Chapter 603: The Kingdom of the Lake: A Slave-Based Military State with Centralized Theocracy

"The printing press of the Union. A powerful tool for the spread of religion and culture!"

Shulot stroked the tough bark paper in his hand and pondered silently. After nearly six years of development, the alliance's papermaking technology has made great progress, and its papermaking scale has also expanded rapidly. There were large-scale papermaking workshops in Tenochtitlan, the capital of the lake, and Qinconcan, the royal capital. Small papermaking workshops are also popping up in various city-states in the alliance. Papermaking technology was spreading rapidly throughout Central America.

The extremely convenient bark paper, reed paper and straw paper have become indispensable daily consumables for priests and nobles. Caravans and business groups from various states also have equally strong needs. However, most people still use traditional graphic symbols to communicate on paper.

As for the alliance's writing, it is being spread together with papermaking, especially the kana writing that conforms to the Nahua word order and is spontaneously simplified from the Nahua graphic characters. It is most easily mastered by ordinary nobles. The high-ranking nobles and priests will study the scriptures printed by the high priests and search for the mysteries of the gods from the complicated block text. The use of these words has spontaneously moved towards the process of localization in Mexico. The sentence order and pronunciation of their chanting are different from those of the Chinese.

"The priests of the Kingdom and the Alliance master the art of engraving and printing, and are also keen on printing religious pictures and texts. Thousands of pictures and scriptures of the main gods are being printed at a rapid rate! Even in the sacrificial halls in the village of Prepecha, They all have pictures of the main god and have volumes of the Ali Sutra. The belief in the main god is flowing to the states conquered by the alliance at an unprecedented speed and in a miraculous way. The belief in the Kingdom of the Lake is already in Prepe. Check the stability among the people! And now the new focus is to spread the faith of the Lord God as quickly as possible among the 200,000 people who migrated to Tlaxcala."

Thinking of this, Shulot picked up the pen and wrote down the new king's order.

"The kingdom's priests should select priests as soon as possible and go to the south to preach among the Tlaxcala people. The Divine Power University will recruit two hundred priest apprentices from the 200,000 new immigrants. In addition, let the divine priests carry hot air balloons to go Go to the two southern counties and see another miracle!”

In the spread of faith in the Lord God, "miracles" are naturally the most shocking and effective way to preach! Every "miracle" hot air balloon launch is followed by a religious frenzy. There are almost no disadvantages to preaching at this time. Of course, various divine "fireworks" can also have a certain auxiliary effect.

Thinking of the hot air balloon, Shulot paused for a moment and thought of the towering Yunshe Mountain City. It's just that the alliance's hot air balloons cannot carry people. The altitude they can lift into the air is very limited, and the time cannot be too long, making them difficult to use in actual combat.

"This is a psychological weapon. Only when it is used at the most critical moment can it be the last straw that overwhelms the enemy's morale. However, it can indeed be prepared in advance and built first."

The king thought for a moment, then looked at the sage's document and turned to the last part.

"Your Majesty, the Kingdom in the Lake has a population of over one million, which is similar to the old kingdom when it was at its peak. However, the number of military nobles and warriors supported by the kingdom is far greater than that of the old dynasty! There are seven thousand Guards, eight There are six legions of the Thousand Gyeonggi Legion, the Eight Thousand Guakili Legion, the Eight Thousand Second Spear Legion, the Eight Thousand Lithosperm Legion, and there are a total of 47,000 warriors, all of whom will be given land and slaves! In addition, there are a considerable number of local militia battalions in each county, such as thousands of dog warriors in Hekou County and thousands of Tekos warriors in Apa County. These border militias require regular training and their farming is very rough. He will not participate in labor, but once he goes out to fight and performs meritorious service, he will be promoted to a warrior."

Seeing this, Shulot's face turned red and he felt a little embarrassed. He has not informed the sage that the kingdom is preparing to establish a seventh semi-off-duty Hydra Legion, also with a full strength of 8,000 people.

