Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!

"Death is a journey. Oaxaca is the place of sunset. The enemies entering this valley will sink with the dusk..."

"Xiulote, what are you reading?..."

"Oh! Divine King... Teacher. The Chief Divine’s protection! I’m looking at this stone stele erected in the camp. This stele seems newly erected, perhaps left by the Zapotecs Priest? However, the carved patterns and inscriptions on it are quite ancient, remarkably similar to the murals carved in the Teotihuacan Holy City!"

"Let me see... Wind patterns, the white stripes of death, a valley, a sun, horizon, a broken Obsidian Club, fallen people?... Is this a stele that curses us?..."

The wind comes from the valley of Oaxaca, carrying the scent of green grass and moisture. The battlefield marks remain, but to prevent plague, the fallen bodies are buried in burial mounds. The Mexica Alliance Samurai clad in dark green war clothes move around, the sound of copper plates clashing echoing with each step. Looking ahead, the Samurai’s golden copper spears stretch forward like a forest, breaking through all obstructing forts. This is already the third valley camp conquered by the Alliance Army upon entering the Valley of Oaxaca!

"The meaning of this stele is... sunset?..."

Divine King Avit frowned, looking at the stone stele left by the Zapotec people, genuinely displeased. If the comet seen at the beginning of entering Oaxaca could be explained as the death of the enemy leader, then these steles used by the tribes in Oaxaca to intimidate are undoubtedly curses against the invaders.

"Haha! These Zapotec people, not much of fighters on the battlefield, but surprisingly abundant in fake god sacrificial rites and curses off the battlefield... Yet the Chief Divine’s light shines upon us, the spell of fake gods fades without any effect! The vast army of the Alliance Divine War will surely conquer all Zapotec City-States, completely severing their Divine Bloodline!"

Avit’s expression was stern, solemnly declaring to everyone, inspiring the morale of the generals. The Mexica legion is indeed brave, but also notably superstitious towards divination and omens. Staring at the Zapotec stele, no matter what he thought in his heart, Avit’s face displayed scornful contempt. With an iron will, having seen much bloodshed, the kind of defeatist curse from the Zapotec Priests only infuriated him...

"Come! Smash this stele! Sacrifice all captured Zapotec Priests right next to this stele!"

"Follow your command! Divine King!"

The Tonsured Guard quickly left, Avit didn’t glance at the stele again, nor did he remain at the conquered camp. He merely patted Xiulote’s shoulder, pointed in the southeast direction, and spoke solemnly.

"Xiulote! We’ve already pierced through the Zapotecs’ ’Valley Entrance Wolf’s Mouth,’ the Vanguard Army is surrounding their Silver Peak City, building ladders. Silver Peak City is right ahead, and we can reach it before evening today!"

"Chief Divine’s protection! Silver Peak City is right ahead, are there no more obstructing camps?"

"Yes! Let’s go see what these Zapotec City-States look like."

"Praise the Chief Divine! Good!"

If the Valley of Oaxaca standing two thousand meters high on the highland is a standing coyote howling at the moon, then the coyote’s head pointing northwest is the entrance where the vast army enters. The coyote’s body stretches from north to south, a path straight to the Zapotecs Coast. Its two pairs of limbs stretching out are the two transverse roads pointing east within the valley. This is the terrain of Oaxaca Valley, surrounded by mountains forming the shape of a ’wolf.’ The wolf head location is where later Mexico’s "Oaxaca City" is, and in this era, it’s also the Silver Peak City.

"Gray-white mountaintops... Hmm, indeed, it resembles freshly unearthed silver mines! This valley also produces silver, of course, there’s plenty of gold, as well as volcanic ash suitable for farming. Oh! Chief Divine, truly bountiful Tlacolula, the essence of the Valley of Oaxaca!"

The army traveled two hundred miles through narrow mountain paths, reaching the location of Silver Peak City, finally open and vast. The bountiful Tlacolula Valley symbolizes the protection of the Rain Divine, also nurturing the initial Oaxaca civilization, continuing stably to this day!

In this valley, the farmland clearly received meticulous care. Strips of fields resembling green bands not only surround the rivers running through but also stretch towards mountain slopes.

"The higher slopes have scarce water sources, rapid drainage, strong winds, planting drought-resistant agave, cactus, and beans. The mid-hillsides have small channels, diverting mountain spring water for irrigation, planted with pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and potatoes. And in the valley portion, where water is most abundant and the soil rich with volcanic ash, they plant corn, chia seeds, peanuts, and cotton..."

"Chief Divine witnesses! These Zapotec people’s farming is truly meticulous! Their planting level seems to rival the Alliance?"

Xiulote took out Divine Eye Glasses, carefully observing the slope fields and valley fields on both sides. In over two thousand years of management, the Zapotecs Tribes nestled in the Valley of Oaxaca have cultivated it to its utmost. Those stone channels on the mid-hillsides clearly required a long time, needing generational relay efforts. And the mountain channels maintaining unbreakable continuity proves that wars in this valley probably aren’t frequent, perhaps even rare.

