Chapter 251: Inheritance of the Stone Tablet, Marriage and Enfeoffment

"Good, very good!"

The lingering dream is like summer rain or autumn wind, floating in the distant sky of time. Time changes, the sea recedes, and the lost epic of the kingdom is like a sudden shower, beating on the heart of the king, and also striking out vigilance and enlightenment. It wasn't until Jatiri's voice sounded like thunder that Shulot came back to his senses from the contemplation of the kingdom's change. He looked at the knowledgeable elder with a smile, and lifted him up lovingly with both hands.

"Only by using the kingdom's epic as a bronze mirror can we see clearly the rise and fall of the future! I also ask the sages to speak freely and give me advice and inspiration!"

Jatiri paused for a moment, a look of admiration flashed across his face. Then, he stood up and walked towards the fourth stone slab again.

"Your Highness, please look!"

Shulot looked carefully and saw that the fourth picture board was also a combination of three patterns.

The middle panel painting is a picture of Hajj. Under the supreme sun, a king with a condor helmet looked majestic and tall, sitting on the throne in the middle. He has a spear in one hand and a divine staff in the other, and he is accepting the pilgrimage from everyone. Below him, there were all the ministers saluting. The ministers were divided into two distinct halves. The half on the left holds weapons, wears animal skin battle clothes, various animal helmets on their heads, and carries throwing spears and bows and arrows on their backs. The right half holds a scepter, wears gorgeous robes, a traditional wide hat in the Lake District, and carries a shield with the family crest on its back. And further outside, there are all the people kneeling down to perform Hajj. All the people are densely packed and small, like countless ants lying on the ground.

The Young King looked at them for a moment. The warriors on the left were obviously closer to the Condor King. In this kind of serious political painting, different distances and sizes symbolize the level of power and status. He thought for a moment and whispered to himself.

"This situation is very similar to the current situation of the feudal country!"

Jatiri smiled and nodded.

"Your Highness, the picture in the middle is the enthronement ceremony of Taliacuri, the first generation of Condor King, Tarasco's first Kasonchi. After more than ten years, Condor Chief Taliacuri finally sought peace. He conquered the various tribes in the land of the lake, controlled the Patzcuaro and Chapala Lake areas, and established a country here, with its capital in Qinchongcan City.

Not long after the kingdom first emerged, King Taliacuri had two groups of nobles under his command. One group is the Nava military nobles who followed him all the way south, and the other group is the traditional Urishu nobles who have surrendered successively. Both sides own tribes, warriors and land. The Nava military nobles are good at fighting, have followed them longer, have made more military exploits, and have a significantly higher status, but they are smaller in number. In contrast, the traditional aristocrats in the Lake District are numerous and powerful. Although they joined relatively late, they have deep roots in the Lake District.

After Taliacuri ascended the throne, the first important matter was the enfeoffment of land. The Nahua military nobles longed for the rich lands of the Lake District and hoped to entrust them near the prosperous capital. Half of these lands are directly under the royal family, and half are controlled by the traditional nobles of the Lake District. The prestige of the first emperor was unparalleled, and no one dared to covet the territory directly under the royal family. The Nahua nobles had conflicts with the lake area nobles and began to fight for land. Soon, the two sides joined forces with each other, and the conflicts gradually intensified. The Nahua nobles were accustomed to speaking with force, and soon mobilized their respective tribal warriors. "

Hearing this, Xiulote nodded and said nothing. Military nobles have an innate desire for land. If the king wants to drive a powerful legion, he must satisfy the land needs of the warriors.

After the Mexica Legion conquered the land in the lake, the first thing they did was to seek enfeoffment of the land. This Western Expedition lasted only more than a year, and the military exploits of the nobles and warriors had not yet accumulated enough to be rewarded. The young king relied on his authority and deliberately suppressed the number of feudal nobles and the area of ​​their fiefdoms. Even so, the land that will be enfeoffed is nearly two million acres, accounting for 15-20% of the existing arable land in the entire enfeoffed country.

Taliacuri has been fighting for more than ten years, and the number of military nobles under his command must be several times that of the Northern Army of Mexico. He did not have the strength of the Mexican Alliance and could not carry out a planned large-scale purge of the old nobles during the national war. Then the situation he faced at that time must have been much more difficult than what he faces now.

Thinking of this, Shulot looked at the two panels on the left and right.

The panel on the left shows a wedding scene, with the King of Condors at the top of the screen. Witnessed by the Condor King, a newlywed couple was standing side by side, holding hands close to each other. The groom on the left is a male Nahua hunter carrying a short bow. He was wearing a warrior's uniform and holding a wild deer in his arms. The bride on the right is a female lake fisherman carrying a fishing net. She was dressed in noble attire and holding a big fish in her arms. If you look closely, you can see that the groom is larger and taller, indicating a slightly higher status.

"How the newly arrived ethnic groups integrate with the local ethnic groups is the first problem that every conqueror king must face."

The knowledgeable elder looked at Shulot with a smile in his eyes.

"The first ancestor of Tarasco, in order to deal with this problem, personally arranged and presided over a large-scale intermarriage between the two tribes to eliminate the gap between the two parties. Almost all the Nava nobles were required to marry the local Urichi nobles Marriage, and the requirement is to have outstanding children with inheritance rights! And ordinary Nava warriors are also required to marry civilian women from the Lake District."

"In this ancient board painting, the wild deer is the symbol of the Nahua nobility, and the big fish is the representative of the lake nobility. The combination of the two gave birth to the first batch of Purépecha elites, the backbone of the new kingdom! It is rumored that the first ancestor Talyakuli was blessed by the gods and lived to be 80 years old. He ruled the newly emerging kingdom for decades, and with his outstanding prestige and firm patience, he realized the redistribution of noble fiefs in the next two generations and established a stable factional balance.

