscoatl, who raised an army as a vassal city-state, established the Aztec Three Cities Alliance, and overthrew the rule of the Tepanec suzerain state, could be compared to King Wen of Zhou who raised an army to defeat Zhou.
Then Moctezuma I, who inherited the throne of the alliance, stabilized the alliance, pacified the legacy of Tepanek, and expanded the alliance's territory, was King Wu of Zhou who ruled the world.
Moctezuma I's younger brother successively served as Vizili Vitel (the second generation ancestor), Chimal Popoca, Isko Atel, Moctezuma I, Asia Cattell, Tisok, Tracaeler, who had been the king of Mexica for six generations and the leader of the empire for four generations, was the sage who laid the foundation of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Gongdan of Zhou.
In Shulot's mind, most of the great people in the world have one thing in common, that is, they live long enough and have enough life to achieve their grand goals. In Central American tribes where the average age per capita is only over 20 years old, the 85-year-old Tracaheler clearly has the most important foundation for a great man, immortal time.
Tracaheler was the son of the second-generation ancestor, Vizili Vittel. He was born in 1397. It was an era before anything had happened. The overlord of the Mexica Valley was still the special ruler on the west bank of Lake Texcoco, the capital. In the Kingdom of Panec, the Aztecs were just a subsidiary city-state that settled on a small island in the lake after wandering for hundreds of years.
The royal power of the world was passed down from the Teotihuacan civilization from the first to the fifth century BC, to the Tula Toltec civilization from the sixth to the twelfth century AD, and then to the Toltec civilization in the 13th century AD. In the hands of the Ertec-Tepanek people, it was like the succession of Xia and Shang.
The Aztecs' improved Chinampa floating field technology became the basis for the budding empire. The astonishing food production brought huge population growth, and the city-states in the lake gradually became important. The thirty years after Tlacahelal was born were a long dormant period for the Aztecs to quietly farm, accumulate strength, engage in marriage diplomacy, and obey Tepanec.
At this time, the Tepanek Kingdom was ruled by a generation of heroic lord Tesosomok, who conquered the east and west and pacified the world. In 1418, he launched a massive attack on the eastern part of Lake Texcoco, conquered the rising city-state of Texcoco, and unified the valley from then on. Many city-states could only endure silently and pay tribute to the Kingdom of Tepanek on time.
When Tesosomoc finally died in 1426, the twelfth year of the rabbit in the Mayan calendar, the long-awaited city-state of Mexica-Tenochtitlan quickly came together with the unwilling-to-submit city-state of Texcoco, followed by The western shore of the lake was joined by the city-state of Tlacopan.
In 1428, the Three Aztec Alliance was established. In the same year, the capital of the Tepanec Kingdom, Azga Pozarque, was besieged and captured. The alliance then fought for several years and inherited Tepanek's hegemony. The Tristate Alliance unified the Mexica Valley and became the Aztec Empire.
During this era, Tlacahelal was an outstanding general of the Confederacy, along with his brother Montezuma I, the poet-king Nezahualcoyote of Texcoco, and the three Tlacochical Cartels of the Confederacy. , that is, Marshal.
In Shulot's eyes, although Trakaeler had outstanding military exploits at this time, it could not be said to be great. His real great cause was to establish the civil and legal system of the empire.
With the advent of peace, Tlacaelal resigned from his position as marshal and assumed the role of chief architect, or chief advisor, of the state. The entire lake area was completely transformed under the command of the chief architect. Important water channels were built, the highly productive floating field Chinampa was expanded to the top, a large number of bridges over the lake were built, and the spectacular stone capital gradually took shape. There is no doubt that this kind of large-scale infrastructure in the Stone Age must use the lives of workers as fuel.
Tlaka'elal's will is strong and unwavering. He exchanged the bones of countless Tepanek slaves for the agricultural core of the empire's hegemony, a Lake Texcoco area that could support 1.5 million people. With the prosperous and prosperous Mexica Valley, the Aztec Empire truly laid the economic foundation for its hegemony.
In Xiulote's view, this was equivalent to Zhou Gong's expansion and perfection of the well field system. "The laws of the Zhou Dynasty were implemented, farmers were granted hundreds of acres of land, and tithes were also levied", which laid the economic foundation for the hegemony of the Western Zhou Dynasty.
Thanks to the achievements in agricultural construction, Tlacaelal gained enough prestige to carry out deeper religious and cultural reforms, thereby unifying and cohesion the ideology of the Aztecs.
The first thing he did was to abolish the gods! He upgraded the god of war, Huitzilopochtli, the patron saint of Mexica, to the main god of the sun, and deposed the original sun god Tezcatlipoca. Establishing the status of the Mexicans as a God-blessed nation.
