Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1446 - 999: The Scholar’s Nautical Log, The Beginning of Midsummer in July, and the Eyak People’s Purple Bay Tribes
"Chief Divine’s protection! In early July, after recruiting seven or eight Eyak sailors, we left the various tribes of the Eyak people’s Purple Bay, and also left that dreamy purple bay. And the Divine Revelation Port in the East, Jinxi Port built alongside the flowing golden stream and vast, continuous Gold Mountains, was getting further and further away from us..."
"Praise the Chief Divine! One prophecy after another of His Majesty’s has been vividly verified, and we’ve also received distant rumors of the islands to the west. The morale of the whole fleet remains incredibly high, as if we are setting foot on the legendary sacred path of our ancestors!..."
"Summer days are long, and nights are short, almost only a third of the day. On a brief, moonless night, I measured the fleet’s latitude, around 60 degrees north, 60 degrees north... Here on the Northern Coast, towering coastal cliffs are everywhere, alongside sprawling snowy mountain ranges. Those distant white icebergs on the horizon stretch endlessly, like an illusory backdrop to the entire sky, revealing some mysterious omen!... But we know clearly that those white, misty high mountains exist in reality in the distance, and they are very, very, very high..."
The cold wind comes from the north, sometimes blowing directly south, sometimes southwest. Scholar Miki rubbed his hands vigorously, gazing at the northeastern icebergs, also imagining the places behind these icebergs from where the cold wind blows.
From the previously encountered Eyak tribes (Eyak) and Sugpiaq tribes (Sugpiaq), he learned of the endless snowfields further north. It is the extreme region where the God of Ice sleeps, with ice and snow that are difficult to melt year-round, even never melting, and truly grand icebergs stretching for thousands of miles.
"North of 60 degrees latitude, the true land of divine calamities! The fleet once traveled along its fringe, spanning that long two to three thousand miles... However, although I saw the continuous Divine Mountains, and even the ’Heavenly God Ancestor Peak’ soaring into the clouds, I never truly saw the terrifying scene where divine calamity and ice and snow rage wildly and wither everything during that long winter. Instead, what I saw, the midsummer of the Far Northern Coast, is so magnificent and vibrant, like the garden of the Goddess of Spring!..."
Thinking of this, a genuine smile surfaced on Scholar Miki’s face. He eagerly looked at the records in his hand, as if seeing that captivatingly beautiful summer once again.
"July at the Far Northern Coast, the sky is a clear azure, the rivers are a clear cerulean. Along the coast are dense green grasslands, deeper is the deep Black Forests. Further beyond, layers of endless gray-brown mountains and the ice and snow Divine Mountains towering and shining in the clouds!..."
"Everything along the coast seems to be endowed with the ultimate vibrancy by the Chief Divine, and also seems to be blessed by the Goddess of Spring! Everywhere are brightly blooming flowers, schools of fish migrating to spawn, birds nesting and laying eggs, and beasts mating and reproducing..."
"Purple Fire Crane Flowers, golden Milkweed, and white Feathered Balsam are blooming brightly on mountain slopes, lakesides, and riverbanks, patch after patch, as if nurtured by the milk of the Goddess!... And schools of salmon, trout, and spotted fish, flickering with bright red, silver-white, or spots, are surging forward to the upstream rivers, seeking the lakes for spawning... Also, the mighty and spirited bald eagles, the pure and holy white pelicans, the beautifully singing three-colored thrushes, all building nests in pairs, busy day and night... The fleet also saw especially large reindeer and particularly small white-tailed deer. These legendary lucky white deer from the Highland now appeared in herds from the woods, even reproducing in front of us!..."
"Chief Divine bears witness! The summer here is so bountiful with life! It seems all life is in a hurry to complete reproduction and the continuation of their species in this warm and pleasant short season!"
Reading this, Scholar Miki took a deep breath. He seemed to smell the overwhelming fragrance of flowers again, and hear the songs of flocks of birds. Remembering the summer season, the fresh fruits, and the easily caught sea fish, he couldn’t help but lick his lips and swallow.
"Chief Divine’s protection! Without a doubt, summer is the most suitable season for sailing along the Far Northern Coast. Because, though sea fog may rise during this season, there are far fewer storms than in autumn and winter. And the food along the shore is extremely, extremely, extremely abundant!..."
"Praise His Majesty! We collected many berries, including sweet blueberries, red mulberries, sweet and sour cherries, red raspberries, very sour raspberries, and blackberries... The exploration fleet has always had this tradition, because His Majesty once granted a clear Divine Revelation, that sour fruits can help the fleet resist the Evil God’s corrosion of the blood at sea..."
"We hunted many stags, rubbed them with salt and spices, and roasted them to eat. The Eyak Hunter (Eyak) Eyak Deer is a true guide and an adept hunter, able to spot deer tracks from afar. He told us that in the reproductive season of summer and autumn, food is abundant. According to the habits of the Northern Tribes, hunters would only capture stags and let the does go, trying to maintain the continuation of the deer herd..."
