Chapter 370: The Kingdom in the Lake, the Military Machine in Action

The Lake Kingdom was busy and peaceful during the rainy season. The "three sisters" grew in the fields, growing rapidly every day; the farmers were busy repairing the small canals to drain the lower fields. Without enough fertilizer, topdressing was out of the question.

By the end of August, this year's harvest was almost certain. The rainfall was abundant but not too much, the lakes did not flood, and the crops grew busily. It would be a good year!

In the river mouth fortress, the Guakili Legion had been formed. According to Arnold's suggestion, the king rewarded the warriors in the army, allowing the unruly tribal warriors to survive the difficult initial training and gradually get used to the discipline in the army. Of course, their discipline was far from comparable to that of the Long Spear Legion. They could only form arrays and fight on orders, and would not charge without authorization.

Afterwards, Shulot enfeoffed a group of senior warriors who had marched north to the dog villages in the east and west. Under the large and small flags, a new mobilization unit at the account level was established to strengthen the kingdom's control over the flags. Then, he selected a group of war priests who were good at fighting from the army, and added some naturalized wilderness priests to replace the ordinary priests in the dog village. The fifteen Guakili flags were further integrated.

After inspecting the flags, the king had determined that the sixty thousand dog tribes had hardly ever held a hoe and were not good at farming. In the short term, the fifteen tribal flags will exercise more military functions and do not expect to gain much economic benefits. In other words, as long as the Guakili tribes can support themselves, pay a little symbolic tribute, produce some fur and feathers, and fight in wartime, it will be fine.

The alliance fleet went back and forth twice, transporting a large amount of food and tin, and taking away armor and copper. Alyssa received the letter from the little golden eagle and was extremely happy. She asked someone to bring little Avilot over again, and Xiuluot threw a yo-yo again.

Alyssa's reply was very long, with many trivial matters in it, like a girl's diary. There was also a lovely simple drawing in the diary. The painting shows two little people holding hands. A golden eagle stands on the shoulder of the little man, and a green snake coils at the feet of the little woman. There is a fish in the mouth of the golden eagle and the green snake.

Xiuluot held the letter and stroked it for a long time. He hadn't seen Alyssa for many years, and he hadn't touched the little green snake for many years. The boy's memories stayed in the distance, and the young king stood on the top of the fortress. He always wore armor and a bronze sword on his waist, which could not be removed or taken off.

The envoy of the alliance brought greetings from the king and the high priest. The king asked for more gems in this year's tribute, and the high priest agreed that Ort would serve as the chief priest of Otomi. There was also a top-secret message that the elder was seriously ill and bedridden, and his 90th birthday was not held as scheduled.

Hearing this, Xiuluot was a little dazed. The immortal sun personally established the alliance, from the last century to today, and it is the end of the century again. Is it going to be extinguished? No one knows the answer, and the Mexica people don't want to know the answer.

August passed in the rain, and the autumn wind came with fragrance. In the blink of an eye, it was September. The pumpkins in the fields were ripe, and the farmers began to work hard, and the joy of harvest was everywhere. The dog people picked the harvested pumpkins, surprised at the fertility of the land under their feet, and finally made up their minds.

The black wolf's royal flag finally slowly moved south. In mid-September, under the escort of 6,000 guards, the king returned to the capital where he had been away for a year and a half.

Compared with when he left, the capital city of Qincongcan has a more prosperous atmosphere. The villages in the capital have regained their vitality, and the villagers can occasionally enter the city to exchange some needed pottery, stone tools and cloth with surplus agricultural products. Merchants from all over the world continue to come, selling food, cotton cloth, spices, and feathers from various southern tribes, while purchasing copper and gems that are special products of the kingdom.

Tax inspectors from all over the country were busy day and night, gathering the collected goods in the warehouse of the royal capital, waiting for the statistics and expenditures of the preaching priest group. Yes, the current commercial tax is still collected in kind, plus a small amount of cloth, cocoa, gold and silver.

Xiuluot once considered establishing a clear monetary system. However, the tribal structure of the world is too scattered, the reserves of gold and silver are too abundant, and the number of commodities is relatively scarce. In many cases, gold and silver cannot be used as "money". Many tribes are like the dogs of the wilderness, only accepting cocoa, salt, grain, cloth and weapons, and sneer at gold and silver that cannot be eaten directly. Because if they want this kind of golden or white stone, they can dig and refine it by themselves, anyway, there are plenty of them in the mountains.

On the contrary, the gems produced by the Kingdom of the Lake are becoming the currency units for transactions in many wealthy city-states because of their extremely stable quality, gorgeous color and relatively rare quantity. Of course, if you leave the wealthy city-states and come to the poor villages and towns, the value of gems is still not recognized.