The second thing he did was to revise history! Under his modifications, the Aztecs were no longer the descendants of a semi-nomadic dog breed from the northwest Aztlan, but the inheritors of the ancient Teotihuacan civilization and descendants of the glorious Toltec civilization. Successors, a God-blessed ethnic group with a glorious history!
The new sun god Huitzilopochtli also became the creator god of the Toltecs and conveyed divine decree to allow the Toltecs to join the great Mexica.
Subsequently, all ancient stone inscriptions recording an alternative history of the Aztecs were completely erased. With the expansion of Montezuma I, all conquered city-states must hand over their inherited sacrificial plates and destroy all "slanderous" books. The past history has become a taboo secret spread only among the royal family and high priests.
After so many generations, until today, the concept of divine blessing has been deeply ingrained into the beliefs of the Mexica people, establishing a strong sense of national pride and centripetal force, as well as the impulse and determination to dominate the known world.
In Xiulote's view, this is equivalent to the concept of the world in the Book of Songs, coupled with Dong Zhongshu's inspiration from heaven and man, and the divine right of kings. In one sentence, I firmly believe that destiny is mine and I am destined to rule the world!
This is the fundamental belief that all powerful nations in the world must have, and it is also the ideological core for the true rise of a country and civilization. Looking back at history, any powerful civilization will have similar ideological reinforcement.
The Huaxia Hui said that the whole world is not the king's land, and the shore of the land is not the king's ministers! We are China.
The ancient Egyptians would say that the pharaoh was the son of a god who lived in a pyramid to reach the sky after his death.
The Japanese would say that the Shinto Emperor is one for eternity! The emperor's ancestor is the sun god.
The Ottomans would say, Ottoman's dream is the master of the world! He may be stronger than Osman.
The British would say, Rule, Britannia! God bless the queen.
Americans would say, Manifest Destiny! To seize and dominate the Americas God has given us, with the liberty, rights and federal self-government entrusted to me.
In Shulot's view, the most ruthless method used by Western colonists is to use different lifestyles and religious beliefs as an excuse to erase the ideological self-confidence of temporarily backward countries and nations, thus destroying the possibility of the other party's future rise. There is no better way to kill someone than to kill one's heart.
In the face of the Indians, the Spanish colonists burned all historical records and preached that the resistance of white people in the face of infectious diseases was God's preference, and that the conquered people who had no resistance were inferior abandoned people. The backbone of the Indian nation. However, in the face of black Africans who are more resistant to disease, this statement has turned into the ignorance and low intelligence of black Africans.
For thousands of years, similar methods will continue to be applied by colonizers, from life, system, culture to beliefs, to better plunder, conquer and rule the world. Once a nation has completely knelt down, it is extremely difficult to stand up again.
Shulot has always believed that it is not the technological gap that determines the fate of a nation, but the deeper core. The weak and incompetent Central American countries in the future, as well as the weak and incompetent South American plateau countries, will prove this point with their long decline. They must first find themselves before they can embark on the path to rise.
Shulot firmly believes that the development of everything from the individual to the nation, country, and even a civilization starts from the inside out. What he hoped to do, just like Tracaheler did, was to unite the faith of a nation to establish a strong native civilization of Central America.
In order to further improve the internal drive for the expansion of the Aztec empire, Tlacaelal once again revised the myth. The gods are in his hands only tools to achieve his goals. This time, in the myth, the sun god Huitzilopochtli asked the Mexica people to sacrifice "sacred blood" to him to ensure the movement of the sun and prevent the end of the world.
With the establishment of this religious concept, continuous expansion wars became the natural attribute of the Aztec Empire. The new generation of Mexicans regard war as their instinct, warriors as their honor, and sacrifice as their salvation. He is happy when he hears the war, and he is happy to die and forget about life. Xuanhe's force brought conquests again and again, with small battles every three years and big battles every five years. Driven by the myth, the Mexica people have become the overlords of the world in just fifty years.
This religious war reform, well, should be original. Xiulote thought carefully and estimated that Duke Zhou had never done anything similar.
In order to pass on these new ideas, Trakaeler expanded the bureaucracy and the number of priests, and also opened the way for lower-level commoners to rise to priests. In order to increase the ritual effect of the sacrifices, Trakaeler began to expand the temple on a large scale and formulated a daily small-scale "Crown War" system.
The modified religious forces became more powerful as a result, posing a powerful threat to the royal power and secular forces. But for now, Tlaca'elal's unparalleled prestige is enough to control everything. This potential conflict between religion and secularity would not break out until Montezuma II. Then the priest king Montezuma II took the initiative to introduce the "Quetzalcoatl" colonists into the core of the empire to suppress the princes and princes who opposed him. Great nobles and warriors.
Facing the Western colonists, the Aztec Empire failed to exert its real power. One hundred thousand warriors were confused and confused, and were destroyed by long-term internal conflicts, rebellious city-state tribes, tragic smallpox infections, and sieges by colonists and hostile tribes. This achieved Hernan Cortez's unparalleled achievements, and also gave Westerners, who had long been suppressed by the Ottomans, the confidence and ambition to conquer the world for the first time.
