The noonday sunshine was still warm, but the autumn breeze carried a slight chill.
In the light of the sun, scattered weapons glead coldly, leaving behind the final sparkles of the samurai. With the breeze ca the gently falling yellow leaves, carrying away the silent farewells of many.
The campaign that began at the great Otapan camp, developed by the waiting at the Lerma River, and climaxed with the fierce battle in the mountain encampnt, had now co to an end, just like the close of the rainy season. The king and his warriors had all returned to dust.
After a long while, Xiulote silently stepped forward. He gently closed Totec’s eyes and, touching the samurai’s cold, stiff face, once again slled the familiar scent of blood and couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh.
Olosh ca up from behind and gently patted the young man’s shoulder.
"Xiulote, even the mightiest jaguar will one day die in the forest, and even the highest eagle will fall to the mud. We all have our day. To die for one’s beliefs is actually a samurai’s fortune. I, too, look forward to such a day!"
Xiulote nodded, calming down from the intense emotions. The sorrow in his eyes disappeared, replaced by a determination that ca from within. It was a lesson taught by example, showing the young man what a samurai’s will was, and what it ant to have beliefs and to protect them!
Strength was shaping his spirit, erasing completely the fragility of his future life.
He moved over to Tizoc’s body and looked at the face sared with mud. The once-superior king now lay on the ground, looking no different from an ordinary man. The young man shook his head; he felt nothing for the king’s death. If it was a fight to the death between enemies, then death it should be.
Xiulote picked up the Divine Staff from the ground. It had a slender wooden body, with ancient textures, and on top was a gold base studded with a ring of yellow gemstones the size of pearls, forming the outline of the sun. The young man thought of Aweit, and likewise flicked his finger on the Divine Staff.
A clear and lodious chi of gold and jade reverberated across the fields, also spanning through ti and space.
This was the ancestral Divine Staff, passed down for hundreds of years, a symbol of divine authority.
During the tis when the Priesthood dominated everything in the tribe, this staff was passed down from Priest to Priest. After the Lake Capital City was established, the staff was always kept in the hands of the Chief Priesthood of the Great Temple. When the king and the Chief Priesthood maintained an intimate relationship, the Chief Priest would confer the Divine Staff to the king in the na of the Guardian God, declaring the support of the Chief Priesthood.
The intimacy of this relationship was like that between Tizoc and Quetzal. And the price for obtaining the support of the Chief Priest was the retreat of royal power and the expansion of divine authority.
In fact, before Montezuma made another Divine Staff, this single Divine Staff also represented royal power derived from divine authority. Of the fifteen predecessor monarchs of the Aztec, half ca from priestly backgrounds, or were Priests of royal descent.
Xiulote rembered, the king had once used this staff to communicate with the gods in the Holy City, in front of his grandfather. At that ti, tens of thousands of samurai watched with reverence, bowing their heads and not daring to look directly. This shows how deeply divine authority had penetrated into people’s hearts.
The young man frowned, feeling quite troubled whenever he thought of divine authority and the Priesthood.
The authority of the Priests didn’t co from one or two individuals, but from an entire class. In this era, the Priests were the most educated class. Their power ca from the possession of various kinds of knowledge, the conduct of rituals for harvest, funerals, marriages, and the interpretation of myths and celestial phenona.
The power of the Priests ca from a complete monopoly of culture!
With such power, Priests could influence the succession of the Royal Family, divert the taxes of the City-States, occupy large tracts of land and villages, and also had a large number of following samurai, continually manipulating the hearts of the common people.
As a widely renowned fifth-level Priest, the young man’s own force included five hundred following samurai. To support these samurai, he too had to acquire wealth and land.
"Go back and discuss it well with Aweit. xica society is still before the cultural enlightennt of contending schools of thought, and Huaxia’s civil official system doesn’t exist, not even the foundation of a civil service examination. Compared to the hereditary world of the Great Nobility with its rigid class structure, at least the Priesthood absorbs so excellent commoners."
"In the future, the power of the Priests can only be limited and guided, not completely eradicated!"
The young man was contemplating future plans when he heard Olosh’s light exclamation.
"Eh! Xiulote, co quickly, what is this?"
Upon hearing this, the young man looked over and saw Olosh, who had no taboos, rummaging through Tizoc’s body.
