Aztec Civilization: Destiny to Conquer America!-Chapter 1655 - 1181: Bertade’s Strategic Planning and the Mysteries of Maya
The crescent moon shines brightly, the night is deep. Outside Kapok City, trees are everywhere, lantern wax cicadas stop among the trees, striking a low drum-like intimidation.
"Dong... Ka... Dong... Ka..."
The low cicada drums echoed through the camps of the Kingdom, sounding like the mysterious jungle whispers in the eyes of the Mayans. Within the Kingdom's military camp, the Royal Banner of the Chief Divine, the Royal Banner of the Lake, and the Royal Banner of Mayapan stood side by side.
"Dong... Ka..."
East Sea Marshal Bertade sat silently on his knees in the main camp, accompanied by the cicada's drum-like sound, his fingers lightly traced across the unfolded Maya map, from Kapok City on the west side of the Yucatan, through a very short narrow jungle path, reaching the Capital City of the Xiu Clan, the "Three Times Rebuilt Star Ancient City," Uxmal Three Star City.
"Chief Divine witnesses! One hundred and fifty miles, just one hundred and fifty miles!... Departing from Kapok City, the narrow jungle path allows only twenty miles per day, but in just eight days, the army will reach Xiu Capital City... Then, gather the Canul, Putun, Brocade Snake Tribes, and launch the decisive battle with the Xiu Clan... to attack Uxmal in one fell swoop, destroy the Chieftain Kingdom of the Xiu Clan, and annihilate the strongest 'Xiu' tribe among the sixteen clans!..."
Pulsating hot blood surged in the chest, even the intense heartbeat was a clear longing. At this moment, East Sea Marshal Bertade was no longer calm, his heart was filled with the desire to fight for the Divine, the allure of great achievements in destroying states... but only for a moment, he calmed down again, exhaled a long breath, and gently shook his head. He lowered his tranquil eyes, began to take out paper and pen to slowly write, analyzing the war principles repeatedly taught by His Highness.
"Chief Divine guidance! We can't deploy troops because of a general's impulsiveness, can't be like raging bulls charging on the wilderness, but should be like the cautious observing coyote in the jungle... Before a great battle, we must consider the timing, terrain, and harmony, then make an informed decision!..."
"What is the Maya timing?... It is the hot and rainy climate. The jungle in the lowland is hot all year round, rainfall is very frequent and highly irregular, causing sudden floods in the jungle, and food easily molds... The Kingdom's warriors can hardly wear armor for long, crossbows are easily damaged, and the gunpowder they bring often gets damp... This climate is unfavorable for the Kingdom's army's march, encampment, and attack, but clearly beneficial to the defending Maya city-state army!..."
"What is the Maya terrain?... It is the endless vast rainforest, with a very scarce water supply... It's a green desert, much like the Northern Canine Descendants' wilderness, even more challenging!..."
At this point, Bertade paused his feather pen, looking toward the lush, daylight-obscuring dense forest outside the camp. Before coming to the Maya jungle, he never imagined that such vibrant greenery, so much rainfall in the jungle, would be severely lacking in water!
Yet that is the reality. The average rainfall on the Yucatan Peninsula is 1000-1500mm, far below the 2000-3500mm on the Totonac Coast. Out of an average rainfall of 1200mm, only about a tenth can be effectively used for agricultural production! And the most crucial factor distinguishing the Yucatan Maya jungle from the Totonac Coast jungle is that the Yucatan Peninsula has no "river"!...
The entire thousand-mile-radius Yucatan Peninsula is almost flat. The peninsula is generally level, surrounded by sea on three sides, without any towering mountains, hence no great rivers originating from mountains. This rainforest peninsula with abundant rainfall nearly lacks any water storage buffer. When the violent and irregular rainy season arrives, the torrential rains quickly converge, forming terrifying and unpredictable floods within days, destroying fragile villages and farmland!
And when the dreadful rainfall recedes, the poor red soil, developed rainforest root systems, and tropical evapotranspiration rapidly absorb the rainwater, making the streams formed during the rainy season completely disappear. The entire jungle almost lacks stable natural water sources to supply large-scale populations, making it extremely dangerous and difficult for an army of over a thousand to venture deep into the jungle for an expedition!
"Chief Divine protection! In the Maya tribes' mythology, deep within the endless rainforest exists a Cotton God Tree connecting the Sky Divine Realm, the Surface Human World, and the Underworld Netherworld... The rainy season is the tree's exhalation. It exhales from the treetops, releasing endless rain! The dry season is the tree's inhalation. It breathes again, using unfathomable root systems to instantly absorb all water... In the tribes' traditional beliefs, 'tree,' 'snake,' and 'water,' have become the three most important divine totems!..." 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞
Bertade frowned slightly, wrote down this Maya tribes' mythology, and pondered the complex timing, terrain, and harmony within the Maya jungle.
"What is Maya harmony?... It is the absolute rule of the Divine Descendant over the tribes. Maya Warriors and ant people almost without resistance obey the commands and dispatches of the Divine Descendants! If a captive is given a knife, killing the leader can save them. The Northern Canine Warrior would, without hesitation, immediately act and kill the leader. The seaside Tribal Warrior would hesitate long, and ultimately kill the Divine Descendant uneasily. As for the Maya Tribal Warrior, they would rather be killed than turn the blade against the divine Divine Descendant!..."
"Chief Divine! The rule of the Maya Divine Descendants is so deeply ingrained, it's truly astonishing! These Maya Divine Descendants elongate their skulls, squeeze out snake-like eyes, and sharpen their teeth... They barely have any formidable warrior might, nor do they exhibit any valiant vigor... However, despite the Maya warriors being able to easily defeat the divine chieftains, they surprisingly do not seize power or resist, instead they bow down under the mask of 'divine face' and 'divine bloodline'... It's really incomprehensible to the Highland warriors who value martial prowess!"
