pappabearbooks Chapter 2101 - 1536: Carving Up the Realm, Centralizing Power!
Chapter 2101 - 1536: Carving Up the Realm, Centralizing Power!
"In the Mountain River City, only ten to twenty thousand Mistec tribes remain? That means, including the previous captives, throughout the entire Mountain River City Valley, at the heart of over a hundred miles of the Mixteco Alliance... no more than twenty to thirty thousand of the lowland Mixteco tribes are left?"The night was dark, Aweit and Xiulote sat opposite each other, firelight flickering in the tent of the Divine King. Yun Chen’s corpse lay like a headless sacrifice, and the Mixteco heritage tablet rested on the mat like a trophy of merit.
"Someone! Bring the newly cast small bronze cauldron just sent from the Lake Capital City, and cook an entire fresh turkey! Also, prepare wine, fruits, and vegetables, for I am going to drink heartily with the Elder Priest!"
"Yes, Your Majesty, the Divine King!... "
Aweit laughed heartily, reveling in the destruction of the Mixteco Alliance. Xiulote wore a gentle smile on his face, raising his cup frequently with Aweit. His mind was filled with a whirl of emotions, with an unspoken complexity, even a trace of deep-seated sorrow.
This sorrow didn’t naturally arise from the destruction of the Mixteco Alliance, nor for those Cloud Divine Descendants who have been or are about to be erased. It was rather for the warriors taken away by war, famine, and plagues in this three-year Southern Expedition, and for the dead tribespeople of the Mixteco tribes!
"In three years of divine war, the Alliance moved southward with full force, conquering the vastest Cloud Land under the sky! Nine hundred miles north to south, two to three hundred miles east to west, from highland to lowland, from mountain forest to seaside, all were conquered by the grand army of the Alliance! Not by yielding rebellious submission but by nobility-destroying conquest..."
"Over eight to nine hundred thousand Mixteco tribes, after enduring three years of brutal slaughter, no more than less than half, at most four hundred thousand remain! Of these, mostly women and children, with strong men perishing in the wild..."
"The Western Jin’s ’Emperor’s Century’ recorded the First Emperor’s unification of the world thus: ’Considering Qin and the Six States of Shandong, the lance corps still had five million and more, with a population count of a thousand million and more. When Qin annexed the lords, it established thirty-six counties, of which the killings were two out of three’... Qin obliterated the Six States, directly reducing the population by two-thirds! Whereas the Mexica Alliance unified all tribes under the sky, even if I have softened to the utmost... it still took away a third of the world’s population at least!..."
"Fortunately, once the Zapotec tribes are conquered, the world will be wholly unified! Afterward, the Alliance can put an end to warfare and shift focus from military conquest to civil governance. Establish states on the fief territories of the conquered tribes, strengthen the faith in the Chief Divine, and advance the cultural assimilation of the Gummy People... Until the places of conflict remain only in the East with the Caribbean Islands, only the defense against European colonizers and the inevitable plagues to come..."
"And when Aweit’s generation passes on and my generation takes charge of the Alliance, when the new generation of Gummy children grow up... the embryo of a Central American Gummy People Empire, in the sediment of three generations and dozens of years, will truly be molded!"
Thinking of such an expectant future, the smile on Xiulote’s face finally showed a few hints of sincerity. He raised a bronze cup, a noble utensil embodying the latest bronze artistry of the Alliance, to toast Aweit, who was also delighted.
"Blessings of the Chief Divine! The student congratulates the teacher! Congratulations on your unification of all tribes under the sky! Establishing the immortal Emperor undertaking!... "
"Hahahaha! Good! Good! Xiulote, my student, drink with me to the full of this cup!... I remember what you told me about that ’First Emperor,’ and that ’Inheritance Jade Seal.’ I’ve never quite forgotten, never have!... "
Aweit raised his bronze cup with high spirits again and took a large gulp of tequila. Then, he pointed to the turkey in the small bronze cauldron, stabbed the Stone Knife into the turkey’s heart, and laughed.
"Blessings of the Chief Divine! After fifteen years of warfare, the unification of the world is nearly at hand! Yet, Xiulote, the present unification of all tribes... still lacks a bit, lacks that last bit of the Zapotec people, in the fertile Oaxaca Valley!"
"The Zapotec people suffered heavy losses half a year ago... we absolutely must not wait, must give them no chance to breathe and recover! I need to complete the sacrificial and fief bestowment affairs in Mixteco Cloud Land swiftly, settle the military groups and noble families properly, then continue to raise troops for the southeast!... "
"Of course, just as you previously mentioned! The Zapotec tribes are too remote, the Alliance’s logistical capacity limited, and the enemy’s strength not so strong... so there’s no need to deploy so many grand armies! The grand army of the Southern Expedition can be locally fiefed and settled, more than half of the military groups dispersed, or locally converted into agricultural and supply troops... Just need to divide the forces into two routes, four hundred thousand troops at the front, to conquer the Oaxaca Valley!"
Upon saying this, Aweit’s mouth curved up, and from the nearby case, he drew out a handwritten booklet and handed it to Xiulote.
"Xiulote, take a look! The already decided fiefs and migration name lists, and the continued Southern Expedition plans..."
"...!"
Xiulote composed his demeanor, took Aweit’s booklet, and carefully flipped through it. Meanwhile, Aweit discarded the traditional Obsidian Stone Short Dagger, replacing it with a more practical Bronze Long Dagger, and slaughtered over the "turkey" in the cauldron.
"Using the Mountain River Valley as the boundary, divide the Cloud Land into east and west... confer four honorable nobility by military merit, fifty hereditary noble families, and eight hundred military merit nobility... Among these, four hundred from the Western Army, one hundred from the Middle Army, and three hundred from the Eastern Army. The size of fief territories for each grade of nobility according to the law promulgated five years ago..."