"This place is a joy; I think no more of Shu..."
The eagle entered the cage and sang like a sparrow. The sun fell into the valley and hid its light like the stars and moon. And the moment Xolotl entered the Royal Capital, he had made preparations for the same. He had to abandon himself to wandering pleasures, so that everyone secretly watching and wary of him could put their hearts at ease!...
"Chiwami, during this month I wasn't in the Lake Capital... how has the capital been?..."
"Divine King, everything in the Lake Capital is stable. The great nobles and Priest Elders have all obeyed the decree you left behind, focusing on spring plowing in the lake region and stockpiling grain for the southern campaign. And the capital's Artisan Camp is also working day and night, accumulating the newly copied new-style gunpowder and casting three different kinds of Bronze Cannon..."
The Mexica Royal Banner of the blood-red sun stood in High Mountain City of the Huaxtepec state. This place was a full two hundred li from the Lake Capital at the heart of the Alliance, lying at the easternmost side of the Southern Three States, where it bordered the Huastec to the southeast.
And at this moment, fully three Royal Legions were spread out and stationed in the Southern Three States, and with the one Royal Legion accompanying the Divine King's inspection tour, plus four thousand Shorn Guards... that made a full thirty-six thousand Mexica Warriors, enough to suppress every city-state noble in the Alliance's south, as well as the disloyal Mixtec tribes!
The setting sun sank behind the mountains, casting bloody light over the four fields. Avet wore a blood-colored sun cloak as he stood inside the Main God Temple of High Mountain City. Calm and cold,