Aztec Immortals The Rise of an Empire

Perhaps it was because they were bringing prisoners, or maybe it was due to running into a creditor, or possibly because of something heard from the military aristocrats of the city-states. Whatever the reason, early the next morning, Aolosh's roars roused everyone at dawn. Urging them on, he led the group south along the smooth dirt road by the riverbank.

Ever since they entered the Mexican highlands, the journey south had been comfortable and safe.

At the tail end of the dry season in Mexico, the weather remained cool and dry. The sky was high and the clouds were sparse, and there was no trace of the tedious rain that plagued the lowland jungles. The roads here were quite level. Villages along the way bustled with people, fruit trees offered ample shade, and cacti and yucca plants—unique to these highlands—spread across the land.

On both sides of the river lay countless chinampa floating fields of high yield, and dugout canoes plied the waters. Merchant traffic was non-stop.

This was the actual territory under the control of the Aztec City-State Alliance—an imperial core made up of over a dozen Mexica city-states, encompassing the most fertile parts of the Valley of Mexico. After arriving here, Aolosh's mood visibly improved. Whenever he had the chance, he would tell Xiulote stories about the "Great Alliance of City-States."

From Xiulote's perspective, Lake Texcoco served as "the heart of the alliance," swiftly connecting all the city-states around its shores.

At the very center of the Empire lay the Holy Three Cities:

Tenochtitlán, situated in the middle of Lake TexcocoTexcoco, on the eastern shoreTlacopan, on the western shore

These three city-states' rulers simultaneously served as the alliance's co-monarchs. In Xiulote's homeland's words, they were the chief leader, the second leader, and the third leader. As for who held the highest rank, it naturally depended on the military strength each of the three cities could muster.

To help himself remember, Xiulote assigned each of the Three Cities a label based on geography and current standing:

Tenochtitlán he likened to Xianyang, the heart of the empire and an unparalleled stone metropolis.Texcoco he likened to Anyi, a flourishing cultural hub with its own independent legacy.Tlacopan he likened to Yongcheng, a firmly controlled stronghold close to what once had been the Tepanec capital.

Spreading outward from these Three Cities, within about two weeks' communication distance from Tenochtitlán, were more than a dozen or possibly twenty Mexica city-states—this comprised the empire's core territory, where it exercised direct control.

According to Aolosh, in the northeast, roughly at the line of the recently passed city of Metztitlán, one would find the Huastec people, who had submitted for more than a decade and were considered "loyal dependents." Their population was generally modest. Each year, the Empire collected large amounts of grain, leather, and feathers from them.

In his mind, Xiulote drew a circle there and wrote down:

"State of Yan (Northern Warring State) (a mid-tier military force) (Tributary vassal state)."

To the west-northwest were the Otomí, continually invaded and driven away—labeled as "hyenas and coyotes" in Aolosh's words.

Over the past hundred years, the Otomí had been expelled from the fertile Valley of Mexico by the Mexica and the Nahua, scattering northward. Yet time and again, they managed to build new city-states on the frontier. Their population was large, and though their direct combat power was not especially formidable, they were tough and enduring. In the northwest on his mental map, Xiulote drew another circle, labeling it:

"Xiongnu (Mid-Northern nomads) (a mid-tier military force) (hostile)."

Southwest of that, with the city of Lazico as the boundary, lay the formidable foe to the west—"the unyielding stone" Tarascans—wielding "unbelievably durable" bronze weapons and occupying the known world's only copper mine site.

Two years ago, the Empire suffered its only major defeat in a war against the Tarascans: a series of bloody battles cost the lives of at least three armies of eight thousand each.

At one point, Tenochtitlán issued a city-state mobilization order—one able-bodied man per household—forming a force of one hundred thousand. The Tarascan City-State Alliance, intimidated by the Empire's dreadful capacity for war, withdrew from Imperial territory and turned north to deal with minor Totzec city-states.

A tacit, stable peace was thus maintained between the two states. On his mental map, Xiulote drew a large circle to the west, writing:

"State of Chu (Large Southwestern State) (a major military power) (Neutral)."

A bit further south were the Chontal peoples, "like weeds in the wind," spread out along both banks of the Balsas River, sparsely populated, having been under Imperial rule for many years. Some small Mexica settler-towns had already begun to flourish in that region.

Xiulote labeled them:

"Rongdi (Northern and western peripheral tribes) (a smaller military force) (vassal)."