"Haha! Chief Divine’s protection! No wonder these Zapotec Tribes defend the valley entrance so fiercely and desperately support Mixteco Affinity... Turns out, their Silver Peak City has such low walls, without any corner fortresses around to support? Such a city-state, incomparable to Tlaxcalan people, even beside neighboring Mixteco Tribes, is far inferior!"

Avit also held the Divine Eye Glasses, looking straight ahead at the white mountain below. Silver Peak City resembled an intricately formed stone gem, nestled between the mountain foot and terraced fields. In this city-state, the most striking feature is the single pyramid temple at the center, possibly twenty to thirty meters high. The city walls on the outskirts of the city-state, however, were surprisingly short compared to the central temple. Xiulote raised his finger, made a slight estimate, and his face froze.

"Oh Chief Divine! Such an important Silver Peak City... the height of the city walls is merely three or four meters? And it’s not a mountain city or Ping Shan City, just built on open plains?..."

"Isn’t it that, as long as one sets up a cloud ladder, or even without one, just using grappling ropes, one can easily climb over?! And this little height offers no advantage in shooting from the city walls. How many years has it been since the Zapotec tribes in the Oaxaca Valley have fought a ruthless conquest war between city-states?..."

"Ah ha! Xiulote, I’ve always said so! No predecessor monarch ever led the Alliance’s army deep into the southeast, deep into the Oaxaca Valley like us! Before the Mexica Alliance, neither the Tepanec people nor the Toltec people reached Oaxaca either! We are the first!"

Avit laughed heartily, his laughter filled with the ambition of a king and the brutal nature of a ruler. At this moment, he knew he had made the right gamble! He led two and a half legions across the narrow and treacherous valley path, into the Oaxaca Valley, despite the dangers of the long supply route, the wealth and weakness of the Oaxaca Valley made this risky strike hit the wolf head! At the very least, breaking through this Silver Peak City wouldn’t require much effort at all!

"Chief Divine bless us! The recorded tablets have shown, in the past 16 cycles of 52 years, the Oaxaca Valley of the Zapotecs had been guarded by the ’Valley Gods’, never conquered by the southward wilderness tribes. Those canine descendants from the wilderness, including the ancestors of the Tepanec and Toltec people, at most only reached Mixteco Cloud. Then, all tribes heading south were stopped outside the long and steep mountain valley paths, keeping the Oaxaca tribes safe!..."

"Teacher, so the Oaxaca tribes internally never had a large-scale civil war either? They never fought each other to elect a supreme Tratuoani?"

"Correct! The alliance among the Zapotec tribes is even more loose than the Mixteco people. According to intelligence gathered by long-distance merchants, they have twenty divine descendant families, marrying within generations, controlling the entire valley and the city-states along the eastern coast. They resolve city-state conflicts through divine descendant duels. However, they have no ’king’, nor have they fought to elect a ’king’!"

Avit raised the corners of his mouth, sneering at the lack of military ethos among the Zapotecs, and spoke in a low voice.

"Right now, we eliminated the Mixteco tribes and cracked open that outer shell, cracked open the mountain paths and valley opening that sheltered them. Then the ’tender meat’ within this shell becomes the most delectable spoils of war for the Alliance Army!"

At this point, Avit finally paused. His eyes were stern as he scanned the surrounding Royal Army Commanders, trusted aides, Imperial Guard Camp Commanders, making everyone bow in awe. Then, he raised the Yellow Gemstone Scepter in his hand high, full of murderous intent, pointing towards Silver Peak City, towards the wolf head of the Oaxaca Valley!

"Ten days, I’m giving you only ten days! Within ten days! Capture it, capture Silver Peak City!"

"Witness the Chief Divine! I don’t care about your casualties... I only want the heads of the Silver Peak City’s divine descendants and priests, mounted on the long spears in front of my royal tent!"

"Yes!!..."

"Following your command, Divine King!..."

"The Longbow Legion will shoot the enemy for you!"

"The Heavy Armor Legion will charge for you!"

"Tonsured Guard will sacrifice for you!"

More than ten alliance generals knelt on one knee, collectively pledging loyalty to the Divine King. Then, they rose robustly, striding towards their respective legions, blowing the horn for battle assembly. Soon, the Mexica Alliance’s legions, like ink-colored cold tentacles, moved unstoppably to gradually encircle Silver Peak City.

The rear line of longbow heavy crossbows was all in place, thousands of archers squinted their eyes, staring at the low city walls where the Zapotec garrison gathered, at the trembling and uneasy light-armored militia. And merely within an hour, hundreds of the newly selected Tonsured Guard from the Asar Lineage, as the vanguard blade in the siege, carrying the already prepared simple cloud ladders, roared and launched an assault!

"Fight for the Chief Divine! The Divine War will surely win!"

"The Divine King decrees: vanguard warriors are directly promoted to Third Level, ennobled as hereditary nobles, and rewarded with a hundred acres of Chinampa!"

"Archery! Charge! Kill!!..."