Chapter 599 Sailing on Dry Land to the East China Sea!

"Hey hey!"

The autumn sun was high and the plains were vast. Thousands of people were crowded together, shouting slogans in unison, towing the ships on land. With the laborers' difficult steps, seven longboats slowly moved forward on the flat plain. The longboats dragged forward, revealing rolling rough logs underneath. At the front and back of the longboats, there were constantly hardworking laborers, moving the round logs that passed behind the boats to the front of the boats.

"This is your Majesty's idea, saying that if the wood rolls, it will save effort."

Pu'apu wore leather armor and led hundreds of Purépecha warriors to supervise thousands of laborers. Ticarlo stood by, looking at the ropes on the laborers' bodies, and then looked at the rolling logs under the longboats, as if he had realized something.

"Praise the Lord! Your Majesty is really divinely inspired!"

"Praise the Lord! Praise your Majesty!"

Pu'apu lowered his head and prayed. Then, he looked at the crowd struggling to pull the boats with a stern look, and smiled and said to the Mayan merchants.

"Your Majesty, please be merciful. Let us not be anxious. He was inspired by God and cherished these captives, so he invented such a labor-saving method! But in fact, each longboat is not very heavy! If dozens of wooden beams are placed at the bottom of each longboat, and four hundred civilians are asked to carry them from the river without rest, it will only take three days to travel these thirty miles! At most, after the work is done, a few hundred civilians will be exhausted to death."

The kingdom's latest crocodile god paddle sail longboat has a length of up to 25 meters and a width of more than 6 meters. The length and width are about 4:1, and the draft is just over 1 meter. It has only one bottom plate and one deck, and two masts in front and back. This longboat, which looks like a Viking, can carry more than 80 crew members, with a load of about 30 tons, and a deadweight of less than 50 tons, which is 100,000 catties. Such size and weight are about twice that of the Viking Snekkje ship a thousand years ago. Compared with the Ottomans' heavy gun-carrying ships that are tens of meters long and hundreds of tons heavy, it is actually not worth mentioning.

The 100,000-jin boat, with wooden beams, was carried by more than 400 laborers, and each of them was carrying about 300 jin. Such a burden would be difficult for ordinary strong men in the gym in later generations to bear for too long. But in this era, it was a weight that the short and thin laborers could always bear. Because they were carrying it with their lives! The result of not being able to carry it was death.

"Hey!"

The uniform shouts came from the laborers pulling the boat, with the unique accent of the Mixtec people. In the crowd, the tribesman Didi was lowering his head, bending his waist, leaning forward, and struggling to drag forward. He was bare-chested, with a cloth bag tied underneath, and his right shoulder was full of thick calluses, and he was wearing a circle of rough sisal rope. The rope had deep marks, almost cutting into the flesh, and it was painful to look at.

Big drops of sweat were dripping across Didi's cheeks and falling on the wet fields. The slightly salty sweat rolled over his forehead, stinging him with pain. He raised his head slightly, revealing a bloody mark on his forehead, which was a newly engraved "Sun Hummingbird".

This "Sun Hummingbird" was tattooed on his forehead by the dog hunter Chabo. When the dog army arrived at Shuigu City with tens of thousands of captives, two dog hunters took away the heavy bamboo basket on his back and the clothes of the chieftain on his body. Didi had nothing left except a loincloth of the chieftain.

However, before leaving, the red-haired hunter Chabo thought about it and tied him up, then took out a sharp obsidian dagger. In Didi's horrified eyes, Chabo slashed the sharp blade, paused for a moment, and engraved a sacred emblem of the main god on his forehead. The other party engraved it with such force that he was in so much pain that he even shouted hoarse.

"Little guy, this is our coming-of-age ceremony in the wilderness! The sacred symbol is like a puddle on the wilderness, which can receive the divinity falling from the sky! This symbol is red, it is blood, it can turn you into a real man, a fearless wolf!"

Speaking of this, Chabo pointed to his forehead, which was also engraved with a red sacred tree. The branches of the sacred tree extended on his face, almost covering his entire face.

Didi looked at it and lowered his head in fear. He didn't know how painful it would be to have a tattoo, but when Chabo took out the red dye he carried with him and colored his tattoo, he fainted again from the pain.

"Haha! Only by applying the red color of the wilderness, your wound will not rot. Although, it hurts a little! Goodbye, may the Lord protect you, little wolf ant!"

Hunter Chabo laughed and patted Didi's face. This red mineral dye contains copper salts commonly found in the wilderness, as well as silver powder that is also available everywhere. Both of these heavy metals can effectively kill bacteria. Of course, it will also leave indelible scars, forever.

