Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1508 - 1053: The Kingdom’s Wealth—Ten Thousand Pounds of Gold and Gold Mountains Stretching Hundreds of Miles

"Haha! Chief Divine bless! This spicy and fragrant roast meat is the true delicacy for Samurai and Priest! If you add herbs, cocoa, pineapple, and tomate, then it truly tastes like home!..."

"What? The Chieftain of the Large Ship, you say such expensive spices are wasted on roast meat? They should be used to cook porridge? Drinking delicious porridge, that is the taste of home?..."

The night was heavy, the bonfire blazing. On the fire pit, there was venison roasting, glistening with grease. The venison was sprinkled with many fragrant powders, rare and expensive spices found in the temperate Wa Country.

Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi swallowed his unstoppable drool, ate dried radish with enticing aroma, and sipped plain veggie soup, like a true high monk from Tang Land. Beside him, Zuwaro was devouring roast meat, gulping rice wine, and occasionally writing notes with Watanabe, talking about the Kingdom of the Lake's hometown foods.

However, herbs, cocoa, pineapple, and tomatoes from Central America were naturally unimaginable to the people from the Old Continent in this era. For Monk Soldier Watanabe, his known delicacies were rice, pickles, fish, and various porridges with added veggies and meat. After drinking two bowls of watery veggie soup, he couldn't resist; boldly suggested an idea for eating porridge, even if it was just a bowl of thin millet porridge, it was a taste of home!

"Cold and freezing, people tired and weary... Since Your Majesty eats meat and drinks wine, could we have a bit of porridge? One bowl is enough..."

"Hmm? Porridge? What does porridge mean? Oh! Look at the shape of the word, it means putting rice in soup to cook?… No way! Those rice and millet, I am sending them back to the Kingdom of the Lake, as seeds... Chief Divine witnesses! What did you say?! These rice can't be planted?… Why? They have been milled once, husked?!... Damn it!..."

Seeing the suddenly agitated, murderous gaze of the Jiao People Chieftain, Monk Soldier Watanabe Masumi's heart trembled, his face showed confusion. He didn't understand why the other cared so much about whether rice could be planted. Was it possible that in the homeland of the Eastern Sea Jiao people, even rice was absent?...

"Watanabe-kun, this Chieftain of the Jiao people is so fierce, what is he shouting about?..."

"Murakami-kun, he says he wants to take rice back to his homeland, to plant it there for their Great Shaman to eat… I said the rice is husked, it can't be planted anymore..."

"Ah? Buddha bless! So it was for this reason?... Ha! Watanabe-kun, clearly you've never farmed, not knowing the details in the fields..."

Upon hearing their conversation, Ship Administrator Murakami Kitamichi grinned. Though his nose was bruised, beaten up, and his large ship taken, hearing that these Barbarians wouldn't kill them but only take them to the South slightly lifted his spirits. People, as long as alive, there remains hope. Warriors from Ezo Land, more like villagers struggling to survive, don't possess the strong martial family culture of the Kanto plain warriors, who care about the mysterious "way" and pursue the mysterious "name".

"Merciful Buddha! The rice we brought, except for those few bags of Vietnam rice loaded in the Capital City, all other rice is brown rice with husk. And the millet loaded from Victory Mountain Manor is also with husk!... As long as rice has husk, it can be planted, simply a matter of sprouting more or less!"

In Wa Country of this era, even ordinary Samurai on a daily basis ate millet with husk. During festive times when wages were given, to eat a meal of husked rice meant the family was quite wealthy. This husked brown rice, slightly showing black in white, was given a pleasant name by the Wa People as "玄米" or "brown rice". Samurai began eating large quantities of polished rice only by mid-Edo period, after foot-pedal Tang mortars introduced in the Tang Dynasty gradually got replaced by water-powered mortars.

Before the water mortar appeared, pounding rice to remove husk demanded much physical labor from villagers, also greatly reducing the already insufficient food supply. What, you say husk is for feeding chickens and pigs? Sorry, Wa Country reveres Buddha and prohibits raising chickens and pigs, husk was meant for farmers to eat. Farmers managed with husk and veggie, not eating roots and leaves, not starving at the edge of fields, was thanks to the merciful Lord! You can't use the standard of farmers in Celestial Empire and Lee Dynasty to measure Wa Country farmers. Using the standard of Lee Dynasty's lowly class is closer...

In short, the rice and millet on Wa Country's Ocean Shielding Ship mostly are husked brown rice and millet. These, though having slightly lower germination rates, can still be planted.

Listening to Murakami's account of farming Samurai, Watanabe Masakazu finally became aware. He pursed his lips, under Zuwaro's gaze, bowed his head to write a line, trying to appease the Jiao People Chieftain who held life and death power.

"Your Majesty need not worry! The ship has brown rice, much husk, can sprout. Millets likewise, much husk, can be planted!..."

"Hmm? Chief Divine's blessing! The leader of this big ship I'm negotiating with turns out to be a farmer? Tsk tsk, that's exactly what the kingdom needs!…"

The Exploration Captain Zuwaro rubbed his chin and looked at Murakami Kitamichi, who stood upright and held his head high defiantly. The two exchanged glances for a moment. Zuwaro squinted his eyes and gripped the Bronze Axe at his waist, causing Murakami to shiver and lower his head. Seeing the other party bow down, Zuwaro smiled slightly and wrote on the snow, inquiring for the first time about this other leader of the big ship.