"After the Hydra Legion is established, the Lake Kingdom with 1.2 million people will have 55,000 warriors, plus a large number of border militias. The proportion of full-time and semi-full-time warriors alone is 4.6%. It can be said that there are twenty people per soldier!”

Thinking of this, Shulot pursed his lips. The ratio of soldiers to civilians in the kingdom may indeed be a bit high. As for the warrior class who granted land and titles, the proportion of the kingdom's wealth they occupied was probably much higher than this. The king thought about it and continued to look down.

"Your Majesty, the current kingdom is neither a kingdom of priests nor aristocrats, but a kingdom of warriors! The kingdom has been conquering the west, the north, the south, and the east every year without fighting. In every battle, the city is destroyed and the country is conquered. Military achievements are rewarded with titles, and warriors are granted lands and slaves. Your Majesty's kindness to warriors is generous, and the rewards are the best in the world, even far better than those in the alliance!"

"Among the 50,000 legion, there are 1,800 first-level military nobles! Each person is granted 800 acres of land and 40 slaves. The fourth-level senior warriors have enough for one legion. Each person is granted 240 acres of land and 12 slaves. Then, there are about two legions of third-level elite warriors, each of whom is granted 100 acres of land and 5 slaves. As for the second-level captured warriors, the number is similar to that of the third-level warriors, with each of them granted 20 acres of land and 1 slave. .The kingdom’s warriors occupy so many fields, control so many serfs, and read epic poems like never before. The old ministers are always in fear and have troubles day and night, not knowing where the future destiny of the kingdom will go.”

Seeing this, Shulot paused and his expression changed. He immediately brought the reward plan of the Eastern Expedition, and added and subtracted the number of people promoted at each level with Sage Jatiri's report. Soon, he calculated the specific figures and looked surprised.

"After the Eastern Expedition, at least 700 military nobles and 2,000 senior warriors will be promoted. In this way, the number of military nobles in the kingdom will reach 2,500, occupying 2 million acres of farmland and 100,000 serfs. The fourth-level warriors will be 10,000, occupying 2.4 million acres of farmland and 120,000 serfs. The third-level warriors, 18,000 people, occupy 1.8 million acres of farmland and 90,000 serfs. The second-level warriors, 15,000 people, occupy 300,000 acres of farmland and 15,000 serfs."

When he calculated this, Xiu Luote's hands trembled and he almost groaned.

In the four large-scale expeditions before and after, the casualties of the warrior corps were very limited, and the number of enemies killed and captured was extremely large, numbering in the hundreds of thousands! In order to subdue the warrior corps from various states and ethnic groups and unite the hearts of the people in the kingdom as soon as possible, Xiu Luote strictly fulfilled his promise to grant land and slaves for military merit. In this way, an extremely large warrior class was naturally born.

"Lord God! The warriors and military nobles of the kingdom will occupy a total of 6.5 million acres of farmland and nearly 330,000 serfs! The total number of acres of farmland in the kingdom, including the fallow area, is only close to 20 million acres. The total population of the kingdom is 1.21 million"

"In other words, the warriors and military nobles occupy at least 33% of the farmland and 27% of the population in the country! And more than a quarter of the people in the kingdom are slaves?!"

In fact, the number of slaves is far more than that. In the two major mining areas of the kingdom, there are also tens of thousands of miners. And in the manors of the kingdom's nobles and priests, there are also a large number of serfs working. The proportion of slaves in the entire kingdom is likely to be close to one-third.

Xuluot looked up, looking at the towering and majestic statue of the Lord God, and fell into deep thought. After this calculation, he had a deeper and clearer understanding of the Kingdom of the Lake that he had built with his own hands. The young king was silent for a long time, and finally took a long breath and whispered to himself.

"It's really the Qin State in the West Sea, the Rome in America, the military group in the lake, a national army, a slave-based military state with centralized theocracy!"