The drizzle had ceased, but the wind persisted. The feathered helts of the warriors shook like the trees in the forest, ominously pointing towards the sky.
Aweit carefully identified the flags on the opposite bank of the river, then suddenly smiled, "It’s my old friend. The new Cazonci of Tarasca, Su’angua, who ascended to the throne two years ago."
"Su’angua?" Xiulote curiously looked at the enemy commander surrounded by axe-wielding warriors. "Is he formidable?"
"He’s a decent commander, very tenacious in battle, and adept at motivating his troops," Aweit reflected.
"He had just ascended the throne two years ago. My elder brother, the forr King Asayacatl, thought it a good opportunity to subjugate Tarasca, so he mobilized thirty thousand samurai and seventy thousand militia, invading the Xitaqualo regions of the Tarascans from the southern states of the Alliance."
"His health was already failing at the ti, so he handed over the command of the hundred thousand troops to . As the new Cazonci, Su’angua also mobilized a hundred thousand, personally leading them to battle. Two hundred thousand troops were squeezed into the narrow area south of Toluca Mountain and north of the Balsas River. We fought fiercely for half a year, and the undulating highland terrain was everywhere bloodied."
"The xica legion once gained an advantage. But the Tarascans relied on the mountains and rivers, stubbornly defending the fortresses of Cutzamala and Tlalchapa. Months later, as our vigor gradually waned and the samurai grew tired, Su’angua found his opportunity in a major battle, leading three thousand Copper-axe Guards to strike at our two thousand Eagle Warrior Battalion and several thousand surrounding samurai, defeating our tactical core."
"I was defeated in that battle," Aweit said wistfully, "The army retreated hastily, losing four hundred Eagle Nobility, over three thousand samurai, and nearly twenty thousand militia along the way."
"That battle cost us three Xiquipilli legions. Of course, the Tarascans also lost a thousand Copper-axe Guards and eight thousand militia as cannon fodder. It was a Pyrrhic victory for them."
Upon returning to the capital, I handed over the command of the army and took over the Alliance’s intelligence and security tasks. A few months later, my elder brother Asayacatl died, and my brother who loved theology, Tizoc, succeeded him as the new Tratuoani."
Aweit looked towards the Copper-axe Guards on the opposite bank, his eyes filled with reminiscence, contemplation, and a hint of regret usually deeply hidden.
Xiulote watched the Copper Axe Warriors with interest. They were robust, wearing bronze pointed helts and heavy bronze shoulder guards, clad in yellow leather armor, each holding a man-high bronze battle axe. The design of these two-handed battle axes could effectively breach heavy wooden shields. Clearly, they were ant to counter the elite shield-bearing units of the Aztec, especially the heavily shielded Eagle Warriors.
The elite force comprised about two thousand warriors. They stood firm and solemn, their expressions steadfast, exuding a powerful beauty and the sharpness of tal.
The young man observed carefully, sensing that the Tarascan forces already bore so characteristics of Ancient Greek legions. Bronze was used to manufacture helts and weapons, although they evidently had not yet developed the technology for bronze armor.
"Battle Axe Imperial Guards, elite, Two-Handed Battle-axe Soldiers, bronze helts, leather armor, dium Armor, high morale, average discipline, armor-piercing weapons, enhanced against Shield Soldiers. Excellent shock infantry."
Xiulote nodded, "This unit poses a significant threat to the Jaguar and Eagle Warrior Battalions."
Aweit laughed, "The Tarascans lack a military system for extensively training seasoned warriors; they can only organize such a Copper Axe strike force to counter our elite battalions.
Of course, we don’t want our Nobility battalions to exhaust themselves against these tal warriors. It takes at least twenty years to train a well-rounded Jaguar or Eagle Warrior. But these tal warriors only need a few years of battle axe training to be ready."
Xiulote strongly agreed, the Jaguar or Eagle Warriors were like the Spartans of Ancient Greece. Their martial arts and physique needed to be honed from a young age and then tempered in war, with a training cycle close to twenty years."
In the history of Huaxia, they would be likened to the Jurchen wearing white armor, high in both offense and defense, but difficult to replenish, only deployable on crucial battlefields. It wasn’t that they couldn’t defeat the high-attack Battle Axe Imperial Guards, but rather, they couldn’t afford the exhaustion.
The young man pondered for a mont, then smiled confidently, "Facing such unshielded infantry, our newly ford Longbow Guards can perfectly counter them!"
The commanders on both sides of the river confird each others’ identities and then stared silently at each other for a long ti before each returning to their camp.
The next day was an unusually sunny day, with morning light streaming through gaps in the clouds. Early in the morning, the Tarascan camp on the opposite bank was bustling, and eighty thousand troops marched out from the camp, forming a massive formation on the southern bank of the Lerma River.
Aweit also ordered ten thousand personal samurai to his side, relying on the stronghold behind them, unfolding on the hills of the Lerma River’s northern bank. A thousand Jaguar warriors with beast helts lined up neatly, exuding a formidable wild power.
However, Xiulote knew well that neither army on the riverbanks was the real protagonist of the war. The true forces shaping the course of this confrontation were the naval forces on both sides of the great river, consisting of thousands of canoes.
The main characters remained unseen, while the supporting actors took the spotlight first.
Xiulote looked toward the distant Tarasca military formations, where the cold light of bronze flickered under the sunlight.