After the iron-blooded Tlacaeler injected the core of war into the Mexica people, he began to adjust the social structure of the Mexica people and established a true classical military society to match the belief in war.
He established a strict military merit system, dividing priests into five levels and warriors into four levels, ascending in order, and finally being promoted to military nobles. The different castes had strict dress codes, social status and land rights. No matter how wealthy they are, civilians are not allowed to wear clothing that oversteps their status.
Xiulote felt that this was somewhat similar to Zhou Gong's ritual and music system, and similar to Qin Dynasty's military merit conferment.
Similarly, Trakaeler stipulates that all fifteen-year-old boys must receive five years of compulsory military education to train the boys into warriors and war priests as much as possible. The remaining craftsmen, merchants and farmers were at the bottom of society. In the entire society, the only way for civilians to rise is to participate in wars, obtain military honors, and capture prisoners.
Therefore, every Mexican that Xiulote met wanted their children to become warriors. This was a military society with a state.
After the social reforms of Tlacaeler, the succession of the nobility and throne of Mexica was also determined by military merit, which was completely different from the succession of the eldest son of Zhou Gong. It injects a core of iron and blood, but makes the transfer of power in Mexica even more cruel and bloody.
If the legitimate son of a noble was unable to perform bravely on the battlefield, his inheritance rights would be handed over to the heroic bastard. And every king will launch a "coronation war" to prove his war capabilities. Similarly, once Tisok failed in the war, he immediately lost his popularity and his throne was shaky. The throne that Avite obtained through war was widely recognized by warriors and nobles.
Xiulote was sorting out the deeds of the Duke of Zhou in his mind, and he was actually sorting out the foundation for the prosperity of the Aztec Empire.
Economically, build water channels and floating fields, complete the core agricultural area, and increase the population.
Culturally, it is clear that God bless the ethnic group, build national self-confidence, and unite faith.
In religion, carry out religious reforms, provide internal driving force for war, and expand the country.
In society, clarify the hierarchy, establish a militarized society, and promote classes.
It is clear at a glance that this is a complete set of adapted national systems, which was completely established by one person. To be able to build such a great cause, one must either be born with a talent or be an acquired time traveler, and one must live long enough.
It is precisely because of Tlacaelal's reforms of the Mexica people that the Mexica civilization has the necessary conditions to truly become a powerful civilization. If there is no interruption from external forces, the Aztec Empire is destined to unify the world of Central America!
Then the civilization's system will become more mature, and new ideas will be born from internal conflicts. Rebuilding the country on a new economic basis, like the reforms of the Warring States and Qin and Han dynasties.
Accompanying the change in thinking was the advancement of science and technology, first entering the complete Bronze Age, and then difficultly entering the Iron Age. With the help of metal tools, he developed navigation technology, turned the Caribbean Sea into a lake, then colonized North and South America, encountered the Inca, obtained llamas for light transportation, and tamed the North American bison that could cultivate fields, until the population expanded. to all of America.
Shulot shook his head and came back from his distant thoughts. Hearing the news that Trakaeler was still alive really shocked him, as if he were seeing a mythical character coming out of a book.
The little Avvit behind him received no response and continued to chirp dissatisfiedly. This was a call that he was hungry.
Avitt stood up and looked at the little golden eagle with its head probed, which was quite interesting.
He smiled faintly: "What is this? A little white turkey?"
"It's a little golden eagle, only three months old. I picked it up from the sacred tree of Avivit in the mountain forest."
As Xuelote said, he took out the prepared pieces of tender meat and fed them to little Avivet. Then he took out a pottery gourd that the Tarascans liked to use, and carefully fed the water in it to its beak. inside. The little golden eagle was obedient and did not shake his head.
"Oh, it turns out to be a golden eagle. The eagle is the favorite of samurai." Avitt came over and tried to touch little Avitt. As a result, the little golden eagle resisted and turned away, and kept pecking at his hand with its soft beak.
"This little guy... the golden eagle is indeed fierce-tempered, which is rare." Avitt chuckled. "I remember that there is an old warrior in the capital who knows how to train the chestnut-winged eagle. When we return to the capital, we will call for one to train it."
Xiulote nodded. Eagles do need to be trained by specialized trainers before they can be used in hunting. If an eagle is smart enough and trained long enough, it can recognize certain special things. For example, a large-scale army, or... a ship on the sea.
"Avit, what should we do now? Will the immortal Trakaeler be harmful to you?" Shulot asked worriedly.
"I have sent Gillim to ask for instructions from our ancestors. We are temporarily stationed here to wait for a reply. It is estimated that we will receive a reply in ten days. Since the capital has not interrupted the supply of food and grass to us, it seems that there is not much problem."