"Chief Divine's witness! You, leader of the big ship, are from the northernmost Wa Tribe? What is your status in the tribe, Head Warrior? Or Veteran Warrior?… Ah? Neither, are you? So you have no status in the tribe at all? That's just as well, then submit to the kingdom!…"

"…Buddha's law is solemn, watching over you all! I am the ship official of the Kaozaki Family! You have taken the Family Head's ship and killed our warriors… If the Family Head finds out, he'll certainly gather hundreds of warriors, board the large ships of Temples and Shrines, and come to kill you all, leaving none alive!… However, my Buddha is merciful. If you let us go and allow us to leave by ship… I can make the decision to leave you ironware, liquor, horses, and surplus food… as long as… we can take away the furs and ginseng…"

The ship official Murakami Kitamichi widened his eyes, pretending to be fierce while threatening some leader of the Jiao People. Yet, being at the mercy of others, his tough words unconsciously showed a hint of fear. The words he spoke, polished slightly by the translator Watanabe, became eloquent and polite.

"Honorable Envoy! Your Chief Divine possesses the power of Thunder Fire and the mercy of the Divine Buddha!… The Kaozaki Family and Temples and Shrines dispatched a trade mission north, neither coveting the far north land nor intending to invade the Tribes. Though the Kaozaki Family is small, it has over a thousand warriors. Even though the Temples and Shrines are far, they can gather dozens of large ships, not to be easily insulted!… We came with wealth, always valuing peace, hoping to exchange for your excess, unused furs, complementing what you seek…"

"Heaven cherishes life, turning swords into plowshares! Why not agree to peace on both sides, become brothers, and let us leave by ship! Whether it's ironware, liquor, horses, or food, take what your tribe fancies… And if you let us take away furs and ginseng, slightly ease the explanation to our family. Then, when we return next year, we will surely bring ample liquor and wealth, singing and drinking joyfully with you, wouldn't that be delightful!…" 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Haha! Chief Divine's witness! He's quite a speaker, and you're quite the writer… To put it bluntly, one's a pretend fierce badger, and the other's a pretend dumb coyote, coordinating to take me for a grass rabbit and grass mouse… What's this called? In the words of His Majesty, this is… this is… oh! Colluding together in mischief!…"

Zuwaro laughed heartily, amusedly watching Murakami Kitamichi, who tried hard to appear fierce with his chest out, and then glanced at the cautious Watanabe Masumi, who diligently wrote with a respectful demeanor. However, he knew well that the two had just been captured and surrendered, and none of what they said could be trusted!… After a while, he finished reading this densely written vertical line of text, slowly shook his head, and revealed a genuine, simple smile.

"Chief Divine's witness! The Northern Wa Tribe, only a thousand warriors, really?… Our Kingdom of the Lake has a hundred thousand warriors, tens of millions of people!… And my hundred-man team here is merely the vanguard sent from the kingdom's west! Behind us are many more warriors, many more ships, thousands upon thousands!…"

"The wealth of the Kingdom of the Lake and the honorable status of warriors are beyond your imagination! Kingdom military merits confer nobility, promoted level by level based on achievements. As long as you convert and serve the Chief Divine, work for the kingdom, you can become military merit nobility, owning vast lands and agricultural slaves! And if you make great achievements, retrieving the needed Western Sea products for His Majesty, you might lead hundreds or thousands of warriors, becoming lords and nobility with fiefs!…"

"What? You don't believe it? You actually doubt the kingdom's strength?…"

Seeing the undisguised expressions on their faces, Zuwaro's lips curled into a confident smile. He tore the spicy grilled deer meat in half and handed it to Murakami and Watanabe. Then, he casually took out two pieces of Golden Amulet from his bosom, slowly tied them with grass string lanyards, and placed them around the necks of the surprised and confused two.

After doing all this, Zuwaro clapped his hands and wrote the final few sentences of the night on the snow. These short sentences deeply etched themselves in the minds of the two, leaving them tossing and turning, unable to sleep and even unable to imagine!

"Chief Divine's witness! The kingdom's strength and prosperity are beyond your imagination! I have five hundred pieces of such a one jin Gold Talisman, all at my disposal. If you convert and serve the Chief Divine, you can have one piece each!…"

"In the kingdom fleet across the sea, there are another fifteen hundred pieces of one jin Gold Talisman, ten thousand pieces of one jin Silver Talisman! And the kingdom occupies dozens of Gold Mountains, stretching hundreds of li, inexhaustible, never-ending; even delivering one thousand jin of gold annually is no issue!…"

"Chief Divine's blessing! Before the kingdom's support arrives, I will not let any of you go southward! But I'll allow you to open your eyes wide, see what a Gold Mountain is like… And once the kingdom's support arrives, I will send back a few envoys to your Ezo Tribe, to your Temples and Shrines, and have a good talk about trade! Here, at this remote Northern Land, at the kingdom port on the far north snow plains, conduct a legacy-transcending, truly grand business affair!…"