The Siege

"This sturdy stone city won't be easy to take."

Outside the eastern gate of Xilotepec, Xolotl carefully studied the width, thickness, and materials of the city walls before solemnly summing up. After their last heart-to-heart, the heavy pressure in Xolotl's heart had finally eased considerably. His relationship with Ahuitzotl had also grown much closer.

"Of course! If Xilotepec were easy to take, and so close to us besides, it would have been conquered and wiped out decades ago. It wouldn't have lasted until today."

Ahuitzotl spoke with a smile. He liked being around Xolotl when the boy did not feel threatening. It gave him a rare sense of ease.

"After all these years of warfare, the ones left standing in the north of the Alliance are all hard stones!"

"Avet, have you noticed the cross-section of the wall?"

Xolotl remained focused, continuing his earnest examination.

"The inside is a composite of stone blocks and clay. Even after being washed by rain, it hasn't loosened in the slightest?"

"Oh, that should be an adhesive made from corn mortar mixed with lime."

Hearing this, Avet grew more serious as well.

"I remember seeing it when I supervised the artisans expanding the pyramid. This kind of mortar has to be made from grain, so it is very costly!"

"Corn mortar? If so, it's probably like glutinous-rice mortar, much harder than lime-soil mixture. Under the current circumstances, digging out the city foundations is unlikely."

"What is glutinous rice? Digging out the city foundations?"

Avet smiled at that.

"Xolotl, why do you have such interesting ideas? Do you intend to use stone axes to chisel through a city wall nearly ten paces thick?"

Xolotl was momentarily speechless and shook his head. The Aztecs currently had neither iron picks nor bronze picks, only easily worn stone and wooden tools.

"Then how do the Alliance legions usually take cities?"

After pondering for a moment, Xolotl asked Avet beside him.

"May the Main God bless us! If the walls are not high, the warriors have the levied troops pile earth beneath them, then charge straight up. Some of the small cities of the southern Mixtec are easy to take that way."

Avet's expression drifted as he recalled battlefields of the past.

"But when the walls are as high and thick as these, we generally do not attack directly. We simply lay siege! Cut off their water, food, and salt. Surround them for a few months, and the city will surrender."

"Avet, our army is ten times the size of the one in the city! We can build scaling ladders and climb up to attack the city like ants."

"Ha! Forcing an assault with ladders would cost too much. Village Militia are merely expendable kindling in a direct assault, almost useless. Their morale is too low for them to climb up and break through the Otomi warriors' defenses. Using Alliance Warriors instead would mean unbearable casualties. Before the stones and javelins falling from the walls, even a fierce Eagle Warrior is as fragile as an ordinary village soldier. Besides, the enemy's able-bodied men can help defend the city. In a defense, each can serve as half a warrior."

"Don't we have a legion of veteran warriors? Such elite infantry could fight to the death on the walls! Let two thousand Jaguar Eagle Legion and six thousand veteran warriors swarm up the walls together! The militia on the walls definitely couldn't stop them. At most, we would lose a thousand or so men, and the city would fall!"

At those words, Avet turned around and stared at Xolotl with an incredulous expression.

"Xolotl, are you mad? Use Jaguar and Eagle Warriors to storm a city? They are all Military Nobility, the core of the Alliance's suppression of its various states! This is not a national war against Tlaxcala or the Tarasco. It is merely a succession war to force tribute. If several hundred Military Nobility died in a city-state punitive campaign like this, the king could forget about continuing the war and prepare to return home to suppress rebellions!"

Hearing this, Xolotl lowered his head and thought by analogy for a while. If the King of Poland lost five hundred noble knights in a battle against the Crimean Tatars... Fine, I never thought of it.

A long wind swept over the clamor of the battlefield. Xolotl continued gazing at the walls as the surrounding warriors began howling loudly to intimidate the enemies in the city. They struck their shields with war clubs, producing fierce bang-bang sounds. The levied troops to the rear began shouting as well, their killing intent soaring into the sky. On the distant walls of Suiqiu City, panic briefly broke out at first. Soon afterward, under the stern suppression of Noble Warriors and Priests, the defenders gradually stabilized.

On this medieval battlefield without Cannons, without Huihui Cannons, without Catapults, or even skilled archers capable of long-range suppression, attackers had to endure the unrestrained rain of fire from the city walls alone. Thus, attacking a fortified city became an exceedingly difficult undertaking.

Relying on Village Militia with poor morale and inadequate training, it was nearly impossible to storm a large city-state defended by tens of thousands. Elite City-State Warriors, meanwhile, were the core of the Alliance's strength and could not be casually expended in a tribute war like this.