And venison has always been rarer and more precious than fish. In the evolution of two hundred years, the Purépecha people no longer distinguished between the ethnic groups of both sides, and gradually evolved a new cognition, that is, 'nobles eat venison' and 'common people eat river fish'. This meaningful board painting was no longer mentioned."

After listening to this story, Xiu Luote sincerely admired it.

It is often more difficult to effectively rule a piece of land than to occupy it. As the leader of the Nahua tribe that migrated south, Tariacuri had enough courage to actively promote the integration of the two ethnic groups. He spent his entire life to create a new Purépecha people, which showed a long-term foresight compared to some kings who insisted on ethnic differences.

"There are hundreds of thousands of Purépecha people in the lake area, and the conquered Mexica army is only 20,000. If you want to establish a stable kingdom rule, large-scale intermarriage between Mexica warriors and Purépecha civilians must also be promoted as a national policy!"

Xuluot pondered for a moment and made a decision secretly. He nodded slowly and looked at the pattern on the right again.

The pattern on the right depicts several groups of nobles and warriors traveling far away. In the center, there is still the shining King of the Condor. Under the king's feet is the magnificent capital, and his eyes are separated like an eagle, scanning the four directions of the country. There, the nobles went in different directions and also waved different flags.

The young king looked at the family crest on the flag. The nobles in the north had "crocodile" and "turkey" on their flags, "feather", "sky" and "silver" in the west, "purple grass" and "palm" in the south, and "red falcon" and "black panther" in the east. Xiu Luote pondered for a few breaths and asked affirmatively.

"Enfeoffment of tribal leaders to guard the four frontiers?"

Jatiri smiled, his eyes deep.

"That's right! The Nahua military nobles made the greatest contribution to the establishment of the new kingdom. Those powerful nobles each had their own tribes and controlled hundreds to thousands of tribal warriors. They longed for a vast and fertile fiefdom. However, the first generation of the ancestor did not want to repeat the old path of the Urixiu Kingdom, which was strong in the branches and weak in the trunk, and had decided to make the entire Patzcuaro Lake area a direct subordinate. He relied on his own prestige and the wisdom of the Hummingbird Family to enfeoff the powerful military nobles to the four frontiers of the kingdom."

"The crocodile nobles guarded the vast northern estuary, the purple grass nobles suppressed the prosperous southern riverbank, and the The royal falcon nobles controlled the steep eastern mountains. Then, the remote and prosperous Chapala Lake area was divided and co-managed by three branches of Nahua nobles. These powerful military nobles went to the border to divide the land, and no longer posed a threat to the central royal power. The nobles obtained a vast territory for free development, and used their military force to attack the border tribes that were unwilling to surrender, but they also faced constant military challenges and could not do without the strong support of the lake center. In the past two hundred years, the border nobles have continuously expanded the kingdom's living space and spread the kingdom's influence to all directions. "

The knowledgeable elder paused. He looked at the young king who shook his head slightly, and said with a smile.

"Your Highness, the messenger's running speed is limited, and there is no fast walking road outside the city. The direct control of the center can only be limited to the lake area with fast transportation within hundreds of miles. Enfeoffment in the border has always been a common practice in all parts of the world. Many Nava nobles who seek comfort are actually unwilling to leave the rich core lake area and go to the border where fighting continues.

In the process of enfeoffment, in order to urge the powerful nobles to leave, the first head of the Hummingbird family made great efforts. He showed a rare wisdom among the Nava nobles and became the first chief minister of the kingdom. After that, the chief ministers of all generations were outstanding people in the Hummingbird family. Hummingbird Prime Minister Accompanying the condor, like a vine clinging to a tree, withering and flourishing together.

With the development of the kingdom, the power of the great nobles in the border areas began to expand. The duties of the chief ministers also expanded from integrating the directly subordinate Lake Patzcuaro and supporting military operations in the border areas to balancing the noble forces in the border areas. This chief Zinzini assisted three generations of kings. He not only assisted in controlling the ninety large villages and towns in the lake area, personally presided over the decades-long expedition against the Tekos people, but also effectively suppressed the crocodile family in the north and maintained the balance of power among the three Chapala families.

Xuluot looked up and stared at the pattern of the fiefdom, but the vast North and South American continents flashed in his mind.

With enough cheap metal tools, large-scale road construction can be carried out. With the upgrade of ships and the introduction of horses from the old world in the future, the direct area that the ruling center can effectively control will increase several times or even ten times. The whole world of Central America can be included in the direct category of the future empire. However, the speed of this messenger communication is far from enough to cover the vast North American continent, not to mention reaching the distant South America.

If you want to expand the influence of the empire as much as possible, fight against colonists from all over Europe, and compete for the dominance of the New World, you must try your best to integrate the native tribes of the entire America. Military division of the border is naturally inevitable, and intermarriage among the tribes is imperative. And in more distant places, you must spread the faith as soon as possible, enfeoff local chiefs, and incorporate them into a tribute system similar to the Celestial Empire!

"Caring for the world is like a thousand pounds on your shoulders. Every step the king takes seems to be watched by the people, changing the pace of the times. A true king must be determined, as strong as steel and jade, and cautious and treading on thin ice!"

The young king sighed softly. A solemnity different from his age appeared on his face.

"My future path will not only shine in the world, but also be a long way to go!"

Note: In the recent chapters, while introducing the history of the ancient kingdom, I have combined the current national conditions to sort out the future governance.