Avitt smiled faintly, a little sad, but more confident that he had the overall situation in hand.
"Tisoke failed in the coronation war and was defeated and replaced by me. This is within the scope of the inheritance rules set by our ancestors. Besides, Tisoke is dead. Now besides me, who else can truly take over the throne of the alliance? ? Is it rare to rely on my eldest brother’s son, Montezuma II, who is only seven years old?”
Hearing Moctezuma II's name, Shulot was a little distracted. His thoughts were surging and his hands stopped slightly.
Avitt snatched the piece of meat from Xilot's hand and continued teasing the little golden eagle. He has the foundation of a warrior, and his wrists are flexible enough. If he is a little serious, the little golden eagle can't peck him at all. Little Avevit couldn't eat the food, and couldn't peck the bad guys, so he called the boy "chirp" in anxiety.
Shulot came back from the call and rolled his eyes at Avitt. Then he took out a new piece of meat from his arms and carefully fed it to the little golden eagle.
Avitt smiled lightly and continued to analyze the situation in the royal capital.
"The ancestor is old and has lived in seclusion for many years without paying attention to the world. He only asked to expand the big temple. When Tisok came to the throne, he did not show up. This time it seems that Kechar was pushed into a hurry. He managed the big temple. Temple, so I appear in front of my ancestors more often, and I can speak more or less. It seems that this time I go back, I won’t be able to change the position of high priest in a short time."
The young man pondered for a moment: "What if the immortal Trakaeler really attacks you? Should we raise our troops and go south?"
Avitt shook his head: "No. After all, our ancestors are the ancestors of the Tenochtitlan line. If they really want to deal with us, they can only deal with Texcoco and Tlacopan, the collateral lines.
In recent years, it was precisely because of the suppression of the ancestors that the 50,000 direct warriors in the Tri-City Lake District of the capital were all in the hands of the Tenochtitlan line. The two princes of Texcoco and Tlacopan were now mere decorations.
Raising troops is the last option. Facing their ancestors, the nobles couldn't believe it at all. The leaders of the city-states were also extremely shaken, not to mention the direct warriors of the royal family. After all, it is the immortal sun! "
Shulot felt enlightened. When the Three Cities Alliance was founded, the leaders of the three cities were called Tratoani, or kings. But then, Montezuma I deliberately strengthened the connection between the three cities, integrating marriages with each other and integrating the ruling classes into one.
Then with the death of the poet-king Nezahual Coyote, Tlacahelal became the only founding father. His prestige is unparalleled! Under his suppression, Tlatoani of Tenochtitlan became the only true king, while the lord of Texcoco and Tlacopan became Teguchitli, the prince. .
The princes of Texcoco and Tlacopan were above the third level of honorable nobles. Of the 50,000 direct warriors, Tenochtitlan directly controlled 30,000, with the remaining 14,000 coming from Texcoco and 6,000 coming from Tlacopan.
These two princes have done nothing now, but they are both hidden dangers of centralization in the future. Historically, they would also oppose Montezuma II in the future, splitting the power of the alliance.
Shulot sighed. It seemed that now he could only wait for Gillim to come back and see how the ancestral sacred tree dealt with the newborn eagles. He continued to feed the little golden eagle.
After finishing the last piece of meat, little Avivit finally said "Yo yo" twice with satisfaction, and then began to comb his feathers. Its wings are growing, and new slightly black feathers have just sprouted, feeling as light as goose down.
Taking advantage of little Avitt's relaxed guard, Avitt finally touched the little golden eagle's head as fast as lightning, and was very satisfied with the soft touch.
He smiled and said to Shuloter: "You picked up this little eagle, why don't we call it Shuloter! It also describes its future flying in the sky like lightning."
The young man looked at his friend with some embarrassment: "Well... um... I have already chosen a name for the little golden eagle."
"Oh? What's your name?" Avitt looked at the boy with a smile.
"Well...because I picked it up on the tree of Avivet, so...I called it Avivet."
The smile on Avitt's face froze.
Then, he reached out and grabbed the young man's cheek.
The young man was already on guard, and his samurai training had an effect. He jumped back and dodged.
"Avit, listen to me, this name can still be discussed!..."
Shulot continued to dodge and move, and Avitt also showed the strength of an elite warrior. The two quickly advanced and retreated to attack and defend. After a while, it turned out that Avitt was the stronger martial artist. He forced the boy to the corner of the room and struck hard.
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, my face..." The familiar scream sounded again.
The young man's screams alarmed the little Avevit who was preening his feathers. He stuck his head out and looked at the two people who temporarily put aside their worries and took off their masks, looking relaxed and real.
"Chirp?" Little Avvit was a little confused.
The young eagle cannot understand the sacred tree because the world in their eyes is different.