Seeing this situation, Xiuluot carefully controlled the output of glass gems, maintained the reputation and value of the market, and sought huge profits from making "currency". At the same time, he continued to send royal caravans to expand the gem trade to further places. The world has been at war for a long time, and the food and cotton cloth of each tribe are strictly controlled and will not be sold too much. The greatest value of these gems is to exchange slaves.

According to the estimation of the sage Jatiri, from the establishment of gem trade at the beginning of last year to September this year, the kingdom has purchased about 20,000 young and strong slaves with the manufactured glass gems, an average of more than 1,000 people per month. These slaves mainly came from the three southern tribes of Mixtec, Zapotec and Trapanic through various channels.

The loss of tens of thousands of people has attracted the attention of lords from all over the country. The Mixtec and Zapotec alliances in the south have successively issued decrees prohibiting the sale of slaves to the Kingdom of the Lake, and sent warriors to patrol and crack down severely. Although the Trapanic people border the kingdom, they dare not prohibit it explicitly, but there are many "bandits" who block trade. The source of slaves is gradually drying up unless a new source is found.

The 20,000 young and strong slaves purchased have been distributed as serfs to the military nobles of the kingdom. Now, the most troubling thing for Shulot is the promise of enfeoffment to the kingdom's legions.

The Western Expedition destroyed the country, and the Northern Legion was enfeoffed with 2.2 million acres of land and 110,000 slaves; the Holy City Legion was resettled, and 300,000 acres were enfeoffed, and 15,000 slaves were required; and the Otomi Legion, which had just ended the Northern Expedition, did not need to grant slaves, and could be rewarded with the unowned fiefs of the three states. The Guards Corps still needs 400,000 acres of land and 20,000 slaves.

In Hekou County, the king set up a big tent to enfeoff one or two hundred senior warriors who were promoted to military nobles in the Royal Guard Corps. Then, he gathered five thousand dog-born captives and wild people in the mountains and forests, and barely completed the land grant for the military merits of the northern expedition. But when he returned to the capital and saw the report of the sage Jatiri, he had a headache again.

The kingdom has been established for more than two years, and the land grant for the western expedition has long been completed, but the number of slaves granted is far from enough, and most of the enfeoffed fields have been forced to be abandoned. To this day, there is still a gap of about 80,000 slaves. Although the king's prestige is high, the warriors respect the leader and have not had too many objections, and have been waiting at ease. But the king's credibility is crucial, and these gaps must be filled as soon as possible!

And the only solution to fill such a huge gap is war, war, and continuous war!

"For land and serfs, the kingdom needs to wage war. After the victory of the war, the warriors continue to be promoted, which creates a greater demand, and then continue the war"

Xuluot stood on the top of the Palace of Wind, looking in the direction of Qingambat in the southwest. The mines there also need to be replenished to further expand production.

At this moment, thousands of miners are busy day and night, and black smoke rises from there. Countless copper mines and coal mines are mined, and then smelted into armor, spears, battle axes, Qin swords, arrowheads, and even bronze cannons! Everything in the kingdom is prepared for military expansion, and only military expansion can solve all the problems of the kingdom!

Thinking of this, Xiu Luote lowered his eyes and recalled the situation when he just returned to the capital. The nobles who had made military achievements were greatly excited after returning from the victorious northern expedition. The generals in the capital city successively requested to see the emperor, and those from other places kept writing letters.

Olosh, the head of the Jingji Corps, proposed to expand the scale of prisoners captured after the autumn harvest and completely wipe out the wild tribes on the borders; Orta, the head of the Sky Family, proposed to launch a war against the Chapala Lake area to attack the Feather Prince; Nekali, the director of the Industry and Mining Department, suggested conquering the southwestern mountainous area and expanding the periphery of the mining area; Ezpan, the head of the Second Long Spear Corps, suggested to purge the southern nobles who were in a state of rebellion and eradicate the remnants of the Tarasco Kingdom; the veteran Etalik wrote a letter to support the head of the Ezpan Corps and provided intelligence on the population and private armies of the southern nobles. Before leaving Hekou County, the head of the First Long Spear Corps, Monkey Kuluka, euphemistically expressed that he hoped to obtain the permission of His Highness to completely swallow up the Sakapu State in the western mountains.

"What kind of military machine did I build with my own hands?"

Xiuluot looked up at the sky, and the red falcon in the lake area was soaring. Its eyes were so sharp and its stomach was so hungry that it was always looking for new prey!

After a while, Xiuluot walked back to the palace. Bertard followed silently until His Highness's voice came.

"Notify Deputy Director of the Military Industry Department, Chalape, and Director of the Bronze Bureau, Tilipi: Let them prepare. In two days, check the Sun God Eagle Cannon and the Rain God Tiger Crouching Cannon!"

"Yes, Your Highness."

Bertard nodded and went there in person. His heart was also full of expectations and eager for war.