After waking up from a coma, Didi found that he had changed, really become different. The other captured young men in the tribe, seeing the red mark on his forehead, no longer dared to beat him, and were even a little afraid of him. The tiger man, eagle man and dog man who supervised him along the way, saw the mark on his forehead, and became much gentler, no longer whipping him at will.

From that day on, no one would steal his food, or step on him, or pee on him. When he walked, he began to hold his head high, and even dared to spit at the strong men in the tribe when he bumped into them. Although he was still thin and still couldn't beat anyone, his heart had gradually changed. The coming-of-age ceremony in the wilderness really injected the ferocity of a wolf into a humble ant!

"Pooh!"

Didi spit heavily and dragged the long boat behind him more vigorously, even half a body forward than the other laborers side by side. The boat was so long and so big, it must be a divine object given by the Lord God, with powerful divinity!

"It is even bigger than the priests and chiefs in the tribe before! No, in front of the supreme and powerful Lord God, the descendants of the Rain God and the Rain God priests are all short and small, just like their cut heads!"

The Jingguan in front of the Temple in the Clouds has always lingered in Didi's heart, just like it lingered in the hearts of tens of thousands of Mixtec captives. However, when he dreamed about it in his dreams, Didi slowly stopped being afraid. He chanted it repeatedly in his heart to encourage his spirit, just like he chanted it to the sun when he was resting while pulling the boat.

"Ah! The Lord God who is bigger than the sky, wider than the earth, and can press the God of Rain under him! Praise you! You are so good at feeding carrots!"

"Hmm?"

The old militiaman Chihuaco, wearing a straw hat and leading Dark Snake, stood not far from the civilians. He heard the vague prayer and looked in the direction of the sound. A thin and short Mixtec civilian who was praying with his head raised soon caught his eye.

The civilian was as ordinary as an ant, without any characteristics. The only thing that attracted attention was that there was a bloody emblem of the Lord God engraved on his forehead.

"Hmm"

The old militiaman watched for a while and said nothing. When the short rest time passed, the Mixtec men pulled the boat again. And the ordinary civilian, leaning forward, shouting slogans, worked harder than anyone else.

Sailing on dry land, heading east, day after day. The captives pulled the oars for days, from the first beam of light to the last beam of light. Soon, the sound of rushing water could be heard at night. And the wind blowing in their faces began to get more and more humid.

In just five or six days, they traveled thirty miles northeast and successfully pulled seven longboats into the nearest Tenexac Herb Lake. At the northern mouth of the Herb Lake, a winding river extends out. This river is the upper tributary of the Rio Tecolutla. From there, go downstream and go five hundred miles northeast to the mouth of the Caribbean Sea!

Well, in Nahua, Tenexac means "herbs, a place with many plants and trees", and Tecolutla means "a wetland where owls appear". The names of these rivers and lakes were given by local tribes and are related to the geographical environment of the rivers and lakes. Perhaps when the alliance unifies the world, it will rename the mountains, rivers, lakes and seas of the world!

"Huh! After pulling the boat on land for so long, the expedition fleet finally entered the water again!"

Watching the long boat "splash" into the water, the kingdom's expedition captain, the old militiaman Chihuaco, finally relaxed and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Next, we will follow the instructions of the blind majesty and follow the guidance of the local guide to the east coast. When we arrived at the coast, the long bald merchant said that there would be a Mayan guide to lead the fleet along the coast and sail to the east again."

"As for the Huastec and Mixtec city-states along the way, your majesty has sent envoys to ask them for support and supplies for the fleet. With the cannibalistic Mexica Legion as their back, these messy coastal city-states should not dare to mess around."

"Captain, I followed the priest Mecart to count. In the past few days, several sailors in the fleet have been injured and sick, and now there are still eight missing!"

Dark Snake came to the old captain panting and reported weakly. He was proficient in arithmetic, calendar and astronomy, so Chihuaco arranged for the Mekate priests to follow the fleet and not do those hard physical work.

Because Mekate priests participated in the first exploration and recorded the route and latitude to the north, His Majesty has promoted him to the second-level priest, equivalent to the newly boarded "Tomato" priest, Tomat.

Of course, the two priests are not subordinate to each other. One is the divine priest responsible for navigation, and the other is the preaching priest responsible for preaching. The merits of the two to upgrade their levels are also different. But no matter what, although sea exploration is dangerous, it is a shortcut for priests to be promoted!

"Huh? Eight sailors are still missing?"

After hearing the report, Chihuaco scratched his head. He thought about it and selected a few strong men from the Mixtec captives who were pulling the boat. Finally, he paused slightly and looked at the corner of the crowd. There was a lonely and thin civilian with the mark of the Lord God engraved on his forehead, chanting in a low voice.

"For the last one, choose him!"