"Praise the Chief Divine! The summer fish are abundant, truly abundant! We’ve caught a lot of red-fleshed salmon, silver salmon, and almost every net haul fills a basket! Sometimes, we even catch the troublesome large lobsters and crabs. These hard-shelled sea creatures can destroy our fishing nets and have little meat. The sailors from the Eyak people detest them and make sure to smash them with stones before throwing them to the shore to feed the birds... However, I think, although their meat isn’t filling, it is truly delicious!..."
Seeing this, Scholar Mikki couldn’t help but swallow down a mouthful of water. He recalled the scene of barbecuing by the seaside in summer, where sailors of various tribes were grilling salmon, while he and Zuwaro were each grilling a dozen lobsters and large crabs. This kind of luxurious fuel usage was only the privilege of the two leaders of the fleet. Meanwhile, the Warriors of the Kingdom were not accustomed to the bland fish, usually choosing to grill deer meat which was more filling and provided more strength. They would also use valuable salt to preserve a large amount of simply smoked deer legs and shoulders as long-term stored food.
"Witnessed by the Chief Divine! The summer climate is warm and food is plentiful, but the biggest issue is food storage! Along the cold Northern Coast, the tribes subsist on fishing and hunting, with only a small amount of sour berries, tubers, pine nuts, and dried lichen, and no grain for storage. For these tribes, the frozen meat buried in the snow at the end of autumn is the main food supply for the winter. And preserved smoked and salted meat, which can be stored for a long time, becomes their most crucial lifeline during the half-year-long winter until April’s spring arrives! However, their fuel and salt are scarce, and the amount of sustenance they can store is limited..."
"Guide Eyak told me that during the most challenging part of winter every year, the elderly in the tribe would leave the dwellings and head alone into the snowy wilderness. And every spring, when hunters encounter the undecayed corpses of the elderly, regardless of the tribe they belong to, they follow the shared tradition to bury them... Eyak’s grandfather, grandmother, father, and mother all left the tribe this way. In the entire tribe, only the Witch Doctors, who pass on knowledge and heal the sick and injured, usually lived past forty, or even thirty-five... Sigh! May the Chief Divine guide their souls, these fellow Jiao People struggling in the Northern Land!..." 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
Scholar Mikki closed his eyes and prayed silently for a moment. Then, he opened his eyes and glanced at Bai Xiong Gaowa, mature in appearance and stature yet not even eighteen years old. In fact, in these Northern Land tribes, women typically bore their first child around the age of fifteen. In the harsh natural environment, they must mature early and propagate the next generation as soon as possible, just like the reindeer and brown bears of the Northern Land..."
"Witnessed by the Chief Divine! The further north we go, the gemstones, gold and silver, cotton feathered garments, and even spices and cocoa carried by the fleet become increasingly insignificant in the eyes of the coastal tribes. Instead, the large containers of salt and barrels of firestone used as ballast become the real hard currency and true Wealth in the Northern Land!..."
"During our trade with the Northern Tribes, we were surprised to find that the most valuable trade goods turned out to be salt! Upon seeing the large containers of white and blue salt brought by the fleet, the tribes everywhere were envious, even subtly showing the intent to seize them. However, the tribes here are all small in size and isolated from each other. The fleet’s fully armed hundreds of warriors and sailors already surpass the scale of any single tribe!..."
"Thus, their only choice is to trade salt with us. With salt, they can preserve more meat and keep more people alive during winter... They are also willing to trade firestone, a fuel containing divinity in their eyes, as insurance against the great cold wave that can come at any time and possibly destroy the entire tribe!..."
"However, the exploration fleet doesn’t need their furs, even though the snow fox furs of the North are of a purity and beauty I’ve never seen before!... Nor do we need their bone and stone tools, or the vibrant pigments applied onto these tools from unknown origins... For the entire exploration fleet, all we require is people, those who can paddle strong through the Northern winds and storms!..."
Seeing this, Scholar Mikki lowered his gaze, feeling both sympathy for the plight of Brother Tribes and a steadfast determination to fulfill their exploration mission!
To complete the challenging western sea crossing exploration and to reach the Land of Prophecy in the Divine Revelation of His Majesty, every time the fleet encounters a hunting Seaside Tribe, they request additional sailors. If the tribe declines, the fleet does not forcibly compel them. But usually, upon hearing the fleet’s terms, most tribes willingly send one or two, sometimes more able-bodied men to join the "Lake Tribe" that sails on large ships and hunts at sea.
"In this beautiful and magnificent yet cold and harsh Far North Coast, the continuation of the tribe is above all else! One jin of salt can preserve twenty jin of meat, keeping it stored for more than nine months. And with four hundred jin of meat preserved by twenty jin of salt, at least three to four able-bodied men from the tribe can endure the extremely cold and lengthy winter... Therefore, our condition for recruiting sailors from these tribes is twenty jin of salt per person, plus some firestone fuel!"
"And our most reliable fleet guide, the outstanding Hunter Eyak, was exchanged with twenty jin of salt and fifty jin of firestone from the Eyak people’s Purple Bay tribes at Yakutat!"
Note: I looked up geographical and tribal information all day yesterday. The Easter egg Chapter is an exploration map of the Gulf of Alaska, which will unfold with the exploration trajectory.