Continuing farther south, all the way to the Pacific coast, lay the "weak and powerless" southern city-states: the Tlapaniques, the Mixtecs, and the Zapotecs, running west to east. They were bound by kinship, had once been forced to submit and pay tribute to the Empire under "the great Montezuma I," yet they allied with each other to resist the Empire's pressures.

The young man scrawled in his notes:

"States of Song, Wei, and Zhongshan (smaller states) (a mid-tier military force) (Tributary vassal state)."

Beyond the eastern mountains of the Valley of Mexico lay the Empire's "mortal enemy": the Tlaxcalans, with whom they had fought endless wars for decades.

Tlaxcala and the Aztecs both descended from Chichimec-Nahua ancestors. They shared a common language, closely related cultures, and intertwined bloodlines—yet after countless wars, their enmity ran bone-deep. Like the Aztec Alliance, Tlaxcala formed its own city-state alliance, centered on four cities: Tizatlán, Ocotelolco, Tepetipac, and Quiahuiztlán.

Tlaxcala possessed a similar military system and could muster an army easily exceeding one hundred thousand, making it the Empire's most dangerous foe.

In fact, in the end, it was the Tlaxcalans who brought in the Spaniards to land on Mexican soil, providing them with a foothold, detailed intelligence, abundant food, and even a hundred thousand servants to be sacrificed as cannon fodder. Ultimately, taking advantage of the internal chaos of the Aztecs, the Tlaxcalans and the Spaniards—whom Emperor Moctezuma II had taken the initiative to invite into the capital—unleashed a smallpox epidemic deliberately spread by the colonizers. It annihilated Tenochtitlán, the city on the lake, destroying both Aztec civilization and the Tlaxcalans themselves.

For a decade of blood and fire, the Tlaxcalans, along with the rest of Central America, used their own blood to dye the seat of the Viceroyalty of New Spain red!

Recalling how history would eventually unfold, Xiulote felt a chill. On the eastern part of his mental map, he drew another circle marked:

"State of Zhao (a major military power) (Actively at war with),"

and, after some thought, added three words:

"The Most Dangerous."

Adjacent to the Tlaxcalan Alliance was the "highly revered" religious city-state of Cholula. Cholula served as the center of Nahuatl religion—a city of temples, beautiful and prosperous. It boasted few warriors, yet it held a special status among the city-states. Hearing this, Xiulote labeled it:

"Eastern Zhou (a smaller military force) (Neutral)."

Continuing from Tlaxcala and Cholula eastward to the Gulf Coast lived another Nahua people who were "the most similar to the Maya"—the Nahua-Totonacs.

The Nahua-Totonacs, together with the Mexica, had once driven out the Otomí, then settled along the coast, nearly monopolizing trade with the Maya and selling imported goods onward into the interior. Their small boats supposedly had sailed to the "distant great lake with the big island."

Geographical circumstances shaped their political path. Decades of coastal trade brought them prosperity but eroded their warrior spirit compared to their Nahua relatives. They sold salt, feathers, and leather—strategic resources—to the Tlaxcalans in exchange for peace, placing themselves somewhat above the conflicts raging through Central America.

Xiulote found a matching label:

"State of Qi (Large Gulf Coast State) (a major military power))(Neutral)."

As for the distant Maya city-states, they seemed too remote and elusive to grasp. Aolosh had only faintly heard names like "Mayapan," "Chichén Itzá," and "Chactemal" from some unscrupulous Maya merchant he preferred not to remember.

Compared to the Mexica peoples of central Mexico, the Maya city-states were far more peaceful, with smaller-scale warfare and rituals, located deep in the southeast rainforest, difficult to reach. Xiulote casually assigned them a label:

"Baiyue (Far Southeast State) (Status unknown)."

Several days passed quickly in such casual conversation. Along the journey, Xiulote listened to countless stories, memorized an entire set of labels, and nearly wrung dry all the "scholarly knowledge" Aolosh had to offer before feeling satisfied enough to slowly digest it all. Pleasant travels always seemed brief, and before he knew it, he was only one day away from returning to the home of this current lifetime: the ancient city of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico.

This journey was real and vibrant. For Xiulote, the world was no longer a complete unknown shrouded in darkness, nor a set of cold numbers leading to an inevitable outcome. His memories now held genuine emotions—a trace of tenderness, a measure of determination, a spark of curiosity, along with a sense of pursuit and longing.

"Maybe there's a bit of optimism in there too," he thought, drawing a circle in the center of the Valley of Mexico. He wrote his final label:

"Great Qin (a major military power)!"