"Good, very good!"
The lingering dream is like summer rain or autumn wind, floating in the distant sky of time. Time changes, the sea recedes, and the lost epic of the kingdom is like a sudden shower, beating on the heart of the king, and also striking out vigilance and enlightenment. It wasn't until Jatiri's voice sounded like thunder that Shulot came back to his senses from the contemplation of the kingdom's change. He looked at the knowledgeable elder with a smile, and lifted him up lovingly with both hands.
"Only by using the kingdom's epic as a bronze mirror can we see clearly the rise and fall of the future! I also ask the sages to speak freely and give me advice and inspiration!"
Jatiri paused for a moment, a look of admiration flashed across his face. Then, he stood up and walked towards the fourth stone slab again.
"Your Highness, please look!"
Shulot looked carefully and saw that the fourth picture board was also a combination of three patterns.
The middle panel painting is a picture of Hajj. Under the supreme sun, a king with a condor helmet looked majestic and tall, sitting on the throne in the middle. He has a spear in one hand and a divine staff in the other, and he is accepting the pilgrimage from everyone. Below him, there were all the ministers saluting. The ministers were divided into two distinct halves. The half on the left holds weapons, wears animal skin battle clothes, various animal helmets on their heads, and carries throwing spears and bows and arrows on their backs. The right half holds a scepter, wears gorgeous robes, a traditional wide hat in the Lake District, and carries a shield with the family crest on its back. And in the outer circle, there are all the people kneeling down to perform Hajj. All the people are densely packed and small, like countless ants lying on the ground.
The Young King looked at them for a moment. The warriors on the left were obviously closer to the Condor King. In this kind of serious political painting, different distances and sizes symbolize the level of power and status. He thought for a moment and whispered to himself.
"This situation...is very similar to the current situation of the feudal country!"
Jatiri smiled and nodded.
"Your Highness, the picture in the middle is the enthronement ceremony of Taliacuri, the first generation of Condor King, Tarasco's first Kasonchi. After more than ten years, Condor Chief Taliacuri finally sought peace. He conquered the various tribes in the land of the lake, controlled the Patzcuaro and Chapala Lake areas, and established a country here, with its capital in Qinchongcan City.
Not long after the kingdom first emerged, King Taliakuri had two groups of nobles under his command. One group is the Nava military nobles who followed him all the way south, and the other group is the traditional Urishu nobles who have surrendered successively. Both sides own tribes, warriors and land. The Nava military nobles are good at fighting, have been following for longer, have made more military exploits, and have a significantly higher status, but they are smaller in number. In contrast, the traditional aristocrats in the Lake District are numerous and powerful. Although they joined relatively late, they have deep roots in the Lake District.
After Taliacuri ascended the throne, the first important matter was the enfeoffment of land. The Nahua military nobles longed for the rich lands of the Lake District and hoped to enclose their lands near the prosperous capital. Half of these lands are directly under the royal family, and half are controlled by the traditional nobles of the Lake District. The prestige of the first emperor was unparalleled, and no one dared to covet the territory directly under the royal family. The Nahua nobles had conflicts with the lake area nobles and began to fight for land. Soon, the two sides joined forces with each other, and the conflicts gradually intensified. The Nahua nobles were accustomed to speaking with force, and soon mobilized their respective tribal warriors. "
Hearing this, Xiulote nodded and said nothing. Military nobles have an innate desire for land. If the king wants to drive a powerful legion, he must satisfy the land needs of the warriors.
After the Mexica Legion conquered the land in the lake, the first thing they did was to seek enfeoffment of the land. This Western Expedition lasted only more than a year, and the military exploits of the nobles and warriors had not yet accumulated enough to be rewarded. The young king relied on his authority and deliberately suppressed the number of feudal nobles and the area of their fiefdoms. Even so, the land that will be enfeoffed is nearly two million acres, accounting for 15-20% of the existing arable land in the entire enfeoffed country.
Taliacuri has been fighting for more than ten years, and the number of military nobles under his command must be several times that of the Northern Army of Mexico. He did not have the strength of the Mexican Alliance and could not carry out a planned large-scale purge of the old nobles during the national war. Then the situation he faced at that time must have been much more difficult than what he faces now.
Thinking of this, Shulot looked at the two panels on the left and right.
The panel on the left shows a wedding scene, with the King of Condors at the top of the screen. Witnessed by the Condor King, a newlywed couple was standing side by side, holding hands close to each other. The groom on the left is a male Nahua hunter carrying a short bow. He was wearing a warrior's uniform and holding a wild deer in his arms. The bride on the right is a female lake fisherman carrying a fishing net. She was dressed in noble attire and holding a big fish in her arms. If you look closely, you can see that the groom is larger and taller, indicating a slightly higher status.
"How to integrate the newly arrived ethnic groups with the local ethnic groups is the first problem that every conqueror king must face."
The knowledgeable elder looked at Shulot with a smile in his eyes.
"The first ancestor of Tarasco, in order to deal with this problem, personally arranged and presided over a large-scale intermarriage between the two tribes to eliminate the gap between the two parties. Almost all the Nahua nobles were required to marry the native Urichi nobles Marriage, and the requirement is to have inheritance rights and outstanding children! And ordinary Nava warriors are also required to marry civilian women from the Lake District."
"In this ancient panel painting, the wild deer is the symbol of the Nahua nobility, and the big fish is the representative of the nobility of the Lake District. The combination of the two gave birth to the first batch of Prepecha elites, the new backbone of the kingdom! It is said that the first ancestor, Tariakuri, was blessed by the gods and lived to the age of 80. He ruled the newly emerged kingdom for decades, and used his outstanding prestige and firm patience to achieve great success in the next two generations of the new generation. Noble fiefdoms were redistributed and a solid balance of factions established.
