Chapter 1231 The Second Apa Plain
"God has arrived! He is watching in the red sky, gazing at the thousands of people on the earth! ... Offer your piety, hair and blood, drink the blood wine of conversion, carve the emblem on your forehead, and dedicate your soul to the Lord God! …”
The blue holy fire was lit outside Shamu City, and the green smoke of burning hair was flying in the valley. A touch of blood filled the air, and more than 40,000 Tekos tribesmen converted one after another and swore a soul-blood oath of faith in the main god. The tribesmen who did not want to convert were directly sacrificed by their own tribe. The descendants of Tekos and the nobles who originally ruled the city-state from a high position were all brought to the altar one by one under the gaze of countless people and dedicated to the supreme god.
At this moment, blue fire, green smoke, red blood, and yellow corpses together constitute the colors of mystery, fear, and death. The scorching temperature, the smoky breath, the ear-splitting scriptures, and the painful forehead are like the engraved marks in the sacrificial ceremony, which all converts will remember for life.
"You must believe in my god Huitzilopochtli! Those who disobey Him will be tortured forever after death, and their souls will be solidified into stone in the endless abyss. They will be burned by fire and axe, hungry and thirsty day and night! Those who obey Him, their souls can Ascend to the red kingdom of God, resurrect after death, no need to worry about hunger and cold, and enjoy peace and beauty forever!…”
The priests of the kingdom recited scriptures to pray to the gods, and the apprentices from the Tekos tribe repeated them loudly. And the mysterious fear that grips people's hearts, along with the seeds of their initial faith, has penetrated deeply into the hearts of every Tekos tribe who trembled on the ground and converted to their main god.
Yes, the Kingdom Priests know this! The cornerstone of all religious faith is visceral fear. And with the addition of fear, every favor given by the Lord God in the future will be magnified to the maximum. Without the darkness that initially threatens despair, there would be no subsequent light of pious hope. The essence of the conversion ceremony is to reshape people's hearts and plant the seeds of faith. Then use daily prayer rituals and gradually accumulate time to strengthen your faith, just like volcanic ash cement, which will become stronger as time passes...
"It's a pity... the eyes of the gods in Dahu County are still in Hushi City and have no time to participate in this great conversion. However, when the army goes south, it will take away most of the tribesmen and go to Hushi City to farm. Once there, We can hold another Spring Plowing Festival and let more than 100,000 tribesmen participate! Well, the Spring Plowing Festival does not require captives of gods, only three animals, wolves, deer, and fish..."
The chief priest of Dahu, Yoroki, stood on the altar, presiding over the conversion of the Great Conversion while thinking about the subsequent ceremony. He was originally a village priest on the shores of Lake Texcoco, and was born as a civilian in Mexico. Later, when Shulot went to the capital city in the lake to get married, he was spotted by His Highness who was inspecting the village, and he was on the fast track to promotion.
At that time, His Highness said to him, "Being empathetic to believers is the most precious quality of a priest. As long as you stick to your heart, you will be rewarded by the Lord God!" And he carefully pondered the profound meaning of this "divine revelation", whether it was to guide believers. Faith, or teaching farmers to farm, they have become the best among the hundreds of villages on Lake Texcoco!
Later, under the leadership of the high priest, a group of Mexica priests went west to the kingdom. He was also selected among them and promoted to the second-level priest. In the few years since he came to the Kingdom, he has spread his faith in Hekou County and achieved remarkable results. He finally broke the most difficult first-level ceiling for civilian priests and became a third-level chief priest.
Later, Yoroki, as an outstanding priest in Hekou County, came west with the army of Monkey Kuruka to preside over missionary affairs around the Chapala Lake. At the moment, although he is a third-level chief priest, in just two years, the faith in Dahu County will be stabilized, and the priest system will penetrate into the villages and flag corps... It will be a smooth process for him to be promoted to the fourth-level chief priest and take charge of the religious affairs of a county. !