All in all, the most common method remained a prolonged siege.

"Xolotl, do you have any other ideas?"

Avet turned back. There was nothing more to see on the battlefield. He looked curiously at Xolotl, this young kinsman who was forever coming up with "brilliant notions" or "wild fantasies."

"Hmm... The soil here is fairly soft, and there are not many stones. Perhaps we could dig a tunnel and break directly into the city?"

"Dig a tunnel? You mean dig a passage underground and go beneath the walls? Hmm, that does sound feasible!"

Avet simulated the excavation in his mind.

"But how deep would we have to dig? How wide should the passage be? How would we determine direction underground? How long could we dig with stone shovels in a day? How could we avoid being discovered by the enemy?"

"Hmm..."

Xolotl thought about it and confirmed that he had never read a book specifically explaining how to dig siege tunnels. He fell silent for a moment, then said softly.

"We can try out the details. We can also find a Miner and ask him."

"Haaha!"

Avet laughed and temporarily tucked the suggestion away in his mind. His expression began to turn serious.

"Then do you have any other methods?"

"Hmm... Perhaps we can design a simple Catapult! Its range only needs to exceed the bows on the walls. A Catapult could hurl stones weighing several pounds directly against the city walls!"

After pondering briefly, Xolotl quickly recalled the most classic type of Catapult.

"Oh? I know stone throwing. What is a cart?"

"A cart is..."

At that, Xolotl gaped, finding it difficult to explain for a moment.

"A cart is a load-bearing device with two or four wheels that can be pushed or pulled along."

"Then what is a wheel?"

"..."

This time, Xolotl had a headache. Tugging at his hair, he explained the shape and purpose of wheels through both words and gestures.

Avet was the first to understand.

"Oh! So it is the kind of toy the Maya People made! I have seen one in the market of the capital city. You can push those little wheeled carts around the plaza beneath the Great Temple for fun. But outside the city, there are mountains and trees everywhere. How could a wheeled cart possibly be faster than a person?"

"No! Avet, if we had enough metal tools, we could cut down the trees and build stone roads through the mountains and forests. Then, relying on wheeled carts, city-states could travel quickly between one another. With such rapid transportation, the Alliance's effectively governed frontier could expand to the Huastec, the Mixtec, and even the more distant Zapotec!"

"Hmm, a very good idea! Roads really can expand the territory under the Alliance's firm rule. But you said 'quickly.' If people have to push wheeled carts by hand, aside from carrying more things, they should not be faster than people running!"

Indeed, Mesoamerica still had no beasts of burden. Perhaps they could send people to North America to tame bison, or bring Alpacas from South America to pull carts? Xolotl pondered in silence, his thoughts drifting far away with a yearning for the unknown.

"Haaha! Don't let your thoughts wander too far. Xolotl, how should the Catapult be designed?"

Avet was an extremely practical man. Smiling, he turned the subject back to the siege.

"Well... let me try drawing it."

Xolotl found a branch, crouched on the damp earth, and began sketching. Avet stood beside him and watched patiently. One wore a Tengu Priest Robe, the other a Sun Stone commander's cloak. The two high nobles studied siege engines by themselves, while the warriors passing around them naturally did not disturb them.

"A complex Huihui Cannon is definitely beyond us. The Romans seem to have had Torsion Catapults? Torsion, torsion... It sounds like they need ox sinew or elastic ropes. We have neither, and cannot get them."

"I need to find something more primitive... hmm, more primitive... Cao Cao's Catapult from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. I remember seeing it in the old Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It should have a central support with a rotating lever mounted on top. Men pull the short end with ropes, and the end of the long arm throws the stone..."

Xolotl racked his brain for a long time and finally drew the simplest human-powered Catapult. Unfortunately, though he had read so many transmigration novels before, he had never truly studied the structure of Catapults. Only when a book was needed did he regret not having read enough.

Avet studied the abstract shapes on the ground, pondering them carefully and simulating the mechanism in his mind.

"The short end drives the long end, and the long end launches the stone. It does seem feasible! The process is somewhat like a sling, which also spins to throw stones."

"Xolotl, slings require years of training to ensure accuracy. How will your Catapult ensure accuracy?"

"Hmm... We should probably standardize its form, then use fixed settings."

Xolotl recalled the simple descriptions from the novels.

"But we still have to try out the details! How about asking a few carpenters?"

The two were discussing enthusiastically when the city gates ahead suddenly opened. An Otomi Priest wearing a feathered crown emerged. With a solemn expression, he held a Scepter high and wore a rare black-and-white cloak. Under the gaze of tens of thousands of City-State Warriors, he slowly walked from Suiqiu City toward the great camp.