Thinking about the sights along this journey, Bertade frowned, shaking his head in genuine bewilderment. Actually, it wasn't just him feeling confused, the Black Wolf Toltec, who always fought as the vanguard, was even more perplexed.
Black Wolf led his army campaigning, traditionally accustomed to the 'taming wolves and raising dogs' tactic, both sweeping away hostile tribes and strengthening his servant forces: pressing the tribal warriors to kill their chieftains and priests as vanguard cannon fodder. He would then promote those warriors with merit, elevating them to warrior status, and awarding land titles... But once reaching the core territories of the Lowland Maya, this otherwise foolproof method suddenly ceased to work!
The vast majority of captured Maya warriors preferred being killed over murdering the divine chieftains and priests... And even if forced to get their hands bloody with generous rewards and titles offered, once any opportunity presented itself, many Maya warriors would abandon the land and wealth provided by the Kingdom, fleeing into the deep jungle to seek the surviving tribal divine descendants.
"Chief Divine's protection! Undermining the traditional order of the Maya Divine Descendants to establish a new kingdom rooted in the Chief Divine's faith is not something that can be accomplished in a short time!... I even have a premonition; these Maya tribes in the jungle might be the hardest for the Mexica to assimilate and incorporate into the kingdom's rule across the entire world!"
By the dim candlelight, with the flicker of fireflies in the forest, Bertade lowered his gaze, recalling the faces of the tribal envoys during the talks, those distinctly "divine" faces, and couldn't help shaking his head.
In fact, his premonition was correct. In the early 16th century, the Spaniards had already landed on the Maya coast, subduing the coastal city-states. Over the following century, they destroyed almost all Maya city-states and firmly grasped the rivers-rich Highland Maya. Yet, the thousand-square-kilometer lowland jungle, a 300,000 square kilometer green wilderness, remained elusive for the Spaniards to stabilize, only managing to establish a tenuous control that relied on Maya chieftains. Maya uprisings and guerrillas emerged continuously from the jungle, resisting for three centuries, all the way until the independence of Mexico in the 19th century!
"Chief Divine radiates light, illuminating everything in the jungle!... For most Maya city-states, their cohesion hinges on two core aspects. One is the divine descendant able to unite tribal hearts and command a vast community of ant-like followers... hmm, also called the 'Queen Ant.' The other is the artificial reservoirs, natural abyss deep wells that store and regulate rainy season waters, supplying the farmlands... or 'Nests'."
"Therefore, if one wishes to annihilate a Maya Clan, it's necessary to completely eliminate their 'Queen Ant,' to exterminate all divine bloodlines!... While to destroy a Maya city-state, one simply needs to utterly devastate its reservoirs to bring about at least a three-year famine, drastically reducing the urban population!"
Bertade's expression slightly tensed as he penned the chilling strategies of destruction. The jungle city-states of the Maya tribes are so reliant on reservoirs that they even regard the accumulation of water sources as life. Sacrificing to 'water sources' and viewing natural cave deep wells as holy lands became an ancient, unchanging practice shared among Maya tribes!
The former Kokom Clan and the current Xiu Clan became the strongest clans among the myriad tribes because they firmly occupied the central part of the Yucatan Peninsula, dominating several rare 'sacrifice wells,' 'fountain of flowing life!' These natural cave deep wells became the most precious survival guarantee, irrigating over a million acres of farmland and supporting tens of thousands of tribes!...
"Unpredictable rainy seasons, irregular floods, water sources difficult to accumulate... lacking landforms of mountains and rivers, jungles hard to traverse, soil with scant yield... such a terrifying green desert can surprisingly foster the Golden Age of the Maya, leaving behind the legend of Divine Capital Tikal, it's indeed unbelievable!"
Reflecting on the song once praised by Tikalo, the majestic hundreds of observatories within Divine Capital Tikal, grand Stargazing Temples, capable of supporting millions of acres of farmland, sustaining a population comparable to Lake Capital City... Bertade couldn't help shaking his head, truly inconceivable!
It's known that within the Maya Jungle, virtually no natural water sources or lands are suitable for tribal gatherings, forming large city-states. To support large-scale tribes, expansive lands need cultivation within the rainforest, alongside constructing sizable reservoirs. Completing such infrastructure requires a premise of large-scale, organized tribal population! This forms an unsolvable paradox, fundamentally preventing the initial population accumulation for the city-state.
In fact, within such a natural environment, lacking external civilization exchange and innovation introduction for production technology, the Maya jungle should've become a civilization basin locked in the tribal era, just like many rainforests of the same latitude!
Yet within this ostensibly desert-like rainforest, suddenly arose numerous flourishing ancient city-states during the Stone Age around 800 BC, in the late Western Zhou Dynasty of the Celestial Empire, leaving behind numerous pyramid temples, groups of stone architectural ruins!... But the flourishing jungle civilization lacked sufficient self-sustainability, quickly declining during the 9th century, in the late Tang Dynasty of the Celestial Empire, leading to ultimate collapse and migration... The abrupt rise and fall of this civilization remain an enigma, truly mysterious...
"Chief Divine witness! The time, land, and harmony of the Maya tribes; water source, jungle, and city-state are indeed unlike anything I've encountered, distinct from the Highland tribes! And for the kingdom to effectively conquer and rule the Maya tribes, it must grow a native divine tree based on the soil of the Maya jungle!"