At the core position was Su’angua, the King and Supre Commander of Tarasca, surrounded by two thousand Copper-axe Guards. On the outer periter were thirty thousand Tarasca warriors, of whom it was estimated twenty thousand were directly under the king.
Most of these warriors wore wooden helts adorned with feathers, and a few wore quaint bronze helts. They were clad in yellow or green leather armor, and many wore a string of gilded small stones around their necks, shining and shifting dazzlingly under the sunlight.
Xiulote examined them closely and determined these were by-products from mining variegated copper ore, though he wondered what their purpose could be. Perhaps they were ant to dazzle an opponent’s eyes?
The Tarascan warriors mostly carried robust wooden shields in one hand, and in the other, they held copper spears about one and a half ters long. The warrior formations were sowhat clamorous and not very orderly. Many nobility warriors were waving bronze weapons at the xica legion on the north coast and banging on their expensive bronze shields, shouting threats.
Based on the number of bronze shields, the young man concluded that Tarasca’s bronze mining output was still limited.
"The Tarasca warrior battalion, elite, spear soldiers, leather-dium armor, high morale, poor discipline. Mainly close combat infantry. Apart from the copper spears in their hands, these Tarasca warriors indeed fall behind the year-round fighting, well-trained xica warriors in discipline."
On the periter of the thirty thousand warriors, Xiulote also spotted two interesting new units.
The unit on the left was dressed in simple cloth garnts, with circular cloth caps on their heads, holding approximately two and a half ters long copper spears with both hands. This battalion of long spear soldiers, around five thousand in number, stayed silent without much noise. They roughly ford a square formation, even more orderly than the Tarasca warriors.
"What is this unit?" the young man asked curiously. On the face of it, these spear soldiers resembled sowhat the formations of Ancient Greek phalanxes, but upon closer observation of their simple equipnt, they appeared more like the Japanese Ashigaru with Yari spears.
Aweit smiled after a glance at the formation, "This is a new unit concocted by Tarasca, composed of miners from the copper mines, using long spears in formation for combat. When they cluster together, they indeed have so use; they can defeat militia and even small groups of warriors. But if a large group of warriors charges from behind or the side, they quickly can’t hold up and scatter. Once dispersed, they are much easier to deal with, as simple as reaping cornstalks in the fields."
Xiulote nodded, acknowledging the unit’s weak equipnt and insufficient martial skills and morale. If equipped with shields, armored, and strictly trained to form spear formations, they actually held significant potential.
"Tarasca Long Spear Battalion, average, spear soldiers, cloth-unarmored, average morale, average discipline, basic long spear formation. A good militia for maintaining battle lines."
Being able to organize structured miner soldiers proved Tarasca’s mining industry had developed to a certain extent. The city’s economy had developed enough, and among the nobility and peasants, a certain number of citizens and craftsn had erged. Similar to self-sustaining farrs, this class would provide the country with elite militia, or what might be called foot soldiers.
"Look at the other side," Aweit pointed to the right side, indicating another interesting new unit.
This unit also consisted of about five thousand mbers, but their weapons were very disorderly, including stone hamrs, stone axes, copper spears, wooden shields, and even short bows. Their equipnt varied in layers, mostly dressed in cloth garnts, a few in leather armor, so even wearing wooden helts with feathers. These disorganized fighters were currently shouting towards the north coast, appearing to have fairly good morale.
"These are Tarasca’s foreign rcenaries, with complex origins, harbored by the people of Tarasca for use on the battlefield. They include the untad Chichic people, the displaced Otomi people, Toltec defectors with deep grievances against the Alliance, and even so warriors who lost their lands. This unit is morale-rich expendable forces."
Xiulote then understood that rcenaries were indeed destined to be cannon fodder.
"Foreign rcenaries, average, miscellaneous soldiers, cloth-unarmored, high morale, poor discipline. Excellent cannon fodder for the front lines."
Beyond the Tarasca military formation stretched the hillside, already familiar to Xiulote, filled with militia. These militia were still primarily ard with stone spears, a few with shields. They wore cloth garnts or were simply bare-chested, with low morale and no formation to speak of. About one-eighth were slingers, barely qualifying as a ranged unit.
The militia numbered a total of forty thousand. In any Alliance, they were the multifunctional expendable forces that could carry supplies, dig pits, build fortifications, and fill the battle lines to exhaust the opposing warriors’ strength.
This was the composition of the Tarasca legion: two thousand Copper-axe Guards as the core, thirty thousand warriors as the main force, and the remaining five thousand long spear soldiers and five thousand foreign rcenaries as quality cannon fodder, with the largest number being forty thousand ordinary cannon fodder.
The two armies faced each other across the river. The xica warriors sat quietly on the hill, conserving their strength and observing the bustling opposite bank.
The Tarascan army initially spread out into a semi-circle, with the guards and warriors sitting down to rest. Then, hundreds of militia walked to the front of the formation, where under the command of a dozen elder priests adorned with feather crowns, they constructed three large round platforms, several ters high and about ten ters in diater.
Finally, when the sun had risen to the middle of the sky, over a hundred priests draped with long feathers, wearing gourd necklaces, arrived. Carrying various implents, they ascended the platforms and under the gaze of a hundred thousand soldiers on both banks, began a captivating performance.
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