To his surprise, he pulled out a large piece of neatly folded exquisite cotton cloth from the king’s embrace, full of drawn pictures and symbols, with the distinctive fragrance of rouge dye.
This large piece of exquisite cotton cloth was equivalent to three hundred cacao beans, or one hundred corn cakes, only to be used as paper for recordkeeping by the King and the Great Nobility. The price of vermilion dye was even more expensive, comparable to the gold of the Old World.
"After returning this ti, I’ll develop paper-making technology to provide a dium for cultural dissemination," the youth pondered.
He then took the exquisite piece of cotton cloth and unfolded it. It was a huge design plan, depicting a three-dinsional ritual stone disk.
From the distance markings, the disk had a diater of about three ters and a height of about one ter. The top of the disk was engraved with ritual images of five suns from the calendar. Above the top, there was space for the intended placent of a Guardian God sculpture or ritual offering stone table. The sides of the ritual plate featured sixteen images of battling Monarchs, engraved with the imposing figure of the King and his diminutive defeated enemies.
Each Monarch bore the markings of divinities, like the War God’s splendid headdress, the Primordial Sun’s shifting smoke, the the Feathered Serpent’s tri-colored long feathers, and the God of Death’s red tongue. The first fifteen images naturally represented the fifteen preceding Monarchs of Aztec history, and the sixteenth was Tizoc himself.
Under the feet of the Monarchs, there were enemies either kneeling in submission or lying dead. These enemies had various na tags, symbolizing the City-States and lands conquered by each Monarch. The enemies lying dead under Montezuma’s feet were especially nurous, with dense markings filling the scene.
Beneath Tizoc’s feet, there were, for now, only two nas: Xilotepec and Otapan. However, he left himself a great deal of space, clearly harboring grand ambitions.
"This must be one of the reasons why Tizoc insisted on maintaining the siege!" Xiulote looked at the image of the Ottopan Warriors and their markings on the plan and felt a tinge of emotion.
Even after discarding the Royal Banner, abandoning the army, and fleeing south in a panic, Tizoc did not give up this design. The dense design markings revealed the devotion he poured into it, his faith in theology. Unfortunately, this historically famous "Tizoc Stone" would never appear again.
"History has been forever changed!" On second thought, the youth felt a sense of excitent. "Now it’s our era!"
The battle was over, and it was ti to reorganize the troops.
Xiulote ordered Stanley to accept the surrender of the remaining Royal Family Imperial Guards; their loyalty and combat prowess were unmatched. Perhaps Aweit would use them as a seed to rebuild the Tonsured Guard Camp.
He also tasked Olosh with organizing the three thousand warriors directly under the Royal Family, preparing to take them northward on their return.
Finally, he praised Bertade for his remarkable archery and ordered his Head Warrior to dig pits to bury Totec’s remains. He himself sat cross-legged on the ground, carving a wooden grave marker and began to etch cubic Chinese characters with his knife.
Another hour passed. The troops were ready, and Xiulote prepared to start the journey back.
He made his last stop at Totec’s grave, looking at the naless headstone.
"Here lies a true Samurai. He possessed peerless martial arts, the purest soul, and a beautiful acceptance of death. Now, he has died for his beliefs, please do not disturb his peace."
Who here could truly understand the Chinese characters on this? It was impossible to learn Chinese quickly, and even Bertade had not learned much. Xiulote smiled self-deprecatingly; this was but a morial he wrote for himself.
In the end, the youth touched his chest with his hand and silently asked himself:
"What are my beliefs?"
"My beliefs are also to protect. Now, I must protect my ancestors, friends, lover, followers... everyone I care about. In the future, when I ascend to the throne, it will be the people of this land, this nation, and civilization!"
He gazed at the shallow grave, rembering the Samurai’s serene smile, and once again questioned himself.
"When the choice arises, can I die for my own beliefs?"
Xiulote reflected for a mont, contemplating the road ahead filled with hardships, as well as future diseases and colonizers. The youth nodded silently and firmly.
"I can," he said as he turned and walked away with the bearing of both a Samurai and a Commander-in-Chief.
The army of four thousand set off towards the encampnt to the north, three days’ journey away. The old days had ended, and a new era was dawning!
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