Behind Yoroki's rapid promotion, there is also a compromise game between the Mexica missionary priests and the Prepecha missionary priests within the Kingdom of the Lake. The number of Mexica priests is relatively small, but they are located in a higher position and are concentrated in Gyeonggi cities and the two northern counties of Hekou and Dahu. The Prepecha priests grew day by day and became more numerous, usually occupying towns in Gyeonggi Province, the two southern counties of Apa Zicao, and colonial strongholds on the northern coast.
As for the priests in Qingqiu County who serve the wilderness tribe, the situation is quite special and their origins are very mixed. Most of them are war priests who can fight in the legion, and there are even many wilderness priests who have been recruited and trained. They are considered to be brave and unique.
"Witness the Lord God! Although this North Tecos city-state is very ordinary, the valleys where the city-state is located are truly fertile soil! If this place can be reclaimed, it will be no less than the Great Lakes District of Chapala …”
Chief Priest Yoluoki stood on the altar, looking past the drifting green smoke and the prostrate and kowtowing tribesmen to the narrow mountains in the northeast. This group of valleys extends from Shamu City to dozens of miles around. The area is really large and the rainfall is extremely abundant.
The mountains in the northeast extend diagonally to the southeast, stretching for thousands of miles, and are the natural dividing line between the long coastal valley and the Sacascarat Wilderness. The moist sea breeze blowing from the southwest Pacific in summer is blocked by these mountains and turns into rainwater in the mountains. It also forms many rivers from east to west, irrigating the narrow strip between the mountains and the sea. And it is precisely because the rainfall is intercepted by the mountains that the wilderness further east becomes dry and barren, making it difficult to cultivate.
The lifeblood of agriculture in the classical era was water. The chief priest, Yoluoji, came from a lower level and was also a good farmer. He could see at a glance the potential of this valley for reclamation. However, success is also water, and failure is also water. The reason why this valley supports 40,000 to 50,000 Northern Tekos tribesmen is because there is too much water...
"The Shahe River beside Shamu City runs from east to west and is left over from the mountains! Such a river with its own undulations is most suitable for building artesian canals. No manpower is needed to lift water... This entire valley can be opened The best water can irrigate fertile fields! And once the entire valley is cultivated, let alone forty or fifty thousand people, it is possible to double it and support ten or two hundred thousand people..."
"It's a pity that it's spring now, and the river here is so fast. Once the summer rainy season comes, there will be floods and overflows! The people of Northern Tekos did not farm by the river, but two miles apart. It must be Afraid of floods... And the Shahe River is just a tributary of the Dasha River in the upper reaches of the northeast. The water in the Dasha River is more turbulent, and it breaks out of a large flood plain directly at its mouth hundreds of miles north! ...If you want to reclaim the Shamu City Valley, you must build it! To create a large reservoir, the Dasha River Plain in the north will also need to be reclaimed... And if the entire flooded Dasha River Plain with a radius of two to three hundred miles can be reclaimed, it may be enough to feed a million people!"
In the upper reaches of the east, the "Grand Sand River" as Tecos people call it is the "Grande de Santiago" (Grande de Santiago) with a huge amount of water. The "Sand River" in the Shamu Valley was later known as the Molina River, a tributary of the Greater Santiago River. As for the main trunk of the river that flows into the sea, it is still a hundred miles north of Shamu City, creating a large flood plain with rich water and grass. It is also an undeveloped tribal hunting ground...
This Great Sha River Basin extends from the Shamu City area to the Tolpan Department in the north. Three hundred miles from north to south, the agricultural potential is no less than that of the Apa Plain, and it is a famous large granary of Mexico in later generations! This basin has a lot of water storage and is very suitable for growing rice. Its latitude is close to that of the Pearl River Delta. In this era, the reason why it has not been developed is that water conservancy and water control and prevention of dog descendants require too much manpower and materials, far beyond the capabilities of the local Tekos city-state. The agricultural level and productivity of the Northern Tekos tribes are very limited, and they have been in a state of internal strife for a long time. This rich fertile land, the second Apa plain, remains vacant to this day.