Venison is always rarer and more precious than fish. In two hundred years of succession, the integrated Prepecha people no longer differentiate between the two ethnic groups, and gradually evolved a new understanding, that is, 'nobles eat venison' and 'commoners eat river fish'. This panel painting, which contained profound meaning, was no longer mentioned. "
After listening to this narration, Shulot expressed sincere admiration.
It is often more difficult to effectively rule a land than to occupy it. As the leader of the Nahua tribe that moved south, Taliakuri had enough courage to proactively promote the integration of the two ethnic groups. He spent his whole life knitting together the new Prepecha people, which showed a bit of long-term foresight compared to some kings who stuck to ethnic differences.
"There are hundreds of thousands of Prepecha ethnic groups in the Lake District, and the conquered Mexica legions numbered only 20,000. In order to establish a stable kingdom rule, large-scale intermarriage between Mexican warriors and Prepecha civilians , it must also be implemented as a national policy!”
Shulot thought for a moment and secretly made a decision. He nodded slowly and looked at the pattern on the right again.
The pattern on the right depicts several groups of nobles and warriors traveling far away. In the center, there is still the radiant Condor King. At the feet of the king is the majestic capital city. His eyes are parted like an eagle, scanning the land in all directions. There, the nobles went in different directions and carried different flags.
The young king looked at the family crest on the flag. The noble flags in the north have "crocodile" and "turkey", in the west there are "feathers", "sky" and "silver", in the south there are "comfrey" and "palm", and in the east there are "kestrel" and "black". Leopard". Shulot pondered for a few breaths and asked affirmatively.
"Seal the leader of the tribe and guard the four borders?"
Jatiri smiled, his eyes deep.
"Exactly! The Nava military nobles made the greatest contribution to the establishment of the new kingdom. Those powerful nobles each supported their tribes and controlled hundreds to thousands of tribal warriors. They longed for the vast fertile land. Fiefdom. However, the first generation of the ancestors did not want to repeat the old path of the Urichu Kingdom with strong branches and weak trunks, and had decided to take the entire Patzcuaro Lake area as a direct subordinate. He relied on his own prestige and the wisdom of the Hummingbird family. , and enfeoffed the powerful military nobles to the four borders of the kingdom."
"The crocodile nobles guarded the vast northern estuary, the comfrey nobles suppressed the prosperous southern river banks, and the kestrel nobles from the royal family controlled the steep eastern mountains and forests. Then, the distant and wealthy ancestral land of the Chapala Lake District was divided among the three Nahua nobles. Government and co-management. These powerful military nobles went to the frontiers to enfeoff, and they no longer posed a threat to the central royal power. The nobles obtained a vast territory for free development, and used their force to conquer the border tribes who were unwilling to surrender, but they also faced Facing constant military challenges, it is inseparable from the strong support of the Lake District Center. In the past two hundred years, the frontier nobles have continued to expand the kingdom's living space and spread the kingdom's influence to all directions."
The knowledgeable elder spoke for a moment. He looked at the young king who shook his head slightly and said with a smile.
"Your Highness, the running speed of the messenger is limited, and there are no fast roads outside the city. The direct control of the center can only be limited to the lake area with fast transportation within a few hundred miles. It has always been the practice of all ministries in the world to entrust the borders. Many great Nahua nobles who seek comfort are actually unwilling to leave the rich core lake area and go to the border where fighting is constant.
During the enfeoffment process, in order to urge the powerful nobles to leave, the first generation head of the Hummingbird family made great efforts. He showed rare wisdom among the Nahua nobles and became the first chief minister of the kingdom. After that, all the chief ministers were outstanding members of the Hummingbird family. Hummingbirds accompany the condor, like vines.
As the kingdom developed, the strength of the frontier nobles began to expand. The responsibilities of the chief ministers also expanded from integrating the directly subordinate Patzcuaro Lake District and supporting military operations on the frontier to balancing the aristocratic forces on the frontier. This Chief Zinzini has assisted three generations of kings. He not only helped control ninety large villages and towns in the lake area, personally presided over the decades-long conquest of the Tekos people, but also effectively suppressed the Alligator family in the north and maintained the balance of power among the three Chapala families..."
Shulot raised his head and stared at the enfeoffment pattern, but the vast North and South continents flashed in his mind.
With enough cheap metal tools available, large-scale road construction was possible. With the upgrade of ships and the introduction of horses from the Old World in the future, the area directly under the control of the ruling center will increase several times or even ten times. The entire Central American world can be included in the direct jurisdiction of the future empire. However, the speed of this improvement in messenger communication is far from enough to cover the vast North American continent, let alone reach distant South America.
If you want to expand the influence of the empire as much as possible, fight with colonists from all over Europe, and compete for dominance in the New World, you must try your best to integrate the native tribes throughout the Americas. Military enfeoffment in the frontiers was naturally inevitable, and intermarriage among all ethnic groups was inevitable. In even more distant places, we need to spread the faith as quickly as possible, canonize local chiefs, and incorporate them into a tribute system similar to the Celestial Dynasty!
"With the world in mind, it is like holding a huge weight on your shoulders. Every step a king takes is like being watched by all the people, changing the pace of the times. A true king must be firm-willed, as steel as jade, cautious as if walking on thin ice! "
The young king sighed softly. There was a solemn look on his face that was different from his age.
"My future path will not only bring glory to the world, but also have a long way to go!"
